people are actually chanting "CHANGE!" :lol
lol he fucked up the oath
right-wing nuts are already preparing their court documents to prove he's not really president
lol he fucked up the oath
right-wing nuts are already preparing their court documents to prove he's not really president
how did he fuck up? i was half paying attention
lol he fucked up the oath
right-wing nuts are already preparing their court documents to prove he's not really president
how did he fuck up? i was half paying attention
He forgot a line, stood there staring at the Justice, waiting for him to repeat it
Boring speech. Turned it off.
4 year term, end of the world is 2012. "Beware the leader who promises change" :o
the chief justice got the wording wrong, so Obama messed up
Is the world fixed yet?
invest in kfc NOW
What the fuck at the Prayer at the beginning, i mean really? Really? Ugh
I'm watching it on TV... the online feeds are booked and lagged
Obama's highfalutin' rhetoric is nice and all, but it's the schadenfreude that really warms my cockles.
Conservatives are vacillating wildly between Obama as harbinger of doom (see sd's "These Keynesian multiplier estimates are downright CRIMINAL!") to convince themselves they were right to oppose him, and Obama as huckster (see Beardo's "lol change") to convince themselves they didn't really lose.
No wonder the Corner was so smug back in the day. This winning stuff is fun.
So Cheney is wheel chair ridden? He moved some shit and his back is fucked upAt least he didn't get shot in the face while the Duck Hunt dog was laughing at him. :maf
Obama's highfalutin' rhetoric is nice and all, but it's the schadenfreude that really warms my cockles.
Conservatives are vacillating wildly between Obama as harbinger of doom (see sd's "These Keynesian multiplier estimates are downright CRIMINAL!") to convince themselves they were right to oppose him, and Obama as huckster (see Beardo's "lol change") to convince themselves they didn't really lose.
No wonder the Corner was so smug back in the day. This winning stuff is fun.
invest in kfc NOWPopeyes, bitch
since we are officially socialist now where is my free money?
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86469
man id love to be a fly inside bush's helicopter right now
why can't white people ever get it right?
kfc sucks. black people go to their local ghetto join or popeyes. any negro you see at kfc has no standards or is hungry as fuck
man id love to be a fly inside bush's helicopter right now
why can't white people ever get it right?
kfc sucks. black people go to their local ghetto join or popeyes. any negro you see at kfc has no standards or is hungry as fuck
maf insists i need to go to popeye's for the proper fastfood chik'n experience -- or at least for decent read beans and rice. i smell a renton roadtrip
man id love to be a fly inside bush's helicopter right now
why can't white people ever get it right?
kfc sucks. black people go to their local ghetto join or popeyes. any negro you see at kfc has no standards or is hungry as fuck
maf insists i need to go to popeye's for the proper fastfood chik'n experience -- or at least for decent read beans and rice. i smell a renton roadtrip
why can't white people ever get it right?
kfc sucks. black people go to their local ghetto join or popeyes. any negro you see at kfc has no standards or is hungry as fuck
maf insists i need to go to popeye's for the proper fastfood chik'n experience -- or at least for decent read beans and rice. i smell a renton roadtrip
dude go there for some solid beans and rice. Try their biscuits too.
man id love to be a fly inside bush's helicopter right now(http://i44.tinypic.com/2n81vgi.jpg)
why can't white people ever get it right?
kfc sucks. black people go to their local ghetto join or popeyes. any negro you see at kfc has no standards or is hungry as fuck
maf insists i need to go to popeye's for the proper fastfood chik'n experience -- or at least for decent read beans and rice. i smell a renton roadtrip
dude go there for some solid beans and rice. Try their biscuits too.
It's all about the mashed potatoes. That gravy is :drool
What's with manabyte's avatar. So rude.
The Popeye's near here has this little prize wheel that spins whenever you order something and gives you the opportunity to buy some extra shit at a heavy discount. I haven't seen it at any other location. It's pretty amazing.
What's with manabyte's avatar. So rude.
Well you see, black people used to be called porch monkeys or just monkey in general. It's endearing to them like if you call them a nigg-a. :)
Bush grew more agitated at the mention of his own former senior diplomat. “Let me just say from the outset that I don’t consider Bolton credible,” the president said bitterly. Bush had brought Bolton into the top ranks of his administration, fought for Senate confirmation and, when lawmakers balked, defied critics to give the hawkish aide a recess appointment. “I spent political capital for him,” Bush said, and look what he got in return.
I see your stupid white ho and raise you SP:
i don't see why you guys hate all over kfc
their original recipe chicken sandwiches & pot pies are good, and their potato wedges aren't bad
i don't see why you guys hate all over kfc
their original recipe chicken sandwiches & pot pies are good, and their potato wedges aren't bad
Tauntaun ahaahahahahahahaDude is like the Forrest Gump of chicken.
so how soon do you guys shut the fuck up about the dimestore cowboy and start focusing those narrowed eyes towards the new guyspoiler (click to show/hide)i'm guessing never[close]
What's with manabyte's avatar. So rude.
Well you see, black people used to be called porch monkeys or just monkey in general. It's endearing to them like if you call them a nigg-a. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTosQerWBzU
I see your stupid white ho and raise you SP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR2xDfOHTz8
so how soon do you guys shut the fuck up about the dimestore cowboy and start focusing those narrowed eyes towards the new guyspoiler (click to show/hide)i'm guessing never[close]
black people: popeyes>>>kfc
mom's chicken>>>kfc
grandma's chicken>>>kfc
etc
The Popeye's near here has this little prize wheel that spins whenever you order something and gives you the opportunity to buy some extra shit at a heavy discount. I haven't seen it at any other location. It's pretty amazing.There's a Popeyes here in the Bronx with that shit. It's so hard to ignore. :heart
Now that I think about it Obama is probably the president with the biggest dick in America's history since he is black and all.
Omg
My abs hurt from the laughter, oh man "I'll merc yo ass" ahahahahahaah
MOOOOOReeee. i need more of this shit demi
So is this the end of black presidents in Hollywood movies?
bullshit. link?
Wallace is an ass, but not like that
Manabyte, I have a ludicrously low opinion of you and yet you keep managing to disappoint me.
Why do you post here? Has someone given you the impression that they value your contributions to the forum? Who did this? Tell me who they are and I'll set them straight.
So is this the end of black presidents in Hollywood movies?
This user is currently ignored.Sorry, what?
sorry to drop a truth nuke in here, but telling other people to stop posting (even manabyte) is pretty fucking stupid considering it takes all of one second to click an ignore button
while were on the subject
who the fuck is mandark?
im not kidding
how is someone i dont know an icon?
must live in Seattle
Not to change the subject, but y'all seen the banking stocks today?
I say we get an over/under pool going for full industry nationalization.
let's all get naked and eat fried chicken in celebration of this historic election
why can't white people ever get it right?
kfc sucks. black people go to their local ghetto join or popeyes. any negro you see at kfc has no standards or is hungry as fuck
maf insists i need to go to popeye's for the proper fastfood chik'n experience -- or at least for decent read beans and rice. i smell a renton roadtrip
I know a guy who can send me hollowed out moose carcasses for a few barrels of syrup. Then again, what would I store in the carcasses if I send him the syrup? Come to think of it, I already have barrels.
I'm beginning to think this whole transaction is a scam.
"[Obama is] just one of those guys, you know, like Will Smith. There's no Will Smith jokes. There's no Brad Pitt jokes. You know, what are you going to say? "Ooh, you used to have sex with Jennifer Anniston. Now you have sex with Angelina Jolie. You're such a loser." What do you say? "Ooh, your movies are big. You make $20 million." There's nothing to say about Brad Pitt...[With Obama it's] like "Ooh, you're young and virile and you've got a beautiful wife and kids. You're the first African-American president." You know, what do you say?," - Chris Rock.http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/01/19/chris.rock.kill.the.messenger/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
obama should sign into law a bill renaming the Republican Party to "Great Enemy of the People".
kfc is pretty weak if you have a popeyes or bojangles around, IMO.
saltkfc is pretty weak if you have a popeyes or bojangles around, IMO.
I dunno, whatever they put on the skin with KFC is pretty damn tasty.
obama should sign into law a bill renaming the Republican Party to "Great Enemy of the People".
Quote"[Obama is] just one of those guys, you know, like Will Smith. There's no Will Smith jokes. There's no Brad Pitt jokes. You know, what are you going to say? "Ooh, you used to have sex with Jennifer Anniston. Now you have sex with Angelina Jolie. You're such a loser." What do you say? "Ooh, your movies are big. You make $20 million." There's nothing to say about Brad Pitt...[With Obama it's] like "Ooh, you're young and virile and you've got a beautiful wife and kids. You're the first African-American president." You know, what do you say?," - Chris Rock.http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/01/19/chris.rock.kill.the.messenger/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
:lol
saltkfc is pretty weak if you have a popeyes or bojangles around, IMO.
I dunno, whatever they put on the skin with KFC is pretty damn tasty.
obama should sign into law a bill renaming the Republican Party to "Great Enemy of the People".
if one of his first acts isn't the trial and execution of the entire bush administration for crimes against humanity, then obama = disappointment total
obama should sign into law a bill renaming the Republican Party to "Great Enemy of the People".
if one of his first acts isn't the trial and execution of the entire bush administration for crimes against humanity, then obama = disappointment total
:bow crushed :bow2
well i thinkg we need more people to protest like me and maybe we will start a mass riot against the liberal communistic bastard of a president we have
obama should sign into law a bill renaming the Republican Party to "Great Enemy of the People".
He was still paying off student loans till 2007. Those type of republicans probably don't even know what a student loan is.
A fatherless child who put himself through Harvard is still a filthy poor in their eyes.
smh
He was still paying off student loans till 2007. Those type of republicans probably don't even know what a student loan is.
A fatherless child who put himself through Harvard is still a filthy poor in their eyes.
smh
He was still paying off student loans till 2007. Those type of republicans probably don't even know what a student loan is.
A fatherless child who put himself through Harvard is still a filthy poor in their eyes.
smh
You can mock him as the "messiah" ala Rush, but even that rings hollow. He's a genuinely cool guy who treats people fairly. It's no wonder why people on the fringes of the right are so scared of him. Obama may strongly disagree with someone but he's going to go out his way to hear their argument. People like Rush/Palin/etc and the other "good vs evil" people need to evolve.
If Obama has a relatively good first term and stays out of trouble...what will the republicans be able to do in 2012?
He was still paying off student loans till 2007. Those type of republicans probably don't even know what a student loan is.
A fatherless child who put himself through Harvard is still a filthy poor in their eyes.
smh
I'm saying we will have some sort of national banking entity to prop up the private ones by april
Putting them through college? Make them pay their own way like I had to.
I don't expect any kind of accountability from the Bush era. Punishing these people doesn't really do any good because the mentality and philosophy has poisoned the system, not individuals. It isn't like these individuals were being particularly devious or crafty. The public fell in love with privatization because they wanted to save a few bucks on their taxes not knowing or really caring what the long term consequences might be.
The best we might get is a show trial type situation where the company CEOs, Presidents, etc. have a hangdog expression while Congress berates them (while voting for these businesses' initiatives a couple years prior). Then when push comes to shove, they'll do very little.
so um is anything going to happen now? this is boring.
and don't tell me it's 11pm and the presidenty people are going to bed. if i had just become president i would totally be up all night issuing executive orders and proclamations and shit.
For those who remain really upset about Barack Obama’s election, here is a new argument contesting his legitimacy, courtesy of Fox News Channel. Noting that Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed his recitation of the oath of office during the swearing-in ceremony, Chris Wallace, the Fox News anchor, said: “I’m not sure that Barack Obama really is the President of the United States. Because the oath of office is set in the Constitution, and I wasn’t at all convinced that even after he tried to amend it that John Roberts ever got it out straight and that Barack Obama ever said the prescribed words. I suspect that everybody is going to forgive him and allow him to take over as president but I’m not sure he actually said what is in the Constitution.”
from the times
For those who remain really upset about Barack Obama’s election, here is a new argument contesting his legitimacy, courtesy of Fox News Channel. Noting that Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed his recitation of the oath of office during the swearing-in ceremony, Chris Wallace, the Fox News anchor, said: “I’m not sure that Barack Obama really is the President of the United States. Because the oath of office is set in the Constitution, and I wasn’t at all convinced that even after he tried to amend it that John Roberts ever got it out straight and that Barack Obama ever said the prescribed words. I suspect that everybody is going to forgive him and allow him to take over as president but I’m not sure he actually said what is in the Constitution.”
from the times
lmfao, I said this as a joke while watching it
After Obama's speech this morning, on a small triangle of grass between the Lincoln Memorial and the Memorial Bridge, we discovered a giant inflatable statue of George W. Bush, posed like the famously-toppled statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. The statue had a plaque that described Bush matter-of-factly, with no punch-line, allowing viewers to project their own feelings onto the work. It had guy lines loosely holding it up from various points. You can probably guess what happened next.
You didn't guess someone would face-hump it?
People also threw shoes, water bottles, and anything else they could find.
A father and son team brought the statue from Minnesota and set it up here without a permit. They told us they had asked authorities if they needed one, but police said they had no specific rules against inflatables, so it could stay. Some park police apparently even thanked them for it, thinking it a tribute to the outgoing president. They seemed as surprised as we were that it hadn't been removed. The statue was conceived by the 20-year-old son as an art project.
It made our day.
so um is anything going to happen now? this is boring.The President and Michelle are dancing right now on tv for like a few hours now. Or as the President called it "kicking it old school".
and don't tell me it's 11pm and the presidenty people are going to bed. if i had just become president i would totally be up all night issuing executive orders and proclamations and shit.
weed legal yet?
weed legal yet?
hopefully never
you'll see why once you smoke too much of it
For those who remain really upset about Barack Obama’s election, here is a new argument contesting his legitimacy, courtesy of Fox News Channel. Noting that Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed his recitation of the oath of office during the swearing-in ceremony, Chris Wallace, the Fox News anchor, said: “I’m not sure that Barack Obama really is the President of the United States. Because the oath of office is set in the Constitution, and I wasn’t at all convinced that even after he tried to amend it that John Roberts ever got it out straight and that Barack Obama ever said the prescribed words. I suspect that everybody is going to forgive him and allow him to take over as president but I’m not sure he actually said what is in the Constitution.”
from the times
lmfao, I said this as a joke while watching it
Once your shitty banks are all under, you'll be begging for Canadian beaver pelts.
weed legal yet?
hopefully never
you'll see why once you smoke too much of it
He's mostly been a public servant all his life. That's not where the high salaries are.He was still paying off student loans till 2007. Those type of republicans probably don't even know what a student loan is.
A fatherless child who put himself through Harvard is still a filthy poor in their eyes.
smh
Wow, so he's a filthy poor too?
I knew as soon as I got into this thread, I would see more info about your tweet, cloud.
I am jealous :'(
I knew as soon as I got into this thread, I would see more info about your tweet, cloud.
I am jealous :'(
what's your twitter username?
I knew as soon as I got into this thread, I would see more info about your tweet, cloud.
I am jealous :'(
what's your twitter username?
Oh shit, I forgot you weren't following me. It's DeathbyVolcano.
120 day halt to all gitmo proceedingsWuuuuuu00t!
it's good to know that when our 1000 foot tall invaders come, they'll be disgusted by us running before they stomp us
Here's a bunch of epic pictures from yesterday:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.htmlspoiler (click to show/hide)(http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/44_01_21/4403_17681689.jpg)[close]
Here's a bunch of epic pictures from yesterday:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.htmlspoiler (click to show/hide)(http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/44_01_21/4403_17681689.jpg)[close]
(http://gamu-toys.info/sonota/sw/obama/DSC_4696.JPG)
Holy Shit :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol I want one!
So since he was sworn in twice does Obama have like double president powers now?(http://i42.tinypic.com/16ism5x.jpg)
Does this mean he gets to serve only 1 term? :(If any Republican actually tries to argue this, it will prove that they all have the minds of children.
Does this mean he gets to serve only 1 term? :(If any Republican actually tries to argue this, it will prove that they all have the minds of children.
It'll be nice to have a president that actually works for a change, though, considering that Bush spent 487 days at Camp David and 490 days at his ranch in Crawford. (http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/01/16/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4728085.shtml)
aka, 2 and 2/3 years on vacation, or a third of his presidency
With four executive orders today, our new President:
* Ordered Guantánamo Bay shut down
* Banned torture
* Ordered a full review of U.S. detention policies and procedures, and
* Delayed the trial of Ali al-Marri, an ACLU client whose case is at the center of the Supreme Court’s review of indefinite detention policies.
From the ACLU newsletter today::bowQuoteWith four executive orders today, our new President:
* Ordered Guantánamo Bay shut down
* Banned torture
* Ordered a full review of U.S. detention policies and procedures, and
* Delayed the trial of Ali al-Marri, an ACLU client whose case is at the center of the Supreme Court’s review of indefinite detention policies.
Wow its really happening:
(http://markhalperin.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/360_obama_oval_0121.jpg)
Wow its really happening:
(http://markhalperin.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/360_obama_oval_0121.jpg)
What, he's finally contacting Batman?
The Obama facade is quickly crumbling....Based on what exactly? I can't think of a single thing he hasn't done in his first 3 days in offices that go against his campaign promises. Hell he has been pushing through his campaign promises at a far faster rate than Bush or Clinton did.
From the ACLU newsletter today:QuoteWith four executive orders today, our new President:
* Ordered Guantánamo Bay shut down
* Banned torture
* Ordered a full review of U.S. detention policies and procedures, and
* Delayed the trial of Ali al-Marri, an ACLU client whose case is at the center of the Supreme Court’s review of indefinite detention policies.
God Damn, looks like the next 4 years is going to be FILLED with awesome.
Under President Obama Bauer would be rotting in jail probably lol.From the ACLU newsletter today:QuoteWith four executive orders today, our new President:
* Ordered Guantánamo Bay shut down
* Banned torture
* Ordered a full review of U.S. detention policies and procedures, and
* Delayed the trial of Ali al-Marri, an ACLU client whose case is at the center of the Supreme Court’s review of indefinite detention policies.
God Damn, looks like the next 4 years is going to be FILLED with awesome.
In times like these, we need Jack Bauer more than ever.
Yeah, I probably flipped too much, but the fucker doesn't explain wtf he means. It's frustrating.
It's better now than when 80% of the posts were poll numbers.
The amount of liveblogging of FoxNews is amazing. I wonder what type of ratings it'd get if all the liberals who have a persecution complex stopped watching it. I never got that. You don't see right-wingers religiously watch Keith Olbermann just so they have more reasons to hate him. It's odd.It's better now than when 80% of the posts were poll numbers.
Haha, not really. Polls have been replaced by live blogging TDS or Fox news.
"ashamed of my faschist president..."
Living in Ohio, I get a shitload of people with status updates like that:
"God Bless George Bush, history will vindicate you!"
"getting shopping done before barak sends in the terrists :)"
"ashamed of my faschist president..."
"who fucking likes this communist?"---noted, the last two were from the same person
"god, he needs assinated (spelled exactly like that"
ugh.
next time ask them what fascist means, and what socialist means while you're at it.
i always assumed he meets a lot a shithead fratboysThat's even worse.
And Michigan and Ohio are hardly different.Politically? Seeing how that is what the topic is they are. Obama won MI by a lot more than he did in OH, and Bush won OH both times he ran. Democrats carried MI both times. MI is a lot more democratic than OH.
From what I've experienced in the middle-to-upper class communites of both Ohio and Michigan, the majority of kids who can't even fucking vote yet will tell you how Obama's letting in the turrists.
http://tinyurl.com/dbngl4 (http://tinyurl.com/dbngl4)
It is kind of refreshing to have some competent leadership. However, I'm so used to it being so subpar that this is kind of a new experience for me.
A lot of it has to do with their parents. If their parents are Republicans, there is a decent chance the kids will be too. Mostly social factors.
Also, one of the executive orders says that the government can't rely on any legal opinions given from 2001-2008 on torture, basically retconning away all the damaging bullshit written by Yoo, David Addington, and the rest of the assholes.
Also, one of the executive orders says that the government can't rely on any legal opinions given from 2001-2008 on torture, basically retconning away all the damaging bullshit written by Yoo, David Addington, and the rest of the assholes.
holy damn that is awesome. can i get the source?
(c) Interpretations of Common Article 3 and the Army Field Manual. From this day forward, unless the Attorney General with appropriate consultation provides further guidance, officers, employees, and other agents of the United States Government may, in conducting interrogations, act in reliance upon Army Field Manual 2 22.3, but may not, in conducting interrogations, rely upon any interpretation of the law governing interrogation -- including interpretations of Federal criminal laws, the Convention Against Torture, Common Article 3, Army Field Manual 2 22.3, and its predecessor document, Army Field Manual 34 52 issued by the Department of Justice between September 11, 2001, and January 20, 2009.
The amount of liveblogging of FoxNews is amazing. I wonder what type of ratings it'd get if all the liberals who have a persecution complex stopped watching it. I never got that. You don't see right-wingers religiously watch Keith Olbermann just so they have more reasons to hate him. It's odd.It's better now than when 80% of the posts were poll numbers.
Haha, not really. Polls have been replaced by live blogging TDS or Fox news.
A lot of it has to do with their parents. If their parents are Republicans, there is a decent chance the kids will be too. Mostly social factors.
Children are likely to absorb their parents' political affiliations, regardless of what those affiliations are--this isn't simply a Republican thing. The same is true with their political ideologies, but this is strongly influenced by genetic factors. (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/science/21gene.html?ei=5090&en=dde7d8feedd2f87f&ex=1277006400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print)
makes a rule and then waives it for someone the next day
obama lol
President Obama told the Republican lawmakers that "you can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/01/61847002/1
What I’m afraid of is that what Obama did with this executive order is actually make it easier for the media to go get Bush documents. Because you know Pelosi and some of the guys over in Congress are talking about war crimes trials and charges and so forth. […]
What I’m afraid of is what Obama’s done here is made the gathering of the information for this kind of stuff– This is not American. This is not America. This is not what America does. We don’t– This is Banana Republic kind of stuff.
He did win, as did his party. In a landslide. Republicans need to remember that. There is a mandate for the public for big government spending, Republicans in the senate seem to understand this (McConnel has all but said the GOP in the senate will support Obama's stimulus package without opposition) but the GOP in the house is still in some sort of denial about it.makes a rule and then waives it for someone the next day
obama lol
"I won"
He did win, as did his party. In a landslide. Republicans need to remember that. There is a mandate for the public for big government spending, Republicans in the senate seem to understand this (McConnel has all but said the GOP in the senate will support Obama's stimulus package without opposition) but the GOP in the house is still in some sort of denial about it.
Haha, agreed. But they did pay a lot of lip service to the notion of bipartisanship and cooperation, so I don't blame them for at least being cautious. But I fully expect Pelosi to steamroll the house GOP when she needs to, and if she doesn't, she's lol.He did win, as did his party. In a landslide. Republicans need to remember that. There is a mandate for the public for big government spending, Republicans in the senate seem to understand this (McConnel has all but said the GOP in the senate will support Obama's stimulus package without opposition) but the GOP in the house is still in some sort of denial about it.
Democrats also have a hard time accepting the idea that they won. Which they need to get over.
Obama doesn't seem to have a hard time. He pretty much smacked the house republican leadership around on friday to remind him he was in charge and the public picked him and his ideas. Which is all that matters. Despite some odd statements from Reid/Pelosi they will both do what he wants and if Obama asserts himself as the person with the ideas the public wants, which he did forcefully on Friday that is all that is important.He did win, as did his party. In a landslide. Republicans need to remember that. There is a mandate for the public for big government spending, Republicans in the senate seem to understand this (McConnel has all but said the GOP in the senate will support Obama's stimulus package without opposition) but the GOP in the house is still in some sort of denial about it.
Democrats also have a hard time accepting the idea that they won. Which they need to get over.
Obama doesn't seem to have a hard time. He pretty much smacked the house republican leadership around on friday to remind him he was in charge and the public picked him and his ideas. Which is all that matters. Despite some odd statements from Reid/Pelosi they will both do what he wants and if Obama asserts himself as the person with the ideas the public wants, which he did forcefully on Friday that is all that is important.He did win, as did his party. In a landslide. Republicans need to remember that. There is a mandate for the public for big government spending, Republicans in the senate seem to understand this (McConnel has all but said the GOP in the senate will support Obama's stimulus package without opposition) but the GOP in the house is still in some sort of denial about it.
Democrats also have a hard time accepting the idea that they won. Which they need to get over.
Just be glad someone with the very very strong sense of confidence like Obama is president and a traditional Dem senator.
Should I care as an European? :-\
Obama looks nicer than Bush. And that's the only difference to me...
I don't understand all the Obama hype.
Should I care as an European? :-\
Obama looks nicer than Bush. And that's the only difference to me...
I don't understand all the Obama hype.
Pretty much. Also I think a lot of European's are confused seeing how it's common for them to elect intellectual liberals as prime minister/president, it's fucking rare in America.Should I care as an European? :-\
Obama looks nicer than Bush. And that's the only difference to me...
I don't understand all the Obama hype.
Competent leadership is damn near considered revolutionary in modern US politics.
:lol @ the White House having a youtube pageIt's a new era one where the president listens to rap music, sends text messages, and post youtube videos!
And watches shows like The Wire.:lol @ the White House having a youtube pageIt's a new era one where the president listens to rap music, sends text messages, and post youtube videos!
QuotePresident Obama told the Republican lawmakers that "you can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/01/61847002/1
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MastahCrushed/Emote/emot-damn.gif)
"But I just want to say, folks, look I support Obama. I just don't support his policies. I support our president, like I have supported all presidents. I just don't support Obama's policies. I don't support the nationalization of the banks, which has happened. I don't support the nationalization of the auto companies. I don't support the nationalization of the mortgage business. I don't like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd running things. And I don't want that to continue.
makes a rule and then waives it for someone the next day
obama lol
"I won"
First Youtube Address as President:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDfpd8GV9dI
wtf
(http://i42.tinypic.com/6z1nat.jpg)
http://recovery.gov/at least obama's whitehouse.gov is 1000000x better designed than the old whitehouse.gov site.
Such horrible code :yuck
http://recovery.gov/I just looked :-X
Such horrible code :yuck
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/26/woodward-suggests-future_n_160832.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/26/woodward-suggests-future_n_160832.html)If there is a nanny issue in his administration it isn't Obama himself since the Obama's pride themselves on never having a nanny.
Any guesses?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbn2ALh-2VASo aliens are liberals?
(http://i42.tinypic.com/2eamk9e.gif)
by Patrick J. Buchanan
As President Barack Obama delivers his inaugural address to a nation filled with anticipation and hope, the vital signs of the loyal opposition appear worse than worrisome.
The new majority of 49 states and 60 percent of the nation Nixon cobbled together in 1972, that became the Reagan coalition of 49 states and 60 percent of the nation in 1984, is a faded memory. Demographically, philosophically and culturally, the party base has been shrinking since Bush I won his 40-state triumph over Michael Dukakis. Indeed, the Republican base is rapidly becoming a redoubt, a Fort Apache in Indian country.
In the National Journal, Ron Brownstein renders a grim prognosis of the party's chances of recapturing the White House. Consider:
In the five successive presidential elections, beginning with Clinton's victory in 1992 and ending with Obama's in 2008, 18 states and the District of Columbia, with 248 electoral votes among them, voted for the Democratic ticket all five times. John McCain did not come within 10 points of Obama in any of the 18, and he lost D.C. 92-8.
The 18 cover all of New England, save New Hampshire; New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland; four of the major states in the Midwest -- Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota; and the Pacific Coast states of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.
Three other states -- Iowa, New Hampshire and New Mexico -- have gone Democratic in four of the past five presidential contests. And Virginia and Colorado have ceased to be reliably red.
Not only are the 18 hostile terrain for any GOP presidential ticket, Republicans hold only three of their 36 Senate seats and fewer than 1 in 3 of their House seats. "Democrats also control two-thirds of these 18 governorships, every state House chamber, and all but two of the state Senates," writes Brownstein.
In many of the 18, the GOP has ceased to be competitive. In the New England states, for example, there is not a single Republican congressman. In New York, there are only three.
"State by state, election by election," says Brownstein, "Democrats since 1992 have constructed the party's largest and most durable Electoral College base in more than half a century. Call it the blue wall."
While that Democratic base is not yet as decisive as the Nixon-Reagan base in the South, and the Plains and Mountain States, it is becoming so solidified it may block any Republican from regaining the White House, in the absence of a catastrophically failed Democratic president.
What does the Republican base look like?
In the same five presidential contests, from 1992 to 2008, Republicans won 13 states all five times. But the red 13 have but 93 electoral votes, fewer than a third of the number in "the blue wall."
What has been happening to the GOP? Three fatal contractions.
Demographically, the GOP is a party of white Americans, who in 1972 were perhaps 90 percent of the national vote. Nixon and Reagan rolled up almost two-thirds of that vote in 1972 and 1984. But because of abortion and aging, the white vote is shrinking as a share of the national vote and the population.
The minorities that are growing most rapidly, Hispanics and Asians, cast 60 to 70 percent of their presidential votes for the Democratic Party. Black Americans vote 9-1 for national Democrats. In 2008, they went 30-1.
Put succinctly, the red pool of voters is aging, shrinking and dying, while the blue pool, fed by high immigration and a high birth rate among immigrants, is steadily expanding.
Philosophically, too, the country is turning away from the GOP creed of small government and low taxes. Why?
Nearly 90 percent of immigrants, legal and illegal, are Third World poor or working-class and believe in and rely on government for help with health and housing, education and welfare. Second, tax cuts have dropped nearly 40 percent of wage earners from the tax rolls.
If one pays no federal income tax but reaps a cornucopia of benefits, it makes no sense to vote for the party of less government.
The GOP is overrepresented among the taxpaying class, while the Democratic Party is overrepresented among tax consumers. And the latter are growing at a faster rate than the former.
Lastly, Democrats are capturing a rising share of the young and college-educated, who are emerging from schools and colleges where the values of the counterculture on issues from abortion to same-sex marriage to affirmative action have become the new orthodoxy.
The Republican "lock" on the presidency, crafted by Nixon, and patented by Reagan, has been picked. The only lingering question is whether an era of inexorable Republican decline has set in.
http://recovery.gov/I just looked :-X
Such horrible code :yuck
I like how you can see who made it in the head.
I wouldn't get ahead of ourselves. Could this be the Democrats Reagan revolution? Sure, and it most likely is. But It was only 8 years after the big 49/50 sweep of 1984 that Democrats retook the White House.
I wouldn't get ahead of ourselves. Could this be the Democrats Reagan revolution? Sure, and it most likely is. But It was only 8 years after the big 49/50 sweep of 1984 that Democrats retook the White House.
It is far too soon to tell but Obama could join the ranks of teflon President's where no matter what happens the public still likes him. Like for example if Iran Contra happened to Bush Sr. and not Reagan? I wouldn't have been surprised if Bush Sr. would have ended up impeached, but Reagan was teflon so the public (for the most part) forgave and forgot. Obama may also have that inherent support as well Mr. Cooks.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/scc29v.gif)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbn2ALh-2VASo aliens are liberals?
(http://i42.tinypic.com/2eamk9e.gif)
The republicans aren't stupid. They knew that they fucked up too much and the 2nd half of the Bush administration was just enough time to cut and run off with as much as they could get and let the Democrats dig the country out. All being on the hope that the Dems will screw it up and the country will run back to the republicans begging for their forgiveness after 4 years of downsizing/reality check.
It's as if the GOP heads declared, "Fine middle class, have your king! And you shall live in the filth of your desires." As they raped til inauguration day.
Edit: :hans1
Tax Cuts won't work. House Republicans aren't making arguments against the stimulus in good faith and House Dems should ram it through on a party line vote instead of letting Boehner's idiot brigade anywhere near the bill. If it is too partisan let the senate fix it.I was just surprised at Boehner's audacity. The GOP was spanked last November, and we have newly elected President whose first week poll numbers rival JFK, and yet he still wants to bring up policies that American populace has no appetite for in these turbulent economic times.
Frag/Mandark/etc, do you like the stimulus? Does it seem like there's an excess of stuff that should maybe be in another type of bill? I'm not done going over itLOL @ "I won". I love that.
on tax cuts: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/opinion/26krugman.html?em
But because of abortion and aging, the white vote is shrinking as a share of the national vote and the population.
So what do you guys think of Bam's stimulus plan? House republican leaders have already expressed their objections, wanting more tax cuts and such. I mean, really.Well, the idea of a "stimulus" is to infuse money into the economy as quickly (and efficiently) as possible. Tax cuts (while not a perfect solution) are the quickest and most effective way to get money back into the hands of working people.
One of the worst things for conservatives is that many of their bread and butter arguments aren't effective anymore, well at least not right now.The scale of everthing is out of wack. The enormity of the bailouts have dwarfed any kind of spending program that the Dems have proposed in recent history. So, its kind of
because of what now?Abortions are disproportionately killing future Republicans.
The stimulus plan does include tax cuts, mostly for the middle class. I'm not against tax cuts as whole; I just feel some GOP leaders can become very myopic on the issue. The Obama adminstration has even talked about temporarily extending the Bush cuts, which disproportionately benefited the top 5 percent earners.
but the GOP openly doesn't give a shit about the middle class
because of what now?Abortions are disproportionately killing future Republicans.
Quotebut the GOP openly doesn't give a shit about the middle class
Republicans hate small business?
Stating the Obvioushttp://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
I hear a lot of talk about whether Obama's governing approach can be 'bipartisan' if good number of Republicans don't vote for his Stimulus Bill. But that dubious point seems to be obscuring a more obvious and telling reality: that the Republican leadership in both houses has decided that it's in their political interest to oppose the Stimulus Bill no matter what.
In the most cynical of evaluations, it's not clear to me that they're incorrect. If the stimulus is judged a success, their political gain from adding more votes to what will be seen as Obama's bill will not be that great. So they're figuring that only failure will work for them politically and judge that they want Obama to own it entirely.
One can pick apart the political ethics of their stand, but the reality of it is clear. They want to criticize as many provisions of the bill as possible, push for as many non-stimulus inducing tax cuts as possible at the expense of spending on infrastructure, and then vote against the final bill en masse. I think it's possible Obama will get a smattering of moderate Republicans in the senate. But that is Boehner/McConnell approach -- and the one few if any reporters seem to have the wherewithal to say out loud.
--Josh Marshall
In the most cynical of evaluations, it's not clear to me that they're incorrect. If the stimulus is judged a success, their political gain from adding more votes to what will be seen as Obama's bill will not be that great. So they're figuring that only failure will work for them politically and judge that they want Obama to own it entirely.:american
So what do you guys think of Bam's stimulus plan?
if the data from 85 is accurate then abortion is going down?
if the data from 85 is accurate then abortion is going down?
Yea, I don't get into abortion debates. But one of the interesting facts is that the rate of abortion is trending downwards overall.
well i went looking just to see if there were more abortions in "white" areas but that didn't seem to be the case
Politico is reporting the house GOP is set to walk away from the negotiating table.They should lock the door after they leave.
They're walking away? Fine, do the stimulus correctly then. Obama took out the family planning money for them, he took their ideas on tax cuts, etc yet they refuse to cooperate.
They're walking away? Fine, do the stimulus correctly then. Obama took out the family planning money for them, he took their ideas on tax cuts, etc yet they refuse to cooperate.He is not doing enough to help the wealthy.
So what do you guys think of Bam's stimulus plan?
Its a complete joke and could quite possibly seal his fate as a one-termer. But, its also a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.
I understand that he has to make it as pretty as possible to sell it, but the idea that it will create 4 million jobs by the end of 2010 is absolutely lolz-worthy. I've done a lot of research on this. Many economists feel we may very well be on the verge of a Japan 90s-style economy for years to come. We'll probably begin to come out of this by the end of the year or early next year, but growth will be so weak it will still feel like a recession. And remember, job growth is always a lagging indicator. It took about two years after each of the last two recessions to finally see job growth (not to mention the economy has to average ~125k new jobs per month to keep up with population growth). Those recessions were very mild compared to this one. Even Obama's own rosey-colored report shows the unemployment rate higher in 2012 than right now. There's just too much debt in the system for things to recover so quickly (~350% of GDP). Another wave of subprime mortgage resets just as potent as the one going on now will hit next year and go through 2011. Taxes will have to go up to pay for the deficits and the much higher carrying costs. People expecting a return to anything remotely resembling a 97-07 type economy are delusional.
For the REPs, I suspect the vote on this bill could be the REP version of the DEM Iraq War vote in coming elections.
Obama to GOP: "Feel Free to Whack Me Over the Head"
QuoteIn the most cynical of evaluations, it's not clear to me that they're incorrect. If the stimulus is judged a success, their political gain from adding more votes to what will be seen as Obama's bill will not be that great. So they're figuring that only failure will work for them politically and judge that they want Obama to own it entirely.:american
I guess I can remove my tinfoil hat now.
You cannot fix a problem of debt and over leverage with more debt and more leverage.
It's really sad that the republicans are so hung up on this "refundability" for those who don't pay income tax.
I'd like to hear OTHER options...
I like how now that Bush is out of office, the Republicans are apparently the party of fiscal responsibility again. LOL.
We've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
QuoteWe've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
this is what you're outraged over?
QuoteWe've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
this is what you're outraged over?
Most of the rest of this project spending will go to such things as renewable energy funding ($8 billion) or mass transit ($6 billion) that have a low or negative return on investment. Most urban transit systems are so badly managed that their fares cover less than half of their costs. However, the people who operate these systems belong to public-employee unions that are campaign contributors to . . . guess which party?
Another "stimulus" secret is that some $252 billion is for income-transfer payments -- that is, not investments that arguably help everyone, but cash or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at all. There's $81 billion for Medicaid, $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits, $20 billion for food stamps, and $83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax. While some of that may be justified to help poorer Americans ride out the recession, they aren't job creators.
man was the WSJ always like this or have they just gone coco for coocoo puffs since murdoch happened?They've always had conservative columnists, but its only been lately they've had brazenly stupid conservative columnists.
Because, you know, there certainly won't be an unemployment benefits rush this year. And really, everyone knows that food stamp enrollment and medicaid serve no purpose in what looks to be a giant recession, right? Right?I'm convinced that there's a core Republican belief that its okay to let people starve to death as long as they're poor.
So the WSJ is pissed off that the bill is preparing for inevitable things? Republicans would rather have unemployment flopza first and then have the government move incredibly slowly for a month to fix it, maybe?
There's undeniably lots of wasteful shit in that bill, but I can't help but chuckle that conservatives are finally concerned about wasteful spending again
The strawmen are strong in this thread.
The strawmen are strong in this thread.
It's not like they are throwing money at the bridge to nowhere.
man was the WSJ always like this or have they just gone coco for coocoo puffs since murdoch happened?The WSJ opinion page has always been like that.
The actual spending part:I don't think you understand what the point of the stimulus bill is if you think all the other money other than that is wasted. lawblob worded if very well here:
2009: 29.0
2010: 115.8
2011: 105.5
2012: 53.6
2013: 26.5
2014: 13.0
2015: 6.9
2016: 3.0
2017: 1.6
2018: 0.9
2019: 0.4
Total: $356.0 billion
That comes out to ~.9% of GDP for the first two years.
Doesn't that depend on a definitional understanding of "stimulus?" Many economists are now saying we will have increasing unemployment until possibly 2011. In that sense, it is unrealistic to think that all Federal money directed at jump-starting the economy literally has to be spent on immediately realized projects. There are only so many people you can manufacture jobs for, and there is only so much good that tax cuts will do. If we are entering a massive, multi-year recession, some of the money will inevitably need to be put into projects that take years to return via increased economic output.
The strawmen are strong in this thread.
man was the WSJ always like this or have they just gone coco for coocoo puffs since murdoch happened?They've always had conservative columnists, but its only been lately they've had brazenly stupid conservative columnists.Because, you know, there certainly won't be an unemployment benefits rush this year. And really, everyone knows that food stamp enrollment and medicaid serve no purpose in what looks to be a giant recession, right? Right?I'm convinced that there's a core Republican belief that its okay to let people starve to death as long as they're poor.
So the WSJ is pissed off that the bill is preparing for inevitable things? Republicans would rather have unemployment flopza first and then have the government move incredibly slowly for a month to fix it, maybe?
President Obama will host a cocktail reception for Congressional leaders tonight at the White House, the New York Times reports.http://politicalwire.com/
"The bipartisan affair is set to come shortly after the House considers the president's economic stimulus bill. The roll call vote could make for some interesting conversation, particularly if the bulk of Republicans oppose the proposal as planned."
Also, I'll go on record as saying this thing's been too rushed and that I question the impact it will have. The only reason to rush such a bill would be because it is needed immediately, and since the bill spends so many resources on the future, it probably didn't need to be rushed. They could have split this up into two packages, which probably would have helped it seem more promising. They could have spent a half year putting together a decent package for the next two years, and focused the brain power spent on this over the past two months on some sort of immediate stimulus.
I just question such immediate action when it appears so scattershot.
Don't worry. This won't be the last stimulus bill that gets passed.
Also, I'll go on record as saying this thing's been too rushed and that I question the impact it will have.
Watch Roubini's interview on the previous page.
I'll second the notion that Obama is doing a good job. At least he is actually willing to listen to the other side.
Not sure if there will actually be a second "stimulus", but there's gonna be a ton more TARP-like bills. Keep in mind that there's ~$1.8 trillion in toxic assets remaining on bank balance sheets. The credit card companies are saying they expect to see write-offs peak at 13%. That equates to something like $1 trillion in losses. And there's the second wave of the subprime mortgages on the horizon (not sure if they figure into the previously mentioned toxic assets).
I'm sure I'm missing some more. But, add all that to the trillion dollar deficits they expect over the next several years, the increase in carrying costs, and the exponential increase in entitlement costs and you have to start questioning the solvency of the United States.
man was the WSJ always like this or have they just gone coco for coocoo puffs since murdoch happened?
And PD. He posted the article on gaf and talked about much it made him dislike the stimulus bill now lolman was the WSJ always like this or have they just gone coco for coocoo puffs since murdoch happened?
Takes someone as dumb as sd to take them seriously, which is unfortunately a pretty big market. I give him a week before he starts c/ping urls from renewamerica.
Hey dude can I get on your good side?
:lol I actually was pretty pissed PD posted that and started criticizing the bill cause he read that though. PD that article was a joke, don't buy what you read in it. ugh. I have my doubts it will save the economy but the bill needs to be passed none the less.
man was the WSJ always like this or have they just gone coco for coocoo puffs since murdoch happened?
The WSJ has good business/economic reporting but their editorial page has always been insane.
Takes someone as dumb as sd to take them seriously, which is unfortunately a pretty big market. I give him a week before he starts c/ping urls from renewamerica.
:lol I actually was pretty pissed PD posted that and started criticizing the bill cause he read that though. PD that article was a joke, don't buy what you read in it. ugh. I have my doubts it will save the economy but the bill needs to be passed none the less.
I fucking hope the economy rebounds, even just a little by 2012 just so Republicans will look even more foolish than they did today.
I fucking hope the economy rebounds, even just a little by 2012 just so Republicans will look even more foolish than they did today.This reminds me of how all the repubs wanted WMD's.
I fucking hope the economy rebounds, even just a little by 2012 just so Republicans will look even more foolish than they did today.This reminds me of how all the repubs wanted WMD's.
Dude I thought you were joining an accounting firm, you have nothing to worry about. Plus your dad is opening doors for you? smhMy major is both IT and Accounting and I have quickly grown to hate accounting over the past year. My dad ain't opening doors. His company he is a CIO at is doing pretty shitty.
IT? Ah didn't know that. Accounting isn't kicking my ass but it's boring me to sleep; I feel like switching, but at the same time if I finish/get my degree I'll have a job out the gate. Then I can do what I want to do (mba, maybe law school)Yeah. AIS the Accounting/Information Systems major. How many accounting classes have you taken? All you seem to take is endless African American studies classes .
I took like three! I'd go crazy if all I did was take business classesWhy the hell would you take 3 african american studies classes. It isn't even a requirement! :lol You should have taken some politics classes.
I've taken like 6-7 accounting class. I only need a few more but jeez...
no offence, man, but the classes you're taking are good for nothing.
i was honestly laughing when you posted what classes you were taking. smh
You're spending thousands of dollars on music business? smh, I bet most music industry agents have no education in that field.
Wanting for a country to have a stockpile of weapons is a bit different than wanting an economy to prosper and people to get jobs, even with political motivation for both.If the repubs were successful in blocking this, then there could be more time spent planning it through and cutting out the pork but it would still allow most of the politicians to save face. If something this controversial gets passed and it doesn't have a large tangible effect in 4 years, or even 2 years, then the democratic congress is screwed. We realistically might start to come out of the recession by the next presidential primaries.
English majors go anywhere they want. I know a friend who was an English major and joined the wall street blitz a few years ago. But now the recruiters are being stingy. Still, you can do a lot. As long as you vary your courseload I guess.
man was the WSJ always like this or have they just gone coco for coocoo puffs since murdoch happened?
man was the WSJ always like this or have they just gone coco for coocoo puffs since murdoch happened?
Fill me in -- what's this about Rupert?
So the Republicans are basically a joke party at this point.
Former President Jimmy Carter has long been kept on the margins of his party both for the bad memories of his 1980 defeat, and for his increasingly sharp attacks on Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories and calls to open talks with Hamas.http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0109/Carter_praises_Mitchell_pick_.html?showall
Carter today lavished praise on President Obama's choice of Middle East envoy in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, and said he'd talked at length with Obama earlier this month about the Middle East, though he gave no indication Obama agreed with his view of the region.
Obama " has taken a strong role already in pursuing peace in the Middle East. And he's -- and he's chosen George Mitchell, the best American alive to undertake this responsibility, to be his representative in -- his envoy to the Mideast. That's a major change," Carter said.
"I have total confidence in him," Carter said of Mitchell.
"What about Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state?" Blitzer asked.
"I think she'll comply with the policies established by the president. As will George Mitchell," Carter replied.
Carter also said he "spent a long time with President Obama" the evening before the five living presidents met at the White House January 7.
As Rosalynn Carter and David Axelrod took notes, they talked policy, he said.
"I would say he was most interested in the Middle East because I had been to that region twice in the previous year and had met with some people that others usually don’t meet with as you probably know, Carter said.
Did anyone think of a possible Supersupermajority in the senate? Imagine this.
2010 - Economy is significantly better, Obama and Democrats thanked for saving it by the public, 5 senate seats gained.
2012 - Economy is much better, Al Queda is devastated thanks to effective operations in Afghanistan, overall Obama is very popular. Obama wins reelection by a Reagan 1984 landslide thanks to massive popularity. Helping this is the weak Republican ticket of Sarah Palin & Newt Gingrich. 7 senate seats gained thanks to Obama coattails.
2014 - Country still going strong. 3 senate seats gained.
2016 - Hillary loses nomination to Evan Bayh, who later picks her as VP. Coming off of the strong popularity of the Obama presidency, the Bayh/Clinton ticket wins in a 430-100 landslide. 4 senate seats gained.
That would be a 78 seat Democratic majority incredibly unlikely but fun to think about.
But what if then...
2018 - Thanks to a recession, no campaign promises fulfilled and an unpopular war over in Africa, the midterms are a slaughter, with 10 senate seats lost.
2020 - President Bayh is incredibly unpopular thanks to a 2019 sex scandal involving on him cheating with a 19 year old intern. Although Kathleen Sebelius makes a very strong primary challenge, Bayh kept the nomination. With the war still active, a botched handling of the recent San Francisco earthquake and the divorce of President Bayh, the Democrats due horribly, with 13 senate seats lost, and the Presidency being lost as well to a charismatic young hispanic who was governor of Texas...
Almost entirely erasing the majority
All I see is bitching about the source. Anyone has any counterpoints from the usual suspects then post them. Most of us here are all ears.
And what's Renew America?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r_-QRKyu6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r_-QRKyu6g
That's what got Lincoln and JFK killed smh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r_-QRKyu6g
What do those three editorials by obviously biased people have to do with an editorial by the paper itself using hard numbers from the bill? Point out where its wrong. I already stated I'm open to other interpretations.
What do those three editorials by obviously biased people have to do with an editorial by the paper itself using hard numbers from the bill? Point out where its wrong. I already stated I'm open to other interpretations.
Quick question, guys. At least for those living in Cali, is it looking likely that financial aid for us college students is gonna be drastically reduced? What's the word on the internets?well I know that most schools are coping with their budget cuts by accepting less students this fall. I don't know what they plan to do to financial aid though.
Can I pat myself on the back if I'm open to all viewpoints?
Lots of words and barely any point. The article showed the enormous wastes in the bill in the name of STIMULUS and that most of the waste is going to DEM constituencies - not that it would hurt the economy (wtf?). Virtually none of it is aimed directly at creating jobs in the short term. Almost all of the spending part could be siphoned off onto other bills. Want to debate more money going into education? That's fine. But, it doesn't belong in this stimulus bill. Want to debate more money going to Medicare and unemployment. Again, that's fine. But, it doesn't belong in this stimulus bill.
that shit is woman's work. and everyone knows women don't have real jobs, by definition.
that shit is woman's work. and everyone knows women don't have real jobs, by definition.
Why should education be off limits in a stimulus bill, but not road-building? They both require hiring people. Both are typically funded through their own separate bills. What's the distinction? What's your logic?
jeez Mandark, slow down son. I'm sure SD is just taking a break
A tangent, but since it's related to the economic collapse, I think it will fit in here:
Because of all the doom and gloom (actual doom and gloom, mind you), people have not been spending money out in the market, and a significant portion of that money not going into the market is likely going into savings accounts (or to pay off debt). This kind of illustrates a critical flaw of the sort of economy the US and much of the world has fostered. If there is collective good and wise group behavior (saving money/managing money responsibly), there is collective group punishment via the market disturbances that will happen as a result of unspent cash. US-like economies thrive off of bad, unwise behavior. That is completely irrational, and not only does it make me wonder if this ship is worth saving, but if it can be saved at all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od8bcCvX3jU
Interesting, if only to see what Obama would look like with a high top fade
Seems like a few the tin foil people are still struggling to label Obama.
The auto industry is proposing that the government give a 4500 dollar tax credit for people buying new cars (as long as the new cars have a better mpg than your previous).One that clearly wont be abused by anyone at all.
Self-serving obviously, but not a terrible idea.
(http://images.craigslist.org/3n43p23lcZZZZZZZZZ91u88f656e6bf721da7.jpg)
lawl
How is his life shitty?
Fucking distinguished mentally-challenged fellow.
LOL @ Keeping my freedom. Do these guys know about the Patriot Act that was sponsored by the previous administration. Also do they not know that the Stimulus package includes tax cuts for people most likely in that driver's tax bracket.
*sighs*
bu bu bu the rich will move to other countries with less taxes and create thar jobs thar!
So in 2012 when these people still have their guns, "freedom", and money (unless they're rich or are heavily invested in shit companies) what will they say?
the car tax credit is unimaginably stupid. will it be used to buy american cars? probably not. on top of that, where would the unemployed or poor get the additional money to buy a new car ($4500 is less than half of even a shitty new car) -- or is this just for the still-employed middle-class, who can probably afford a new car sans credit, but are wisely abstaining? republicans are the dumbest motherfuckers out there.
START TAXING THE FUCK OUT OF THE RICH, AND START SPENDING THOSE TAXES ON JOB CREATION. NOW. 70%. BRING IT BACK.
So in 2012 when these people still have their guns, "freedom", and money (unless they're rich or are heavily invested in shit companies) what will they say?
QuoteSTART TAXING THE FUCK OUT OF THE RICH, AND START SPENDING THOSE TAXES ON JOB CREATION. NOW. 70%. BRING IT BACK.
Yes, look how well it worked for Jimmy Carter.
Who needs manufacturing anyways? Let's have an entire economy based on landscaping, massage therapy and wiping the asses of the elderly.
You better inform Ya Boy Obama that unions are a waste. He seems to believe they are the backbone of the middle class.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/opinion/22krugman.html?ref=opinion
enjoy! given that carter presided over better growth than reagan, and had to deal with the massive effect of stagflation in the 70's, well, LOL JIMMY CARTER doesn't even cut it as convenient republican cant these days.
are you rich, ta?
what is it with posturing libertarians and their straw men?
Plus Steele is just incredibly dishonest and intellectually disingenuous. My primary exposure to him is with his GOPAC garbage and his appearance on Bill Maher when he shit all over himself.
WASHINGTON -- Two congressmen want Citigroup out of Citi Field.
Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Ted Poe sent a letter to new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday, urging the government to demand that the company drop its $400 million, 20-year agreement for naming rights to the New York Mets' ballpark. The stadium opens in April.
McCain is saying he doesn't see any REP votes for the stimulus bill in the senate.
Plus Steele is just incredibly dishonest and intellectually disingenuous. My primary exposure to him is with his GOPAC garbage and his appearance on Bill Maher when he shit all over himself.
Dear Mr. President, A Bonus Isn't A Bonus
Posted By: Cliff Mason
A bonus by any other name would smell just as sweet.
The fury over the fact that Wall Street paid out $18.4 billion in bonuses in 2008, the "sixth largest" amount in history, is about words and nothing else.
This isn't a compensation issue, it's a diction issue.
Outside of lower Manhattan, a "bonus" is a special, one-off reward for performance above and beyond what's expected of an employee. And if investment bankers had gotten $18.4 billion worth of bonuses in that traditional sense of the word, then of course it would be truly outrageous.
But on Wall Street, and at many law firms as well, a bonus is simply part, often the greater part, of your regular compensation. It may vary from year to year, but when you take one of these jobs, the understanding is that you'll be paid a base-salary and once a year you'll also get a "bonus."
The bonus varies in size from year to year, but it's not actually a "bonus" in the way most people think of the word. It's an expected part of your salary, delivered in a lump- sum near Christmastime. Historically, for many people on Wall Street, the base salary is much less than they could be earning elsewhere, but because they know they're getting a sizable "bonus," it makes sense for them to stay at their jobs.
So a bonus isn't a bonus.
But since the vast majority of people don't know that, the public gets angry. And when the public gets angry, Democratic politicians who probably know better have to demagogue the issue. That's how you get the President saying, "there will be a time for profits and bonuses. Now is not that time."
I don't think this is class-warfare, although I wouldn't mind some of that, it's a simple misunderstanding. Obama wouldn't say, "now is not the time for paychecks." But that's essentially what a bonus is on Wall Street, just an expected part of your compensation. This is not crooked, greedy CEOs lining their wallets, although I won't deny that plenty of that happens.
The screwed up thing is that it's clear Obama wants to help these bankers, or at least keep their companies alive. But, as I see it, they're making it as hard on him as they possibly can from a PR standpoint, which is all that matters in politics.
We can't create a "bad bank" to relieve troubled financial institutions of their depressed assets if they're paying out $18.4 billion in "bonuses." It just looks terrible. So here's my advice to Wall Street: help us help you.
Stop paying bonuses.
Call them something else.
Think of something boring like "annual performance-adjusted block compensation."
I know "bonus" sounds sexy, but that's precisely what's wrong with the term.
A little verbal magic and this whole problem goes away.
McCain is saying he doesn't see any REP votes for the stimulus bill in the senate.Does it matter? They are on the verge of losing their filibuster power anyway (politico says those close to gregg say he'll accept if obama asks him, no way obama will pass this up).
According to First Read, the possible nomination of Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) as President Obama's secretary of commerce is "very real."http://politicalwire.com/
"Senate Republicans are upset that he hasn't put the story to bed. So clearly he's pondering. One sticking point is that New Hampshire has a Dem governor, John Lynch, and that could give Democrats 60 seats if Gregg leaves and Al Franken eventually wins. One idea floating out there is a deal between Obama/Gregg and Lynch to appoint a caretaker Republican (perhaps ex-Sen. Warren Rudman?). Even if he doesn't take the job, Gregg is certainly sending the signal that he doesn't want to run in 2010. That is a terrible sign for the Senate GOP. Another retirement makes the idea of netting a single seat in 2010 nearly impossible. This likely outcome in 2010 actually could mean Lynch and Obama are open to a deal that keeps a Republican in the seat until November 2010, since getting that 60th senate seat in the coming years seems probable."
CQ Politics quotes Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) saying the appointment would be "a pretty sneaky, sneaky move to get a really good person as Commerce secretary and put us in a bind politically."
Quotewhat is it with posturing libertarians and their straw men?
This is a great help to my Liberal Argument Bingo Card. I am just a "cognitive dissonance" and a bar graph away from calling Bingo.
Obama considering deal that would turn down 60 seat possibility?
Joe Biden used to be big on war on drugs shit, right? We aren't getting legal weed anytime soon.Obama won't legalize it regardless of Biden.
Joe Biden used to be big on war on drugs shit, right? We aren't getting legal weed anytime soon.Obama won't legalize it regardless of Biden.
I don't get why people think just because Obama used weed for years and years and did coke back in high school/college that he'll unban that stuff. He is still a politician and doing something like that is political suicide.
Obama is a pretty clean guy now anyway. Stopped doing drugs when he was in his late 20's. He quit smoking. And he says he has quit drinking alcohol as well.
I just don't want to be looked down upon and want to buy marijuana from a store. Plus drug testing for marijuana is ridiculous. That should not exist. Anything harder I agree but not Marijuana.
I just don't want to be looked down upon and want to buy marijuana from a store. Plus drug testing for marijuana is ridiculous. That should not exist. Anything harder I agree but not Marijuana.
Why not?
why does the whitehouse website feature a photo of Obama watching himself on TV?
Not saying this as my opinion but just to get discussion rolling, what if someone were to light up right before going to work, with a particularly strong type of pot? I mean, wouldn't that affect that person's work efficiency?
Just a theoretical.
Would you drink a shot vodka right before going to work? This is common sense. Use it.
Not saying this as my opinion but just to get discussion rolling, what if someone were to light up right before going to work, with a particularly strong type of pot? I mean, wouldn't that affect that person's work efficiency?
Just a theoretical.
He kind of went too far with the Reducing Americans Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) act but in general, he mainly seems to be opposed to pills, steroids, and date-rape drugs. I honestly can't see him crusading against weed.
Highly skilled jobs where machinery is involved yes, but any other place it'd be no different than getting relief form a cigarette. They might actually do better work.
Highly skilled jobs where machinery is involved yes, but any other place it'd be no different than getting relief form a cigarette. They might actually do better work.
Peoples brain chemistry are not the same. Some people get panic attacks when they smoke weed, some people get drowsy, some get addicted. Some people are too stupid to realize when the drug is having a negative effect on their lives.
I'm for it for legit medicinal reasons. It should be a state issue, not a federal one.
Highly skilled jobs where machinery is involved yes, but any other place it'd be no different than getting relief form a cigarette. They might actually do better work.
Peoples brain chemistry are not the same. Some people get panic attacks when they smoke weed, some people get drowsy, some get addicted. Some people are too stupid to realize when the drug is having a negative effect on their lives.
I'm for it for legit medicinal reasons. It should be a state issue, not a federal one.
All forms?
All forms?
yes. But if you mean directly then no.
anyways the argument is weak because they don't kill more people because they are more harmful, they kill more people because they are legal so more people do them.
All forms?
No substance should be illegal unless you think that governments role is to take care of you. Afterall the only people dumb enough to use hard drugs deserve whatever comes their way.
I don't know, just seems odd to have shit like meth or acid legal. Marijuana's one thing (that I'm completely okay with), but meth?
Obama half-brother on drug charge
George Obama is the President's younger half-brother
The Kenyan half-brother of President Barack Obama has been arrested for alleged marijuana possession.
George Obama was arrested in Nairobi with one joint of marijuana, police chief Joshua Omokulongolo said.
"He is not a drug peddler. But it is illegal, it is a banned substance," he said. Mr Obama has denied the allegations.
The US president and George Obama share the same father, but are thought to have only met each other briefly.
George Obama, who is in his 20s, is due in court on Monday.
"They took me from my home," George Obama told reporters in Nairobi from his jail cell. " I don't know why they are charging me."
I don't know, just seems odd to have shit like meth or acid legal. Marijuana's one thing (that I'm completely okay with), but meth?
If meth and acid were legel would you do them?
I think the effects of alcohol are pretty different from the effects of meth. You ever compare the addicts of both drugs? Who would you rather have walking around?
Meh, I don't know. I just don't like the idea of there being a legal way of becoming a meth head.
edit: Heh, I've been offered but I just don't really care to.
No substance should be illegal unless you think that governments role is to take care of you. Afterall the only people dumb enough to use hard drugs deserve whatever comes their way.That's a really childish way of looking at it. A drug addict doesn't just hurt themselves. Especially if they turn to crime to pay for their drugs.
New I thought you want to become a musician or atleast work with them? com'on all the cool kids are doing it.
That it is not. Music is ten times better on drugs.
Especially harmless marihuana. It literally sounds like the music is three-dimensional. It's so fucking trippy.
I listened to Casey Jones once and I swore Jerry Garcia was playing in my ear.
there is no such thing as "harmless marijuana"
horrible horrible shit
uh, it just fucking is. you probably havent done enough to get to that point yet. it makes you super self aware and anxious
bobobobobo when jimmy carter taxed the rich we went into a recession! yet when we taxed the rich under eisenhower the economy improved! who to believe!
correlation != causation, simps
I think the effects of alcohol are pretty different from the effects of meth. You ever compare the addicts of both drugs? Who would you rather have walking around?
Meh, I don't know. I just don't like the idea of there being a legal way of becoming a meth head.
edit: Heh, I've been offered but I just don't really care to.
Why do you care so much? I enjoy music just as much as anyone else I know, and that's including my friends who smoke and take acid. In fact, a lot of them look to me for new music and what I think of so-and-so. I enjoy music more than anything in my life, and I'm completely okay with how I listen to it.
Why do you care so much? I enjoy music just as much as anyone else I know, and that's including my friends who smoke and take acid. In fact, a lot of them look to me for new music and what I think of so-and-so. I enjoy music more than anything in my life, and I'm completely okay with how I listen to it.
Why do you care so much? I enjoy music just as much as anyone else I know, and that's including my friends who smoke and take acid. In fact, a lot of them look to me for new music and what I think of so-and-so. I enjoy music more than anything in my life, and I'm completely okay with how I listen to it.
Why do you care so much? I enjoy music just as much as anyone else I know, and that's including my friends who smoke and take acid. In fact, a lot of them look to me for new music and what I think of so-and-so. I enjoy music more than anything in my life, and I'm completely okay with how I listen to it.
Yeah but you don't experience music. That's why Hendrix wrote a song about it. You listen to music, we experience it.
Animal Collective becomes a totally different beast under marihuana
bastards :/Animal Collective becomes a totally different beast under marihuana
Really, why even bother listening to a psychedelic band if there are no drugs involved? It's as pointless as having sex while wearing a condom.
Animal Collective becomes a totally different beast under marihuana
Asking someone to do drugs just so they could appreciate music more is stupid.
Why is everyone all over BrandNew's shit? It's his life.
.Why is everyone all over BrandNew's shit? It's his life.
Because he'd be a better person on drugs.
I actually just shit in a toilet and leave it at that.
So you're getting started on this a little too late, so I'd just skip the weed and kiddie shit and jump right into pain killers.
This is the best thread ever. On weed.
/me reads the last two pages.
Music sounds best when I'm lying motionless with my eyes closed in a semi-meditative state.
That or on the floor in the fetal position, drunk and crying.
Though when drunk and crying I usually scream, which destroys the music somewhat.
music sounds the best on adderall - fact
its especially dangerous mixed w/ online downloading, youll look at the shit you downloaded the next day and be like wtf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neLKgSdrch8
:rock
Newt Gingrich said he sees "an open Republican field" for the 2012 Republican presidential race, The Hill reports. But he made special mention of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).http://politicalwire.com/
Said Gingrich: "If Sarah Palin seeks out a group of very sophisticated policy advisers and develops a fairly sophisticated platform, she will be very formidable."
According to The Hotline, he says Palin would have a "substantial advantage" in Iowa, the first-in-the nation caucus state, where she has "a very big base."
Just after the presidential election, Gingrich downplayed Palin's strength in the Republican party.
The last thing we need, more pigs.
Newt can't run. Too much dirt. We've been over this.
McConnell also said Republicans favor cutting the two lowest tax brackets as a way to " put money back in people's hands directly." If adopted, that would reduce the tax rate from 10 percent to 5 percent for the first $8,350 in individual income for the current year, and $16,700 for couples. The tax rate would be lowered from 15 percent to 10 percent on income between $8,351 and $33,950 for individuals and between $16,701 and $67,900 for couples.
Separately, Republican officials said they intended to press for a $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers through the end of the year. Current law permits a $7,500 tax break and limits it to first-time homebuyers.
Those seem like solid ideas to me. Add those and cut out some of that pork, and you have a stimulus bill.It isn't that simple as "cut some of that pork" Republicans and Democrats don't agree on what pork is. At least in terms of this bill.
Republicans float out some of their ideas.QuoteMcConnell also said Republicans favor cutting the two lowest tax brackets as a way to " put money back in people's hands directly." If adopted, that would reduce the tax rate from 10 percent to 5 percent for the first $8,350 in individual income for the current year, and $16,700 for couples. The tax rate would be lowered from 15 percent to 10 percent on income between $8,351 and $33,950 for individuals and between $16,701 and $67,900 for couples.
bububu they hate poor people!!QuoteSeparately, Republican officials said they intended to press for a $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers through the end of the year. Current law permits a $7,500 tax break and limits it to first-time homebuyers.
Those seem like solid ideas to me. Add those and cut out some of that pork, and you have a stimulus bill.
CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.
But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that he wasn't convinced and that he wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.
Obama's decision to override Petraeus's recommendation has not ended the conflict between the president and senior military officers over troop withdrawal, however. There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy.
A network of senior military officers is also reported to be preparing to support Petraeus and Odierno by mobilising public opinion against Obama's decision.
Petraeus was visibly unhappy when he left the Oval Office, according to one of the sources. A White House staffer present at the meeting was quoted by the source as saying, "Petraeus made the mistake of thinking he was still dealing with George Bush instead of with Barack Obama."
Another day...another Obama tax cheat nominee:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/another-tax-pro.html (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/another-tax-pro.html)
Another day...another Obama tax cheat nominee:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/another-tax-pro.html (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/another-tax-pro.html)
Wow. I wonder if huffington post is reporting all of this.
Daschle's shady. Hopefully he doesn't make it (though I'm sure he'd have a soft landing anyway :-\).He was not only a senator but senate majority leader so he is buddy buddy with everyone in the senate and thus able to personally persuade anyone who may vote against him. I bet he'll get more than 60 votes in the end.
I don't doubt it. He's pals with Bob Dole too. I'm just hoping.Daschle's shady. Hopefully he doesn't make it (though I'm sure he'd have a soft landing anyway :-\).He was not only a senator but senate majority leader so he is buddy buddy with everyone in the senate and thus able to personally persuade anyone who may vote against him. I bet he'll get more than 60 votes in the end.
Saw this on GAF, I am really glad that Obama refuses to listen to Petraeus. Although it seems to be getting the military angry.How is this in any way a good thing? He's not listening to the person most qualified to tell him what to do with Iraq. Pulling out of Iraq was just PR bullshit and Obama's hoping that Iraq doesn't shit itself in less than 4 years.
Saw this on GAF, I am really glad that Obama refuses to listen to Petraeus. Although it seems to be getting the military angry.How is this in any way a good thing? He's not listening to the person most qualified to tell him what to do with Iraq. Pulling out of Iraq was just PR bullshit and Obama's hoping that Iraq doesn't shit itself in less than 4 years.
Oh come on, Petraeus should have some say in when the pull out happens. Obama just disregarding any legitimate security concerns that he has is idiotic. What Obama should have done is at least compromised and pushed it up a few months so that Petraeus can feel that Obama is somewhat reasonable. The only reason for a 16 month plan is to get the troops back by Independance Day 2011 so that Obama can get a PR boost. Keeping to this schedule doesn't help Obama's relationship with the military, Iraq's security, and it especially won't help America's image if another dictator takes over.
You act like he made that decision on a whim and ignored everyone. He came up with that plan based on the advice and counsel of military experts (who I'd imagine know a hell lot more than you or I on this).
Just because the Petreus and his loyalists disagree don't make him right. Obama has plenty of military advisors who agree with him and helped craft the 16 month plan.
so he should take a risk with Iraq and hurt his relationship with the military so that he can be an honest guy?
You act like he made that decision on a whim and ignored everyone. He came up with that plan based on the advice and counsel of military experts (who I'd imagine know a hell lot more than you or I on this).
Just because the Petreus and his loyalists disagree don't make him right. Obama has plenty of military advisors who agree with him and helped craft the 16 month plan.
No, I can see Obama's justification for the 16 month timeline. He obviously has a political motivation but the problem is that Petraeus isn't comfortable at all with it and Obama, for PR reasons if any, can't extend the timeline even a few months. This is totally justified behavior for Obama since he is not a messiah that's going to end racism or corruption. He's a diplomat.
What I can't understand is why anybody would cheer this. If the president has a bad relationship with the military, that won't help the country at all.
You clearly did not get my reference.Which partly is why the Bay of Pigs failed and possibly even why Johnson started the Vietnam War. You want to half-ass a military operation for political interests and you'll end up in deep shit.
Kennedy had a "bad relationship" with the military too. It didn't harm the country one bit. And in fact, probably was a good thing during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
You clearly did not get my reference.Which partly is why the Bay of Pigs failed and possibly even why Johnson started the Vietnam War. You want to half-ass a military operation for political interests and you'll end up in deep shit.
Kennedy had a "bad relationship" with the military too. It didn't harm the country one bit. And in fact, probably was a good thing during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
You clearly did not get my reference.Which partly is why the Bay of Pigs failed
Kennedy had a "bad relationship" with the military too. It didn't harm the country one bit. And in fact, probably was a good thing during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
and possibly even why Johnson started the Vietnam War.
And we know how that turned outNo, I can see Obama's justification for the 16 month timeline. He obviously has a political motivation but the problem is that Petraeus isn't comfortable at all with it and Obama, for PR reasons if any, can't extend the timeline even a few months. This is totally justified behavior for Obama since he is not a messiah that's going to end racism or corruption. He's a diplomat.
What I can't understand is why anybody would cheer this. If the president has a bad relationship with the military, that won't help the country at all.
You clearly did not get my reference.
Kennedy had a "bad relationship" with the military too. It didn't harm the country one bit. And in fact, probably was a good thing during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
And we know how that turned outNo, I can see Obama's justification for the 16 month timeline. He obviously has a political motivation but the problem is that Petraeus isn't comfortable at all with it and Obama, for PR reasons if any, can't extend the timeline even a few months. This is totally justified behavior for Obama since he is not a messiah that's going to end racism or corruption. He's a diplomat.
What I can't understand is why anybody would cheer this. If the president has a bad relationship with the military, that won't help the country at all.
You clearly did not get my reference.
Kennedy had a "bad relationship" with the military too. It didn't harm the country one bit. And in fact, probably was a good thing during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is expected to name Republican Senator Judd Gregg as commerce secretary.
Mr Gregg would be the third Republican in Mr Obama's cabinet.
The president's first choice for the post, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, withdrew following questions about his links to big business.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is expected to name Republican Senator Judd Gregg as commerce secretary.
Mr Gregg would be the third Republican in Mr Obama's cabinet.
The president's first choice for the post, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, withdrew following questions about his links to big business.
I love that there were concerns about Bill Richardson's big business connections, but we have rarely heard a peep about Cheney's no-bid contract awards to Halliburton, where he had been CEO until 2000, right up until taking the office of VPOTUS. The irony. I am choking on it.
am nintenho, you know that Iraq signed a security agreement last year prescribing that American troops be out in 2011 right?What does that have to do with what I said? My problem is with Obama sticking to the 16 month timeline.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.html?hp
I don't think it should be up to to the military to dictate policy in the least anyway, but this is something the US is obligated to do already.
No.There is no way that the BoP would have been successful without air support. The only realistic options would have been to either allow the air support, or not allow the operation at all. Going ahead with it was suicide.
The Bay of Pigs was a CIA fuckup. It only has to do with a "bad relationship with the military" if you believe Kennedy should have ceded to military pressure to commence airstrikes on Cuba.Quoteand possibly even why Johnson started the Vietnam War.wtf?
Oh come on, Petraeus should have some say in when the pull out happens. Obama just disregarding any legitimate security concerns that he has is idiotic. What Obama should have done is at least compromised and pushed it up a few months so that Petraeus can feel that Obama is somewhat reasonable. The only reason for a 16 month plan is to get the troops back by Independance Day 2011 so that Obama can get a PR boost. Keeping to this schedule doesn't help Obama's relationship with the military, Iraq's security, and it especially won't help America's image if another dictator takes over.
I'm sure that Patraeus has gained more knowledge of actually keeping Iraq secure than any politician. He's not the only expert, but he's the guy in charge. If anything, Obama's actions just undermine Patraeus' authority and makes Iraqis even less impressed with the US and the other security forces in the country after Saddam.
No, seeing the guy who was in charge of Iraq's security get ignored completely reflects badly on the US.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.
In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.
And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than most Americans — and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team — understand.
“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.
Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”
Citing intelligence reports :teehee, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration — “that’s about 11 or 12 percent” — have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”
The choice, he alleged, reflects a naive mindset among the new team in Washington: “The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama administration believes.”http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18390.html
I'm sure that Patraeus has gained more knowledge of actually keeping Iraq secure than any politician. He's not the only expert, but he's the guy in charge. If anything, Obama's actions just undermine Patraeus' authority and makes Iraqis even less impressed with the US and the other security forces in the country after Saddam.
The stimulus bill is turning into a Grade A disaster for Obama and the DEMs. Durbin says there's not enough votes to get it through the Senate. Rasmussen polling shows a plurality now oppose it. And at least one Blue Dog is saying Obama told him to vote against it**.
QuoteProtecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”
FWD: FWD: FWD: 0. Hussein Soetoro Marxbama a MUSLIM!?!??! READ!
the milquetoast Wall Street captive
Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration — “that’s about 11 or 12 percent” — have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”Oh well in that case, we should keep them all locked up forever, just to be on the safe side.
wait
how can they "return" to being terrorists if they were released for being found not terrorists
then again, being wrongly imprisoned for years may just create a few terrorists
Yeah, let's just do nothing, that'll fix it.
cdo? collaboration data objects? collateralized debt obligations? link, tardo!
When John McCain suspended his campaign on Wednesday and asked for a postponement of tonight’s debate, Barack Obama’s initial reaction was to hurl an insult, saying that he could handle the Wall Street bailout negotiations and debate at the same time. It was a foreshadowing of the juvenile, petty, and petulant candidate that would show up in Oxford, Mississippi tonight. McCain won this debate on points. But critically, he also won on temperament and likeability, allegedly Obama’s strong points. McCain got under Obama’s skin, and it showed.
Oh lawdy, bringing up a Redstate diarist (http://www.redstate.com/mark_i/)?Quote from: Mark ImpomeniWhen John McCain suspended his campaign on Wednesday and asked for a postponement of tonight’s debate, Barack Obama’s initial reaction was to hurl an insult, saying that he could handle the Wall Street bailout negotiations and debate at the same time. It was a foreshadowing of the juvenile, petty, and petulant candidate that would show up in Oxford, Mississippi tonight. McCain won this debate on points. But critically, he also won on temperament and likeability, allegedly Obama’s strong points. McCain got under Obama’s skin, and it showed.
That's some quality analysis right there, yep.
The negative effect of crowding out could be offset somewhat by a positive long-term effect on the economy of some provsions—such as funding for infrastructure spending, education programs, and investment incentives, which might increase economic output in the long run.
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2009/02/05/obama-stimulus-plan-worse-than-doing-nothing/ (http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2009/02/05/obama-stimulus-plan-worse-than-doing-nothing/)
And for those keeping score at home, SofLabor appointee Hilda Solis is the latest Obama cabinet tax cheat.
apparently in sd's world, CBO reports (and perhaps primary sources in general) do not actually exist as concrete entities in their own right, only as abstract base classes for others' interpretations
Mom, they're being mean again!
God y'all are fucking crybabies.
Obama is getting fiery and pissed off at Republicans. He got more partisan tonight than I have seen him get in quite a while:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0209/Fired_up_again.html?showall
1) Defuse the 2011 tax bomb: Stop tax increases set to hit the economy in 2011.
o Permanently repeal the alternative minimum tax once and for all;
o Permanently keep the capital gains and dividends taxes at 15 percent;
o Permanently kill the Death Tax for estates under $5 million, and cut the tax rate to 15 percent for those above;
o Permanently extend the $1,000-per-child tax credit; o Permanently repeal the marriage tax penalty;
o Permanently simplify itemized deductions to include only home mortgage interest and charitable contributions.
2) Long term, broad based tax cuts for American families and businesses.
o Lower top marginal income rates – the one paid by most of the small businesses that create new jobs – from 35 percent to 25 percent.
o Simplify the tax code to include only two other brackets, 15 and 10 percent. o Lower corporate tax rate as well, from 35 percent to 25 percent. The U.S. corporate tax rate is second highest among all industrialized nations, driving investment and jobs overseas. Lowering this key rate will unlock trillions of dollars to be invested in America instead of abroad.
o This is not only good economic policy, but a matter of fairness. No American family should be forced to pay the federal government more than 25 percent of the fruits of their hard labor.
The sheer arrogance of this post is mind-boggling.
If the country collapses while they quibble over this ponderous bill, will everyone finally agree with me about how democracy doesn't work?
If the country collapses while they quibble over this ponderous bill...
If the country collapses while they quibble over this ponderous bill...
I don't really feel like this bill will have any effect on the near term, whether it passes or fails. 3-4 years from now, it will have a substantial effect (both positive and negative).
Quote from: Doug ElmendorfThe negative effect of crowding out could be offset somewhat by a positive long-term effect on the economy of some provsions—such as funding for infrastructure spending, education programs, and investment incentives, which might increase economic output in the long run.
Wait, I remember someone getting super angry at education spending which should be totally kept out of the bill because it's not stimulus because... something.
Whoever shall I listen to?
Obama is getting fiery and pissed off at Republicans. He got more partisan tonight than I have seen him get in quite a while:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0209/Fired_up_again.html?showall
I think the sticking point is that when they say it will "create X jobs in year Y" they're comparing it to how many jobs would be created/destroyed without the stimulus.
Slightly off topic, but I got into an argument last night with a bleeding heart about environment issues. At the end of the argument he blammed all of China's envronment issues on china being "too libertarian."
I tried tellinh him that citizens in china have no right to object to their pallned economy or sue because of health reasons.
If spending is stimulative then why is California going bankrupt?
You seriously can't take people like that seriously, and as long as idiots keep electing them to office America will be worse off. Just 24 hours of killing is all it would take...
This is a prime example of what I'm talking about: Tom Coburn (admittedly pretty far out there even for a Republican when it comes to economic shit) was just on my teevee saying that no wealth is created from government jobs, including military jobs.Why do these people even run for office if they disdain government so much?
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
You seriously can't take people like that seriously, and as long as idiots keep electing them to office America will be worse off. Just 24 hours of killing is all it would take...
This is a prime example of what I'm talking about: Tom Coburn (admittedly pretty far out there even for a Republican when it comes to economic shit) was just on my teevee saying that no wealth is created from government jobs, including military jobs.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
You seriously can't take people like that seriously, and as long as idiots keep electing them to office America will be worse off. Just 24 hours of killing is all it would take...
This is a prime example of what I'm talking about: Tom Coburn (admittedly pretty far out there even for a Republican when it comes to economic shit) was just on my teevee saying that no wealth is created from government jobs, including military jobs.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
You seriously can't take people like that seriously, and as long as idiots keep electing them to office America will be worse off. Just 24 hours of killing is all it would take...
Wealth isnt created that way. But at least you understand that wealth does have to be created in the first place.
This is a prime example of what I'm talking about: Tom Coburn (admittedly pretty far out there even for a Republican when it comes to economic shit) was just on my teevee saying that no wealth is created from government jobs, including military jobs.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
You seriously can't take people like that seriously, and as long as idiots keep electing them to office America will be worse off. Just 24 hours of killing is all it would take...
Wealth isnt created that way. But at least you understand that wealth does have to be created in the first place.
You fatuous turd gobbler, wealth stands a FAR greater chance of being created by building an economy from the bottom up than it does from the top down. Exhibit A: The past 28 fucking years.
Care to share?
Care to share?
Don't listen to him, he's a fucking idiot that doesn't realize that there was no middle class to speak of until the dreaded "socialist" laws and reforms of the devil FDR.
This is a prime example of what I'm talking about: Tom Coburn (admittedly pretty far out there even for a Republican when it comes to economic shit) was just on my teevee saying that no wealth is created from government jobs, including military jobs.
Care to share?
Don't listen to him, he's a fucking idiot that doesn't realize that there was no middle class to speak of until the dreaded "socialist" laws and reforms of the devil FDR.
So where was the middle in the USSR? Go ahead and give me an example of a planned economy that lead to long term wealth.
Cher: Republican Rule Almost ‘Killed Me’
Grammy award-winning singer and Academy award-winning actress Cher told CNSNews.com that living under Republican rule almost “killed" her, and she does not understand why anyone would want to be a Republican.
She also said that President Barack Obama’s “intelligence” and “spirit” are “so great” he will be able to do “more than anyone could possibly do.”
“I just think he’s totally the right person at this time in our history," she said.
Each sides have their idiots, but at least our idiots are legendary fag hags as opposed to cretins like Michelle Malkin and Joe the not Plumber.
This is a prime example of what I'm talking about: Tom Coburn (admittedly pretty far out there even for a Republican when it comes to economic shit) was just on my teevee saying that no wealth is created from government jobs, including military jobs.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
The drop in support for the stimulus package is apparently coming entirely from Republicans :lol:don't you just need a simple majority to pass it?
that poll was public opinion not politicians lolThe drop in support for the stimulus package is apparently coming entirely from Republicans :lol:don't you just need a simple majority to pass it?
that poll was public opinion not politicians lolwell that explains why there was 25% of two independants.
This is a prime example of what I'm talking about: Tom Coburn (admittedly pretty far out there even for a Republican when it comes to economic shit) was just on my teevee saying that no wealth is created from government jobs, including military jobs.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
And he's absolutely correct. The money that goes to pay the salary of each additional government job has to be taken out of the economy in the form of taxation. That is not wealth producing.
This is a prime example of what I'm talking about: Tom Coburn (admittedly pretty far out there even for a Republican when it comes to economic shit) was just on my teevee saying that no wealth is created from government jobs, including military jobs.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
And he's absolutely correct. The money that goes to pay the salary of each additional government job has to be taken out of the economy in the form of taxation. That is not wealth producing.
Every private job has a salary paid for by money taken away from customers.
If Republicans can advocate letting the rich keep more of their money as a way of creating wealth when pretty much most evidence shows that they just sock it away somewhere, then by gawd I can advocate taking that money and using it to employ people instead.
libertarians get to stop paying taxes but they can't use anything that taxes fund.???
There's a ton of empirical data to support public spending for growth purposes,
Every private job has a salary paid for by money taken away from customers.
But only because the customer can afford it. And never through force or threats (like taxes).
saying is that it is okay to take money from the people who create it and give it to people need it. Redistribution of wealth here we come.
Only the American government could figure out how to make each job saved/created cost 250,000 dollars.
Some dude already said that everything taken out in the Senate will be stuffed back in in the House anyway. Take it that means this will be back to $900B next week. Be sure to thank your future unborn grandkids for all their generosity. Obama called on all of us to sacrifice. His political prowess defies generations. He's able to reach far into the future and take that which is needed now. Gotta try to patch the leaking credit bubble in any way possible. What an amazing president. First time I've ever really been proud of my country. Honestly.
Yes We Did!
(sry...messed it up the last post)
While details are still incomplete, it appears the package, as initially brought to the Senate floor, will be scaled back by about $82 billion in spending reductions and $25 billion in tax cuts. In addition, tax cuts approved on the Senate floor this week for car and home purchases would be modified, and the total bill then would be in the range of $800 billion.http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18508.html
Lost in the process—or scaled back significantly— are some important Democratic initiatives and at least $47 billion in promised aid to the states. New Pell Grant funding is largely preserved, but $16 billion in school construction funds would be cut, and increases for popular programs like Head Start cut in half.
Obama’s own agenda is not immune. The deal would trim back new funds committed for expanding broadband access and improving the electrical grid as well as investments in health information technology.
Specter’s role is striking since he is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which helped write the bill. On the floor this week, Democrats like Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin helped him secure increased funding for the National Institutes of Health—a Specter priority. Yet in the talks, it appears that $5.8 billion in public health funds for the treatment of preventable diseases—a Harkin priority— would be severely cut or even wiped out.
QuoteOnly the American government could figure out how to make each job saved/created cost 250,000 dollars.
well, looking at the wikipedia entry for Ford for example, their costs per employee per 3 years appear to be 175.178B / 245k * 3 = $2.14 million / job.
Microsoft = 42.74B / 89,809 * 3 = $1.43M/job
but carry on
Well, very clever to cherry pick one of the most overpaid, unskilled professions in America. Let's try to be more disingenuous next time.
Come on man, it's apples and oranges here ... You're talking about companies that have to pay for R&D, marketing, lawyers, and countless other hidden expenses from governmental regulations that these "make up" jobs don't even have to incur.
You're talking about companies that have to pay for R&D, marketing, lawyers, and countless other hidden expenses
I'm pretty sure he was just trying to prove a comparable average.
QuoteOnly the American government could figure out how to make each job saved/created cost 250,000 dollars.
well, looking at the wikipedia entry for Ford for example, their costs per employee per 3 years appear to be 175.178B / 245k * 3 = $2.14 million / job.
Microsoft = 42.74B / 89,809 * 3 = $1.43M/job
but carry on
bububut COPS!
and EDUCATIONATORS!
Thank gawd for them especially. They were the only sector (besides healthcare) to add jobs. At that rate we'll be out of this thing in no time - like 30 years maybe. Hell, why don't we all become teachers? Y'all down? I hear the pensions are great (if you plan on retiring in the next 3 months before they all implode).
Yes We Can!
Every private job has a salary paid for by money taken away from customers.
But only because the customer can afford it. And never through force or threats (like taxes).QuoteIf Republicans can advocate letting the rich keep more of their money as a way of creating wealth when pretty much most evidence shows that they just sock it away somewhere, then by gawd I can advocate taking that money and using it to employ people instead.
What you are saying is that it is okay to take money from the people who create it and give it to people need it. Redistribution of wealth here we come.
so did the $15k/home subsidy get in? and who's responsible? and what forms of torture is he likely to be especially sensitive to?
This seems as good a place to ask as any. Is Mandark actually a member of Mossad, or was that a joke?
This seems as good a place to ask as any. Is Mandark actually a member of Mossad, or was that a joke?
Has nobody told the Republicans that tax cuts won't stimulate the economy if none of us have jobs to pay taxes with?
Has nobody told the Republicans that tax cuts won't stimulate the economy if none of us have jobs to pay taxes with?
So we shouldn't cut taxes because some people dont work and they need the money the most?
So instead of rewarding the people with jobs wish should punish people who work and reward those who do not. Yeah that makes sense.
Has nobody told the Republicans that tax cuts won't stimulate the economy if none of us have jobs to pay taxes with?
So we shouldn't cut taxes because some people dont work and they need the money the most?
So instead of rewarding the people with jobs wish should punish people who work and reward those who do not. Yeah that makes sense.
Perhaps you don't understand this - but it's not "some" people, it's a lot of people. And it's mostly lower middle class and impoverished folks, whom if their numbers continue to rise, will be unable to line the pockets of the upper middle class and wealthy.
So - duh! - it is in our best interests to get these folks jobs.
Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company under U.S. government control, will loosen rules for homeowners seeking to lower their loan payments by refinancing.
Fannie Mae will drop some credit-score requirements, reduce income-documentation standards and waive the need for appraisals in some cases, according to a notice yesterday to lenders posted on the Washington-based company’s Web site. The changes apply to loans that the company owns or guarantees.
The company, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the $12 trillion in U.S. residential mortgage debt, is seeking to break a “logjam” in refinancing and allow more homeowners to take advantage of near-record low interest rates, according to Brian Faith, a Fannie Mae spokesman. The increased flexibility for consumers isn’t large enough to significantly harm mortgage- bond investors and mortgage insurers, analysts said.
Who's butthurt? Not me.
This thing was always a done deal. I'm actually kinda pumped because it virtually ensures Obama's tenure will only be one term.
If she's your nominee, you're gonna get your asses whupped again 2008 style, at least in the Presidential. And you know this. Also, if the economy rebounds even slightly (and since history and logic dictates it will to some extent) it's gonna be tough for you guys.Pretty much. The public rewards (and punishes) their government based on the economy regardless if they deserve it or not, and if it improves at all then Obama has a 1996 style easy re-election waiting for him.
Has nobody told the Republicans that tax cuts won't stimulate the economy if none of us have jobs to pay taxes with?
So we shouldn't cut taxes because some people dont work and they need the money the most?
So instead of rewarding the people with jobs wish should punish people who work and reward those who do not. Yeah that makes sense.
Perhaps you don't understand this - but it's not "some" people, it's a lot of people. And it's mostly lower middle class and impoverished folks, whom if their numbers continue to rise, will be unable to line the pockets of the upper middle class and wealthy.
So - duh! - it is in our best interests to get these folks jobs.
Class warfare go!!!
I honestly think Palin will have a hard time getting past New Hampshire.The fact the economy doesn't tend to fall apart for over 4 years straight?
And what gives both of you any confidence the economy will be "good" by 2012?
I honestly think Palin will have a hard time getting past New Hampshire.
And what gives both of you any confidence the economy will be "good" by 2012?
Palin wont be the nominee
Palin wont be the nominee
Probably not, but you guys don't have anyone credible to BE the nominee. Plus the states that a Dem has won over the past 5 general elections add up to 240something electoral votes, gonna be tough for you wankers to do anything about it.
Yeah and 1994 didn't stop Clinton from being re-elected now did it?Palin wont be the nominee
Probably not, but you guys don't have anyone credible to BE the nominee. Plus the states that a Dem has won over the past 5 general elections add up to 240something electoral votes, gonna be tough for you wankers to do anything about it.
I really think there is gonna be something akin to a mini 1994 during the next cycle. Especially after this whole stimulus bill debacle.
Well polling shows that Dems and Independents are siding with the Dems on this 'debacle' and that 80% of Americans expect the bailout to take over a year to show results. So when is this blowback going to happen?
Yeah and 1994 didn't stop Clinton from being re-elected now did it?Palin wont be the nominee
Probably not, but you guys don't have anyone credible to BE the nominee. Plus the states that a Dem has won over the past 5 general elections add up to 240something electoral votes, gonna be tough for you wankers to do anything about it.
I really think there is gonna be something akin to a mini 1994 during the next cycle. Especially after this whole stimulus bill debacle.
Yeah and 1994 didn't stop Clinton from being re-elected now did it?Palin wont be the nominee
Probably not, but you guys don't have anyone credible to BE the nominee. Plus the states that a Dem has won over the past 5 general elections add up to 240something electoral votes, gonna be tough for you wankers to do anything about it.
I really think there is gonna be something akin to a mini 1994 during the next cycle. Especially after this whole stimulus bill debacle.
Is Ross Perot coming back?
Yeah and 1994 didn't stop Clinton from being re-elected now did it?Palin wont be the nominee
Probably not, but you guys don't have anyone credible to BE the nominee. Plus the states that a Dem has won over the past 5 general elections add up to 240something electoral votes, gonna be tough for you wankers to do anything about it.
I really think there is gonna be something akin to a mini 1994 during the next cycle. Especially after this whole stimulus bill debacle.
Is Ross Perot coming back?
You are a fucking idiot.Yeah and 1994 didn't stop Clinton from being re-elected now did it?Palin wont be the nominee
Probably not, but you guys don't have anyone credible to BE the nominee. Plus the states that a Dem has won over the past 5 general elections add up to 240something electoral votes, gonna be tough for you wankers to do anything about it.
I really think there is gonna be something akin to a mini 1994 during the next cycle. Especially after this whole stimulus bill debacle.
Is Ross Perot coming back?
beardo decimated
I'm not sure, rec.
What makes me angry is the education cutbacks.
What's the longest period of time for single party control since WWII?Didnt Democrats control everything under LBJ?
I'm not sure, rec.
What makes me angry is the education cutbacks.
Why?
I'm not sure, rec.
What makes me angry is the education cutbacks.
Why?
I'm not sure, rec.
What makes me angry is the education cutbacks.
Why?
Because education and its growth is more important and seemingly more effective to me than pipe-dream business tax cuts.
Nice job ignoring all the posts that proved you wrong. :lolI'm not sure, rec.
What makes me angry is the education cutbacks.
Why?
Because education and its growth is more important and seemingly more effective to me than pipe-dream business tax cuts.
And if we dont pile more money into it we will all the sudden be uneducated? It's not like it's a do or die situation. Public schools and colleges aren't going to close down all of the sudden if they don't receive million in federal money.
I'm not sure, rec.
What makes me angry is the education cutbacks.
Why?
:hurr
Schumer signaled his interest in removing one obstacle — a Senate amendment from Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., that would double a credit for home purchases to a maximum of $15,000 and allow all home buyers, not just first-time purchasers, to take advantage of it.
The $19 billion amendment, which was adopted Feb. 4 by voice vote in the Senate, is “way excessive for what is needed,” Schumer said, because it would allow people to benefit from trading in one home for another.
Realtors across the country have been advocating for a comprehensive stimulus package to reduce housing inventory, make mortgages more affordable and available, and help deserving families refinance or modify their loans so they can keep their home.
The 650-plus members of the Heartland Association of Realtors and the Lake Placid Board of Realtors are committed to these goals and to getting something done immediately. There can be no doubt that stabilizing home prices and restoring confidence in the housing market are critical to the recovery of the economy here in Highlands County.
It is vitally important for President Barack Obama and Congress to complete a bipartisan stimulus package focused on housing. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is a good start but much more needs to be done. It is imperative that the federal government act immediately encourage homebuyers to re-enter the market and to stop families from losing their homes to foreclosure.
I don't think this stimulus plan will really have a negative effect on Obama. He has tried his best and he has come off good in the media while doing it.
The real turds are the House of Reps. They are the ones who overshot their load with the initial plan and slowly backpeddled into this odd, monsterous compromise bill that no one seems happy with. They are already riding historic lows in approval rating and they are the next up for re-election in 2010. Could be a blood letting.
People always like their local official way more than the institution as a whole.
i wanna cut a dance mix based on mccain campaign samples and smear memes
AYERS-ACORN-REZKO-WRIGHT!
AYERS-ACORN-REZKO-WRIGHT!
GONNA MAKE YOU DANCE ALL NIGHT!
AYERS-ACORN-REZKO-WRIGHT!
rapid high hats, chorus pedal
SOCIALIST! TERRORIST!
NOT A CITIZEN OF THE US!
SOCIALIST! TERRORIST!
NOT A CITIZEN OF THE US!
(cool hand luke sample: "what we have here is a failure to communicate")
boom-pish-boom-pish-boom-pish
Paul said that he agrees that the economy needs to be stimulated but that he doesn't think the federal government should be doing it.
"Sure, we want more spending," Paul said. "We need a lot more spending in the economy, but it has to be done by market forces, by individuals, by businesses making proper decisions."
He reminds me of the Raelians.
Meh, most of the left must realize that what has been cut out can be added in at a later date. It's not like this year won't have a bonanza of bad news to present new opportunities to slip that stuff in.
In the end, we are only talking about a 10 percent cut here.
Respectfully, I believe everyone here completely missed it. Y'all have just seen the future of the Republican Party. She fucking nailed it.
It was important for the REPs to bring to light the lack of experience of Obama - PARTICULARLY because of how the DEMs (and the entire MSM) portrayed her lack of experience. Do y'all seriously think Obama's experience in any way compares to her's? If so, please please try to articulate it with any semblence of substance. His voting record is "present" and his "change driven" legislation leadership doesn't exit. The comment about his two memoirs with no actual bills or laws was utterly damning.
Palin made an incredible appeal to middle America. She did it with her small town commentary, about Obama saying one thing to Scranton and another to San Francisco. She did it by speaking to her husband's union membership and her motherhood. Seriously, if not Sarah Palin, who exactly could have achieved this for the REPs at this point?
Let's understand, they were floundering. They had no brand (deservedly). Somehow, with the selection of Palin, McCain has completely turned this election around.
Frankly, y'all couldn't be more wrong in your assessment.
Obama may still win. Hell, I have $200 on it with my cross burning brother. But, this was...transformative.
I am in love.
(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff156/siamesedreamer7/jobsrecessions.jpg)
Also, WTF about this?:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0209/Reporter_restrained_after_Panetta_hearing.html
no, there's no word OTHER than STUPID for anyone who believes that tax cuts should be favored over infrastructure spending in a stimulus package, or who think that a stimulus package isn't needed. even the karl denninger-esque kooks are starting to come around, since it doesn't take a lot of mental horsepower to compute that, say (for example) repealing the amt for the rich will NOT lead to good returns on each dollar "spent", since RICH PEOPLE CAN AFFORD TO SAVE.
i should add that if you're the undiscussed alternative to the above -- the "let rome burn" economic nihilist -- then, well, i am at least reassured that you'll never be allowed to manage money
[youtube=560,345]xHw773EO314[/youtube]
Rachel being damn sexy
My first cut says that the changes to the Senate bill will ensure that we have at least 600,000 fewer Americans employed over the next two years.http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/what-the-centrists-have-wrought/
i think people most vulnerable to risk from economic collapse and least equipped to manage it, i.e. the working class, should be protected from the effects. but, instead of trying to help them indirectly by propping up unsustainably bloated parts of the economy (auto, real estate, finance) on the front end, inviting waste and corruption, couldn't we let those sectors adjust, and relieve people caught in the crossfire as it were directly (through expanded unemployment, jobs programs directed at worthwhile goals, education and training etc.) instead?
Ahhh the big GOP comeback of 2010 eh? Near impossible. GOP is defending a lot more seats and they have multiple retirements, in purple states no less.[youtube=560,345]xHw773EO314[/youtube]
Rachel being damn sexy
Add her to the list of people who will be completely fucking owned in two years.
My question about california remains unanswered. If governemnt pending stimulates the economy then why is the great liberal motherland, california, going bankrupt in a matter of weeks?
Besides the partisan sniping, I like Krugman. He's probably right here that there is too much focus on taxes. But, that was completely Obama's fault when he offered them in a bipartisan plea at the outset.
Krugman explains the problem in easy terms - there's a ~$2 trillion demand gap over the next two years. But, he ignores the fact that the demand gap is fake (as much of the growth the last few years). Its based on massive amounts of debt that is now coming due. So, he wants the government to step up to the plate to fill that fake gap with more debt. Insanity...which is why Congress did it.
Cheebs: I have no illusions over a GOP comeback in '10. The numbers are just too insurmountable in one cycle. Doesn't mean that Maddow won't look like a fool in two years though.
no, there's no word OTHER than STUPID for anyone who believes that tax cuts should be favored over infrastructure spending in a stimulus package, or who think that a stimulus package isn't needed. even the karl denninger-esque kooks are starting to come around, since it doesn't take a lot of mental horsepower to compute that, say (for example) repealing the amt for the rich will NOT lead to good returns on each dollar "spent", since RICH PEOPLE CAN AFFORD TO SAVE.
i don't think either stimulus package is perfect -- or even particularly good -- but at LEAST they acknowledge that infrastructure spending is where we need to start. me, i want real public works and a commitment to infrastructure spending of the sort that would've been used to finance a world war back in the day.
as for your childish ideological disputes about the "nanny state"? the free market is a FAILURE. let it go. move onto acceptance. read real philosophies about society and sociology, not self-aggrandizing works of bad fiction. the reason we got where we are today is that we tried to pretend that economics were an objective science -- thanks, retardo austrians -- and not a study in macropsychology. people shit up every major endeavor, and a level of reliable behavior must be managed. you can be victimized by a democratic government that you have the option to directly participate in, or you can be victimized by a mercurial financial infrastructure that would gladly fleece you in the name of economic aristocracy. me, i'll take the lesser evil, because i'm an adult and recognize that most choices i make are about choosing lesser evils. but hey: go on, reject your responsibility in this, and hope for an economic unicorn!
the presence (or lack thereof) of a demand gap is irrelevant to the purpose of the stimulus.
why is transportation infrastructure better than services --- how many more roads and bridges do we need?
the presence (or lack thereof) of a demand gap is irrelevant to the purpose of the stimulus.
I don't understand what you mean there.
why is transportation infrastructure better than services --- how many more roads and bridges do we need?
why is transportation infrastructure better than services --- how many more roads and bridges do we need?
We should get rid of the Senate. They're about as useful as the House of Lords these days anyhow.
inflation is a shell game we know how to play. we can slowly and systematically crush that debt if its off the books of banks and in the hands of the feds; presuming, of course, that geithner isn't totally distinguished mentally-challenged.
I agree but judging by the last few months of massive layoffs, white collar workers don't agree with you.
YAAAAAAAAAAARRGH.
I'm about to beat some people I went to HS with to death over the internets; one of them is being snarky about how "oh gosh it's great that we're gonna spend money we don't have to fix an economy that went into the crapper because consumers were spending money they didn't have hyuck hyuck" and then his sister chimed in with "oh don't worry, it didn't work in the New Deal haha stoopid FDR, WWII is what saved us but since Obama is hopelessly clueless about diplomacy we'll probably end up in a turrible war with some brownskins somewheres hyuck hyuck"...
Of course these people are from Texas and Georgia, but STILL. Get their genes outta my pool!
"oh don't worry, it didn't work in the New Deal haha stoopid FDR, WWII is what saved us
February 8, 2009
EDITORIAL
Change you can download.
Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress.
The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S. relationship with Israel to the financial collapse. Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices. The CRS is Congress's analytical agency and has a budget in excess of $100M per year.
Open government lawmakers such as Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vermont) have fought for years to make the reports public, with bills being introduced--and rejected--almost every year since 1998. The CRS, as a branch of Congress, is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
CRS reports are highly regarded as non-partisan, in-depth, and timely. The reports top the list of the "10 Most-Wanted Government Documents" compiled by the Washington based Center for Democracy and Technology[1]. The Federation of American Scientists, in pushing for the reports to be made public, stated that the "CRS is Congress' Brain and it's useful for the public to be plugged into it,"[2]. While Wired magazine called their concealment "The biggest Congressional scandal of the digital age"[3
Is flying Indiana to receive some rock hero worship really going to help this stimulus plan pass?
Is flying Indiana to receive some rock hero worship really going to help this stimulus plan pass?
::avatar quote
Looks like ex Ebay CEO Meg Whitman might be running for governor of California.
because he's selling the stimulus on a state level, making people understand just what type of local aide the republicans want to take out of the bill?
Looks like ex Ebay CEO Meg Whitman might be running for governor of California.
Looks like ex Ebay CEO Meg Whitman might be running for governor of California.
Jeff Bezos was too busy?
Why isn't the 70's and 80's recession included in this chart? God, I hate liberals.(http://i41.tinypic.com/24mgc28.jpg)
STEELE: You’ve got to look at what’s going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s a job.
STEELE: No, it’s not a job. A job is something that — that a business owner creates. It’s going to be long term. What he’s creating...
STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn’t count if it’s a government job?
(CROSSTALK)
STEELE: Hold on. No, let me — let me — let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we’re talking about have an end point.
As a small-business owner, I’m looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It’s a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I’m — either way, the bottom line is...
STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don’t really understand that distinction.
STEELE: Well, the difference — the distinction is this. If a government — if you’ve got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That’s — there’s no guarantee that that — that there’s going to be more work when you’re done in that job.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we’ve seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.
STEELE: But they come — yes, they — and they come back, though, George. That’s the point. When they go — they’ve gone away before, and they come back.
Why isn't the 70's and 80's recession included in this chart? God, I hate liberals.*chart
Just as the Senate was voting, the Congressional Budget Office released a new analysis showing the total cost of the Senate version of the stimulus bill to be $838.2 billion over 10 years, of which $292.5 billion or roughly 35 percent is in the form of tax cuts.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/washington/10stimulus-web.html?_r=1&hp
It was all the banks' fault. Consumer overspending had nothing to do with it.
It was all the banks' fault. Consumer overspending had nothing to do with it.
You need to watch that again.
to give sd a tax cutgiving poor people a tax cut is socialism though
Quoteno, there's no word OTHER than STUPID for anyone who believes that tax cuts should be favored over infrastructure spending in a stimulus package, or who think that a stimulus package isn't needed. even the karl denninger-esque kooks are starting to come around, since it doesn't take a lot of mental horsepower to compute that, say (for example) repealing the amt for the rich will NOT lead to good returns on each dollar "spent", since RICH PEOPLE CAN AFFORD TO SAVE.
meeeeee! i really don't see why infrastructure spending should be favored over tax cuts if by "tax cuts" we mean stuff like EITC and "tax rebate" demogrants. infrastructure (and education etc.) spending is fine if it's something actually worthwhile in itself, but if we're just spending money to give people money, better just give them money rather than wasting their time at some make-work job (which I'm not saying the stimulus programs are, but under the logic of some of the "it doesn't matter what we buy as long as we buy stuff" commentators I've seen they could just as well be).
you folks are trying to make the dispute over Keynesian economics out to be fake, like the global warming "controversy", but as far as I can tell it's pretty different. expert opinion appears genuinely split, empirical evidence is inconclusive, theoretical justifications are (on the surface) dubious.
the trouble is, as i pointed out on your facebook
All right. Chuck Todd. Where's Chuck?
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. In your opening remarks, you talked about that if your plan works the way you want it to work, it's going to increase consumer spending. But isn't consumer spending, or over-spending, how we got into this mess? And if people get money back into their pockets, do you not want them saving it or paying down debt first, before they start spending money into the economy?
MR. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I don't think it's accurate to say that consumer spending got us into this mess. What got us into this mess initially were banks taking exorbitant, wild risks with other people's monies, based on shaky assets. And because of the enormous leverage, where they had $1 worth of assets and they were betting $30 on that $1, what we had was a crisis in the financial system.
That led to a contraction of credit, which in turn meant businesses couldn't make payroll or make inventories, which meant that everybody became uncertain about the future of the economy.
My Sirius radio crapped out on my ride home from work, so I was flipping through the AM stations and rolled past Hannity pimping his own dating service. WTF
http://web1.hannity.com/hannidate/
Any takers on this 38 year old "strong christian" and his dog? (What grown man takes a formal picture with his dog? lol)spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://web1.hannity.com/hannidate/photos/L000379_1.jpg)[close]
Erip P is that the online poll or something more official? Too small to see
the online poll shows mixed results but obviously it's not scientific. Obama defended his position while making the republicans look like assholes
Once the economy stabilizes and people are less fearful, then I do think that we're going to have to start thinking about how do we operate more prudently, because there's no such thing as a free lunch. So if -- if you want to get -- if you want to buy a house, then putting zero down and buying a house that is probably not affordable for you in case something goes wrong, that's something that has to be reconsidered.
So we're going to have to change our -- our bad habits. But right now, the key is making sure that we pull ourselves out of the economic slump that we're in.
Geithner: Failure to act quickly made this crisis worse. So, check back with us in a few weeks when we have our plan formulated.
Amazing to think that after almost 3 months on the job he still has no plan. And the markets are reacting very badly. Down 300 at the moment.
EDIT: :lol PD...so you want to ignore how he specifically responded to the question asked by Todd? Come on dude. Go back to what I said and compare it to what Obama said. There's no difference.
just nationalize the freakin' major banks already, or make a fuckin' national bank to sit on the toxic assets, swiss-style! ARE WE SO AFRAID OF BECOMING LIKE EUROPE, I ASK.
Questions to anyone who would like to answer.Getting credit flowing is for businesses. Even solvent businesses are having problems securing credit.
Why must we get credit flowing again to families who are in debt up to their eyeballs?
Why must we stop greatly inflated home prices from continueing to fall?
Why must we help out homeowners who could never afford their house in the first place?
Why must we continue to prop up insolvent banks?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041902924.html
Any takers on this 38 year old "strong christian" and his dog? (What grown man takes a formal picture with his dog? lol)
I'm thinking of ... various economists who would say that you just don't believe in the future; you don't believe in increased productivity; you don't believe in the ... model, for instance, of the U.S. economy which, in spite all the naysayers (interview was in 2004), continues to expand, and consumer credit in particular has been key to that expansion over the last 20 years.
Families cannot expand their earnings fast enough to make up for the 29 percent interest rates. They just can't do it. It's not possible. ... Our economy may grow fast, it may hit another boom, and we may grow ourselves out of all kinds of debt problems, but the individual family can't count on increasing its income next year by 29 percent.
Look at where American wages have been for the last 30 years. A fully employed male today earns 1 percent more than a fully employed male earned 30 years ago. Inflation adjusted, there's been 1 percent growth in wages in 30 years. When people take out credit card loans at 29 percent interest, they're spending tomorrow's wages, and there's no way that those wages are going to go up fast enough that they're going to have the money to pay it back other than by cutting their future purchasing.
Questions to anyone who would like to answer.
Why must we get credit flowing again to families who are in debt up to their eyeballs?
Why must we stop greatly inflated home prices from continueing to fall?
Why must we help out homeowners who could never afford their house in the first place?
Why must we continue to prop up insolvent banks?
How's Europe's economy right now? Surely all of their spending and government programs are keeping them healthy?
How's Europe's economy right now? Surely all of their spending and government programs are keeping them healthy?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MastahCrushed/Emote/emot-smug.gif)
How's Europe's economy right now? Surely all of their spending and government programs are keeping them healthy?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MastahCrushed/Emote/emot-smug.gif)
Why is this not an emoticon yet? Leper Willco.
How's Europe's economy right now? Surely all of their spending and government programs are keeping them healthy?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MastahCrushed/Emote/emot-smug.gif)
Why is this not an emoticon yet? Leper Willco.
Our economy is far too reliant on consumer purchases by people who are living on credit. The economy will need to shrink and everyone will have to take a major hit for things to get to a sane point again. Credit limits need to be slashed and people have to accept that they can only buy what their paychecks say they can. In that same line, employers will have to provide wages which actually allow people to pay for the basics (food, housing, healthcare, education). And those who earn less will need to stop with luxury purchases and the rich will just have to face being less rich.
Now what would you do?
It really did not occur to me just how much money credit card companies are leeching out of the American public until I read that interview. Billions and billions in interest and bullshit fees that should not be allowed. If you guys haven't read that interview, you need to.
I'm getting the implication that we should let the market self-correct and trust that it will mete out the pain with efficiency and morality, eventually leading to your desired conclusion. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Negotiators on Capitol Hill wrangling with reconciling the House and Senate versions of the stimulus package have come to an agreement on the top line figure for the recovery bill: $789.5-billion, Democratic and Congressional sources tell me and my colleague Rick Klein
GOP sources say that negotiators are moving toward a deal but caution that it has not been finalized.
This is less than either the $838-billion passed by the Senate, or the $820-billion passed by the House. Committees have been told to get back to leadership with any problems meeting that figure by 11 am today.
The compromise scales back the tax credits for auto and home purchases and other tax cuts. It also restores some of the House education funding that the Obama administration has called "crucial." restored.
By Alex Castellanos
CNN Contributor
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Enlarge font Enlarge font
Editor's Note: Republican strategist Alex Castellanos was a campaign consultant for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and has worked on more than half a dozen presidential campaigns. Castellanos is a partner in National Media Inc., a political and public affairs consulting firm that specializes in advertising.
Alex Castellanos says stimulus bill is a cover for a bold plan for government to rule key parts of private sector.
Alex Castellanos says stimulus bill is a cover for a bold plan for government to rule key parts of private sector.
(CNN) -- Two Congressmen walk into a bar to watch President Obama's first prime-time press conference. The Democrat says to the Republican....
D: Just watch the president tonight and you'll see how to get this economy back on track. Monopolies.
R: Monopolies?
D: Monopolies so big they will shame Parker Brothers and make them put the board game in a bigger box. Monopolies so huge, they'll make railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt look like a push-cart operator.
R: Why monopolies?
D: In these desperate times, we can't afford to let Americans choose inefficient cars or wasteful health care. We can't let innovation run wild on Wall Street or Main Street. We have to make sure Americans are secure in their health care and jobs, their incomes and energy.
To serve the greater good, we have to organize America's economy so it achieves the best possible ends for all Americans. We can't leave that to chance. Who knows what might happen if individual Americans make those choices in a free market and organize themselves?
R: A little less freedom, a lot more organization, all for the collective good?
D: My friend, we need a directed economy, where we limit people's choices to those that serve the best social ends. Our nation's development is best controlled by monopolies, not some atomistic economy where Americans are free to make almost any choice and organize bottom-up, according to their own whims. That means, big, honking, all-powerful monopolies.
R: But during the campaign, Obama talked about change, fueling "bottom-up prosperity." This sounds like the same old, top-down, industrial-age stuff Democrats have been pitching for years.
D: You betcha! Bottom-up campaign rhetoric just ran into the top-down Democratic establishment from Washington. Guess who won. We're going to create monopolies in the biggest sectors of the economy, starting with banking and financial services. Even after the meltdown, that's still the largest stock market sector, 16 percent of the S&P.
R: Follow the money.
D: Exactly. With massive regulation, caps on pay and restrictions on risk and competition, we can turn the entire financial sector into a cross between a public utility and the DMV.
R: And then?
D: We'll create an energy monopoly that would make J. D. Rockefeller look like a gas station attendant. If it has anything to do with energy, we will control it, plan it and direct it. You are going to love your windmill.
R: I'm not feeling so good.
D: That's next. A health care monopoly alone will organize another 16 percent of the economy. Choice and diversity are great, but not so much in health care. We'll throw in $20 billion at the start for paperless health records. Data, my friend, is power. You know where we will go: Cost controls. Restricted formularies. Nancy Pelosi can be your doctor. You don't need a lot of choice. Just a good choice. Or a good-enough choice. Cough for me.
R: Watch that. I'm leaving.
D: Now that you mention it, we can't forget the good old American auto industry. To borrow from Henry Ford, consumers can pick any color car they want, as long as it is green.
R: Who are you going to get to run these monopolies? You are dealing with increasingly complex economic networks. How are you going to coordinate the sophisticated relationships, the subtle interests and ever-changing needs of millions of American consumers? Americans have traditionally done that themselves, in a natural and organic way, one to another, through the market. Who is smart enough to replace all that?
D: Congress.
R: You are making this stuff up. The president isn't talking about huge government-run monopolies. All he's talking about is the stimulus bill. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the stimulus package
D: Of course. That's the beauty of the thing. As long as we call it "stimulus," we can pass almost anything that expands the power of government to command people's lives. Why do you think Newsweek's cover says, "We Are All Socialists Now?"
R: I need a drink. Don't they serve Congressmen in this bar?
D: No. But you can buy one from a lobbyist.
D: Of course. That's the beauty of the thing. As long as we call it "stimulus," we can pass almost anything that expands the power of government to command people's lives.
Rassmussen is saying support for the stimulus package is growing amongst the public again. Very good news. Republicans have lost control of the spin war after monday it seems.
holy shit, I was looking at a site that tracks political cartoons and I saw this one. I can't believe someone could get away with making this :lol
Rassmussen is saying support for the stimulus package is growing amongst the public again. Very good news. Republicans have lost control of the spin war after monday it seems.
The only thing that matters is how well it actually helps.
There's a bit of a conspiracy theory making the rounds though - Obama built up hype for a huge bank rescue plan. Geithner comes out with nothing. The market tanks. People get ever more concerned. Support for stimulus increases.
wasn't support above 65% even before Geithner's no show? ::)
wasn't support above 65% even before Geithner's no show? ::)
Yea, in fact, the only people it was below 50 percent for were the republican voters.
wait - what?
Vitter was the senator the other day who wanted to put an amendment in the stimulus package to ban fed. funding for the evil and vile Obama machine ACORN right? :lol
:rofl holy shit this is one of those "sanctity of marriage" guys
Rasmussen had support for the plan as low as 37% last week with a plurality opposing it.Rasmussen hasn't put numbers up yet but in their report this morning they note since Obama gave his address on monday stimulus support has risen.
And I can't find what poll Cheebs is referring to.
omg Triumph :lol
Yup here's the 37%
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/economic_stimulus_package/support_for_stimulus_package_falls_to_37
Sounds like Obama won the spin war, sorry SD
I can understand how you can ask for God's forgiveness, but how exactly do you receive it?
The Republican's problem is that the big lesson they've taken from the last two elections is that apparently the only reason the public at large (aside from the South, where there's the whole inbreeding/racism thing) has turned away from them is that they spent too much money. Nevermind the Terry Schiavo fiasco. Nevermind Katrina, firing US Attorneys and otherwise politicizing the Justice dept. to the point that Eric Freaking Holder is an improvement, torture, illegal spying on average US citizens, bungling Iraq and letting the people that actually attacked us wander around free. Nope, it's all the fact that they spent too much money and doubled the debt!That's the thing. If they had stuck to their fiscal conservative guns during the Bush Adminstration they would have much better bargaining position. But the general public sees through this fiscal conservative BS they are pushing, especially after approving huge tax cuts that benefited mostly the rich and two expensive wars. One war that many think was unnecessary. The dems aren't absolved of any blame, though, but congressional dems have never tried to claim that they were fiscal conservatives in the first place.
Didn't McCain run on that? Gonna cut wasteful gubmint spending? No more earmarks? Yeah. How'd that go?
So Vitter was visiting prostitutes while he had kids - daughters. smhIs that so hard to believe? Spitzer has three daughters.
So Vitter was visiting prostitutes while he had kids - daughters. smh
So Vitter was visiting prostitutes while he had kids - daughters. smh
Of course. When else does a man need a hooker? It's not when he's married with no kids.
As someone who has tallied the costs involved with dating a woman and compared it to the "suggested donations" on CL's erotic services page, I heartily disagree.
As someone who has tallied the costs involved with dating a woman and compared it to the "suggested donations" on CL's erotic services page, I heartily disagree.
Most men don't think that logically. They have a false bravado or morality that prevents them from doing it. They would rather goto a bar and spend 20 dollars on drinks and hope to get lucky.
Or stay at home crying while listening to Rilo Kiley.
Most men don't think that logically. They have a false bravado or morality that prevents them from doing it. They would rather goto a bar and spend 20 dollars on drinks and hope to get lucky.
Interesting - apperently the tax credit has been reduced from $500/$1000 to $400/$800.
Those guys are dumb. Not to mention the mental/emotional capital you have to expend when you're dealing with a woman. I had a one night stand just ONCE, and even though drinks/food that night cost me about $60, I also had to deal with her the next morning (awkward!) and dodge phone calls for about a week. Even after that there were awkward random encounters out in bars or at concerts where I'd run into her, not to mention the fact that we had overlap in our social circles (unknown at the time!) so there was some awkward questions and finger pointing from friends. Far better to pony up the $150-200 an hour for a hooker.
Those guys are dumb. Not to mention the mental/emotional capital you have to expend when you're dealing with a woman. I had a one night stand just ONCE, and even though drinks/food that night cost me about $60, I also had to deal with her the next morning (awkward!) and dodge phone calls for about a week. Even after that there were awkward random encounters out in bars or at concerts where I'd run into her, not to mention the fact that we had overlap in our social circles (unknown at the time!) so there was some awkward questions and finger pointing from friends. Far better to pony up the $150-200 an hour for a hooker.
Was that the Olympic girl? I thought you said she was a fourner?
Interesting - apperently the tax credit has been reduced from $500/$1000 to $400/$800.
Yeah, apparently Obama really wanted some education money put back in. I'm still overly annoyed that this thing is about 45% tax cuts.
Senator James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, complained that for all the spending in the bill, it does not provide a sufficient number of public works projects. ,
“If we’re going to spend all this money, let’s at least get something for it, provide some jobs and get some roads and highways and bridges, things this country really needs,” he said.
With regard to the housing market yes.
Most of the Poligaf kiddies are so blinded by their Republican hate, they don't see the genius of Obama. He is pretending like the Republicans are this big obstacle he needs to overcome to get this passed, when he has had this thing the whole time. He then can deliver that message directly to places like Indiana (newly turned blue state) or other pockets of America.
Obama knows the game. He only needed to flip a few moderates (Dems and Reps) and he was getting this thing done. Demonizing the Republicans was just for sport and for 2010.
Interesting - apperently the tax credit has been reduced from $500/$1000 to $400/$800.
Yeah, apparently Obama really wanted some education money put back in. I'm still overly annoyed that this thing is about 45% tax cuts.
You ever notice you have a slight tendency to ascribe complex, nefarious motives to people on the other side of the aisle? I'm just throwing this out there.
This bill could have been a great opportunity for funding of new oil refineries, but no one even seems to care about our severe shortage. They still pretend like a miracle alternative fuel is going to fall out of the sky within the next 20 years.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MastahCrushed/Emote/emot-smug.gif)This bill could have been a great opportunity for funding of new oil refineries, but no one even seems to care about our severe shortage. They still pretend like a miracle alternative fuel is going to fall out of the sky within the next 20 years.
Man bear pig?
Why do we need refineries, anyway? Are they really the limiting factor in current or future US oil production?
What does medical records being on computers have to do with guns?
Also do they realize their medical records are already recorded (just on paper)? That's why they are called RECORDS.
wtf.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/10/julio-osegueda-florida-co_n_165673.html
wtf :lol
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/10/julio-osegueda-florida-co_n_165673.html
wtf :lol
finally
the left's Joe The Plumber
let's turn this kid into a left wing media darling
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/10/julio-osegueda-florida-co_n_165673.html
wtf :lol
finally
the left's Joe The Plumber
let's turn this kid into a left wing media darling
Too late, he was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night.
We should send him to Darfur.
meanwhile, republicans don't know when the great depression happened http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/02/steve_austria_r_oh_doesnt_know_when_the_depression_happened.php
meanwhile, republicans don't know when the great depression happened http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/02/steve_austria_r_oh_doesnt_know_when_the_depression_happened.php
Eh, I'm willing to believe he meant "made it worse" rather than "caused it." You gotta be charitable towards live speech and how easy it is to screw up.
The real problem is the underlying meme, that FDR's policies harmed the economy. Amity Shlaes has been a one-woman revisionism movement on this, for example, and most conservatives are willing to hop on board.
This debate has clarified why it's important to fight over the past. You let people rewrite it to suit themselves, and it leads to real consequences later. Take all that mythos about how we were just about to win in Vietnam cause we had finally sussed out the counterinsurgency racket, which fed directly into the willingness to invade/continue occupying Iraq.
Whaaa!! I work at McDonalds and I don't get benefits. Please Obama do something!!
Hey distinguished effete fellow, try getting a real job. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MastahCrushed/Emote/emot-smug.gif)
Whaaa!! I work at McDonalds and I don't get benefits. Please Obama do something!!
Hey distinguished effete fellow, try getting a real job. (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/MastahCrushed/Emote/emot-smug.gif)
I really had hoped that once Obama was president I wouldn't see fucking gallup polls anymore. I don't give a fuck what America thinks. 4/10 of them couldn't even tell you who the vice president is.I posted it mostly because sd kept posting that poll that "only 37%" of the country supported the stimulus.
Dissension on the stimulus
While President Obama and the Senate are fine with the stimulus deal that appears headed for final votes in Congress on Friday and Obama's signature on Monday, the House is another matter.
And it's not just Republicans, who unanimously opposed the bill the first time around and continue to rail against the deal struck by the House-Senate conference committee on Wednesday.
Some House Democrats are upset with some of the changes made to preserve the support of three Republicans in the Senate, who wield virtual veto-power.
And there are reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was ticked off that Harry Reid, the top Senate Democrat, announced the compromise Wednesday afternoon before her rank-and-file had signed off. She is expected to say more at a 3 p.m. news conference.
Meanwhile, top House Republican John Boehner's office released a statement with the accusation: "Democrats pile up the pork, but leave scraps for small business."
:drudgeSource my be illsuited for sreaming crybabies:drudge
Federal employee whistleblower protection was stripped from the stimulus bill.
http://www.federaltimes.com/federal-times-blog/2009/02/11/no-whistleblower-protections-for-feds-in-stimulus/ (http://www.federaltimes.com/federal-times-blog/2009/02/11/no-whistleblower-protections-for-feds-in-stimulus/)
That's really encouraging. Shows you how much money they think this thing wastes. Still waiting for hopenchange.
bubububut recovery.gov ::)
Talking Points Memo, which cited a source close to the final bill, said the provision was removed by Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of the senators brokering the compromise.
So she switches sides to get the bill through then cuts out an important provision for protecting the taxpayer. You just can't make this stuff up. :usacry
Oh - my subjective poll is more accurate than your subjective poll!Actually sir mine IS more accurate because it was taken after Obama's address to the nation, and it is in line with EVERY poll released so far except one, your old one being the outlier.
she's probably a democratic double agent who ran as a republican because obama knew he'd need more than 60 to push through his illegal socialist agenda.
You seem to forget, it doesn't matter if the package works amazingly.she's probably a democratic double agent who ran as a republican because obama knew he'd need more than 60 to push through his illegal socialist agenda.
Whatever she is, Obama will still get all the glory or blame for what happens.
QuoteTalking Points Memo, which cited a source close to the final bill, said the provision was removed by Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of the senators brokering the compromise.
:teehee
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whisteblower_protections_stripped_from_stimulus_bill_0212.html
oh those rascals!
You just can't make this stuff up.
I'm still having trouble as to why the whistleblower protection cut was agreed to. The DEMs are writing it. Why don't they put it in?Because they need the 3 republican senators and one of them wanted it out?
I'm still having trouble as to why the whistleblower protection cut was agreed to. The DEMs are writing it. Why don't they put it in?
There's still gotta be some way to blame this on the other team, right?
Poor sd, in 2012 when the economy is showing improvement shouting "BUT THE STIMULUS DIDNT WORK" will do jackshit.
Unless you actually think there will be no improvement at all for 5 years straight.
Unless you actually think there will be no improvement at all for 5 years straight.
i wonder if we could create a moral outrage bubble of some sort?
"guys, outrage NEVER goes down!"
Fuck Gregg then. After the dirty politics Tom Delay and friends did with redistricting after the last census republicans have forfeited any right to complain about the White House doing this.
Glad the White House has far more in control over this, we need to make sure hispanics and other minorities get better representation in the House. This census should do that.
i wonder if we could create a moral outrage bubble of some sort?
"guys, outrage NEVER goes down!"
:piss http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29165435/ (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29165435/) :piss2I could piss on the subsidization part too, but banks need to let people re-structure loans. Fuck the banks.
About half-way through President Obama's press conference Monday night, he
had an unscripted question of his own. "All, Chuck Todd," the President
said, referring to NBC's White House correspondent. "Where's Chuck?" He had
the same strange question about Fox News's Major Garrett: "Where's Major?"
The problem wasn't the lighting in the East Room. The President was running
down a list of reporters preselected to ask questions. The White House had
decided in advance who would be allowed to question the President and who
was left out.
The TPM thing is weird.
http://www.whistleblower.org/content/press_detail.cfm?press_id=1161 (http://www.whistleblower.org/content/press_detail.cfm?press_id=1161)
Why would she sponsor that, but want it taken out for the stimulus? Something isn't adding up.
However, one line stood out with critics: “We doubt that President Bush, who was notorious for being parsimonious with follow-ups, would have gotten away with prescreening his interlocutors.”
Of course, Bush did prescreen reporters. Media Matters noted that Bush joked in a press conference once about it being scripted. And on Monday night, Ari Fleischer talked on Fox about preparing a list or reporters before the president's press conferences.
christ it never bothered me when bush did it, it's not going to bother me now.
christ it never bothered me when bush did it, it's not going to bother me now.It makes no sense to get upset about. It's not like they tell him the questions before hand. It's basically just purely done to make sure the president calls on all the major media outlets and doesn't forget any.
o you're pulling my leg :-\
Unless you actually think there will be no improvement at all for 5 years straight.
I don't know.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7880189.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7880189.stm)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10158959-38.html (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10158959-38.html)
Some smart people are saying some really scary things.
Ballmer counts as a smart person?
this judd gregg guy is a pretty big pussy.holy shit, his name is judge dredd? how can he be a pussy with a name like that? badass.
It's hard not to think that Gregg's withdrawal, with the grumbling about the census and the stimulus, was not timed to cause the most damage possible to the Obama administration. Releasing the statement just as Obama took the stage in Peoria was clearly designed to undermine the President's event. The fact he scheduled a presser only seems to confirm it. The classy exit would have been to wait til tomorrow afternoon to quietly bow out. Basically Gregg decided not just to politely decline, but rather to blow shit up and burn the bridge behind him. Do not think this portends good things for the wider political climate.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/02/timing.php
If the larger GOP strategy can be describe as putting all of their chips on "FAIL", this has to be seen as a significant addition to that pile, no?
I never understood why people thought the Dems were spineless. Now I know what they are talking about.
Working together is good. But when the repubs have the 'my way or the highway' attitude, fuck them and their constituents. They will go kicking and screaming into obscurity.
I never understood why people thought the Dems were spineless. Now I know what they are talking about.
Working together is good. But when the repubs have the 'my way or the highway' attitude, fuck them and their constituents. They will go kicking and screaming into obscurity.
It's funny, the Dem in a leadership position with the most balls is Pelosi.
We're gonna need this shit sooner rather than later once the gas starts to run out. Unless of course some major progress is made in the area of alternative fuel research.
Recently the Taylor Nelson Sofres agency conducted a sociological study in 7 European countries for the American Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which discovered interesting findings. 3500 people (500 representatives from each country ) from Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland and Spain shared their views on who’s to blame for the crunch of the world’s finance.
31% of Europeans are sure that Jews made the crisis possible and 41% agree that Jews have excessive power on the world’s financial markets (74% of Spaniards and 67% of Hungarians support this point of view). The survey found that so-called “business anti-Semitism” has grown by 5% in France, 6% in Poland and 7% in Hungary since 2007.
So has the stimulus package been released to the public yet? It was supposed to be released to the public 48 hours before they voted on it. It was finally given to Congress at 11pm last night and they vote on it in about 8 hours.It will be put up on recovery.go :-[v you realize. And every single penny spent in it will be trackable and it will show who got that money and so forth.
yay transparency.
Remember when we complained that the patriot act was voted on before anyone got to read it? :smug
Fair enough. The denser parts of the midwest really should get better train service, though. DC to Chicago is 17 hours, and I'm tired of the dirty Euros laughing at us for our shitty rail system.
I never understood why people thought the Dems were spineless. Now I know what they are talking about.
Working together is good. But when the repubs have the 'my way or the highway' attitude, fuck them and their constituents. They will go kicking and screaming into obscurity.
It's funny, the Dem in a leadership position with the most balls is Pelosi.
So has the stimulus package been released to the public yet? It was supposed to be released to the public 48 hours before they voted on it. It was finally given to Congress at 11pm last night and they vote on it in about 8 hours.It will be put up on recovery.go :-[v you realize. And every single penny spent in it will be trackable and it will show who got that money and so forth.
yay transparency.
So yes it will be transparent. Very transparent.
On the issue of the U.S. Government, I would like to make a modest proposal. First, I point out the obvious flaws, whereby legislation was repeatedly brought forth to Congress over the past eight years, which would have reigned in the predatory lending practices of now mostly defunct institutions. These institutions regularly filled the coffers of both parties in return for voting down all of this legislation designed to protect the common citizen. This is an outrage, yet no one seems to know or care about it. Since Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith passed, I would argue that there has been a dearth of worthy philosophers in this country, at least ones focused on improving government. Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man's interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft's near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken.
wireless and broadband deployment grant programs
(including transfer of funds to eznark for the eznark Personal Economic Stimulus Program)
For necessary and unnecessary expenses related to the Wireless and Broadband Deployment Grant Programs established by section 6002 of division B of this Act, $2,825,000,000, of which $1,000,000,000 shall be for Wireless Deployment Grants and $1,825,000,000 shall be for Broadband Deployment Grants: Provided, That an additional $5000000 shall be paid directly to eznark in the form of subsidized loans that do not require repayment. Provided Further, That the funds be used by eznark to bidniz or for whatever. Provided Even Further, That eznark will receive free Brewers tickets for life. Provided Even Further Still, That eznark shall be treated as a cabinet-level appointment for the purpose of income tax reporting, and therefore no taxes shall be paid on any of the aformentioned benefits. And one more thing: Russ Feingold is hereby expelled from Congress, effective immediately upon enactment.
Is that anti-Semite poll on the last page credible? If so, wow manIt might be true that it's increasing but the numbers might not be credible. Read TVC's link.
Filmmaker Michael Moore has observed what has been going on with the American economy and detected a whiff of injustice. He has cast his eye toward the titans of Wall Street and has determined that some things went down at America's banks that were not right. So he's decided to make a movie about it, because he is the one lone voice in the wilderness brave enough to expose these scoundrels for who they truly are blah blah. Wall Street insiders with a conscience and stories to tell him should e-mail bailout@michaelmoore.com. And remember, it's not for Michael Moore, it's for America: "You have information that the American people need to hear," he writes.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2rh5utg.jpg)
this made me lol
Actually, if you read my link you would see that the overall numbers have fallen from 2007. It's a survey that the ADL commisions from very respected marketing research firm. The sample size is 500 people per country.
WATCH OUT WALL STQuoteFilmmaker Michael Moore has observed what has been going on with the American economy and detected a whiff of injustice. He has cast his eye toward the titans of Wall Street and has determined that some things went down at America's banks that were not right. So he's decided to make a movie about it, because he is the one lone voice in the wilderness brave enough to expose these scoundrels for who they truly are blah blah. Wall Street insiders with a conscience and stories to tell him should e-mail bailout@michaelmoore.com. And remember, it's not for Michael Moore, it's for America: "You have information that the American people need to hear," he writes.
Actually, if you read my link you would see that the overall numbers have fallen from 2007. It's a survey that the ADL commisions from very respected marketing research firm. The sample size is 500 people per country.
Yeah, they got a firm to do the survey itself, but they do not indicate whether they or the firm did the analysis. Also, their official report is very light on methodology (I read it last night so I don't recall all the details, but the red stop sign for me was they did not mention sample selection at all). Combine that and their rep, and it's not a very authoritative study.
Again, I wouldn't doubt what they are saying, but it's coming from an organization that has been pushing a controversial agenda (agenda might be the wrong word but I'm a-busy at work atm) for 30+ years that these findings happen to support. It definitely casts a shadow on their results.
Michael Moore is so full of himself. He makes himself sound like a superhero.
MICHAEL MOORE HAS DETECTED INJUSTICE! NOW YOU'VE MESSED WITH THE BULL AND YOU WILL GET THE HORNS - OF JUSTICE!!!
I think it's cute Michael Moore still thinks he is relevant. That last hit job of his sure had a staggering affect on health care.
Politico: Obama to Seize on Bolder Strategy
The president reportedly plans to be tougher selling the next stages of his economic agenda than he was with the stimulus.
Expected to travel more and worry less about winning over Republican votes.
Did we ever like Michael Moore?
Did we ever like Michael Moore?
who needs em.
who needs em.
Exactly. They never did, but had to make it look like they were impeding the process.
who needs em.
Exactly. They never did, but had to make it look like they were impeding the process.
You think that's the way they thought of it? Maybe some of the hardcore libs, but I genuinly think Obama was trying to reach out.
"Bipartisanship" died with Aaron Burr cheebs.
Glad the GOP was able to stick together in the house. It's a damn shame no one has challenged Snowe to a duel.
who needs em.
Exactly. They never did, but had to make it look like they were impeding the process.
You think that's the way they thought of it? Maybe some of the hardcore libs, but I genuinly think Obama was trying to reach out.
looks like you bought what he was sellin'
:smug
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2rh5utg.jpg)
this made me lol
Bitter accountant is bitter.Michael Moore is so full of himself. He makes himself sound like a superhero.
This is how I think of you when you tell one of your work stories.
bitter factory worker is a factory workerThat troll doesn't even make sense.
You think that's the way they thought of it? Maybe some of the hardcore libs, but I genuinly think Obama was trying to reach out.
Father Mike contracted to write GOP Valentine's Day cards
(http://www.truemeaningoflife.com/images/obama4.jpg)
ACORN will be sending you Valentine's
I hope I live a short but fulfilling life and I die right before our chuldren have to start paying for everything in the bill!
You think that's the way they thought of it? Maybe some of the hardcore libs, but I genuinly think Obama was trying to reach out.
You think Obama made his speech in Elkhart, Indiana because it is a nice place to visit in February?
lol at that Valentines Day card.
You think that's the way they thought of it? Maybe some of the hardcore libs, but I genuinly think Obama was trying to reach out.
You think Obama made his speech in Elkhart, Indiana because it is a nice place to visit in February?
lol at that Valentines Day card.
I think you're applying Occam's Pretzel here, like you did in the Graeme Frost case.
omg i went to papayaking for lunch yesterday
fucking awesome
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who broke with his party to support President Obama's stimulus package last week, said before the final vote Friday that more of his colleagues would have joined were they not afraid of the political consequences.
"When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the agreement a week ago today," said Specter, "one of my colleagues said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' My Republican colleague said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' I said, 'Are you going to vote with me?' And he said, 'No, I might have a primary.' And I said, 'Well, you know very well I'm going to have a primary.'"
I hope I live a short but fulfilling life and I die right before our chuldren have to start paying for everything in the bill!
According to Arlen Specter, more GOP Senators support the stimulus but didn't vote for it because they're pussies. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/13/specter-republicans-suppo_n_166875.html)QuoteSen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who broke with his party to support President Obama's stimulus package last week, said before the final vote Friday that more of his colleagues would have joined were they not afraid of the political consequences.
"When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the agreement a week ago today," said Specter, "one of my colleagues said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' My Republican colleague said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' I said, 'Are you going to vote with me?' And he said, 'No, I might have a primary.' And I said, 'Well, you know very well I'm going to have a primary.'"
Country first!
God, that's bullshit.
According to Arlen Specter, more GOP Senators support the stimulus but didn't vote for it because they're pussies. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/13/specter-republicans-suppo_n_166875.html)QuoteSen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who broke with his party to support President Obama's stimulus package last week, said before the final vote Friday that more of his colleagues would have joined were they not afraid of the political consequences.
"When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the agreement a week ago today," said Specter, "one of my colleagues said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' My Republican colleague said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' I said, 'Are you going to vote with me?' And he said, 'No, I might have a primary.' And I said, 'Well, you know very well I'm going to have a primary.'"
Country first!
God, that's bullshit.
Bullshit?
Specter didn't do this for political reasons. His vote is near suicidal for him politically. His problem is not the general election in PA, he doesn't need to work with Democrats to win his seat or whatever. His problem is the primary, he won his primary in 2004 51-49. 2% that's it. And the type of Republicans that are still left in PA who didn't leave the party are the wacko right-wingers. And his vote on this is a huge problem for him in a already tough primary fight. If he was doing it for "bullshit" political reasons he would have voted against it, his problem in PA is keeping the Republicans in line and this vote hurts him on that.
So no, what he did and said is not bullshit.
That is the meaning of conservatism.
Times will change but the belief doesn't.
A changing of the guard is upon us.
It does bother me. Obama broke his promise about allowing folks to comb over bills 48 hours before passed
I think you're applying Occam's Pretzel here, like you did in the Graeme Frost case.
"All last week, we would have different groups come in, whether it is people advocating for Head Start and Child Care, to folks from Chevak. Everybody kind of wants to know: 'What would be in it for us' " said Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who despite the pleas, intends to vote against the stimulus package...
Although Murkowski doesn't intend to vote for the stimulus package, she said she does like some provisions in it, including money that could help pay for hospitals in Barrow and Nome. She said she has told groups such as the Alaska Federation of Natives to "get your grant writers ready" despite her own trepidations about the bill.
"I'm looking at what is moving forward now," Murkowski said. "The votes are clearly there for passage of the economic stimulus. And I think our job now is to do our darnedest to make sure the dollars are being directed to the agencies, out to the states, that we really ensure that there's a level of accountability, and to the fullest extent possible, that we're making sure that those dollars are being spent in a matter that's going to help people."
It does bother me. Obama broke his promise about allowing folks to comb over bills 48 hours before passed
on a political scale how much does it bother you?
It does bother me. Obama broke his promise about allowing folks to comb over bills 48 hours before passed
the way in which america ended slavery was clearly not the right thing
the civil war was not worth ending slavery
So you supported the Civil war, but not the Iraq war because the slaves were in America? :smug
give me an evangelical republican over a socialist any day. :smug
I'd rather have Huckabee than Hillary any day of the week :smug
Actually the reason we will never be invaded is because of our right to own guns. My history professor told me that when Mcarthur was in Japan after WW@ he asked why they didnt invade America. Their answer? It would be a door to door fight. Our Right to won guns is the reason our country will never be felled by a foreign invasion.
give me an evangelical republican over a socialist any day. :smug
I don't even have a fucking clue what this means:QuoteActually the reason we will never be invaded is because of our right to own guns. My history professor told me that when Mcarthur was in Japan after WW@ he asked why they didnt invade America. Their answer? It would be a door to door fight. Our Right to won guns is the reason our country will never be felled by a foreign invasion.
It does bother me. Obama broke his promise about allowing folks to comb over bills 48 hours before passed
on a political scale how much does it bother you?
they all seem searchable, maybe they fixed it?
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/schock-to-the-p.html (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/schock-to-the-p.html)I hope you are laughing at the distinguished mentally-challenged congressman. Because he is way off. He acts like the public doesn't like this bill. The public is very much behind and supportive of this bill. What an idiot.
LMFAO
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/arra_public_review/
but what's this!? conservatives tell us the truth: these files are pdfs in order to HIDE THE TRUTH (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30700)[/url]
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/schock-to-the-p.html (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/schock-to-the-p.html)
LMFAO
I hope you are laughing at the distinguished mentally-challenged congressman. Because he is way off. He acts like the public doesn't like this bill. The public is very much behind and supportive of this bill. What an idiot.
Or you mean every fucking poll other than rasmussen.I hope you are laughing at the distinguished mentally-challenged congressman. Because he is way off. He acts like the public doesn't like this bill. The public is very much behind and supportive of this bill. What an idiot.
Bububububut Gallup!
Obama's Catepillar factory pr stunt was a complete disaster. First the CEO contradicting him and then this. Just admit it and move on.
HILARIOUS!! HAHAHA LOL ALL THOSE LAY OFFS
How on earth did he lie? ???HILARIOUS!! HAHAHA LOL ALL THOSE LAY OFFS
This what happens when you have no argument.
Why can't you just admit that Obama was L-Y-I-N-G to sell his plan and got caught red-handed?
HILARIOUS!! HAHAHA LOL ALL THOSE LAY OFFS
This what happens when you have no argument.
Why can't you just admit that Obama was L-Y-I-N-G to sell his plan and got caught red-handed?
EAST PEORIA, ILL. -- President Obama today repeated the claim we asked about yesterday at the press briefing that Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., "said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off."
Asked if the stimulus package would be able to stop the 22,000 layoffs or not, Owens said, "I think realistically no. The truth is we're going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again"http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/doh-caterpillar.html
How the fuck was he lying. He said the stimulus package will alloy them to start rehiring but said there will be more layoff's first.HILARIOUS!! HAHAHA LOL ALL THOSE LAY OFFS
This what happens when you have no argument.
Why can't you just admit that Obama was L-Y-I-N-G to sell his plan and got caught red-handed?
But it got messier after it got messier
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18832.html
disgusting
The president's travel to pitch the urgency of the stimulus plan was his third day in a row to leave Washington. On Thursday, he goes to Peoria, Ill., to visit a Caterpillar manufacturing plant.
The world's largest maker of mining and construction machinery announced more than 22,000 job cuts last month amid waning demand for its products.
But Obama said the company told him Wednesday it would hire back some of those workers if the legislation passes. As House and Senate negotiators worked to reconcile differences between competing versions of the legislation, Obama spoke during a visit to a highway construction site here just outside of Washington.
I don't think he's helped any national Republican ambitions he may have by stepping up to the plate and batting for the other team. … There's a difference between working in a bipartisan way for the common good and switching sides and putting on the other team's jersey," said veteran Republican consultant Alex Castellanos. "At the one moment when we've finally found our voice and remember who we are as Republicans, Charlie Crist forgets. It's stunning."
This is what is wrong with post-2008 Republicans. They are obsessed with party unity and 100% opposition and any Republican who goes against this unified opposition to do any sort of governing at all gets mocked. Do they actually think running a party based purely on unified opposition is what the public actually wants? If they want to win an election they need more Crist and Specter like politicians who place governing on a higher priority than party unity but noooo being UNIFIED will bring them to power somehow!QuoteI don't think he's helped any national Republican ambitions he may have by stepping up to the plate and batting for the other team. … There's a difference between working in a bipartisan way for the common good and switching sides and putting on the other team's jersey," said veteran Republican consultant Alex Castellanos. "At the one moment when we've finally found our voice and remember who we are as Republicans, Charlie Crist forgets. It's stunning."
Loss for words at the Obama Defense Force.
If the first three weeks are anything to go by, its gonna be a long four years for y'all. I'll back off for a while because clearly nobody here wants to be intellectually honest.
Obama's apparent continuation of Bush's abuse of the state secrets privilege is 1000X more troubling than any he-said she-said jobs creation semantic bullshit.
Across the country, cash-starved governors from both parties are eagerly awaiting stimulus money from Washington, hoping to stem the recession's impact on local budgets. Not Mark Sanford, South Carolina's Republican chief executive.Wow. I can understand with not agreeing with the bailout, but to deny his funds that benefit his state seems ludicrous.
He lobbied against the recovery package pushed by President Barack Obama and has suggested he may not take any of the funds, sparking a dispute in his home state with Democrats and even some Republicans. The sparring is a microcosm of the broader debate taking place over the role of government in the flagging economy.
"I'm opposed to it because we are at a real gut-check point on what drives our economy," Mr. Sanford said in a recent interview. Instead of fostering a market-based economy in which bad choices have consequences, Mr. Sanford said, the U.S. is in jeopardy of creating a "savior-based economy," with the federal government careening from "one ad-hoc decision to the next."
Loss for words at the Obama Defense Force.The funding for various govt. programs of the stimulus bill alone >>>>> everything Bush did in the last 8 years.
If the first three weeks are anything to go by, its gonna be a long four years for y'all. I'll back off for a while because clearly nobody here wants to be intellectually honest.
South Carolina had a good run
Loss for words at the Obama Defense Force.The funding for various govt. programs of the stimulus bill alone >>>>> everything Bush did in the last 8 years.
If the first three weeks are anything to go by, its gonna be a long four years for y'all. I'll back off for a while because clearly nobody here wants to be intellectually honest.
So I hope we get more of the first 3 weeks personally!
Loss for words at the Obama Defense Force.The funding for various govt. programs of the stimulus bill alone >>>>> everything Bush did in the last 8 years.
If the first three weeks are anything to go by, its gonna be a long four years for y'all. I'll back off for a while because clearly nobody here wants to be intellectually honest.
So I hope we get more of the first 3 weeks personally!
So why didnt all the spending over the Iraq war stimulate the economy? I mean all those soldiers and all the contract workers had to have their government paychecks go somewhere?
the way in which america ended slavery was clearly not the right thing
the civil war was not worth ending slavery
So you supported the Civil war, but not the Iraq war because the slaves were in America? :smug
give me an evangelical republican over a socialist any day. :smug
I'd rather have Huckabee than Hillary any day of the week :smug
Actually the reason we will never be invaded is because of our right to own guns. My history professor told me that when Mcarthur was in Japan after WW@ he asked why they didnt invade America. Their answer? It would be a door to door fight. Our Right to won guns is the reason our country will never be felled by a foreign invasion.
Loss for words at the Obama Defense Force.The funding for various govt. programs of the stimulus bill alone >>>>> everything Bush did in the last 8 years.
If the first three weeks are anything to go by, its gonna be a long four years for y'all. I'll back off for a while because clearly nobody here wants to be intellectually honest.
So I hope we get more of the first 3 weeks personally!
So why didnt all the spending over the Iraq war stimulate the economy? I mean all those soldiers and all the contract workers had to have their government paychecks go somewhere?
It's not inconceivable that the Iraq war did stimulate the economy somewhat, just not very efficiently.
It's not inconceivable that the Iraq war did stimulate the economy somewhat, just not very efficiently.
It's not inconceivable that the Iraq war did stimulate the economy somewhat, just not very efficiently.
true, in certain rarified sectors, i suspect that there was a LOT of growth
buy overseas ammunition and body armor futures
We need that kind of spending on American ammunition and bottled water here in America, the only solution is to invade Texas.
It's not inconceivable that the Iraq war did stimulate the economy somewhat, just not very efficiently.
body armor futures
It's not inconceivable that the Iraq war did stimulate the economy somewhat, just not very efficiently.
body armor futures
we didn't even buy that, remember :\
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18832.html
disgusting
It's not inconceivable that the Iraq war did stimulate the economy somewhat, just not very efficiently.
As the Obama administration pushes through Congress its $800 billion deficit-spending economic stimulus plan, the American public is largely unaware that the true deficit of the federal government already is measured in trillions of dollars, and in fact its $65.5 trillion in total obligations exceeds the gross domestic product of the world.
It's not inconceivable that the Iraq war did stimulate the economy somewhat, just not very efficiently.
How do you know it didnt save 500,000 jobs? :smug
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88851 (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88851)what a wonderful website let's just see what other articles they ha-QuoteAs the Obama administration pushes through Congress its $800 billion deficit-spending economic stimulus plan, the American public is largely unaware that the true deficit of the federal government already is measured in trillions of dollars, and in fact its $65.5 trillion in total obligations exceeds the gross domestic product of the world.
'Gays' crush Christian speech
TV stations cave to homosexual lobby, refuse to reveal LGBT agenda
"You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think," a new book that offers an answer for those who aren't sure about God, but are scared of Hell, now has rocketed into the top spot among best-sellers at Shop.WND.com.
It not only gives empirical evidence for the existence of God, but also shows atheists that they desperately need His forgiveness, too.
Using a question-and-answer format, the book highlights actual questions from atheists sent to Comfort and reveals that God's existence can be proven.
The alternative, the book points out, is like playing "Russian roulette with all the chambers loaded" – a guaranteed disaster.
"Speechless" features stories about Christians who have been arrested and charged with felonies for preaching the gospel. According to the film, many are living in situations where they have been intimidated into silence.
WorldNetDaily Exclusive:
Talk radio bonkers for amazing Bible facts!
"But the Vatican has chosen to officially believe Darwin rather than Jesus," added Comfort. "That belief reveals a shallow understanding of the claims of atheistic evolution. God gave us six senses, and the sixth one is common sense. That one doesn't get used when it comes to Darwin's theory. And that's the problem – its devoted believers don't think too deeply. That's why I wrote the book. It shows that Darwin's theory is a fantasy – a ridiculous and unscientific fairy tale for grownups."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88851 (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88851)QuoteAs the Obama administration pushes through Congress its $800 billion deficit-spending economic stimulus plan, the American public is largely unaware that the true deficit of the federal government already is measured in trillions of dollars, and in fact its $65.5 trillion in total obligations exceeds the gross domestic product of the world.
it's also jerome fucking corsi, the intellectually dishonest asswit who brought us SWIFT BOATIN'
Copyright: The Kansas City Star, Mo.
Source: Kansas City Star (MO)
Jan. 12--There''s no shortage of blame for the mortgage crisis that drove the economy into the ditch.
But here''s a fresh culprit: the 2005 bankruptcy reform act, which was strongly pushed by the credit card industry.
So say three researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who argue that the legislation shifted risk from credit card lenders to mortgage lenders, helping trigger the surge in home foreclosures.
Before Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, households could erase their unsecured debts by filing for Chapter 7 liquidation. That freed up income that distressed homeowners could use to make mortgage payments.
The new law, however, forced better-off households seeking bankruptcy protection to file under Chapter 13. That chapter requires homeowners to continue paying their unsecured lenders.
In other words, say the Fed researchers, cash-strapped homeowners who might have saved their homes by filing Chapter 7 are now much more likely to face foreclosure.
"Is it just coincidence that the surge in subprime foreclosures that has rocked financial markets came right after the bankruptcy reform in 2005?" they asked. "Is that surge just about falling home prices, bad mortgage decisions and weak economic conditions?
"No and no."
The paper''s lead author, Donald P. Morgan, a research officer at the New York Fed, said last week in a phone interview that he was "99 percent confident" that the bankruptcy reform law was a major reason for the foreclosure crisis and the falling housing prices that have affected virtually every homeowner in the country.
The National Association of Realtors recently reported that the average sale price of an existing home fell 12.3 percent, to $224,200, over the 12 months ending in November.
"Before the reform, overindebted households might file bankruptcy and get rid of their credit card debt, and that would free up income to pay the mortgage," Morgan said. "The new law blocks that escape route and forces better-off households to continue paying credit card debt, which makes it harder than before to continue paying the mortgage."
The conclusions of Morgan and his colleagues echo earlier findings that the new law''s tougher requirements appear to have increased the number of people defaulting on their mortgages or walking away from their homes rather than seeking bankruptcy protection.
"One of the great lessons and ironies" of the new law, Treasury Department economist David P. Bernstein wrote in a recent paper, was that, by increasing the dollar value of assets susceptible to default, it has weakened many of the financial institutions that sought the new law in the first place.
Aimed at making debtors take more "personal responsibility" for their debts, the new law did succeed in driving down bankruptcy filings at first. But if the idea of bankruptcy reform was to prevent "can-pay" and high-income debtors from abusing the bankruptcy system, many experts say the law has been a bust
John Roberts: Mr. President, in terms of the overall economic downturn, Time magazine had an article out this week in which it named 25 of the people most responsible for the economic downturn, and you were there. They, they had a picture of you in what looked like a police lineup. They had a little button where you could vote who's the most responsible? They pointed to your signing of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. I wonder what you think about that.
Former President Bill Clinton: I think that the only thing that our administration did or didn't do that we should have done is to try to set in motion some more formal regulation of the derivatives market. They're wrong in saying that the elimination of the Glass-Steagall division between banks and investment banks contributed to this. Investment banks were already...banks were already doing investment business and investment companies were already in the banking business. The bill I signed actually at least puts some standards there. And if you look at the evidence of the banks that have gotten in trouble, the ones that were most directly involved in there ... in a diversified portfolio tended to do better.
Roberts: A couple of real quick questions, what president do you think you're most like?
Clinton: Well, personally, I'm not sure. One guy wrote a book saying I was most like Thomas Jefferson, but the times in which I governed were most like Theodore Roosevelt. And the results I received were similar. He had enormous success, the country was better off when he quit than when he started, but several of the things he recommended were not actually done until his cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, became president more than 20 years later.
I think a lot of things that I recommended in terms of health care reform will come to fruition now that we have more modern Democratic Congress and a new Democratic Congress and the Obama administration there. I'll be surprised if we don't get health care reform and some of the things I recommended. I'm excited about it.
He sees himself as a cross between two guys on Mount Rushmore. :lol
Here's an interesting thought:
Cheebs, only the hardliest of hardcore dems will say Reagan was a failure. Most people will admit that he was a pretty good President, even though he really wasn't.I didn't say failure. I said he was pretty meh. I say this in terms of policy because I was talking about him as President. As a politician? He was brilliant.
As a politician? He was brilliant.
Ford was a sitting president. It's all but impossible to unseat them in a primary, the fact he came so close was pretty damn impressive. I am talking more so about 1980 and his massive wins. No one has came close to a 49 state sweep since him, that takes a brilliant politician (or at least a brilliant political team) especially as someone who has a agenda that was hard right, at least when he ran compared to the likes of Ike, Ford and Nixon.As a politician? He was brilliant.
Dude lost to Gerry Ford.
Ford was a sitting president. It's all but impossible to unseat them in a primary, the fact he came so close was pretty damn impressive. I am talking more so about 1980 and his massive wins. No one has came close to a 49 state sweep since him, that takes a brilliant politician (or at least a brilliant political team) especially as someone who has a agenda that was hard right, at least when he ran compared to the likes of Ike, Ford and Nixon.As a politician? He was brilliant.
Dude lost to Gerry Ford.
Obama's apparent continuation of Bush's abuse of the state secrets privilege is 1000X more troubling than any he-said she-said jobs creation semantic bullshit.I haven't heard of this. Could anyone provide a link about this? I'm having trouble locating something via google news.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/us/10torture.html?_r=1&hpObama's apparent continuation of Bush's abuse of the state secrets privilege is 1000X more troubling than any he-said she-said jobs creation semantic bullshit.I haven't heard of this. Could anyone provide a link about this? I'm having trouble locating something via google news.
Former red states Obama won. I get that. Criticizing him, saying he's "campaigning" over this is pretty bitter.
yawn
I think he should take a break, personally. He hasn't even been in office a full month yet and look what he did. I just don't want to see him burn out too fast. He still has the blur of the last 20 months or more on his back too.Politico said he is going to do MORE of this, not less lol. After wooing Republicans turned out not to work so well they said the white house plans to do a lot more "campaign" rallies and townhalls throughout his term to focus on keeping public opinion on his side on any policy he may enact to pressure republicans through the public rather than directly. And they feel it will help him keep his outsider appeal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/us/10torture.html?_r=1&hpObama's apparent continuation of Bush's abuse of the state secrets privilege is 1000X more troubling than any he-said she-said jobs creation semantic bullshit.I haven't heard of this. Could anyone provide a link about this? I'm having trouble locating something via google news.
The state secrets privilege should just be used on a specific basis for pieces of evidence, not to get an entire case thrown out of court in advance just because the president says so. Obama ran against this sort of thing.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/us/10torture.html?_r=1&hpObama's apparent continuation of Bush's abuse of the state secrets privilege is 1000X more troubling than any he-said she-said jobs creation semantic bullshit.I haven't heard of this. Could anyone provide a link about this? I'm having trouble locating something via google news.
Is this abuse? Are you familiar with the case?
The reason it was called "abuse" under the Bush administration was its use whenever possible, no matter how appropriate or not. Here's an ongoing trial with unknown details, and no-one worth considering is arguing that there's no need for state secrets. Isn't it possible that there may be a case where state secrets can be invoked in a case?
I think he should take a break, personally. He hasn't even been in office a full month yet and look what he did. I just don't want to see him burn out too fast. He still has the blur of the last 20 months or more on his back too.Politico said he is going to do MORE of this, not less lol. After wooing Republicans turned out not to work so well they said the white house plans to do a lot more "campaign" rallies and townhalls throughout his term to focus on keeping public opinion on his side on any policy he may enact to pressure republicans through the public rather than directly. And they feel it will help him keep his outsider appeal.
So I guess he won't be taking a break from the trail, he'll be working the crowds for the next 4 years. Poor guy. But he can still draw rockstar crowds, it makes sense to use that.
I think he should take a break, personally. He hasn't even been in office a full month yet and look what he did. I just don't want to see him burn out too fast. He still has the blur of the last 20 months or more on his back too.Politico said he is going to do MORE of this, not less lol. After wooing Republicans turned out not to work so well they said the white house plans to do a lot more "campaign" rallies and townhalls throughout his term to focus on keeping public opinion on his side on any policy he may enact to pressure republicans through the public rather than directly. And they feel it will help him keep his outsider appeal.
So I guess he won't be taking a break from the trail, he'll be working the crowds for the next 4 years. Poor guy. But he can still draw rockstar crowds, it makes sense to use that.
It makes sense. Obama is a salesman, not an idea man. His talents are wasted in closed door meetings crafting policy. He needs to be out in public, shoveling the democrat shit to the public. It's the most efficient use of his positives, but it really shows the sort of power guys like Rahm are going to have over the next 4 years.
I think he should take a break, personally. He hasn't even been in office a full month yet and look what he did. I just don't want to see him burn out too fast. He still has the blur of the last 20 months or more on his back too.Politico said he is going to do MORE of this, not less lol. After wooing Republicans turned out not to work so well they said the white house plans to do a lot more "campaign" rallies and townhalls throughout his term to focus on keeping public opinion on his side on any policy he may enact to pressure republicans through the public rather than directly. And they feel it will help him keep his outsider appeal.
So I guess he won't be taking a break from the trail, he'll be working the crowds for the next 4 years. Poor guy. But he can still draw rockstar crowds, it makes sense to use that.
It makes sense. Obama is a salesman, not an idea man. His talents are wasted in closed door meetings crafting policy. He needs to be out in public, shoveling the democrat shit to the public. It's the most efficient use of his positives, but it really shows the sort of power guys like Rahm are going to have over the next 4 years.
I think he should take a break, personally. He hasn't even been in office a full month yet and look what he did. I just don't want to see him burn out too fast. He still has the blur of the last 20 months or more on his back too.Politico said he is going to do MORE of this, not less lol. After wooing Republicans turned out not to work so well they said the white house plans to do a lot more "campaign" rallies and townhalls throughout his term to focus on keeping public opinion on his side on any policy he may enact to pressure republicans through the public rather than directly. And they feel it will help him keep his outsider appeal.
So I guess he won't be taking a break from the trail, he'll be working the crowds for the next 4 years. Poor guy. But he can still draw rockstar crowds, it makes sense to use that.
It makes sense. Obama is a salesman, not an idea man. His talents are wasted in closed door meetings crafting policy. He needs to be out in public, shoveling the democrat shit to the public. It's the most efficient use of his positives, but it really shows the sort of power guys like Rahm are going to have over the next 4 years.
Less Gingrich, more Reagan right?
Greenspan favors some limited nationalization of banks.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e310cbf6-fd4e-11dd-a103-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Where is our (free market) gods now?
Greenspan favors some limited nationalization of banks.Last week's Newsweek cover had it right. "We Are All Socialists Now."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e310cbf6-fd4e-11dd-a103-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Where is our (free market) gods now?
Includes Treasury stepping in to bring principles down and help for owners who are current.
With a $787 billion stimulus package in hand, President Barack Obama will pivot quickly to address a budget deficit that could now approach $2 trillion this year.
He has scheduled a "fiscal-responsibility summit" on Feb. 23 and will unveil a budget blueprint three days later, crafted to put pressure on politicians to address the country's surging long-term debt crisis.
QuoteIncludes Treasury stepping in to bring principles down and help for owners who are current.
:hyper
So happy to hear this. I've been taking it in the ass hard for 2 years now.
QuoteIncludes Treasury stepping in to bring principles down and help for owners who are current.
:hyper
So happy to hear this. I've been taking it in the ass hard for 2 years now.
Glad my tax dollars can help you pay for a house you apparently can't afford. Since I can in fact afford my beautiful new home on my own, I guess I'm the bad guy for being fiscally responsible.
What a rad system.
QuoteIncludes Treasury stepping in to bring principles down and help for owners who are current.
:hyper
So happy to hear this. I've been taking it in the ass hard for 2 years now.
Glad my tax dollars can help you pay for a house you apparently can't afford. Since I can in fact afford my beautiful new home on my own, I guess I'm the bad guy for being fiscally responsible.
What a rad system.
Why don't you cry more about it you little bitch.
That is a pooling and stripping problem. Had those mortgages not been securitized and bundled foolishly it wouldn't matter as much that foreclosures doubled last year.
That is a pooling and stripping problem. Had those mortgages not been securitized and bundled foolishly it wouldn't matter as much that foreclosures doubled last year.
Guess we need the government, funded by our tax dollars, to go in and put some good ol' regulations in to help prevent this from happening again. Or, are you against that?
I highly doubt Zero Hero is poor. He's just a guy who gets to take advantage of the current situation and feels so great about receiving welfare that he's gonna trumpet it on the internets.
Why? It is welfare. Tax dollars will be doled out to "struggling" home owners through lending institutions to influence mortgage terms, with presumably no strings for the home owner. It is welfare, a handout, home stamps.
My problem is 1. I hate that "free money!" mentality and 2. I'm not a fan of being called a cunt.
NEWS broke last week that Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent- free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) - and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate. But this is only the tip of Emanuel's previously undislosed ethics problems.
One issue is the work Emanuel tossed the way of De Lauro's husband. But the bigger one goes back to Emanuel's days on the board of now-bankrupt mortgage giant Freddie Mac.
Emanuel is a multimillionaire, but lived for the last five years for free in the tony Capitol Hill townhouse owned by De Lauro and her husband, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg.
During that time, he also served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - which gave Greenberg huge polling contracts. It paid Greenberg's firm $239,996 in 2006 and $317,775 in 2008. (Emanuel's own campaign committee has also paid Greenberg more than $50,000 since 2004.)
To be fair, Greenberg had polling contracts with the DCCC before - but each new election cycle brings its own set of consultants. And Emanuel was certainly generous with his roommate.
Emanuel never declared the substantial gift of free rent on any of his financial-disclosure forms. He and De Lauro claim that it was just allowable "hospitality" between colleagues. Hospitality - for five years?
Some experts suggest that it was also taxable income: Over five years, the free rent could easily add up to more than $100,000.
Nor is this all that seems to have been missed in the Obama team's vetting process. Consider: Emanuel served on the Freddie Mac board of directors during the time that the government-backed lender lied about its earnings, a leading contributor to the current economic meltdown.
The Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Agency later singled out the Freddie Mac board as contributing to the fraud in 2000 and 2001 for "failing in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention." In other words, board members ignored the red flags waving in their faces.
The SEC later fined Freddie $50 million for its deliberate fraud in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Meanwhile, Emanuel was paid more than $260,000 for his Freddie "service." Plus, after he resigned from the board to run for Congress in 2002, the troubled agency's PAC gave his campaign $25,000 - its largest single gift to a House candidate.
That's what friends are for, isn't it?
Now Rahm Emanuel is in the White House helping President Obama dig out of the mess that Freddie Mac helped start.
The president's chief of staff isn't subject to Senate confirmation, but his ethics still matter. Is this the change that we can depend on?
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, has suggested his state may not be interested in all of the roughly $4 billion allotted to it in the economic stimulus package to be signed by President Obama today.http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/02/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4807323.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=PoliticalHotsheet_4807323
"We'll have to review each program, each new dollar to make sure that we understand what are the conditions, what are the strings and see whether it's beneficial for Louisiana to use those dollars," Jindal said, according to CBS affiliate WWLTV.
Jindal is scheduled to give the response to the president’s not-exactly-a-state-of-the-union address next Tuesday.
Louisiana reportedly faces a possible $2 billion budget shortfall next year. It has been allocated $538,575,876 for infrastructure spending in the stimulus package, and the White House predicts the bill will create 50,000 jobs in the state.
As WWLTV notes, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has said he’ll take any money that Louisiana turns down.
If you think all that money is free, what are you going to tell your grandchildren about their high taxes? :smug
he's not thinking FREE MONEY AH HUR GOTCHA, he's thinking OH GOD LESS FINANCIAL STRESS PERHAPS I CAN ENJOY MY LIFE A LITTLE MORE NOW
So, what do you tell everyone else on Zero Hero's block if his house gets foreclosed on and their property values plunge? As for 2, perhaps you should work harder on, you know, not being such a fucking cunt. Cunt.
What will you tell your grandchildren about the trillion dollar Bush wars and the multi-trillion dollar Bush tax cuts with no reduction in spending
What will you tell your grandchildren about the trillion dollar Bush wars and the multi-trillion dollar Bush tax cuts with no reduction in spending
It killed brown skinned folks, so it was AWESOME.
What will you tell your grandchildren about the trillion dollar Bush wars and the multi-trillion dollar Bush tax cuts with no reduction in spending
To piss on Bush's grave and beat his spawn. I certainly have no more love for the 00-08 crop than I do this current crop of politicians.
What will you tell your grandchildren about the trillion dollar Bush wars and the multi-trillion dollar Bush tax cuts with no reduction in spending
To piss on Bush's grave and beat his spawn. I certainly have no more love for the 00-08 crop than I do this current crop of politicians.
Well sadly, most conservatives don't have that point of view. Out of curiosity, what was the last President you think did a good job?
If that is something they worry about they should probably chip in $500 a month to him. It's not something that concerns me so I'd appreciate it if my dollars were left out of it.
The Obama administration's summary of the plan said the plan could offer a buffer of up to $6,000 against value declines on the average home.
I'd say just about every president excepting Carter did some decent things.
> Under the Homeowner Stability Initiative: Family C can get a government sponsored modification that for five years will reduce their mortgage payment by $406 a month. After those five years, Family C's mortgage payment will adjust upward at a moderate, phased-in level.
> First, Investment Bank (working through a mortgage servicer) reduces the interest rate so that the Family C's monthly debt-to-income ratio drops from 42% to 38%. This means that Investment Bank must reduce the interest rate from 7.50% to 6.38%, bringing down Family C's monthly payment from $1,538 to $1,387.
> Second, the government and Investment Bank share the cost of further reducing the interest rate so that the Family C's monthly debt-to-income level is lowered to 31%. Any dollar the bank spends is matched by the government. At this stage, Family C's interest rate is reduced from 6.41% to 4.43%. In total, Family C's monthly payment has fallen from $1,538 to $1,132.
> If Family C remains current on their payments, they will receive incentive payments up to $1,000 a year, or $5,000 over five years, that would go towards reducing the principal they owe. Additionally, the mortgage servicer can earn an up-front incentive fee of $1,000, plus up to $1,000 per year in "Pay for Success" fees for three years, so long as Family C remains current.
President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, a spokesman told FOXNews.com Wednesday.http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/18/white-house-opposes-fairness-doctrine/
The statement is the first definitive stance the administration has taken since an aide told an industry publication last summer that Obama opposes the doctrine -- a long-abolished policy that would require broadcasters to provide opposing viewpoints on controversial issues.
"As the president stated during the campaign, he does not believe the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated," White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told FOXNews.com.
That was after both senior adviser David Axelrod and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs left open the door on whether Obama would support reinstating the doctrine.
"I'm going to leave that issue to Julius Genachowski, our new head of the FCC ... and the president to discuss. So I don't have an answer for you now," Axelrod told FOX News Sunday over the weekend when asked about the president's position.
The debate over the so-called Fairness Doctrine has heated up in recent days as prominent Democratic senators have called for the policies to be reinstated. Conservative talk show hosts, who see the doctrine as an attempt to impose liberal viewpoints on their shows, largely oppose any move to bring it back.
Fueling discussion, a report in the American Spectator this week said aides to Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, Calif., met last week with staff for the Federal Communications Commission to discuss ways to enact Fairness Doctrine policies. The report said Waxman was also interested in applying those standards to the Internet, which drew ridicule from supporters and opponents of the doctrine.
Both the FCC and Waxman's office denied the report.
The Fairness Doctrine was adopted in 1949 and held that broadcasters were obligated to provide opposing points of views on controversial issues of national importance. It was halted under the Reagan administration.
You're blowing my cover wilcoe. :shh
All I'm asking is for the bank to charge me $400 to $600 a month in interest instead of $850. If the only way this happens is for the government to subsidize that write down to the bank, how the fuck am I to blame?
Damn bank, forcing you into that mortgage.
Home ownership is overrated. I don't think I'll ever own a home in my life, whether I make the salary I make now or 10x that amount. Fuck it.
Might as well share your tale. No one's gonna judge you (who matters)
Zero Hero- did you KNOW you were getting an ARM? At least I assumed you got an ARM. Did you know what that meant and shit?
From today, when Obama was in Arizona.
(http://www.azcentral.com/commphotos/view/246524.jpg)
wtf is this keep the change thing that has caught on? It doesn't even make any sense. How is he taking freedom? :lol
I'll believe it when I see it.
Might as well share your tale. No one's gonna judge you (who matters)Zero Hero- did you KNOW you were getting an ARM? At least I assumed you got an ARM. Did you know what that meant and shit?
If, at closing on a 30 year mortgage, someone said, "In 2 years, your payments double :lol. And it's all interest! :lol" *As they throw their hands in the air*
Would you do it?
I was led to believe otherwise.
But who cares, right? Let the fucked be fucked.
Good thing they didnt triple it, lol!
You really think it'd be smart for Jindal to turn down 500 million in infrastructure spending?Even if Jindal turns down the money, or any other governor does, the state will most likely still receive the funds. There's a provision in the bill that can allow state legislatures to override the governors and get some of that cashola anyway. When Jindal and South Carolina guv Mark Sanford say they won't take the money, what will probably really happen is that their state will get the money anyway and they get to keep their credentals as fiscal conservatives that don't feed offa big poppa's teat. This AP (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090219/ap_on_bi_ge/bucking_the_stimulus)story sums it up better then I do.
All this does is signal to me I was wrong about him waiting to run for President, he has to be thinking about 2012 with a potential move like this.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the No. 3 House Democrat, said the governors — some of whom are said to be eyeing White House bids in 2012 — are putting their own interests first.of course if the state legislatures are as willing to play a partisan game of chicken as their governors are, then the people living in those states are fucked anyway, but then again they probably were beforehand with such sterling leadership at the helm.
"No community or constituent should be denied recovery assistance due to their governor's political ideology or political aspirations," Clyburn said Wednesday.
In fact, governors who reject some of the stimulus aid may find themselves overridden by their own legislatures because of language Clyburn included in the bill that allows lawmakers to accept the federal money even if their governors object.
He inserted the provision based on the early and vocal opposition to the stimulus plan by South Carolina's Republican governor, Mark Sanford. But it also means governors like Sanford and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal — a GOP up-and-comer often mentioned as a potential 2012 presidential candidate — can burnish their conservative credentials, knowing all the while that their legislatures can accept the money anyway.
Both states receive more tax funds than they put in anyway.
Well that makes it even worse, Jindal is doing this all for show for 2012 and not for some sort of moral stand. I hate watching the GOP using the economy in such blatant ways for political gain. Not saying the Democrats are innocent, but at least they are trying to fix it.
I never said Democrats aren't doing stuff for political gain as well. But Democrats are at the same time trying to get something done to get the economy fixed while Republicans are trying to impede any action being taken on the economy.Well that makes it even worse, Jindal is doing this all for show for 2012 and not for some sort of moral stand. I hate watching the GOP using the economy in such blatant ways for political gain. Not saying the Democrats are innocent, but at least they are trying to fix it.
hahah .. oh cheebs.
A couple of weeks before the Alaska legislature began this year's session, a bipartisan group of state senators on a retreat a few hours from here invited Gov. Sarah Palin to join them. Accompanied by a retinue of advisers, she took a seat at one end of a conference table and listened passively as Gary Stevens, the president of the Alaska Senate, a former college history professor and a low-key Republican with a reputation for congeniality, expressed delight at her presence.
Would the governor, a smiling Stevens asked, like to share some of her plans and proposals for the coming legislative session?
Palin looked around the room and paused, according to several senators present. "I feel like you guys are always trying to put me on the spot," she said finally, as the room became silent.
That's why you are a democrat cheebs.I actually blame being raised by two liberal atheist parents more than anything.
siamesedreamer is in looooooooooooove!
That's why you are a democrat cheebs.I actually blame being raised by two liberal atheist parents more than anything.
That's why you are a democrat cheebs.I actually blame being raised by two liberal atheist parents more than anything.
How do you explain your homosexuality?
I would like to think the president or somebody from the administration will step up and say something (anything) to try to put the markets at ease. This is getting really fucking scary.What do you mean? Are you saying Obama's line he always uses on the stump/tv where he claims things are still going to get much much worse for the next year should be toned down a bit?
Where's Ghengis?
They get by it by doing what they HAVE to do, which is nationalize the fucking banks. Just the big ones, but it needs to be done and the longer they put it off the worse things are going to get.
They get by it by doing what they HAVE to do, which is nationalize the fucking banks. Just the big ones, but it needs to be done and the longer they put it off the worse things are going to get.
europe also puts immigrants on boat prisons
a. it would take state ownership of the bad debt on the books.
b. the state could dictate lending practices, rather than suggest them.
c. really, should banks be run as for-profit institutions?
note that this has potential downsides as well as upsides, just like everything else planned to assist the economy. however, i fall on the side of getting as much toxic debt out of the private sector as possible as quickly as possible, and opening up lending markets with REGULATION and less usurious practices. c) is a matter of personal opinion, but i think it's borderline criminal that banking doesn't have far more severe oversight, if not outright accountability to the state and the people. fuck shareholders. we shouldn't be building fake wealth on the bubble of obscene interest rates.
Ya, look how good all the money we have poured into Louisiana education system has done so far? We just haven't spent enough.
http://www.dailyworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090111/OPINION01/901110302Ya, look how good all the money we have poured into Louisiana education system has done so far? We just haven't spent enough.
wat? (http://www.ppinys.org/reports/jtf/educationspending.htm)
http://www.dailyworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090111/OPINION01/901110302You're point is that since LA is in the bottom 10 of performance while being in the bottom 10 of spending, it would be useless to spend more?
They came out at around 2:00 today to say they support a private banking system. Up to the point we were down over 200 and both C and BAC were falling off a cliff. It was still a pretty bad day, but I honestly think we were teetering on the edge of a massive sell off.
The problem is that as soon as they say they're going to nationalize/put into receivership even ONE bank, the dominoes will start to fall.
LA will still get it anyway
How does receivership differ from full blown nationalization? Does common get wiped?
Gotcha. But hey - Lindsey's on our side! ;)
http://www.dailyworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090111/OPINION01/901110302You're point is that since LA is in the bottom 10 of performance while being in the bottom 10 of spending, it would be useless to spend more?
I'm lost...
DC Republicans are about as useless as thumbs on a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow.
http://www.dailyworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090111/OPINION01/901110302You're point is that since LA is in the bottom 10 of performance while being in the bottom 10 of spending, it would be useless to spend more?
I'm lost...
Ditto.
Also, Cheebs is naive for thinking that Jindal, Sanford et al are posturing for political gain? Apparently Obama's Iago and they're a bunch of Othellos, which would be ironic.
http://ftp2.census.gov/govs/school/06f33pub.pdf
Table 11
We were slightly overpaying for it before the great cleansing, now we are grossly overpaying for it.
Yet, Jindal is an asshole for being accountable and evaluating if they really need federal funds before they accept them.
that's been soros' line since early 2008, even before the collapse of lehman bros. not saying he's wrong; just that he hasn't changed his verbiage.
We need a Cultural Revolution type event to put the dumbshits of the finance industry of the past 20 years on public display.
I'm sure this will supply us with quite a bit of debate:Stricter environmental policies, expansion of health care and a lot done to tackle the deficit? Sounds good.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022100911_pf.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022100911_pf.html)
raising taxes
QuoteDC Republicans are about as useless as thumbs on a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow.
:rofl
Chuck Todd on why Chris Matthews ultimately didn't run for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania: "Because [Chris] had a really good friend of his say to him, 'What are you going to do when you get there?' and he couldn't answer the question and he realized that, and that's why he didn't run. It was a childhood dream to be a senator, but he didn't know what he was going to do if he got there."http://politicalwire.com/
QuoteChuck Todd on why Chris Matthews ultimately didn't run for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania: "Because [Chris] had a really good friend of his say to him, 'What are you going to do when you get there?' and he couldn't answer the question and he realized that, and that's why he didn't run. It was a childhood dream to be a senator, but he didn't know what he was going to do if he got there."http://politicalwire.com/
This basically sums up Chris Matthews
So how far below 7000 will the dow go this week?the "state of the union" type of thing is tomorrow night, do those normally impact the market?
I hope you guys like eating bread and waiting in line for the priviledge to do so.I've eaten at Subway for years.
Everyone forgets about Romney.You think Romney will be the nominee?
Everyone forgets about Romney.
There is definitely something "too slick" about Romney that is off-putting. Maybe that's why Palin had such a dramatic response, because she is more accessible in some ways.Romney would be the candidate they'd go for if they think logically about winning rather than their gut choice. It'd be like the 2004 dem primaries with Palin being Dean and Romney being Kerry.
I still don't believe Palin is a credible lead candidate. She is Dan Quayle all over again. The 30 percenters will support her (in polls) because they always rally around people that are attacked by the media, but when it comes to actually vote .. they will find someone else that is more viable.
The GOP's problem is that the religious nutbars have an exorbitant amount of power in the party, and ESPECIALLY in the primaries. Shit, look how long Huck hung around, and he wasn't really mean enough to capture the imagination of a lot of those yahoos. Every dimwitted, mean spirited PTA mom that sees themselves in Sarah Palin will be out there on primary day for her. You guys are screwed until at least 2016.Also seeing how there wont be a real democratic primary in 2012 I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of dems show up to vote palin. She motivates the dem base as much, if not more than the republican base.
I don't think Palin will make it past New Hampshire.
But, if she does somehow become the nominee, then I will switch my party affiliation to DEM and volunteer for the Obama re-election campaign.
House Democrats propose $410B spending bill
House bill to keep govt. running totals $410 billion, features thousands of pet projects
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democrats unveiled a $410 billion spending bill on Monday to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year, setting up the second political struggle over federal funds in less than a month with Republicans.
The measure includes thousands of earmarks, the pet projects favored by lawmakers but often criticized by the public in opinion polls. There was no official total of the bill's earmarks, which accounted for at least $3.8 billion.
The legislation, which includes an increase of roughly 8 percent over spending in the last fiscal year, is expected to clear the House later in the week.
Democrats defended the spending increases, saying they were needed to make up for cuts enacted in recent years or proposed a year ago by then-President George W. Bush in health, education, energy and other programs.
Republicans countered that the spending in the bill far outpaced inflation, and amounted to much higher increases when combined with spending in the stimulus legislation that President Barack Obama signed last week. In a letter to top Democratic leaders, the GOP leadership called for a spending freeze, a step they said would point toward a "new standard of fiscal discipline."
Either way, the bill advanced less than one week after Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill that all Republicans in Congress opposed except for three moderate GOP senators.
Apart from spending, the legislation provides Democrats in Congress and Obama an opportunity to reverse Bush-era policy on selected issues.
It loosens restrictions on travel to Cuba, as well as the sale of food and medicine to the communist island-nation.
In another change, the legislation bans Mexican-licensed trucks from operating outside commercial zones along the border with the United States. The Teamsters Union, which supported Obama's election last year, hailed the move.
The Bush administration backed a pilot program to permit up to 500 trucks from 100 Mexican motor carriers access to U.S. roads.
The legislation covers programs for numerous Cabinet-level and other agencies, and takes the place of regular annual spending bills that did not pass last year as a result of a deadlock between the Bush administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress.
Congressional expenses are included. The bill provides $500,000 for what is described as a Senate "pilot program" that will defray the cost of mass mail postcards to households notifying them of a nearby town meeting to be attended by any senator.
It loosens restrictions on travel to Cuba, as well as the sale of food and medicine to the communist island-nation.
GOOD
House Democrats propose $410B spending bill
House bill to keep govt. running totals $410 billion, features thousands of pet projects
GOOD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil-for-Food_Programme#Abuse
House Democrats propose $410B spending bill
House bill to keep govt. running totals $410 billion, features thousands of pet projects
(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff156/siamesedreamer7/debt_gdp.png)
Just that food/supplies rarely gets into the hands of people that need it the most. They are usually horded by those in power or the most ardent supporters of the dictator.
And yet the Dems still haven't spent as much as Bush had in the past 8 years. Between the Iraq war and TARP, the dems have some more ground to cover.
The United States plans to withdraw most of its troops from Iraq by August 2010, 19 months after President Barack Obama's inauguration, according to administration officials. The withdrawal plan would fulfill one of Obama's central campaign pledges, albeit a little more slowly than he promised. He said he would withdraw troops within 16 months, roughly one brigade a month from the time of his inauguration.
The officials said they expect Obama to make the announcement this week. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.
The U.S. military will leave behind a residual force, between 30,000 and 50,000 troops, to continue advising and training Iraqi security forces, the two officials said. Also staying beyond the 19 months will be intelligence and surveillance specialists and their equipment, including unmanned aircraft, they said.
<snip>
Congress has approved more than $657 billion so far for the Iraq war, according to a report last year from the Congressional Research Service.
He had to pull troops out, it was one of the central issues he ran on. I think Iraq will be a lot calmer in the end after all the troops (well combat troops) leave than a lot predicted when railing against pull-out. In the end I bet this will be a rather non-issue.
HUD secretary just said, and repeated, that the Obama White House is confident that the recession will be over by the end of 2009. There's no way he was supposed to say that, is there?It was Bernanke who said that, maybe he got confused. And Bernanke said that is on the condition that Obama's economic polices all work.
HUD secretary just said, and repeated, that the Obama White House is confident that the recession will be over by the end of 2009. There's no way he was supposed to say that, is there?It was Bernanke who said that, maybe he got confused. And Bernanke said that is on the condition that Obama's economic polices all work.
Haha, dumbass Mike Pence (R-IN) was just on talking up a spending freeze. AGAIN. What tards.
HUD secretary just said, and repeated, that the Obama White House is confident that the recession will be over by the end of 2009. There's no way he was supposed to say that, is there?
So my uncle and grandfather (the staunch Republicans I mentioned in the election threads) are making comments in their emails like "so Obama's been in office a month and it's not looking good so far," or "sorry to say, but Obama is not inspiring confidence in the markets."
What do you guys think? I can't see how any of the continued downward spiral is Obama's fault, but it seems that Republicans (not the ones in Congress, but Republican voters) are already trying to spin it that way.
So, if Bobby Jindal was smart he'd probably just go out and get a beer.
It was long, drawn out, and full of double speak. But, I thought the bast part was when he said dropping out of school was giving up on your country. I think that's where he can really make a huge impact.
If Jindal is the so called rising star to beat Obama in 2012 then..... :lol
Anyone who is 40+ but still looks like they're wearing their Dad's suit will never be president.He is in his mid 30's.
You know, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Jindal one of those Congressmen doing nothing about running up record deficits until 2007 or so?Yep, he was one of the GOP congressmen during the bush years who just voted along with what he wanted.
I sometimes hate the web because you have to properly wiki every word of your post rather than throwing things out for natural discussion.Anyone who is 40+ but still looks like they're wearing their Dad's suit will never be president.He is in his mid 30's.
MSNBC are mocking jindal lol
MSNBC are mocking jindal lol
They aren't the only ones. Go check out some conservative blogs. Good grief that was a bomb.
I sometimes hate the web because you have to properly wiki every word of your post rather than throwing things out for natural discussion.Anyone who is 40+ but still looks like they're wearing their Dad's suit will never be president.He is in his mid 30's.
I sometimes hate the web because you have to properly wiki every word of your post rather than throwing things out for natural discussion.Anyone who is 40+ but still looks like they're wearing their Dad's suit will never be president.He is in his mid 30's.
That's a tremendous pet peeve of mine, too. Especially when you create a post with about 5 or 6 points and then same jackhole invalidates the entire thing because you get one fact wrong.
According to the AP, you're supposed to spell out five and six.
They should have got the weird woman who thought Obama was an Arab at one of McCain's rallies give the rebuttal, it would have at least been entertaining.
MSNBC are mocking jindal lol
They aren't the only ones. Go check out some conservative blogs. Good grief that was a bomb.
MSNBC are mocking jindal lol
They aren't the only ones. Go check out some conservative blogs. Good grief that was a bomb.
The focal group on Fox seems to like the guy. A lot.
It blows my fucking ming how anyone could possibly think he did a good job or even an adequate one but Fox knows how to find 'em.
MSNBC are mocking jindal lol
They aren't the only ones. Go check out some conservative blogs. Good grief that was a bomb.
The focal group on Fox seems to like the guy. A lot.
It blows my fucking ming how anyone could possibly think he did a good job or even an adequate one but Fox knows how to find 'em.
There was something off about that group. They praised him for showing "patriotism". And 90% of that panel was against the stimulus when polls show like 60%+ are for it. It was weird.
If it sounds like Jindal is targeting his speech to a room full of fourth graders, that's because he is. They might be the next people to actually vote for Republicans again.
i thought snap polls are irrelevant though
Skimming last few pages...I was only half watching the speech but did that come up?
There are still people who think the Cuba embargo is good policy? Rilly?
Skimming last few pages...I was only half watching the speech but did that come up?
There are still people who think the Cuba embargo is good policy? Rilly?
Seems like people stressing about Cuba are a bunch of dead-enders trying to fight battles resolved 20 years ago.
That's why you are a democrat cheebs. As long as someone does it under the guise of "doing something good" all the negative consequences or other malfeasances can be somehow excused.
I think Christians do the same kind mental gymnastics.
Jindal's rebuttal made me feel giddy. Yet another GOP "leader" who falls far short of the hype. It won't matter because conservatards will be hyping his rebuttal and promoting him as the next big thing. Since the GOP's inspirational leadership is so sorely lacking these days, I can see a lot of GOP members overlooking his embarrassing speech and glorifying some of the things that he said. I don't think this speech will do much damage to him in the long run. Republicans have short term memories.The GOP aren't hyping it. Republican blogs said he bombed, fox news said he was terrible, ed rolling a Republican was asked about it and said "Good night for Sarah Palin.". No way to spin how he did.
Any picture with Nancy Pelosi in it is not an upgrade.She is more doable than Dennis Hastert.
Obama's tie is red. Undercover republican confirmed!
Obama's tie is red. Undercover republican confirmed!
Bush's tie is blue. Undercover Democrat confirmed!
Finally caught his speech on youtube. No mention of nuclear power, clean coal or oil refineries in his energy policy last night. Thinking you can throw billions of dollars into the money pit that is solar/wind and that will magically improve their efficiency to match exisiting technologies is laughable.
It should be a 70/30 scenerio. Where the majority is spent on existing technologies that have already been proven viable and can help us in the next few decades .. then a smaller amount spent on the research for renewables that will be used in the future.
Also, cap and trade? What a joke.
Obama's tie is red. Undercover republican confirmed!
Bush's tie is blue. Undercover Democrat confirmed!
Also, cap and trade? What a joke.
proven viable... clean coal...
DOES NOT COMPUTE!
While I don't particularly think cap and trade is the best thing ever, I think there should just be really obnoxious taxes on carbon emissions. I wonder which you guys would prefer.
[youtube=560,345]HVievy8bySA[/youtube]
I just thought of of something, how has Obama not got any shit from the religious right about going to church? He has not belonged to a church nor a denomination since he quite the United Church of Christ back in May and does not seem to attend church in DC outside the inaugural traditional stuff. I would think the Right would flip out about that.
Finally caught his speech on youtube. No mention of nuclear power, clean coal or oil refineries in his energy policy last night. Thinking you can throw billions of dollars into the money pit that is solar/wind and that will magically improve their efficiency to match exisiting technologies is laughable.He does mention investment in clean coal but I agree that this speech was pretty meaningless. Solar and wind are not realistic energy sources for the whole US power grid. The only alternative that works is nuclear. It's actually safer and cleaner than coal but I don't think that most Americans are willing to believe that.
It should be a 70/30 scenerio. Where the majority is spent on existing technologies that have already been proven viable and can help us in the next few decades .. then a smaller amount spent on the research for renewables that will be used in the future.
Also, cap and trade? What a joke.
Things like Chernobyl and 3 mile island will haunt people for a half life.
All this only works as the carbon price lifts. As with 1924 Château Lafite or Damian Hirst's diamond skulls, scarcity and speculation create the value. If permits are cheap, and everyone has lots, the green incentive crashes into reverse. As recession slashes output, companies pile up permits they don't need and sell them on. The price falls, and anyone who wants to pollute can afford to do so. The result is a system that does nothing at all for climate change but a lot for the bottom lines of mega-polluters such as the steelmaker Corus: industrial assistance in camouflage.
President Barack Obama wants a significant "down payment" for overhauling the health care system: $634 billion over 10 years. A senior administration official says Obama's budget calls for financing the overhaul by trimming Medicare spending and limiting tax deductions for upper-income earners. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the budget won't be released until Thursday.
Again... what's your alternative?
Again... what's your alternative?
Snark Based Economy
He cut taxes in the stimulus package you realize, right?
I'm just wondering how long Obama will keep up the farce that he'll only raise taxes on the top 5%.
I didn't. Thanks for telling me. How did I miss that?So he spent over 30% of the stimulus package cutting the taxes of those making under 250k....because he secretly plans to raise them?
So he spent over 30% of the stimulus package cutting the taxes of those making under 250k....because he secretly plans to raise them?
Finally caught his speech on youtube. No mention of nuclear power, clean coal or oil refineries in his energy policy last night. Thinking you can throw billions of dollars into the money pit that is solar/wind and that will magically improve their efficiency to match exisiting technologies is laughable.
Shuddup Mandark. Phrasing things in a certain way makes them true, durrr.Finally caught his speech on youtube. No mention of nuclear power, clean coal or oil refineries in his energy policy last night. Thinking you can throw billions of dollars into the money pit that is solar/wind and that will magically improve their efficiency to match exisiting technologies is laughable.
Are you 'avin a larf?
Budget = $1.75T deficit :lol ... :usacry
Yeah, sorry it's so high. The guy you voted for twice had this habit of ordering expensive shit and not putting it on the tab.
Yeah, sorry it's so high. The guy you voted for twice had this habit of ordering expensive shit and not putting it on the tab.
Weren't you the guy who would mock me every time I invoked Clinton when I defended Bush?
How the mighty have fallen.
What's the website number for the government's recovery website? Which tube do I dial into?Yes because a man in his 60's should be an internet expert! Recovery.gov is there and full of tons of info.spoiler (click to show/hide)[youtube=560,345]nJnJKE8kkmM[/youtube][close]
that makes me think LESS of obama
that makes me think LESS of obama
And here I thought you liked elitists.
Instead of giving up something for Lent I've decided to do something everyday. So, the plan is to post something nice about Obama on EB once a day until Easter. Still working on today's comment.
The stress test will show everyone we need to nationalize the banks.
The first Republican straw poll of the 2012 presidential campaign began this morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.
Results will be announced Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m.
It's kind of frustrating to see the Administration drag their heels on the banks.
Gingrich is the only one from that group who actually has ideas.
Gingrich is the only one from that group who actually has ideas.
Gingrich is a piece of shit.
QuoteThe first Republican straw poll of the 2012 presidential campaign began this morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.
Results will be announced Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m.
place yer bets
Romney
Jindal
Gingrich
Sanford
Gingrich is the only one from that group who actually has ideas.
Gingrich is a piece of shit.
just because he tried to get his wife to do a Dirty Gonzales doesn't mean he's a piece of shit
MSNBC has just reported that a senior Pentagon official is saying that Defense Secretary Gates will lift the ban on media coverage of the return of America's war dead at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The decision will not give the media complete access, in that the families of the dead will be consulted to see if they will allow coverage of their loved one's return.
The announcement is expected to be made later this afternoon at a Defense Department press briefing.
I wish they would raise taxes and use it for programs like UHC. I'm just waiting for the day when the small business I work for decides to cut our insurance benefits because our costs for health insurance are approaching what our total payroll was just 5-6 years ago. Our company hasn't gotten much bigger, either.
Gingrich is the only one from that group who actually has ideas.
Gingrich is a piece of shit.
just because he tried to get his wife to do a Dirty Gonzales doesn't mean he's a piece of shit
I thought it was a dirty sanchez
His first marriage, to his former high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, ended in divorce in 1981. Although Gingrich has said he doesn't remember it, Battley has said Gingrich discussed divorce terms with her while she was recuperating in the hospital from cancer surgery.
obama's shock and awe. Give him props for being up front and honest about it, at the very least.
Obama unveils $3.55 trillion budget for fiscal 2010
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/politics/bal-obama-budget-0226,0,2941347.story
HOLY SHIT $3.55 trillion? This is reaching the point of insanity. :maf
So how many trillions is a trillion too many? How many 0's have to be added before you say enough? Please do tell.
So how many trillions is a trillion too many? How many 0's have to be added before you say enough? Please do tell.
Frankly, I don't really care as long as the money is spent on things I like. It's all monopoly money at this point, and odds are we'll be eating our own children within a decade after the inevitable collapse of civilization anyhow.
Eric P- that's change I can believe in.
The bigger the number, the bigger the justification for raising taxes next year. No big surprise.
So how many trillions is a trillion too many? How many 0's have to be added before you say enough? Please do tell.
Frankly, I don't really care as long as the money is spent on things I like. It's all monopoly money at this point, and odds are we'll be eating our own children within a decade after the inevitable collapse of civilization anyhow.
So if we are gonna be eating our kids, why abort them? After all, thats less babies/children to eat.
The bigger the number, the bigger the justification for raising taxes next year. No big surprise.
That is indeed what this is all about, and what I alluded to in shock and awe. I wouldn't be surprised to hear some chatter about more tax increases this year on rich people above and beyond what's already there, or even a full Bush tax cut repeal by the House (which Obama would certainly welcome, but not propose).
I stupidly watched Lou Dobbs and learned the attorney general is planning on taking away our gun rights and somehow a budget submitted to congress by the white house is full of pork barrel spending (apparently spending money on immagration agencies = pork barrel spending). Why did I do this. :-\
Michele Bachmann is still taken seriously within the party after she proclaimed congress should investigate the patriotism of congress members? lol
Q4 GDP revised down to -6.2%.
Better brace yourselves...the markets could get nasty today.
One of the chief economic advisers to their then Presidential candidate repeatedly referred to those feeling the pain of the recession as a nation of whiners while suggesting it was all in their heads, and now, as it is blindingly obvious that we are in serious, serious trouble, the leading lights of the opposition party are spending their days getting economic advice from a handyman who could not figure out that because he made significantly less than 250 grand a year he would not be having his taxes increased, taking their political advice from a radio loudmouth, holding panels at their annual conference discussing how Al Franken and ACORN are ruining Democracy, and spending their days questioning whether or not our President is actually an American. Meanwhile, as the DOW looks like it will dip below 7000 on more horrible economic news, the grass roots movement of the party is throwing “tea parties” to protest attempts by the opposition party to address this crisis.
When you hear the wingnuts talk triumphantly about their little tea party today, that is the appropriate context (from the comments: “Remind me, was the original tea party a demonstration against 95% of the colonies getting a tax cut?”). I honestly don’t know how anyone with half a brain still identifies as a Republican or conservative. These guys seem intent on doing to the conservative brand what they did to the name liberal brand, only much more effectively. This is a bankrupt movement.
Q4 GDP revised down to -6.2%.
Better brace yourselves...the markets could get nasty today.
And what, you may ask yourself, is the loyal opposition doing while the economy burns? (http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=17854)QuoteOne of the chief economic advisers to their then Presidential candidate repeatedly referred to those feeling the pain of the recession as a nation of whiners while suggesting it was all in their heads, and now, as it is blindingly obvious that we are in serious, serious trouble, the leading lights of the opposition party are spending their days getting economic advice from a handyman who could not figure out that because he made significantly less than 250 grand a year he would not be having his taxes increased, taking their political advice from a radio loudmouth, holding panels at their annual conference discussing how Al Franken and ACORN are ruining Democracy, and spending their days questioning whether or not our President is actually an American. Meanwhile, as the DOW looks like it will dip below 7000 on more horrible economic news, the grass roots movement of the party is throwing “tea parties” to protest attempts by the opposition party to address this crisis.
When you hear the wingnuts talk triumphantly about their little tea party today, that is the appropriate context (from the comments: “Remind me, was the original tea party a demonstration against 95% of the colonies getting a tax cut?”). I honestly don’t know how anyone with half a brain still identifies as a Republican or conservative. These guys seem intent on doing to the conservative brand what they did to the name liberal brand, only much more effectively. This is a bankrupt movement.
At least I'll get to see one or more major political parties die in my lifetime. It will be some comfort as I deal with the related collapse of Western civilization.
These guys seem intent on doing to the conservative brand what they did to the name liberal brand, only much more effectively. This is a bankrupt movement.
Sadly, I'm a portly vegetarian. I expect to be among the first to be eaten by my countrymen.
Q4 GDP revised down to -6.2%.
Better brace yourselves...the markets could get nasty today.
And what, you may ask yourself, is the loyal opposition doing while the economy burns? (http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=17854)QuoteOne of the chief economic advisers to their then Presidential candidate repeatedly referred to those feeling the pain of the recession as a nation of whiners while suggesting it was all in their heads, and now, as it is blindingly obvious that we are in serious, serious trouble, the leading lights of the opposition party are spending their days getting economic advice from a handyman who could not figure out that because he made significantly less than 250 grand a year he would not be having his taxes increased, taking their political advice from a radio loudmouth, holding panels at their annual conference discussing how Al Franken and ACORN are ruining Democracy, and spending their days questioning whether or not our President is actually an American. Meanwhile, as the DOW looks like it will dip below 7000 on more horrible economic news, the grass roots movement of the party is throwing “tea parties” to protest attempts by the opposition party to address this crisis.
When you hear the wingnuts talk triumphantly about their little tea party today, that is the appropriate context (from the comments: “Remind me, was the original tea party a demonstration against 95% of the colonies getting a tax cut?”). I honestly don’t know how anyone with half a brain still identifies as a Republican or conservative. These guys seem intent on doing to the conservative brand what they did to the name liberal brand, only much more effectively. This is a bankrupt movement.
At least I'll get to see one or more major political parties die in my lifetime. It will be some comfort as I deal with the related collapse of Western civilization.
Having observed this game for a long time, I still wonder why people go there. That Bobby Jindal story about being there in the office of the sherif when he was busting through the red tape, even telling the goofball government authorities that they could come arrest Bobby too ... well, turns out Jindal didn't mean it in the sense of its actually being true. He meant it more in the very loose sense in which you say something happened when it didn't happen because you heard much later that something kind of like that had happened when you weren't there.
Jindal admits Katrina story was fake
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/jindal_admits_katrina_story_was_false.php?ref=fp1
Gotta say, when I saw that on DailyKos I dismissed it as conspiracy bullshit, giving Jindal the benefit of the doubt. Marshall puts it best:QuoteHaving observed this game for a long time, I still wonder why people go there. That Bobby Jindal story about being there in the office of the sherif when he was busting through the red tape, even telling the goofball government authorities that they could come arrest Bobby too ... well, turns out Jindal didn't mean it in the sense of its actually being true. He meant it more in the very loose sense in which you say something happened when it didn't happen because you heard much later that something kind of like that had happened when you weren't there.
Jindal admits Katrina story was fake
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/jindal_admits_katrina_story_was_false.php?ref=fp1
Gotta say, when I saw that on DailyKos I dismissed it as conspiracy bullshit, giving Jindal the benefit of the doubt. Marshall puts it best:QuoteHaving observed this game for a long time, I still wonder why people go there. That Bobby Jindal story about being there in the office of the sherif when he was busting through the red tape, even telling the goofball government authorities that they could come arrest Bobby too ... well, turns out Jindal didn't mean it in the sense of its actually being true. He meant it more in the very loose sense in which you say something happened when it didn't happen because you heard much later that something kind of like that had happened when you weren't there.
....really?
i mean...REALLY?
i guess we should have known something was up when later on he claimed to have totally invented "those sticky note things"
That Bobby Jindal story about being there in the office of the sherif when he was busting through the red tape, even telling the goofball government authorities that they could come arrest Bobby too ... well, turns out Jindal didn't mean it in the sense of its actually being true. He meant it more in the very loose sense in which you say something happened when it didn't happen because you heard much later that something kind of like that had happened when you weren't there.
?
Although if the economy collapses or has a depression, the GOP is best off not putting anyone out and just not waste their money or time.
Republicans will forget Jindal's fuck up if the well for 2012 candidates is dry enough.my very conservative Grandma would have voted for Rommney if not for the fact "He's not a real Christian." And that was the dealbreaker. I think she was more afraid of him then Barack Obama.
Romney seems like he will get it...for now. However, he is a Mormon and represents more of the neocon wing or at least the economic conservative wing. These ranks have been decimated and the majority around are the religious fanatics and nutball outliers. They will have more say than before and if they don't like Mormons, Romney is going to have a hard struggle.
Republicans will forget Jindal's fuck up if the well for 2012 candidates is dry enough.my very conservative Grandma would have voted for Rommney if not for the fact "He's not a real Christian." And that was the dealbreaker. I think she was more afraid of him then Barack Obama.
Romney seems like he will get it...for now. However, he is a Mormon and represents more of the neocon wing or at least the economic conservative wing. These ranks have been decimated and the majority around are the religious fanatics and nutball outliers. They will have more say than before and if they don't like Mormons, Romney is going to have a hard struggle.
she's also a big Limbaugh fan.
If Rommney weren't a republican, his religion would be non-issue. But seeing as how conservative Christians are about the only people you can depend on to vote for the elephants these days, he could have Ronald Reagan's re-animated corpse as a running mate and it still wouldn't improve his chances.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin leads the pack with 29%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 26%, Mitt Romney at 21% and Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at 9%.http://politicalwire.com/
QuoteAlaska Governor Sarah Palin leads the pack with 29%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 26%, Mitt Romney at 21% and Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at 9%.http://politicalwire.com/
QuoteAlaska Governor Sarah Palin leads the pack with 29%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 26%, Mitt Romney at 21% and Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at 9%.http://politicalwire.com/
QuoteAlaska Governor Sarah Palin leads the pack with 29%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 26%, Mitt Romney at 21% and Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at 9%.http://politicalwire.com/
Whew .. I thought it was teh CPAC poll. I was fearful for our future.
(http://www.artbomb.net/blog/images/newyorker.jpg)
In other news, the gay hating Dobson has stepped down from Focus on the Family.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/27/dobson.steps.down/index.html?eref=rss_latest
Last year, Dobson caused a huge political stir when he announced he "cannot and will not" vote for Republican nominee Sen. John McCain. He later changed his tune, after McCain's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, calling her selection "one of the most exciting days of my life," on the syndicated Dennis Prager Show.
Bush Boom Continues" trilled the headline over the Lawrence Kudlow column, as George W. Bush closed out his seventh year in office.
"You can call it Goldilocks 2.0," purred Kudlow.
Yes, you could. But what a difference 12 months can make.
Final returns are now in on the eight years of George Bush. Charles McMillion of MBG Information Services has crunched the numbers. And, pace Kudlow, the only relevant comparison is to Herbert Hoover.
From January 2008, right after Kudlow's column ran, through January 2009, the U.S. economy lost 3.5 million jobs. The private sector loss of 3.65 million jobs was slightly offset by 148,000 jobs created by federal, state and local governments. Say what you will, the Bush years were boom times for Big Government.
And the private sector? Beginning and ending in recession, the Bush presidency added a net of 407,000 private sector jobs over eight years, less than 51,000 a year, the worst eight-year record since 1927-35, which includes the first six years of the Great Depression.
By January 2009, the average workweek had fallen to 33.3 hours, the lowest since record keeping began in 1964.
From Jan. 31, 2001, through Jan. 31, 2009, 4.4 million manufacturing jobs, 26 percent of all of the manufacturing jobs in the United States, disappeared.
Semiconductors and electronic component producers lost 42 percent of their jobs. Communications equipment producers lost 48 percent of their jobs. Textile and apparel producers lost, respectively, 63 percent and 61 percent of their jobs.
As a source of American jobs, manufacturing, for the first time in our history, fell below health care and education in 2001, below retail sales in 2002, below local government in 2006, below leisure and hospitality, i.e., restaurants and bars, in 2008.
Between this unprecedented loss in manufacturing capacity and jobs, and the $3.5 trillion in trade deficits in manufactured goods alone, run up by George W. Bush, the correlation is absolute.
Last week, final trade figures for 2008 came in. They make for riveting reading for Americans who yet believe that manufacturing is an indispensable element of national power.
With China exporting five times the dollar volume in goods to us as she imports from us, Beijing's trade surplus with the United States set yet another world record: $266 billion.
In those critical items the Commerce Department defines as advanced technology products (ATP), our trade deficit with China in 2008 reached an astonishing $72 billion. Since Bush took office, our total trade deficit with China in ATP exceeds $300 billion.
Which of us, China or America, has the trade profile of a mature industrial and technological power?
Americans deplore our deepening dependence on foreign regimes for the vital necessity of oil. Are they unaware that the U.S. trade deficit in manufactured goods, $440 billion, is $89 billion greater than our all-time record trade deficit of $351 billion in crude oil?
Why is a dependence on Canada, Mexico, Venezuela or Saudi Arabia for oil a greater peril than a reliance on China and Asia for vital necessities upon which our prosperity and military depend?
A week ago, the Washington Times ("Volcker Blames Recession on Trade Imbalances") reported that ex-Fed Chair Paul Volcker told Congress the "massive trade-related imbalances in the United States economy were the source of the financial crisis."
Pressed by Sen. Chris Dodd, Volcker said, "Go back to the imbalances in the economy. The United States has been consuming more than it has been producing for many years."
What "imbalances" was Volcker referring to? Perhaps these.
Since 1982, the United States has run $5.7 trillion in trade deficits in manufactured goods, and $2.1 trillion in trade deficits in auto parts, trucks and automobiles. In the Bush years alone, the United States ran more than $1 trillion in trade deficits in auto parts, trucks and cars.
These statistics, these realities -- factories closing in the United States, manufacturing jobs being outsourced in the millions to China and Asia, enormous, endless trade deficits in goods -- testify to a painful truth: America is a receding and declining world power.
And in dealing with this systemic crisis, Obama's stimulus package is as irrelevant as were the Bush tax cuts.
How do we correct those "trade-related imbalances" of which Volcker spoke? We must export more and import less, save more and spend less, produce more and consume less. We need to emulate the ants and behave less like the grasshoppers of summer.
But how do you tell that to two generations of Americans who have been raised in an era of entitlement?
America needs an Industrial Policy.
But how do you tell that to Americans indoctrinated in the hoary myth that Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley caused the Great Depression and anything that sounds like America First risks a rerun of the 1930s?
Obama at the Wizards game :lol(http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/06X66A37xg1mq/610x.jpg)
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=290227027
(http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/003tdjqfxOfsk/610x.jpg)
[youtube=560,345]AeTWzCpalok[/youtube]
BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's transportation department plans to request federal dollars for a New Orleans to Baton Rouge passenger rail service from the same pot of railroad money in the president's economic stimulus package that Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized as unnecessary pork on national television Tuesday night.
The high-speed rail line, a topic of discussion for years, would require $110 million to upgrade existing freight lines and terminals to handle a passenger train operation, said Mark Lambert, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
http://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain
please tell me that's not the real john mccain
http://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain
please tell me that's not the real john mccain
No, it is. Well, it's someone on his staff, but you get the idea.
I find it hilariously awesome that he's still banging the earmarks drum. His list consists of about 10 million or so in projects- big fucking deal. Some of them are useful stuff, too, but in typical Republican "let's take something out of context so we can make fun of it to score cheap points" style you'd never know it from reading his list. For instance the "beaver management" item is actually to go in and break up beaver dams to prevent flooding. I guess it's a total waste to spend a little more than half a million on that- why don't we just ignore it and then let rivers flood their banks and ruin houses and shit? Makes sense to me!
1. Payroll Tax Stimulus.
2. Real Middle-Income Tax Relief.
3. Reduce the Business Tax Rate.
4. Homeowner’s Assistance.
5. Control Spending So We Can Move to a Balanced Budget.
6. No State Aid Without Protection From Fraud.
7. More American Energy Now (Energy exploration).
8. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains.
9. Protect the Rights of American Workers (from… Unions)
10. Replace Sarbanes-Oxley.
11. Abolish the Death Tax.
12. Invest in Energy and Transportation Infrastructure.
Why are you bagging on tax cuts? 30 percent of the stimulus package had them. I don't see you railing against YA BOY, Obama.
[youtube=560,345]bcuXV99asO8[/youtube]I hate that guy for some reason, his impression annoys me.
Just awesome.
Many economists expect that the labor data to be released next Friday will show that as many as 700,000 jobs disappeared in February, lifting the unemployment rate near 8 percent and pushing total job losses to more than four million since the recession began in December 2007.
So what happens to the budget if we don't have GDP growth of 3.2% next year and 4% for the three years after that?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/economy/28recession.html?_r=1&hp (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/economy/28recession.html?_r=1&hp)
Seems just as unrealistic as their assertion that unemployment will peak at 8.1% this year.QuoteMany economists expect that the labor data to be released next Friday will show that as many as 700,000 jobs disappeared in February, lifting the unemployment rate near 8 percent and pushing total job losses to more than four million since the recession began in December 2007.
Someone pass the hopium.
Romney took 20 percent of the vote, followed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal with 14 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 13 percent, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with 13 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 10 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 7 percent. Others on the ballot included South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Nine percent were undecided.
The thing is you need a lot of money, to run an effective primary battle. And unlike Democrats who can run an effective campaign on small donors the GOP relies on big donors. Big Republican insider donors. Will the GOP money coffers REALLY help fund Palin's campaign? I wouldn't be surprised if they avoid her like the plague which would effectively kill her campaign.
Is Beardo gonna eat his shoe now, wasn't that the deal?
The thing is you need a lot of money, to run an effective primary battle. And unlike Democrats who can run an effective campaign on small donors the GOP relies on big donors. Big Republican insider donors. Will the GOP money coffers REALLY help fund Palin's campaign? I wouldn't be surprised if they avoid her like the plague which would effectively kill her campaign.
The thing is you need a lot of money, to run an effective primary battle. And unlike Democrats who can run an effective campaign on small donors the GOP relies on big donors. Big Republican insider donors. Will the GOP money coffers REALLY help fund Palin's campaign? I wouldn't be surprised if they avoid her like the plague which would effectively kill her campaign.
Palin's an incurious twit by any appreciable measure. She'd let big conservative business interests do whatever the fuck they wanted if she was President. I don't think she'd have problems raising large sums of cash provided she had decent well-known conservative insiders in her campaign to coordinate it.
Even then, as long as the Republicans look like they're distinguished mentally-challenged he'll still probably get elected. Clinton whipped the shit out of Dole in 96 even tho two years earlier there was supposedly this massive "rebuke" of democrats for reaching too far or some shit. Basically, as long as the Republicans are the party of Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Clown Shoes Michael Steele and the distinguished mentally-challenged Governor's Alliance, Obama could probably show up to the 2012 debates with a doo rag and a 40 and still win relatively easily.Yep.
Blimps aren't cheap. He probably also gave a bunch of it to Amity Shlaes to say that the New Deal didn't work.
Blimps aren't cheap. He probably also gave a bunch of it to Amity Shlaes to say that the New Deal didn't work.
His campaign didnt pay for the blimp.
Blimps aren't cheap. He probably also gave a bunch of it to Amity Shlaes to say that the New Deal didn't work.
His campaign didnt pay for the blimp.
You did? smh, how does it feel to throw your money down a vacuum
yea how much money did you spend on Paul FoC?
This is why the GOP is dooooomed for the foreseeable future. (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/1/12152/77957/475/703299) Sure, lol it's a post on kos, but it's chock full of freepers and redstaters freaking out that Michael Steele and Cantor would dare, DARE I say question the wisdom of the almighty Rush. As long as these people are allowed to dictate the direction of the party, the GOP is fucked.
This is why the GOP is dooooomed for the foreseeable future. (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/1/12152/77957/475/703299) Sure, lol it's a post on kos, but it's chock full of freepers and redstaters freaking out that Michael Steele and Cantor would dare, DARE I say question the wisdom of the almighty Rush. As long as these people are allowed to dictate the direction of the party, the GOP is fucked.The best thing about GOP's full embrace of Rush is that it used to be that they'd be willing to cut off their own nose just to spite the dirty fucking hippies. This seems to have morphed into their number one priority is to have their 35% be hated on by the other 65% to maximum effect. They somehow feel that if they don't come across as inhuman lizards they somehow have shown weakness. Which as 300 taught us, is unforgivable.
"So I am an entertainer and I have 20 million listeners because of my great song and dance routine," Limbaugh said. "Michael Steele, you are head of the Republican National Committee. You are not head of the Republican party. Tens of millions of conservatives and Republicans have nothing to do with the Republican National Committee...and when you call them asking for money, they hang up on you."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/02/steele-takes-on-rush-limb_n_171135.html
YOU BE DA MAN! YOU BE DA MAN!!!:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol
The Republicans are basically lurching right and purging anyone who doesn't agree. Do they actually think that is a way to win back the public? Did they at ALL pay attention to Dean's 50 state strategy used in 2006 and by Obama in 2008 where they focused growing the party rather than purifying it?
A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as “losers.” With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence – exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we’re cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush’s every rancorous word – we’ll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.http://newmajority.com/ShowScroll.aspx?ID=d22fe4c9-6f8c-4c0d-93af-aed79ad3b467
Rush knows what he is doing. The worse conservatives do, the more important Rush becomes as leader of the ardent remnant. The better conservatives succeed, the more we become a broad national governing coalition, the more Rush will be sidelined.
Ron Kirk, nominated as U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration, owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to make his payments, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday.
The spreadsheet released by Taxpayers for Common Sense shows that six Republican senators are among the top 10 earmarkers, with Mr. Cochran, the senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee in the lead.
Why is Howard Dean being dissed so bad by the party? I saw a headline today where he was whining about being overlooked for HHSDead was on the outs soon as Rahm came in as Chief of Staff, Rahm hates Dean with a passion and Rahm is basically second in command in the White House after Obama (he seems to have a lot more influence and power than Biden).
That's politics though. Don't worry, they will dust off old Dean in about 6 years and he will be relevant again.Dean is lucky he got such a huge role 2005-2008 that he did, most candidates would fade away after such a laughably bad primary showing.
[img]http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/palin_limbaugh1.png[img]Palin can see Limbaugh from her house
That's a tough one, Mandark. Half of Newt's ideas were basically just tax cuts... but then again it's always fun to hate on Rudy. But it will make TA angrier if I say Newt, so Newt.
1. Payroll Tax Stimulus.
2. Real Middle-Income Tax Relief.
3. Reduce the Business Tax Rate.
4. Homeowner’s Assistance.
5. Control Spending So We Can Move to a Balanced Budget.
6. No State Aid Without Protection From Fraud.
7. More American Energy Now (Energy exploration).
8. Abolish Taxes on Capital Gains.
9. Protect the Rights of American Workers (from… Unions)
10. Replace Sarbanes-Oxley.
11. Abolish the Death Tax.
12. Invest in Energy and Transportation Infrastructure.
That's a reworded list from a biased source.
bubububu the source.
Republicans confuse me. They trash the media nonstop but they go absolutely batshit insane in devotion over media figureheads, far more than liberals. You'd never see Democrats acting the same way about Olbermann, Maddow...etc the way Republicans treat Rush.
Rush is the new Fox News for the left. I imagine his listenership is sky rocketing.
Right America Feeling Wronged was great. I love Alexandra Pelosi's docs. All of them are very funny.
She talks to media people in it as well and shows off towns and people getting emotional and crying not just dumb comments. Her doc from 2000 "Journey's With George" was her best work. Bush chatted with her a lot and took an active part in it.Right America Feeling Wronged was great. I love Alexandra Pelosi's docs. All of them are very funny.
Not really. Funny I suppose, but I dunno if it was a "documentary" as much as it's smug liberalism shining a light on the dumbest people it can find, edited to biased perfection.
Media people ie the suit n tie liberals? ::)wtf? She never makes the claim they speak for everyone in the party.
The doc shows off a small percentage of the republican base and tries to make them speak for everyone. Right America my ass
President Barack Obama's Treasury secretary says the administration will unveil a series of rules and measures in the coming months to limit the ability of international companies to avoid U.S. taxes.
Media people ie the suit n tie liberals? ::)in interviews she's given she said the footage shown was a representative sample of the people she filmed. She was carrying a camera, she would speak to whomever would talk to her, and I'm guessing the people most willing to talk are usually the ones that shouldn't be.
The doc shows off a small percentage of the republican base and tries to make them speak for everyone. Right America my ass
mmmm, universal health care and the rich footing the bill for the society that supports them:lol :lol
Obama will turn out to be the greatest President of all time,
mmmm, universal health care and the rich footing the bill for the society that supports them:lol :lol
We dont take kindly to rich people. Why dont they take their capital and their business some place else.
mmmm, universal health care and the rich footing the bill for the society that supports them:lol :lol
We dont take kindly to rich people. Why dont they take their capital and their business some place else.
Who does support them then?
Yes clearly people who don't provide are entitled something by people who do. Of course when all the producers get up and leave who is going to be there to make society work?
Even though I'm able to produce, I take no harm in the fact that others who don't benefit through my ability to produce. I'm indirectly helping the nation through the deductions in my paycheck
Hey FoC, you're putting your money on Jim Cramer being correct about something, right? RIGHT?
Of course when all the producers get up and leave who is going to be there to make society work?Of course, once they take their SUPER-ALLOY and go home, who'll be laughing then? :smug
Even though I'm able to produce, I take no harm in the fact that others who don't benefit through my ability to produce. I'm indirectly helping the nation through the deductions in my paycheck
It's an extremely inefficient way to help people but hey to each his own.
I think I've heard such talk before...
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
foc, tell us what it is like to be poor and uneducated, yet worship the rich
Quote from: FlameOfCallandorYes clearly people who don't provide are entitled something by people who do. Of course when all the producers get up and leave who is going to be there to make society work?
But FoC we can just make laws to force people to provide!
And if that doesnt work we can all work for the federal government they are always hiring.
I only "worship" myself.
foc, tell us what it is like to be poor and uneducated, yet worship the rich
I only "worship" myself.
foc, tell us what it is like to be poor and uneducated, yet worship the rich
I only "worship" myself.
yet you contribute nothing the free market prefers
foc, tell us what it is like to be poor and uneducated, yet worship the rich
I only "worship" myself.
yet you contribute nothing the free market prefers
My paychecks disagree. But whatever you say.
Paychecks, you say? So you're working in servitude to another man? You'll never be a prime mover if you keep this up.:lol
foc, tell us what it is like to be poor and uneducated, yet worship the rich
I only "worship" myself.
yet you contribute nothing the free market prefers
My paychecks disagree. But whatever you say.
foc, tell us what it is like to be poor and uneducated, yet worship the rich
I only "worship" myself.
yet you contribute nothing the free market prefers
My paychecks disagree. But whatever you say.
Paychecks, you say? So you're working in servitude to another man? You'll never be a prime mover if you keep this up.
he is being coerced to give the fruits of his labor to another man, and paid welfare out of the kindness of the prime mover's heart. the only difference is that his owner isn't named "BIG GOVERNMENT" :smug
you could be making a lot more on your own without your master if you weren't looking for an easy handout :smug
lazy leeches, sigh
whether he's trying or not, you are getting severely skull fucked :lol
Even though I'm able to produce, I take no harm in the fact that others who do benefit through my ability to produce.
None of what you say makes any sense.
None of what you say makes any sense.
:smugNone of what you say makes any sense.
(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1043/707822363_fe7661c61a.jpg?v=0)
I should have known that suggesting that people actually work to provide and not be punished for it was too much to ask for liberals.
Yeah, except instead of the masters of the universe mysteriously vanishing, they robbed everyone blind and set shit on fire on their way out the door.
I should have known that suggesting that people actually work to provide and not be punished for it was too much to ask for liberals.
how DO people who make over $250K/yr survive the cruelties of coercive taxation
how i ask
wait, you wouldn't know
i'll tell you, then: it's pretty posh
oh man what happens when the producers all leave?!
*this never happens because they rely on society and workers to make money, and they would all starve to death because they wouldn't have anything*
ANY DAY NOW!!!!Yeah, except instead of the masters of the universe mysteriously vanishing, they robbed everyone blind and set shit on fire on their way out the door.
(http://i44.tinypic.com/18dt1v.jpg)
I didnt ask how they survive, I asked for it to be justified.
oh man what happens when the producers all leave?!
*this never happens because they rely on society and workers to make money, and they would all starve to death because they wouldn't have anything*
ANY DAY NOW!!!!
Ya know, the threat of a societal boycott by our economic betters would carry a lot more heft if there were historical examples besides a work of (awful) fiction.
Just saying.
God not only that but Dagny actually talks about how much she wants to cook for John Galt. God damn what a shitty comic.
God not only that but Dagny actually talks about how much she wants to cook for John Galt.
Ya know, the threat of a societal boycott by our economic betters would carry a lot more heft if there were historical examples besides a work of (awful) fiction.
Just saying.
Collapse of the soviet union isnt enough for you?
It would be like me making a comic about Moby dick 2 where they spend their days looking for McDonalds.God not only that but Dagny actually talks about how much she wants to cook for John Galt. God damn what a shitty comic.
Well, it can only be as good as it's source material.
Whoever drew that comic didnt even read the book. Dagny worked happily in Galts gulch for 25 cents an hour.
God not only that but Dagny actually talks about how much she wants to cook for John Galt. God damn what a shitty comic.
Ya know, the threat of a societal boycott by our economic betters would carry a lot more heft if there were historical examples besides a work of (awful) fiction.
Just saying.
Collapse of the soviet union isnt enough for you?
God not only that but Dagny actually talks about how much she wants to cook for John Galt. God damn what a shitty comic.
much like socialism and Service-Oriented Architecture :smug
FoC worships a false god confirmed.mods, change his name to golden calf.
Ya know, the threat of a societal boycott by our economic betters would carry a lot more heft if there were historical examples besides a work of (awful) fiction.
Just saying.
Collapse of the soviet union isnt enough for you?
I love it. Republicans continuing to implode:so when this guy get booted or "resigns due to personal reasons" by Summer's end its only going to reinforce the GOP's rep as the honkey party.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19588.html
Party leaders are starting to realize Steele is a complete joke who has no idea waht he is doing and are regretting appointing him as RNC chair and thinking it will hurt them in their hopes at a comeback. :lol
Hey, maybe we can get back to the awesome LBJ days when Democrats had 75 senators, getting more and more likely as the days go by.
GOP to Michael Steele: Quiet About Rush Limbaugh or You're Fired (http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/3/3/gop-to-michael-steele-quiet-about-rush-limbaugh-or-youre-fired.html)and that's from no liberal rag there.
This was probably covered already but the latest thing my Republican/Libertarian peers are throwing at me is a bill making its rounds through the house that wants to repeal the 22nd amendment: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-hj5/show (http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-hj5/show) anybody know anything more on this?
ADP jobs report for Feb -697k
The seeds were planted in October after Democracy Corps, the Democratic polling company run by Carville and Greenberg, included Limbaugh’s name in a survey and found that many Americans just don’t like him.http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19596.html
“His positives for voters under 40 was 11 percent,” Carville recalled with a degree of amazement, alluding to a question about whether voters had a positive or negative view of the talk show host.
Paul Begala, a close friend of Carville, Greenberg and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said they found Limbaugh’s overall ratings were even lower than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s controversial former pastor, and William Ayers, the domestic terrorist and Chicago resident who Republicans sought to tie to Obama during the campaign.
Speaking of leaders, I liked this.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=87fd30a0-6464-47a3-a183-460e8c505221
I eat a shoe if the stimulus doesn't pass and we lose 500K jobs for 6 months straight.
8.3 million US home loans are upside down. :-\
Yes, when homes (in my area) that were built 5 years ago for 350k and are still sitting at asking prices in the 240-260k range. It's pretty close to fucking anyone that has made a home purchase in this decade.
Yes, when homes (in my area) that were built 5 years ago for 350k and are still sitting at asking prices in the 240-260k range. It's pretty close to fucking anyone that has made a home purchase in this decade.
So far housing prices where I'm at have barely budged. :smug
Man, housing prices for non-California are damn cheap. :'(
You can build a 3,200 sq foot home (with 2 1/2 car garage) on an acre of land for about 250-280k in rural Ohio. It's crazy cheap.
i'm still above water! bought my house for a meagre (lol) $232K on a fixed-rate 15-year ($40K down plus i pay on the principal like a mofo), and it's still valued at $316K
:rock :bow me :bow2 :rock
socialists: still the best with money
Christ, why would you NEED something that big?
i'm still above water! bought my house for a meagre (lol) $232K on a fixed-rate 15-year ($40K down plus i pay on the principal like a mofo), and it's still valued at $316K
:rock :bow me :bow2 :rock
socialists: still the best with money
my wife's sisters' family was looking to move to a better school area in Seattle and it was a total bitch finding a place that was even remotely affordable, they just gave up after a year of looking. Still a pretty strong market.
i'm still above water! bought my house for a meagre (lol) $232K on a fixed-rate 15-year ($40K down plus i pay on the principal like a mofo), and it's still valued at $316K
:rock :bow me :bow2 :rock
socialists: still the best with money
my wife's sisters' family was looking to move to a better school area in Seattle and it was a total bitch finding a place that was even remotely affordable, they just gave up after a year of looking. Still a pretty strong market.
Are all of the decent school districts in unaffordable locations? My wife and I were planning on flying to Seattle at the end of this month to scout out the place to maybe relocate.
Christ, why would you NEED something that big?
I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.
oh those democrats:teehee
like the time they stole all the "w"s from the keyboards
i'm still above water! bought my house for a meagre (lol) $232K on a fixed-rate 15-year ($40K down plus i pay on the principal like a mofo), and it's still valued at $316K
:rock :bow me :bow2 :rock
socialists: still the best with money
my wife's sisters' family was looking to move to a better school area in Seattle and it was a total bitch finding a place that was even remotely affordable, they just gave up after a year of looking. Still a pretty strong market.
Are all of the decent school districts in unaffordable locations? My wife and I were planning on flying to Seattle at the end of this month to scout out the place to maybe relocate.
They stole Ws from keybords? You shitting me? When was this?
They stole Ws from keybords? You shitting me? When was this?they didn't. It was part of Rove's bullshit narrative about our unfairly embattered president. It was reported that the outgoing Clinton staffers defaced the offices they left behind for Bush's team, but when questioned about ANY specific instances the press secretary couldn't come up with any. None of these instances were photographed, no cases were prosecuted. Its fiction.
I will tell you one thing, just in terms of the former president. All the allegations that they took stuff off of Air Force One is simply not true, for example. (http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/02/14/bush/print.html)and again, about the Whitehouse vandalism.
But the Air Force One story, as with the allegations of widespread White House vandalism, proved not to be true. And Bush was there to say so. "There might have been a prank or two, maybe somebody put a cartoon on the wall, but that's OK," Bush said about the White House "vandalism" on Jan. 26. "It's time now to move forward."The story was always horseshit. And Bob Barr and Alberto Gonzales are about as trustworthy as that guy hanging around outside the liquor store who needs a quarter to call home.
They stole Ws from keybords? You shitting me? When was this?they didn't. It was part of Rove's bullshit narrative about our unfairly embattered president. It was reported that the outgoing Clinton staffers defaced the offices they left behind for Bush's team, but when questioned about ANY specific instances the press secretary couldn't come up with any. None of these instances were photographed, no cases were prosecuted. Its fiction.
Just another baloney sandwich to feed Hannity, Rush and co.
Do you see the look of horror on the Presidential portrait in the background?
Do you see the look of horror on the Presidential portrait in the background?:lol
I want Andrea Tantaros to have my babies.
I'll take that black republican on MSNBC, uh Michelle Bernard :drool
Ew no thanks :yuck
There's another black Michelle (it's pronounced mee-shell I think) on msnbc sometimes...black, can't remember her name. total milf/possible gilf
I want Andrea Tantaros to have my babies.Andrea Tantaros: <gettin' it hard>
yea Meshell Norris omgg so hot.
Amy Holmes is alright looking, but so damn obnoxious. At least Bernard is a good troll at times
PD you pick her:
(http://blog.newsok.com/staticblog/files/2008/10/michelle-bernard.gif)
over her?
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l8xeX8k9lgo/SHd74bMy1nI/AAAAAAAAECU/OtE0PzkAEjw/s400/amy+holmes+and+jamal+simmons.jpg)
over her?
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l8xeX8k9lgo/SHd74bMy1nI/AAAAAAAAECU/OtE0PzkAEjw/s400/amy+holmes+and+jamal+simmons.jpg)
Kate Beckinsale :oWoah, she's a Republican?
Kate Beckinsale :oShe had a Obama & Hillary themed birthday party for her daughter back in august. so LIAR!
PD you pick her:
[img]http://blog.newsok.com/staticblog/files/2008/10/michelle-bernard.gif[img]
over her?
[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l8xeX8k9lgo/SHd74bMy1nI/AAAAAAAAECU/OtE0PzkAEjw/s400/amy+holmes+and+jamal+simmons.jpg[img]
It couldn't be more clear cut. Damn I'm surprised you guys disagree
Eric --
Submit your slogan I'm Jen O'Malley Dillon, the new Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee.
If you're anything like me, then you've had the urge to talk back to a right-wing talk radio host more than a few times. Now you can.
Rush Limbaugh has made waves lately about his desire to see President Obama fail. And he's unapologetic, even though Americans voted in November for the very kind of change the President is bringing to Washington. As even Limbaugh must know, if the President fails, America fails.
Incredibly, Republican leaders have yet to condemn Limbaugh for his destructive comments. In fact, Republicans like Congressman Eric Cantor, a leader in the House, have adopted the Limbaugh strategy, telling the Washington Post recently that their strategy on the President's jobs plan was "just saying no."
The only Republican leader to challenge Limbaugh -- the chairman of the Republican National Committee -- even called Rush to apologize just a few days later.
But we have no apologies for Rush, just a message. We need you to come up with a slogan, in ten words or less, that we'll put on a billboard where he can't miss it -- in his hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida.
Can you help us come up with a message for Rush that we'll place on a billboard right in his hometown?
We'll go through all the slogans we get, and the winner will have his or her message appear on the billboard -- and receive a free T-shirt featuring the winning slogan.
If Republican leaders aren't willing to tell Rush, then we will. Americans want President Obama to succeed. Our country's future depends on it. Rooting for the President's failure is rooting for our country to fail.
To get America back on a path to prosperity, we'll need to leave behind the failed partisan attack politics of the past. Americans voted for a new direction in November. Choosing Rush Limbaugh to be the voice of their party -- as Republican leaders have done -- is not the answer.
Send in your suggestion of ten words or less for a billboard and we'll choose the best one to put in Rush's own "backyard":
http://www.democrats.org/rushbillboard
Thanks,
Jen
Jen O'Malley Dillon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee
That about wraps it up for nuclear power in the United States:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008814298_yucca05.html?syndication=rss (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008814298_yucca05.html?syndication=rss)
That about wraps it up for nuclear power in the United States:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008814298_yucca05.html?syndication=rss (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008814298_yucca05.html?syndication=rss)
DOW down to 6669. Obama is the anit-christ confirmed.
avatar299 was a idiot. PoliGAF pretty much died after it lost you, toxicadam, & APF.
Why did you get banned anyway?avatar299 was a idiot. PoliGAF pretty much died after it lost you, toxicadam, & APF.
Ahem.
Why did you get banned anyway?avatar299 was a idiot. PoliGAF pretty much died after it lost you, toxicadam, & APF.
Ahem.
On the bright side, Ami doesn't really contribute there anymore. You should be allowed back :(
Pre-2008 PoliGAF :bow:lol
TA claiming he may vote Obama
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5339459&postcount=17
PD claiming Obama can't win because in a "post 9/11 world" you need lots of foreign policy experience
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5339515&postcount=23
PD claiming Ill. isn't happy with Obam's job as senator
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4599619&postcount=4
I miss old PoliGAF. :(
post the NH meltdowns :lol
The best was when TA and I took turns starting threads to rile up the global warmingists. We'd PM back and forth different stories and decide who should start the thread. God that was fun. :lol
How can I get back into GAF?
I actually have a small network of people I PM on GAF and do this.
That about wraps it up for nuclear power in the United States:I didn't think Obama was actually stupid enough to think we would have any option but nuclear power ing the future.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008814298_yucca05.html?syndication=rss (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008814298_yucca05.html?syndication=rss)
Last Friday, Vice President Joe Biden and seven White House cabinet members traveled to Philadelphia to kick off the inaugural gathering of President Obama's Middle Class Task Force. The task force will convene monthly in cities across the country to confront the problems faced by average Americans. It's an admirable goal; with rising costs, stagnant wages and job cuts, a Pew Research study found that 78% of self-described middle class Americans have trouble maintaining their current standard of living.
Still, the middle class may have a better shot at making ends meet than at influencing the Middle Class Task Force. That's because no member of the Middle Class Task Force is actually middle class. While defining America's most beloved demographic group has never been an exact science, most academics agree that the term refers to anyone earning between $30,000 and $100,000 a year. (Median household income in the U.S. hovers around $50,000.) Every member of the President's task force - from Biden ($227,000) to Council of Economic Advisors chair Christina Romer ($172,000) to energy secretary Steven Chu ($191,000) - makes well over $150,000, putting them in the top 5% of wage earners. (See pictures of crime in Middle America.)
While middle class Americans are invited to submit questions and ideas through the task force's website, AStrongMiddleClass.gov and tickets for the Philadelphia meeting were distributed to labor and environmental groups, the task force did not accept questions from the audience. "If Biden and his team want to go into this [middle class issue]," said Daniel Morris, communications director of the Drum Major Institute, a think tank that analyzes middle class policy issues, "They're going to need to talk to real members of the middle class. There's no substitute for immediate intimate interaction."
Instead, the task force talked to Pennsylvania governor Edward Rendell ($175,000), Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter ($167,000) and United Steelworkers of America president Leo Gerard, (who reportedly earns over $170,000). "[The Vice President] is doing the right thing," said Karen Nussbaum executive director of Working America, "but hearing directly from working people who are struggling and finding their way is an essential part of this."
In Philadelphia, the task force members and panelists spent a long time congratulating one another one on their good intentions before turning to the meeting's single topic: green jobs. The stimulus package bestows $500 million for green job training programs, $6 billion in loan guarantees for green industries, and $5 billion for a weatherization assistance program that could save homeowners up to $350 per year on utilities. Van Jones, president of Green For All, made an impassioned plea to "give young people the chance to put down that handgun and pick up a caulking gun." Greg Nelson, official Middle Class Task Force liveblogger, commented on an argument between representatives from Portland, Los Angeles, and Philly, who tried to out-green each other for the title of most environmentally friendly city. (See the top 10 green ideas of 2008.)
The task force didn't specify the number of jobs it hoped to create in the green sector, or how much of an impact the programs are expected to have on the middle class as a whole. Annie Tomasini, Biden's deputy press secretary, says the Philadelphia meeting was just "a listening session" and that the task force will not actually make any decisions regarding green job creation. They'll have to go back to Washington to do that.
Some staffer probably made the list going off of AFI's list. A black man in his 40's and one movie from the 80's or 90's in his top 25? WhaaatevvaahYeah probably, I mean this is a President who loves Star Trek of all things, I doubt this would be his real list.
"It's a Wonderful Life" over any Bruce Lee movie? No comedies outside of "Some like it Hot"?
27. Pootie Tang
I found the new Obama Tax forms.I don't agree with the message, but its kinda funny.
25. To Kill A Mocking Bird.
Yeah probably, I mean this is a President who loves Star Trek of all things, I doubt this would be his real list.
Schindler's List, Godfather, and Star Wars are all guilty pleasures at best.
If he thinks he can put solar and wind in his pipe and smoke it for a country with the energy needs of the US, then we can be suffering the consequences for decades.
Well none of those movies seemed to really have any benefit to the industry. It seemed to me that people always watched them for some vague, emotional reason.
As for energy, the ONLY way to get enough power is with nuclear. Not to mention that those technologies are time/weather dependent.
I thought that Obama was a progressive but he's really not doing anything that amazing at this point. Nuclear is one of my personal little litmus tests that he totally bombed.
Unless he's actually planning to use like a red state or whatever for the nuclear waste.
Obama gave PM Brown a dvd copy of his top 25 favorite movies. Interesting picks.
1. Citizen Kane
2. The Godfather
3. Casablanca
4. Raging Bull
5. Singing In The Rain
6. Gone With The Wind
7. Lawrence Of Arabia
8. Schindler's List
9. Vertigo
10. The Wizard Of Oz
11. City Lights
12. The Searchers
13. Star Wars: Episode IV
14. Psycho
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey
16. Sunset Boulevard
17. The Graduate
18. The General
19. On The waterfront
20. It's A Wonderful Life
21. China Town
22. Some Like It Hot
23. The Grapes Of Wrath
24. ET: The Extra Terrestrial
25. To Kill A Mocking Bird.
Looks like Sanjay Gupta hasn't been paying his taxes.So has he withdrawn from being surgeon general?
Looks like Sanjay Gupta hasn't been paying his taxes.
you know, in the midst of all this economic crisis, there's something we need to remember
republicans wanted social security privatized holy shit
If this is what it takes to bring Gupta down, so be it.
Not counting the ~$1-2 Trillion transition costs that were somehow never factored into whatever gains a "personal account" SS might see.you know, in the midst of all this economic crisis, there's something we need to remember
republicans wanted social security privatized holy shit
The short term profit windfalls almost outweighed the concern for a possibility of disaster.
Schindler's List, Godfather, and Star Wars are all guilty pleasures at best. I kinda expect the pundits to attention-whore about this.
More minor fearmongering from the left to pass their agenda...
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/2009/03/medical-bankrup.html
I saw this up on reddit. It's a PBS interview with a Harvard Law professor about credit and America. Interesting stuff.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/interviews/warren.html
More minor fearmongering from the left to pass their agenda...
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/2009/03/medical-bankrup.htmlI saw this up on reddit. It's a PBS interview with a Harvard Law professor about credit and America. Interesting stuff.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/interviews/warren.html
Just saying is all.
Jobs Report:
FEB -651K
JAN revised down to -655k from -577k
DEC revised down to -681k from -598k
Unemployment rate 8.1% from 7.6%...
Heh...the only job sector to grow was government +9k.
Tillerson: Raising oil taxes will hurt Americans
March. 5: Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson discusses his views on proposed taxes and whether or not the company plans to invest in alternative energy in the future.
tl;drThere are enough libs to fill up rhode island?
I get the gist of it, tho, and would like to offer Libertarians a piece of land roughly approximate to the percentage of the populace they make up. Will Rhode Island do?
This makes about as much sense as putting the Michigan governor on your economic team.
WHY ARE YOU FEAR-MONGERING OBAMA, WHERE'S THE "HOPE," JEEZ!?
WHY AREN'T YOU DOING ANYTHING OBAMA, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's.
Did she attend the Wellesley Agricultural School instead?
This makes about as much sense as putting the Michigan governor on your economic team.
Granholm is one of his economic advisors. :-[
PD & I voted for her. :bow
You can be nice to Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer anybody that threatens us.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened her first extended talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by giving him a present meant to symbolize the Obama administration’s vow to “press the reset button” on U.S.-Russia relations.
She handed a palm-sized box wrapped with a bow. Lavrov opened it and pulled out the gift: a red button on a black base with a Russian word peregruzka printed on top.
“We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?” Clinton asked.
“You got it wrong,” Lavrov said.
Instead of "reset," Lavrov said the word on the box meant “overcharge.”
Jobs Report:
FEB -651K
JAN revised down to -655k from -577k
DEC revised down to -681k from -598k
Unemployment rate 8.1% from 7.6%...
I said two months ago all these fuckers get their pockets greased by the financial industry. They're not going to bite the hand that feeds them.
I think Obama should just say fuckit and short of pulling out the guillotine do whatever their group thinks might actually fix shit. An approval rating short-term drop of 10pts oh no, much worse than being saddled with the long-term consequences of this.
Start swinging some elbows
yeah, geithner and summers need to go. i was never thrilled by the geithner appointment, but i had some hope for summers. now, they're both interchangable. kick 'em out and bring some real heavies in, and get that thin black bank blood runnin' in the streets.
yeah, geithner and summers need to go. i was never thrilled by the geithner appointment, but i had some hope for summers. now, they're both interchangable. kick 'em out and bring some real heavies in, and get that thin black bank blood runnin' in the streets.
No you're wrong, Summers went to college at 16. He's just the wizkid Obama needs!
Those diplomatic slip ups are minor but in general, they still seem all too willing to let banks cornhole the US.
According to ABC News, talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh said that President Obama has now pushed healthcare reform to center stage because it is "highly visible, news leading, gets a great focus, plus it has the great liberal lion Teddy Kennedy pushing it. Before it's all over, it will be called the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill."
speaking of whichHe is right, and Ted Kennedy's death will likely give a huge push to health care reform due to the fact it was his life's dream and make it far easier for Obama to get those 1-2 GOP senate votes he needs.QuoteAccording to ABC News, talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh said that President Obama has now pushed healthcare reform to center stage because it is "highly visible, news leading, gets a great focus, plus it has the great liberal lion Teddy Kennedy pushing it. Before it's all over, it will be called the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill."
He's probably right
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/weekend-opinionator-the-party-of-limbaugh-a-conservative-debate/
great breakdown of the current Limbaugh kerfuffle
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/weekend-opinionator-the-party-of-limbaugh-a-conservative-debate/
great breakdown of the current Limbaugh kerfuffle
It is a political tactic but Rush is too egotistical to know that he is setting his party up to fail. This is the highlight of his career right here and his priorities is his influence and probably the possibility of more money rolling in. The GOP is stupid enough to hitch their wagon to the shooting star that is Rush. The Democrats were smart enough to keep a distance between themselves and Michael Moore for the reasons that the GOP & Rush will find out here soon enough.
Byron York talks to Rush Limbaugh about his ratings:http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Limbaugh-My-Ratings-are-Way-Way-Up-40846352.html
"The latest numbers I have are for January, well before this kerfuffle began, and they are through the roof -- six shares in NY, for example. There are daily ratings taken now in about the top 15 markets but I have not seen them yet. All I can tell you is that as of January, we booked 80 percent of all our 2008 revenue and we'll be over 2008 by the end of this month," says Rush.
York's comment: "Given those numbers -- revenues for the first quarter of 2009 higher than all of 2008 -- it's clear that the most decisive economic stimulus produced by the Obama administration so far has been at the Excellence in Broadcasting Network."
This really is win-win, for everyone except the Republican Party.
QuoteByron York talks to Rush Limbaugh about his ratings:http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Limbaugh-My-Ratings-are-Way-Way-Up-40846352.html
"The latest numbers I have are for January, well before this kerfuffle began, and they are through the roof -- six shares in NY, for example. There are daily ratings taken now in about the top 15 markets but I have not seen them yet. All I can tell you is that as of January, we booked 80 percent of all our 2008 revenue and we'll be over 2008 by the end of this month," says Rush.
York's comment: "Given those numbers -- revenues for the first quarter of 2009 higher than all of 2008 -- it's clear that the most decisive economic stimulus produced by the Obama administration so far has been at the Excellence in Broadcasting Network."
This really is win-win, for everyone except the Republican Party.
The only reason that he still has the support he has now is because the GOP has embraced insanity.
Rush isn't "setting the party up to fail". They were going to fail regardless.
Unless ... the MSM media starts to turn on Obama like this...
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hzxMIm4EJQJddvV_ZHPkN1pw8nJwD96P7RC80
Although the administration likes to say it "inherited" the recession and trillion-dollar deficits, the economic wreckage has worsened on Obama's still-young watch.
Every day, the economy is becoming more and more an Obama economy
SMH Republicans
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama8-2009mar08,0,5323504.story (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama8-2009mar08,0,5323504.story)QuoteObama says he is not wedded to a plan on how to fix the problem. But one proposal he has endorsed, giving people the option of buying medical coverage through a government plan, is drawing opposition from Republicans.
Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., emphasized that point in the GOP's weekly radio address. "I'm concerned that if the government steps in it will eventually push out the private health care plans millions of Americans enjoy today," Blunt said.
Surely Blunt didn't mean to suggest that in a free market, consumers might choose a government health plan over private health care plans offered by companies with billions of dollars in profit margin. Surely the government could never offer a plan that's more affordable than what the private sector can offer. That can't be what he meant at all.
Let's do a little roleplaying. I'll be the government and you be the average american.
I come to your house and force you to give me $100. We'll call this a "tax" I then turn around and use that money to offer you healthcare for the Cost of $50. You're options are a plan that costs $50 from me the governemnt and $75 a business. Of course you will go with the $50 option because on the surface the $50 looks like it costs less than $75, but in reality $150 (when you factor in taxes that subsidize the industry) is not less.
I'll ignore that fact that quality of healthcare (available for sale to those who can afford it) is significantly better here than in countries with socialized medicine and just mention that only in liberal fantasy land does a business actually decrease its cost under a monopoly.
Except everyone* agrees that the government is able to provide health insurance cheaper than private competitors could, because its size would give it more leverage as a buyer to implement price controls.
I'm sure the quality of American healthcare vis a vis Western Europe and Canada is very reassuring to the 50 million or so people who DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO IT WITHOUT HAVING TO GO BANKRUPT.
That's not how economics work.
I'll ignore that fact that quality of healthcare is significantly better here than in countries with socialized medicine and just mention that only in liberal fantasy land does a business actually decrease its cost under a monopoly.Wow, ignoring non-existing facts so you can go easy on us? You saint.
Oh do tell.
I'm sure the quality of American healthcare vis a vis Western Europe and Canada is very reassuring to the 50 million or so people who DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO IT WITHOUT HAVING TO GO BANKRUPT.
Healthcare isnt a right.
Sez you. If a large enough group of people with guns say blowjobs are a right, then blowjobs will be a right.
Sez you. If a large enough group of people with guns say blowjobs are a right, then blowjobs will be a right.
sigh
Point 1 - You really are just throwing out catchphrases you've heard on FoxNews and sound dumb doing it.Oh do tell.
When has price setting been a long term viable strategy.
Great speakers, panels, walks on the beach, etc. Anyway, we had some small discussion group about De Tocqueville, and someone (naturally) brought up France's high taxes and thick welfare state. "Well, the thing is," Emmanuelle said (quotes are inexact), "some of the things the French state provides are pretty good. For instance health care."
"Wait a minute wait a minute," one guy said. "If you were sick -- I mean, really sick -- where would you rather be? France or the U.S.?"
"Um, France," we both said.
Various sputtering ensued. What about the terrible waiting lists? (There really aren't any.) The shoddy quality? (It's actually quite good.) Finally, to deflect the conversation away, I said "Look, if we made twice as much money, we'd probably prefer American health care for a severe crisis. But we don't, so we don't."
Obama "overwhelmed".You're such a silly bitch.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4953523/Barack-Obama-too-tired-to-give-proper-welcome-to-Gordon-Brown.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4953523/Barack-Obama-too-tired-to-give-proper-welcome-to-Gordon-Brown.html)
Its his first real job. Cut him some slack.
:violinIs that a .gif of the fiddlin' you conservatwats did for 8 years while America burned? Could use more swarminess.
:smug You're so cute when you're angry. :smug
You're such a silly bitch.
You really are a silly bitch. :elephantYou're such a silly bitch.
This guy needs to be taken seriously. Seriously...
Every Krugman clip makes me want to make an O face.
How many nobel peace prizes have you or your fuckbuddy Doc Paul won?Every Krugman clip makes me want to make an O face.
He makes you O-face because he's liberal and his economic policies support your ideology.
Krugman has written in opposition to increasing farm subsidies,[42] ethanol mandates and subsidies/tax breaks,[43] manned NASA space flights,[44] and has written against some aspects of European labor market regulation.
Krugman was one of many economists to serve as a consultant for an advisory board for Enron; he did this in 1999
QuoteKrugman was one of many economists to serve as a consultant for an advisory board for Enron; he did this in 1999
Choo Choo, all aboard the fail train.
Possible saviors of the Republican party:
1. Former beauty queen
2. Unlicensed plumber
3. Obese, racist, and drug addicted talk radio host
4. A 14-year-old boy (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/fashion/08conserve.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp?no_interstitial)
lol
None of those will save the republican party.
If Ron Paul was younger I think he would have a really good chance at the 2012 nomination.
Is this thread going to last 4 (or 8 ) years?
Possible saviors of the Republican party:
1. Former beauty queen
2. Unlicensed plumber
3. Obese, racist, and drug addicted talk radio host
4. A 14-year-old boy (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/fashion/08conserve.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp?no_interstitial)
That kid sounds awesome. lol
Jonathan, a slight, home-schooled only child whose teeth are in braces, is so passionate about his beliefs that he spent his summer writing “Define Conservatism,” an 86-page book outlining what he says are its core values.
I thought I read somewhere that he is just a child actor.he is, which makes him doubly rare. That's the real story, everybody else in showbiz is a pinko commie exceptin this kid.
LOL @ this pic of the 14 year old wizard.
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/03/08/fashion/08convservative_600.jpg)
I thought I read somewhere that he is just a child actor.he is, which makes him doubly rare. That's the real story, everybody else in showbiz is a pinko commie exceptin this kid.
amity shlaes: destroyed. (http://www.tnr.com/booksarts/story.html?id=82c53220-7594-4ece-a136-a3b2f54243ec). foc and beardo found sobbing in a boxcar as welfare moms horde government gold and defecate on the constitution.
because SPENDING unto itself isn't a solution; it's WHAT YOU SPEND IT ON. if your household is starving, buying a car won't feed the kids. when your country's economy is collapsing, throwing money into construction in another one won't give the locals jobs.
...
dipshit.
Im a liberal and I want to lose weight, Im gonna go gorge on twinkies cause its clearly a better solution than not eating.
Im a liberal and I want to lose weight, Im gonna go gorge on twinkies cause its clearly a better solution than not eating.
i'm a conservative and i'm starving to death, i'd like some of that government cheese but dying seems like a better solution
Moreover, the classic right-wing critique fails to explain how the economy recovered at all. In one of his columns touting Shlaes, George Will observed that "the war, not the New Deal, defeated the Depression." Why, though, did the war defeat the Depression? Because it entailed a massive expansion of government spending. The Republicans who have been endlessly making the anti-stimulus case seem not to realize that, if you believe that the war ended the Depression, then you are a Keynesian.
thanks for the link Drinky, this article is really informative for someone not well versed in economic theory.QuoteMoreover, the classic right-wing critique fails to explain how the economy recovered at all. In one of his columns touting Shlaes, George Will observed that "the war, not the New Deal, defeated the Depression." Why, though, did the war defeat the Depression? Because it entailed a massive expansion of government spending. The Republicans who have been endlessly making the anti-stimulus case seem not to realize that, if you believe that the war ended the Depression, then you are a Keynesian.
wow. Jaydubya am cry :'(
Im a liberal and I want to lose weight, Im gonna go gorge on twinkies cause its clearly a better solution than not eating.
i'm a conservative and i'm starving to death, i'd like some of that government cheese but dying seems like a better solution
If government were the only place to get cheese that I might agree with you.
I want to hear you say that Bush saved american jobs (however small you think that may be) by invading Iraq. I bet haliburten was stimulated.
keynesianism suggests that the government CUT spending and build a surplus during boom, anyhow!
Several Republicans whose support Reid had anticipated did not deliver, but the most costly defection was that of Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), a member of the Democratic leadership, in protest of a little-noticed Cuba provision that would ease U.S. rules on travel and imports to the communist-led island.
The Menendez rebellion was a jolt of political reality for Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Obama, signaling that the solidarity of the stimulus debate is fading as Democratic lawmakers are starting to read the fine print of the bills they will wrestle with in the coming weeks and months, and not always liking what they see.
The Congressional Budget Office -- Mr. Orszag's former roost -- estimates that the price hikes from a 15% cut in emissions would cost the average household in the bottom-income quintile about 3.3% of its after-tax income every year. That's about $680, not including the costs of reduced employment and output. The three middle quintiles would see their paychecks cut between $880 and $1,500, or 2.9% to 2.7% of income. The rich would pay 1.7%. Cap and trade is the ideal policy for every Beltway analyst who thinks the tax code is too progressive (all five of them).
But the greatest inequities are geographic and would be imposed on the parts of the U.S. that rely most on manufacturing or fossil fuels -- particularly coal, which generates most power in the Midwest, Southern and Plains states. It's no coincidence that the liberals most invested in cap and trade -- Barbara Boxer, Henry Waxman, Ed Markey -- come from California or the Northeast.
What is this?
Eh, figured I'd post it here. Heard it on the radio this morning.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09478499.htm
Klaus, whose position is largely ceremonial in the Czech political system
I thought that occurred pre 9-11.
I thought that occurred pre 9-11.
Hey, I think you are right.
-- --
Has our transition into socialism occurred yet? I'm getting tired of waiting.
i don't think that detracts from what he's saying. I know a few post-communist immigrants and they're really anti-government intervention because of how the 20th century political process operated in those parts of the world.
oddly, i know a fair few who really despise capitalism on account of how badly they botched the transition in the post-gorbachev years. capitalism has NOT been kind to russia and its former affiliated states.yeah, the free market comes way before the free press.
Sam Stein obtained an email from Sen. John McCain's chief of staff that suggested the Arizona senator was putting together a major economic plan structured, in some ways, off of Newt Gingrich's famous "Contract With America."http://politicalwire.com/
The email asked an outside adviser for help with a "ten principles" program that the senator could use as a "definitive" platform to rescue America's economy. However, the only policy guidance given was "No Tax Increases."
The fact that McCain is going to outside consultants suggests he "is laying the groundwork for more comprehensive opposition."
House Democrats are looking at yet another economic stimulus bill beyond the $787 billion one just enacted as investors and consumers continue to show little faith in the economy.
At a special meeting of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee on Tuesday morning, Democrats heard again from their trusted band of economists and came away reinforced that Congress would need to spend billions of additional taxpayer dollars in the coming months to help pull the economy out its severe recession.
One proposal being considered is an additional economic stimulus bill. Just last month, President Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus measure that Democrats contended was needed to save or create 3.5 million jobs and that Republicans derided as nothing more than debt-spending on wasteful federal projects.
i don't think that detracts from what he's saying. I know a few post-communist immigrants and they're really anti-government intervention because of how the 20th century political process operated in those parts of the world.
oddly, i know a fair few who really despise capitalism on account of how badly they botched the transition in the post-gorbachev years. capitalism has NOT been kind to russia and its former affiliated states.
And another Obama pick bites the dust... :lol
So, what happens when the Democrats introduce Stimulus II? Doing so basically admits Stimulus I was not enough. That all the supposed benefits were trumped up. That it failed to do what we were all promised it would do. It would leave Obama in a very difficult place and significantly weaken his credibility.
Iranian Americans tend to be Christian and very anti-Ayatollah, etc. I had poli sci professors who were Persian and Egyptian and both of them supported the war.Most muslims dislike the clergies power. Any middle-easterner who supported the war in that political climate is most likely unbalanced though.
ah yes, the temporary Mafiacracy
russia's going to escape that any minute now
In Soviet Russia, state kills journalist! No joke, we just do.
I get the sense that most Russians soured on IMF-style shock treatment capitalism (not that they're Marxists; they seem to dig national greatness authoritarianism), but a lot of older Iron Curtain emigrants love them some free market. Ahnuld, for example.
Just as the National Labor Relations Act, the 40 hour week and the minimum wage helped to pull us out of the Great Depression and into a period of unprecedented prosperity, so too will the Employee Free Choice Act help reinvigorate our economy," the senator said in a statement.
We understand the secret ballot is allowed for, but not required by Mexican labor law. However, we feel that the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose.
We respect Mexico as an important neighbor and a trading partner, and we feel that the increased use of the secret ballot in union recognition elections will help bring real democracy to the Mexican workplace.
The same people who signed this letter also co-sponsor the Employee Free Choice Act here in the US, better known as Card Check. Kevin Mooney exposes the hypocrisy for The Examiner:
Democrats leading the charge in 2009 for legislation that critics say will abolish secret ballots for employees voting in U.S. Workplace unionization contests signed a 2001 letter urging Mexican officials to protect their workers’ electoral privacy as a defense against union thugs. …
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the main “card check bill” sponsor on the House side, and nine other Democratic co-sponsors,” all signed the letter to Mexico demanding that the secret ballot be maintained. Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.). All joined Miller in both co-sponsoring EFCA and signing the 2001 letter.
Quote from: HarkinJust as the National Labor Relations Act, the 40 hour week and the minimum wage helped to pull us out of the Great Depression and into a period of unprecedented prosperity, so too will the Employee Free Choice Act help reinvigorate our economy," the senator said in a statement.
:lol
Talk about a stretch.
Did they introduce it yesterday?
I think I will hire a hitman for any Republican that votes for it.
He could skip the primary, run as a independent but still caucus with republicans.Did they introduce it yesterday?
I think I will hire a hitman for any Republican that votes for it.
That's ok, scuttlebutt is that Specter might cross the aisle on a permanent basis since he's more likely to win in the Dem primary than in the GOP primary against Club for Growth goon Pat Toomey. Either way, expect PA to have two democratic Senators for the next Congress, if not sooner.
I'm perpetually surprised by conservatives' visceral reactions to unions.Unions speed up the trickle down.
I get why the EFCA would be a red line for business interests, but for the rank and file? Really?
I'm perpetually surprised by conservatives' visceral reactions to unions.I'm even more surprised by poor conservatives visceral reactions to unions.
I get why the EFCA would be a red line for business interests, but for the rank and file? Really?
Has anyone actually drawn a union paycheck? Or is it just a chapter you read in business class?:bow text book learnin' :bow
Has anyone actually drawn a union paycheck? Or is it just a chapter you read in business class?
Has anyone actually drawn a union paycheck? Or is it just a chapter you read in business class?
drawn a union paycheck?
like has anyone here been paid for working at a job while being in a union?
Has anyone actually drawn a union paycheck? Or is it just a chapter you read in business class?I grew up on a union paycheck, and a union helped me get through school.
Union workers bargained away the future wages of workers, so they could improve their (already) inflated pay and benefits for their lifetimes.
How anyone can be against people's right to a private vote is beyond me. The "card check" effectively is an end around to these private votes. I don't have a problem with the other reforms that they want to pass ... but the card check law is wrong.
. But I guess the CEO needs that salary that's 500 times that of the average employee.
And look where that has gotten you,I was pretty much like that before the jobs.crippled with fear, unable to leave your house, sexless, beardedcrippled with fear, unable to leave your house, sexless, bearded
I worked for a union at a Toshiba TV tube plant for almost 3 years in the mid 90's. Top out pay at my position was $9.83. Only position after that was management.
That plant closed down a few years after I left for school.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/politicalblog/?p=3043 (http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/politicalblog/?p=3043)
That about wraps it up?
Except ANWR would actually create jobs ... EFCA would do nothing.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/politicalblog/?p=3043 (http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/politicalblog/?p=3043)
That about wraps it up?
Haha, figures. Typical democrats- make big noises about supporting labor when you know the bill has no chance of getting signed in to law, but then when it has a chance everyone is conspicuous by their absence in support of it.
Except ANWR would actually create jobs ... EFCA would do nothing.
Except ANWR would actually create jobs ... EFCA would do nothing.
Wouldn't have created shit except the ability for petrol megacorps to have more listed reserves on their book so they'd look better to shareholders. Don't kid youself.
(http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/bpg-iae_6umqs7-fda8tjq.gif)My prediction? The fact it's been a pretty fucking cold, long winter has done more damage to the cause. I bet it goes right back up in the summer.
My one-man disinformation campaign is finally paying off. My big oil, profit-sharing check is going to be HUGE.
Wow Obama has been a disaster. I kinda wish McCain won
RNC Chairman Michael Steele said that despite telling an interviewer he supports "individual choice" on abortion, he in fact opposes abortion and supports a Constitutional ban, Ben Smith reports.
Steele "has also been reaching out to anti-abortion leaders to damp down the controversy."
First Read: "The interview might serve to create more room for Steele critics inside the GOP to, well, push him aside -- either physically from his position, or like some Dems did with Howard Dean (to be the excuse to start up rival or alternative party building organizations)."
It doesn't make him seem like a maverick, he is the RNC leader not a politician. All it does is continue to build the image that he has no idea what he is doing.QuoteRNC Chairman Michael Steele said that despite telling an interviewer he supports "individual choice" on abortion, he in fact opposes abortion and supports a Constitutional ban, Ben Smith reports.
Steele "has also been reaching out to anti-abortion leaders to damp down the controversy."
First Read: "The interview might serve to create more room for Steele critics inside the GOP to, well, push him aside -- either physically from his position, or like some Dems did with Howard Dean (to be the excuse to start up rival or alternative party building organizations)."
What the fuck? I'm starting to believe this is all a ruse to make the public think Steele is some ultimate maverick, challenging his party to evolve at his own expense. After the talk of a vote of no-confidence being nigh imminent, and all the criticism he's faced...why say something like that, about abortion of all topics
Wow Obama has been a disaster. I kinda wish McCain won
QuoteRNC Chairman Michael Steele said that despite telling an interviewer he supports "individual choice" on abortion, he in fact opposes abortion and supports a Constitutional ban, Ben Smith reports.
Steele "has also been reaching out to anti-abortion leaders to damp down the controversy."
First Read: "The interview might serve to create more room for Steele critics inside the GOP to, well, push him aside -- either physically from his position, or like some Dems did with Howard Dean (to be the excuse to start up rival or alternative party building organizations)."
What the fuck? I'm starting to believe this is all a ruse to make the public think Steele is some ultimate maverick, challenging his party to evolve at his own expense. After the talk of a vote of no-confidence being nigh imminent, and all the criticism he's faced...why say something like that, about abortion of all topics
Steele knows what he is doing, he just doesn't have the backing to pull it off. He realizes that the pubs have to become socially moderate to some degree to become relevant again .. but he is left twisting in the wind with some of these statements he makes. Republican moderates just don't have any power in this country.Hey, he is a step up from their chairman in the early 90's, Lee Atwater.
Because of his color he was allowed to ascend to a pretty powerful position in the party, but him thinking he can use it as a bully pulpit to exact change on the party isn't going to work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/nyregion/21lirr.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/nyregion/21lirr.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)
Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?
Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice.
You do?
Yeah. Absolutely.
Are you saying you don’t want to overturn Roe v. Wade?
I think Roe v. Wade—as a legal matter, Roe v. Wade was a wrongly decided matter.
Okay, but if you overturn Roe v. Wade, how do women have the choice you just said they should have?
The states should make that choice. That’s what the choice is. The individual choice rests in the states. Let them decide.
It's not an issue with capitalism as such, more so the oligarchy that's been created by ex-government employees who've abused the system or more kindly knew how to use the system properly. It probably gives them nightmares about the Tsars and serfs. A case in point is when Russians were given I think 'shares' for power companies etc. People did not know what to do with them, some sold them for a few dollars, others I think even threw them out or used them as material for other goods but one particular government employee knew how to pool resources and eventually own the whole thing.i don't think that detracts from what he's saying. I know a few post-communist immigrants and they're really anti-government intervention because of how the 20th century political process operated in those parts of the world.
oddly, i know a fair few who really despise capitalism on account of how badly they botched the transition in the post-gorbachev years. capitalism has NOT been kind to russia and its former affiliated states.
It's not an issue with capitalism as such, more so the oligarchy that's been created by ex-government employees who've abused the system or more kindly knew how to use the system properly. It probably gives them nightmares about the Tsars and serfs. A case in point is when Russians were given I think 'shares' for power companies etc. People did not know what to do with them, some sold them for a few dollars, others I think even threw them out or used them as material for other goods but one particular government employee knew how to pool resources and eventually own the whole thing.i don't think that detracts from what he's saying. I know a few post-communist immigrants and they're really anti-government intervention because of how the 20th century political process operated in those parts of the world.
oddly, i know a fair few who really despise capitalism on account of how badly they botched the transition in the post-gorbachev years. capitalism has NOT been kind to russia and its former affiliated states.
Cramer was on Martha Stewart today. She had him stirring stuff.
jon stewart just destroyed jim cramerman, that was almost painful. I could almost swear I heard Cramer's voice crack a few times in the interview. I half expected him to cry.
On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicilty bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."
The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996.
I can't imagine he just repealed Bush's executive order for the publicity...
sweet jesus >:(
Wait, what? Seriously?
Obama, wtf
so what would the motivation for this be? Was the approval of Dickey-Wicker merely a compromise in order to get the omnibus appropriations bill through, and something that he will attempt to repeal next September? I can't imagine he just repealed Bush's executive order for the publicity...
"again?"
you mean people actually listened to her and thought it would be a good idea to put her in charge?
"again?"
you mean people actually listened to her and thought it would be a good idea to put her in charge?
The Obama administration is signaling to Congress that the president could support taxing some employee health benefits, as several influential lawmakers and many economists favor, to help pay for overhauling the health care system.
The proposal is politically problematic for President Obama, however, since it is similar to one he denounced in the presidential campaign as “the largest middle-class tax increase in history.” Most Americans with insurance get it from their employers, and taxing workers for the benefit is opposed by union leaders and some businesses.
So has this turned into Barack: Just another politician? Time to take down the banners?Pretty much every single car I see in my town still has obama bumper stickers lol
Vapid smugness, story continued on page A13.Hey Mandark, what's the deal with Obama promising to eliminate all of these "earmarks", yet they're still in the budget, you call that change?
But I can't see anyway a self-identified liberal can claim the first few months of the Obama administration has not been better for our ideology than the first few months of any president in their personal lifetime.I stopped caring what "our ideology" was when Bush got re-elected.
I can't imagine he just repealed Bush's executive order for the publicity...
I can. Dude needs to stop trying to be everything to everybody. At least Bush had a backbone
Vapid smugness, story continued on page A13.Hey Mandark, what's the deal with Obama promising to eliminate all of these "earmarks", yet they're still in the budget, you call that change?
The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization says he is "deeply disappointed and concerned" after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.
"It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan," said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. "He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it."
The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, "This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ' to care for him who shall have borne the battle' given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm's way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America's veterans!"
President Barack Obama came into office in January promising a new era of openness.
But now, like Bush before him, Obama is playing the national security card to hide details of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated across the globe.
The White House this week declared (.pdf) the text of the proposed treaty a "properly classified" national security secret, in rejecting a Freedom of Information Act request by Knowledge Ecology International.
"Please be advised the documents you seek are being withheld in full," wrote Carmen Suro-Bredie, chief FOIA officer in the White House's Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The national security claim is stunning, given that the treaty negotiations have included the 27 member states of the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand, all of whom presumably have access to the "classified" information.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090317/D96VPA601.html
Senator sez AIG execs should kill themselves. I agree.
Caterpillar Inc. announced a fresh round of job cuts Tuesday, laying off more than 2,400 employees at five plants in Illinois, Indiana and Georgia as the heavy equipment maker continues to cut costs amid the global economic downturn.
QuoteCaterpillar Inc. announced a fresh round of job cuts Tuesday, laying off more than 2,400 employees at five plants in Illinois, Indiana and Georgia as the heavy equipment maker continues to cut costs amid the global economic downturn.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090317/caterpillar_layoffs.html (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090317/caterpillar_layoffs.html)
So, I take it the stimulus plan will end up recreating these jobs at some uncertain date in the future for which Obama can claim credit?
QuoteCaterpillar Inc. announced a fresh round of job cuts Tuesday, laying off more than 2,400 employees at five plants in Illinois, Indiana and Georgia as the heavy equipment maker continues to cut costs amid the global economic downturn.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090317/caterpillar_layoffs.html (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090317/caterpillar_layoffs.html)
So, I take it the stimulus plan will end up recreating these jobs at some uncertain date in the future for which Obama can claim credit?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20086.html
I always wondered how blogs could be on the same page, often on the same day, about the issues of the day.
For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space called JournoList.
Proof of a vast liberal media conspiracy?
Not at all, says Ezra Klein, the 24-year-old American Prospect blogging wunderkind who formed JournoList in February 2007. “Basically,” he says, “it’s just a list where journalists and policy wonks can discuss issues freely.”
But some of the journalists who participate in the online discussion say — off the record, of course — that it has been a great help in their work. On the record, The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin acknowledged that a Talk of the Town piece — he won’t say which one — got its start in part via a conversation on JournoList. And JLister Eric Alterman, The Nation writer and CUNY professor, said he’s seen discussions that start on the list seep into the world beyond.
You're going to look mighty foolish in like a year.
You're going to look mighty foolish in like a year.
Is that after Stimulus II or III?
Honestly, you're not even worth arguing with, because you are so principally against the idea of a stimulus that you fail to try and comprehend when and where its immediate effects lie and when and where it's long-term effects occur.
Honestly, you're not even worth arguing with, because you are so principally against the idea of a stimulus that you fail to try and comprehend when and where its immediate effects lie and when and where it's long-term effects occur.
My opposition is based on its long-term effects.
Honestly, you're not even worth arguing with, because you are so principally against the idea of a stimulus that you fail to try and comprehend when and where its immediate effects lie and when and where it's long-term effects occur.
My opposition is based on its long-term effects.
Honestly, you're not even worth arguing with, because you are so principally against the idea of a stimulus that you fail to try and comprehend when and where its immediate effects lie and when and where it's long-term effects occur.
My opposition is based on its long-term effects.
well, i ain't gonna attribute any uptick in economic performance to the stimulus myself at this time, although it might help SUSTAIN that uptickOh I agree totally I just pointed it out cause sd constantly brought it up when it was dropping every day but shut up about it the second it started to improve.
And you'll be dropping it/spinning it once the rally ends and it starts dipping again. Your point?wtf can you read? I never brought it up once, it has been going up for about a week but I didnt post about it because I dont think it matters, I only posted the fact sd stopped posting it soon as it went up, my post was about sd's spin or lack there of not me posting about the stupid dow.
Arrrrgh I wasn't talking about the dow I was talking about sd. I have posted many times here how I feel using the dow as a daily tracking poll for the economy is stupid.
and on and on. Goes both ways...and I don't remember what you said about it before Cheebs, but you're just doing your part in that cycle by bringing it up again.
Arrrrgh I wasn't talking about the dow I was talking about sd. I have posted many times here how I feel using the dow as a daily tracking poll for the economy is stupid.
and on and on. Goes both ways...and I don't remember what you said about it before Cheebs, but you're just doing your part in that cycle by bringing it up again.
You're talking about exactly what I was talking about.
The DOW is highly overrated as a measuring stick for the health of the economy as a whole, imo.
sd you used to make posts like "the dow is down another 200 today...." why did you suddenly stop about a week ago? :'(
The debt? Who cares, it's all monopoly money as long as we've got the most guns.
sd you used to make posts like "the dow is down another 200 today...." why did you suddenly stop about a week ago? :'(
Because Obama convinced me that everything is awesome with his lecture on profit and earnings ratios.
Everybody is rushing to condemn AIG's bonuses, but this simple scandal is obscuring the real disgrace at the insurance giant: Why are AIG's counterparties getting paid back in full, to the tune of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars?Because its a very simple easy thing for the Obama administration (and all politicians, do you really think grassley gives a shit about the bonuses as much as his suicide remarks let on? of course not) to latch onto to boost their populist creds after massive spending. It's a easy, non-divisive political win-win. They aren't going after AIG over 165 million, that's pennies for the Obama administration. It's good politics to be seen as the enemy of big business.
So, more style over substance? Awesome.I am not defending it, but it's clearly the obvious reason why his administration is doing this. Obama administration people this week have been barnstorming the cable news doing the whole "how dare they abuse the tax payer money" thing.
As long as those approval ratings stay high.
yeah, can't say i like the faux-populist outrage thing, since it smacks of a distinct rove-ian bent.It really is, David Axelrod's doing I imagine. Turn on any of the morning shows this week and your bound to see someone from team obama on tv blasting corporations for wasting tax payer money.
Yeah but it almost necessary if the administration wants decent approval ratings.Oh yeah of course it's understandable, with all the bailouts and the like they needed something to boost their populist cred and latched on to this.
I think it's time for some street justice on these AIG execs, hobo with a shotgun style.
I think it's time for some street justice on these AIG execs, hobo with a shotgun style.
But the bonuses were contractual!!!
Barack Obama even needs a teleprompter to get mad.
QuoteBarack Obama even needs a teleprompter to get mad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/opinion/18dowd.html?_r=3 (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/opinion/18dowd.html?_r=3)
Ouch. Good column.
MMMM...blonde pubes.
I can't fathom how that woman won a Pulitzer prize. I guess they give those things out to just anyone now.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., won passage of a provision earlier this year that they said would have prevented the type of payments now at the center of the [AIG] storm.
It was dropped without explanation in the final compromise on the economic stimulus measure, replaced by a less restrictive set of conditions backed by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and accepted by the White House.
So how many times do we have to be fucked over by Chris Dodd before we seek to have him removed from office?QuoteSen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., won passage of a provision earlier this year that they said would have prevented the type of payments now at the center of the [AIG] storm.
It was dropped without explanation in the final compromise on the economic stimulus measure, replaced by a less restrictive set of conditions backed by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and accepted by the White House.
Fannie Mae is due to pay retention bonuses of as much $470,000 to $611,000 this year to some executives despite enormous losses at the government-backed mortgage company. Fannie's main rival, Freddie Mac, also plans to pay such bonuses but hasn't yet provided details.
Hope the White House has extra flak jackets on hand:QuoteFannie Mae is due to pay retention bonuses of as much $470,000 to $611,000 this year to some executives despite enormous losses at the government-backed mortgage company. Fannie's main rival, Freddie Mac, also plans to pay such bonuses but hasn't yet provided details.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123739512036672809.html#mod=testMod (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123739512036672809.html#mod=testMod)
OH SHIT LOL
Hope the White House has extra flak jackets on hand:QuoteFannie Mae is due to pay retention bonuses of as much $470,000 to $611,000 this year to some executives despite enormous losses at the government-backed mortgage company. Fannie's main rival, Freddie Mac, also plans to pay such bonuses but hasn't yet provided details.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123739512036672809.html#mod=testMod (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123739512036672809.html#mod=testMod)
Hope the White House has extra flak jackets on hand:QuoteFannie Mae is due to pay retention bonuses of as much $470,000 to $611,000 this year to some executives despite enormous losses at the government-backed mortgage company. Fannie's main rival, Freddie Mac, also plans to pay such bonuses but hasn't yet provided details.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123739512036672809.html#mod=testMod (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123739512036672809.html#mod=testMod)
That should be easier to stop, given that the govt is actually now in charge of both.
That should be easier to stop, given that the govt is actually now in charge of both.
That should be easier to stop, given that the govt is actually now in charge of both.
How is that different from AIG?
fuccck that Obama town hall is like 5 blocks from my house
:gloomy my commute home :gloomy
fuccck that Obama town hall is like 5 blocks from my houseThe place is probably already packed to full capacity by now I'd imagine.
:gloomy my commute home :gloomy
Obama blasts AIG bonuses, admits 'buck stops with me' (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/18/obama.economy/index.html)It is always weird when I hear Obama admit to messing up. He took the blame for the tax stuff with his appointee's and it was weird hearing him admit to screwing up during that. Mainly cause Bush didn't take blame for anything.
its so damn refreshing to have a politician, much less the president, admit to screwing up. That one hasn't been batting a thousand lately, but there's a guy running the show who's acknowledged that he's running an imperfect system and angling to fix it with an imperfect solution. Ironically, all this uncertainty makes me feel better about the administration. Its nice to know we finally have people in charge who can learn from their mistakes.
You should learn to use the edit feeture.
Although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders on Tuesday that he learned of AIG's impending $160 million bonus payments to members of its troubled financial-products unit on March 10, sources tell TIME that the New York Federal Reserve informed Treasury staff that the payments were imminent on Feb. 28. That is 10 days before Treasury staffers say they first learned "full details" of the bonus plan, and three days before the Administration launched a new $30 billion infusion of cash for AIG.
Dodd is very politically vulnerable. He is a major target of the Right because of his genuinely questionable involvement with various banks, including his Countrywide mortgate, and this story (fueled by the fact that Dodd is a receipient of substantial AIG campaign donations), inflames those accusations. As predictable as can be, right-wing news outlets like Fox, Drudge and others have blown this Dodd story up today into a major scandal -- heaping blame for the AIG payments on Dodd -- and it was all started by Obama officials to ensure that no blame for these provisions was laid where it belongs: at the feet of Geithner and Summers.http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/17/dodd/index.html
Rumor is that Kudlow will run in CT. :o
Senate Banking Committe Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) admitted to CNN that he was responsible for the loophole in the economic stimulus package that allowed firms like AIG receiving bailout funds to pay bonuses.???
Just yesterday, Dodd denied having anything to do with the provision.
Of course, this news only adds to Dodd's re-election troubles.
i'm really getting fed up with geithner and summers
Dodd is going to swing from a meathook regardless. He's got little to nothing in his war chest, he's deeply unpopular in Connecticut and RFK Jr. has been wanting to run for the Senate for years now. Then again he's a big friend of the Kennedy family, so maybe Bobby Jr. wouldn't try to primary him. SOMEONE should tho, because he's likely to lose if he's the dem nominee.Well Dodd got endorsed by Lieberman last week, isn't that the kiss of death?
Dodd is going to swing from a meathook regardless. He's got little to nothing in his war chest, he's deeply unpopular in Connecticut and RFK Jr. has been wanting to run for the Senate for years now. Then again he's a big friend of the Kennedy family, so maybe Bobby Jr. wouldn't try to primary him. SOMEONE should tho, because he's likely to lose if he's the dem nominee.
Well Dodd got endorsed by Lieberman last week, isn't that the kiss of death?
Lieberman will probably retire, he won't want face an obvious losing campaign.Dodd is going to swing from a meathook regardless. He's got little to nothing in his war chest, he's deeply unpopular in Connecticut and RFK Jr. has been wanting to run for the Senate for years now. Then again he's a big friend of the Kennedy family, so maybe Bobby Jr. wouldn't try to primary him. SOMEONE should tho, because he's likely to lose if he's the dem nominee.
Well Dodd got endorsed by Lieberman last week, isn't that the kiss of death?
I've got 2012 circled on my calendar. Gonna finally drive a stake through Lieberman's heart.
By 2012 Leibs will be the least of your worries.
By 2012 Leibs will be the least of your worries.
Yeah, I guess having a 60+ super majority in the Senate for two years will sure put a damper on things.
Yeah, I guess having a 60+ super majority in the Senate for two years will sure put a damper on things.
I sense a wager. What do you think?
What are you homos betting? Loser sucks my cock?
Dodd already has the declared former Republican Rep. Simmons (and popular one-he lasted two terms longer than most Northeastern GOP Reps did when the purge of the region started) . He's well known and was on track to give Dodd a run for his life before Notorious A.I.G. released its latest single.
If his presidency is marred by scandal, lies, and broken promises then sure. If not...good luck beating someone who could sell water to a wellThe expression is: selling ice to an Eskimo.
The GOP's gonna rise up on a tidal wave of angry economic populism using their platform of less corporate regulation and lower taxes on the wealthy? That's the plan? Really?
Net of at least four seats in the Senate in 2010. Book it. House could go either way, but probably won't go more than 10 seats in either direction. Senate elections in 2010 are BAD for the GOP. Open seat in Florida, open seat in Ohio, open seat in New Hampshire, etc etc.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski isn't thrilled his team got snubbed by the leader of the free world.oh god :lol
"Somebody said that we're not in President Obama's Final Four, and as much as I respect what he's doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets," Krzyzewski told a reporter from the Associated Press on Wednesday.
That's right, Chris Dodd is fucking saint. He would never be corrupted, only duped and backstabbed. But that dirty, libertarian-sympathiser Summers is downright evil.
http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=4230
Term limits would have prevented Chris Dodd from protecting his own interests. That's the only solution to prevent this from happening in the future.
What's wrong with Eric Cantor?! You're going to compare him to lifers like Stevens, Rangel, Rostenkowski and Delay? Those are the people I am talking about .. people with real power and abused it accordingly.
You sure take to the kool-aid quick.
The 2008 election has gone to your head.So polling, open seats in blue states, and popularity of respective candidates = gone to my head? Come on man, you really think someone like Toomey will win in PA? Or ANY republican in New Hampshire?
How come cheebs is now using 'democrat' like Republicans do?Because I really don't care enough to use the proper term. I never got the faux-outrage over using "democrat" over "democratic" anyway.
Not "2008 going to my head". I can find you more research if you care, but you seem to be basing your 2010 guesses on pure ideology and dislike of democrat control, not logic.
Not "2008 going to my head". I can find you more research if you care, but you seem to be basing your 2010 guesses on pure ideology and dislike of democrat control, not logic.
You can handicap the races right now all you want. But, its not going to change the economy still in the shitter next year and we'll probably be on stimulus II or III. You think that's going to be a healthy environment for Democrats?
All you need to do is start anti-incumbent rhetoric at the grass-roots level. "Throw the bums out" works, but you need good leadership to pull it off.How does that work when Republicans have far more "bums" to defend than democrats in 2010? The 2010 election is the 2004 cycle.
The 2008 election has gone to your head.
Come join me on April 15th in Akron Ohio. I'll be wearing my powdered wig and colonial leggings.
That's right, Chris Dodd is fucking saint. He would never be corrupted, only duped and backstabbed. But that dirty, libertarian-sympathiser Summers is downright evil.
With new estimates due Friday from the Congressional Budget Office, the White House is being warned to expect a grim set of deficit projections, adding well over $1 trillion on top of the red ink already conceded in President Barack Obama’s 10-year spending plan.
Refusing to be swayed by the numbers, top aides to the president met Wednesday evening in the Capitol with House Democratic allies on moving the plan ahead, including an effort to use expedited budget procedures to advance Obama’s healthcare initiative past Senate filibuster threats.
I'd be happy if Obama just dropped the 95% charade.He brought up the 95% line at his town hall last night lol.
I'd be happy if Obama just dropped the 95% charade.
I knew it! The DVDs were the wrong format. :lolWho cares, Gordon Brown is so boring. I want to fall asleep looking at him.
I knew it! The DVDs were the wrong format. :lol
Coach K redeemed
http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200903190004?show=1
context context context
:-\I had Keith Olbermann on in the background and he said he was there during the interview and the remark caught his attention and he read the transcript of it. He seemed to think he is probably going to have to apologize for it after it goes on the air.
Just what he needs.
Can't wait to see Morning Joe tomorrow. :lol
Obama just gave the GOP all the ammunition they need for awhile.
Ohh I forgot about that..yeah Obama *smh*Can't wait to see Morning Joe tomorrow. :lol
Obama just gave the GOP all the ammunition they need for awhile.
I expect to see Sarah Palin's distinguished mentally-challenged Baby front and center.
Didn't think about this, but I wouldn't put it past NBC to edit that part out.
Maybe this gaffe will keep Obama off these degrading shows like Leno and ESPN Sportscenter. It's kind of demeaning to the office that he goes on them anyways.
Maybe he's up for an appearance at "Idol Gives Back" this year? He certainly needs the exposure.
That comment about the special Olympics is such a non event. SMHMedia was getting bored of AIG, they needed a new story for today and this seems to be it.
According to a quick scan of Google results, one well-known Special Olympian, Loretta Claiborne, reportedly bowled a high of 178 in 1995. Rachel Register of Virginia bowled a 212 in 2006. Team Kentucky's top bowler, Keith Cotrell, boasts a 150 average.
Tim Shriver also noted on GMA this morning that a Detroit Special Olympian has bowled three perfect games.
who caresQuoteAccording to a quick scan of Google results, one well-known Special Olympian, Loretta Claiborne, reportedly bowled a high of 178 in 1995. Rachel Register of Virginia bowled a 212 in 2006. Team Kentucky's top bowler, Keith Cotrell, boasts a 150 average.
Tim Shriver also noted on GMA this morning that a Detroit Special Olympian has bowled three perfect games.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0309/Obamas_129.html (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0309/Obamas_129.html)
The Administration's long-awaited plan to save America's banks is being delayed again, government sources tell Time. Fears of an AIG-like backlash among potential private investors, and the difficulty of creating a model to price toxic assets on the banks' balance sheets, have both contributed to the delay, the sources say.
The slip is embarrassing for Treasury officials who have been assuring the media and the markets that the plan was coming, first in mid-February, and as recently as March 14 when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told Bloomberg TV he would release details soon. A senior Treasury department official says the plan isn't slipping, but other government officials say it is and could be unveiled anywhere from next week to early April.
I don't know what's cuter- PD pretending to freak out over the distinguished mentally-challenged fellow thing or sd suddenly remembering that he isn't supposed to like budget deficits.
Yet, he's got time to fill out his basketball bracket
Yet, he's got time to fill out his basketball bracket and go on Jay Leno. And here I thought this was the greatest financial crisis in the history of the solar system. Catastrophe, etc.
Are those that decry "political correctness" feigning outrage?
Dude, I've always hated deficits. Second reason why I didn't vote for McCain.
I don't know what's cuter- PD pretending to freak out over the distinguished mentally-challenged fellow thing or sd suddenly remembering that he isn't supposed to like budget deficits.
I don't know what's cuter- PD pretending to freak out over the distinguished mentally-challenged fellow thing or sd suddenly remembering that he isn't supposed to like budget deficits.
I got you initially
I read that Bush took a week long vacation at his ranch already at this point in his first term, how come republicans were ok with that but Obama can't dick around in LA for 2 days?
He has gotten a shitload done in 60 days and is about to pass a massive budget, its not like Obama isn't working at breakneck speed here.I read that Bush took a week long vacation at his ranch already at this point in his first term, how come republicans were ok with that but Obama can't dick around in LA for 2 days?
Honestly, at this point in his first term not much was going on. While I think they're being obnoxious tards for whining about it, you're being an absurd cheerleading fanboy for trying to compare the two.
I'm about 99.44% sure that you voted for W. in 2004, so I find your insistence that you "always" hated deficits kind of laughable.
I read that Bush took a week long vacation at his ranch already at this point in his first term, how come republicans were ok with that but Obama can't dick around in LA for 2 days?
Honestly, at this point in his first term not much was going on. While I think they're being obnoxious tards for whining about it, you're being an absurd cheerleading fanboy for trying to compare the two.
He has gotten a shitload done in 60 days and is about to pass a massive budget, its not like Obama isn't working at breakneck speed here.
I'm about 99.44% sure that you voted for W. in 2004, so I find your insistence that you "always" hated deficits kind of laughable.
Touche...
But, W's deficits were at most 3% of GDP. Not acceptable, but not horrible. I've always maintained he should have had some kind of trigger mechanism with the tax cuts that would have prevented the deficits from getting as big as they did - especially after 9/11. And don't even get me started on the Medicare PDB. Obama is like Bush on winstrall though. He's gonna make him look like the ultimate fiscal conservative in a couple years. If I could go back to 2004, then I would similarly vote 3rd party. That's a mistake I'll never make again.
It's fitting that Fox news is running with the SO thing seeing that there viewers are only 1 or 2 IQ points away from being eligable to compete in the special olympics.
And I still fail to see what the big fuckin' deal of running hefty deficits during a severe recession is.
A great quip after that Special Olympics gaffe would have been to say, "Joe Biden told me to say that".
McCain speaks up for Geithner
Tim Geithner, the embattled US Treasury secretary, should be given a chance to succeed, says John McCain, the former presidential candidate, who is the first prominent Republican to speak up in Mr Geithner’s defence amid growing calls for his resignation.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr McCain said that the “perfect storm” over AIG “has been as explosive in a short period of time as anything I have seen”.
Mr McCain, who was one of the few Republican senators to vote in favour of Mr Geithner’s nomination after revelations of tax arrears, was speaking at the end of a week in which the Republican Party has targeted Mr Geithner amid mounting public anger over Wall Street bonuses.
“Everyone acknowledges he needs help,” said Mr McCain, in reference to the Obama administration’s difficulty in recruiting nominees to the Treasury department, where Mr Geithner remains the only official to have been confirmed.
Mr McCain also distanced himself from Republican “righteous indignation” over Mr Obama’s budget tactics. Many of Mr McCain’s colleagues fear Mr Obama will use the congressional “reconciliation” process, which enables the majority to circumvent an opposition filibuster, to smuggle through healthcare reforms and energy cap and trade in the budget.
Mr McCain said that a congressional short-cut could be employed by the administration that had been devised by Republicans and used by George W. Bush to push through tax cuts. “Republicans invented this,” he said. “I don’t like it but there are chickens coming home to roost.”
Our first distinguished black fellow - he with game! (Thank you Satan!) ...SHNEERSH, distinguished black fellow game! But I is honest!
The Geithner plan has now been leaked in detail. It’s exactly the plan that was widely analyzed — and found wanting — a couple of weeks ago. The zombie ideas have won.
The Obama administration is now completely wedded to the idea that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the financial system — that what we’re facing is the equivalent of a run on an essentially sound bank. As Tim Duy put it, there are no bad assets, only misunderstood assets. And if we get investors to understand that toxic waste is really, truly worth much more than anyone is willing to pay for it, all our problems will be solved.
To this end the plan proposes to create funds in which private investors put in a small amount of their own money, and in return get large, non-recourse loans from the taxpayer, with which to buy bad — I mean misunderstood — assets. This is supposed to lead to fair prices because the funds will engage in competitive bidding.
But it’s immediately obvious, if you think about it, that these funds will have skewed incentives. In effect, Treasury will be creating — deliberately! — the functional equivalent of Texas S&Ls in the 1980s: financial operations with very little capital but lots of government-guaranteed liabilities. For the private investors, this is an open invitation to play heads I win, tails the taxpayers lose. So sure, these investors will be ready to pay high prices for toxic waste. After all, the stuff might be worth something; and if it isn’t, that’s someone else’s problem.
Or to put it another way, Treasury has decided that what we have is nothing but a confidence problem, which it proposes to cure by creating massive moral hazard.
This plan will produce big gains for banks that didn’t actually need any help; it will, however, do little to reassure the public about banks that are seriously undercapitalized. And I fear that when the plan fails, as it almost surely will, the administration will have shot its bolt: it won’t be able to come back to Congress for a plan that might actually work.
What an awful mess.
sd- if tomorrow Obama fired Geithner and Summers and hired Krugman and Stiglitz, would you back their more activist plan?
The problem with summers/geithner is that there isn't a serious academic to balance them out. geithner needed a second with some serious chops.Isn't he basically running the whole department by himself though? All the deputy's and the like Obama wants are being held up by the Republicans in the senate. Is any of Obama's lower level treasury guys from a different school of thought than summers/geithner? If so that would help a great deal.
Isn't he basically running the whole department by himself though? All the deputy's and the like Obama wants are being held up by the Republicans in the senate.
Actually, all of Geithner's potential deputies have had to withdraw.
"It would double the public debt in 5 years, triple it in 10 years. ... That is not sustainable. It poses a threat to the basic health of our economy," Collins said.
The USA is headed for the addition VAT/GST of some sort in the (not so long) term, IMO. My beef is that people actually want some value for their tax dollars-better schools, roads, health care, etc. and not a worthless "war on terror".
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/1
:( :( :(
In essence, Paulson used the bailout to transform the government into a giant bureaucracy of entitled assholedom
None other than disgraced senator Ted Stevens was the poor sap who made the unpleasant discovery that if Congress didn't like the Fed handing trillions of dollars to banks without any oversight, Congress could apparently go fuck itself — or so said the law. When Stevens asked the GAO about what authority Congress has to monitor the Fed, he got back a letter citing an obscure statute that nobody had ever heard of before: the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950. The relevant section, 31 USC 714(b), dictated that congressional audits of the Federal Reserve may not include "deliberations, decisions and actions on monetary policy matters." The exemption, as Foss notes, "basically includes everything." According to the law, in other words, the Fed simply cannot be audited by Congress. Or by anyone else, for that matter.
QuoteNone other than disgraced senator Ted Stevens was the poor sap who made the unpleasant discovery that if Congress didn't like the Fed handing trillions of dollars to banks without any oversight, Congress could apparently go fuck itself — or so said the law. When Stevens asked the GAO about what authority Congress has to monitor the Fed, he got back a letter citing an obscure statute that nobody had ever heard of before: the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950. The relevant section, 31 USC 714(b), dictated that congressional audits of the Federal Reserve may not include "deliberations, decisions and actions on monetary policy matters." The exemption, as Foss notes, "basically includes everything." According to the law, in other words, the Fed simply cannot be audited by Congress. Or by anyone else, for that matter.
..
China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund.
In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”.
Huckabee likens abortion to slavery at Missouri fundraiser
By CHRIS BLANK
The Associated Press
Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee likened abortion to slavery in a Monday speech during a fundraiser for an anti-abortion group.
Huckabee said that when it abolished slavery, the U.S. debated and decided it was immoral for one person to have complete, life-or-death power over another. He said that should not change whether the control involves racial bigotry or a pregnant woman making a decision for her unborn child.
"What are we saying to the generation coming after us when we tell them that it is perfectly OK for one person to own another human being?" Huckabee said. "I thought we dealt with that 150 years ago when the issue of slavery was finally settled in this country, and we decided that it no longer was a political issue, it wasn't an issue of geography, it was an issue of morality. That it was either right or it was immoral that one person could own another human being and have full control even to the point of life and death over that other human being."
He said civilization cannot survive if "one group of people have life and death control over another for no particular reason other than their own conveniences and, in that case, prejudices."
The half-hour speech was the keynote address during a luncheon fundraiser for the Jefferson City-based Vitae Caring Foundation. The organization, created in 1991, sponsors advertisements across the country encouraging women to seek alternatives to abortion.
Bachmann said, “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people – we the people – are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.”
are there any other comparably looney members (either party)?
I was gonna say that but tempermentally I never had much of a problem with Paul, he's just a guy with weirdo ideas that's managed to somehow stay in congress all these years. It's his followers that are the shrieking harpies ala Bachman.are there any other comparably looney members (either party)?
Let me tell you about a guy named Ron Paul...
are there any other comparably looney members (either party)?
Let me tell you about a guy named Ron Paul...
I was gonna say that but tempermentally I never had much of a problem with Paul, he's just a guy with weirdo ideas that's managed to somehow stay in congress all these years. It's his followers that are the shrieking harpies ala Bachman.
are there any other comparably looney members (either party)?
Let me tell you about a guy named Ron Paul...
I was gonna say that but tempermentally I never had much of a problem with Paul, he's just a guy with weirdo ideas that's managed to somehow stay in congress all these years. It's his followers that are the shrieking harpies ala Bachman.
No, Paul is certifiably nuts. He asked Bernanke or Geithner earlier this year about going back to the Gold standard.
SD seen celebrating in street
Pa. Sen. Specter to Oppose Card Check
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/1
:( :( :(
I think he's far from socially distinguished mentally-challenged. You do know who was president before him, right?Hell naw. The major reason Bush got elected was his personality. I mean very few of his slip ups were politically incorrect or had the 'harshness' Obama had. He did a good job of relating to the 'common' man and when he was trying to be intentionally funny he was.
Pension trustees and insurance company portfolio managers look away now. Your increased commitment to government bond holdings in recent times is about to blow up spectacularly.
At least, that is the view of Ron Paul, the US congressman who ran against John McCain in last year’s Republican Party presidential nomination.
His is a minority view. Yields on government bonds worldwide have been falling fast over the past few months and in the UK, the commencement of “quantitative easing” this month sent bond prices soaring.
But the credibility of both western governments and their currencies is waning, and has been ever since the gold standard was abandoned in 1971, says Mr Paul. And that means even “safe” investments are far from safe, he claims.
“People will start to abandon the dollar as current and past economic policies create a steep rise in interest rates,” Mr Paul says.
“If you are in Treasuries, you will need to be watchful and nimble to time your escape.”
Unfortunately, cashing out will not protect the value of investments, he insists, because “fiat” currencies will all decline over the coming years as measures to try to haul the world economy out of recession fail. “The current stimulus measures are making things a lot worse,” says Mr Paul.
“The US government just won’t allow the correction the economy needs.” He cites the mini-depression of 1921, which lasted just a year largely because insolvent companies were allowed to fail. “No one remembers that one. They’ll remember this one, because it will last 15 years.”
At some stage – Mr Paul estimates it will be between one and four years – the dollar will implode. “The dollar as a reserve standard is done,” he says. He sees little hope for other currencies where central banks have also created too much liquidity dating right back to the early 1970s.
“Europe and the US will both have to fundamentally change their money systems,” he adds.
And don’t even mention shares to Mr Paul: “The last place you want to be is in the stock market,” he says. “It may not bottom out for 10 years – just look at Japan.”
Of course, everyone has a view on the credit crisis, its causes and putative solutions. What differentiates Mr Paul is that he has been warning of the dangers to the world economy for nearly 40 years. “The breakdown of Bretton Woods was my motivation for running for Congress. I have been talking about the dangers ever since and warning that the control by central banks over the money supply would create an enormous bubble.”
A deep recession had only been avoided up until now because of the efforts of successive governments to reflate the economy. But there are no more policy levers left, says Mr Paul. “This is the big one.”
Unsurprisingly, Mr Paul has been viewed as a crank in Washington, dismissed as a doomsayer and a party-pooper. His bill early this year to abolish the Federal Reserve was largely ignored. And his adherence to the Austrian School of economics, which predicted that fiat currencies would destabilise the world economy, has won him few friends.
“People don’t like the Austrians because they are against big government, against armies and against the welfare state. To accept Austrian economics, you have to accept limitations of credit expansion and that is what has kept the government and financial firms in business for so long.”
However, his views are, for the first time, being taken seriously in Washington. Like another politician who recently aimed for high office, Al Gore, Mr Paul’s uncomfortable truths are starting to be deliberated at elevated political levels. “Before last summer, in meetings nobody really knew I was there. Now they often defer to me on economic matters. But you won’t catch any of them admitting that publicly – not yet at least.”
He believes that markets will fall much further and inflation rise much higher before his fellow politicians recognise that the system has failed. “We are likely to see an inflation depression,” Mr Paul says.
“In the 1970s, we had stagflation, but not depression. Inflation depression is what you see in Zimbabwe.”
Even Nouriel Roubini, the renegade economist whose once “extreme” views are now mainstream, fights shy of this analysis. The investment options arising from the analysis are no more palatable. In fact, according to Mr Paul, there is only one: gold.
Such an unproductive asset (unless you are a jeweller) appears unattractive even with the gold price having risen three-fold during the Bush administration. But Mr Paul argues that the current price of about $900/ounce could look cheap in a few years.
“It is not so much that gold will go up but that fiat currencies will go down,” he says. He even advocates a return to the gold standard, which he says is not as difficult as it sounds to achieve.
Mr Paul, it should be noted, first invested in gold nearly 40 years ago when it was worth $35/ounce and holds a part of his wealth in the metal. But he is not alone: gold exchange traded commodities have seen record inflows in the past six months, most wealth managers now recommend a core holding and central banks are loath to sell their quotas. Indeed, Russia has even announced it is buying gold.
Nevertheless, most large institutions, including pension funds, have little or no gold holdings. Mr Paul argues this is a mistake and decries the widely held view that gold is an anachronism.
“Gold is natural money and has been for 6,000 years,” he says.
“You just can’t repeal those laws. A scrap of paper, which the government can just add a nought to, will not do.” He does not, though, expect the mainstream investment industry and its advisers to rush to the bullion vaults.
So was Richard Nixon. Your public image doesn't hide the fact that you are socially distinguished mentally-challenged (at your core).Yes it does...the National Review condemned Nixon after those oval office tapes were released.
Yes it does...the National Review condemned Nixon after those oval office tapes were released.I'm not sure what you mean by this.
Biden I always thought was more the pragmatist, trying to get consesus, doing the rounds so to speak.
Everything we know about Obama suggests that he's all those things. From listening to as many view points as possible to being rather cautious, etc.I've got this picture that Obama has the vision and then sends out Biden to do all the running around amongst the serfs.
I'm not familiar with this idea that Biden is the cautious smart dude in the room
Politicians are like actors. They can hide their awkward behavior or racist beliefs whenever they get in front of a camera.Yes it does...the National Review condemned Nixon after those oval office tapes were released.I'm not sure what you mean by this.
Everything we know about Obama suggests that he's all those things. From listening to as many view points as possible to being rather cautious, etc.I've got this picture that Obama has the vision and then sends out Biden to do all the running around amongst the serfs.
I'm not familiar with this idea that Biden is the cautious smart dude in the room
So Obama is Moses to Biden's Aaron?
Or maybe Biden was in Washington for over 35 years, is well-liked and has built up alot of relationships that Obama hasn't...Everything we know about Obama suggests that he's all those things. From listening to as many view points as possible to being rather cautious, etc.I've got this picture that Obama has the vision and then sends out Biden to do all the running around amongst the serfs.
I'm not familiar with this idea that Biden is the cautious smart dude in the room
Or maybe Biden was in Washington for over 35 years, is well-liked and has built up alot of relationships that Obama hasn't...Everything we know about Obama suggests that he's all those things. From listening to as many view points as possible to being rather cautious, etc.I've got this picture that Obama has the vision and then sends out Biden to do all the running around amongst the serfs.
I'm not familiar with this idea that Biden is the cautious smart dude in the room
See nerd humour, carrying the joke too far.
So Obama is Michael to Biden's Fredo. Washington being Las Vegas of course
At this point is there a viable alternative to the Geithner plan?
I said viable. I think nationalizing the banks is the way to go as well, but honestly i don't think it will happen until we get another grand-mal seizure in the credit markets.
Speaking of Paul Krugman, he was on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer last night, talking about the Geithner plan. In two and a half minutes, he clearly and concisely made the case against the plan. (Strangely, I found his television commentary to be far more lucid and less over-the-top than his columns on the subject have been.) His critique—which you can read the transcript of here—does an excellent job of explaining the plan’s potential flaws:
[T]his is a plan that treats a fairly minor symptom of the problem. You know, that maybe some of these toxic assets—I guess they’re now toxic legacy assets, whatever—are being under-priced in the market. And maybe there’s a problem there.
But the fact of the matter is that the banks made a huge bet. They made a bet that the housing bubble was nonexistent, that, you know, historically unprecedented levels of consumer debt were not a problem. They lost that bet. And this plan does almost nothing to rescue them from the consequences of that bad debt.
[The plan] is a very poorly targeted instrument. What you have is banks that have taken huge losses. And those are real losses. They’re not just because the markets aren’t working so well in toxic paper. And to get the markets, to get capital flowing, to get credit flowing to the real economy, you actually need to make the banks sound again… .
This is not going to do that. It’s going to help a little bit, maybe… . It’s a very sweet deal for the investors. And it’s going to push up the prices, but a lot of the benefits will go to financial institutions that are actually not in any trouble. A fair bit of the benefits will go to people who are not in the financial industry at all. Only a little bit of it is going to trickle to the really critically injured banks. So it’s just not — it’s a plan that kind of mistakes the nature of the problem that we face.
I’m not convinced by Krugman’s take, in part because, like Brad DeLong, I think risk aversion has played a major role in the undervaluing of assets, including mortgages and mortgage-backed securities, and that uncertainty about the continued impact of risk aversion on the value of those assets has made private capital and the banks themselves far more cautious than they normally would be. And I think the Geithner plan, while not ideal, has a reasonable chance of altering the risk-reward equation in a way that would significantly help the economy. I also think the risks and costs of nationalizing banks, which is the meaningful alternative to the plan, outweigh the benefits. (I also don’t think it would be politically possible right now to get Congress to commit the hundreds of billions—if not trillions of dollars—that would be required to take over even a couple big banks.) But I don’t think you’ll find a clearer, more serious critique of the plan’s underlying assumptions than the one Krugman offered
I said viable. I think nationalizing the banks is the way to go as well, but honestly i don't think it will happen until we get another grand-mal seizure in the credit markets.
I said viable. I think nationalizing the banks is the way to go as well, but honestly i don't think it will happen until we get another grand-mal seizure in the credit markets.
So, are you saying we will get another credit freeze up?
I said viable. I think nationalizing the banks is the way to go as well, but honestly i don't think it will happen until we get another grand-mal seizure in the credit markets.
So, are you saying we will get another credit freeze up?
hamster huey and the commericial real estate default kablooie
I kinda wish someone would turn his teleprompter off, just to see what he'd do :lol
The Czech PM is a total nut, an avowed Eurosceptic, climate change denier, and ron paul-style economic distinguished mentally-challenged fellow. He's EU President because of the way the position automatically rotates, not due to any election, and it's been a huge source of embarrassment for most of the member states.
Conrad also pressed some Bush-era budget maneuvers eliminated by Obama back into service: Instead of a 10-year budget that shows deficits steadily accumulating, for example, Conrad is proposing a five-year spending plan. And Conrad assumes that the alternative minimum tax will strike millions of middle-class families, generating billions of additional dollars in 2013 and 2014, though Congress has acted repeatedly to prevent that.
there was some other party that was big on five year plans but i can't recall much about them
While in a perfect world we'd get rid of the Senate, that's not gonna happen. Nor is getting rid of the filibuster.
What Obama and testes-less Harry Reid SHOULD do, however, is make the Republicans filibuster. Make 'em look stupid on national tv a couple of times. No more of this just letting them threaten shit. If health care is a couple of votes away, make them stand up and filibuster a plan that will drive down costs and insure millions more Americans. See how that works for them in 2010 and 2012.
These are Democrats we're talking about, tho. I'm just shocked every day that goes by where they don't ask the Republicans if it's ok for them to go to the bathroom, so making the GOP filibuster is probably out of the question.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M6orSr5QvA[/youtube]
obama sounds like a huge douche
On the flipside, where the hell do you find someone qualified to oversee the regulation of the kind of wacky shit that they trade on CFTC outside of the financial industry?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/26/gop-budget-plan-fizzles-a_n_179660.html
lol
QUESTION: ... House Republicans unveiled what they described today as their alternative to the president's budget. I wonder if anyone here has had a chance to brief you on that on -- if you're aware that it doesn't actually contain any numbers.:lol
GIBBS: I did -- I -- it took me several minutes to read it. (LAUGHTER) I will note that ... there's one more picture of a windmill than there is of a chart of numbers. There's -- just for your knowledge, there's exactly one picture of a windmill.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M6orSr5QvA[/youtube]He'd be political dead if he said anything else. What did you expect? He at least admits to actively doing weed for much of his life not the "tried it once didn't like it" line of most presidents.
obama sounds like a huge douche
If you're having a bad day, I highly encourage you to spend some quality time with the Republican budget proposal. It's reads like what would happen if The Onion put together a budget. "Area Man Releases Proposal for 2010 Federal Spending Priorities." (Though, to paraphrase William F. Buckley, it turns out that I'd prefer a federal budget written by an area man than the first six names on the House Republican Leadership roster.)http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=03&year=2009&base_name=my_favorite_budget_ever#114041
Has Bin Laden ever mentioned the name Obama yet? Seems like a relevant topic that the (dead) terrorist would mention.
He mentioned Biden before but not Obama? weirdCNN had the best parsing of his language:
Bin Laden message: Stop 'aggression' against Gaza Story Highlights
(CNN) -- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has apparently released a new audio message calling for a jihad, or holy war, against Israel for its Gaza campaign.
Osama bin Laden, in an undated photo, apparently taped a message calling for jihad against Israel.
The 22-minute message contains "an invitation" from bin Laden to take part in "jihad to stop the aggression against Gaza."
The audio message was posted on a radical Islamist Web site that has posted other statements from bin Laden in the past.
CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of the message, but the speaker's voice was similar to other recordings that bin Laden has made.
While not naming President-elect Barack Obama, bin Laden refers to the future of the United States in the face of the current global economic crisis. Watch as experts discuss Osama message »
"[America is] now drowning in a global financial crisis," he said. "They're even begging all nations, small and large, for help. America is no longer feared by its enemies nor respected by its allies.
"The decline of the American power is one of the main reasons for Israel's rushed and barbaric aggression on Gaza in a desperate attempt to take advantage of the last days of [President] Bush's term in office."
He appears, however, to refer to Obama, saying "Bush leaves his successor with the worst inheritance ... two long guerrilla wars and no options. He either withdraws and faces military defeat, or carries on and drowns his nation in financial trouble." Watch Obama comment on bin Laden's message »
The message also names Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
"Here is Biden, the vice president of the president-elect ... [he] says that the crisis is bigger than they expected and that the American economy, all of it, is open to collapse," bin Laden said.
On December 20, Biden said in an interview that the economy "is in much worse shape than we thought it was in."
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the message "demonstrates [bin Laden's] isolation and continued attempts to remain relevant at a time when al Qaeda's ideology, mission and agenda are being questioned and challenged throughout the world."
He noted that the message also appears to be "an effort to raise money as part of [al Qaeda's] ongoing propaganda campaign."
"The United States promotes an alternative, hopeful ideology while continuing to partner with over 90 countries to pursue terrorists wherever they are," Johndroe said.
The last time bin Laden released an audio message was in mid-May, timed to coincide with Israel's 60th anniversary. That message urged his followers to liberate Palestine.
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza on December 27 to stop Hamas rocket strikes on southern Israel. The death toll in Gaza was nearing 1,000 on Wednesday, including more than 300 children, according to Palestinian medical sources.
The Israeli toll stood at 13, including three civilians, according to Israeli police and military officials.
Bin Laden, who is about 51, is the head of the al Qaeda terrorist network, which was responsible for the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States that killed 2,751 people.
He's been in hiding since the U.S. assault on Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.
President Bush, whose term ends next week, told CNN's Larry King on Tuesday that he remains optimistic that bin Laden would be found.
Asked by King, "Are we ever going to find bin Laden?" Bush replied: "Yes, of course, absolutely. We've got a lot of people out there looking for him, a lot of assets. You can't run forever."
The message is important to the incoming U.S. president because it signifies that bin Laden is still "out there," said Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana who served on both the congressional and the presidential September 11 commissions.
"It's a reminder of President-elect Obama's inheritance of some of the difficult problems out there that he has to confront," said Roemer, who is president of the Center for National Policy.
"Al Qaeda is trying to be relevant with this tape," Roemer said. "They seek competition with Hamas, Hezbollah, the ongoing battle between Israel and the Palestinians. ...
"This reminds us of what bin Laden said right after 9/11. He said it wasn't 19 Arab armies or 19 Arab states that attacked the United States. It was 19 post-graduate students. It reminds us how much the world has changed, and how many different threats are out there today."
Beck is beating Olby and on some days Olby and Maddow combined. :lol
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/ (http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/)
Meanwhile, we hear another story will hit the wires later today or tomorrow morning about MSNBC's ratings gains. Insiders tells us MSNBC is poised to beat CNN for the month of March in the A25-54 demo and, for the first time ever, in Total Viewers.
War on drugs :bow2
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/mexicos_drug_war.html
:-\
You do realize that all that violence could stop tomorrow if we would just legalize drugs?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/23/tammy-bruce-calls-the-oba_n_178109.htmlthat is terrible. what the fuck is this crazy lady trying to mock about her? that she tried to get an a? that she sounds black? wtf. She didnt do a fake black voice that is how Michelle sounds when she isn't doing speeches.
jesus fucking christ @ her voice
I thought the Michelle hate kinda died down after the initial attacks/smears/rumors didn't work in the primaries
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/23/tammy-bruce-calls-the-oba_n_178109.htmlthat is terrible. what the fuck is this crazy lady trying to mock about her? that she tried to get an a? that she sounds black? wtf. She didnt do a fake black voice that is how Michelle sounds when she isn't doing speeches.
jesus fucking christ @ her voice
I thought the Michelle hate kinda died down after the initial attacks/smears/rumors didn't work in the primaries
It is your natural right to do anything that doesn't interfere with any other person's natural right to peace and security.you sound like FoC lol
I smoked like 4 bowls last night and laughed like a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow at AD.
I disagree. Nobody is being put in jail for getting gay married as far as I know.
I can't find anything about blazing in my PDF of natural rights. did I miss an update or something?
It is your natural right to do anything that doesn't interfere with any other person's natural right to peace and security.
It's weird that peolple somehow think it'll be grown and taxed like tobacco when everyone can just grow it in their basement, or shed, or have that one guy on the block that grows reeeally good stuff as a hobby. It would never be an industry with whole plantations.
natural rights = fiction
It's weird that peolple somehow think it'll be grown and taxed like tobacco when everyone can just grow it in their basement, or shed, or have that one guy on the block that grows reeeally good stuff as a hobby. It would never be an industry with whole plantations.
Yes that's an important distinction from it and alcohol, too. I can't just make my own beer and wine. Thus, I have no choice but to pay the high rates of sin tax. I could, however, grow my own marijuana, then roll it, and smoke it.
Legalize weed
Triumph, that's what those people are willing to pay in an illegal market with artificial high prices. Without the fear of penal sanctions, prices would have to drop, as would how much people would be willing to pay and how much tax they'd be willing to pay. If the tax were excessive, people could easily go back to the underground market and/or grow it themselves--especially without the fear of penal sanctions--limiting just how much revenue states could extract from the plant.
You know how it's easier for high schoolers to get weed than it is for them to get booze? Same principle.Really?
Teen alcohol use has declined since the mid-1990s, though the levels are still pretty high. The 2008 survey showed that the number of 8th and 12th graders who reported that they drank alcohol one or more times in the past year remained fairly steady at about 32% and about 66% respectively. The number of 10th graders who reported alcohol use in the past year fell 3.8% to 52.5%.
The study showed that marijuana use among teens, which has consistently declined since the mid-1990s, appears to have leveled off, with 10.9% of 8th graders, 23.9% of 10th graders and 32.4% of 12th graders reporting using it in the past year. Teen use of several other illicit drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and heroin remained steady.
Why would anyone buy watered down government meth when they can make it in the privacy of their own home, as potent/dangerous and powerful as they please?
Why would anyone buy watered down government meth when they can make it in the privacy of their own home, as potent/dangerous and powerful as they please?
People enjoy having skin.
And if it were illegal until age 21, like alcohol, it would be more difficult for kids to get their hands on it than it currently is. You know how it's easier for high schoolers to get weed than it is for them to get booze? Same principle.
Anyway, your argument is that legalizing drugs would result in more people doing them.That was never my argument.
But if more people try something, that's a larger pool of potential addicts.
Here's a fact: criminalizing human nature doesn't work and hasn't worked since the dawn of time.
You are ignoring my point. Many people in America including most parents don't like "bad" things out there, they want their kids safe and secure. Look at the outrage stuff like a nipple slip on live tv, or violent media...etc get.You also seem to forget it is also human nature for most to want order, security, and safety.
Come on, stop leaving fastballs over the plate.
Here's a fact: criminalizing human nature doesn't work and hasn't worked since the dawn of time. Any time you outlaw something that a significant number of people want to do, you create a black market that will be catered to. Denying this fact is stupid and naive.
And you think legalizing hardcore drugs won't effect peace and security? Where do you live again?
If meth, heroin, crack, etc were legalized, the negative effects on society would be less than the negative effects already caused by the drug war.
Meth is one of the few drugs that is feasible for the average person to make in his or her home. It is also one of the most addictive substances on the planet. These arguments would not apply to the majority of drugs that I have specifically said should be legalized.
Hannity is gonna be at the teaparty protest in Atlanta on April 15th. Right now I'm planning to go, but I don't have anyone to go with.why!? the teaparty is embarrassing. The Boston Tea Party wasn't about the rich top 1% paying more in taxes it was about being taxed without being represented in government. These people thinking they are being like those in the boston tea party are ignorant fools.
I am not talking about pot. I am talking about your ideas on cocaine and the like.This argument is stupid, can we get back on track. Green Shinobi's ideals of American Society are contrary to the culture and nature of the vast majority of America and will never happen in our lifetimes so this is a stupid thing to keep going in circles on.
It will almost certainly happen in the next 50 years. Pot will be legal in many states within the next decade.
why!? the teaparty is embarrassing. The Boston Tea Party wasn't about the rich top 1% paying more in taxes it was about being taxed without being represented in government. These people thinking they are being like those in the boston tea party are ignorant fools.
Not a single damn person at these things other than celebs like hannity who show up are paying a single penny more in taxes I am guessing. Such a disgrace.
Ok, and you can keep on acussing Obama of going back on a promise that he has yet to do.why!? the teaparty is embarrassing. The Boston Tea Party wasn't about the rich top 1% paying more in taxes it was about being taxed without being represented in government. These people thinking they are being like those in the boston tea party are ignorant fools.
Not a single damn person at these things other than celebs like hannity who show up are paying a single penny more in taxes I am guessing. Such a disgrace.
There's more to it than just that.
But hey, keep on believing in that tax cut for 95% of Americans.
No, there really isn't much more to it than that, man.
He hasn't shied away from it at all.
No, there really isn't much more to it than that, man.
- bailouts
- debt
- taxes
He hasn't shied away from it at all.
Tapper specifically asked him Tuesday night if he would sign a budget that did not include middle class tax cuts. If he wasn't shying away from the promise, then his answer would have been an unequivocal "NO".
[youtube=560,345]Z5aoRkfcM_c[/youtube]
Fast forward to 5:15. He didn't do that. Instead, he moved the goalposts to the "tax cut" in the stimulus. How is that not shying away from it? And it goes beyond just 95% of taxpayers paying less taxes. His proposal has always been a fundamental shift in the tax burden on to much fewer people. Right now 38% of eligible taxpayers pay zero federal income taxes. His plan is/was to increase that number to 48-49% of eligible taxpayers.
(here's a hint- quit blatantly hating minorities and pretending that global climate change is made-up; you guys could learn a lot from David Cameron and the Tories)I am glad someone else here has noticed that as well. I have read a few articles about what Cameron has been doing with the tories, it's really impressive stuff and I wouldn't be suprised to see him be prime minister at some point. But I can't see the modern Republican party following his example, they are waaay too stubborn.
Obama laughed off Marijuana Policy reform. Fuck that dude.
You mean the TARP plan, that was formulated by A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT and supported by THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IN CONGRESS?
You mean the national debt, which doubled under A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT AND A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS?
So? If they're not making much money and the top 1-5% is, then you go where the money is. Oh teh noes, they (and I'm not including YOU, cause you don't make more than 250k) are gonna pay 4.6% more in taxes!
We're in a major recession right now and guess what helps speed up recovery during a recession? Deficit spending.
How long do we prop up a dying corporation? I understand GM/Ford failing would lead to economic hurt but seriously, when does this end?
On that subject, fuck all those evangelical loonies who trash the idea of a world currency because it's supposed to bring about the antichrist. Bring on a world currency. People shouldn't have to worry about their currency arbitrarily losing 30% of its value for no real reason.
aww, I missed a Drug argument. Now I'd just be redundant in calling Green Shinobi ignorant :-\
I bet, no, I fucking GUARANTEE that I have done more research on the drug war, its history, the effects of illegal drugs both positive and negative, and their various addiction rates than you have. I fucking guarantee that shit with my dick and both nuts as collateral.
aww, I missed a Drug argument. Now I'd just be redundant in calling Green Shinobi ignorant :-\
I bet, no, I fucking GUARANTEE that I have done more research on the drug war, its history, the effects of illegal drugs both positive and negative, and their various addiction rates than you have. I fucking guarantee that shit with my dick and both nuts as collateral.
How is that annihilationI love how he compares running for the senate/lt. gov in the same sort of "history" making terms as being the first Black President. Steeley, there have been black senators and lt. governors long before you.
also
[youtube=560,345]lo7TNGhmKpQ[/youtube]
He's like a black version of Michael, from the Office. same facial expressions :lol
Well, your posts sure aren't reflecting this.
And I'm sure you're an encyclopedia on the subject.
I love everyone cheering the GM CEO getting canned. "hurray! strike one for the little guy!"
What the hell was the point of that press conference?
Well, he did campaign on the fact he would open up the white house and make his decisions far more public than in the past so it makes sense.
i am thinking republicans prefer to remain ignorant about what their government is doing
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20634.html
SMH
What the hell was the point of that press conference?
...To clarify the GM business agreement?
What the hell was the point of that press conference?
...To clarify the GM business agreement?
What's the agreement?
Republican know they lost. It is just a scumbag tactic to keep Franken off the seat for as long as legally possible. Franken would give the Dems the 59th seat or 58th? I lost track. That one vote is very important to the republicans.59th according to that article. When is the Minnesota supreme court going announce its decision?
Republican know they lost. It is just a scumbag tactic to keep Franken off the seat for as long as legally possible. Franken would give the Dems the 59th seat or 58th? I lost track. That one vote is very important to the republicans.59th according to that article. When is the Minnesota supreme court going announce its decision?
I just thought about how awesome it would be to see a Charlie Rose interview with Franken and Coleman after the court's decision.
Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.:lol Poor Hillary
After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”
After being told it was an apparition, Clinton apparently persisted, asking, "But who painted the painting, the roses," before being informed again that God was the artist in question.
QuoteMsgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.
After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”
After being told it was an apparition, Clinton apparently persisted, asking, "But who painted the painting, the roses," before being informed again that God was the artist in question.
:lol Poor Hillary
QuoteMsgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.:lol Poor Hillary
After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”
After being told it was an apparition, Clinton apparently persisted, asking, "But who painted the painting, the roses," before being informed again that God was the artist in question.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20634.html
SMH
Obstructicons. What would the massive transformer they combine into be named?
From Sean at 538: "There are roughly 6,000 uncounted absentee ballots."
Oh, come the fuck on. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20728.html)
I mean, really. REALLY.
In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government.
QuoteIn a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/motorsports/obama_orders_chevrolet_and_dodge_out_of_nascar_car_news (http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/motorsports/obama_orders_chevrolet_and_dodge_out_of_nascar_car_news)
...I think it's hypocritical to allow banks names on stadiums who also received govt. funding.
QuoteIn a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/motorsports/obama_orders_chevrolet_and_dodge_out_of_nascar_car_news (http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/motorsports/obama_orders_chevrolet_and_dodge_out_of_nascar_car_news)
Obama just gave the Queen of England an iPod lol.
It's better than her gift to him still. She gave him a framed photo of herself lol.Obama just gave the Queen of England an iPod lol.
SMH
he needs fucking schooled in gift giving.
It's better than her gift to him still. She gave him a framed photo of herself lol.Obama just gave the Queen of England an iPod lol.
SMH
he needs fucking schooled in gift giving.
Car and Driver Ordered to Cease Operations at End of Season - Car News
Obama deems the magazine “unnecessary and wasteful to the environment,” and judges its editorial "tawdry and irrelevant."
BY SAMUEL CLEMENTS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFFREY G. RUSSELL
April 2009
In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that Car and Driver must cease publication at the end of 2009. While publications around the globe have already felt the pinch of the economy and drawn fire for wasting precious energy in production and delivery, enormous amounts of paper in their “hard copy” pages, and contributing to landfill saturation, this announcement was stunning.
A complete shutdown of the rarely read publication would divert more than 250 million tons of paper from landfills a year, and save a substantial amount of CO2 emissions, the White House said.
“Print publications such as Car and Driver used to be read religiously but in the internet age they are irrelevant and wasteful,” said the statement from President Obama.
Obama just gave the Queen of England an iPod lol.
SMH
he needs fucking schooled in gift giving.
Repubs propose big tax cuts, spending freezes, stimulus rollbacks, endless deficits
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/congress_budget
2G2D
Repubs propose big tax cuts, spending freezes, stimulus rollbacks, endless deficits
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/congress_budget
2G2D
Tax cuts: A very innovative solution. I didn't even see it coming from the Republicans.
How would that get us out of a recession
how
Tax cuts: A very innovative solution. I didn't even see it coming from the Republicans.
See, they've properly diagnosed the source of our economic woes: the producers in our society are tired of high marginal tax rates punishing their success and have decided to go Galt (http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/ask-dr-helen-is-it-time-to-go-john-galt/).
Repubs propose big tax cuts, spending freezes, stimulus rollbacks, endless deficits
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/congress_budget
2G2D
Repubs propose big tax cuts, spending freezes, stimulus rollbacks, endless deficits
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/congress_budget
2G2D
What a complete and utter joke. How can they sit there and criticize Obama's projected deficits when their plan runs $500B+ deficits as well? Is there anyone left in the GOP with a brain?
Repubs propose big tax cuts, spending freezes, stimulus rollbacks, endless deficits
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/congress_budget
2G2D
What a complete and utter joke. How can they sit there and criticize Obama's projected deficits when their plan runs $500B+ deficits as well? Is there anyone left in the GOP with a brain?
Did anyone in the GOP ever have a brain?Repubs propose big tax cuts, spending freezes, stimulus rollbacks, endless deficits
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/congress_budget
2G2D
What a complete and utter joke. How can they sit there and criticize Obama's projected deficits when their plan runs {&dollarfix;}500B+ deficits as well? Is there anyone left in the GOP with a brain?
Again... this is a severe recession. Big deficits come with the territory. Or would you like some shoe soup tonight?
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) on Tuesday told Capitol Hill reporters that she is skeptical of the Employee Free Choice Act, possibly dealing another deadly blow to the legislation.
A trio of actors from the "West Wing" TV show took aim at Specter's decision Tuesday at a press conference to promote the bill. Bradley Whitford, who played Josh Lyman on the NBC show, said Specter took the easy way out.
"He is down 15 points in polling, coming from the right in the Republican primary," Whitford said.
"You cannot allow compromise on the fundamental right of workers to actually be able to form a union. It's disappointing. It sounds to me like he's more worried about his job than his constituents' jobs."
Asked if they had met with Feinstein to learn her concerns, the actors said no such meeting had been arranged.
"But we would welcome that opportunity," said actor Martin Sheen, who portrayed President Josiah Bartlet on the show.
nevermind, i see that it is real
someone needs to tell these people that they're not even pretend politicians anymore
it's the whole "we want to meet with her" bullshit
How would that get us out of a recession
how
btw, I'm digging the Richard Schiff avatar, Triumph. :rock
What’s Wrong with Washington?
Washington has always been out of sync with the rest of America, but since Obama’s election, Beltway pundits seem more stubbornly and stupendously irrelevant than ever. Have three decades of being wired for Republican power blown their jittery, Twittering minds?
by James Wolcott May 2009
...
In the first weeks of the Obama administration, “bipartisanship” was the reigning buzzword, and when the Beltway thinks bipartisan, it pictures President Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill putting aside their differences and forging a legislative partnership, a ruddy pair of genial patriarchs bonding over the Blarney Stone. (Their Sunshine Boys routine supplies the first point of reference for nearly every stream of consciousness Sam Donaldson wades into on This Week.) If only the ghosts of the Gipper and the Tipper could inspire similar outreaches across the aisle, pined the Beltway oracles, playing matchmaker. When the newly elected Obama was assembling his Cabinet, Time reporter Karen Tumulty, writing for the magazine’s Swampland blog, offered “an out-of-the-box suggestion” for who should become health-and-human-services secretary—former Republican governor and candidate Mitt Romney, that aerosol can that couldn’t. As with so many who pride themselves on thinking outside the box, Tumulty would have been better off closing the cardboard flaps instead. Such stunt-casting would have dashed any hopes of a political future for Romney within the Republican Party against the jagged rocks, and stuck the Obama administration with a possible prima donna, violating its no-drama edict. Throwing Romney’s name into the hopper reflected the fetish that Washington entertains for a centrism that converts everything to mush.
At his Trail Mix blog at Congressional Quarterly’s site, Craig Crawford ventured even farther outside the box—and into the ozone—to unveil his own magic pick for H.H.S. secretary: Mr. Flour Power himself, Newt Gingrich. Anticipating the rhubarb this selection would provoke, Crawford wrote:
Now before you lefties have a collective heart attack, think about it. Something as big as overhauling our entire health care system will be tougher to get done on a purely partisan basis. There are Republicans who want to play.
As much as it would infuriate liberals, picking Gingrich would be a hyper-bipartisan move.
Only within the Beltway popcorn popper could Gingrich, whose serpent tongue and ogre ego did so much to polarize discourse in the 1990s and abort reform, be considered a foxy catch. Only in Washington, D.C., could Gingrich, a magpie of futurist jargon and a bumptious opportunist, pass himself off as an iconoclastic force and centrifuge of ideas, a cross between Buckminster Fuller and Che Guevara leading a commando raid on the buffet table. And only within the punditocracy could “hyper-bipartisan” be bandied about as an aphrodisiac.
...
With the election of Obama and the identity branding of MSNBC as an anti–Fox News Justice League, there is some evidence of rewiring taking place, certain clusters of once-firing neurons falling dormant. Webmeister Matt Drudge’s bugle calls no longer send the media swinging from the monkey bars; hardy and unrepentant, radio host Rush Limbaugh has been re-inflated for one last hurrah, hogging the spotlight until the glow of his fancy cigar is finally extinguished; Ann Coulter has whittled down into a novelty act; the neoconservatives, whose virile rhetoric helped dig so many graves in the Bush era, grace us by their absence; the policy wonks fielded by the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute give off less of a power hum. (If anything, it’s Wall Street rather than Washington, D.C., that seems wired Republican down to the slightest twitch, with CNBC serving as the conning tower of supply-siders, flat-taxers, Laffer-curve zealots, Reaganauts, hedge-fund ringmasters, and deposed Masters of the Universe who defend corporate interests and decry labor to the last drop of their protein shakes.) As Tucker Carlson pointed out at this February’s annual cpac (Conservative Political Action Conference), in Washington, D.C., so much of the tomahawk fever mobilizing the conservative movement since 1992 was raw, unrefined Clinton hatred—a visceral loathing that transcended doctrinal differences and fused Billary into a burning focal point. Obama doesn’t rouse the same foaming action, except in fringe, nativist, gun-toting-Jesus blogs buried so deep in the reeds of the Internet swamp that even Fox News bookers wouldn’t handle them with sterilized tongs. The trillionaire spending sluicing through the system will flood the defenses of the permanent lobbying-consulting-appropriations apparatus, shifting the sandbars and the magnetic fields of Washington influence. (In 1993, Clinton couldn’t get a $16 billion stimulus bill passed through Congress.) To be wired Republican when the agenda is being set by the Obama–Rahm Emanuel muscle machine is to risk being dial-up in a broadband era, a dinky holdover.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/stephen-colbert-rips-apar_n_181673.html
omfg :lol
First time I've seen those Beck clips. Holy shit
The economy business confuses me. :-\
The problem with mark to market rules is it doesn't account for situations like the one we are in right now. The changes might be necessary short term so banks aren't crushed underneath the wight of assets that might have value but are essentially valueless, but I hope (lord I hope) that this is only temporary and that real regulation will follow to fix the underlying cause of the problem.
That article is poorly sourced enough for me to chalk it up to wonk hysteria.not only that, look at the main page. It looks like it was built with some geocities site builder. Full of giant ads and weird cookie cutter images.
http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=351 (http://us1.institutionalriskanalytics.com/pub/IRAstory.asp?tag=351)
Make sure you're sitting down before reading that.
Yeah, I mean this image pretty much sums up the European leaders reaction to him:
(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/1305/slide_1305_19231_large.jpg)
That article is poorly sourced enough for me to chalk it up to wonk hysteria.
Yeah, I mean this image pretty much sums up the European leaders reaction to him:Yeah some of you need to read up on international affairs. Berlusconi would be an awesome drinking buddy and not much else. And the Russians eh.
(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/1305/slide_1305_19231_large.jpg)
Yeah, I mean this image pretty much sums up the European leaders reaction to him:Yeah some of you need to read up on international affairs. Berlusconi would be an awesome drinking buddy and not much else. And the Russians eh.
(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/1305/slide_1305_19231_large.jpg)
All smiles fro the camera now but we'll see what happens when the shit hits the fan. Hopefully Obama's charm and rationale still prevails.
Jobs Report:The economy is looking somewhat up lately, seems we've already seen the bottom, most reports show improvement. Job reports always lag. I've noticed that is becoming the general consensus as of late, that things are starting to seem to be getting better.
March -663k
Unemployment rate 8.5%
Jan revised down from -655K to -741k
No February revision
STRASBOURG, France — French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered enthusiastic support for U.S. President Barack Obama’s new strategy in Afghanistan, saying his country was preparing to do more to help the alliance fight there.
Sarkozy told a joint news conference after talks with Obama today that France totally endorses and supports America’s new strategy in Afghanistan.
Sarkozy added France is prepared to do more in terms of police training and is helping Afghanistan rebuild.
... did Michelle blow Sarkozy? He's like our best friend now.
Also, did Obama hit that Bruni broad? Hottest politician's wife ever.
Michelle Malkin is outraged about that, Jinfash. (http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/02/video-obamas-deep-bow-to-the-saudi-king/)
Saudi king is a douche, but I guess Obama is just playing politics. Pfft.
When JWF sent a link to the photo with Obama bent down like a serf (further than either he or Michelle dipped for Queen Elizabeth, by the way):lol
Yeah, I mean he is a KING. Even though he is a king of a rather iffy middle-east country you are still expected to treat him with respect of royality. What can you do?Michelle Malkin is outraged about that, Jinfash. (http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/02/video-obamas-deep-bow-to-the-saudi-king/)
Saudi king is a douche, but I guess Obama is just playing politics. Pfft.QuoteWhen JWF sent a link to the photo with Obama bent down like a serf (further than either he or Michelle dipped for Queen Elizabeth, by the way):lol
Amazing. Isn't this holding hands/bowing stuff more cultural respect than fawning? It's like saying kissing cheek to cheek is gay
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123872261427685233.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123872261427685233.html)
:D
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123872261427685233.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123872261427685233.html)
:D
I have no problem with Obama, it's people taking these pictures on face value.
I'm pretty sure he's aware of all of their drawbacks, but what's the harm on putting on a charm offensive? If he wants to play hardball later he's just in a better position to do it.
Michelle Malkin is outraged about that, Jinfash. (http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/02/video-obamas-deep-bow-to-the-saudi-king/)
Saudi king is a douche, but I guess Obama is just playing politics. Pfft.
(http://johnsoncity.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/050426_BUSH-ABDULLAH_ex-745907.jpg)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/us/politics/04disclose.html?hp (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/us/politics/04disclose.html?hp)
Hopefully this is enough to get Obama to force Summers out and get someone with a point of view that cantradicts wall street to work with Geithner. I haven't been happy with Obama on the economy so far, and I think he has about half a chance to change course before someone derails the whole thing and we're stuck with nothing.
But the allies rebuked Obama's push for Europe to share the burden of the anti-terror fight in Afghanistan with more combat troops. That leaves the heavy lifting in U.S. hands. As he escalates U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Obama also is seeking to broaden the multinational commitment to preventing new terrorist attacks that he has repeatedly told Europeans are just as likely on their continent as in America.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/04/obama-welcomes-albania-cr_n_183112.html
But he did get more combat troops from NATO, just not a crazy amount.Not to mention france is going to help us harbor some of the GITMO prisoners while we decide to figure out where to put them, thats a big deal.
bubububuStop playing the troll. Obama got a lot out of this. James Carville was right when he called this the best week of Obama's presidency so far.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6032342.ece
Drudge's take: NO WE CAN'T: Obama fails to win Nato troops for Afghanistan...
:smug
You're championing small potatoes. If you think he won over Russia with some jokes and laughs...smh. Wait until they start discussing the missile defense shield before making such claims.
They aren't troops btw. They're military trainers and police
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/president-oba-3.html (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/president-oba-3.html)Yeah well other than THAT, saving the tax haven deal between France and China, getting France to hold our GITMO detainees, getting 1 trillion dollars for the economy, getting 5,000 troops for Afghanistan, and opening talks with Russia his trip was a complete failure
:bow
Cheebs is working overtime.That opinion makes it seem like it is a bad thing that Obama is making many concessions to Europe and letting them take the lead on a multitude of issues.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040301945.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040301945.html?hpid=opinionsbox1)
re: Summers
I remember back during the transition reading speculation that Obama wanted to replace Bernanke with him when his term expired in 2010. Suppose that's becoming more and more of a political impossibility every day.
This isn't the Bush years, we no longer need to act like America is some how better than Denmark or France or whoever at dictating the way things go.
You're championing small potatoes. If you think he won over Russia with some jokes and laughs...smh. Wait until they start discussing the missile defense shield before making such claims.
I think people are just dazzled by a Republican seeming to publicly acknowledge that having a brain isn't just for pussies, and they don't bother to actually see that his ideas are nothing more than that same old wingnut mess.
I think people are just dazzled by a Republican seeming to publicly acknowledge that having a brain isn't just for pussies, and they don't bother to actually see that his ideas are nothing more than that same old wingnut mess.The reason Newt Gingrich gets so much airplay despite his past decade of irrelevance is because he will talk to ANYBODY. The guy will show up at the opening of an envelope if you ask him nicely. Most high-up elephants won't have anything to do with the 'liberal media', but not Newt, he'll take any calls, answer any questions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/politics/07poll.html?hp (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/politics/07poll.html?hp)
The Republican party's strategy of being useless obstructionists is paying off.
Just like when America secretly was against govt. spending for the economy despite 60-70% of the public supported it.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/politics/07poll.html?hp (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/us/politics/07poll.html?hp)
The Republican party's strategy of being useless obstructionists is paying off.
The silent majority is so silent statistics can't possibly calculate their gargantuan existence
Democrat Al Franken’s lead in Minnesota’s long-disputed Senate race increased to 312 votes Tuesday, making it mathematically impossible for Norm Coleman to win his state trial challenging the election outcome.http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003094559
Yeah, apparently Franken having more votes doesn't matter in that election. And the crawl of the judicial system is prolonging it. I would think that this should be highest on the "to do" list for the system there to name a candidate and move on.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Minn. courts put the kabosh on on their legal ideas right off the bat. But if that pans out exactly like that, I will have lost even more faith in the judicial system.I think he was talking about Coleman taking his appeals federal, IIRC
Obama supports Bush wiretap program. (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/06/MNRP16TJOQ.DTL)
Change. :-\
I'm not quite sure why he would drop torture, Gitmo, etc. - but not wiretapping?I think it's a little consistent, the wiretapping suit is about suing for previous wiretapping offenses, just like he's ended the torture policies yet some of the torture memos for the previous policies aren't going to be released.
The internals for that NYT/CBS poll are absolutely lolz-worthy.
Obama is still undoubtedly popular. There's no need for these news outlets to embarass themselves trying to prove it.
I'm not quite sure why he would drop torture, Gitmo, etc. - but not wiretapping?
Shoulda voted McCain
So, you're saying you believe a poll that has a 23% weighting for REPs is accurate?
I'm just saying the obvious but there is no way that amnesty is that popular now with so many unemployed Americans. A lot of democratic senators probably aren't going to be so supportive of something like that. Especially ones in states with low hispanic populations.You'd be surprised. anti-immigration stuff hurt the republicans really really badly in 2006-2008. It went from a small democratic advantage to a nearly 3:1 advantage, republicans used to be competitive in california until they pushed hard against amnesty. The hispanic population is skyrocketing, the democrats want to lock them down as part of their base because if they do it will be very hard for them to lose elections. The dems won't be against this.
here we goooo
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/politics/09immig.html?_r=1&hp
Milo Bloom headline of the day: SECRET MUSLIM WITH RADICAL PASTOR HOSTS SEDER.
also, there's a fun one burning up the charts DID OBAMA BOW TO THE SAUDI KING??!?!?!?!?!?!?
also, there's a fun one burning up the charts DID OBAMA BOW TO THE SAUDI KING??!?!?!?!?!?!?
Dick "Hooker Enthusiast with a Foot Fetish" Morris remarked the other night on Hannity I think it was that Obama's European trip was basically the equivalent of repealing the Declaration of Independence.
Yeah, but back then there wasn't a HUGE risk of losing red-blooded, umemployed voters. I wouldn't be too surprised if a lot of dems throw obama under the bus over this proposal. I think that whatever plan does pass, hispanics will be disappointed.I'm just saying the obvious but there is no way that amnesty is that popular now with so many unemployed Americans. A lot of democratic senators probably aren't going to be so supportive of something like that. Especially ones in states with low hispanic populations.You'd be surprised. anti-immigration stuff hurt the republicans really really badly in 2006-2008. It went from a small democratic advantage to a nearly 3:1 advantage, republicans used to be competitive in california until they pushed hard against amnesty. The hispanic population is skyrocketing, the democrats want to lock them down as part of their base because if they do it will be very hard for them to lose elections. The dems won't be against this.
Those type of white voters you describe are not nearly as important to the democratic coalition as the rising Hispanic population, and they are becoming less and less vital for electoral reasons. If they lock up the Hispanic vote they can ensure Nevada/Colardo/Arizona/etc are theirs in all future elections. With that they don't need those red-blooded white blue collar voters of the mid-west.Yeah, but back then there wasn't a HUGE risk of losing red-blooded, umemployed voters. I wouldn't be too surprised if a lot of dems throw obama under the bus over this proposal. I think that whatever plan does pass, hispanics will be disappointed.I'm just saying the obvious but there is no way that amnesty is that popular now with so many unemployed Americans. A lot of democratic senators probably aren't going to be so supportive of something like that. Especially ones in states with low hispanic populations.You'd be surprised. anti-immigration stuff hurt the republicans really really badly in 2006-2008. It went from a small democratic advantage to a nearly 3:1 advantage, republicans used to be competitive in california until they pushed hard against amnesty. The hispanic population is skyrocketing, the democrats want to lock them down as part of their base because if they do it will be very hard for them to lose elections. The dems won't be against this.
I can confirm that after meeting with my cabal of Jewish bankers for our annual Passover Matzo-Brye breakfast summit, that the United States of America was indeed sold back the U.K. for some Dr. Dre mixtapes and a bag baked Doritos.buy low, sell high
I'm just saying the obvious but there is no way that amnesty is that popular now with so many unemployed Americans. A lot of democratic senators probably aren't going to be so supportive of something like that. Especially ones in states with low hispanic populations.
and definitely don't buy while highLast time that happened I ended up with two Mel Gibson movies and beef flavored tomato juice :-\
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31KF-6Fpi9L._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31KF-6Fpi9L._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31KF-6Fpi9L._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
drafted is a pretty damn cool book on its ownPut Obama on the cover of something and sales instantly skyrocket. Plus it might have to with the fact Obama likes comics and claims to still collect Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics (probably why they used Spider-Man and this conan looking thing for his appearances).
but i guess obama is the magical sales negro ever since everyone went gaga for that fucking lame spiderman book
AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”
Put Obama on the cover of something and sales instantly skyrocket. Plus it might have to with the fact Obama likes comics and claims to still collect Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.Wow, really. This news story makes so much more sense now.
Yep. Apparently he bags them any everything. Conan though....wtf? Who the hell reads conan comics. Geeky stuff, it's almost kinda weird. Like Leonard Nimoy said he met Obama at some point before Obama was a senator at a chicago dem. fundraiser and Obama went up to him and did the vulcan salute and asked for his autograph.Put Obama on the cover of something and sales instantly skyrocket. Plus it might have to with the fact Obama likes comics and claims to still collect Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.Wow, really. This news story makes so much more sense now.
Obama Disappointed Cabinet Failed To Understand His Reference To 'Savage Sword Of Conan' #24 (http://www.theonion.com/content/news/obama_disappointed_cabinet_failed)
(http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Obama-Disappointed-R.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31KF-6Fpi9L._SL500_AA280_.jpg)(https://www.epiceriedirect.com/fr/lookproducts.php?id_pro=8727)
In the cartoon, he [Obama] takes on his nemesis, Sarah Palin, who sports a wolf skin cape..
In the cartoon, he [Obama] takes on his nemesis, Sarah Palin, who sports a wolf skin cape..
Shouldn't that be a moose-skin cape?
the wolf shooting thing was just a law that she supported. I think she bragged about hunting moose but yeah, these "political" comics are like the Wiifit of comic books.
Wow I didn't know state secrets were this important to you, I guess you must have not supported Bush in 2004 because that would have been hypocrit-...oh wait. :smug
ACORN is turning into the phlogiston of wingnut conspiracy theories. They can’t tell you what they do, but if it upsets Republicans, ACORN is there, colorless, odorless, and pissing off Rush Limbaugh. I remember when it used to be A.N.S.W.E.R. and the ACLU that had these guys up in arms over everything. Maybe they are just working their way through the alphabet. If that is the case Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation better get ready for the shitstorm of poorly written emails they are going to get during the 2010 midterms.
I don't really care either way. Its more for the hopenchangers like you that bought Obama's bullshit.
And we expected Obama to be 100% perfect? Come on, this is still American Politics. He does a lot of stuff I don't like including this.Wow I didn't know state secrets were this important to you, I guess you must have not supported Bush in 2004 because that would have been hypocrit-...oh wait. :smug
I don't really care either way. Its more for the hopenchangers like you that bought Obama's bullshit.
A bit concerned over the bill that would give the president the power to monitor and shut down the internet though. I think its called the Cybersecurity Act of 2009. And of course its got bipartisan support - Snowe and Rockerfeller are sponsoring it.
There are Americans being taxed without representation in Congress RIGHT NOW and I would lay money down that 80%+ of the tea partiers are against giving those people the vote.
But what I came here to post was:Quote from: John ColeACORN is turning into the phlogiston of wingnut conspiracy theories. They can’t tell you what they do, but if it upsets Republicans, ACORN is there, colorless, odorless, and pissing off Rush Limbaugh. I remember when it used to be A.N.S.W.E.R. and the ACLU that had these guys up in arms over everything. Maybe they are just working their way through the alphabet. If that is the case Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation better get ready for the shitstorm of poorly written emails they are going to get during the 2010 midterms.
Ow. (http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=19720)
Don’t Tread on Them
By LAWRENCE DOWNES
Published: April 6, 2009
Not glowering sky nor mud nor threat of hailstones sufficed to deter about 300 souls from massing on the sodden village green in Northport, N.Y., that afternoon.
They were a band of like minds bent on dire provocations seldom witnessed in the harborside hamlet on Long Island Sound. It was a day for brandishing signs, shouting imprecations and donning silly clothing: tricorn hats and breeches, bonnets and petticoats. A few carried pitchforks, the better to jab the message home. We good farm folk are fed up and will be silent no more.
Their enemy: a tyrannical government heedless of the people’s will and blind to its manifold injustices. Their tactic: a Boston-style tea party, a symbolic rebellion for times that once again are trying men’s souls.
Tea parties are a recent phenomenon, spawned in the red-meat districts of right-wing talk radio and cable TV. It was strange to see the rebels reach Northport, whose antiques ’n’ potpourri Main Street, with a half-dozen empty stores, could use a little federal stimulus.
But down at the park gazebo, the green lawn was rumbling with grass-roots anger. Actually, its grass-rootiness was highly debatable. What were the citizens angry about? The stimulus? Not really, said one organizer. He had problems with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Laws impeding capital formation. “Indict Charlie Rangel,” said a sign. “Lowlife Obama!” roared a man in the crowd, causing giggles.
Was this about Wall Street? Evil automakers? Greedy lenders who pillaged Long Island with predatory housing loans? No, no and no. It was not about fixing unbridled free-market capitalism, but ensuring its glorious restoration. Mostly, it was about tax cuts.
The day was dark already, but the atmosphere became foggier and more indistinct with each new speaker. It all seemed to boil down to a battle of good nouns against evil nouns.
“Liberty, yes! Tyranny, no!”
“Keep your socialistic dance! We don’t want to live in France!”
Before you could say “Marquis de Lafayette,” it was time to hurl tea. A man with a megaphone gave a warning about littering. Then a bagpiper led the crowd through the harbor town’s loveliest taxpayer-supported amenities, from the municipal gazebo in the municipal park, across the municipal parking lot and down the municipal dock.
The chief of the Northport Fire Department, which like many on Long Island is bristlingly equipped by compliant taxpayers with enough gear to protect small European principalities, kept watch from his official S.U.V. The Northport Police directed traffic as a search-and-rescue boat idled over by the marina. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, alerted to the possibility of tea dumping without permits, had sent two armed officers.
And at the dock, a 41-foot Coast Guard boat from the Eatons Neck Station, with a five-man crew, kept its engines running in case anybody or anything was attacked, scuttled, dunked or sunk.
Whatever trouble these rebels found themselves in, the federal, state and local governments had it covered.
Waiting at the end of the dock were two costumed American Indians, one with long fake braids, the other with a feathered headdress and tomahawk. After more speeches, they tossed two wooden crates marked “TEA” into the harbor. Cheers rang. A cannon boomed.
“Let’s give ourselves a round of applause,” the megaphone man said. The wind had picked up, and the crates started floating out to Long Island Sound. The retrieval rope snapped. A boatswain’s mate from the Coast Guard boat took out a long hooked pole but did not deploy it: no federal rescue here.
The crowd turned and left the dock. The crates kept floating away. The Coast Guard and police boats motored off. At last, from out of the gloom came a gunmetal kayak. A lone man in a big black hat, the Stars and Stripes waving from his fishing-rod holder, paddled out to snag the boxes. Fighting a stiff wind, he slowly towed them back to shore.
It was a gallant act of individual responsibility. Too bad hardly anyone noticed. The crowd had gone to Skipper’s Pub, which was offering drink specials.
I can't go.
Have an interview out of state next week. The stimulus plan may come through for me.
"porkulus"
man how do you conservatives come up with such witty and imaginative nicknames
Would have been so much better if Maher interviewed Vidal for the whole episode instead of splitting it with Ron Howard. :yuckI was a bit surprised how much Bill Maher wanted to discuss about the Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days lol. Although I felt kinda bad for Ron Howard when he asked the audience to clap for Spider-Man 3 cause his daughter was in it and like no one did.
In the depths of madness.
[youtube=560,345]kwdOwgD5OsY[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwdOwgD5OsY
"Burn the books!"
Charming folks you're gonna be hanging with there, sd.
There are no words.
Well, there are words but they've already been written. (http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/conspiracy_theory/the_paranoid_mentality/the_paranoid_style.html)
[youtube=560,345]G7YvGiuw0Ks[/youtube]
Oh my God. :lol
Glenn Beck is going to burn staff members on fire!
I dont get how conservatives claim "thats not the change we voted for!" for things Obama pretty much promised he would do in the campaign (stimulus, tax increase on rich, closing gitmo, helping build relationships in europe....etc).
It's like because he is a a democrat running the government like a democrat he somehow is offending the population. I get the conservatives being angry but people like Beck act like the entire country is in outrage and in shock over Obama doing what he said he'd do.
[youtube=560,345]G7YvGiuw0Ks[/youtube]
Oh my God. :lol
Glenn Beck is going to burn staff members on fire!
Senior Member can make tags.
I love Morning Joe. He disagrees with Obama A LOT, being a Republican and all but if more Republicans acted like him the party would be in a far better place going forward into 2010.
Yeah, its not just that though. He isn't really firey about it. He is calm and rational even though I disagree with him on all those issues you mentioned.I love Morning Joe. He disagrees with Obama A LOT, being a Republican and all but if more Republicans acted like him the party would be in a far better place going forward into 2010.
That's because he's socially liberal - his ideaology comes into play when the economy, military, etc are involved.
Coverage of a tea party: Shock, they treat it with all the meaning as a sports event. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/opinion/07tue4.html?_r=3)
Before you could say “Marquis de Lafayette,” it was time to hurl tea. A man with a megaphone gave a warning about littering. Then a bagpiper led the crowd through the harbor town’s loveliest taxpayer-supported amenities, from the municipal gazebo in the municipal park, across the municipal parking lot and down the municipal dock.
So Franken won today.It should have ended in November. Coleman will keep his suit as long as he legally can.
Is this shit over in Minnesota now?
So Franken won today.It should have ended in November. Coleman will keep his suit as long as he legally can.
Is this shit over in Minnesota now?
So Franken won today.
Is this shit over in Minnesota now?
Al Franken sucks.
No, he just sucks. Yes, what the Democrats need is another extremely left leaning populist - only this one writes jokes (that were funny twenty years ago)!
He's just as much of a blowhard as Glenn Beck.
No, he just sucks. Yes, what the Democrats need is another extremely left leaning populist - only this one writes jokes (that were funny twenty years ago)!
He's just as much of a blowhard as Glenn Beck.
No, he just sucks. Yes, what the Democrats need is another extremely left leaning populist - only this one writes jokes (that were funny twenty years ago)!
He's just as much of a blowhard as Glenn Beck.
except glenn beck is literally insane and is responsible for deaths and has no remorse for that, whereas al franken is just a somewhat unfunny comedian who honestly cares about human beings
4. What's next?. Coleman has promised an appeal to the state Supreme Court, but I would not count on it. He might decide that his political future in Minnesota requires him to bow out gracefully at this point. The countervailing factor is the national interests of the Republican party, which want to keep a 59th Democrat out of the Senate for as long as possible. If Coleman appeals, it is possible that the Minnesota Supreme Court would reach the equal protection issues more directly, but even if it did, I'd be surprised to see a different result.http://electionlawblog.org/archives/013410.html
Wow, I agree with Willco for a change. Franken ::)
Wow, I agree with Willco for a change. Franken ::)
Why??
Please attempt a coherent answer please.
PD is a human compass who points to wrong.
Wow, I agree with Willco for a change. Franken ::)
Why??
Please attempt a coherent answer please.
Uhh, I don't think he's funny at all. I find his brand of partisan commentary/politics to be distasteful, and it just makes me roll my eyes; I'm not going to say he's the liberal equivalent of Sean Hannity or Coulter because he certainly isn't. Truth be told he just strikes me as a huge asshole who doesn't realize he's not funny (sort of like me). Yea Hannity/Coulter/Beck are assholes too, but they get into manipulative shit, distortions, and fan hate. Fraken doesn't do any of that, he just gets on people's nerves
ACORN ,Goerge Soros!!
Hating on Franken and people like him on the left is the easy out for people like Pee Dee and Federwang to assuage their guilt at taking sides and not trying to present a David Broder-esque "let's all hold hands and be bipartisan, because anything less is illegitimate" front. Being able to say "but I don't like Al Franken or Keith Olbermann either" after ripping into idiots like Rush, Beck or Hannity gives them the illusion of being, dare I say it, FAIR AND BALANCED.
Basically, they're worried about being labeled a partisan so they temper their right bashing with the easy slap at a Franken or an Olbermann. Then Maurice goes on to write a paragraph about how he loves the "boyishly engaged" simpleton Chris Matthews, or how noted loofah enthusiast Bill O'reilly gives him the lulz.
Franken was also a writer in the SNL heyday, but that doesn't mean he should be writing policy.
Franken sucks. Just because the Republicans tried to hinder his bid for the Senate - looking arguably stupid in the process - doesn't make him any less of a blowhard.
Dear Friend:http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/cornyn-stands-by-coleman-in-appeal.php
The strength of our democracy is built on a fair and accurate system of elections. Our Constitution provides for Due Process and for Equal Protection in order to better guarantee the enfranchisement of every voter.
Unfortunately, those fundamental principles are under attack in Minnesota. Since Senator Norm Coleman was first ahead by hundreds of votes at the end of election night, the Democrats have aggressively worked to change the rules of the game after it's been played.
Last night, they succeeded in convincing a three-judge panel to issue a fundamentally misguided ruling that disenfranchises over 4,000 Minnesota voters. They did so by imposing a different, and stricter, standard for votes to be counted rather than following the rules that were in place in Minnesota on Election Day.
In doing so, Constitutionally-valid Due Process and Equal Protection concerns have been raised...and as of yet, have not been resolved. Which is exactly why Senator Coleman is appealing this decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court: the votes of over 4,000 Minnesotans disenfranchised by this court's opinion deserve to be counted.
It's frankly shocking that many of the same Democrats who so loudly decried voter disenfranchisement during the Florida recount in 2000 have so quickly run away from that principle when it no longer fits their political agenda.
Nonetheless, Republicans, and the NRSC in particular, remain committed to a full and fair resolution of this election contest and stand firmly behind Senator Norm Coleman.
Your strong and continued support is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Senator John Cornyn
Chairman
National Republican Senatorial Committee
And in Cavuto’s defense, if you are planning simultaneous tea bagging all around the country, you’re going to need a Dick Armey.
Lordy, the copy writers just went to town on that, didn't they?
This just in from Columbia County: when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s absentee ballot came up in the queue, the poll watchers for Jim Tedisco objected to it, saying the senator was in the county on election day and should have voted in person.
republican amnesia is setting in so hard
"deficit spending!? animals!? slight faux-pas with foreign leaders!? this is unprecedented! impeach this monster, hold a tea party to protest taxes (that are actually being cut)"
Did Texas just secede or something? (http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/12227/) Should we be trying to airlift citizens of Austin out?
edit: I mean, a black guy trains dogs to fight each other and kills them, and sd flips out. Another black guy gives a dog a loving home, and sd flips out. Negro-canine relations just can't get a break with this guy.
Its funny they're trying to say that the dog was technically rescued because the original owners returned the dog to the breeder. Nevermind the fact that the breeder is the Kennedy's own personal dog breeder.
When you realize that sd's posts are broadly representative of the Republican strategy for regaining power, he becomes a very reassuring figure.
The SD posting machine seems to be malfunctioning. It no longer even pretends to listen.
When you realize that sd's posts are broadly representative of the Republican strategy for regaining power, he becomes a very reassuring figure.
keep proclaiming victory even when it's abundantly clear that they've lost both the culture war and the political war?
When you're complaining about the President's dog you know you're grasping for something. There's something about Obama that has just destroyed the Republican party. They're clueless on how to deal with him.
I like SD, btw. I don't agree with most things. But they're something lovable about his ramblings.
Bah...just in a pissy mood.
2G2D reared its ugly head in the interview today with one of the most lolz-worthy lowball money offers in the history of lowball money offers. Dude even had the gall to use figures from 1998 when he worked in a similar position. Nineteen ninety fucking eight. Had to pick my jaw up off the floor.
When you realize that sd's posts are broadly representative of the Republican strategy for regaining power, he becomes a very reassuring figure.
keep proclaiming victory even when it's abundantly clear that they've lost both the culture war and the political war?
Construct an elaborate reality in which a foreign radical has won the presidency through the seduction of an effete, elitist media. One where all opposition is malign and nefarious, and ACORN is behind the scenes of every breach of justice. Reinforce that bubble until it completely supplants the physical world.
Then win the midterm elections in that reality.
When you're complaining about the President's dog you know you're grasping for something.
When you realize that sd's posts are broadly representative of the Republican strategy for regaining power, he becomes a very reassuring figure.
keep proclaiming victory even when it's abundantly clear that they've lost both the culture war and the political war?
Construct an elaborate reality in which a foreign radical has won the presidency through the seduction of an effete, elitist media. One where all opposition is malign and nefarious, and ACORN is behind the scenes of every breach of justice. Reinforce that bubble until it completely supplants the physical world.
Then win the midterm elections in that reality.
while i think derision is the most appropriate response to the modern right's incoherence, it's hard not to forget that just a few short years ago this shit wasn't funny at all
When you're complaining about the President's dog you know you're grasping for something.
Nobody is complaining about the dog. Its the river of saliva and semen flowing down the WH lawn.
while i think derision is the most appropriate response to the modern right's incoherence, it's hard not to forget that just a few short years ago this shit wasn't funny at all
I used to think the lunatic right should be ignored, to keep people like Anne Coulter from getting a megaphone.
Now that I don't worry about the GOP being in power, I want nutcases like Beck front and center to make everyone who allies with him an object of ridicule. If this guy doesn't make you rethink the direction of your party, what would?
Don't tell me people like dogs now. What's next? People marrying horses?
More like Porkugese water dog, am I right fellas?
edit: I mean, a black guy trains dogs to fight each other and kills them, and sd flips out. Another black guy gives a dog a loving home, and sd flips out. Negro-canine relations just can't get a break with this guy.
i guess SD just hates dogs.
I've seen some of their fliers on campus. They're not as nice as the LaRouche folks
Wow lol....I put on fox news out of curiosity to see if they were hyping up those TEA PARTIES yet and I saw a commerical for their coverage of Obama's first 100 days and went went something like
"Saving the economy...or socialism?
Bringing home the troops....or losing the war?
Opening up our borders....or allowing the terrorists in?
We report, you decide."
:lol
funni u guyz r
G20 protesters held a tea party outside the Bank of England today, kicking off demonstrations against the summit of world and financial leaders a day earlier than planned.
The group behind tomorrow's G20 Meltdown protests sent Twitter messages urging demonstrators to meet at the Bank at 11am, bringing cake.
Around a dozen protesters gathered, spread out a picnic blanket, sipped tea and ate shortbread and cupcakes in a square in front of the bank.
One of the group, Michael Rainsbro, said: "We've to come to the Bank of England because it has presiding over an economic system that has given out Sir-Fred-[Goodwin]-style bonuses for years and years. We need a long-term change in our economy."
He said today's tea party was aimed at raising awareness for tomorrow's G20 meltdown protest. "Come on down to the Bank of England tomorrow. This will be the first bank holiday on a Wednesday."
He added: "The real issue is that the G20 is an unelected and undemocratic instutution. People are very angry."
Marina Pepper, a former Liberal Democrat councillor who is co-ordinating a planned procession of four theatrical "Horsemen of the Apocalypse" at the Bank tomorrow, said today's protest was designed to highlight a long-hours working culture.
"We are here to reclaim elevenses," she said. "You used to have elevenses written in to your work contract, now you're expected to drink tea at your desk and not spill it on your keyboard.
Police officers guarding the Bank exchanged banter with the protesters and did not intervene to prevent the tea party. "The police are not the enemy, the enemy is the system," said Pepper. "After the revolution we will still need the police."
Police have warned that protesters plan to bring the capital to a standstill and say they are preparing for possible violent confrontations.
Last night, five people were arrested in Devon on suspicion of planning to use fireworks to disrupt the G20 meeting.
Gordon Brown said today that violence would not be acceptable.
"No violence can be tolerated, no intimidation of people is allowed, and the police will act very quickly if there is any threat to property or people," he told GMTV.
The prime minister said most people who wanted to make their views known on subjects such as jobs, climate change and global poverty were doing so peacefully and were entitled to their opinions.
"After all, people are talking about jobs, about protecting the environment and helping the poorest countries," he said.
Brown said he would be speaking to some of the protesters at St Paul's Cathedral today.
The War of American Independence began in 1776. The popular idea that it started with the Boston Tea Party is wrong, although the off-loading in America of cheap tea from the East India Company was an aggravation. There was no single reason for the war. The transition from colonies in dispute to full scale war was one full of sometimes complex contradictions.
For example, it was not a popular uprising. Most of the British in America (they were not Americans until after the 1783 Treaty of Paris) were not in rebellion. Many were doing very well under the Crown. Also, the rising was not from the oppressed classes - the slaves and Indians or Native Americans we now call them. Neither slave nor Indian got anything out of the doctrine of liberty. British soldiers fought white, often comfortably off British middle class. The merchant British in American were probably richer than most families in England. The average tax and tithe payer in England paid twenty five times more than someone in America. Trade preferences and the working of the Navigation Acts made Britain a big and easy market for American goods and products.
The reasons for the war include the following: the 1765 Stamp Duties imposed by PM George Grenville on America (and West Indies) to raise 15% of the overall administrative costs as well as paying for the army; the Declaratory Act; the Boston Massacre; the fall in the price of tea in India; the first 1774 Congress meeting in Philadelphia and, in 1775, the first shots fired at Lexington Massachusetts. If the British army had been competent enough, it could have put down the rebels at Lexington and Concord. The British army was not good enough and badly commanded.
How in the sam fuck can the WH sit there and vow transparency in the stress tests with a straight face when unemployment has already exceeded the tests' worse case scenario and will undoubtedly get much worse? This is the kind of shit that pisses me off because nobody in the media is calling them on it. Go out and peruse some of the econ blogs and read some of the comments. Tons of people are now convinced that Summers and Geithner have to go. You see it here too. But, in all reality, is that really going to happen? I mean, you're talking about a president who is so narcissistic that he named his own dog after his initials. Firing Summers or Geithner (especially Geithner after he had to expend political capital during the confirmation) would be admitting that he was wrong. A guy who's narcissism is that ingrained will never admit that he is wrong because he truly feels he never can be wrong. When you've got Krugman and Newt on the same page about the odds of another stimulus plan, then you know something is lacking from the leadership. The longer they drag this out and the more they protect the people who were responsible for this, the more painful they are making it.
they named it after natty boh, his favorite beer, national bohemian, from baltimore
Shit ironic regional beers + Hipsters = $$$
Rep. Ron Paul is calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21245.html) :lol
FlameOfCallandor can go after the pirates himself now!
“I think if every potential pirate knew this would be the case, they would have second thoughts because they could probably be blown out of the water rather easily if those were the conditions,” Paul said.
Rep. Ron Paul is calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21245.html) :lol
FlameOfCallandor can go after the pirates himself now!
Rep. Ron Paul is calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21245.html) :lol
FlameOfCallandor can go after the pirates himself now!
ron paul has been waiting a LONG time to bring the halcyon days of 1850 back, back when he was young and relevant and flush with alaskan gold
Bo Diddley - of course that's what they are saying.The daughters named him. Of course they'd look for some hidden secret message to incode in A PUPPYS NAME.
But, there's obviously a double meaning in there (or triple?).
::) 8)
A 68-year-old woman at the Sunbury Pennsylvania protest had to be rescued by police from the Susquehanna River when she inadvertently fell in while trying to dump tea bags in it.
Update: Politico reports "many of the absentee ballots from the GOP stronghold of Saratoga County are now in, and the results are not good for Republican Jim Tedisco. Despite the inclusion of some 1,181 absentee ballots from Tedisco's strongest performing county, he still trails Democrat Scott Murphy by 86 votes."http://politicalwire.com/
Rep. Ron Paul is calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21245.html) :lol
FlameOfCallandor can go after the pirates himself now!
ron paul has been waiting a LONG time to bring the halcyon days of 1850 back, back when he was young and relevant and flush with alaskan gold
Weren't Letters of Marque mostly about letting private citizens seeze things of value from other countries? WTF of value is gonna come from a Somali pirate ship.
I thought the GOP said the NY-20 race would be a referendum on Obama's socialist policies?QuoteUpdate: Politico reports "many of the absentee ballots from the GOP stronghold of Saratoga County are now in, and the results are not good for Republican Jim Tedisco. Despite the inclusion of some 1,181 absentee ballots from Tedisco's strongest performing county, he still trails Democrat Scott Murphy by 86 votes."http://politicalwire.com/
WWIV
QuoteA 68-year-old woman at the Sunbury Pennsylvania protest had to be rescued by police from the Susquehanna River when she inadvertently fell in while trying to dump tea bags in it.
:lol
WHERES YOUR TAX DOLLARS NOW
The government considers you a terrorist threat if you oppose abortion, own a gun or are a returning war veteran.
FOX News has obtained a copy of the assessment, dated Jan. 26 and titled "Left-wing Extremists Likely to Increase Use of Cyberattacks Over the Coming Decade." It concentrates largely on the technical savvy of left-wing extremists and not bloodshed.
"The perception that cyberattacks are non-violent aligns well with ideological beliefs, strategic objectives and tactics of many left-wing extremists," the earlier report reads. "The increasing reliance of commercial business and other enterprises on cyber technologies, including interconnected networks and remote access, creates new and expanding vulnerabilities that technically savvy left-wing extremists will exploit."
The report specifically mentions "eco-terrorist" Earth Liberation Front, which has been accused of firebombing construction sites, logging companies, car dealerships and food science labs. The report notes that left-wing extremists prefer economic damage on businesses to get the message across.
"Their no-harm doctrine includes claiming to ensure the safety of humans, animals and the environment even as they attack businesses and associated operations," the report reads. " Direct actions range from animal releases, property theft, vandalism and cyber attacks, all of which extremists regard as non-violent, to bombings and arson."
The assessment says it "focuses on the more prominent leftwing groups within the animal rights, environmental, and anarchist extremist movements that promote or have conducted criminal or terrorist activities."
PETER ROFF: Tea Parties — Mission Accomplished (http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/04/15/roff_mission_tea_party/)
... Do conservatives not realize that the slogan utilized here is something of a political joke nowadays?
It won’t work — and it won’t work because the poor, overtaxed Americans who are coming out for tea parties on Wednesday represent the backbone of this great nation.
Siamesedreamer occasional glimpses into insanity.I don't think he realizes how insane he sounds when he claims there is a secret hidden meaning behind the Obama girls picking the name Bo.
money quote: "Rebecca Knowlton, 45, of Smithville, said she took the day off of home-schooling her three children and brought them to the rally to teach them about civic duty."
These parties are just so wacky. Where were these people during the Bush Administration?
Looks like it's mostly confined to the Northeast, oddly enough. A few thousand yahoos, protesting nothing. They're not even protesting taxes - half of them are just calling Obama fascist and regurgitating Glenn Beck talking points.
Congratulations, conservatives - you've done an excellent job pushing me away from your bosom. :-\
I almost skipped sailing to go to the Westlake one.
But I figured sailing is more relaxing than standing in a screaming crowd with a bunch of racist, gay-hating, anti-government religiophiles that are so selfish and narrow-minded they actually think a protest will express to the government their serious desire that it behave more responsibly (and maybe grant them the privilege of keeping more of "their own" money)
These parties are just so wacky. Where were these people during the Bush Administration?
oh and sd I think you lost all your abilities to try to make any sane arguments after you tried to claim Obama secretly named their puppy after himself.
It was on the channel 4 local news station, dunno where in MI exactly it took place.oh and sd I think you lost all your abilities to try to make any sane arguments after you tried to claim Obama secretly named their puppy after himself.
What city?
Did you see any protests on campus? I know there's a conservative club on campus but I didn't see shit lol
Rep. Ron Paul is calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21245.html) :lol
FlameOfCallandor can go after the pirates himself now!
invisible handinvisible hand--guiding private police forces and private armies. (this solution has actually been proposed by anarcho-capitalists)
Some libertarians will argue that there are historical examples of privatized law enforcement (mostly 19th century England) which could be adapted to our society.
If you ever find yourself suggesting that the navy be replaced by letters of marque, it may be time to reconsider how you pick and choose your political battles.
Mandark, are you and Federwang nervous about Obama NOW???
http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/30549/teabagger.jpg
Mandark, are you and Federwang nervous about Obama NOW???
(http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/30549/teabagger.jpg)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNLQ3rEZkoo
Glenn Beck challenging Colbert? He's gonna get annihilated (Beck, I mean). :rofl :rofl :rofl
An interviewer from the British newspaper The Independent questioned Nugent about a 1977 interview in High Times magazine in which Nugent allegedly detailed elaborate steps taken to avoid the Vietnam draft.[32]
"I got 30 days' notice of the physical," Nugent told them. "I ceased cleansing my body. Two weeks before the test I stopped eating food with nutritional value. A week before, I stopped going to the bathroom. I did it in my pants. My pants got crusted up." [32]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNLQ3rEZkoo
Glenn Beck challenging Colbert? He's gonna get annihilated (Beck, I mean). :rofl :rofl :rofl
I would love to see this, Colbert probably has the quickest mind in showbuisness, Beck not so much.
Wait, why is the guy with 300 being used? HES NOT EVEN AMERICAN. And those Asian kids. That's bullshit because they're guaranteed decent jobs and a good chunk of change. It's in their DNA.http://photos.mlive.com/grandrapidspress/2009/04/tax_protests.html (http://photos.mlive.com/grandrapidspress/2009/04/tax_protests.html)
Is Michigan the new South? seems soMichigan voted for Obama by a massive 16 point margin, we did fine. And our state never voted for Bush once. :american
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RimDpPRzrbY&feature=related[/youtube]
Michigan voted for Obama by a massive 16 point margin, we did fine. And our state never voted for Bush once. :american
(http://j883376.mirror.waffleimages.com/waffleimages/files/02/0296b7595a388d5611e1f791c78e80c4f7dd5cb3.jpg)This is why this tea party was a failure and does nothing but further make the right look like a fringe.
(http://scuttle.mirror.waffleimages.com/data/files/c2/c2f2ed328088c1d123ed97051f8a9c58eed12f31.jpg)
Michigan voted for Obama by a massive 16 point margin, we did fine. And our state never voted for Bush once. :american
omg, check out the comments under that video. some dude just argued that Obama endorsed wiretapping, which violates the second amendment :lol
the acorn thing just baffles me.
This is why this tea party was a failure and does nothing but further make the right look like a fringe.
When the left protested Bush it was almost always about one thing. War.
The right? They were protesting taxes, spending, abortion, decreasing moral values, immigration, gay marriage, Obama being a secret Muslim, acorn, you name it. It was a random jumble of right wing opinion on every topic imaginable.
Wait is that a anti BIDEN sign in the background with the letters of his name spelling and stuff. What the hell has Biden done worth protesting? :lol
Shimon Shiffer, the Yedioth Achronoth correspondent and one of Israel's top journalists, is reporting today that Rahm Emanuel told a top Jewish organizational figure that President Obama intends to see a Palestinian state created during his first term.http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/16/rahm_emanuel_obama_laying_down_law_to_netanyahu/
"In the next four years there is going to be a permanent status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of two states for two peoples, and it doesn't matter to us at all who is prime minister," Shiffer quotes Emanuel as saying.
More details here including the President's decision to be "out of town" when Netanyahu comes to Washington for the AIPAC conference.
I'll try to find a link in English. So far, the story is only in Hebrew.
Obama's argument rational. No one, well no one outside of Israel could ever imagine Palestine and Israel coming to terms without Palestine having its own land.
Is Michigan the new South? seems so
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RimDpPRzrbY&feature=related[/youtube]
The alternative, of course, is having a South Africa type situation where there's one state but the majority of the people in the state (Palestinians) don't have rights, since I doubt a sizable number of Palestinians are gonna vote for even a cuddly Jew, much less a hardass like Netanyahu or a nutbar like Avigdor Lieberman.
Also, totally random thing not directly related to the topic at hand, I know you guys don't like libertarians, but Bill Maher's pretty neato potato.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfoWEk8d7gg
(http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr262/damn_true/tea%20party/CIMG4045.jpg)
SD?!
The high speed rail announcement is awesome - if it ever comes to fruition. I don't believe for a second that Americans have the balls to fund and build a passenger railroad infrastructure.
I'm all for installing high speed rail lines across the country. It will be great for a lot of people, but I don't see it eliminating the need for most people to have a car. A lot of Americans don't live in or near large urban centers. Many cities and towns aren't set up like they are in Europe and Asia where this works incredibly well.
I'm all for installing high speed rail lines across the country. It will be great for a lot of people, but I don't see it eliminating the need for most people to have a car. A lot of Americans don't live in or near large urban centers. Many cities and towns aren't set up like they are in Europe and Asia where this works incredibly well.
distant's got a point. A lot of people live in exurbs which aren't dense enough to support good metro systems and where hub-to-hub rail wouldn't be a big help.
But things got that way because of decisions to support roads over rail and sprawl over density. We chose this as a society and we can change it as a society. Train-friendly development happens because there's a good train system in place.
Not saying we'll become the UK overnight or even in 20 years. But there's a ton of room to improve.
http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/04/15/teabagging-michelle-malkin/ -- matt taibbi :bow2 :bow2
comic
COLUMBIA COUNTY — 20th Congressional District candidate Republican Jim Tedisco submitted a petition to the Dutchess County Supreme Court Thursday asking the judge to declare him the winner of the extremely close special election race, despite the numbers currently being in favor of his opponent, Democrat Scott Murphy.
According to The Associated Press, Murphy leads Tedisco by 178 votes district wide — 79,452 to 79,274. The only ballots that have not been counted are those challenged by each candidate’s lawyers, and while Tedisco’s office has said the challenges are roughly evenly split between the two camps, Columbia County lawyers for Murphy have only challenged 22 ballots, while Tedisco’s have challenged 258.
On a serious note though, Obama's announcement of the high speed rail plan is great. I just wish they would be more honest with the total costs. $13B over five years doesn't seem nearly enough. Infrastructure like this that would probably have a nice effect on commerce/economic growth. I think there's an argument to be made that its definately something we should be spending a lot of money on.
There has to be some CT Democrat to primary him. I think he could easily lose the primary if a good enough candidate would run against him.
Also, Dodd only raised $4250 from just five Connecticut residents in the first quarter. :lol
While I think projections of a political re-alignment are premature based on the results of two elections, I would rather be in the Democrats' shoes than ours. Their coalition is expanding. Ours is shrinking. Their vote share is increasing among voter segments that are growing. Ours is not. The rapid growth of the Hispanic-American population, for instance, could soon cost Republicans the entire Southwest if we don't recover our previous share of their vote. Had Senator McCain not been the Republican nominee in 2008, I'm convinced we would have lost Arizona. It's very hard to see how we put together 270 electoral votes without the Southwest.
As a percentage of the total vote, younger voters didn't really increase in the last election. But the Democrats' margin with those voters certainly did. In short, we were crushed by the Obama campaign with voters under 30. President Obama was a uniquely attractive candidate to younger voters, in matters of style as much as substance. And maybe as those voters grow older and acquire greater responsibilities they will develop a better appreciation for Republican values of limited government, fiscal discipline, low taxes and a strong defense. That has happened in the past.
But even if they do, I doubt they will abandon social attributes that distinguish them from older voters; among them, a greater acceptance of people who find happiness in relationships with members of the same sex. And I believe Republicans should re-examine the extent to which we are being defined by positions on issues that I don't believe are among our core values, and that put us at odds with what I expect will become over time, if not a consensus view, then the view of a substantial majority of voters.
*Sleep deprivation. “The primary method of sleep deprivation involves the use of shackling to keep the detainees awake. In this method, the detainee is standing and is handcuffed, and the handcuffs are attached by a length of chain to the ceiling... a detainee undergoing sleep deprivation is generally fed by hand by CIA personnel so that he need not be unshackled. If the detainee is clothed, he wears an adult diaper under his pants. Detainees subject to sleep deprivation who are also subject to nudity... will at times be nude and wearing a diaper. The maximum allowable duration is 180 hours...”
Quote*Sleep deprivation. “The primary method of sleep deprivation involves the use of shackling to keep the detainees awake. In this method, the detainee is standing and is handcuffed, and the handcuffs are attached by a length of chain to the ceiling... a detainee undergoing sleep deprivation is generally fed by hand by CIA personnel so that he need not be unshackled. If the detainee is clothed, he wears an adult diaper under his pants. Detainees subject to sleep deprivation who are also subject to nudity... will at times be nude and wearing a diaper. The maximum allowable duration is 180 hours...”
Lawmakers this week are expected to begin work on a hike in fuel taxes, last raised in 1997, and vehicle registration fees, sending them to Gov. Jennifer Granholm by summer.
Without those increases, Michigan's road-repair budget will soon be broke. And yet, billions are needed to keep one of the nation's most decrepit road systems in reasonably good shape.
But the Michigan Republican Party has cemented an anti-tax stance that appeals to its most conservative, tea-bag-waving elements. That makes it tough for radical outfits like the Michigan Chamber of Commerce to persuade GOP lawmakers to join Granholm and Democrats in raising transportation taxes.
Wow, our roads are already shitty.Nooo, I want my roads fixed. Roads are shitty here.
but fuck, maybe we should just cut taxes/services and see how people like that
[youtube=560,345]OAiXkw-7PxQ[youtube]
tea party ownage around 1:20 :lol
that being said, Janeane Garofalo can gtfo with her "they're all racists" nonsense. Hope her character dies in 24
Wow, our roads are already shitty.Nooo, I want my roads fixed. Roads are shitty here.
but fuck, maybe we should just cut taxes/services and see how people like that
Michigan Teabaggers owned
http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/04/peter_luke_tea_party_tax_prote.html (http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/04/peter_luke_tea_party_tax_prote.html)Quote from: Peter LukeLawmakers this week are expected to begin work on a hike in fuel taxes, last raised in 1997, and vehicle registration fees, sending them to Gov. Jennifer Granholm by summer.
Without those increases, Michigan's road-repair budget will soon be broke. And yet, billions are needed to keep one of the nation's most decrepit road systems in reasonably good shape.
But the Michigan Republican Party has cemented an anti-tax stance that appeals to its most conservative, tea-bag-waving elements. That makes it tough for radical outfits like the Michigan Chamber of Commerce to persuade GOP lawmakers to join Granholm and Democrats in raising transportation taxes.
In a weird way I am going to kind of miss Granholm even though she was far from a great governor. Something about her spunky personality I guess. She reaches the end of her second and final term next year. And the democratic nominee is going to be this fat balding dude with a mustache. :-\Wow, our roads are already shitty.Nooo, I want my roads fixed. Roads are shitty here.
but fuck, maybe we should just cut taxes/services and see how people like that
Nah cut taxes, get rid of gov services. Lets see how people like that
The general quality of roads in the US is atrocious at best. ASCE gave it a D.Wasnt' their a bigger US infrastructure rating for the US as a whole that got a D also? Pathetic if true, but a challenge for the US.
Funny, for an economy so committed to private industry, the way they neglected one of the biggest components to ensure private industry (transportation of goods) is mind boggling.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200904180004?f=h_latestwtf???? The stock market has been rallying for 6 weeks, as she mentioned. How could a protest in the LAST week explain the 5 weeks prior to that? :lol
It's like watching Colbert, I fucking swear
The general quality of roads in the US is atrocious at best. ASCE gave it a D.Wasnt' their a bigger US infrastructure rating for the US as a whole that got a D also? Pathetic if true, but a challenge for the US.
Funny, for an economy so committed to private industry, the way they neglected one of the biggest components to ensure private industry (transportation of goods) is mind boggling.
Its painful watching people trying to defend Obama's budget.Well it is very much worth defending. It has a lot of good policies in it. I love the money set aside for health care reform. You seem to forget a lot of people LIKE the government to spend money and do things.
You seem to forget a lot of people LIKE the government to spend money and do things.
Not everyone is a deficit hawk.You seem to forget a lot of people LIKE the government to spend money and do things.
That's great and all, but there's no money to spend.
You seem to forget a lot of people LIKE the government to spend money and do things.
That's great and all, but there's no money to spend.
You seem to forget a lot of people LIKE the government to spend money and do things.
That's great and all, but there's no money to spend.
Here is the video that they talked about:
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkOwsIIIe5I[/youtube]
I love how some people chime in at the start of the guy's speech, "what happened to that surplus?" :lol
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/18/limbaugh-mccain-torture/Rush doesn't seem to recall that McCain point blank said torture DOESN'T work because it got him to break and admit to things he never did. Thus proving it a useless tool. McCain broke, but he broke and said things that weren't true to end the pain. Destroying the entire torture argument and lead McCain to be a anti-torture advocate.
Disgusting. I hope to god McCain responds
Insert Quote
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/18/limbaugh-mccain-torture/
Disgusting. I hope to god McCain responds
update: Media Matters notes that at another point during his program yesterday, Limbaugh began slapping himself to mock anyone who believed slapping detainees in U.S. custody qualified as mistreatment. "I just slapped myself. I'm torturing myself right now. That's torture according to these people," Limbaugh said.
How anyone can say its "worth defending" when it doubles Bush's double is beyond my comprehension.
But, most economists agree that the $787B version is a disaster and won't have any lasting immediate impact
I don't completely object to stimulus. But, most economists agree that the $787B version is a disaster and won't have any lasting immediate impact (not to mention its cost is a negative drag ten years out).Yeah but many of them (I'd wager most) don't say that because he is spending too much like yourself. They think he isn't being bold enough and didn't spend enough.
They think most of it is spent too late and too much of it is tax cuts/refunds.
President Obama’s top economic advisers have determined that they can shore up the nation’s banking system without having to ask Congress for more money any time soon, according to administration officials.
In a significant shift, White House and Treasury Department officials now say they can stretch what is left of the $700 billion financial bailout fund further than they had expected a few months ago, simply by converting the government’s existing loans to the nation’s 19 biggest banks into common stock.
Converting those loans to common shares would turn the federal aid into available capital for a bank — and give the government a large ownership stake in return.
Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.
Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.
In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.
Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”
What is new is that Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=hsnews-000003098436&cpage=1
And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for “lack of evidence,” it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush’s top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.
Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.
As for there being “no evidence” to support the FBI probe, a source with first-hand knowledge of the wiretaps called that “bull****.”
“I read those transcripts,” said the source, who like other former national security officials familiar with the transcript discussed it only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of domestic NSA eavesdropping.
President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, and he will order its members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.
Although the budget cuts would amount to a minuscule portion of federal spending, they are intended to signal the president's determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.
. I remember people here ripping McCain over earmarks because it represented such a small portion of the total money spent. Good times.
Obama was just as critical of pork. That is until he had to actually back up that criticism when he signed the pork-laden $410B spending bill last month.He was critical of pork but to equal it to McCain? :lol McCain wouldn't talk about ANYTHING other than pork in those debates pretty much.
FDR shook hands with Stalin, a mass murderer and tyrant. Nixon shook hands with the leadership of communist China with a similar amount of blood on their hands. The stated ideology of both nation's ruling communist parties at the time called for the destruction of liberty in the United States.
What to do? "Recognize" all governments that are truly in power. Recognition is not approval. Talk to all foreign leaders regularly.
Nah Obama was the one constantly pointing out how pork spending was so small (compared to the total bill/budget/etc) it was not worth the outrage, SD. Remember the debates?Yes that is true, Obama always retorted McCain's masturbation over cutting pork with that while he doesn't like it either it is minuscule and cutting it won't do much.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So what is the responsible way? That’s my question. What is the Republican plan to deal with carbon emissions, which every major scientific organization has said is contributing to climate change?
BOEHNER: George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide.
Obama was just as critical of pork. That is until he had to actually back up that criticism when he signed the pork-laden $410B spending bill last month.
So while SD is wrong about that, I suppose he's right that Obama making a big deal about cutting $100 million is more for show than anything. But who knows, maybe he'll do something like this every month or something like that
Looks like Ron Paul is on the secession bangwagon now tooHe called secession patriotic and American. When it is the complete opposite. :lol
Word has it he is going to run for Gubna next year.He'll be crushed by Cuomo who is going to primary David Patterson (and poll data shows Cuomo crushing our favorite blind governor by like 30 points).
Taxpayers are increasingly exposed to losses and the government is more vulnerable to fraud under Obama administration initiatives that have created a federal bank bailout program of "unprecedented scope," a government report finds.
In a 250-page quarterly report to Congress, the rescue program's special inspector general concludes that a private-public partnership designed to rid financial institutions of their "toxic assets" is tilted in favor of private investors and creates "potential unfairness to the taxpayer."
How ironic that the bankers have committed the greatest heist of all-time.
How ironic that the bankers have committed the greatest heist of all-time.
I read 100 Bullets over the weekend and I think the sour taste it left in my mouth is due to the fact that the central premise - politicians are powerless, and America is really run by a cabal of wealthy families who divied up America like so much sweet potato pie several hundred years ago - was too believable.
How ironic that the bankers have committed the greatest heist of all-time.
If I remember correctly, McCain didn't have an alternative, his argument was that there wasn't a need to rush this through. Allow it to have the proper gestation time like other matters of legislation.
Then, of course, he was labeled as being out of touch. Especially on economic matters. I believe around that time the Phill Gramm connection to his adminstration was being floated out there.
Then, of course, he was labeled as being out of touch. Especially on economic matters. I believe around that time the Phill Gramm connection to his adminstration was being floated out there.
If I remember correctly, McCain didn't have an alternative, his argument was that there wasn't a need to rush this through. Allow it to have the proper gestation time like other matters of legislation.
Then, of course, he was labeled as being out of touch. Especially on economic matters. I believe around that time the Phill Gramm connection to his adminstration was being floated out there.
Wait, what? Are we talking about the same thing, that went down in September? I remember McCain saying the bank bailout was urgent business ("inaction isn't an option"), suspending his campaign to go to Washington, attending a meeting at the White House where he wouldn't say what he actually supported, then making a big show of working the phones to get a deal done.
And he wasn't out of touch on economic matters?
How ironic that the bankers have committed the greatest heist of all-time.
How ironic that the bankers have committed the greatest heist of all-time.
I read 100 Bullets over the weekend and I think the sour taste it left in my mouth is due to the fact that the central premise - politicians are powerless, and America is really run by a cabal of wealthy families who divied up America like so much sweet potato pie several hundred years ago - was too believable.
i'm reading that now as well
The government's complaint describes Muse as the ringleader among the pirates.
The somali pirate thing is the biggest non-story in a while. It's like baby Jessica down the well kind of shit.
I mean, come on....what the fuck?! He doesn't even have an eye patch or knee high boots.
The somali pirate thing is the biggest non-story in a while. It's like baby Jessica down the well kind of shit.
I mean, come on....what the fuck?! He doesn't even have an eye patch or knee high boots.
The somali pirate thing is the biggest non-story in a while. It's like baby Jessica down the well kind of shit.
I mean, come on....what the fuck?! He doesn't even have an eye patch or knee high boots.
i think it's important, i just think that the way the media handles stories like this that it isn't designed to really convey the right information regarding the subject.
I'll conceed its misrepresentative. >:(
Report: Abusive tactics used to seek Iraq-al Qaida link
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.
Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.
The use of abusive interrogation — widely considered torture — as part of Bush's quest for a rationale to invade Iraq came to light as the Senate issued a major report tracing the origin of the abuses and President Barack Obama opened the door to prosecuting former U.S. officials for approving them.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney and others who advocated the use of sleep deprivation, isolation and stress positions and waterboarding, which simulates drowning, insist that they were legal.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the interrogation issue said that Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld demanded that the interrogators find evidence of al Qaida-Iraq collaboration.
Freddie Mac CFO commited suicide this morning. There have been inquiries into possible accounting violations. Suspicions pretty much confirmed now. Wonder how bad the losses actually were?Well people got what they wanted.
"Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. . . . Come forward and assume the position."
Why We Should Banish Larry Summers From Public Life
By Naomi Klein, Washington Post, April 19, 2009
I vote to banish Larry Summers. Not from the planet. That wouldn't be nice. Just from public life.
The criticisms of President Obama's chief economic adviser are well known. He's too close to Wall Street. And he's a frightful bully, of both people and countries. Still, we're told we shouldn't care about such minor infractions. Why? Because Summers is brilliant, and the world needs his big brain.
Being extremely intelligent is rather like fucking sheep - once you've got a reputation for either, it's extremely difficult to get rid of it. If someone was, at some long gone time in the past, a boy genius or an academic superstar, then they're "incredibly smart" for life, no matter how many stupid things they actually say or do.
The cases on my mind at the moment are Enoch Powell and Larry Summers, but I daresay I could dig up a dozen more if I spent the time.
A number of conservative members of the Republican National Committee are pressing the committee — and by extension, Steele — to officially adopt the position that the Democratic Party is socialist.
Over a dozen members of the conservative wing of the RNC have submitted a new resolution, to be eventually voted on by the entire RNC, that would call on the Democratic party to rename itself the “Democrat Socialist Party.” If the RNC adopts this resolution, the RNC’s official view would become that Democrats are socialists. From the resolution:QuoteRESOLVED, that we the members of the Republican National Committee call on the Democratic Party to be truthful and honest with the American people by acknowledging that they have evolved from a party of tax and spend to a party of tax and nationalize and, therefore, should agree to rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party.
I just reached RNC vice chairman James Bopp, a leading supporter of the resolution, and he confirmed that adopting it would mean the RNC officially designates Dems socialists. “We would be describing the Democrat Party this way if we adopt this resolution,” Bopp said.
Larry Summers is working really hard guys, geez
Larry Summers Falls Asleep During Credit Card Industry Meeting (SLIDESHOW)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/larry-summers-falls-aslee_n_190659.html
It was a tough call. Either the director of the WH economic council falling asleep during a meeting with the president during the worst economic crisis since the depression or the director of DHS not knowing where the 9/11 hijackers came from. I went with the former. ;)
It was a tough call. Either the director of the WH economic council falling asleep during a meeting with the president during the worst economic crisis since the depression or the director of DHS not knowing where the 9/11 hijackers came from. I went with the former. ;)
Still an improvement over the last guy. This President has yet to invade and occupy a country that didn't attack us and presented no threat.
Pat Toomey, a GOP candidate for senate in PA yesterday said we have high unemployment right now because people are too lazy to find a job.
Oh god, please nominate this wacko for the senate. :lol
So what to do you guys think about these new credit card laws that Obama and Dems are pressing?
sd, first 100 days of bush vs. first 100 days of Obama. Which were better to you?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/olbermann-calls-hannitys_n_190869.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/olbermann-calls-hannitys_n_190869.html)Hannity won't do it.
huffington comments are horrible
why are all comments on websites horrible?
what the fuck is wrong with everyone?
"I've never talked to Bernie Madoff. I swear he's not on our science advisory team. In fact I don't even know who he is."
Both Gore and that senator are asses.
How in the world is Gore an ass? What has he done that you do not like?
Except he isn't embellishing the severity of climate change....?How in the world is Gore an ass? What has he done that you do not like?
He embellish climate change far to much for my taste which leaves it open to attacks like what that Texas senator was making fun of with the Dallas Cowboys joke. Saying he is an ass is a little strong, I will admit that.
He may not be embellishing the overall severity, he does though embellish on the facts about the immediate effects of climate change and that is counter productive and harmful to the argument. He has a lot of passion for what he does and that is great 99% of the time he just takes it a bit to far sometimes and throws more miss information into a debate that is already full of it.
http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001225/
:lol
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/olbermann-calls-hannitys_n_190869.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/olbermann-calls-hannitys_n_190869.html)Hannity won't do it.
It would ruin his image. No one can last more than a few seconds of it. Hitchens was pro-water boarding and did it, he lasted like 1 second before he couldn't take anymore.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/olbermann-calls-hannitys_n_190869.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/olbermann-calls-hannitys_n_190869.html)Hannity won't do it.
I doubt he will too. But, imagine the ratings he would get from it.
Olbermann really should have upped his quote. If it were 5 or 10K a second, people would be screaming at Hannity to do it, to take as much of foolish Keith's money as he can. That way when he only lasts 8 seconds and shits himself doing so the payoff will be more then worthwhile.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/olbermann-calls-hannitys_n_190869.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/olbermann-calls-hannitys_n_190869.html)Hannity won't do it.
30% approval is a little too high for my tastes.Same number Bush had, 30% of the country will always approve of Republicans. Republicans have not expanded in the slightest past the Bush leftovers.
30% approval is a little too high for my tastes.Same number Bush had, 30% of the country will always approve of Republicans. Republicans have not expanded in the slightest past the Bush leftovers.
so Obama was playing golf yesterday while the swine pandemic ravished NY school children. Time to ask: What Would Gingrich Do?
Gingrich is too fat to play golf.
nyc freaked out or didn't react, depending on who you ask
i didn't hear about it until i was already at work so no reaction here. however the reaction on the nyse floor was pretty funny with people literally fleeing for their lives.
:omg
Flannel who?
Forgot how I eventually found myself to Fox debate videos, but it's hilarious how hard they try to smear and nail Paul, whereas today the same people who booed/smeared him then praise him now.
Forgot how I eventually found myself to Fox debate videos, but it's hilarious how hard they try to smear and nail Paul, whereas today the same people who booed/smeared him then praise him now.
Ron Paul was ahead of his time.
seeing as most republicans seem to be a relic of 75 years ago, i would def label ron paul as being ahead of his timehttp://instantrimshot.com/ (http://instantrimshot.com/)
fuck i'll do waterboarding and take that shithead's money, at $1000 a second even if i only lasted 5 seconds it would be worth it
no checks, though, i wouldn't trust olbermann not to stop payment
Some in the Republican Party are happy about this. I am not.
Let’s be honest-Senator Specter didn’t leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record.
Republicans look forward to beating Sen. Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don’t do it first.
I am staying a Republican because I think I have an important role, a more important role, to play there. The United States very desperately needs a two-party system. That’s the basis of politics in America. I’m afraid we are becoming a one-party system, with Republicans becoming just a regional party with so little representation of the northeast or in the middle atlantic. I think as a governmental matter, it is very important to have a check and balance. That’s a very important principle in the operation of our government. In the constitution on Separation of powers.
In a speech on Monday at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, President Obama presented a vision of a new era in research financing comparable to the Sputnik-period space race, in which intensified scientific inquiry, and development of the intellectual capacity to pursue it, are a top national priority.
The president laid out an ambitious plan to invigorate the country’s pipeline for innovation, from grade-school classrooms to corporate, government and academic research laboratories.
Mr. Obama’s plan includes fulfilling commitments dating from the Bush administration to double the budgets of the National Science Foundation, the science office of the Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
But he is also seeking increases in direct federal investment in medical and energy research, and he would make permanent what has been a sporadic research and experimentation tax credit offered to companies that push beyond the quest for quarterly profits to pursue breakthroughs.
Over all, he described his initiative as “the largest commitment to scientific research and innovation in American history,” receiving hearty applause from the scientists and observers who packed the halls at the National Academy headquarters for the group’s annual meeting.
Mr. Obama made clear that a new burst of advances in energy technology, medicine and other important arenas would not come from money alone, but required scientists to get out of their laboratories and find ways to inspire young people “to create, build and invent — to be makers of things, not just consumers of things.”
Many elements of his plan had already been introduced, including $400 million in initial financing under the economic recovery bill for an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, akin to a defense research agency created after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik.
He provided fresh detail on an initiative, already included in the economics stimulus bill, creating a $5 billion “Race to the Top” fund available to states doing the most to increase the ranks of trained science and math teachers. Mr. Obama noted that the country faced a shortfall of more than 280,000 math and science teachers by 2015.
He pledged to lift public and private investment in research and development in the United States beyond its high point in 1964, at the peak of the space race and cold war, when such money was 3 percent of the gross domestic product.
they should call it H1N13, so that we can all call it Hiney flu
yes but not in the diamond district
I turned on glenn beck to see his reaction to the specter thing but all he is doing is rambling about how outrageous it is obama used a teleprompter when giving his swine flu speech. :lol
I think the danger of that for the country is that there won't automatically be an ability to restrain the excess that is typically associated with big majorities and single-party rule."
http://twitter.com/REALGlennBeck/status/1643850515
"Obama Requests $1.5B To Fight Swine Flu Outbreak" More money out the door.
" Buchanan: GOP A "Heavily White Party" " Thats how we like it! Get the immigrants out, they brought the swine flu aint they?
"Ahmadinejad Copies Obama's "Yes We Can" For Iranian Election" Worked for one dictator, why not another?
Texas seceding from the union, adopting the fair tax: Result, millions of illegals! All Northerners!
I have not seen his show, but, uh, that twitter is fake, right? He can't possibly say those things. They're like, Coulter-esque.
The GOP Enema has Now Begun
by MrArbitrage
So Arlen Specter saw the writing on the wall and defected to save face. As a Republican, I think this is GREAT news. Good riddance. This would be a good time to have Olympia Snowe & Susan Collins do the same.
People like these should be welcomed under our tent with ASYLUM – if they want to support conservative candidates. They should never again be allowed positions of leadership. It is unacceptable to have leftists undermining our platform. No individual seat is worth preserving at the expense of our conscience. Allowing their nonsense to endure has cost us many more seats than the few we gained in tolerating them as they have disillusioned so many, causing them to defect to other parties with no chance to win.
While we are at it, we should also put John McCain and Lindsey Graham near the top of that list for being capricious in many ways including the protection of our borders. It is time for some solid candidates to challenge John McCain and Lindsey Graham. The presidential election is over and it is time to get back to reality.
I would suspect that credible challengers to McCain and Graham will be receiving small checks - from the grassroots - amounting to tens of millions WITHOUT SOLICITATION. I would like to propose that we “draft” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio as the primary challenger to Senator John McCain. Senator McCain has run his entire political career on his admiral military record. Yet after all his years in Congress, he has a political record he must hide from as a Republican. Sheriff Arpaio is a veteran of the US Army but most relevant is his -remarkable political record.
Arpaio knows what the public wants, “The public is my boss,” he says, “so I serve the public.” - http://www.mcso.org/index.php?a=GetModule&mn=Sheriff_Bio
Sheriff Arpaio would be the much needed new blood in the United States Senate. Think Arpaio has enough credibility on the issue of border protection? Think Arpaio might rally the troops and generate some grassroots support?
Everyone has been asking the question of WHAT all of the “tea party” participants can actually DO besides showing up to protest? THAT would be one outstanding grassroots effort.
It's difficult to call the present minority situation in which we find ourselves a “positive” as we see the damage being done to our country by our Hussein, Pelosi & Reed but we can look at this as an OPPORTUNITY. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you truly recover. We need to totally expunge these people while we're down. We do not want to revisit this problem down the road. Get rid of the disease - not just the symptoms.
Once we purge the GOP bowels of the remaining RINO’s - then conservatives can and will coalesce.
" Buchanan: GOP A "Heavily White Party" " Thats how we like it! Get the immigrants out, they brought the swine flu aint they?
Well Gerald Ford did say Jimmy Carter was a better President than he is given credit for and hopes history will redeem Carter. That pretty much makes him a leftist commie socialist.
Saying she thinks it's "interesting" that the last swine flu outbreak happened under a "Democrat" president in the 70's. I for one was unaware that Gerald Ford was a "Democrat" president... although given the state of today's GOP, he likely would have been.
Republican congresswoman says Matthew Shepard's murder was "a hoax"
http://www.americablog.com/2009/04/republican-congresswoman-says-matthew.html
Republican congresswoman says Matthew Shepard's murder was "a hoax"
http://www.americablog.com/2009/04/republican-congresswoman-says-matthew.html
Holy fuck, where do these people come from?
"Bankruptcy is not a sign of weakness."
- Barack Obama 4/30/09
(http://www.chainsawsuit.com/comics/20090430.gif)
Thats the white house movie screening room. What 3d movie were they watching? :lol
I could go for some socialism right now.
By the way, why the fuck is Jimmy Norton on fox? Fuck that hobbit.
Chrysler goes bankrupt and the UAW benefits :lol :lol :lol
I can hear the steam coming out of SD's ears from here
NPR.org, April 30, 2009 · NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103694193
The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction.
At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact, he is in the younger half of the court's age range, with five justices older and just three younger. So far as anyone knows, he is in good health. But he has made clear to friends for some time that he wanted to leave Washington, a city he has never liked, and return to his native New Hampshire. Now, according to reliable sources, he has decided to take the plunge and has informed the White House of his decision.
The right-wing in the UK is far more scary than ours to be honest, at least right now. Because unlike the mess conservatives are in in America the ones in the UK are well organized and have a clear leader in David Cameron, one who is charismatic and very politically wise. Which is scary because he is a right-wing wacko.
The right-wing in the UK is far more scary than ours to be honest, at least right now. Because unlike the mess conservatives are in in America the ones in the UK are well organized and have a clear leader in David Cameron, one who is charismatic and very politically wise. Which is scary because he is a right-wing wacko.
Oh no.
You are not (repeat: ARE NOT) going to start playing the expert on British politics. Now just back away slowly and we'll all act like this never happened.
Forgive me with not knowing the ins and outs of appointing a justice, but now that we are (almost) at 60, does this mean we can basically make Karl Marx himself a justice with little issue? Because I would cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum.
We doubt, to begin with, that small-town broadcasters run a heightened risk of liability for indecent utterances. In programming that they originate, their down-home local guests probably employ vulgarity less than big-city folks; and small-town stations generally cannot afford or cannot attract foul-mouthed glitteratae from Hollywood.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726792/-Goposaurs-start-framing-SCOTUS-debate-(ROFLMAO)
here we gooo
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726792/-Goposaurs-start-framing-SCOTUS-debate-(ROFLMAO)
here we gooo
rofl @ the "new" gop logo:
(http://images2.dailykos.com/images/user/191280/transparentelephant.png)
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726792/-Goposaurs-start-framing-SCOTUS-debate-(ROFLMAO)
here we gooo
rofl @ the "new" gop logo:
(http://images2.dailykos.com/images/user/191280/transparentelephant.png)
FWIW, I really could care less about who he picks. It will be interesting to see how Obama handles this since he voted against both of Bush's nominees. Alito was a partisan pick for an unpopular president coming off another pick just 6 months prior, so I can give him the benefit of the doubt there. But, Roberts was about as good of a pick as there has been in the last 50 years. Obama's vote against him is pretty indefensible.
Does Arlen Specter's defection from R to D strengthen the President's hand in Congress? Perhaps overall but not on judicial appointments because breaking (the equivalent of) a filibuster in the Senate Judiciary Committee requires the consent of at least one member of the minority. Before today, Specter was likely to be that one Republican. Now what?http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2009/04/specter-defection-will-haunt-dems-on.html
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R) is considering running for the U.S. Senate nomination in his home state, reports Roll Call.http://politicalwire.com/
National Republicans "have been publicly and privately urging Ridge to consider a Senate bid since Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) announced earlier this week that he was switching parties and would run for re-election as a Democrat in 2010."
Ridge's "moderate politics and national profile would make him a more viable candidate" in the general election than former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA).
Jack Kemp died.
I'll always wonder if Dole picked him for the VP slot because he knew the ship was going down and wanted to take Kemp with it.
He is still recognizing it just not holding an event. Though I'm sure FNC will have lots to say about it.
Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he's so outraged by GOP overspending, he's quitting the party — and he's the bull's-eye of its target audience. But he also said he wouldn't support any cuts in defense, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid — which, along with debt payments, would put more than two-thirds of the budget off limits.
He's an attention whore, not a hate monger.[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtY-JWahHQs&[/youtube]
It's good to know that I'm dealing with a smh relativist, Maurice.
He might hate minorities and people that are on the other side of the aisle but he's not a hate monger.
Savage doesn't sell goods or services, he gives an opinion. The way he presents his opinion is so in-your-face that it won't actually influence anybody's views.He might hate minorities and people that are on the other side of the aisle but he's not a hate monger.
That guy over there sells a lot of fish, but he's no fishmonger.
???Savage doesn't sell goods or services, he gives an opinion. The way he presents his opinion is so in-your-face that it won't actually influence anybody's views.He might hate minorities and people that are on the other side of the aisle but he's not a hate monger.
That guy over there sells a lot of fish, but he's no fishmonger.
Martyring him will just make him raise his shtick and be more annoying in general.
"And be forewarned - if you ask for ketchup, you’d better be under the age of twelve."
and the tears mix with my rare/medium rare steak
MM is blowing this out of proportion, something they do all the time. Hannity brought it up as a joke - to label it an "attack" is ridiculous. The final segment of his show is always light hearted.
I love mustard!
yes lets ignore the facts to get outraged over fake outrage
gtfo
The total number of Americans who are not working full-time but ought to be is actually about 22 million, or 15.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-watch/2009/05/actual_us_unemployment_158.html
my gf gets it well done and then adds sauce to it
i cry.
and the tears mix with my rare/medium rare steak
That guy sure does hate a lot of people, but he's not hatemonger.I don't know, I'm assuming that a hatemonger is someone who can actually influence the public's opinion. That's like calling Howard Stern a pornmonger...
Mustard + cheetoes. :yuckflaming hot cheetos with instant mashed potatoes was my meal for about a week. So good.
This one joke that appeared at the end of the Hannity show became an ongoing right-wing meme that appeared throughout most right-wing shows (dunno about FoxNews). They were joking, but thought they were making a point their audience might actually care about. It's OK to call attention to the absurdity of this.
When it plays into the ongoing meme of Obama as the perfumed Aristocrat out of touch with the common man, when they're the one's who've been raping and pillaging them for years (stoping tax havens, outrageous!) it gets a bit more insidiuous.
But please keep expressing your high-mindedness through yawns.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR2009050804228.html?hpid=topnews (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR2009050804228.html?hpid=topnews)
LMAO
The Obama administration is preparing to revive the system of military commissions established at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, under new rules that would offer terrorism suspects greater legal protections, government officials said.
spin it like a good little hopenchanger ;)
Mustard is an issue in the US? ::)
Quote of the Day - 5.10.09
— By Kevin Drum | Sun May 10, 2009 9:38 AM PST
From Bill Schneider, CNN election guru and former senior fellow at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute:
"The Republicans aren't a party, they're a cult."
Well, today's GOP does seem to check most of the boxes in the International Cultic Studies Association's "Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups." (http://www.icsahome.com/infoserv_articles/langone_michael_checklis.htm) Except for this one: "The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members." That doesn't seem to be much of a priority for them these days.
Mr. Cheney also took a shot at former Bush administration Secretary of State Colin Powell, saying that the conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh is a more loyal Republican than the former Army commander.
"If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I'd go with Rush Limbaugh," Mr. Cheney said.
Mr. Powell recently said that Republicans need to more move to the center politically and that Mr. Limbaugh's polarizing far-right rhetoric hurts the party's image.
Five U.S. Soldiers' Deaths Came at Hands of Comrade, Military Says
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 11, 2009 12:49 PM
BAGHDAD, May 11 -- An American soldier opened fire on comrades Monday on a large military base in Baghdad, killing five, the U.S. military said.
The shooting at Camp Liberty, one of the largest bases in Baghdad, occurred about 2 p.m.
Lt. Col. Brian Tribus, a U.S. military spokesman, said the gunman was taken into custody.
A U.S. military officer in Baghdad said the shooting occurred at the base's combat stress clinic.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident shook up soldiers, many of whom are in their third and even fourth tours. Some broke down in tears, he said.
"A lot of soldiers are wondering why," the official said. "We will be asking as leaders: What could we have done? How could have we protected the soldiers?"
Most military facilities in Iraq have combat stress clinics, where soldiers seek counseling and are at times prescribed medicine for anxiety and depression.
The Army is grappling with a growing incidence of suicide cases, which military leaders attribute to the stress inflicted by multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The military did not immediately say what the motive might have been.
"Anytime we lose one of our own, it affects all of us," said U.S. military spokesman Col. John Robinson. "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy."
The incident was among the deadliest attacks for U.S. troops in recent months. It appears to be the deadliest incident in which U.S. deaths were caused by a fellow U.S. soldier since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The shooting was particularly chilling for soldiers based at Victory Base Compound, which includes Liberty, because it is regarded as one of the safest installations for U.S. troops in Iraq.
Control to the compound is tightly restricted, but American soldiers carry weapons on base.
Also on Monday, the military said an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq. The attack occurred Sunday at 2 p.m. in Basra province. U.S. soldiers recently deployed additional troops to the province to replace British troops, who formally ended their mission there last month.
Liberty is one of three U.S. military bases adjacent to Baghdad International Airport.
(CBS/ AP) President Obama's plan to provide medical insurance for all Americans took a big step toward becoming reality after leaders of the health care industry offered $2 trillion in spending reductions over 10 years to help pay for the program.more at link http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/10/politics/main5004956.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_5004956
On Monday, Mr. Obama praised health industry groups for coming forward with the offier.
Mr. Obama appeared at the White House with an array of industry figures, including union representatives, and called it the occasion "historic."
The industry figures pledged to the president that they would voluntarily slow their rate increases over the next 10 years.
Mr. Obama said the step the industry took Monday must be carried out as part of "a broader effort" to change the health care system, keep costs under control and provide health insurance for the some 46 million Americans who do not now have it.
He said, "I will not rest until the dream of health care reform is achieved in the United States of America."
But on Saturday, excited administration officials called me to say that this time the medical-industrial complex (their term, not mine) is offering to be helpful.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/opinion/11krugman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion
Six major industry players — including America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a descendant of the lobbying group that spawned Harry and Louise — have sent a letter to President Obama sketching out a plan to control health care costs. What’s more, the letter implicitly endorses much of what administration officials have been saying about health economics.
Are there reasons to be suspicious about this gift? You bet — and I’ll get to that in a bit. But first things first: on the face of it, this is tremendously good news.
The signatories of the letter say that they’re developing proposals to help the administration achieve its goal of shaving 1.5 percentage points off the growth rate of health care spending. That may not sound like much, but it’s actually huge: achieving that goal would save $2 trillion over the next decade.
How are costs to be contained? There are few details, but the industry has clearly been reading Peter Orszag, the budget director.
In his previous job, as the director of the Congressional Budget Office, Mr. Orszag argued that America spends far too much on some types of health care with little or no medical benefit, even as it spends too little on other types of care, like prevention and treatment of chronic conditions. Putting these together, he concluded that “substantial opportunities exist to reduce costs without harming health over all.”
Sure enough, the health industry letter talks of “reducing over-use and under-use of health care by aligning quality and efficiency incentives.” It also picks up a related favorite Orszag theme, calling for “adherence to evidence-based best practices and therapies.” All in all, it’s just what the doctor, er, budget director ordered.
Before we start celebrating, however, we have to ask the obvious question. Is this gift a Trojan horse? After all, several of the organizations that sent that letter have in the past been major villains when it comes to health care policy.
I’ve already mentioned AHIP. There’s also the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the lobbying group that helped push through the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 — a bill that both prevented Medicare from bargaining over drug prices and locked in huge overpayments to private insurers. Indeed, one of the new letter’s signatories is former Representative Billy Tauzin, who shepherded that bill through Congress then immediately left public office to become PhRMA’s lavishly paid president.
The point is that there’s every reason to be cynical about these players’ motives. Remember that what the rest of us call health care costs, they call income.
What’s presumably going on here is that key interest groups have realized that health care reform is going to happen no matter what they do, and that aligning themselves with the Party of No will just deny them a seat at the table. (Republicans, after all, still denounce research into which medical procedures are effective and which are not as a dastardly plot to deprive Americans of their freedom to choose.)
I would strongly urge the Obama administration to hang tough in the bargaining ahead. In particular, AHIP will surely try to use the good will created by its stance on cost control to kill an important part of health reform: giving Americans the choice of buying into a public insurance plan as an alternative to private insurers. The administration should not give in on this point.
But let me not be too negative. The fact that the medical-industrial complex is trying to shape health care reform rather than block it is a tremendously good omen. It looks as if America may finally get what every other advanced country already has: a system that guarantees essential health care to all its citizens.
And serious cost control would change everything, not just for health care, but for America’s fiscal future. As Mr. Orszag has emphasized, rising health care costs are the main reason long-run budget projections look so grim. Slow the rate at which those costs rise, and the future will look far brighter.
I still won’t count my health care chickens until they’re hatched. But this is some of the best policy news I’ve heard in a long time.
Gots me a totally random question. I know we all like to skewer Ron Paul, but given the choice between him and John McCain, who would you vote for?I'd skip the presidential ticket and vote for all the lower level stuff. Ron Paul is just as bad as any run of the mill Republican. In many cases far worse because he is a true believer on the conservative economic shit.
well she did blatantly attack the leader of their party
Triumph's still a dumbass. Some things never change.
*Jesse Ventura video*
"It's hard to keep from laughing out loud when people living in the bubble of the Beltway suddenly wake up one day and think they ought to have a listening tour; even funnier when their first earful expedition takes them all the way to the suburbs of Washington, D.C.," the former Arkansas governor wrote in a column on Fox News' Web site.
he's batshit on social issues but doesn't tow the GOP line on many other issues... The party needs more Hucks, less Gingrichs
who has the balls to watch this?
This Revolution: When I first learned that Rosario Dawson was starring in a Medium Cool homage/remake I remember thinking, “Wow. That sounds interesting. And terrible.” Sweet sassy mollassy, was I ever right. The film gained a modicum of notoriety when Dawson was arrested at the 2004 Republican Convention alongside other protestors. Then This Revolution sunk like a stone, deservedly so.
I have profoundly mixed feelings about Medium Cool. It contains perhaps some of the most powerful sequences in the history of American film (the ‘68 convention stuff is riveting) and pointed the way towards a new strain of timely, politically engaged docu-drama that blended documentary and narrative in new and challenging ways. Yet writer-director Haskell Wexler’s cult classic was less the opening shot of a cinematic revolution than a dead end. Few filmmakers had the balls to follow in Wexler’s rebellious footsteps, to put themselves on the front lines of violent social unrest to record history as it happens.
Medium Cool is half timeless super-genius, half-macho bullshit. As much as I love kindly, paternal, old-guy Robert Forster he was a bit of a lightweight in his youth and I found the film’s ‘tude and cock-of-the-walk swagger a little oppressive. If Medium Cool is half-genius, half-bullshit then This Revolution is 99 percent bullshit, one-percent genius.
The film stars the deeply unpromising Nathan Crooker (playing a character named Jake Cassavettes in a clumsy homage to Wexler’s plan to have Medium Cool star John Cassavettes as himself) as a ballsy reporter who just got back from being embedded in Iraq where he saw shit that you would never believe, man.
He also returns to girlfriend/boss Amy Redford, a suit who’s all, “Let’s hand over footage of activists to the Homeland Security Department so they can take away our rights and usher us into a nightmare Orwellian hellscape in which the corporate media colludes with a Fascist totalitarian government of the Wall Street Pigs, for the Wall Street Pigs and By The Wall Street Pigs”. That is her idea of pillow talk. It’s not surprising that Crooker finds himself falling for a single mother/Iraq War widow (Rosario Dawson) who’s all sensitive and soulful and ethnic and attractive despite her hideous blonde cornrows.
Political rapper Immortal Technique does a terrible job playing political rapper Immortal Technique in scenes where he dresses down Crooker for never covering how, you know, shit is real in the hood, G. Crooker’s disillusionment with the government and the AmeriKKKan corporate media grows even more acute when he falls in with a group of masked radicals and learns of his employer’s plans to hand over his tapes to the government to help it keep tabs on dissidents.
The pigs wanna shut Crooker down but he subverts the dominant paradigm by hacking into his cable news channel’s system and airing a terrible avant-garde provocation exposing the media’s lies. Factor in wooden dialogue, clumsy, strident non-stop speechifying, porn-level acting, hokey plot twists, and footage that looks like it was shot on grandma’s video camera and you have a hysterical manifesto that almost made me ashamed to be a progressive. Writer-director Stephen Marshall, co-founder of the Guerilla News Network, set out to make a Medium Cool for our era. Instead he made the cinematic equivalent of a “No Blood For Oil” bumper sticker.
Just How Bad Is It? Awful. Just god-fucking-awful
http://www.avclub.com/articles/winona-ryder-gets-her-mpdg-on-rosario-dawson-remak,27827/?utm_source=homepage_recent_features
Obama Administration Plans New Regulations for Derivatives
By David Cho and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 2:51 PM
The Obama administration will detail this afternoon its plan to regulate the exotic financial contracts that helped fuel the global crisis and crippled some of the biggest names on Wall Street, such as American International Group, sources familiar with the matter said.
The proposal, which will require congressional action, imposes a number of restrictions on the so-called dark markets that trade a broad range of these instruments, known as derivatives, without government oversight.
An announcement is scheduled for 4 p.m. The heads of the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are likely to jointly unveil the proposal.
The administration is seeking to amend securities law so that most derivatives would have to be traded through central clearinghouses regulated by the SEC and the CFTC.
In turn, the clearinghouses would require traders to maintain enough money in reserve so they could cover losses in any investments gone bad. These so-called margin requirements have been a hotly debated issue between the government and private traders because it curbs their profits.
The two government agencies would also impose record-keeping and reporting requirements for the traders, ensuring a paper trail for their activities.
In addition, the government is seeking to increase the powers of the market regulators to clamp down on fraud. The government would also have greater authority to prevent anyone from cornering a market, especially in commodity trading where a few investors can have an outsized effect on the price of a critical good such as natural gas or cotton.
Some derivative contracts would still be traded outside of the clearinghouses under the administration's plan. But such trades much be reported to the clearinghouses so that all investors could get a full view of the market activity.
Lack of information about derivatives raised grave concerns last fall as the crisis threatened to topple the financial system. Because regulators did not know precisely how many firms and investors were trading derivatives, officials struggled to understand how the crisis was spreading.
In the late 1990s, some government officials proposed regulating this market. But top economic officials inside the Clinton Administration were concerned about undermining financial innovations and rejected the suggestion.
The market for derivatives has since ballooned in the tens of trillions of dollars, outpacing the growth of the traditional stock and bond markets.
Suspicious have grown about whether traders have been able to use derivatives to manipulate the market. While the SEC has oversight over most kinds of securities and the CFTC has oversight over most kinds of commodities, many derivatives have escaped regulatory scrutiny.
Several companies have already received approval from regulators to set up clearinghouses. The derivatives industry, aware of looming regulation, has been pushing derivatives firms to move their contracts onto clearinghouse platforms.
Some analysts recently have been warn of loopholes in the administration's plan, which officials have hinted at in recent months. The proposal would allow a limited number of highly specialized derivatives to trade without going through a clearinghouse. Some analysts warn that this exception might lead derivatives traders to create increasingly complex derivatives to avoid regulation.
if they tax my fucking soda, one of the relatively cheap little joys i have left in this world which isn't already taxed to the point of ridiculousness, i will go full-blown anarchist
if they tax my fucking soda, one of the relatively cheap little joys i have left in this world which isn't already taxed to the point of ridiculousness, i will go full-blown anarchist and start actively participating in the destruction of government
because they only have negative externalities when they are abused, and are harmless (even beneficial) in moderation
i don't need the fucking government to be my babysitter, especially since they tend to mismanage or outright abuse any iota of extra power granted them by the public they allegedly serve
and don't fool yourself into thinking it's because they want to modify your behavior for your own benefit - it's simply because they want the money
like the tobacco tax, i'd be willing to bet less than 10% of any soda or sugar tax revenue would actually reach any program it would be earmarked towards
The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
When you voted for Bush I think that negates you from criticizing these type of things.QuoteThe Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124223286506515765.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124223286506515765.html)
When you voted for Bush I think that negates you from criticizing these type of things.QuoteThe Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124223286506515765.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124223286506515765.html)
When you voted for Bush I think that negates you from criticizing these type of things.QuoteThe Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124223286506515765.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124223286506515765.html)
POLITICIANS who were dreading the day when their exploitation of Parliament’s lax expenses regime would be exposed may have consoled themselves that at least it would all be over in one go. Hundreds of thousands of mortifying pages detailing their claims since 2004 were scheduled for official publication this summer, despite the tenacious resistance of parliamentary authorities in the courts.
In the end, though, the revelations came in agonising stages. The Daily Telegraph obtained the leaked data and, on May 8th, began to publish it. The first to be exposed were ministers. Another batch of Labour politicians followed before the spotlight shone on front- and backbenchers of the Conservative Party. By the time the Liberal Democrats’ turn came round on May 13th, Parliament was on its knees.
The purchases dubiously claimed by MPs ranged from dog food and toilet brushes to thousands of pounds’ worth of home improvements. Much of the nest-feathering took place under the so-called second-homes allowance, worth up to £24,000 ($36,000) a year to MPs who require accommodation in both London and their constituencies. Some “flipped” the designation of their first and second homes in order to be reimbursed for work done on both. A few profited by sprucing up a second home on expenses before reclassifying it as their main residence to avoid capital-gains tax when they sold it.
The reaction of politicians to the great exposure has only slowly and fitfully begun to match public outrage. Gordon Brown apologised for the entire political class on May 11th. David Cameron, the Tory leader, and the Lib Dems’ Nick Clegg followed suit, declaring that colleagues would pay back unjustified claims. Andrew MacKay, Mr Cameron’s parliamentary aide, has resigned over claims his party deemed “unacceptable”; some MPs are returning money; pressure on Michael Martin, accused of an indulgent line on expenses as speaker of the House of Commons, is growing; and reform of the system is now inevitable. An inquiry by the independent Committee on Standards in Public Life, launched after previous scandals, is due to report this year.
But all this came after days of mealy-mouthed denial and obfuscation. Some MPs blamed the media (the Telegraph is said to have paid for what could be regarded as stolen information). Others insisted the controversial claims were technically within the rules, as if those rules were not made by Parliament itself, and as if their spirit did not matter as much as their letter.
Voters, forced by recession to live more leanly, are irate. A Populus poll conducted as the Labour and Tory revelations were being published showed the two parties down by four percentage points each, while the Lib Dems, yet to be exposed, were up by four. And 86% of respondents thought all the parties equally bad on expenses. Britain’s anti-politics mood did not need the boost that the expenses scandal has given it. In April a YouGov poll showed that a third of voters trusted no politician to tell the truth (Mr Brown and Mr Cameron were trusted by only 12% and 21%, respectively, of respondents).
Yet the perverse result of all parties being tainted may be that no party really is. The incumbents are culpable for letting a bad system fester for so long, and Mr Cameron produced a better and bolder response than Mr Brown. But the spectacle of wealthy grandees having their country homes renovated at taxpayers’ expense has done the Tory brand no favours. And the Lib Dems cannot afford to lose their unique selling point as Westminster’s nice guys. Labour, one of whose MPs is responsible for what is perhaps the gravest offence (Elliot Morley claimed £16,000 for a mortgage he had already paid and was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party on May 14th), looks the worst, by a bit. But just as the sleaze that racked the last Tory government only amplified the defeat they were already due to suffer in 1997, so this scandal only reinforces the likely outcome of the next election: a loss for Labour, and grudging approval for the Tories.
Amid the din of recrimination, some MPs’ plaintive wails deserve to be heard. British politicians are neither corrupt nor lavishly remunerated by international standards. The revelations were less shocking than many observers expected. Some MPs have shown Cromwellian rectitude; the cynic’s mantra that they are all bad is nonsense. And while much of Britain’s anti-political mood is a justified response to a scandal for which MPs must do penance, some reflects a basic nihilism they can do little about. A popular television satire, “The Thick of It” (and its recent film adaptation, “In the Loop”, with its prescient gag about a politician expensing porn films), is funny viewing but its central conceit that everyone in politics is stupid and malign is all too widely held.
The expenses scandal was born of two traits often found in British public life: a preference for “muddling through” over rational design, and a reluctance to ditch a flawed system until it falls apart in a crisis. As MPs’ earnings fell over time behind those of bankers and family doctors, and as their role changed to include constituency work better done by local councillors, they could have debated, openly and from first principles, the issue of pay and expenses. But rather than risk honest analysis of what MPs are for and what they are worth, they improvised a solution by treating expenses as a way of topping up their income. And instead of abandoning this approach when its flaws came to light—mini-sleaze stories have abounded in recent years—they procrastinated until a crushing torrent of revelations pushed them into action. The failure to act sooner will damage their reputations for years.
:lol @ GRAND PAUL
Garbage as usual
[youtube=560,345]vJHKtLnT0Ak[/youtube]
In an interview with ABC News, Newt Gingrich denounced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the harshest of ways on her claims the Bush administration lied to her about their use of interrogation tactics.http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/15/gingrich_rips_pelosi.html
Said Gingrich: "I think she has lied to the House, and I think that the House has an absolute obligation to open an inquiry, and I hope there will be a resolution to investigate her. And I think this is a big deal. I don't think the Speaker of the House can lie to the country on national security matters."
He added: "I think this is the most despicable, dishonest and vicious political effort I've seen in my lifetime."
More: "She is a trivial politician, viciously using partisanship for the narrowist of purposes, and she dishonors the Congress by her behavior."
Over/Under on Pelosi losing her house speaker position?
Huntsman resigned to become ambassador to China.Genius. David Axelrod said he was the only Republican that he feared in 2012 and they took him out by giving him one of the most important ambassadorships in the Obama Administration.
Huntsman resigned to become ambassador to China.
Huntsman resigned to become ambassador to China.
I found it mind-boggling that a Republican governor with 80% approval in his state couldn't get his judicial appointments through the state Senate. Ambassador to China > dealing with manchildren state legislators.
Huntsman would have an uphill battle in a Presdiential primary. Shaky fundie bona fides due to the civil union stuff + mormonic eruption in the Bible Belt would pretty much have him doing worse than Mittens.
"Keep your friends close and your enemies in China."
-- GOP strategist Mark McKinnon, quoted by Politico, on the appointment of Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) to be ambassador to China.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4174143
wait, what the hell? :lol
"If you want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers, invite us when we don't win the Super Bowl," he told Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV. "So as far as I'm concerned he would have invited Arizona if they had won."
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/state_regional_govtpolitics/article/WEBB18_20090517-193406/268339/ (http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/state_regional/state_regional_govtpolitics/article/WEBB18_20090517-193406/268339/)why do you keep assuming you know how the the liberals think? None of them are going to vote for your boy Mitt in 2012.
Nutroots officially on suicide watch.
why do you keep assuming you know how the the liberals think?
President Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried, two participants in the private session said.
QuotePresident Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried, two participants in the private session said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics/21obama.html?_r=1 (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics/21obama.html?_r=1)
The double speak from this man is fucking astounding.
QuotePresident Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried, two participants in the private session said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics/21obama.html?_r=1 (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics/21obama.html?_r=1)
The double speak from this man is fucking astounding.
That is fucked up though.
That is fucked up though.
I think this would be limited to some detainees at Guantanamo. These detainees cannot be prosecuted because their cases have been seriously compromised by the coercive interrogation methods of the Bush administration, creating a dilemma for the Obama administration: detain the suspects without trial indefinitely or let them go. Neither option is a political winner.
Stormy Daniels Forms Exploratory Committee To Run Against Vitter In 2010
By Eric Kleefeld - May 21, 2009, 1:58PM
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels has officially announced that she has formed an exploratory committee for the 2010 Senate race, in which she is widely expected to run in the Republican primary against Sen. David Vitter -- the Christian right conservative whose career became mired in the D.C. Madam prostitution scandal of 2007.
"I do not take this step lightly," Daniels said in a statement. "While I have been humbled by the overwhelmingly positive response my potential candidacy has generated thus far, my decision to run for United States Senate will only be made after I have had the opportunity to discuss this prospect with as many people across the state as possible. Too many in government ignore the voices of those whom they claim to represent. I promise you that I will not."
If she does run, Daniels' campaign would be widely viewed as an effort to remind the state's conservative voters about Vitter's own indiscretions.
This is going to be a clusterfuck, isn't it?
Mike Huckabee comes out hard against the Sonia Sotomayor appointment, with a bit of a misfire as concerns her name:http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0509/Huck_comes_out_firing__at_Maria_Sotomayor.html?showall
The appointment of Maria Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama's campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric. Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the "Extreme Court" that could mark a major shift. The notion that appellate court decisions are to be interpreted by the "feelings" of the judge is a direct affront of the basic premise of our judicial system that is supposed to apply the law without personal emotion. If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice.
QuoteMike Huckabee comes out hard against the Sonia Sotomayor appointment, with a bit of a misfire as concerns her name:http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0509/Huck_comes_out_firing__at_Maria_Sotomayor.html?showall
The appointment of Maria Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama's campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric. Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the "Extreme Court" that could mark a major shift. The notion that appellate court decisions are to be interpreted by the "feelings" of the judge is a direct affront of the basic premise of our judicial system that is supposed to apply the law without personal emotion. If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice.
so she won't steal it, and use it as a headband!
Does the nominee still have Diabetes? Could the Messiah heal her, or does she just not want to ask? What is protocal on miracle healings?http://twitter.com/glennbeck
So, here you have a racist. You might want to soften that and you might wanna say a reverse racist. And the libs, of course, say that minorities cannot be racists because they don't have the power to implement their racism. Well, those days are gone because reverse racists certainly do have the power to implement their power. Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist and now he's appointed one -- getting this, AP? -- Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court ...http://thepage.time.com/rush-limbaugh-on-sonia-sotomayor-nomination/
So she's not the brain that they're portraying her to be, she's not a constitutional jurist. She is an affirmative action case extraordinaire and she has put down white men in favor of Latina women. She has claimed that the court is all about making policy. So yes, there's a golden opportunity. Take this to the mat. Take it to the wall. The people need to know what Obama really believes in and this is how it could happen. Now will the Republicans do it? That's another question.
why are we still hearing the "out of the mainstream/American values" line of attack in 2009? Most Americans are pro-choice and support for gay marriage is growing at a crazy rate. I haven't read everything about her positions yet but seriously, which one is uber radical?
why are we still hearing the "out of the mainstream/American values" line of attack in 2009? Most Americans are pro-choice and support for gay marriage is growing at a crazy rate. I haven't read everything about her positions yet but seriously, which one is uber radical?
the one where she's not a strict constructionist
why are we still hearing the "out of the mainstream/American values" line of attack in 2009? Most Americans are pro-choice and support for gay marriage is growing at a crazy rate. I haven't read everything about her positions yet but seriously, which one is uber radical?
why are we still hearing the "out of the mainstream/American values" line of attack in 2009? Most Americans are pro-choice and support for gay marriage is growing at a crazy rate. I haven't read everything about her positions yet but seriously, which one is uber radical?
:drudge OBAMA PICKS HYPER ACTIVIST LATINA WOMAN AS SC JUSTICE; SD FOUND PARALYZED WITH FEAR; FILM AT 11 :drudge
and here we go!QuoteDoes the nominee still have Diabetes? Could the Messiah heal her, or does she just not want to ask? What is protocal on miracle healings?http://twitter.com/glennbeck
that article is meh
"She's tough and tenacious as well as smart," said Justice Jose A. Cabranes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a mentor and former professor of Sotomayor's at Yale Law School. "She is not intimidated or overwhelmed by the eminence or power or prestige of any party, or indeed of the media."
The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was "not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue." (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, "Will you please stop talking and let them talk?") Second Circuit judge Jose Cabranes, who would later become her colleague, put this point more charitably in a 1995 interview with The New York Times: "She is not intimidated or overwhelmed by the eminence or power or prestige of any party, or indeed of the media."
The idea she isn't smart is hilarious. She was at the top of her class in the top law school in the country. You don't do that without being fucking smart.
The idea she isn't smart is hilarious. She was at the top of her class in the top law school in the country. You don't do that without being fucking smart.
In the months ahead, it will be important for those of us in the U.S. Senate to weigh her qualifications and character as well as her ability to rule fairly without undue influence from her own personal race, gender, or political preferences.
He has a point. I mean, just how did Dr. Dre get that degree?
Her opinions, although competent, are viewed by former prosecutors as not especially clean or tight, and sometimes miss the forest for the trees. It's customary, for example, for Second Circuit judges to circulate their draft opinions to invite a robust exchange of views. Sotomayor, several former clerks complained, rankled her colleagues by sending long memos that didn't distinguish between substantive and trivial points, with petty editing suggestions--fixing typos and the like--rather than focusing on the core analytical issues.
He has a point. I mean, just how did Dr. Dre get that degree?
The idea she isn't smart is hilarious. She was at the top of her class in the top law school in the country. You don't do that without being fucking smart.
Didn't Bush go to Yale? :smug
Director Mike Judge’s new animated television series “The Goode Family” is a send-up of a clan of environmentalists who live by the words “What would Al Gore do?” Gerald and Helen Goode want nothing more than to minimize their carbon footprint. They feed their dog, Che, only veggies (much to the pet’s dismay) and Mr. Goode dutifully separates sheets of toilet paper when his wife accidentally buys two-ply. And, of course, the family drives a hybrid
Quote from: Senator James InhofeIn the months ahead, it will be important for those of us in the U.S. Senate to weigh her qualifications and character as well as her ability to rule fairly without undue influence from her own personal race, gender, or political preferences.
Damn estrogen and melanin getting in the way of higher brain functions.
Which one of you guys inspired Mike Judge's new TV show?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574180442354457688.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574180442354457688.html)QuoteDirector Mike Judge’s new animated television series “The Goode Family” is a send-up of a clan of environmentalists who live by the words “What would Al Gore do?” Gerald and Helen Goode want nothing more than to minimize their carbon footprint. They feed their dog, Che, only veggies (much to the pet’s dismay) and Mr. Goode dutifully separates sheets of toilet paper when his wife accidentally buys two-ply. And, of course, the family drives a hybrid
I can see Cheebs or even Triumph alone in their mothers basement (or N.C. trailer in triumphs case) desperately separating his toilet paper with visions of Al Gore gently entering him as his reward. :lol
Quoterankled her colleagues by sending long memos that didn't distinguish between substantive and trivial points, with petty suggestions .... rather than focusing on the core analytical issues.
Sloppy and depthless are probably better adjectives.
Quote from: Senator James InhofeIn the months ahead, it will be important for those of us in the U.S. Senate to weigh her qualifications and character as well as her ability to rule fairly without undue influence from her own personal race, gender, or political preferences.
Damn estrogen and melanin getting in the way of higher brain functions.
Legitimate question, since we know which of us inspired Idiocracy
Legitimate question, since we know which of us inspired Idiocracy
Who? The EBers who make a new buy thread every day? or the ones who laugh at every single dick joke someone posts?
or the one who had daddy pay his way in life rather than earning anything by the sweat of his own brow? :smug
or the one who had daddy pay his way in life rather than earning anything by the sweat of his own brow? :smug
Like I said cheebs.
I would add you to the list too but I'm sure your mom didn't have to sleep with too many red necks to get you through Alvin community barber college.
Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb: "Obama seems to have the views of a 21-year-old Hispanic girl -- that is, only by having a black president, an Hispanic justice, a female secretary of State, and Bozo the Clown as vice president will the United States become a true 'vanguard of societal ideas and changes.'"
Sotomayor also claimed: "For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandoles y pernir -- rice, beans and pork -- that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events."
This has prompted some Republicans to muse privately about whether Sotomayor is suggesting that distinctive Puerto Rican cuisine such as patitas de cerdo con garbanzo -- pigs' tongue and ears -- would somehow, in some small way influence her verdicts from the bench.
Curt Levey, the executive director of the Committee for Justice, a conservative-leaning advocacy group, said he wasn't certain whether Sotomayor had claimed her palate would color her view of legal facts but he said that President Obama's Supreme Court nominee clearly touts her subjective approach to the law.
"It's pretty disturbing," said Levey. "It's one thing to say that occasionally a judge will despite his or her best efforts to be impartial ... allow occasional biases to cloud impartialit
How much more predictable can the GOP be? They always do exactly the opposite of what they say they are going to do.
Jim Henley predicts (http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2009/05/26/9377) "Sotomayor <3 Santeria" as an upcoming wingnut meme.
What's all this nonsense about how the GOP will be careful opposing Sotomayor because of her gender and ethnicity, anyway? If anything, her gender and ethnicity have provided them the blueprint for their opposition so far.
Remember when the GOP was going to go soft on Obama because they wouldn't want to look racist?
Newt Gingrich just twittered: "White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw."
This was preceded by: "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman' new racism is no better than old racism"
While Gingrich doesn't have a vote in the Senate, he may have passed the litmus test.
Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.
[...]
When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account.
Also, where is this "she was picked cuz she's hispanic" shit coming from?
she's hispanic
Top Senate Republican strategists tell Politico that, "barring unknown facts about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the GOP plans no scorched-earth opposition to her confirmation as a Supreme Court justice."http://politicalwire.com/
Not a single senator has come out publicly in opposition to Sotomayor's confirmation.
Said one GOP aide: "The sentiment is overwhelming that the Senate should do due diligence but should not make a mountain out of a molehill. If there's no 'there' there, we shouldn't try to create one."
Also, where is this "she was picked cuz she's hispanic" shit coming from? There was a sense that Obama wanted to choose a woman so there would be two on the bench again. But how does that mean this was unfair...or that she is under-qualified compared to the white males she apparently beat out of the job? She's got more experience than any of the current SC justices had before being nominated, she graduated at the top of her class at a couple top universities, etc.
"If you ever get a chance to interview Donald Rumsfeld," a retired four-star general told me in 2005, "ask him two questions and see which one lights up his eyes. Ask him what our force posture should be toward China 10 years from now. And then ask him what tactical changes we should make on the ground in Iraq as a result of the last three months of combat. I'll bet you anything, he gets more excited about China."
And that was the problem. The Cheney-Rumsfeld axis, which essentially ran national-security policy in the first half of the Bush Administration, was stuck in the Cold War. Rather than fight the enemy we had — the stateless terrorists of al-Qaeda — they sought more conventional enemies. Attention quickly — too quickly — shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq. And then, once the conventional armored push to Baghdad was completed, the ongoing war effort became — amazingly — a bureaucratic orphan. "Every time we tried to do something for the troops in the field in both Afghanistan and Iraq, we had to go outside the regular Pentagon bureaucracy to get it done," Gates recalled. "For example, there was no institutional home" for figuring out how to combat roadside bombs — but there were plenty of people working on how to counter missiles from North Korea.
When Barack Obama announced that the government will use its fist to wave onto the highways of America cars that get 39 miles to a gallon of liquefied switch grass or something, he said, "Everybody wins."
Everybody? What country has he been living in? This marks the end of the internal combustion engine as we knew it, and it is the way Americans have defined, designed and literally driven much of the nation's culture for as long as anyone can remember.
CAFE, the fuel-mileage standards Congress mandated 34 years ago, gradually squeezed the size and life out of America's cars.
We are being offered a different world now. One designed, defined and driven by a new set of un-fun obsessions -- carbon footprints, greenhouse gas and alternative energy. This large transition passes before us, barely seen, as the gray water of public policy. Hardly anyone notices how much is being changed.
"Everybody wins?" Not quite. What's winning is a worldview that goes deeper than the data beneath global warming. The gasoline cars they want to turn into scrap were about a lot more than the thrill of roaring on.
The cars and their culture were a manifestation of what made the U.S. really different. The cars, like the country, were big, fast and unfettered. Their drivers were delirious with the possibility of finding something new in life. "It's a town full of losers, and I'm pullin' out of here to win!"
We'll see what happens when people walk into auto showrooms (if they exist) and every car has a wheelbase of about 100 inches.
lol
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124346903426760553.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124346903426760553.html)Quote from: WSJWhen Barack Obama announced that the government will use its fist to wave onto the highways of America cars that get 39 miles to a gallon of liquefied switch grass or something, he said, "Everybody wins."
Everybody? What country has he been living in? This marks the end of the internal combustion engine as we knew it, and it is the way Americans have defined, designed and literally driven much of the nation's culture for as long as anyone can remember.
CAFE, the fuel-mileage standards Congress mandated 34 years ago, gradually squeezed the size and life out of America's cars.
We are being offered a different world now. One designed, defined and driven by a new set of un-fun obsessions -- carbon footprints, greenhouse gas and alternative energy. This large transition passes before us, barely seen, as the gray water of public policy. Hardly anyone notices how much is being changed.
"Everybody wins?" Not quite. What's winning is a worldview that goes deeper than the data beneath global warming. The gasoline cars they want to turn into scrap were about a lot more than the thrill of roaring on.
The cars and their culture were a manifestation of what made the U.S. really different. The cars, like the country, were big, fast and unfettered. Their drivers were delirious with the possibility of finding something new in life. "It's a town full of losers, and I'm pullin' out of here to win!"
We'll see what happens when people walk into auto showrooms (if they exist) and every car has a wheelbase of about 100 inches.
Obama making things unfun :piss2
:usacry
lol
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124346903426760553.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124346903426760553.html)Quote from: WSJWhen Barack Obama announced that the government will use its fist to wave onto the highways of America cars that get 39 miles to a gallon of liquefied switch grass or something, he said, "Everybody wins."
Everybody? What country has he been living in? This marks the end of the internal combustion engine as we knew it, and it is the way Americans have defined, designed and literally driven much of the nation's culture for as long as anyone can remember.
CAFE, the fuel-mileage standards Congress mandated 34 years ago, gradually squeezed the size and life out of America's cars.
We are being offered a different world now. One designed, defined and driven by a new set of un-fun obsessions -- carbon footprints, greenhouse gas and alternative energy. This large transition passes before us, barely seen, as the gray water of public policy. Hardly anyone notices how much is being changed.
"Everybody wins?" Not quite. What's winning is a worldview that goes deeper than the data beneath global warming. The gasoline cars they want to turn into scrap were about a lot more than the thrill of roaring on.
The cars and their culture were a manifestation of what made the U.S. really different. The cars, like the country, were big, fast and unfettered. Their drivers were delirious with the possibility of finding something new in life. "It's a town full of losers, and I'm pullin' out of here to win!"
We'll see what happens when people walk into auto showrooms (if they exist) and every car has a wheelbase of about 100 inches.
Obama making things unfun :piss2
:usacry
I have fun driving my mid-sized car with moderate fuel-efficiency and not having to pay a fortune on gas anytime I want to go somewhere.And you call yourself a man? Pffffffffftttt
With each passing week that the assault against global capitalism continues in Washington, I become more nostalgic for one missing voice: Milton Friedman's. No one could slice and dice the sophistry of government market interventions better than Milton
I would rank Milton Friedman, next to Ronald Reagan, as the greatest apostle for freedom and free markets in the second half of the 20th century.
I've been thinking a lot lately of one of my last conversations with Milton, who warned that "even though socialism is a discredited economic model and capitalism is raising living standards to new heights, the left intellectuals continue to push for bigger government everywhere I look." He predicted that people would be seduced by collectivist ideas again.
He was right. In the midst of this global depression, rotten ideas like trillion-dollar stimulus plans, nationalization of banks and confiscatory taxes on America's wealth producers are all the rage. Meanwhile, it is Milton Friedman and his principles of free trade, low tax rates and deregulation that are standing trial as the murderers of global prosperity.
The myth that the stock-market collapse was due to a failure of Friedman's principles could hardly be more easily refuted. No one was more critical of the Bush spending and debt binge than Friedman. The massive run up in money and easy credit that facilitated the housing and credit bubbles was precisely the foolishness that Friedman spent a lifetime warning against. :teehee
The Obama administration wants to power our society by spending three or four times more money to generate electricity using solar and wind power than it would cost to use coal or natural gas. The president says that this initiative will create "green jobs."
Milton knew how to create real wealth-producing jobs. Once, when he visited India in the early 1960s, John Kenneth Galbraith, the U.S. ambassador, welcomed him by only half-joking, "I can think of no place where your free-market ideas can do less harm than in India." Talk about irony. India has adopted much of the Friedman free-market model and has moved nearly 200 million people out of destitution and despair. :-X
I would rank Milton Friedman, next to Ronald Reagan, as the greatest apostle for freedom and free markets in the second half of the 20th century.
When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account.
- Samuel Alito
O lawd, the wsj is on a rollQuotehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB124355131075164361.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124355131075164361.html)
The myth that the stock-market collapse was due to a failure of Friedman's principles could hardly be more easily refuted. No one was more critical of the Bush spending and debt binge than Friedman. The massive run up in money and easy credit that facilitated the housing and credit bubbles was precisely the foolishness that Friedman spent a lifetime warning against. :teehee
Auschwitz is a horrifying experience which reminded me of thee vil of kim jong I’ll and dangers of al qaeda hamas and hezbollah
Auschwitz is also a reminder that evil men often do what they threaten. An iranian nuclear bomb could lead to a second holocaust
@newtgingrich Silly Newt. Don’t you know that by talking to them they’ll put down their weapons and participate in giant group hug.
@JoshDaws I knew you would understand. Chamberlain tried the group hug with hitler and it didn’t work
Gingrich warns that all of American civilization is at stake here. "If Civil War, suffrage, and Civil Rights are to mean anything, we cannot accept that conclusion," he writes. "It is simply un-American. There is no room on the bench of the United States Supreme Court for this worldview."http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/gingrich-digs-in-on-sotomayor-bashing.php?ref=fpa
Maybe they'll bolt. Maybe the car culture will revert to where it began, when the whiskey runners in the South ran from the revenuers. This time the cars themselves will be bootlegged -- fat, fast and gas-powered -- racing through the night on off-map roads while the National Green Corps -- enacted by Congress in the second Obama term -- looks for them from ethanolic choppers overhead. Reborn to run.
Gingrich has went from born-again moderate to firebomb-throwing party whip again. I don't understand his angle.
Gingrich has went from born-again moderate to firebomb-throwing party whip again. I don't understand his angle.
What a crybaby.I would add you to the list too but I'm sure your mom didn't have to sleep with too many red necks to get you through Alvin community barber college.
No, unlike you, parasite, I took out loans to go to college which I then paid back by doing WORK. Now that I'm going back this fall I will be paying for it all with money that I saved up by doing WORK. The only help either of my parents ever gave me other than a little bit of cash on birthdays or Christmas was a car my dad helped me buy about ten years ago... that I paid him back in full for.
Recruiting and managing a team of rivals would not be easy, and Clinton came with her own set of issues. Chief among them was her campaign debt, which she wanted eliminated before she took the job of secretary of state. Would the president-elect go out and help her to do so? "I'm not begging her to take this job," Obama told his senior aides. "If she wants it, I could help. But I'm not willing to go out in these difficult economic times to do a flashy fundraiser in California." As it happened, plenty of people in the Senate were begging Obama to offer Clinton the job. Obama's aides believed that many Senate Democrats thought Clinton had extended her presidential campaign far beyond the point where she had lost the election. Her negative advertising wasted Democratic money, threatened to undermine the party's nominee, and suggested that she was disloyal to the party. They were unwilling to offer the junior New York senator a position ahead of her lowly rank, and she stood little chance of becoming majority leader. "There was a lot of encouragement from inside the Senate to get her into this job," said one senior Obama aide. "They wanted her out of there." ...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/31/exclusive-excerpt-from-re_n_209577.html
http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2653179&ref=fpblg
:lol
THE EMERGENCE OF OBAMA'S MUSLIM ROOTS
http://drudgereport.com/
linked article
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/abc-news-jake-tapper-and-sunlen-miller-report-the-other-day-we-heard-a-comment-from-a-white-house-aide-that-neverwould-have.html
Drudge has been going absolutely insane lately. And I love the new meme that Obama "hid" his Muslim roots during the election, but now is flaunting them as he woos Muslims in the middle east. Seems the right is more upset with Obama's alleged election dishonesty than the intolerance in this country that made it hard to even discuss the issue.
THE EMERGENCE OF OBAMA'S MUSLIM ROOTS
http://drudgereport.com/
linked article
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/abc-news-jake-tapper-and-sunlen-miller-report-the-other-day-we-heard-a-comment-from-a-white-house-aide-that-neverwould-have.html
Drudge has been going absolutely insane lately. And I love the new meme that Obama "hid" his Muslim roots during the election, but now is flaunting them as he woos Muslims in the middle east. Seems the right is more upset with Obama's alleged election dishonesty than the intolerance in this country that made it hard to even discuss the issue.
Remember when calling him Barack Hussien Obama made little liberals get their panties all wadded up?
THE EMERGENCE OF OBAMA'S MUSLIM ROOTS
http://drudgereport.com/
linked article
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/abc-news-jake-tapper-and-sunlen-miller-report-the-other-day-we-heard-a-comment-from-a-white-house-aide-that-neverwould-have.html
Drudge has been going absolutely insane lately. And I love the new meme that Obama "hid" his Muslim roots during the election, but now is flaunting them as he woos Muslims in the middle east. Seems the right is more upset with Obama's alleged election dishonesty than the intolerance in this country that made it hard to even discuss the issue.
Remember when calling him Barack Hussien Obama made little liberals get their panties all wadded up?
N.H. Legislature Approves Gay Marriage
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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 3, 2009
Filed at 4:45 p.m. ET
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire legislators approved a measure Wednesday that would make the state the sixth to allow gay marriage, and Gov. John Lynch said he would sign it later in the afternoon.
He had promised a veto if the law didn't clearly spell out that churches and religious groups would not be forced to officiate at gay marriages or provide other services.
The Senate passed the measure Wednesday, and the House -- where the outcome was more in doubt -- followed later in the day. The House gallery erupted in cheers after the 198-176 vote.
''If you have no choice as to your sex, male or female; if you have no choice as to your color; if you have no choice as to your sexual orientation; then you have to be protected and given the same opportunity for life, liberty and happiness,'' Rep. Anthony DiFruscia, R-Windham, said during the hourlong debate.
New Hampshire's law takes effect Jan. 1. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Iowa already allow gay marriage, though Maine opponents hope to overturn that state's law with a public vote.
California briefly allowed gay marriage before a public vote banned it; a court ruling grandfathered in couples who were already married.
New Hampshire opponents, mainly Republicans, objected on grounds including the fragmented process that required three bills.
''It is no surprise that the Legislature finally passed the last piece to the gay marriage bill today. After all, when you take 12 votes on five iterations of the same issue, you're bound to get it passed sooner or later,'' said Kevin Smith, executive director of gay marriage opponent Cornerstone Policy Research.
Lynch, a Democrat, personally opposes gay marriage but decided to view the issue ''through a broader lens.''
Lynch said he would veto gay marriage if the law didn't address churches and religious groups.
The revised bill added a sentence specifying that all religious organizations, associations or societies have exclusive control over their religious doctrines, policies, teachings and beliefs on marriage.
It also clarified that church-related organizations that serve charitable or educational purposes are exempt from having to provide insurance and other benefits to same sex spouses of employees. The earlier version said ''charitable and educational'' instead of ''charitable or educational.''
The House rejected the language Lynch suggested two weeks ago by two votes. Wednesday's vote was on a revised bill negotiated with the Senate.
The vote was supporters' last chance this year in New Hampshire.
Oh definitely. But the image of Bush calling up Condi is funny; I wonder what she thought about the situation
In the spirit of the new age, General Motors, like Citigroup and AIG, will be kept alive in an industrial coma. One has to ask: Is this where the entire country is headed? Since January, it looks like it is.
So far Mr. Obama has used his personally exciting presidency for initiatives that are spending public money on a scale not seen since ancient Egypt. Besides Obama Motors ($60 billion to $100 billion), there is Obama-Care for health insurance ($1.2 trillion over 10 years), the stimulus ($800 billion), a global-warming offensive called cap and trade that hopes to siphon hundreds of billions of dollars from the economy, and a fiscal year 2010 budget of $3.59 trillion. Out of these mists of federal "investment" they promise five million "green collar jobs." Only public-sector lifers could believe, or assert, anything so fantastic.
All this is the Obama government's idea of innovation. It is all public sector because all any of them know is public sector.
Without exception, the Obama people with responsibility for the private economy come from a lifetime in politics, public administration or academia.
Besides Mr. Obama himself, the list includes Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag, EPA's Lisa Jackson (16 years with EPA), Commerce's Gary Locke (zero private experience), or Transportation's Ray LaHood (14 years in the House). The bio for Agriculture's Tom Vilsack says he "has served in the public sector at nearly every level of government." How can the private sector -- especially the world of risk capital, sweat equity and start-ups -- be anything but an abstraction for this group?
ObamaCare. How will a build-out of Medicare (b. 1965) to cover everyone and costing $1.2 trillion over 10 years not kill innovation in medical and health technology by siphoning away growth capital and its potential financial rewards?
Congress is talking about a "bad behavior" tax on beer and soda pop to reduce obesity and fund mega-Medicare. How about a bad-behavior tax on government? Slim as the president looks, Uncle Sam is looking like quite the fat boy.
godDIZZAMN that speech
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html?pagewanted=all
make sure you read the comments!
make sure you read the comments!
make sure you read the comments!
you are a heartless bastard
Obama::drude :drudge :drudge
Speaking in Indonesia would be “almost like cheating."
Would've had “home ground” advantage but did not want that.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/report-bush-needed-condi-to-explain-articulate-flap-during-dem-primary.php?ref=fpc
Bush :bow :lol
grats on thirty-three thousand postsjesus
(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff156/siamesedreamer7/Birth-Death_220k_May.jpg)
roffles
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff156/siamesedreamer7/Birth-Death_220k_May.jpg
roffles
This turn into a blog now?
boo, mandark
triumph posts stuff all the time which he snags from andrew sullivan
Stoney Mason is a name I remember, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I think it's a good thing
This turn into a blog now?
Now blogging is a medium with unreasonably strict standards of professionalism? Really? Blogging?Quote from: Eric Pboo, mandark
triumph posts stuff all the time which he snags from andrew sullivan
If he doesn't link or cite a source, he should catch some shit for it. It's just good manners and how hard is c/ping?
Anyway, it's a pretty lolzy link. The guy is trying to do econometrics by anecdote, and he is shocked, shocked to find the leisure & hospitality industry added a lot of jobs in May.
Does anyone here not understand why hotels, theme parks, boardwalks et al add a bunch of jobs in late spring and then shed them during the fall?
"The notion that we are just one of many among equals is nonsense," Huckabee said. The United States is a "blessed" nation, he said, calling American revolutionaries' defeat of the British empire "a miracle from God's hand."
Quote"The notion that we are just one of many among equals is nonsense," Huckabee said. The United States is a "blessed" nation, he said, calling American revolutionaries' defeat of the British empire "a miracle from God's hand."
fucking paganism
so i guess god was on the side of the terrorists on 9/11?
thanks, god
dick
Quote"The notion that we are just one of many among equals is nonsense," Huckabee said. The United States is a "blessed" nation, he said, calling American revolutionaries' defeat of the British empire "a miracle from God's hand."
fucking paganism
Quit lying, you know God talk from the Huck-ster gets yer homeskoold panties in a bunch.
Someone should ask Gingrich what he meant by paganism; like, examples plz
Why does Newt get all this face time anyway, who cares what he thinks?
Why does Newt get all this face time anyway, who cares what he thinks?who else would talk? there are no tv-friendly elected republicans out there.
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/06/huckabee-gingrich-urge-political-engagement-va-beach
"I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history," Gingrich said. "We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism."
...
"The notion that we are just one of many among equals is nonsense," Huckabee said. The United States is a "blessed" nation, he said, calling American revolutionaries' defeat of the British empire "a miracle from God's hand."
...
"I am not a citizen of the world," said Gingrich, who was first elected to the U.S. House from Georgia in 1978 and served as speaker from 1995 to 1999. "I am a citizen of the United States because only in the United States does citizenship start with our creator."
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/ (http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/)
One of the darkest days in the history of the United States. The repercussions from this will be felt as long as this country exists. Fuck Obama.
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/ (http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/)
One of the darkest days in the history of the United States. The repercussions from this will be felt as long as this country exists. Fuck Obama.
Senate GOP's Reaction To Sotomayor Hearings: We'll Have To Review 76 Cases Per Day
By Eric Kleefeld - June 9, 2009, 5:18PM
The Senate Republican Communications Center has put out a new objection to the scheduled hearings for Sonia Sotomayor: That this schedule represents a double standard compared to the time it took for John Roberts' hearings to begin, because it means Republicans will have to review 76 of her cases per day, beginning from the day when the nomination was announced, to be ready on the day the hearings are supposed to begin.
The key here is that Sotomayor has spent a lot longer on the bench than Roberts did. Roberts had a total of 327 cases, to be reviewed in 55 days before his hearings -- about six per day. Sotomayor has 3,625 cases, to be reviewed in 48 days, working out to a ratio of about 76.
Now hold on a second, the math can get even trickier from here.
I did some number-crunching, and it turns out that in order to get to the same per-case ratio as Roberts, then the hearings would have to start 610 days after the initial nomination -- or a year and half from the current scheduled date. If we waited for September, which Republicans have called for, that would bring the ratio down to about 34 cases reviewed per day.
So how long do Republicans want?
"I think a lot of people on both sides of the aisle have acknowledged that Senate Republicans have approached this process in a very fair way," said Senate Republican Communications Center spokesman John Ashbrook, in a phone call with TPM. "And from the beginning we've been asking for one thing really, and that's an opportunity to review the record in a thorough way. And I think a lot of Democrats have agreed with us."
I asked again what ratio they'd be looking for. "A thorough review is what we're looking for," Ashbrook explained. "Putting a number on it is not as important as opportunity to throughly review the record."
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/ (http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/)smh. Didn't actually read the article?
One of the darkest days in the history of the United States. The repercussions from this will be felt as long as this country exists. Fuck Obama.
With the company losing an estimated $100 million a day, with tens of thousands of workers’ jobs said to be in jeopardy, and with no other rescuer on the horizon
Fiat gets a one-fifth block of ownership, but cannot seek a controlling share until the governments are paid back.
George H Bush trading up from Martha ;):lol
(http://xs940.xs.to/xs940/09243/picture_1553.png)
martha?
After further investigation it appears to go both ways...
(http://xs140.xs.to/xs140/09242/picture_2541.png)
HANNITY: The price of oil is going up again. It’s not quite at $140 a barrel, but it’s certainly on its way up to $70 and $80.
PALIN: Yeah, well and I thank God it’s not at $140. You know people say, “Hey, Alaska! Eight-five percent of your state budget is based on the price of a barrel of oil. Aren’t you glad the price is going up?” I say, “No!” The fewer dollars that the state of Alaska government has, the fewer dollars we spend. And that’s good for our families and for the private sector.
Republicans: Sotomayor is so experienced it's unfair :'(QuoteSenate GOP's Reaction To Sotomayor Hearings: We'll Have To Review 76 Cases Per Day
My God. The Supreme Court allowed a company to sell its assets to another company. This is one of the darkest days in American history, worse than Pearl Harbor, Antietam, the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and Lincoln, and 9/11. Obama.... why did you allow this to happen, you insidious Negro.
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/ (http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/)
One of the darkest days in the history of the United States. The repercussions from this will be felt as long as this country exists. Fuck Obama.
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/ (http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/court-clears-chrysler-sale/)
One of the darkest days in the history of the United States. The repercussions from this will be felt as long as this country exists. Fuck Obama.
:lol
Someone needs to make a hyperventilating/inhaler smiley.
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/06/huckabee-gingrich-urge-political-engagement-va-beach
"I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history," Gingrich said. "We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism."
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06/09/world/worldwatch/entry5076128.shtml
Seriously?
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06/09/world/worldwatch/entry5076128.shtml
Seriously?
Stupid people exist all over the world. We shouldn't pretend that Isreal is somehow exempt from this condition.
Contessa Brewer versus John Ziegler over David Letterman
rolls eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yja1A5_VHic&fmt=18
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06/09/world/worldwatch/entry5076128.shtml
Seriously?
Stupid people exist all over the world. We shouldn't pretend that Isreal is somehow exempt from this condition.
I think the problem is that even though Jews are probably the most reliably liberal segment of society, even regarding Israel, and the Israel are a minority, this overwhelming majority of American-Jews and Israelis seemed cowed into being a silent majority, letting only the worst to have a voice.
Make Israel and Palestine into one country.
With the name as Israel and the Star of David still on the flag.
It'll actually be a Muslim majority in the country though and then EVERYBODY would be pissed off. Perfect compromise.
Isn't that what Israel was a few years ago. That made Palestinians so upset.Actually I forgot the real population estimates, it still wouldn't be a Muslim majority but they would be a large minority to the point where politicians couldn't totally appeal to one religious demographic. In the end, the government in that area couldn't be very "religious" and that probably would reduce the tension.
Someone make a list of all the conservatives who've complained about Letterman's Palin joke, cause those people are not allowed to bitch about political correctness anymore.
Isn't that what Israel was a few years ago. That made Palestinians so upset.Actually I forgot the real population estimates, it still wouldn't be a Muslim majority but they would be a large minority to the point where politicians couldn't totally appeal to one religious demographic. In the end, the government in that area couldn't be very "religious" and that probably would reduce the tension.
Contessa Brewer versus John Ziegler over David Letterman
rolls eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yja1A5_VHic&fmt=18
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) put out a scathing statement blasting David Letterman who joked about her visit to Yankee stadium and said Palin's daughter got "knocked up" by Alex Rodriguez.http://politicalwire.com/
Said Palin: "Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands -- that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others."
It's interesting that Palin's statement assumes Letterman was referring to the governor's 14-year-old and not her older unmarried daughter who recently gave birth to a son.
I'm not sure if this is pertinent to the conversation at large, but former pro wrestling manager Jim Cornette destroyed a current wrestling announcer who is a right wing nutjob. It is insane. :nsfw for language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21uRDdMMznM
Our marxist president is in the Middle East apologizing for for the USA and snubbing Israel. The disgrace continues.
The (Catholic) University of Notre Dame should be ashamed of themselves for having pro-abortion President Obama speak at their graduation.
My God. The Supreme Court allowed a company to sell its assets to another company. This is one of the darkest days in American history, worse than Pearl Harbor, Antietam, the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and Lincoln, and 9/11. Obama.... why did you allow this to happen, you insidious Negro.
Yes, its all because Obama's black. Nevermind the fact that this deal has destroyed 150 years of established contract law by subjugating secured creditors to unsecured creditors through the use threats by the President of the United States. As an added bonus, he may have even violated the 5th amendment.
Kinda makes you want to go out tomorrow and load up on corporate bonds doesn't it?
How is he leftist? I don't get this.
Does thinking Obama isn't an american citizen because of OMGZ BIRTH CERTIFICATE and hates blacks = leftist?
How is he leftist? I don't get this.
Does thinking Obama isn't an american citizen because of OMGZ BIRTH CERTIFICATE and hates blacks = leftist?
"everything bad is on the left"
-literally the current philosophy of today's conservatives
Gov. Sarah Palin told The Today Show this morning that she continues to be offended by David Letterman's joke "about the statutory rape of my 14 year-old daughter." Interviewed by Matt Lauer, Palin referred to Letterman as a "so-called comedian" and said his humor "erodes a young girl's self esteem."
Meawhile, last night on the Late Show, Letterman made one joke in his opening monologue about the ongoing controversy, saying, "I think everything's fine now: She called and offered to take me hunting."
Palin's remark to The Today Show suggests she still doesn't get the idea that Letterman's self-admittedly "cheap" joke -- that during a Yankees game, "her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez" -- had nothing to do with rape, nor was she buying Letterman's premise that he wasn't referring to 14 year-old Willow but to 18 year-old Bristol. Lauer cited a remark from Palin's spokesperson: "It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman." "Are you suggesting David Letterman can't be trusted around a 14 year-old?" Lauer asked. "Take it the way you want to take it," said Palin. "It's from the heart." Lauer then asked, "But is that [comment] also not in bad taste?" "No, it's not," said Palin.
"It would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman." "Are you suggesting David Letterman can't be trusted around a 14 year-old?" Lauer asked. "Take it the way you want to take it," said Palin. "It's from the heart." Lauer then asked, "But is that [comment] also not in bad taste?" "No, it's not," said Palin.goddam she is fucking dense. I like how she then goes off later in the interview about how "the candidate who must be obeyed" called family stuff off-limits, and proclaims a double-standard.
She's essentially handing the 2012 nomination to Pawlenty. Her publicity whoring would be funny if not for how the media laps it up. Thank god nothing of more importance is happening in the world. >:(Pawlenty? hah he won't win. My money is on Romney.
Palin must get her playbook from old episodes of Springer.
With populist, libertarian, conservative and Republican strands, the Tea Party effort evokes memories of the 1992 third-party movement sparked by Ross Perot. That, too, tapped fears about taxation, deficit spending and the national debt.
And on the subject of government, it reflected one emotion in ample supply among the tea partiers: Anger.
"I feel very strongly about this, more strongly than I ever felt about politics in my life," said Jim Chiodo, 64, of Holland. He plans to attend the convention as well.
"There is a silent majority that wants to make its voice be known," said Oom, 50.
(referring to Coulter and Fox Newsites)As a group, they are the pop culture equivalent of necrotic carrion beetles, crawling with insectile determination from one infected open wound in the American psyche to another. The wounds include fear of race, fear of foreigners, fear of sexuality, fear of difference, hysterical religious fundamentalism, violent nationalism, and paranoia. They lay their eggs in the infected abrasion, then scuttle away. When the eggs hatch, disgorging rage and discontent, they start counting money.
At a town hall meeting, McCain was confronted by an elderly woman who told McCain that she was a supporter of his because Obama was "an Arab." McCain was clearly uncomfortable, and it was patently obvious why. It had nothing to do with McCain's feelings about Arabs. It had to do with an old-school Republican accidentally moving the rock, and coming face to face with what actually lived beneath it. He recognized that the woman was making an unambiguously racist statement about his opponent, and he was mortified to be asked to answer it. Even though McCain famously and horribly bungled his answer ("No ma'am, he isn't. He's a decent family man.") I knew when he meant. He was addressing the intended racial slur and disavowing it, however badly.
Sarah "Screw the Political Correctness" Palin, on the other hand, seemed right at home. She marched into those same crowds grinning and winking, and "Yoo betcha-ing" like she was onstage at the Miss Alaska pageant. While her supporters waved watermelon slices and stuffed monkeys, Palin talked about who the "real Americans" were, and who was "palling around with terrorists." She refused to address the blatant racism of her fans, or address the obvious exploitation of Obama's middle name, Hussein, and the implication she herself was making with her "terrorist" comments.
She was, after all, playing to the accurately-named Republican "base," the same crowd to whom George Bush had sold his second presidential term by pandering to their darkest and most cowardly aspect. This time out it was fear of gay marriage and adoption, carefully tended fear of another 9/11, fear of more fallout from a war they still didn't believe he'd lied about.
I hope to god she gets the nomination in 2012. Just so we can have a "true republican" get stomped to put that meme to bed...at least temporarily
Thus, Sotomayor got into Princeton, got her No. 1 ranking, was whisked into Yale Law School and made editor of the Yale Law Review -- all because she was a Hispanic woman. And those two Ivy League institutions cheated more deserving students of what they had worked a lifetime to achieve, for reasons of race, gender or ethnicity.
This is bigotry pure and simple. To salve their consciences for past societal sins, the Ivy League is deep into discrimination again, this time with white males as victims rather than as beneficiaries.
One prefers the old bigotry. At least it was honest, and not, as Abraham Lincoln observed, adulterated "with the base alloy of hypocrisy."
I hope to god she gets the nomination in 2012. Just so we can have a "true republican" get stomped to put that meme to bed...at least temporarilyThe base can't be that stupid. And she isn't helping herself. All the stuff she has been doing has been that of a celebrity like a Paris Hilton or something, not a politician.
She doesn't care. It's like she has surrounded herself with people who think she's the best thing ever, think the McCain campaign fucked up by having her on a leash, etc...so now they think it's best to let her run wild and give Real America hope.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)_presidential_primaries,_2012
So Iowa, NH, SC, and Nevada will be the first locations of primaries. The gay marriage debate makes social issues key in Iowa, and SC is...SC. So that's two states where a fundamentalist social values blowhard will probably take center stage.
But will the first person who wins multiple states become the de facto candidate, or will this thing drag out until the very end? Who knows.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/12/george-hw-bush-skydiving_n_214973.htmlGeorge HW Bush is a cool dude.
:lol
awesome
Head of a Minuteman group defends America from 9yo Mexican girl. (http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=10526106)
So, how many people have been killed by right-wing shooters so far this year? 9?
The personal financial reports, due late last week from members of Congress, show that many lawmakers hold investments in insurance, pharmaceutical and prescription-benefit companies and in hospital interests, all of which would be affected by the administration’s overhaul of health care.
Remember when the DHS report came out and you saw people say, "HOW DARE YOU INSULT OUR VETERANS" and then within months veterans shot some people, including one who was 88 years old? Yeah.But wasn't that report specifically talking about NEW veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq being recruited into hate groups?
Which is a valid point, as bad as it may be. Being at the front lines of a war fucks with your head, look at what happened to a lot of Vietnam vets.Remember when the DHS report came out and you saw people say, "HOW DARE YOU INSULT OUR VETERANS" and then within months veterans shot some people, including one who was 88 years old? Yeah.But wasn't that report specifically talking about NEW veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq being recruited into hate groups?
The Take
For Republicans, the Forces Aren't With Them
By Dan Balz
Sunday, June 14, 2009
There has been much chatter about who now speaks for the Republican Party, and whether the GOP has a message or an agenda to combat President Obama's popularity. Those questions are important to the party's future, but the most serious problem remains the deeper demographic and political forces at work in the country.
For the past few months, political analysts and demographers have been poring over the results of the 2008 election and comparing them with presidential results from the past two decades. From whatever angle of their approach -- age, race, economic status, geography -- they have come to a remarkably similar conclusion. Almost all indicators are pressing the Republicans into minority status.
Republicans are still capable of winning individual elections, but until they find a way to reverse, or at least minimize, these broader changes in the country, their chances of returning to majority status will be severely reduced.
The American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution convened a stellar cast on Friday to review what has been learned since November. The panel included Robert Lang of Virginia Tech; Ruy Teixeira of the Center for American Progress; William Frey of the Brookings Institution; Bill Bishop, a Texas writer and author of "The Big Sort"; Scott Keeter of the Pew Research Center; and Ronald Brownstein of Atlantic Media. They presented a wealth of data about what happened in 2008 and offered conclusions that would alarm any Republican hopeful of a quick turnaround in the party's fortunes.
Democrats have won the popular vote in four of the past five elections, though in one case (2000) they did not end up in the White House. In years in which they have also won the electoral vote, Democrats have racked up sizable margins. Obama bested John McCain by 365 to 173, and Bill Clinton's two victories were in the same range. George W. Bush's two electoral-college victories were narrow; he won 271 votes in the disputed election of 2000 and 286 in his 2004 reelection.
What has brought this about? It's not just one thing -- it's everything. Start with the Democrats' success in the suburbs. Lang's formula is that demography and density have combined to help Democrats: They dominate not just the cities but also the urbanized suburbs that contain the largest share of the suburban population in America.
Democratic strength in the counties around Philadelphia, around Detroit and in Northern Virginia have squeezed Republicans dramatically. Increasingly, Republican strength outside the urban areas counts for less. "There's just not enough rural folks and small-city people left in America in the key states that determine the electoral college to offset that difference," Lang said. "You're out of people."
That's one geographical reality. The other, which became acute in 2008, is that outside the South, Republicans are in trouble. McCain won the South in November, but Obama swept the rest of the country by an even bigger margin. The same pattern holds now for House and Senate seats. Republicans may continue to win governorships in Democratic-leaning states, but in congressional and presidential elections the geographic divides are sizable.
Brownstein reeled off a list of statistics that all arrived at the same place: The South now accounts for a greater share of Republican strength than at virtually any time since the party's founding. That base is too narrow, as even Republicans know.
Demographically, the forces at work have chipped away at what was once a GOP-leaning majority in the country. The most important is minorities' rising share of the vote. Whites accounted for 76 percent of the overall electorate last November, down from 85 percent in 1988.
In the last election, there were more than 2 million additional African American voters, about 2 million more Hispanic voters and about a million more Asian American voters. All are groups in which Obama increased the Democratic share of the vote over 2004. Frey estimated that minority voters in nine states made the difference in Obama's victory margin.
Republicans can't reverse the demographic trends; their only solution is to increase their share of the minority vote. Opposing Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Obama's Supreme Court nominee, because of her pride in being a Latina won't help solve that problem.
There was much attention paid to Obama's trouble winning the votes of white working-class voters. The bad news for Republicans is that these voters represent a declining share of the electorate.
Since 1988, that group's proportion of the national electorate has dropped by 15 percentage points. In Pennsylvania, Teixeira reported, it has declined by 25 percentage points. Teixeira reported that Obama actually won the votes of working-class whites ages 25 to 29; at this point, they appear more culturally liberal than their elders.
As the working-class vote shrinks, the college-educated vote increases, and Democrats are gaining a greater share of these voters. Democrats lost white college graduates by 20 percentage points in 1988 but by four points last November. That is another big reason they have gained strength in the suburbs.
Obama's strength among young voters was a staple of coverage throughout his bid for the White House, although as Keeter pointed out, he could have won in November without the votes of anyone younger than 30. But his margin was the biggest in several decades and that alone should worry Republicans.
Obama may appeal to younger voters, but their shift toward the Democrats predates his candidacy. "This really is not Obama," Keeter said. "Young voters were John Kerry's best age group. They were the Democratic candidates' best age group in the 2006 elections, and they were the best age group for other Democratic candidates in 2008."
Younger voters are more diverse demographically than older voters. In 2008, 62 percent were white, compared with 74 percent eight years earlier. Projections show young voters will become increasingly diverse. They are also less religious and more culturally liberal, two indicators of Democratic support.
GOP strategist Mike Murphy described this in Time magazine as a coming Republican ice age. Republicans will need a major shift to begin to reverse these trends. That could start if there is a backlash against Obama's governance -- and the president's agenda certainly will test the country's tolerance for a big dose of government. But Republicans will need to retool in other ways to make themselves more appealing to a changing population. That debate has barely begun.
Don't dems have more house seats to defend in 2010 than republicans? for the senate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2010
Don't dems have more house seats to defend in 2010 than republicans? for the senateThere is nothing to worry about with the House. The house rarely changes power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2010
http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001840/he compared a white supremist to a black studies major? lol
anarchists (extreme right)
More vitriol from the right, defending their queen's persecution complex
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/06/video_rabid_letterman_protesto.html (http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/06/video_rabid_letterman_protesto.html)
"rapes children with his mouth."
wat
edit: holy shit she looks like a white twin of Lynne Thigpen
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/galeninjapan/gm.jpg)(http://blog.jempp.com.au/uploaded_images/I%27m-wirh-stupid-slogan-tee-768965.jpg)
Wrote Sanford: "I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before - so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know... In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul."http://www.thestate.com/sanford/story/839350.html
Emails revealedQuoteWrote Sanford: "I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before - so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know... In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul."http://www.thestate.com/sanford/story/839350.html
far more articulate than the Kwame Kilpatrick texts :lol
Emails revealedQuoteWrote Sanford: "I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before - so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know... In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul."http://www.thestate.com/sanford/story/839350.html
far more articulate than the Kwame Kilpatrick texts :lol
Emails revealedQuoteWrote Sanford: "I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before - so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know... In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul."http://www.thestate.com/sanford/story/839350.html
far more articulate than the Kwame Kilpatrick texts :lol
Damn, my panties just dropped
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/limbaugh-on-the-sanford-affair-its-obamas-fault.php?ref=fpa
:lol :lol :lol
Rush should post on EB
Did he really mean to suggest that a GOP politician sought refuge in Argentina based on his political beliefs?
Isn't that a self-inflicted Godwin violation?
Has anyone else here registered to the White House youtube channel? I had no idea Obama did weekly addresses.President's have been doing those forever. Since FDR I believe. Obama though is the first one to have them be primarily as youtube addresses, before it was only radio.
Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.
So, when will her Fox News show start?
please let the sanford-palin sex tape surface
pleeeeeease
The actual resignation.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACKm0AwStA8&fmt=18[/youtube]
I don't really see how anyone can be surprised. Palin does better with the public playing the martyr than she does holding a public office.
On Sarah Palin
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Friday, July 3rd at 5:31PM EDT
22 Comments
Well, Nicolle Wallace, Andrew Sullivan, and the left can claim a scalp today.
Sarah Palin has been the subject of vicious, vile attacks. Her family and key staff have all been driven to the verge of financial ruin by relentless legal attacks that are routinely thrown out, but still must be offended.
Her children are routinely attacked and turned into the butt of late night jokes by left wing comedians.
I’d want the target off my back and my kids’ backs too.
Sarah Palin will not be President in 2012. She will not run for President. She will not run for any elected office ever again.
The political pundits who are saying she couldn’t take the heat, so she got out of the kitchen, may have found a winning cliche to apply, but then no one has faced the heat Sarah Palin has been subjected to, largely at the hands of the political pundits now dragging out that cliche.
Of course, now she’ll be a great position to be a voice for the GOP, but with no further political ambitions, she’ll largely be able to mitigate attacks from opponents within the GOP.
UPDATE: To get a few people off the ledge and avoid some suicides around here, let me point out that this is my opinion of the situation given what we know.
I’m sure Sarah Palin is not done with politics, but I am equally sure she is done with elected politics. By removing all doubt that she is done with elected politics, she can be much more effective at helping other Republicans get into politics without overly ambitious potential 2012 rivals seeking to hurt her, her family, and those politicians she helps.
To pull out a favorite line of yesteryear, suck it up.
lol at redstateQuoteOn Sarah Palin
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Friday, July 3rd at 5:31PM EDT
22 Comments
Well, Nicolle Wallace, Andrew Sullivan, and the left can claim a scalp today.
Sarah Palin has been the subject of vicious, vile attacks. Her family and key staff have all been driven to the verge of financial ruin by relentless legal attacks that are routinely thrown out, but still must be offended.
Her children are routinely attacked and turned into the butt of late night jokes by left wing comedians.
I’d want the target off my back and my kids’ backs too.
Sarah Palin will not be President in 2012. She will not run for President. She will not run for any elected office ever again.
The political pundits who are saying she couldn’t take the heat, so she got out of the kitchen, may have found a winning cliche to apply, but then no one has faced the heat Sarah Palin has been subjected to, largely at the hands of the political pundits now dragging out that cliche.
Of course, now she’ll be a great position to be a voice for the GOP, but with no further political ambitions, she’ll largely be able to mitigate attacks from opponents within the GOP.
UPDATE: To get a few people off the ledge and avoid some suicides around here, let me point out that this is my opinion of the situation given what we know.
I’m sure Sarah Palin is not done with politics, but I am equally sure she is done with elected politics. By removing all doubt that she is done with elected politics, she can be much more effective at helping other Republicans get into politics without overly ambitious potential 2012 rivals seeking to hurt her, her family, and those politicians she helps.
To pull out a favorite line of yesteryear, suck it up.
Greta Van Susteren and John Ziegler are probably on a 24 hour suicide watch by now. Oh what I'd pay to watch that.
This is a good day.I disagree. A Palin nomination would be an easy general election for Obama.
This is a good day.I disagree. A Palin nomination would be an easy general election for Obama.
This is a good day for only one person, Mitt Romney. Yet another potential primary opponent of his has seemingly imploded.
willco: the white phoenixdark
I really do think she's a narcissist, and I don't mean that as an insult, but as a clinical term to describe a personal who has a serious personality disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder).
http://www.palinis45.com/That made me curious to check on Hillaryis44. It has become basically FreeRepublic with articles praising John Boehner and congressional Republicans.
According to the nationwide poll, close to 67% of Republicans want Palin to be "a major national political figure" in the future. And 71% of them say they would likely vote for her if she ran for president in 2012.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl435QuoteAccording to the nationwide poll, close to 67% of Republicans want Palin to be "a major national political figure" in the future. And 71% of them say they would likely vote for her if she ran for president in 2012.
(http://i32.tinypic.com/ve0oba.jpg)
Unexpected, if not surprising. Scary though.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl435That is great news. You should be cheering this news. We should WANT the Republicans to nominate her. Her name is toxic among independents.QuoteAccording to the nationwide poll, close to 67% of Republicans want Palin to be "a major national political figure" in the future. And 71% of them say they would likely vote for her if she ran for president in 2012.
(http://i32.tinypic.com/ve0oba.jpg)
Unexpected, if not surprising. Scary though.
Its never enough money though isn't it?
siamesedreamer seems to have, um, whatever you call the Midas touch when things turn to shit instead of gold.
siamesedreamer seems to have, um, whatever you call the Midas touch when things turn to shit instead of gold.
Falls in love with Palin and she's out of a job within a year.
Falls in love with Mark Sanford and he's hiking the Appalachian trail.
Praises Newt Gingrich as a Man of Ideas, only to see Gingrich incinerated by a homofascist (http://www.newsmax.com/politics/Gingrich_Gay_Fascism/2008/11/18/152539.html), pagan (http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/newt-gingrich-we-are-living-period-wher) space laser (http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/05/gingrich-laser-fantasy/).
Lives in Georgia, and Georgia sucks (http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/23094.html).
On the upside, he did save the bond market by predicting an imminent explosion in interest rates. So he's got that going for him.
The United States' top fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces, confidential Pentagon test results show.
The aircraft's radar-absorbing metallic skin is the principal cause of its maintenance troubles, with unexpected shortcomings -- such as vulnerability to rain and other abrasion -- challenging Air Force and contractor technicians since the mid-1990s, according to Pentagon officials, internal documents and a former engineer.
While most aircraft fleets become easier and less costly to repair as they mature, key maintenance trends for the F-22 have been negative in recent years, and on average from October last year to this May, just 55 percent of the deployed F-22 fleet has been available to fulfill missions guarding U.S. airspace, the Defense Department acknowledged this week. The F-22 has never been flown over Iraq or Afghanistan.
...
"It is a disgrace that you can fly a plane [an average of] only 1.7 hours before it gets a critical failure" that jeopardizes success of the aircraft's mission, said a Defense Department critic of the plane who is not authorized to speak on the record. Other skeptics inside the Pentagon note that the planes, designed 30 years ago to combat a Cold War adversary, have cost an average of $350 million apiece and say they are not a priority in the age of small wars and terrorist threats.
...
A spokeswoman for Lockheed added that the F-22 has "unmatched capabilities, sustainability and affordability" and that any problems are being resolved in close coordination with the Air Force.
...
Darrol Olsen, a specialist in stealth coatings who worked at Lockheed's testing laboratory in Marietta, Ga., from 1995 to 1999, said the current troubles are unsurprising. In a lawsuit filed under seal in 2007, he charged the company with violating the False Claims Act for ordering and using coatings that it knew were defective while hiding the failings from the Air Force.
...
The plane's million-dollar radar-absorbing canopy has also caused problems, with a stuck hatch imprisoning a pilot for hours in 2006 and engineers unable to extend the canopy's lifespan beyond about 18 months of flying time. It delaminates, "loses its strength and finish," said an official privy to Air Force data.
In the interview, Ahern and Air Force Gen. C.D. Moore confirmed that canopy visibility has been declining more rapidly than expected, with brown spots and peeling forcing $120,000 refurbishments at 331 hours of flying time, on average, instead of the stipulated 800 hours.
...
When Gates decided this spring to spend $785 million on four more planes and then end production of the F-22, he also kept alive an $8 billion improvement effort. It will, among other things, give F-22 pilots the ability to communicate with other types of warplanes; it currently is the only such warplane to lack that capability.
...
One of the last four planes Gates supported buying is meant to replace an F-22 that crashed during a test flight north of Los Angeles on March 25, during his review of the program. The Air Force has declined to discuss the cause, but a classified internal accident report completed the following month states that the plane flew into the ground after poorly executing a high-speed run with its weapons-bay doors open, according to three government officials familiar with its contents. The Lockheed test pilot died.
Several sources said the flight was part of a bid to make the F-22 relevant to current conflicts by giving it a capability to conduct precision bombing raids, not just aerial dogfights. The Air Force is still probing who should be held accountable for the accident.
If you go back enough years, maybe so.
The current level of military spending is so high because we're in Iraq. Reduce it to pre-war levels, keep the military edge over China and Russia. Maintain R&D to maintain superiority, and at the same time reduce upkeep costs, fuel use, expense, and thus increase efficiency.
Johnston also is pursuing his own book deal. He is working as a carpenter while also pursuing a movie deal.
hey look the f22 is a broken pile of military-industrial wank, who knew
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/09/AR2009070903020_4.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009071001019
but we need this for freedom :usacry
For an example of something blatantly ghostwritten, check out "Mike Huckabee's" Foreign Policy piece (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/12/americas_priorities_in_the_war.html). "Tsarist history is a case study in the struggle between westernizers and Slavophiles." You said it, Huck.
My roommates wanna see Obama hanged because he 'lied' to the entire country. :'(
looks like they finally found obama's kenya birth certificate:
http://assets.236.com/images/photo2/3363/original/original.jpg
“A man younger than 30 who’s not a liberal has no heart and a man older than 30 who’s not a conservative has no brain” - Winston Churchill.
Fear mongering from a conservative site? I never would have guessed.
50 years from now you could talk to your grand kids about how fought against all the nice things they have now when you were younger. ;)
You could say things like:
"back in my day, we paid out the ass for health care."
"back in my day, I thought all those scientists were full of shit about climate change and was against the mean ol' government for putting carbon restrictions on companies to force them to get more efficient. Boy is my face red about that."
I would rather have my grand kids "saddled with debt" then have them live in a ruined, toxic environment.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106677783
Currently yea, but doesn't Obama want a bill that doesn't mandate people (not talking about businesses) buy into the plan? The bill isn't final
I get so frustrated reading babble like that - it's difficult for me to muster the energy to reply. So I will wait for Mandark to do it for me.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000003168293
So when the bill is revised for the billionth time and shows that it cuts costs, will you support it? I'm guessing the answer is no ;)
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved its draft bill Wednesday, and Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., the acting chairman of that panel, said his panel had reduced the initial price tag of its bill as estimated by the CBO. “I’m very confident we can meet the president’s goal of having a fully paid-for 10 year program on health care right around $1 trillion,” he said.
That looks like an outright lie.
Where did you get any of those numbers from ganhyun? Carbon tax is probably not going to have a significant effect on electricity costs since we'll probably be on a mostly nuclear grid by then.
And 2 liters can easily be bought for under a dollar.
Let me fix this.
Back in my day, we didn't have to wait 6 months to go to the doctor for a routine physical.
Let me fix this.
Back in my day, we didn't have to wait 6 months to go to the doctor for a routine physical.
I don't get this complaint. Even if that manages to occur, last I checked, wasn't this a public option? If you hate the inefficient system run by the gubment, then can't you just simply go to one of the hundreds of private plans?
Where did you get any of those numbers from ganhyun? Carbon tax is probably not going to have a significant effect on electricity costs since we'll probably be on a mostly nuclear grid by then.
And 2 liters can easily be bought for under a dollar.
To be honest, my reply to Zero was me talking out of my ass in a snarky way to him since he responded to me that way :)
Though I'm not sure how quick America will be to adopt nuclear power as the main source of electrical power.
Fear mongering from a conservative site? I never would have guessed.
50 years from now you could talk to your grand kids about how fought against all the nice things they have now when you were younger. ;)
You could say things like:
"back in my day, we paid out the ass for health care."
"back in my day, I thought all those scientists were full of shit about climate change and was against the mean ol' government for putting carbon restrictions on companies to force them to get more efficient. Boy is my face red about that."
I would rather have my grand kids "saddled with debt" then have them live in a ruined, toxic environment.
Let me fix this.
Back in my day, we didn't have to wait 6 months to go to the doctor for a routine physical.
Back in my day, before the carbon credit tax was imposed on us, our light bills were only around 75-150 dollars a month instead of the 750 now. Too bad only the biggest companies around could survive and now have no competition whatsoever.
Back in my day, a coke was $1 to 1.35 for a bottle instead of $15 now.
I would honestly rather my grandkids be able to actually eat something besides ramen noodles and saltine crackers.
But hey, since you Liberals want to be so far in debt, why not pass a law and give you guys some of these services you so desperately want now and only you guys get to use them? That way conservatives don't have to worry about it and you get what you want.
Or you could just give me your credit card/bank account info and I'll give you that debt you want for free. :)
But hey, since you Liberals want to be so far in debt, why not pass a law and give you guys some of these services you so desperately want now and only you guys get to use them? That way conservatives don't have to worry about it and you get what you want.
But hey, since you Liberals want to be so far in debt, why not pass a law and give you guys some of these services you so desperately want now and only you guys get to use them? That way conservatives don't have to worry about it and you get what you want.
If you want things to be different, how about you guys win an election?
A buncha smug smilies
Fear mongering from a conservative site? I never would have guessed.
50 years from now you could talk to your grand kids about how fought against all the nice things they have now when you were younger. ;)
You could say things like:
"back in my day, we paid out the ass for health care."
"back in my day, I thought all those scientists were full of shit about climate change and was against the mean ol' government for putting carbon restrictions on companies to force them to get more efficient. Boy is my face red about that."
I would rather have my grand kids "saddled with debt" then have them live in a ruined, toxic environment.
Let me fix this.
Back in my day, we didn't have to wait 6 months to go to the doctor for a routine physical.
Back in my day, before the carbon credit tax was imposed on us, our light bills were only around 75-150 dollars a month instead of the 750 now. Too bad only the biggest companies around could survive and now have no competition whatsoever.
Back in my day, a coke was $1 to 1.35 for a bottle instead of $15 now.
I would honestly rather my grandkids be able to actually eat something besides ramen noodles and saltine crackers.
But hey, since you Liberals want to be so far in debt, why not pass a law and give you guys some of these services you so desperately want now and only you guys get to use them? That way conservatives don't have to worry about it and you get what you want.
Or you could just give me your credit card/bank account info and I'll give you that debt you want for free. :)
But Obama's proposals as part of the national debt are nothing compared to TARP, prescription drug benefit, Iraq war, and 6 years of Bush tax cuts. TARP is the only one of those things not to cost over a trillion dollars. Not to blame it all on Bush, but if the national debt is truly what destroys this country then only a fool would knee-jerk blame "liberals", whatever that is.
Never mind the secret tax that is skyrocketing health insurance premiums for the last 20-30 years.
But hey, since you Liberals want to be so far in debt, why not pass a law and give you guys some of these services you so desperately want now and only you guys get to use them? That way conservatives don't have to worry about it and you get what you want.
If you want things to be different, how about you guys win an election?:smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug
Washington, D.C. -- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released estimates this evening confirming for the first time that H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, is deficit neutral over the 10-year budget window – and even produces a $6 billion surplus. CBO estimated more than $550 billion in gross Medicare and Medicaid savings. More importantly, the bill includes a comprehensive array of delivery reforms to set the stage for lowering the future growth in health care costs.http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/104xx/doc10464/hr3200.pdf
Net Medicare and Medicaid savings of $465 billion, coupled with the $583 billion revenue package reported today by the House Committee on Ways and Means, fully finance the previously estimated $1.042 trillion cost of reform, which will provide affordable health care coverage for 97% of Americans.
"This fulfills the strong commitment of the President and House leadership to enact health reform on a deficit-neutral basis," said Chairman Henry A. Waxman, Chairman Charles B. Rangel, and Chairman George Miller. "The reforms included in this legislation will help control health care costs and expand access to quality, affordable coverage to all Americans in a fiscally-responsible manner."
GanhyunQuoteWashington, D.C. -- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released estimates this evening confirming for the first time that H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, is deficit neutral over the 10-year budget window – and even produces a $6 billion surplus. CBO estimated more than $550 billion in gross Medicare and Medicaid savings. More importantly, the bill includes a comprehensive array of delivery reforms to set the stage for lowering the future growth in health care costs.http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/104xx/doc10464/hr3200.pdf
Net Medicare and Medicaid savings of $465 billion, coupled with the $583 billion revenue package reported today by the House Committee on Ways and Means, fully finance the previously estimated $1.042 trillion cost of reform, which will provide affordable health care coverage for 97% of Americans.
"This fulfills the strong commitment of the President and House leadership to enact health reform on a deficit-neutral basis," said Chairman Henry A. Waxman, Chairman Charles B. Rangel, and Chairman George Miller. "The reforms included in this legislation will help control health care costs and expand access to quality, affordable coverage to all Americans in a fiscally-responsible manner."
In the bill, Democrats provide $245 billion to eliminate an annual shortfall in payments to doctors under Medicare. Democrats resolved this annual headache, in large part, to win crucial support for the bill from the American Medical Association. That money currently counts against the overall costs of the bill, but Democrats have introduced legislation that would remove this obligation from federal deficit. However, CBO won't recognize that change until those new pay-as-you-go rules become law.
Read further in the link and you'll see they're trying to pretend away significant costs:
Funny, I remember the same people being upset that Bush pretended away Iraq costs.
Because profiting off the illness of others is morally reprehensible. Denying care is even worse.Health insurance should not be a cash cow.
Because?
Health insurance should not be a cash cow.Because?
but that birth certificate was made in 2001!
stfubut that birth certificate was made in 2001!
Hasn't it been verified that Hawaii state officials have the original document in their possession?
Are you really comparing a sandwich to the health of a human being? ???
I went to a Local Sub place yesterday and I couldn't afford to pay for my lunch so I turned to the guy behind me and told him that it was his responsibility to pay because it would make everyones quality of life better if he bought me lunch because I really needed it.
So really I was doing him a favor.
I'm such a good citizen. :D
you have no actual rights, period, save what society -- and by extension, the government -- choose to grant you, so your whole line of reasoning is moot
really. what are these rights.
(i'd argue YOU have no place discussing rights until you've read locke and rousseau for a nice compare and contrast, which may help you break out of your magical thinking)
You can argue what you like, you're just wrong, and where Locke and Rousseau differ, so is Rousseau.
These "rights" aren't innate and they aren't real. It's not like we have a "rights" gene in our DNA.
No, but due to our biological characteristics (which as I understand are somewhat influenced by our genetics ;)) we do possess them, as would other sapient beings should we ever meet them.
Freedom of, say, expression is as fundamental a property of our existence as being obligate oxygen-breathers.Quote"Human rights" were are ARE created by, duh, humans. You think back when the Neolithic Age started, humans all of a sudden were like "well shit, that other tribes woman is already taken, guess I'll refrain from taking action..."? Not until the apostles in early Judaism did the notion of "human rights" get invented.
Rights can exist just fine while being routinely violated, or in the absence of a society that protects them; indeed, that is the framework for any sort of moral claim about such situations, or the impetus that drives the formation of a society that actually will protect them.QuoteHuman rights don't exist. They are, though, crucial to humanity's development.
This is going to end up like a discussion about free will. Some things simply are, or are not; and then of course there's those things we can't know but it's just objectively better, in a pseudo-Pascal's-wager-sort-of-way, to proceed as if they are.
Here's my solution.
If you do not believe education, healthcare and basic human services are worth pitching in for, we'll jettison you to the moon where you can create a perfect society based on your ideals.
No, but due to our biological characteristics (which as I understand are somewhat influenced by our genetics ;)) we do possess them, as would other sapient beings should we ever meet them.:teehee
You can't point at some genes and say that they give you certain "human" rights. You are biologically identical to the mass murderers 5,000 years ago.
The most important step in making civil, democratic societies is the advancement of technology. Self-preservation is easy today, so now we can focus on making ourselves happier by looking for the most "fair" system possible. It was Malthus and Darwin that figured out that we still breed more than we can support like any other animal in the evolutionary hope of PHYSICALLY adapting to our habitats, which is what lead to our exponential population growth.
We have a mental control of our society, but there's very little if any sort physical control of our destructive natures.
Anyways yeah..uh, screw health insurance companies.
My solution is that if you don't find these truths to be self-evident, you're not part of "We," and as such you're welcome to STFU>FO of the nation founded by said "We."
My solution is that if you don't find these truths to be self-evident, you're not part of "We," and as such you're welcome to STFU>FO of the nation founded by said "We."
is particularly hilarious.
If you do not believe education, healthcare and basic human services are worth pitching in for, we'll jettison you to the moon where you can create a perfect society based on your ideal
context matters
And then there's the fucktards that try to screw with the meaning of "well-regulated militia..."well how the fuck do you interpret something as a "militia"?
Yes exactly, you can have too much liberty.Pragmatic? It's always "pragmatic" to limit personal liberty. Liberty is dangerous and disruptive.And then there's the fucktards that try to screw with the meaning of "well-regulated militia..."well how the fuck do you interpret something as a "militia"?
besides thousands of people die every year from guns that are technologically beyond the scope of anything those wig-heads could imagine. we have to seriously weigh the pragmatic value of the 2nd amendment and as I see it, that amendment hasn't really been used since the civil war.
I can't tell if you are being serious or not :-[. Wouldn't that umbrella definition include "arms" such as nuclear and biological weapons as well?
If you walk down the street with a knife or a moderately pointy stick you will be arrested, you can actually get a concealed carry permit for handguns but that's the best thing about it to criminals, that it's so easily concealed..I'm personally fine with people owning small arms as long as it's not a handgun or automatic.I'm giving an extreme example. The 2nd amendment allows you to have so much "liberty" that you can easily steal from or even rape or kill the average person without any problem because hey, you have a gun and they most likely do not.
You can do that with a knife. Or a moderately pointy stick. Or by just being strong and / or knowing a martial art. I'm not sure why you feel this is valid. Liberty can be abused, yes - that does not make a police state preferable.
I've argued repeatedly that historical context matters quite a bit in terms of reading a ratified governmental document, entirely eschewing a post-modernist approach in favor of author's intent."
If the dude writing "cruel and unusual" and the dudes signing the thing think hanging is a-okay, it certainly ain't unusual, and it wasn't regarded as cruel.
And that sounds really familiar. Being a Canadian living in America, Bercovitch said, was like being Sancho Panza in a nation of Don Quixotes. There was a secret everybody knew but him, a music everybody else but him could hear. Remember, Sancho Panza is Quixote’s pragmatic sidekick. Sancho knows that Quixote is delusional and deranged–where Quixote sees giants, Sancho sees only windmills–but he comes to envy his master’s world of enchantment.
“We’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check,” said Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was a prosaic beginning to the most beloved speech of the twentieth century, reducing American history’s greatest crime and moral dilemma to a matter of bookkeeping: “a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” King went on:
When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note … a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
And here Sancho or Sacvan whispers to the guy standing next to him, “Were they? Really? If we went back in time and asked the architects of the republic–Jefferson and Madison and Washington and the rest–did you mean for this to apply to your slaves too, would they agree? And what about women? And the Sioux and Apache, and Chinese railroad laborers, and Jews from eastern Europe, and Mexican migrant laborers, and detainees at Guantanamo, and gay couples in California that want to get married, if we asked the founding fathers, they’d agree that they want all these inalienable rights to apply to them too, right? Because it would have saved a lot of trouble if they’d spelled all this out in 1789.”
The black belt rhetorical jiu jitsu of the “I Have A Dream” speech is that King pulls it off. He convinced the better part of a nation that dismantling segregation was not so scary, not so radical, but really what they’d all meant to do all along. They just hadn’t gotten around to it, like the laundry I need to sort, or those slaves Jefferson never quite got to freeing. You can fault King for making it sound too easy, for not holding anyone’s feet to the fire, but that was a tactic, and (for a time) it worked.
And this is an old and hallowed American trick. On July 4th, 1852, Frederick Douglass blistered the ears of his white audience with prophesy–and the nineteenth century knew that prophesy is not fortune telling, but judgment:
Your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery … mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy … a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.
Strong stuff for a Fourth of July picnic! But by the end of the very same speech, Douglass reveals that, “interpreted as it ought to be interpreted,” the Constitution is in fact “a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT.” He embraces and celebrates the Constitution as a bulwark against slavery. Without it, Douglass concludes, “the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman.” (Zing.) Abolishing slavery, Douglass asserts, is simply a matter of living up to the ideals Americans have already always embraced. (Again: Really? In 1852?)
At Seneca Falls in 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton cribbed Jefferson’s words for her Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, the intimation being that “of course” the patriarchs of 1776 must have intended equal rights for women. In Omaha in 1892, the magnificent crank Ignatius Donnelly insisted that Populism was nothing more than strict adherence to the Constitution, restoring the Republic to the “plain people” with whom it had supposedly began. And so on and so on down through history, with every kind of American reformer looking backward to move forward, couching their goals as nothing more radical than America’s alleged founding ideals.
I'm not going to keep letting you shoehorn me into passing some sort of purity test every time we talk; whether you take things seriously or not is up to you.
But this thread has taken a turn. Like Obama's poll numbers.
If said person posts on said subject:
1. laugh and call liberal/lefty loser/etc
2. ignore their views and points
3. laugh off any source that isn't fox news or some right wing nutbag
4. repeat over and over until person gives up
QuoteIf said person posts on said subject:
1. laugh and call liberal/lefty loser/etc
2. ignore their views and points
3. laugh off any source that isn't fox news or some right wing nutbag
4. repeat over and over until person gives up
It works both ways but what you just did was a typical republican tactic, act a certain way and then criticize your opponent for doing the exact same thing.
dear christ, if ganhyun posts that fucking blue pill one more goddamned time I'm going to defecate a puppy
Democratic blue pills :drool
I just stated that it works both ways, I wasn't singling you out that you do those things.
dear christ, if ganhyun posts that fucking blue pill one more goddamned time I'm going to defecate a puppy
And? Where has Obama stated this is in his agenda? Seems like a shitty excuse for nutjob conservative parents to keep their kids out of the community serviceThat's never stopped them.
I'm in favor of mandatory community service...
I'm sure there were other words after this, but FUCK YOU.
community service does not necessarily equal real labor.I still have yet to hear about why mandatory community service is a bad idea.Because it's forced labor?
So, it's as as I said, but likely to not even be effective. Thanks for your input.No, it is not as you said. The only point you made (on this page) about this was that it's "forced labor", which to me sounds like you're comparing it to harvesting wheat for the motherland.
Or cotton for tha massuh.
I 've found volunteering to be personally satisfying.I'm guessing that it is meant to encourage more community service though..............yeah.
Taking part in community service is a good thing that should be encouraged, and it certainly doesn't hurt to have for a resume / application as is. That's general enough that what I just said could apply to military service as well.
The act of mandating either, however, is absolutely repugnant.
And? Where has Obama stated this is in his agenda? Seems like a shitty excuse for nutjob conservative parents to keep their kids out of the community service
It's time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.
With the health-care bill faltering in Congress, the ritual weeping has begun over the death, once again, of “bipartisanship.”
The belief that the answer to any problem lies with “the center” may be the greatest superstition in the ever-magical world of American politics.
Mostly it is journalists and pundits who propagate the notion that crazies on the left and right have neutered the problem-solving center, the moderates, the pragmatists.
In fact, the bipartisan center has been dying every year since Congress passed the Medicare and Medicaid bill of 1965. The people who back then were staffers to the politicians and agencies of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society graduated into the offices they now hold in Congress, the Beltway, many state capitals and academia, taking a second generation into their belief system. That included Barack Obama.
With President Obama’s health-care bill, the forces that across 40 years grew into unbridgeable opposition to each other could not be more plain to see. American politics has arrived at a crossroads.
This struggle over health-care legislation isn’t just another battle between the Democratic and Republican parties. It’s about which force is going to take the United States forward for the next generation: the public sector or the private sector. If by now you haven’t figured out which sector you are in, then you’re a Blue Dog Democrat.
The Blue Dogs and other moderates have been sliding to this final dilemma for years. The issue is not whether one is for or against “government.” The issue is: Do they work for us, or do we work for them?
Mr. Obama has defined the stakes succinctly. The centerpiece of his health-care proposal is the Public Option, a program of federally supplied and administered health insurance. As he has repeatedly stated, anyone is free to remain inside the private health-insurance system. He said yesterday, “Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care” and to disagree is “scaring everybody.” He is underselling the power of his own idea. That public option is potent competition, a winner-sweep-the-table proposition between the public sector and the private sector.
The clarifying moment in the health-care debate arrived when the Congressional Budget Office said that the legislation lacked adequate financing. After this, the bill’s backers began a search for tax revenue that borders on parody—taxes on soda pop, surtaxes unto eternity on “millionaires,” as if this might actually command the tides to recede of another permanent Medicare/Medicaid-sized entitlement and its flotsam of advisers, measurers and lobbyists.
Washington and the states are now fighting each other to drain revenue out of the same private sector. Back in March, New York’s legislature, amid a deep recession, enacted its own income tax surcharge. These governments are becoming like people from dying planets in “Star Trek,” foraging the galaxy for new sources of whatever life force keeps them alive. A surtax is the ultimate act of public-sector panic.
I don’t think the White House or the Democratic leadership understands the level of despondency in the country now among people who add new wealth—business owners, entrepreneurs or those who invest in new ideas that don’t depend wholly on subsidized choices made by the public sector.
This is all many people in the most dynamic corners of the private sector talk about now. Their beef is not with recession but the feeling that this presidency and Congress have no interest in them. If we get another jobless recovery, we’ll need the job-creating impulses of these people. The do-good but not-for-profit mentality of the current government looks either hostile to or oblivious of these private-sector fast runners.
The Obama approval rating is falling toward 50% and below that for his handling of the economy and even lower on health care. He will be told, probably this weekend by pundits from planet public sector, that this is due to “lies” from the right. But I think this president needs to find a concrete way fast to show he has a real sense of the private sector’s importance. That promise of “green jobs” isn’t it. His line about “sacrifice” is a euphemism for high tax levels to the horizon. Where’s the upside for new, private entrants?
The problem is that in Washington and many states the public sector’s revenue needs have arrived at a point where space for the private economy is more or less beside the point. That is the clear message of the California and New York budget crises and the difficulties of financing the Obama health-care plan.
For centrists in both parties the moment has come to decide which side of the public-private divide they want the U.S. and its future workers to be on. Trying to live in both has brought us, inevitably, to that decision.
Drudge is reporting tht Obama will be on the cover of Time next week. The 12th time in the last 12 months. :lol
Drudge is reporting tht Obama will be on the cover of Time next week. The 12th time in the last 12 months. :lol
President Obama and his Democratic allies, scrambling to broker a health care deal Monday, finally got an upbeat assessment from Congress' official scorekeeper when it said the plan for government-run coverage would not force out private insurers.http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/28/cbo-gives-boost-to-obamas-health-plan/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_headlines
Drudge is reporting tht Obama will be on the cover of Time next week. The 12th time in the last 12 months. :lol
After 8 years of Bush, I can understand why people think the government can't run shit right.
FoC just curious, who do you think was the best US president and why. Also, who was the worst
After 8 years of Bush, I can understand why people think the government can't run shit right.
After 8 years of Bush, I can understand why people think the government can't run shit right.
"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it." -- P.J. O'rourke
After 8 years of Bush, I can understand why people think the government can't run shit right.
"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it." -- P.J. O'rourke
Bush is a good enough reason that everyone should be leery of the power of government.
After 8 years of Bush, I can understand why people think the government can't run shit right.
"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it." -- P.J. O'rourke
Bush is a good enough reason that everyone should be leery of the power of government.
"Government" isn't some solid, never-evolving entity. In fact, Bush and his Congress' definition of "government" gives government a bad name.
Public health care is not free. Everyone pays their share. I'm in favor of nationalized health care but saying "health care is free" irks me ever so slightly.After 8 years of Bush, I can understand why people think the government can't run shit right.
"The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it." -- P.J. O'rourke
Bush is a good enough reason that everyone should be leery of the power of government.
"Government" isn't some solid, never-evolving entity. In fact, Bush and his Congress' definition of "government" gives government a bad name.
No shit? I think you're onto something there.
Public health care is not free. Everyone pays their share. I'm in favor of nationalized health care but saying "health care is free" irks me ever so slightly.
QuotePublic health care is not free. Everyone pays their share. I'm in favor of nationalized health care but saying "health care is free" irks me ever so slightly.
This is not true. Some people will grossly pay more than others. I guess to liberals that means its "fair"
...and Lolbertopians continue to pretend that income tax rates are the only form of taxation. Yawn.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/poll-28-of-republican-base-are-birthers.php?ref=fpblgWell, if you repeat a lie over and over.... Right from Propanganda 101.
wow
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/poll-28-of-republican-base-are-birthers.php?ref=fpblg
wow
A black guy with a "forun" soundin' name becomes president and not only do they just rebel against this fact, they pretend that it's somehow impossible that he can be American in the first place. Such a sad glimpse into their worldview.Or if you are Glenn Beck, claim that the black president with a white mother has a deep seeded hatred towards white people.
Oy Vey (http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=3110183&ref=fpblg)
When Ann Coulter is calling you out as a crazy bitch...wow
There was an image posted some time ago that showed the counties that saw increase of Republican or Democrat votes in 2008 compared to 2004. The biggest Republican increase was in the rural areas of the south, the same counties (give or take) that George Wallace won 40 years ago. I'm sure someone has that image saved.
(http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Clunker-sales-nearing-apf-3598544285.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode= )
"This is just mass chaos, so to extend it with 2 more billion dollars without stopping and seeing what we've done would be crazy," said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
..
"We were told this program would last for several months," GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said. "It ran out of money in a week, prompting the House to rush a $2 billion extension before anybody even had time to figure out what happened to the first billion."
McConnell said, "It's not a bad idea to look for a second opinion. All the more so if they say they're in a hurry."
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate's second-ranking Republican, suggested lawmakers "take a time-out" so they could receive more details about the program before providing more money. "I'm concerned that somebody's going to have to pay for this, and $4,500 for everybody that wants to take advantage of this program is a lot of money."
http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/local_wluk_greenbay_kagen_gets_earful_at_listening_session_080320092004_rev1So republitards are bussing people from out of town to act like they are against healthcare reform? They have actually found a new low.
:punch
(http://i29.tinypic.com/2ik36zl.jpg)
::)
As an ex-Brit, I’m well aware of the authorities’ love of surveillance and snooping, but even I, a pessimistic cynic, am amazed by the governments latest plan: to install Orwell’s telescreens in 20,000 homes.
£400 million ($668 million) will be spend on installing and monitoring CCTV cameras in the homes of private citizens. Why? To make sure the kids are doing their homework, going to bed early and eating their vegetables. The scheme has, astonishingly, already been running in 2,000 family homes. The government’s “children’s secretary” Ed Balls is behind the plan, which is aimed at problem, antisocial families. The idea is that, if a child has a more stable home life, he or she will be less likely to stray into crime and drugs.
It gets worse. The government is also maintaining a private army, incredibly not called “Thought Police”, which will “be sent round to carry out home checks,” according to the Sunday Express. And in a scheme which firmly cements the nation’s reputation as a “nanny state”, the kids and their families will be forced to sign “behavior contracts” which will “set out parents’ duties to ensure children behave and do their homework.”
And remember, this is the left-wing government. The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling, batting for the conservatives, thinks these plans are “too little, and too late,” implying that even more obtrusive work needs to be done. Rumors that a new detention center, named Room 101, is being constructed inside the Ministry of Love are unconfirmed.
Both Joker portrayals are fucking distinguished mentally-challenged. The fact that the Joker represents the complete opposite of what Obama/Bush are unfairly labeled as is enough to make this fucking stupid....but it also happens to be based on a goddamn summer movie character.
the other difference being that the magazine portrayed a president that way because of starting wars and torturing people and spying on american citizens, while the random shmucks portrayed a president that way because the sheriff is a ni-*BONG*
the other difference being that the magazine portrayed a president that way because of starting wars and torturing people and spying on american citizens, while the random shmucks portrayed a president that way because the sheriff is a ni-*BONG*
I forgot was the Joker black? I ask because your post is complete garbage if he wasnt.
Both Joker portrayals are fucking distinguished mentally-challenged. The fact that the Joker represents the complete opposite of what Obama/Bush are unfairly labeled as is enough to make this fucking stupid....but it also happens to be based on a goddamn summer movie character.
The difference being that one is a a random poster by some schmucks with too much free time and the other being published by a very large and widely read magazine.
so guys, what about that birth certificate!??!
i was bringing it up because the birthers have been in the news lately, complete with a fake kenyan certificate.
It's not political news. The only people who think it's news are the liberals who are using it as a diversion and the nuts that believe it.
It's not political news. The only people who think it's news are the liberals who are using it as a diversion and the nuts that believe it.
Obama's numbers are tanking. The "town-halls" on healthcare are a colossal disaster and the only response that liberals have is "Hey this woman bileves obama is from Kenya. LOLERSKATES!!!!
I bet some people in bum-fuck New Mexico believe that Obama is a space alien from Mars and is here to anal probe us.
Is that political news?
ITT FoC proves he's gullible enough to believe in Astroturf organizations
Arthur Laffer (http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200908040014), father of the Worst Graph Ever (http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=laffer+curve&aq=f&oq=&aqi=n1g10&fp=flbC24gbdiA):
"Just wait until you see Medicare, Medicaid and healthcare done by the government."
The government better stay away from those... government programs!
But keeping telling yourself that and remain out of touch with everyone.
Meanwhile, all Rush can do today is compare Obama to Hitler.
Meanwhile, all Rush can do today is compare Obama to Hitler.
(http://www.chron.com/photos/2009/08/06/17790364/260xStory.jpg)
Not even bothering with context
what's the story behind that messican?
http://www.dailykostv.com/w/002028/
http://www.dailykostv.com/w/002028/
I like how dailykos says "RAW VIDEO: Tampa health care town hall disrupted by wingnuts"
But if it was a war protest under Bush it would say "RAW VIDEO: Tampa war rally disrupted by patriots"
I think if this video proves anything its that there is no way that "astro-turfing" participants can feel this passionate.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/08/09/gingrich_defends_palins_comments.html#030860a
"It's not in the bill"
"The bill is a thousand pages!"
Gladney did not address Saturday's crowd of about 200 people. His attorney, David Brown, however, read a prepared statement Gladney wrote. "A few nights ago there was an assault on my liberty, and on yours, too." Brown read. "This should never happen in this country."
Supporters cheered. Brown finished by telling the crowd that Gladney is accepting donations toward his medical expenses. Gladney told reporters he was recently laid off and has no health insurance. [emphasis added]
Wait, the conservative opponent of health care reform, fighting (literally) to defeat a plan that would bring coverage to those who lose their jobs, lost his coverage because he got laid off?
I'm not in a position to say whether Gladney sustained genuine injuries or whether he's exaggerating for 15 minutes of Fox News fame and a lucrative out-of-court settlement.
Either way, the new right-wing cause celebre needs to take up a collection to pay for his medical bills because he doesn't have health insurance. It's a fascinating sign of the times.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019423.phpQuoteGladney did not address Saturday's crowd of about 200 people. His attorney, David Brown, however, read a prepared statement Gladney wrote. "A few nights ago there was an assault on my liberty, and on yours, too." Brown read. "This should never happen in this country."
Supporters cheered. Brown finished by telling the crowd that Gladney is accepting donations toward his medical expenses. Gladney told reporters he was recently laid off and has no health insurance. [emphasis added]
Wait, the conservative opponent of health care reform, fighting (literally) to defeat a plan that would bring coverage to those who lose their jobs, lost his coverage because he got laid off?
I'm not in a position to say whether Gladney sustained genuine injuries or whether he's exaggerating for 15 minutes of Fox News fame and a lucrative out-of-court settlement.
Either way, the new right-wing cause celebre needs to take up a collection to pay for his medical bills because he doesn't have health insurance. It's a fascinating sign of the times.spoiler (click to show/hide):rofl[close]
oh wait obama in clown makeup lololololol that's funny nm.
Also, what's the other, less evil, but destructive force in Gotham? The mafia. Where does the mafia get its power? Black markets. In a very real, very practical way, the more you tighten your grip, the more rich, and thus, more powerful they get.
Oh wow, Alex Jones. Good source there.
Well, it is nationalized healthcare on this pretense that it isn’t completely just means there is some transition involved. So their goal is to have a one party payer, which means that they control everything. And there are a lot of other bad things too, like this effort to consult with anybody who is over a certain age and talk to them about end-of-life type of procedures. This bill is just such an outrage. The American people see it for what it is. It is going to cost a lot of money, their care is not going to be improved, and the special interests will be served.
It is going to cost a lot of money, their care is not going to be improved, and the special interests will be served.
that’s how that first TARP fund went through. They say, “The whole thing would be collapsing. We have to do this rapidly. Don’t ask any questions. Appropriate 700 billion dollars and we’ll take care of everything.” So if things get worse they’ll say, “Boy, this is more reason than ever for the government to take over.”
We could turn over our health care system to Wal-Mart and we'd be better off than we'd be under the public option proposed to us by the lalilulelibs. And no I'm not kidding.spoiler (click to show/hide)Generic prescription drugs for $4.[close]
We could turn over our health care system to Wal-Mart and we'd be better off than we'd be under the public option proposed to us by the lalilulelibs. And no I'm not kidding.spoiler (click to show/hide)Generic prescription drugs for $4.[close]
Wal-Mart, eh? That's actually not a bad model.
If only there were some way we could get a centrally administered, regionally operated distribution network which benefits from economies of scale and leverages its buying clout to get cheaper prices from producers.
O WAIT.
OH SWEET JESUS PLEASE LET THIS HAPPEN (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26029.html)
SANTORUM/BACHMANN 2012 ALL THE WAY BAYBEEEEEEE
OH SWEET JESUS PLEASE LET THIS HAPPEN (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26029.html)
SANTORUM/BACHMANN 2012 ALL THE WAY BAYBEEEEEEE
A $200 back-to-school giveaway for needy kids sparked a mad rush for money on the streets of New York on Tuesday.
"It's free money!" said Alecia Rumph, 26, who waited in a Morris Park, Bronx, line 300 people deep for the cash to buy uniforms and book bags for her two kids.
"Thank God for Obama. He's looking out for us."
Thousands of people lined up at banks and check-cashing shops to withdraw the cash that magically appeared on their electronic benefit cards.
Some rushed out because of rumors the money would vanish by the end of the day.
prole has taken to arguing with republicans on Facebook poll threads :'(
prole has taken to arguing with republicans on Facebook poll threads :'(
:o
I wish I could see that!
It's working, though.
So she's a plant?
Has anyone investigated the behind-closed-doors shenanigans between Obama and Pharma?
How much money could I make as a GOP "independent" voice? Seems like they're in need of some black plants
Having a mean bastard of a politician that didn't give a shit about the Republicans or being seen as cuddly would be mighty useful right about now...
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.” -Norman Thomas
But let's also look from the other side. The freedom the doctor uses. A doctor would be reluctant to say this. Well, like you, I am only a patient, so I can say it in his behalf. A doctor begins to lose his freedom, it’s like telling a lie. One leads to another. First you decide the doctor can have so many patients. They are equally divided among the various doctors by the government, but then the doctors are equally divided geographically, so a doctor decides he wants to practice in one town and the government has to say to him he can’t live in that town, they already have enough doctors. You have to go some place else. And from here it is only a short step to dictating where he will go.
This is a freedom I wonder if any of us has a right to take from any human being. I know how I’d feel if you my fellow citizens, that to be an actor I had to be a government employee and work in a national theatre. Take it into your own occupation or that of your husband. All of us can see what happens once you establish the precedent that the government can determine a man’s working place and his working methods, determine his employment. From here it is a short step to all the rest of socialism, to determining his pay and pretty soon your son won’t decide when he’s in school where he will go or what he will do for a living. He will wait for the government to tell him where he will go to work and what he will do.
Walter Reuther said, “It’s no secret that the United Automobile Workers is officially on record of backing a program of national health insurance. And by national health insurance, he meant socialized medicine for every American.
Holy shit! I started playing that assuming it was posted ironically and halfway through I glanced over at the poster and realized he was attempting a point.
Troll or distinguished mentally-challenged fellow? I report YOU DECIDE.
I hate to say it, but it's looking more and more that people like Frag were right- Obama's desperate need to try and appear post-partisan is going to sabotage the stuff he gets through from being more effective. Having a mean bastard of a politician that didn't give a shit about the Republicans or being seen as cuddly would be mighty useful right about now...
I still don't understand why we're even acknowledging the idea that the current health care proposals are anything anywhere near socialism.
I still don't understand why we're even acknowledging the idea that the current health care proposals are anything anywhere near socialism.
I still don't understand why we're even acknowledging the idea that the current health care proposals are anything anywhere near socialism.
Yeah thats a good point. Why do we consider socialized medicine socialism at all?
I still don't understand why we're even acknowledging the idea that the current health care proposals are anything anywhere near socialism.
It's not an argument built to persuade.
You hear it because there's a large chunk of the population that doesn't just disagree with or dislike the president, but considers him quite literally to be an enemy.
That's why you get quotes like "I'm scared of Obama because he's a socialist". That's why you hear about death panels and FEMA concentration camps. That's why Katy Abram said she didn't want the country turning to socialism "like Russia", even though Russia has one of the lowest-spending governments in the world. (http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2008/03/government-spending-as-percentage-of.html)
It's the same tribal fears that fueled the Muslim rumors, the Ayers rumors. More generally, the ones that make people worry about the NAFTA highway and reconquista, or UN black helicopters. It's the sense that people who are different from us and who hate us are going to take over our lives.
So it really doesn't matter that the proposed plans would re-entrench private insurance's role in the economy, or that end-of-life counseling is not murder. This is emotional identity politics.
To steal a line from a British blogger writing about the town hall mobs, "It's not that I don't understand their thought processes: it's that what they say doesn't resemble thinking."
WASHINGTON – Apparently ready to abandon the idea, President Barack Obama's health secretary said Sunday a government alternative to private health insurance is "not the essential element" of the administration's health care overhaul.
The White House indicated it could jettison the contentious public option and settle on insurance cooperatives as an acceptable alternative, a move embraced by some Republicans lawmakers who have strongly opposed the administration's approach so far.
Officials from both political parties reached across the aisle in an effort to find compromises on proposals they left behind when they returned to their districts for an August recess. Obama has been pressing for the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation's almost 50 million uninsured.
Sebelius said the White House would be open to co-ops instead of a government-run public option, a sign Democrats want a compromise so they can declare a victory on the must-win showdown.
I said it during the main election, UHC is merely a pipe dream among the left. It shipwrecked the Clinton presidency and looks to be doing the same to the Obama one.
Obama gave it a good try, but he (or future people) would be better off implementing reform in small bites. Trying this approach only invites big disappointment.
That being said, they can still salvage something out of this.
The best time to implement UHC was 60-70 years ago. Either during the Great Depression or right after World War II, where they could just implement UHC because of the millions of new veterans that would get government health care anyway. I doubt it would have been a significant transition either. It was also before the significant increases of peacetime defense spending wrt the cold war.
I fucking hate this country, at times. I swear, if I could make films in another country with the talent pool we have here, I'd jet in a fucking second.
I said it during the main election, UHC is merely a pipe dream among the left. It shipwrecked the Clinton presidency and looks to be doing the same to the Obama one.
Obama gave it a good try, but he (or future people) would be better off implementing reform in small bites. Trying this approach only invites big disappointment.
That being said, they can still salvage something out of this.
I highly doubt any major healthcare or energy reforms will get passed in the next few years. Obama will probably still get reelected though since he'll get the credit for the improving economy. And then maybe we'll see actual reforms getting passed in the second term.
I highly doubt any major healthcare or energy reforms will get passed in the next few years. Obama will probably still get reelected though since he'll get the credit for the improving economy. And then maybe we'll see actual reforms getting passed in the second term.
What?I highly doubt any major healthcare or energy reforms will get passed in the next few years. Obama will probably still get reelected though since he'll get the credit for the improving economy. And then maybe we'll see actual reforms getting passed in the second term.That makes no sense.
I highly doubt any major healthcare or energy reforms will get passed in the next few years. Obama will probably still get reelected though since he'll get the credit for the improving economy. And then maybe we'll see actual reforms getting passed in the second term.
I said it during the main election, UHC is merely a pipe dream among the left. It shipwrecked the Clinton presidency and looks to be doing the same to the Obama one.
Obama gave it a good try, but he (or future people) would be better off implementing reform in small bites. Trying this approach only invites big disappointment.
That being said, they can still salvage something out of this.
Self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll.
The Cybercast News Service was launched on June 16, 1998 as a news source for individuals, news organizations and broadcasters who put a higher premium on balance than spin and seek news that’s ignored or under-reported as a result of media bias by omission.
Study after study by the Media Research Center, the parent organization of CNSNews.com, clearly demonstrate a liberal bias in many news outlets – bias by commission and bias by omission – that results in a frequent double-standard in editorial decisions on what constitutes "news."
In response to these shortcomings, MRC Chairman L. Brent Bozell III founded CNSNews.com in an effort to provide an alternative news source that would cover stories that are subject to the bias of omission and report on other news subject to bias by commission.
CNSNews.com endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story and debunk popular, albeit incorrect, myths about cultural and policy issues.
CNSNews.com has a full staff of credentialed journalists at its world headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, staffs full time news bureaus in Jerusalem and the Pacific Rim, and works with credentialed correspondents in London, Paris, Moscow and Nairobi. In addition to news, CNSNews.com is proud to present a full slate of commentaries by some of the brightest minds and sharpest wits in the nation, and a full stable of cartoonists to provide you with a morning political chuckle.
CNSNews.com is a division of the Media Research Center, a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization. Like National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, CNSNews.com is able to provide its services and information to the public at no cost, thanks to the generous support of our thousands of donors and their tax-deductible contributions. However, unlike NPR or PBS, CNSNews.com does not accept any federal tax money for its operations.
http://www.cnsnews.com/static/about_usQuoteThe Cybercast News Service was launched on June 16, 1998 as a news source for individuals, news organizations and broadcasters who put a higher premium on balance than spin and seek news that’s ignored or under-reported as a result of media bias by omission.
Study after study by the Media Research Center, the parent organization of CNSNews.com, clearly demonstrate a liberal bias in many news outlets – bias by commission and bias by omission – that results in a frequent double-standard in editorial decisions on what constitutes "news."
In response to these shortcomings, MRC Chairman L. Brent Bozell III founded CNSNews.com in an effort to provide an alternative news source that would cover stories that are subject to the bias of omission and report on other news subject to bias by commission.
CNSNews.com endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story and debunk popular, albeit incorrect, myths about cultural and policy issues.
CNSNews.com has a full staff of credentialed journalists at its world headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, staffs full time news bureaus in Jerusalem and the Pacific Rim, and works with credentialed correspondents in London, Paris, Moscow and Nairobi. In addition to news, CNSNews.com is proud to present a full slate of commentaries by some of the brightest minds and sharpest wits in the nation, and a full stable of cartoonists to provide you with a morning political chuckle.
CNSNews.com is a division of the Media Research Center, a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization. Like National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, CNSNews.com is able to provide its services and information to the public at no cost, thanks to the generous support of our thousands of donors and their tax-deductible contributions. However, unlike NPR or PBS, CNSNews.com does not accept any federal tax money for its operations.
L. Brent Bozell III wrote this awesome gem, titled "Country Music: Too Much Freedom-Loving?"
http://www.mrc.org/BozellColumns/entertainmentcolumn/2009/col20090514.asp
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/52602 (http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/52602)Utterly meaningless as self described "conservatives" almost always outnumber self described "liberals" in this country.QuoteSelf-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll.
Ru-roh
"liberal" has been turned into a slur in america even though a majority of people here unknowingly support liberal viewpoints, so that's not surprising
I’ll say this for George Bush: you’d never have caught him frantically negotiating against himself to take the meat out of a signature legislative initiative just because his approval ratings had a bad summer. Can you imagine Bush and Karl Rove allowing themselves to be paraded through Washington on a leash by some dimwit Republican Senator of a state with six people in it the way the Obama White House this summer is allowing Max Baucus (favorite son of the mighty state of Montana) to frog-march them to a one-term presidency?
To quote Method Man’s Calvin “Cheese” Wagstaff character from The Wire, “This is some shameless shit right here.”
[youtube=560,345]GVS4Zgjm8HE[/youtube]There's video is really weird. She's wearing some sort of Israel Defense [Force?] t-shirt w/Texas state earrings (I think) and she makes fun of his hospital bill like a 5 year old would. She might be insane.
Mandark, you're comparing second term apples to first term oranges. :P
Was Taibbi not paying attention the last five years?
Bush's two "signature legislative initiatives" went nowhere: a watered-down immigration bill that still couldn't pass the Senate, and a social security privatization plan that never even made it out of committee.
In both those cases, the Bush admin passed a lot of responsibility for writing and negotiating the bills to Congress, because they figured (correctly) they wouldn't be able to dictate the legislation and force it through.
Obama should feel pressure from his left, but you can do that without getting all ahistorical.
The sky is falling, failure is immanent, and our guys are ineffectual wimps while theirs are Machiavellian geniuses.
FlameOfCallandor
Dining Room Table
Townie Leper
Posts: 76541
Even worse will be the way this fight is won: basically by convincing older Americans already covered by a government health program, Medicare, that Obama’s reform plans will reduce their coverage. In other words, we’ll have sent a powerful message to the entire political system to avoid at all hazards any tinkering with Medicare except to make it more generous for the already covered.
[youtube=560,345]tWwyjwmYMEs[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwyjwmYMEs
I have been waiting for this- idiots having to deal with Barney Frank, who has a lethal combination of wit and knowledge.
Holy crap at The Daily Show right now :lol
John is getting irritated :lol
The media are a bunch of spineless wimps
"liberal" has been turned into a slur in america even though a majority of people here unknowingly support liberal viewpoints, so that's not surprising
Obama's problem is his own party. The president is learning that herding donkeys is like herding cats, and that the extremes -- on the far right and far left -- can't be reasoned with. If he tries to please the conservative blue dogs, he loses the liberal yellow dogs. And vice versa.
"I mean, if you think about it," Obama told a town hall audience, "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? No, they are. It's the Post Office that's always having problems."
Hopefully Clinton is right, that once the bill passes and people realize all the bad stuff that was supposed to happen doesn't happen, they'll chill the fuck out. Well at least normal people will. You can tell some people "that one" is gonna take yer guns every 4 years and they'll believe it
Oh shit, Mandark/Willco on notice
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/Huckabee_Evangelicals_more_supportive_of_Israel_than_Jews.html?showall
drudge
CANTEL MEDICAL CORP. (NYSE: CMN) announced that on August 20, 2009 it received a letter of resignation from Ms. Elizabeth McCaughey as a director of the Company.http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/McCaughey_loses_board_seat.html?showall
[youtube=560,345]PsKGqns_Aek[/youtube]
O'Reilly is butthurt. Pretty clever to do this the same day before they go to vacation.
California needs a strong leader, says Texas governor Rick Perry. That strong leader, Mr. Perry thinks, needs to go to Sacramento and "take special interests out" of government. He needs to "make massive cuts" in spending and taxes. And he needs "to make major changes in the constitution," including tort reform.
What about Arnold Schwarzenegger? "Arnold—I think Arnold squandered that chance."
Six years ago, Mr. Perry's state underwent a critical tort reform that was codified in the state constitution. The payoff is that Texas is now outpacing California economically. According to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, between 1997 and 2006 Texas' economy grew an average of 4.3% while California's grew at a rate of 3.7%. But as of 2002 (to 2007), with tort reform in place, Texas' annual economic growth jumped to 5%, while California's remained essentially the same at 3.6%.
The bottom line? Tax-and-spend governance is as bankrupt as California's bank account. By way of illustration, the governor replays a conversation he had with Rudy Giuliani during the presidential primaries.
They were talking about Michigan. "The Michigan governor was making statements about having to raise taxes so [they could keep] services at the level they were, instead of, like we did in Texas, cutting, not raising, taxes and cutting spending. There was a great difference in political philosophy. In Michigan, a liberal democrat raised taxes and kept their government programs at the same level. And guess what? Their economy continued into the toilet, it continued down.
Reflexively anti-Bush
Marc Ambinder has emailed me to vehemently disagree with my characterization of his views. Read what he wrote, and reach your own conclusions.
But I’d like to return to one point: even after retracting his statement about people who correctly surmised that terror warnings were political being motivated by “gut hatred” of Bush, he left in the bit about being “reflexively anti-Bush”. I continue to find it really sad that people still say things like this.
Bear in mind that by the time the terror alert controversy arose in 2004, we had already seen two tax cuts sold on massively, easily documented false pretenses; a war launched with constant innuendo about a Saddam-Osama link that was clearly false, and with claims about WMDs that were clearly shaky from the beginning and had proved to be entirely without foundation. We’d also seen vast, well-documented dishonesty and politicization on environmental policy. Oh, and Abu Ghraib was already public knowledge.
Given all that, it made complete sense to distrust anything the Bush administration said. That wasn’t reflexive, it was rational.
And anyway, who were these reflexively anti-Bushists? Howard Dean? Read what he actually said at the time, and it looks totally sensible (and prescient). Me? I think my columns from that period look pretty sound in the light of hindsight. Bloggers like Atrios or Kos? Again, if you read their archives what’s striking is how sane they come off compared with the “serious” voices of the time.
So to repeat, it’s really sad to have people still writing as if those who failed to see what was right in front of their noses were the sober, serious ones.
I also heard someone bring up illegal immigration. :dizzy
She pressed on, mostly unheard among screams from the audience estimated by Tampa police to be about 1,500.
"Tell the truth! Tell the truth!" "Read the bill!" "Forty-million illegals! Forty million illegals!"
In response to a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed by Whole Foods’ Chief Executive Officer John Mackey, activists, consumers and labor groups around the country have been organizing in opposition to his efforts to undermine meaningful health care reform.
Over the course of the next few weeks, members and staff from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) will be disseminating educational information to Whole Foods shoppers. The purpose of these efforts will be to set the record straight about health care reform and to raise serious concerns about Whole Foods CEO’s position on this critical issue. These events will be part of a series of regional educational efforts being planned for the coming weeks.
In retrospect, I think people will look back and ask us how our generation did not understand that all of this (birthers, townies, etc.) was just thinly-veiled racism.
What does the fact that Whole Foods is a good company to work for matter in context to its CEO making a really stupid comment?
Your logic leap is astounding. :lol
Do you believe the correlation of people who think the President is a Keyan and their political affiliation and geography is a coincidence? What does illegal immigration have to do with health care reform? Why are people bringing firearms to town halls?
I'll ignore the fact that you think a different opinon is "a really stupid comment?"
And just say that its pointless to boycot a whole company, that has a proven history of being an excellent employer, because their CEO isnt liberal enough.
Go ahead and boyvot whole foods. Then maybe they will close down and walmart will take their spot. :lol
Do you believe the correlation of people who think the President is a Keyan and their political affiliation and geography is a coincidence? What does illegal immigration have to do with health care reform? Why are people bringing firearms to town halls?
What color is this mans skin?
(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/08/18/obama.protest.rifle/art.obama.gun.pool.jpg)
Why would you make one giant exception and give the government the authority to track down, arrest, and deport people who hadn't harmed anyone and were willing to work? Why go against your principles in this one case? The government can't implement different marginal tax rates, but it's okay to use force to tell people where they can't live?
Flame thinks that's the only incident :lol
You're such an idiot. There was also another man with a rifle and about dozen folks with handguns at the same rally. And that came from a reporter from Fox News.
... Not to mention that it was a story because the media was reporting on folks bringing firearms to town halls prior to that day. The first incident occurred in Arizona, whereas the incident you are referring to happened afterwards - in New Hampshire.
Again, must be nice to have your head in the sand.
Yeah, sorry FoC but the first and more famous incident came at the New Hampshire town hall with the idiot carrying the "time to water the tree of liberty" sign. It's been confirmed that the guy interviewing the black dude and others that showed up to subsequent town halls planned on it after seeing the first guy get on the teevee.
Why would you make one giant exception and give the government the authority to track down, arrest, and deport people who hadn't harmed anyone and were willing to work? Why go against your principles in this one case? The government can't implement different marginal tax rates, but it's okay to use force to tell people where they can't live?
Most libertarians, including me are against that.
Hey you guys lets let more of these immigrants into the country. It's not like welfare is needed for people who actually deserve it.
America has some of the most libveral immigration laws. I think we need to change it a bit. Getting rid of birthright citizenship is a good start.
Illegal immigrants can now get citizenship faster than me, a law abiding citizen, can get a passport. This is fucking ridiculous.
For the most part America ia damn fine country. If current immigration trends continue we will be a countryfull of people who don't appreciate the what makes the country so great. The immigration laws are there for a reason, to say that they dont matter just undermines the whole process.
I dont get how illegal immigrant commit crimes at a less rate than the general population. They are breaking the law just by being here.
Granted Bill sucks and is going off on a random tangent here. But, the immigration problem still exists and needs to be handled.
Why would you make one giant exception and give the government the authority to track down, arrest, and deport people who hadn't harmed anyone and were willing to work? Why go against your principles in this one case? The government can't implement different marginal tax rates, but it's okay to use force to tell people where they can't live?
Most libertarians, including me are against that.Quote from: FoCHey you guys lets let more of these immigrants into the country. It's not like welfare is needed for people who actually deserve it.Quote from: FoCAmerica has some of the most libveral immigration laws. I think we need to change it a bit. Getting rid of birthright citizenship is a good start.Quote from: FoCIllegal immigrants can now get citizenship faster than me, a law abiding citizen, can get a passport. This is fucking ridiculous.Quote from: FoCFor the most part America ia damn fine country. If current immigration trends continue we will be a countryfull of people who don't appreciate the what makes the country so great. The immigration laws are there for a reason, to say that they dont matter just undermines the whole process.Quote from: FoCI dont get how illegal immigrant commit crimes at a less rate than the general population. They are breaking the law just by being here.
Granted Bill sucks and is going off on a random tangent here. But, the immigration problem still exists and needs to be handled.
Government should stay out of my business rakka rakka blah de blah unless it's enforcing a law to keep the furriners away from me.
I like how Flame also dodges all the rhetoric about illegal immigration, people saying that the President hates America, he's not born here, etc.
There are a myriad of reasons that people are going apeshit over a center-left president so soon after he's still trying to clean up after one of the worst administrations in history.Especially if you think FDR is the worst president in history
Yeah, sorry FoC but the first and more famous incident came at the New Hampshire town hall with the idiot carrying the "time to water the tree of liberty" sign. It's been confirmed that the guy interviewing the black dude and others that showed up to subsequent town halls planned on it after seeing the first guy get on the teevee.
FoC: If you think immigration limits should be enforced, then you're saying the government should have the power to tell people (immigrants) where not to live (America) even if they haven't harmed anyone (treating the immigration itself as a crime and grounds for deportation). That's a really large restriction on freedom, which is carried out through the threat of physical force.
Well, to be fair, Flame, I do have a deep rooted hatred of white children that grew up in upper middle class homes and didn't really have to work for anything they got.
Well, to be fair, Flame, I do have a deep rooted hatred of white children that grew up in upper middle class homes and didn't really have to work for anything they got.
You hate yourself?
I think a lot of it is bitterness stemming from having a Democrat in the White House, but amplified by having a black, liberal Democrat in the White House. He's obviously a Kenyan! And wants to become a communist dictator!
Just thought I'd point out that FoC's using the same rhetorical trick that ALWAYS gets trotted out during these things.
Liberal: Race has got to be the main reason why there's such an emotional, visceral reaction against immigration (when it's not even the subject of the meetings!) and all these Mysterious Other conspiracy theories about the black president and his nationality or religion.
Conservative: You just called me personally a racist! You're saying that race is the only possible reason someone might disagree with you on an issue! You're saying it's impossible to support any immigration policy other than yours without being a racist!
Liberal: That's not what I said. I'm trying to be honest about the reasons why these issues so deeply scare and anger some people. If it were just a matter of finding an efficient policy, I don't think you'd see the sort of...
Conservative: RACE CARD! RACE CARD! RACE CARD! RACE CARD!
Liberal: Oh, whatever.
Conservative: *sees black person approaching, crosses to other side of the street*
FoC: If you think immigration limits should be enforced, then you're saying the government should have the power to tell people (immigrants) where not to live (America) even if they haven't harmed anyone (treating the immigration itself as a crime and grounds for deportation). That's a really large restriction on freedom, which is carried out through the threat of physical force.
We have a pretty lax immigration policy as it is. I'm not sure why you think that if the U.S enforces it's immigration laws that they are being unjust. When I lived in Japan, I talked with a few foreigners about their situation and they all pretty much said that it was next to impossible to become a citizen there. I guess I didnt realize that it was a stretch for me to expect people to obey the laws. ???
Conservative: RACE CARD! RACE CARD! RACE CARD! RACE CARD!
:lol Liberal complains about the race card? HELL HAS FROZEN OVER.
Maybe it's just because of my age
I think the problem is that Flame doesn't know what it's like to actually have to struggle.
It blows my mind that people function like this.
I mean, I'm all for opposing view points - certainly I do not see eye-to-eye with a number of you (Mandark included) - but there must be a place where ideology meets reality, right?
The look on McCain's face when he grabs the microphone back. :lol
Also, if you Google "Obama + Nazi" you get 7 million hits, whereas only 2.8 million with Dubya.
It blows my mind that people function like this.
I mean, I'm all for opposing view points - certainly I do not see eye-to-eye with a number of you (Mandark included) - but there must be a place where ideology meets reality, right?
To more and more people (COUGH) I'm beginning to believe that having an ideology is more important than dealing with reality.
Also, if you Google "Obama + Nazi" you get 7 million hits, whereas only 2.8 million with Dubya.
Well, Nazi did stand for National Socialist party after all. Just sayin....
:smug
While I respect what you're saying to some extent Mandark, "when you subsidize something, you get more of it."
As long as our welfare state is as large as it is (and some *cough* want it to get bigger), all we do is encourage more people to cross over and be a drain. Maybe you have the luxury of not living in a state where that matters, but I don't.
Ted Kennedy has died.
While I respect what you're saying to some extent Mandark, "when you subsidize something, you get more of it."
As long as our welfare state is as large as it is (and some *cough* want it to get bigger), all we do is encourage more people to cross over and be a drain. Maybe you have the luxury of not living in a state where that matters, but I don't.
Three points:
1) If only you had lived it, then you'd understand I was right. La de dah. The metro area and Congressional district I live in have higher proportions of residents born outside the US than, oh, Texas. You ride the Q2 through Wheaton and tell me how sheltered I am.
2) I'm not buying that immigrants are a "drain" because of the welfare state, and it's absurd to imply that they come here with the intention of becoming one. Immigrants skew towards working-age and those desiring to work (the main economic concern is that they'll drive down wages by competing for jobs ferchrissakes).
It's weird how you're treating The Welfare State like a black box which mysteriously converts the money of the rich into the money of the poor. You could at least cite some actual, real-life programs by which the immigrant population siphons off wealth. The reality is that most social spending goes towards the elderly, and immigration is a boon for that. Ask any economist who's had to model Social Security's long-term prospects, and they'll tell you that immigration makes the program more solvent, not less.
3) This is the important one, and I was kind of trolling you into your response so I could make this point.
You're not against immigration per se. You're against the welfare state, and open borders would make it easier for certain people to apply for and receive government subsidies.
So, as a remedy to this problem, you're okay with a separate branch of the government arresting and deporting those people and telling them where they ought not live (which is essentially a whole continent). Not just the people who are draining the system, but a whole swath of people you think are more statistically likely to do so.
Well hell. Our government gives out agricultural, fossil fuel, nuclear, aviation, automotive, timber, and construction subsidies. What if a government agency started cracking down on people who started businesses (or were more likely to start businesses) in those industries?
Tlderly are far and away the biggest personal "drains" on our tax dollars, through Medicare and Social Security. If the FBI started shipping off mee-maw and pop-pop, would you say "I'm not against senior citizens in general, and I'd much rather do away with the welfare state so they could stay. But as long as it persists, it's probably better to ship them away before they can incur such outrageous costs. Maybe you have the luxury of not being surrounded by doddering old geezers, but I don't."
edit:Ted Kennedy has died.
Well, shit.
It'd be interesting to see what angle the politicians take with the passing of Ted Kennedy. Could it be a game changer?
so explain his asthmatic response to abortions
or am i thinking of apf?
glenn beck sez: don't sleep easy, folks! this is what the socialists want, you to sleep easy, knowing that the beast has fallen. but let me tell you, reichsfuhrer emanuel rahm and his modern ahnenerbe in the white house are gonna bring him back, now with the power of lucifer himself, commanding an army six hundred sixty-six demonic unionized acorn workers to steal our freedoms...and our souls!
I gotta defend JayDubya a bit here.
FoC may have arrived at his philosophy via cultural resentment, blinkered selfishness and the Ron Paul cult of personality, but JD got there through a sort of geek hyper-literalism. It's an optimistic, sci-fi version of libertarianism that relies on believing in a clean, textbook version of humanity rather than the one the rest of us live in (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5867740#post5867740).
But no, I don't see how you can support the legality of what is, objectively, aggressive homicide.
masturbation is genocide:violin
But no, I don't see how you can support the legality of what is, objectively, aggressive homicide.
oh oh oh oh i'll bite. "objectively" -- el oh el. homicide is a subjective term! at some point, each individual decides to ascribe human qualities to what is, at all stages, a collection of biological tissue; of amino acids and proteins and chemical reactions. if a "man" is simply n cells with a certain dna/rna sequence, then masturbation is genocide. there is no objective definition of a human being that does not, at some point, involve the empathic mechanism, and is thus entirely subjective.
Game over. ::) A sperm cell is not an organism.
But no, I don't see how you can support the legality of what is, objectively, aggressive homicide.
oh oh oh oh i'll bite.
Oh oh oh. Let's see you try.Quote"objectively" -- el oh el. homicide is a subjective term!
Actually, no. Neither "aggressive" nor "homicide" are open for subjective interpretation. The subjectivity comes in the form of restrictive legal "personhood," which is where the state apparently gets to determine which human beings are expendable subhuman property.
Just so we're clear, which objectively true fact are you denying, the aggressive part or the homicide part? I mean, to reject either would be utterly wrong, but I don't want to waste time on the one you've already conceded so we can get to the part where you concede the other one or just resort to petty namecalling.Quoteat some point, each individual decides to ascribe human qualities to what is, at all stages, a collection of biological tissue; of amino acids and proteins and chemical reactions.
Uh-huh. I ascribe the term "living human being" to that which is, objectively, a living human being.Quoteif a "man" is simply n cells with a certain dna/rna sequence, then masturbation is genocide.
Game over. ::) A sperm cell is not an organism. Go to back to intro Biology. Your opinion on this is mired in too much ignorance to be valid.Quote"Empathic mechanism"l:lol
Game over. ::) A sperm cell is not an organism.
Pretty sure it is.
Perhaps you have orgasm and organism confused.
In biology, an organism is any living system (such as animal, plant, fungus, or micro-organism). In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole. An organism may either be unicellular (single-celled) or be composed of, as in humans, many billions of cells grouped into specialized tissues and organs.
speaking of which does a female's (or male's :teehee) attractiveness influence the tip amount? does for me.. show me your boobs for extra $$$
lies, INinjustice, and the soviet way :ussrcry
you know krypton had socialized health-care too. look what happened there.
Something is a thing or is it not.
If we have an organism that is it the offspring of homo sapiens, through conventional sexual reproduction, or even the oh-so-prevalent-in-science-fiction-but-not-yet-realized-in-real-humans cloning, or some other means - that organism is a member of our species.
Second of all, a living human being is a living human being. Said "legal protection" is provided on the basis of a recognition of rights; if said human rights are inherent and unalienable - a core value of the American state - then they are present for all living human beings.
::) Does the state force me to not shoot up the local liquor store? Do you honestly consider that coercive?
Not really. One is a living human being. The other is a living human being.
step three, then: assuming that we are agreed that all organisms are not human, what objective qualities define a human organism?
What objective qualities define a human organism?
Heh. A human organism is what not-human-organisms are not. It is intrinsically human organism-y. :lol
Okay, I'll try that again, with less condescending silliness.
Unless you or I are that rare case of mutation / speciation that breaks the mold, if you or I am a living organism, and our respective parents are Homo sapiens, we are Homo sapiens. We are not capable of bearing the young of any other species. We do not have half-elves and half-orcs and centaurs running around.
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at. Something is a thing or is it not. If we have an organism that is it the offspring of homo sapiens, through conventional sexual reproduction, or even the oh-so-prevalent-in-science-fiction-but-not-yet-realized-in-real-humans cloning, or some other means - that organism is a member of our species.
Which returns us back to the reflexive property, unfortunately. What makes a living organism objectively human is that it is, objectively, a living human organism.
The only way I can parse what you're going for is that you're still hung up on DNA alone.
being aggressive homicide, should women who have abortions be arrested for murder and receive the same sentences?
being aggressive homicide, should women who have abortions be arrested for murder and receive the same sentences?
We've played this game so many times I can answer for him: "Yes, and so should the doctors who perform the abortions."
being aggressive homicide, should women who have abortions be arrested for murder and receive the same sentences?
We've played this game so many times I can answer for him: "Yes, and so should the doctors who perform the abortions."
well at least he's consistently evil
It's not evil to lock someone up for putting into practice their wanton disregard for human life. It's both punishment and prevention.
their wanton disregard for human life
It's both punishment and prevention.
Ted Kennedy is garbage.
A man that never had to work a day in his life and has no concept of what a "working man" is, except for the ones that worked at his Hyannis compound. The flag bearer of a new generation of limousine liberals.
No wonder the "working man" has gotten the shaft in the past 30 years. He was the alleged spokesman for them.
Fuck you Ted Kennedy. Hopefully the next generation of Americans quits listens less to the sons and daughters of rich people and more to the people that made something of themselves within their own lifetimes.
RIP
What a shame your voice is lost among the Limbaugh's and Coulter's of the world.
Fuck you Ted Kennedy. Hopefully the next generation of Americans quits listens less to the sons and daughters of rich people and more to the people that made something of themselves within their own lifetimes.
It's all selective though, because illegal immigrants don't require human rights, and the literally hundreds of government-run enterprises that exist in and keep this nation (and its economy) afloat are given a pass. That's what I find hypocritical, that you're so urgent to save that one child from abortion, whilst throwing cash to clowns that spend thousand of lives on economic (Uh oh, the government is getting involved in the economy again!) wars.
Yeah, it's such a paradox to, on the one hand, support human rights and economic freedom, and on the other hand, to support human rights and personal freedom.
and b) "If you don't like (x), don't (y) (pronoun)" isn't the brilliant catch-all you seem to think it is.
For a particularly fitting historical reference - "If you don't like slavery, don't buy a slave" kind of misses the point.
Scahill came off as kind of douchey (as opposed to when you guys think Jon Stewart comes off as douchey) but he was essentially right- the media sucks ass and covers a bunch of frivolous nonsense.
According to Scahill (via email), Todd approached him after the Maher show and the following occurred:
Right as we walked off stage, he said to me "that was a cheap shot." I said "what are you talking about?" and he said "you know it." I then said that I monitor msm coverage very closely and asked him what was not true that I said on the show. He then replied: "that's not the point. You sullied my reputation on TV."
Media stars are so unaccustomed to being held accountable for the impact of their behavior -- especially when they're on television -- that they consider it a grievous assault on their entitlement when it happens.
The overwhelming majority of nations around the globe ended the practice peacefully.
I applaud you for what you think is right and sticking up for that. I just denounce your view that it should be institutionally implemented because it infringes on personal rights. A woman's decision > a zygote's decision since it never had a choice. We are just going to have to agree to disagree. :)If you don't like abortions, don't get them.
Well a) I can't have one, which is of course what this is all about, me hating womyn. A-yup.
and b) "If you don't like (x), don't (y) (pronoun)" isn't the brilliant catch-all you seem to think it is.
For a particularly fitting historical reference - "If you don't like slavery, don't buy a slave" kind of misses the point.QuoteFor someone who deplores regulation yet, in the same breath, preaches about missing human regulation is really hard to take seriously.
Corporate regulation bad
taxes bad
Regulate that vagina!!!!!!!
Yeah, it's such a paradox to, on the one hand, support human rights and economic freedom, and on the other hand, to support human rights and personal freedom.
Silly me.
Like Mitt Romney, Bill Kristol and John Sydney Mccain III.
edit: ok, Mandark with the true ether per the usual.
:lol he actually said "sullied", what a little bitch.:( I like that word
It's not a loving God I worry about, it's you rightwing sociopaths who parade around as Christians while allowing pain and suffering, poverty and oppression, greed and narcisism to prevail because you kneel before the false gods of conservatism, social dariwnism and greed. You CANNOT be a Christian and a social conservative. They are mutually exclusive. You make Jesus and the Mother Mary weep. There's a special place in Hell for the likes of you."
[youtube=560,345]e3jwhLcW_c8[/youtube]
smh
There has to be a ton of conservatives who don't trust or like to deal with insurance companies.
Perhaps one of you guys should start a "non-profit" health care company and let it flourish. :smugfixed
I know you guys are going to bring up medicare and medicaid, but I don't want to hear a counter argument that makes my talking points irrelevant.
No semantics? Semantics is unfortunately at the root of much of this. The very thing you're taking issue with is what words mean.
"Life" is a phenomenon, but it is also a property with a valid and agreed-upon-through-consensus "textbook" scientific definition based on an established set of criteria (all of which are met by the human organism at any point in its growth and development, from conception to death).
"Organism" is a description of a particular living entity.
"Human being" is synonymous with "a member of the species H. sapiens"
You took issue with "aggressive" and "homicide," both of which, again, are objectively true, entirely appropriate labels for the abortion act.
hom·i·cide (hm-sd, hm-)
n.
1. The killing of one person by another.
2. A person who kills another person.
JD's next move is to tell you that he doesn't buy all this wishy-washy descriptivist BS, and that words have objective, immutable meanings.
Words get do make phlahoogen flagen SHAMALAMADOO nark-nark.
It somewhat helps in communication when people agree to use the same language and the same syntax.
The trouble is that you're both ignorant and wrong to do so since it objectively is a subset of human.
It is not a subset of "person"
Geez, that's pretty harsh to be both stupid and wrong.
Honestly, many of you get hung up on the basics before the actual debate can even begin.
I take issue with the concept of restrictive legal personhood itself - if you are a living human being, you are a possessor of unalienable rights and governments are instituted to protect them.
Conservative media figures are blasting Democrats for trying to draw political gain from the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. But on Thursday, it was one of their own -- former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- who went there.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/28/huckabee-kennedy-would-ha_n_271605.html
The 2008 Republican presidential candidate suggested during his radio show, "The Huckabee Report," on Thursday that, under President Obama's health care plan, Kennedy would have been told to "go home to take pain pills and die" during his last year of life.
"t was President Obama himself who suggested that seniors who don't have as long to live might want to consider just taking a pain pill instead of getting an expensive operation to cure them," said Huckabee. "Yet when Sen. Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at 77, did he give up on life and go home to take pain pills and die? Of course not. He freely did what most of us would do. He choose an expensive operation and painful follow up treatments. He saw his work as vitally important and so he fought for every minute he could stay on this earth doing it. He would be a very fortunate man if his heroic last few months were what future generations remember him most for."
You really have to be more specific re: what you're asking for.
explain to me the specific criteria that separate homo sapiens from other living things, in wholly objective terms, such that the differentiation is necessary when considering the act of terminating a "life".
Rights are inherent characteristics. That's what a right is. If it's not an independent property, inherent to the being, it isn't a right. If someone gives it to you, someone can take it away - which means again... it isn't a right.
I'm also not sure how one can interpret the act of arguing against fact to be intellectualism...
really? what is "intelligence"? "sapience?" now you really ARE in completely subjective territory. objectivey, we're meat and chemical reactions, just like a cactus, or a kitten, and the only thing that makes us special is the purely SUBJECTIVE importance we ascribe to our condition -- that the chemical processes and biological configuration what produce our notion of self-awareness is somehow a feature of our species more significant than being able to regrow a tail or smell a deer 10 miles off. OBJECTIVELY, we are a certain configuration of chemicals, like any other organism that we likewise choose to arbitrarily distinguish based on its essential makeup. anything else is strictly magical thinking.Quote from: JayDubyaRights are inherent characteristics. That's what a right is. If it's not an independent property, inherent to the being, it isn't a right. If someone gives it to you, someone can take it away - which means again... it isn't a right.
that's another false tautology. "a right is...a right! if it's not inherent to the being, it can't exist, but they DO, so lol!" prove to me a "right" exists; that it has a tangible, objective existence independent of the participation of others in pretending they exist.
i'm not sure how you can accuse me of being religious -- i'm not the one believing in magical ephemera, here! i don't believe god is necessary for morals -- in fact, i don't even believe morals objectively exist beyond chemical reactions in my brain to specific social stimuli.
The natural right to life is more fundamental; it is the basis for preventing, investigating, and prosecuting lethal acts taken against other human beings.
Late reply, but I wasn't online until now.
The natural right to life is more fundamental; it is the basis for preventing, investigating, and prosecuting lethal acts taken against other human beings.
Where do these natural rights originate and where do they reside?
Note: this is a side-topic conversation, as clearly we're onto something more subjective here.
"Reside?" They are innate characteristics; they'd have to be in order to be more than a privilege or an entitlement. Rights are.
I am asserting support for a bedrock values of the nation I inhabit, and something I embrace entirely. I suppose the Brits receiving the DoI didn't think Jefferson's truths were very self-evident, hence the whole military invasion thing. However, I concur with Jefferson, that men are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights, and to protect those rights, we make governments; when governments routinely violate those rights, those governments are no longer valid and should be removed.
For another tack on the same question, and a preface for the next, rights are a property of sentient and sapient life. There could be other sentient & sapient life in our universe, but insofar as we know, we're it.
While relatively intelligent compared to most animals, chimpanzees are not capable of the level of judgment, reasoning, or awareness that humans are.
Note: one could just as easily take a pro-animal rights position and marry it to an anti-abortion position. Indeed, that would be more logically consistent than what is statistically more common among the PETA crowd.
I don't see how we could.
A human in the fetal stage of growth and development is just as human as you or I, in the adult stage of growth and development.
In that stage of development, however, a human being is not recognized as a person.
If we agreed that the human in utero had a natural right to life, we would have no argument. The initiation of lethal force against a third party that has nothing to justify your actions would be a violation of that third party's right to life. Governments are instituted specifically to prohibit or prosecute such infractions.
Yes, reside. Legal rights are located in constitutions, statutes, and case law. I can point to them, read them, enumerate them.
:lol Neither the Constitution, nor any lower-tier governmental contract grants rights. They can only recognize rights. So no, they don't "reside" anywhere.
I was wondering what you were getting at. I didn't realize the problem was fundamental.
They may not be as smart as born humans, but they're sure smarter than zygotes and fetuses.
They're smarter than newborn humans, actually, but that's actually pretty tied to my own point - transitory states are not much of a basis for denying personhood.QuoteWrong. If you believe a clump of undifferentiated cells has some "natural right" to life, it should follow that fairly intelligent organism that suffer pain should also be covered by those rights. The converse does not follow.
If your standard for granting rights is tied to the wishy-washy pain / empathy standard, then give a chimpanzee a nice sedative and some general anesthetic before shooting them in the head. Hell, for that matter, do it to a human.
And 99% of the time, that third party is present due to voluntary and deliberate action.
Well, there's an arbitrary legal line that says it happens at birth, but that's kind of what I'm taking issue with.
The anesthetic recipient is not conscious either, nor is he or she experiencing pain or pleasure. This is a temporary state, of course.
If you'll note, I have said nothing of "potential." The human in utero is deserving of the protection of its rights not because of what it will become but because it is - a living human being.
I hate quote tags, god damn it
They're getting quite nested and quite frustrating, actually, yeah. :lol
No it isn't, and no I don't. I don't draw a line. A living human being is a living human being. You could argue that I'm drawing a line at conception, but I'd counter that prior to that, no organism exists.
Indeed, unless I had their consent, and even if I did have their consent to put them under, I doubtlessly did not have consent to kill them.
However, if I were to look at this in the context of the logical / moral framework presented by some in the pro-abortion camp, battery would be my crime, and there would certainly be broaching of duty if this were a patient, but the actual killing act wouldn't be criminally punishable.
If rights are the basis for the prosecution of crimes, and rights are granted to human persons, and humans are only people if they're currently exhibiting higher-level consciousness and can feel pain...
This weekend's Republican YouTube address by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) -- one of the three key Republicans negotiating on health care -- was a pretty strong sign that negotiations might not be working out after all. Enzi delivered a thorough speech against the Democrats on health care. And even while he did not use the "death panel" phrase itself, he did make the same underlying argument by warning that people could be denied care because of age or disability: (vid at link)http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/enzi-pushes-deatherism-in-gop-address.php?ref=fpblg
"The bills would expand comparative effectiveness research that would be used to limit or deny care based on age or disability of patients," said Enzi. "Republican amendments in the HELP Committee would have protected Americans by prohibiting the rationing of their health care. The Democrats showed their true intent by voting every amendment down and leaving these unacceptable provisions in the bill. This intrusion of a Washington bureaucrat in the relationship between a doctor and a patient is not the kind of reform that Americans are seeking."
And remember, this guy is one of the key GOPers with whom the Democrats are working, to try to find common ground.
The Pubs only regained control of both houses for a decade. Not twenty-five years.
Not to mention that the notion of bipartisanship is still all upside down in DC.
kinda makes me want to go back and read all the hubris surrounding "new age of dem dominance! 40 years! demographics!" talk that popped up after the election.
bad economy+dem incompetence will throw that out the fucking window
(http://i31.tinypic.com/xm1tnk.jpg)
:lol
pat buchanan asks, "was hitler really that bad!?" (http://buchanan.org/blog/did-hitler-want-war-2068)
If Hitler wanted the world, why did he not build strategic bombers, instead of two-engine Dorniers and Heinkels that could not even reach Britain from Germany?
pat buchanan asks, "was hitler really that bad!?" (http://buchanan.org/blog/did-hitler-want-war-2068)
(http://j.photos.cx/pjb-column1-950.jpg) <-> :smug
pat buchanan asks, "was hitler really that bad!?" (http://buchanan.org/blog/did-hitler-want-war-2068)
omg, I'd never seen Glenn Beck before. I assumed he was an unscrupulous entertainer like Limbaugh and Coulter, but he appears to either be clinically insane or have decided that it would be advantageous to present himself as clinically insane.
remember, pre-ww2 and even into the early years of it, there was a large contingent of political support FOR hitler in america.
Yeah.
Hell, I don't like pledging to the flag, which is just a symbol, let alone swear fealty to an executive as if he were a monarch, which is exactly what that was.
[youtube=560,345]pTQawLBC59g[/youtube]
Here is the end of it
pat buchanan asks, "was hitler really that bad!?" (http://buchanan.org/blog/did-hitler-want-war-2068)
Pat Buchanan is about as far as you can get from the new right. He's bedrock
It's funny, after reading that article, I don't see the line "was Hitler really all thad bad?" nor any derivation therein or anything that could be logically misconstrued as such.
But by "funny," I mean, "totally expected."
Edit: Is your definition of "a lot" Mamacint, and Mamacint?
Q-tipping point.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/04/franken-calms-down-health_n_277687.html
Franken: 1
Me: 0
awesome, I take back my negative comments :bow
Jon Chait and Paul Krugman have both vouched for Franken as an earnest wonk, and he's worked overtime to prove that he's willing to listen and engage with people rather than throw verbal bombs.
is there anything the right wing won't freak out about needlessly?
I'd imagine some folks will buy the "bububu he changed the speech after we protested!" line
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
But if our children cure AIDS, won't that make their children sexually active since there would be no consequences? Is curing AIDS really what we want our children to do? :smugI swear that's an actual argument against the HPV (cervical cancer) vaccine.
Self loathing might be the main reason why this movement exists, IMO.I think that's way too simplistic of an explanation, but then again, the whole movement is way too simplistic.
I think what we're seeing these days is the result of a healthy swath of the population that for the better part of the last generation, hasn't been properly informed. If you're a guy who only listens to Rush, watches Fox News, and shuns any other sort of information from the 'Liberal Media Elite', then of course you're going to be an angry, confrontational, ill-informed boob.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
Quote from: Barack ObamaBut at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
This has been the conservative message about education and opportunity since I've been following politics. Hard work and personal responsibility instead of using social disadvantages as a crutch. They eat it up when Bill Cosby says something along these lines, and sets him up as a counter to the "victimization" narratives of the NAACP.
Of all things, this should have been the last to turn into the Controversy Of The Week. They should have been making perfunctory statements about the importance of education -- if they noticed the speech at all -- rather than threatening to pull their kids and imputing a fascist agenda to the president. It's nuts. They're nuts.
Remember in the first month or two of Obama's presidency? Right wing pundits vacillated between "ZOMG SOCIALISM" and "heh indeed, the liberals were tricked into voting for a center-right candidate :smug". Well, they've officially resolved that contradiction. No matter what Obama does or says, he's an extremist and a conspirator against the country.
I feel a bit dumb for being even a little surprised by this.
According to the Michigan Association of Realtors and Detroit Board of Realtors (data here), the average sales price of a Detroit home fell to $12,669 in February (Year-to-Date), a -42.5% decline from the $22,016 average home price during the same period last year (see chart above).
I disagree that Afghanistan is a war not worth fighting, and I say this as someone who has a brother enlisting in the armed forces and will likely be sent there as well.
I do agree that we cannot continue to fight this war the way we have been (limited support, limited troops, reliance on military contractors, etc.).
Obama's speech was just dripping with socialist values, especially when he told kids "I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter."
Oh, and the part about students setting goals for their education and asking for help when they worry they won't succeed? He is stealing the words right out of Karl Marx's mouth.
Why is it worth fighting in your opinion
Basically, you don't let a shitty homeowner run an apartment complex across town if you can help it.
Is Cheebs still banned? He doesn't seem to post in Poligaf either for some reason.
Jackson resident Bill Spencer attended the rally and carried a sign that showed duct tape over the mouth of President Barack Obama. Spencer said he was at the rally because of the economic effect the Obama administration's agenda has had.
"It's putting businesses of Jackson almost out of business. I come from a locally run family business here in town," Spencer said. "I don't want to mention it, but that could just kill us."
The most notable literary response to last year's financial crisis was not to turn to the obvious genre—books about Wall Street shenanigans in the 1920s—but to skip several historical stages and to go straight to Ayn Rand's 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged," in which heroic titans of industry are persecuted by a meddling government. The book's sales skyrocketed in early 2009, proving that when bankers puff asset bubbles and wreck the world, a large part of the public can be counted on to learn from that experience that bankers are the real victims of society, presumably deserving even more tax cuts and deregulation.:bow
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/gop_lawmakers_graphic_sex-bragging_caught_on_tape.php?ref=fpblg
:rofl :rofl :rofl
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/gop_lawmakers_graphic_sex-bragging_caught_on_tape.php?ref=fpblg
:rofl :rofl :rofl
Freshman Assemblyman Michael D. Duvall issued the following reaction to the California Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate the state’s recognition of marriage between one man and one woman:
“I am disappointed the Supreme Court has decided today to disregard the opinion of an overwhelming majority of California voters and overturn Proposition 22. I look forward to supporting the California Marriage Protection Act that will hopefully appear on the November ballot and amend the State Constitution, so we can end this debate once and for all.”
SACRAMENTO - Assemblyman Michael D. Duvall (R-Yorba Linda) today announced that he has received a perfect 100% score on the Capitol Resource Institute's (CRI) annual legislative scorecard.
"Assemblyman Duvall has been a consistent trooper for the conservative cause," stated Capitol Resource Institute Executive Director Karen England. "For the last two years he has voted, time and time again, to protect and preserve family values in California. We are grateful for his support of California families and will continue to look for it in the upcoming session."
The Capitol Resource Institute's mission is to protect and strengthen families through public policy advocacy. Their legislative scorecard is the only such 'report card' that annually rates legislators on their pro-family votes.
"California's families are under a constant assault in Sacramento, and CRI does an excellent job of educating legislators and staff alike on issues, and advocating in defense of the traditional family," Assemblyman Duvall said. "Moreover, the Legislature needs to stop constantly injecting itself into people's everyday lives, telling them when they can use their cell phones, whether or not they can visit a tanning salon, and other such nonsense. Over the past two years I have made a concerted effort to work with CRI on heading off these threats, and beating back the constant efforts to expand Nanny Government in California, and I will continue to fight for this as long as I have the opportunity to serve in Sacramento."
It could be that conservatives will “own the insult” and use “teabagger” as a badge of honor. It could become some proud conservative N-word.
meh politicizing Kennedy's death agrhhhhhh
I like how the reps clapped for like 5 minutes when Obama mentioned tort reform.For a minute there, I thought they were just going to try and clap though the rest of the speech so nothing more would be said.
awaiting my "detsruction"
Lovely vitriol re: illegal immigrants. Even socialism can't get Republicans angry like mentioning illegal immigration.
awaiting my "detsruction"
Lovely vitriol re: illegal immigrants. Even socialism can't get Republicans angry like mentioning illegal immigration.awaiting my "detsruction"
What happened? I always feel like I'm missing something.
Yeah, that's pretty embarrassing, Crushed. The Russian in that Hitler/Obama/Lenin poster is completely nonsensical.
ABC News is reporting that President Obama has summoned 17 members of the Senate Democratic caucus--most of whom have expressed some degree of skepticism over President Obama's health care plan--to the White House for a meeting late this afternoon.
The members are: Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Mark Warner (D-VA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Mark Begich (D-AK), Mark Udall (D-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Joe Lieberman (I-CT).
We'll be on the lookout for developments.
I'm guessing AV is talking about the GOP congresscritter that shouted out "that's a lie!" when Obama said reform wouldn't cover illegals, and Prole is talking about a choice comment from the Freeper link I posted.
Finally, President Obama delivered an offhand applause line tonight about the cost of the War on Terror. As we approach the anniversary of the September 11th attacks and honor those who died that day and those who have died since in the War on Terror, in order to secure our freedoms, we need to remember their sacrifices and not demonize them as having had too high a price tag.
Still, when it comes to right-wing trolling and self-pity, you gotta look to the master.Quote from: Sarah PalinFinally, President Obama delivered an offhand applause line tonight about the cost of the War on Terror. As we approach the anniversary of the September 11th attacks and honor those who died that day and those who have died since in the War on Terror, in order to secure our freedoms, we need to remember their sacrifices and not demonize them as having had too high a price tag.
Obama wasn't just being partisan and uninformative, he was demonizing the victims of 9/11!
I just like how - in the same interview no less - he objects to the President referring to reform opponents' arguments as bogus claims, only to then go and make a bogus claim. :lol
Cyrillic typefaces in American politics: don't actually look up the letters, just do the ones that kinda look like ours.
L-O-fuckin L. (http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1219-Joe-Wilson-Voted-to-Provide-Taxpayer-Money-for-Illegal-Immigrants-Healthcare)
I take it you're watching coverage of the "Glenn Beck Scared White People March" Himu?
I take it you're watching coverage of the "Glenn Beck Scared White People March" Himu?
rabble rabble rabble I'm simple minded and cannot fathom people having a different opinion so instead I will just call them racist. rabble rabble rabble.:lol
It's too bad the local DC residents don't come down and make some people check their racism.
rabble rabble rabble I'm simple minded and cannot fathom people having a different opinion so instead I will just call them racist. rabble rabble rabble.
rabble rabble rabble I'm simple minded and cannot fathom people having a different opinion so instead I will just call them racist. rabble rabble rabble.
:bow(http://i32.tinypic.com/2yjrdcn.jpg):bow2
:american
I'm presuming the point of posting that was because he found it offensive; I suppose my point was that it was fuck awesome.
a guy tries to chase a bunch ofdistinguished blaACORN OPERATIVES out of here
It still amazes me how these peopl are manipulated to think that a public action group that's sustained by their own sons and daughters could be evil, that it is a bad thing to be offered lower premiums at the expense of an insurance companies bottom line, or that Obama is the first President to use a teleprompter. Some old man in a think tank snaps his fingers and these people snatch up the talking points and just run with them.
I'm presuming the point of posting that was because he found it offensive; I suppose my point was that it was fuck awesome.
It occurs to me that you're celebrating his death because of his views on economic and social justice, views I mostly share.
I do hope you're not praying for my death, JD.
What I celebrate, pausingly, is the end of the career of a horrible human being, through and through, and if Obama et. al are so keen to tie their project to him, then I would like to see it die as he did. aa
Of course, any gains from his demise would be short lived, as Taxachusetts will no doubt replace a Kennedy with a Kennedy or an ideological clone placeholder, though perhaps not one that avoided certain prison with de facto royalty status.
If you identify with every cause or position this man took, then I am certainly glad you are not a representative in our legislature. Regardless, Mandark, you need not worry - I don't pray.
Wow buddy. So your mind has resorted to this line of thinking? He was horrible, huh?
horrible things:
atom bombs
Plagues
Famine
Homicidal Sociopaths
The sun going supernova
Proton decay in the long run
Dying
Flesh Eatin Bacteria
Black Presidents
things that are annoying/aggravating:
Politicians I don't personally agree with
And you can argue its semantical, but if you resort to calling people horrible you'd be surprised how your subconscious brain interprets that. So you end up wishing people would die.
:-\
that girl holding the nazi pelosi sign is cute :-*
Rick Santorum affirmed on an RNC conference call -- aimed at attacking Arlen Specter -- that he's considering a run for president in 2012 -- because, he said, the Obama presidency is "injurious to America."http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0909/Santorum_may_challenge_injurious_Obama.html
"The dynamic has changed," Santorum said. "A lot of folks who might not have thought about running against an incumbent president" are now considering it.
He cited Obama's lower poll numbers and his failure to "transform" and unify the country.
"A lot of people are going to take a look and see wht they can do to try to confront this presidency, which many of us -- as you're seeing from the tea parties and the like -- which many of us believe is injurious to America," Santorum said, saying the 2012 race is "something that I think I would consider."
Santorum also elaborated on his opposition to the use of reconciliation to pass health care legislation; the parliamentary procedure was used, with his support, in the Bush years to pass the controversial 2003 tax cuts and a range of other measures, including opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
Santorum called ANWR drilling "fairly minor" in its impact on the land and on the economy
"You're talking about drilling holes, as opposed to rejiggering and reconstructing the entire health care system of this country," the former Pennsylvania senator said.
"A tax bill is by definition a revenue bill - it affects the budget. That's what reconciliation is for," he said.
"This is a major policy initiative in an area that goes beyond the federal government's balance sheets -- that to me makes it an abomination."
He warned that the procedure would turn the bill into a "Rube Goldberg machine."
UPDATE: A Democrat notes that Santorum didn't always consider ANWR a minor matter of a few holes: “I believe that ANWR has the potential to play a significant role in reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and I support exploring this area in a safe and environmentally sound way," he wrote in 2006.
He cited Obama's lower poll numbers and his failure to "transform" and unify the country.
9/12 CROWD ESTIMATES JUMP THE SHARK.... The "debate" over the size of the crowd for the right-wing protests in D.C. on Saturday have been painful to watch the last few days. Absurd claims and bogus photographs abound. This morning, Glenn Beck said a "university" put the number at 1.7 million, but he couldn't remember which one.
All of this has been embarrassing for a few days now, but the story didn't become farcical until today.QuoteYesterday on his radio program, while discussing the crowds at this weekend's 9/12 protests, Glenn Beck claimed that the London Telegraph "quote[d] a source from the Park Service, the National Park Service, saying that it is the largest march on Washington ever." This led to a good deal of confusion here, as the Telegraph article contains no such quote. Just another case of Beck making things up? Actually, the story behind this turns out to be much funnier than we could have anticipated.
Several conservative blogs have been quoting National Park Service spokesman "Dan Bana" as saying the 9/12 protest was "the largest event held in Washington, D.C., ever." This appears to be a repurposing of this quote from David Barna (who, unlike Dan Bana, appears to be a real person):
"David Barna, a Park Service spokesman, said the agency did not conduct its own count. Instead, it will use a Washington Post account that said 1.8 million people gathered on the US Capitol grounds, National Mall, and parade route. 'It is a record,' Barna said. 'We believe it is the largest event held in Washington, D.C., ever.'"
There are an astounding number of conservative bloggers running with this today, all of whom are telling their readers that Saturday's protest was the largest in D.C. history. (My personal favorite was the one mocking "Democrats and their media acolytes" who refuse to believe it.)
The problem, of course, is that the quote conservatives are so excited about referenced the Obama inauguration. The article that generated all of this right-wing excitement has a headline that reads, "Inaugural crowd size reportedly D.C. record." The very first sentence in the article that the conservative bloggers relied on reads, "The National Park Service says it will rely on a media report that says 1.8 million people attended President Obama's inauguration."
Charles Johnson, himself a conservative blogger at Little Green Footballs, finds the right's approach to this rather depressing. "This is so pathetic I don't know whether to laugh or cry," he said, adding, "An epic, monumental fail."
Carter getting blasted for saying what we were all thinking. :lol
Carter getting blasted for saying what we were all thinking. :lol
Where?
Oh god, Wilson was the doofus who criticized Strom Thurmond's secret black daughter for revealing herself? Nevermind. :lol
Barack Obama, bourgeois in every way that bourgeois is right and just, will not dance. He tells kids to study--and they seethe. He accepts an apology for an immature act of rudeness--and they go hysterical. He takes his wife out for a date--and their veins bulge. His humanity, his ordinary blackness, is killing them. Dig the audio of his response to Kanye West--the way he says, "He's a jackass." He sounds like one of my brothers. And that's the point, because that's what he is. Barack Obama refuses to be their distinguished black fellow. And it's driving them crazy.
It's about time.
(http://i29.tinypic.com/6yl6x4.jpg)
(http://i29.tinypic.com/6yl6x4.jpg)
:lol Obama's such a dork.
Ta-Nehisi Coates over at the Atlantic had a pretty astute blog entry on all of the the white rage at Obama earlier today: (http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/09/flip_and_pop_my_collar_like_the_fonz.php)QuoteBarack Obama, bourgeois in every way that bourgeois is right and just, will not dance. He tells kids to study--and they seethe. He accepts an apology for an immature act of rudeness--and they go hysterical. He takes his wife out for a date--and their veins bulge. His humanity, his ordinary blackness, is killing them. Dig the audio of his response to Kanye West--the way he says, "He's a jackass." He sounds like one of my brothers. And that's the point, because that's what he is. Barack Obama refuses to be their distinguished black fellow. And it's driving them crazy.
It's about time.
:lol Obama's such a dork.
Ta-Nehisi Coates over at the Atlantic had a pretty astute blog entry on all of the the white rage at Obama earlier today: (http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/09/flip_and_pop_my_collar_like_the_fonz.php)QuoteBarack Obama, bourgeois in every way that bourgeois is right and just, will not dance. He tells kids to study--and they seethe. He accepts an apology for an immature act of rudeness--and they go hysterical. He takes his wife out for a date--and their veins bulge. His humanity, his ordinary blackness, is killing them. Dig the audio of his response to Kanye West--the way he says, "He's a jackass." He sounds like one of my brothers. And that's the point, because that's what he is. Barack Obama refuses to be their distinguished black fellow. And it's driving them crazy.
It's about time.
What I celebrate, pausingly, is the end of the career of a horrible human being, through and through, and if Obama et. al are so keen to tie their project to him, then I would like to see it die as he did.
A Long Island Jewish newspaper reports that a prominent religious leader chided White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in a speech last Tuesday at a local synagogue.http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0909/Jewish_leader_rebukes_Rahm_on_language.html
“They all say he’s a foul-mouthed person and as a Jew, a menuval [a disgusting person]," Orthodox Union President Stephen Savitsky said, according to The Jewish Star. "I find it offensive. He’s a mishneh l’melech [advisor to a king], the language he uses… I think it’s very unbecoming as a Jewish person.”
Savitsky said, via email, that he had been misquoted, and that he did not use the term "menuvel."
His actual quote, he said, was less biting, though still disapproving: "It has been broadly reported in the media that Emanuel uses foul words and, from a religious Jewish point of view, that is unbecoming for anyone, let alone an adviser to the president (mishneh l'melech)," Savitsky said he told the audience.
By his account, "there were questions about Rahm Emanuel and in the course of the discussion, [Savitsky] was asked whether Emanuel is a 'self hating Jew' and [he] rebutted that charge flatly." He mentioned that his group was welcomed "graciously" at the White House yesterday.
The Jewish Star's publisher and editor-in-chief, Mayer Fertig, said he paper "absolutely" stands by the quote, and added that Savitsky had asked before publication that it be omitted, but not disputed its accuracy.
Emanuel, in any case, has not shown any embarassment about his language, which is famous to the point of caricature. He reportedly keeps in his office a nameplate reading, "Undersecretary for Go F*** Yourself.”
Tea Party Protesters Protest D.C. Metro Service
Protesters who attended Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.
Rep. Kevin Brady called for a government investigation into whether the government-run subway system adequately prepared for this weekend’s rally to protest government spending and government services.
Seriously.
The Texas Republican on Wednesday released a letter he sent to Washington’s Metro system complaining that the taxpayer-funded subway system was unable to properly transport protesters to the rally to protest government spending and expansion.
“These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration,” Brady wrote. “These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.”
A spokesman for Brady says that “there weren’t enough cars and there weren’t enough trains.” Brady tweeted as much from the Saturday march. “METRO did not prepare for Tea Party March! More stories. People couldn’t get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers from Metro,” he wrote on Twitter.
Brady says in his letter to Metro that overcrowding forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs. He concludes that it “appears that Metro added no additional capacity to its regular weekend schedule.”
I enjoyed this article:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/09/16/beck_skousen/index.html
I think it is a pretty good article explaining why Glenn Beck thinks the way he does.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/16/tea-party-protesters-protest-dc-metro-service/ (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/16/tea-party-protesters-protest-dc-metro-service/)QuoteTea Party Protesters Protest D.C. Metro Service
Protesters who attended Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.
Rep. Kevin Brady called for a government investigation into whether the government-run subway system adequately prepared for this weekend’s rally to protest government spending and government services.
Seriously.
The Texas Republican on Wednesday released a letter he sent to Washington’s Metro system complaining that the taxpayer-funded subway system was unable to properly transport protesters to the rally to protest government spending and expansion.
“These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration,” Brady wrote. “These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.”
A spokesman for Brady says that “there weren’t enough cars and there weren’t enough trains.” Brady tweeted as much from the Saturday march. “METRO did not prepare for Tea Party March! More stories. People couldn’t get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers from Metro,” he wrote on Twitter.
Brady says in his letter to Metro that overcrowding forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs. He concludes that it “appears that Metro added no additional capacity to its regular weekend schedule.”
:rofl
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/16/tea-party-protesters-protest-dc-metro-service/ (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/16/tea-party-protesters-protest-dc-metro-service/)As if any doubt remained that teabaggers are anything more than parody
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/16/tea-party-protesters-protest-dc-metro-service/ (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/09/16/tea-party-protesters-protest-dc-metro-service/)QuoteTea Party Protesters Protest D.C. Metro Service
Protesters who attended Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.
Rep. Kevin Brady called for a government investigation into whether the government-run subway system adequately prepared for this weekend’s rally to protest government spending and government services.
Seriously.
The Texas Republican on Wednesday released a letter he sent to Washington’s Metro system complaining that the taxpayer-funded subway system was unable to properly transport protesters to the rally to protest government spending and expansion.
“These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration,” Brady wrote. “These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.”
A spokesman for Brady says that “there weren’t enough cars and there weren’t enough trains.” Brady tweeted as much from the Saturday march. “METRO did not prepare for Tea Party March! More stories. People couldn’t get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers from Metro,” he wrote on Twitter.
Brady says in his letter to Metro that overcrowding forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs. He concludes that it “appears that Metro added no additional capacity to its regular weekend schedule.”
:rofl
I was laughing at this uncontrollably and I don't know why:
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqMfMCwKqpc[/youtube]
By the way, I do think linking czars to communism in the USSR has merit. The period in which Russia had a czar directly preceded -- and, one could argue, was a major factor in precipitating -- their later adoption of communism. Since we now have 32 czars, it's not irrational to fear that we may be en route to adopting 32 times the communism of the USSR.
I kind of wish that Obama had the balls to let them actually stand up in the Senate and filibuster it- read Roberts Rules of Order and the phone book, have them sleeping on cots to go and keep stopping progress in shifts and such.
Last week, a video of a school bus beating showing two African American children assaulting a white student began circulating the internet. Despite claims by authorities that the attack was not necessarily racially motivated, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh jumped on the story and claimed that in “Obama’s America the white kids now get beat up.” Yesterday, Limbaugh proposed a solution to this problem — a return to segregated busing:http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/17/783372/-Does-The-Republican-Party-Support-Segregation
LIMBAUGH: I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.
* Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (The Informant)
* Roche Diagnostics (Accu-Chek Aviva)
* Carbonite
* News Corp. (The Wall Street Journal)
* Foundation for a Better Life
* The Law Office of Pulaski & Middleman
* Toyota (Lexus)
* Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers
* Nutramax Laboratories, Inc. (Cosamin)
* The Villages (A Retirement Community)
* Liberty Medical
* Citrix (GoToMeeting)
* The National Republican Trust PAC
* LifeLock
* FEMA (National Flood Insurance Program)
* ExtenZe
* AmMed Direct
* National Review
* GetaRoom.com
* Department of Health and Human Services (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
The bigger advertisers pulled their adds, but their money is still pumping into the show iircAt least they're being honest when they ramble on about that garbage. They don't even know what the President does, only what Fox says the President does.
The of the worst things about Obama Fever is that it turns people you know to be normal into raving lunatics. A couple folks I know have jumped on the czar outrage bandwagon. Of course, they had no idea Bush also had czars, as well as most presidents since FDR. And when I asked them what they thought czars did they stumbled over themselves before arguing "tax payers pay them and we don't even know what they do!" SMH :-\
I don't see how the federal government has the authority to compel people to buy health insurance. Pretty sure this will get challenged and overturned by the Supreme Court if that provision passes.
Broad reading of the commerce clause. There's nothing in the Constitution that specifically says the federal government gets to regulate product safety or environmental impacts, but here we are. The Lochner era (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/capitalism/landmark_lochner.html) is long past.
Besides, there are multiple other ways to implement it. Tell states they get no Medicaid money unless they implement mandates themselves. Raise the payroll or income tax but exempt people from the hike if they have insurance.
How do you figure? Please cite actual reasons besides ur freedom gut.
There is nothing in the Constitution that gives the federal government the power to compel citizens to purchase health insurance?
That has never, and will never, work on a "progressive."
Rule of law? They don't give a fuck.
what, laws should be eternal and immutable? that goes against the very spirit of the constitution.
are you SURE you aren't religious
what, laws should be eternal and immutable? that goes against the very spirit of the constitution.
are you SURE you aren't religious
There's absolutely NO FUCKING DIFFERENCE between a libertopian/randroid and a fundamentalist whackjob. One worships the invisible hand of the free market and a crappy author who couldn't write worth a damn, the other worships an invisible space fairy and a book they don't bother to understand. Neither is capable of thinking for themselves.
"The story of the spectacular rise and fall of John Edwards, with its sordid can't-look-away dimensions, is moving slowly but deliberately to its conclusion here in North Carolina," the New York Times reports.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/us/politics/20edwards.html?_r=1
While Edwards "remains largely secluded at his 100-acre estate," he is said to be "moving toward an abrupt reversal in his public posture; associates said in interviews that he is considering declaring that he is the father of Ms. Hunter's 19-month-old daughter, something that he once flatly asserted in a television interview was not possible."
However, friends of Mr. Edwards and his wife Elizabeth "say she has resisted the idea of her husband's claiming paternity" and "has yet to be brought around."
Also buried in the story is a revelation taken from Edwards aid Andrew Young's book proposal: "He wrote that Mr. Edwards once calmed an anxious Ms. Hunter by promising her that after his wife died, he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band."
Schwartz told the crowd about Jim Johnson, a friend of his who turned an old hotel into a hospice for gay men dying of AIDS. “One of the things he said to me,” said Schwartz, “that I think is an astonishingly insightful remark… he said ‘All pornography is homosexual pornography, because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards.”
There were murmurs and gasps from the crowd. “Now, think about that,” said Schwartz. “And if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he’s going to want to get a copy of Playboy? I’m pretty sure he’ll lose interest. That’s the last thing he wants! You know, that’s a good comment, it’s a good point, and it’s a good thing to teach young people.”
That makes no sense.
there's just no dignified way to talk about masturbation
(http://www.capitaltrachea.se/misc/math.jpg)
do the math america!!!
http://www.capitaltrachea.se/misc/math.jpg
do the math america!!!
http://www.capitaltrachea.se/misc/math.jpg
do the math america!!!
You know you're on the right track when you're stealing the Atari Jaguar's ad slogan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxuna944dls).
Zorro?If Batman was based on Zorro, then that would mean that Obama is Batman. Which would make it also go that McCain=Joker=Mark Hamil=Luke Skywalker. I guess that would mean that Palin=Leia, which according to Nailin' Palin would mean that she committed incest with a Russian and is in fact not a US citizen.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/041b5acaf5/protect-insurance-companies-psa
With U.S. President Barack Obama presiding over an historic session, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-drafted resolution Thursday aimed at ridding the world of nuclear weapons.
Consider the example of Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was that state's senior senator when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, flooding his home looking out on the Gulf. Lott had not exercised personal responsibility by taking out flood insurance even though it was available from the federal government at low cost. He did have private insurance, but his insurer refused to pay much of the claim, saying it was not wind damage (which was covered by the policy), but water damage (which was excluded).
Weeks later Lott introduced Senate Bill 1936, which would have authorized retroactive flood insurance. The idea came from Representative Gene Taylor, a Democrat who represented the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which should remind us that when there is voter demand for reform, and campaign contributions are not the driving force, the parties have worked together.
Lott's bill would have let flood victims pay 10 years of flood insurance premiums after-the-fact plus a 5 percent late payment penalty. Since this storm was rated a once in 500 years occurrence, even 10 years of premiums would not come close to covering the real costs, meaning a taxpayer subsidy was built into the Lott bill.Instead of being laughed at by his fellow Republicans for promoting socialism, the concept of retroactive relief was warmly embraced, although not the idea for retroactive insurance. Instead the government went with handouts.
Congress is so generous in its subsidies for property that the public option for flood insurance even covers property built in flood prone areas. And you can literally buy insurance on the day of a flood in some cases, and 1 day before in others.
There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the "Obama problem." Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.... Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars.... Military intervention is what Obama's exponentially accelerating agenda for "fundamental change" toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama's radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.
We lost by a landslide. Let's overthrow it!
Limbaugh: Down with the democrats!
Follower: I will give you the honor of shooting the first shot!
Limbaugh: Dude, I have this radio show and make millions. I'm not going to risk that over something as trivial as this.
Follower: Well, I'm not going to go down like that. I have kids to care for.
Limbaugh: You liberal piece of shit!
Follower: Can I just yell and bitch instead?
Limbaugh: uhh.. sure. Someone else will fall in line if they are a real American.
Nothing happens.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/gordon-brown/6237419/BBC-stuns-Gordon-Brown-with-question-on-pill-taking.html
Whoa BBC whoaa :lol
The American press is too scared to ask tough questions and even more scared to bring up rumors. I can't imagine Katie asking Obama about his birth certificate
After November’s Republican rout, and after Republican Party identification hit a record low and the party’s approval rating reached a near-record low, many liberals openly hoped that the G.O.P. and its conservative tenets would go the way of the Whigs. Au contraire.
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/28/opinion/blow.portrait.190.jpg)QuoteAfter November’s Republican rout, and after Republican Party identification hit a record low and the party’s approval rating reached a near-record low, many liberals openly hoped that the G.O.P. and its conservative tenets would go the way of the Whigs. Au contraire.
:smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug :smug
Obama gets a C- from me but I don't see these problems resulting in tangible Republican gains.
People can and will remember Bush's fiscal irresponsibility. I think Obama will get a second term but the voter turnout will be piss poor.
Obama gets a C- from me but I don't see these problems resulting in tangible Republican gains.
People can and will remember Bush's fiscal irresponsibility. I think Obama will get a second term but the voter turnout will be piss poor.
No, they don't.
Obama gets a C- from me but I don't see these problems resulting in tangible Republican gains.
People can and will remember Bush's fiscal irresponsibility. I think Obama will get a second term but the voter turnout will be piss poor.
Obama gets a C- from me but I don't see these problems resulting in tangible Republican gains.
People can and will remember Bush's fiscal irresponsibility. I think Obama will get a second term but the voter turnout will be piss poor.
No, they don't.
Wait, what? Who do you think most people blame for the financial crisis we're in right now? The Clinton Administration?
Some sort of health care bill will pass- it won't fix everything but when it doesn't end up killing grandparents and turning us into ruskies some people will realize that maybe they bought a bunch of crap sold to them by the usual suspects. Probably not.
He's like the member of SS you feel sorry for killing.:lol
The last potential time sink is steeping the ghostwriter in the author's voice well enough that he or she can channel it convincingly. Palin's singular rhetorical style is a boon on that score as well. "The fun part is when you get to the point that they don't even notice it wasn't something they actually said," says Jenkins. "Sarah Palin, in her own odd vernacular, is incredibly sort of quotable and eloquent, in her own Palinesque way."
So, the CBO score of the amended finance committee health care bill is out. (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1009/The_score.html?showall)
Now, keep in mind that I think the bill kind of sucks, but it does have this going for it- according to the CBO it will actually DECREASE the budget deficit by 81 billion over 10 years and will increase the insured population from 83% to 94%. So... why are pretty much no Republicans gonna vote for it again?
What the hell, it's almost Yom Kippur, so I can always atone for my tone. But seriously: Michael Gerson needs to shut his fucking mouth before he ever even thinks accusing a Jew of insufficient vigilance against antisemitism. I don't know what lack of self-awareness convinces right-wing evangelicals that they're the true guardians of the Jews, but that condescending and parochial nonsense is its own form of antisemitism. We Tribesmen do not need some wire-rimmed enabler of one of the most destructive and inept presidents in American history to protect us from the perfidies of the world. It's us and not him who will pay the price for antisemitism, so if Gerson wants to actually act like a righteous gentile, he can start by not accusing Jews of apathy to their own people's wellbeing for the sin of not sharing his politics.
So to conclude: Gerson downplays the worst excesses of right-wing hatred, which displays itself through a more prominent and influential platform than does online hatred of any political coloration; and then he hijacks someone else's religion on a laughably flimsy pretext to defend his blind spots. Good to see, at least, that a Bush administration veteran is at least nondenominational in that approach.
Dear Reihan,
Actually, what you call a polemic means to be an interpretive history that makes the opposite case from the one described in your account. Revanchist conservatism did not originate as a form of populist protest. Rather, it was the brainchild of the very elites you say have no influence on our politics. It was conservative intellectuals who argued that the "managerial elite" (James Burnham), the "liberal establishment" (William Buckley), or the "new class" (Irving Kristol) had seized control of American politics and later our society. This argument, in its inverted Marxism, gave theoretical shape to the unarticulated anxieties and suspicions—anti-government, anti-institutional, antinomian—of the "small but intense and vocal minority," many of them "white evangelical Christians," who today populate the eroding island of movement conservatism. Even today the right insists it is driven by ideas, even if the leading thinkers are now Limbaugh and Beck, and the shock troops are tea-partiers and anti-tax demonstrators.
In other words, the movement has thrived not as a top-down operation, nor as a bottom-up one, but as a convergence of shared prejudices and cultural enmities. Thus, the right's first great modern tribune was Joe McCarthy, whose theatrical "investigations" of "enemies within" were either endorsed or indulged by each of the intellectuals mentioned above.
If I were gay, I'd honestly be kind of annoyed with him over some of this stuff. How hard is it to end DADT? Even some Republicans support it... or at least they say they do now, but will flip out if he brings it up. Ugh.
If I were gay, I'd honestly be kind of annoyed with him over some of this stuff. How hard is it to end DADT? Even some Republicans support it... or at least they say they do now, but will flip out if he brings it up. Ugh.
Really? Himuro, you too?
Holy shit, Hannity needs to work on his propaganda.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LarAHj11qJU
Pour Rock Salt on Snowe
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Tuesday, October 13th at 4:09PM EDT
19 Comments
Olympia Snowe has sold out the country. Having been banished to our world after Aslan chased her out of Narnia, Snowe is intent on corrupting this place too.
So we should melt her.
What melts snow? Rock salt.
I’m going to ship this 5 pound bag of rock salt to her office in Maine. It’s only $3.00. You should join me.
It is a visible demonstration of our contempt for her. First she votes for the stimulus. Now this.
It’s time to melt Snowe. ORDER YOUR BAG HERE.
The mailing address is:
3 Canal Plaza
Suite 601
Portland, ME 04101
Main: (207) 874-0883
Time for action!QuotePour Rock Salt on Snowe
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Tuesday, October 13th at 4:09PM EDT
19 Comments
Olympia Snowe has sold out the country. Having been banished to our world after Aslan chased her out of Narnia, Snowe is intent on corrupting this place too.
So we should melt her.
What melts snow? Rock salt.
I’m going to ship this 5 pound bag of rock salt to her office in Maine. It’s only $3.00. You should join me.
It is a visible demonstration of our contempt for her. First she votes for the stimulus. Now this.
It’s time to melt Snowe. ORDER YOUR BAG HERE.
The mailing address is:
3 Canal Plaza
Suite 601
Portland, ME 04101
Main: (207) 874-0883
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/10/13/pour-rock-salt-on-snowe/
I sent this email to Steele earlier today.
Dear Chairman Steele,
Until the Republican Party leadership vows non-support of RINO’s such as Olympia Snowe, Lindsey Graham and John McCain they will not see another dollar in donation from me. I will only donate to individual candidates that reflect my conservative values. It is a shame that Ms. Snowe is giving the Democrat party bipartisan cover as they push forward their socialist agenda.
Republicans must stand firm in defiance of the socialist destruction that Obama and his party are attempting.
Respectfully,
farright on October 13, 2009 at 4:32 PM
Time for action!QuotePour Rock Salt on Snowe
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Tuesday, October 13th at 4:09PM EDT
19 Comments
Olympia Snowe has sold out the country. Having been banished to our world after Aslan chased her out of Narnia, Snowe is intent on corrupting this place too.
So we should melt her.
What melts snow? Rock salt.
I’m going to ship this 5 pound bag of rock salt to her office in Maine. It’s only $3.00. You should join me.
It is a visible demonstration of our contempt for her. First she votes for the stimulus. Now this.
It’s time to melt Snowe. ORDER YOUR BAG HERE.
The mailing address is:
3 Canal Plaza
Suite 601
Portland, ME 04101
Main: (207) 874-0883
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/10/13/pour-rock-salt-on-snowe/
Time for action!QuotePour Rock Salt on Snowe
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Tuesday, October 13th at 4:09PM EDT
19 Comments
Olympia Snowe has sold out the country. Having been banished to our world after Aslan chased her out of Narnia, Snowe is intent on corrupting this place too.
So we should melt her.
What melts snow? Rock salt.
I’m going to ship this 5 pound bag of rock salt to her office in Maine. It’s only $3.00. You should join me.
It is a visible demonstration of our contempt for her. First she votes for the stimulus. Now this.
It’s time to melt Snowe. ORDER YOUR BAG HERE.
The mailing address is:
3 Canal Plaza
Suite 601
Portland, ME 04101
Main: (207) 874-0883
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/10/13/pour-rock-salt-on-snowe/
There really are no words.
[youtube=560,345]V6ZxJTo9geM[/youtube]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/daily-show-destroys-cnn-f_n_318295.html
I was dying in laughter by the end of the post. Brilliant video. Man, US news coverage is bought-and-sold. :maf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/daily-show-destroys-cnn-f_n_318295.html
I was dying in laughter by the end of the post. Brilliant video. Man, US news coverage is bought-and-sold. :maf
The new GOP homepage! (http://hammerandsteele.com/?u=http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php) :o
The new GOP homepage! (http://hammerandsteele.com/?u=http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php) :o
"Facebook, Twitter....or Myspace"
good to see Steel reaching out to blacks :bow
The Internet has been around a while, now. But, I still find it an amazing platform for innovation, not just in technology, but in life. Beyond admiring the way it powers so many inventions and businesses, it has become a personal thing for me. I love the fact that, wherever I might be, I can use technology to see my family and chat with them, and Social Media to tap into what my friends are doing.
Today, I want to begin to better connect with Republicans everywhere.
My first blog entry, therefore, is really a couple of questions for you; use the comment button to send me replies. We will run as many questions as we can, which I will answer.
Why are you are Republican? Think about that for a minute.
Octavius Catto was an African-American Republican civil rights activist. Born to a freed slave in Charleston, he moved to Philadelphia as a child. After the Civil War, Catto joined the Pennsylvania state militia, with the rank of major.
Catto co-founded the National Equal Rights League and was instrumental in Pennsylvania's ratification of the 15th Amendment, which extended voting rights to African-Americans. Many Democrats resented him for it, and on Election Day in 1871, a crony of the city's Democratic Party boss gunned down Octavius Catto as he walked home from voting.
http://gop.com/index.php/learn/heroes
That is all sorts of shameless.
Our country has to decide, said Ronaldus Magnus, “whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether to abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives better than we can plan them ourselves.”
In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play major league baseball in the United States, as a first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Not only was he a great athlete, Jackie Robinson was also a great Republican. He campaigned for Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1960 and then supported Nelson Rockefeller (R-NY) for the Republican nomination in 1964. Robinson worked as a special assistant in Governor Rockefeller’s administration.
The general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, who hired Jackie Robinson, was also a Republican. The Missouri Republican Party later offered Rickey the nomination for Governor and Senator, but he preferred baseball to politics.
Early in 1964 I wrote a Speaking Out piece for The Saturday Evening Post. A Barry Goldwater victory would insure that the GOP would be completely the white man's party. What happened at San Francisco when Senator Goldwater became the Republican standard-bearer confirmed my prediction.
I wasn’t altogether caught of guard by the victory of the reactionary forces in the Republican party, but I was appalled by the tactics they used to stifle their liberal opposition. I was a special delegate to the convention through an arrangement made by the Rockefeller office. That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was hatred directed against a white man. It embodied a revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude toward black people.
A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.
It was a terrible hour for the relatively few black delegates who were present. Distinguished in their communities, identified with the cause of Republicanism, an extremely unpopular cause among blacks, they had been served notice that the party they had fought for considered them just another bunch of “distinguished black fellows”. They had no real standing in the convention, no clout. They were unimportant and ignored. One bigot from one of the Deep South states actually threw acid on a black delegate’s suit jacket and burned it. Another one, from the Alabama delegation where I was standing at the time of the Rockefeller speech, turned on me menacingly while I was shouting “C’mon Rocky” as the governor stood his ground. He started up in his seat as if to come after me. His wife grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“Turn him loose, lady, turn him loose,” I shouted.
I was ready for him. I wanted him badly, but luckily for him he obeyed his wife.
One take on history:Quote from: GOP.comIn 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play major league baseball in the United States, as a first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Not only was he a great athlete, Jackie Robinson was also a great Republican. He campaigned for Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1960 and then supported Nelson Rockefeller (R-NY) for the Republican nomination in 1964. Robinson worked as a special assistant in Governor Rockefeller’s administration.
The general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, who hired Jackie Robinson, was also a Republican. The Missouri Republican Party later offered Rickey the nomination for Governor and Senator, but he preferred baseball to politics.
Another take (http://www.framinghamdems.org/JackRob.html):Quote from: Jackie Robinson, from his autobiographyEarly in 1964 I wrote a Speaking Out piece for The Saturday Evening Post. A Barry Goldwater victory would insure that the GOP would be completely the white man's party. What happened at San Francisco when Senator Goldwater became the Republican standard-bearer confirmed my prediction.
I wasn’t altogether caught of guard by the victory of the reactionary forces in the Republican party, but I was appalled by the tactics they used to stifle their liberal opposition. I was a special delegate to the convention through an arrangement made by the Rockefeller office. That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was hatred directed against a white man. It embodied a revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude toward black people.
A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.
"When a Hollywood performer, lacking distinction even as an actor, can become a leading war hawk candidate for the presidency, only the irrationalities induced by war psychosis can explain such a turn of events."
Appearing on Fox this morning to talk health care reform, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele offered two contradictory -- and somewhat baffling -- metaphors for bipartisanship.
"I'm not trying to be an obstructionist here. To the contrary, I'm saying, Can we all get in the room and have a Rodney King moment?" he said. He was referring to King's famous "Can we all get along?" line following the 1992 Los Angeles race riots sparked by the acquittal of the police officers who beat King.
http://hammerandsteele.com/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6DBuk91phkI
this is way funnier than it should be
Meghan McCain likes to read:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Triumph/alg_twitter_megan-mccain.jpg)
Meghan McCain likes to read:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Triumph/alg_twitter_megan-mccain.jpg)
My genes are tingling :drool
I dunno man, I mean he's got a point. Remember "Where's the Beef?" Spuds McKenzie? The Swedish Bikini Team? COME ON.
(10-15) 20:35 PDT New Orleans (AP) --
A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."
Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.
Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.
"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."
If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.
"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.
So, do they use the bathroom after he marries them? :lol
After comparing himself to a Jew in Nazi Germany, which one of the following metaphors will Glenn Beck be using the next time the Obama administration says something mean/truthful about him/fox?
-9/11
-Hurricane Katrina
-The Trail of Tears
-Stalin's Gulags
-The Armenian genocide
-The Oklahoma City bombing
-The bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki
-The Rape of Nanking
-Rosa Parks
Should get a betting pool going on.
After comparing himself to a Jew in Nazi Germany, which one of the following metaphors will Glenn Beck be using the next time the Obama administration says something mean/truthful about him/fox?
-9/11
-Hurricane Katrina
-The Trail of Tears
-Stalin's Gulags
-The Armenian genocide
-The Oklahoma City bombing
-The bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki
-The Rape of Nanking
-Rosa Parks
Should get a betting pool going on.
After comparing himself to a Jew in Nazi Germany, which one of the following metaphors will Glenn Beck be using the next time the Obama administration says something mean/truthful about him/fox?
-9/11
-Hurricane Katrina
-The Trail of Tears
-Stalin's Gulags
-The Armenian genocide
-The Oklahoma City bombing
-The bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki
-The Rape of Nanking
-Rosa Parks
Should get a betting pool going on.
You can't really get much worse than the Holocaust references.
what
the
hell
:rofl
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt_G6Lq9jWQ[/youtube]
EB HALP!
my dad fucking admitted to liking glen FUCKING beck. link me with the insane : (
Erickson's also the guy behind Operation Leper (http://www.redstate.com/erick/2008/11/05/operation-leper/), where they'd rally the troops against any ex-McCain staffers who were mean to Sarah Palin.
He's dumb even for what he is.
Linda Douglass really is the Joseph Goebbels of the White House Health Care shop: http://bit.ly/3y276U
Glen Beck strikes me as one of those idealistic blowhards with more than a few skeletons in his closet. Its usually just a matter of time.the thing is, his skeletons are already out of his closet. I mean, besides the raping and murder of a college student (http://glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com/) in the early 90's, he's admitted and come clean on many occasions about his previous bad behavior, ranging from everything from substance abuse to bad language.
One take on history:Quote from: GOP.comIn 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play major league baseball in the United States, as a first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Not only was he a great athlete, Jackie Robinson was also a great Republican. He campaigned for Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1960 and then supported Nelson Rockefeller (R-NY) for the Republican nomination in 1964. Robinson worked as a special assistant in Governor Rockefeller’s administration.
The general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, who hired Jackie Robinson, was also a Republican. The Missouri Republican Party later offered Rickey the nomination for Governor and Senator, but he preferred baseball to politics.
Another take (http://www.framinghamdems.org/JackRob.html):Quote from: Jackie Robinson, from his autobiographyEarly in 1964 I wrote a Speaking Out piece for The Saturday Evening Post. A Barry Goldwater victory would insure that the GOP would be completely the white man's party. What happened at San Francisco when Senator Goldwater became the Republican standard-bearer confirmed my prediction.
I wasn’t altogether caught of guard by the victory of the reactionary forces in the Republican party, but I was appalled by the tactics they used to stifle their liberal opposition. I was a special delegate to the convention through an arrangement made by the Rockefeller office. That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was hatred directed against a white man. It embodied a revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude toward black people.
A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.
Edit: Although this was always entertaining to me. (http://hannidate.hannity.com/)
I thought this was pretty well done (http://www.slate.com/id/2232694/entry/2232838/)
I thought this was pretty well done (http://www.slate.com/id/2232694/entry/2232838/)
:lol
I liked the Maher/Beck bit.
I thought this was pretty well done (http://www.slate.com/id/2232694/entry/2232838/)
I guess the irony of having a health care bill that dwarfs the U.S. constitution is lost on everyone.
I guess the irony of having a health care bill that dwarfs the U.S. constitution is lost on everyone.
that's okay. I welcome unreadable legislation. :bow
How hard is it to read 1000 pages? I could do that in less than a week if it was my fucking job to do it. Probably in a day if I was just plucking out relevant information with the help of my staff of 10 people taking the notes for me.
I guess the irony of having a health care bill that dwarfs the U.S. constitution is lost on everyone.
I guess the irony of having a health care bill that dwarfs the U.S. constitution is lost on everyone.
I guess the irony of having a health care bill that dwarfs the U.S. constitution is lost on everyone.
that's okay. I welcome unreadable legislation. :bow
Don't Libertarians worship the Bible? If you could read that huge piece of agonizingly bad and unreadable shit, a large, comprehensive (read: relevant) health care bill should be a cakewalk in comparison.
Would FoC's head explode if he realized that supreme court opinions are often longer than the constitution? Or is he he just too stupid?
It's such a shame that Megyn Kelly can be so hot and such a scumbag at the same time. :'(
This is like conspiracy militant nutjob hour.(http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/10/19/tomo/story.jpg)
I don't see the point in defending Jennings. The kid may have been of age but I'm still baffled how a teacher wouldn't report that.
"Twenty one years later I can see how I should have handled this situation differently. I should have asked for more information and consulted legal or medical authorities. Teachers back then had little training or guidance about this kind of thing. All teachers should have a basic level of preparedness. I would like to see the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools play a bigger role in helping to prepare teachers."http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/10/02/the-new-right-wing-hit-job-kevin-jennings/13
If a teenage student admits to having sex with strangers at a bus stop, I'm sorry but it strikes me as something a teacher needs to reported to social services. That's not a safe environment for a kid to be involved in.
... but the weird thing is that he mentions he should have consulted legal authorities. If Media Matters is right, and the kid was 16, he wouldn't need to consult them. Jennings account was that the kid was 15, MM tracked down the kid and he's said he was 16 at the time. So yea...kinda confusing
http://www.mediaite.com/online/sarah-palin-to-appear-on-oprah/
Oprah isn't an especially tough interviewer and she probably wants to appear relatively neutral in this environment with her audience and this is the sort of softball environment Palin excels in so I would expect everything will go fine.
Y'know, Rush Limbaugh put in a bid to buy the St. Louis Rams. He said it's always been his dream to own black people.
I'm watching the episode now, and Maher had one of his best jokes ever:QuoteY'know, Rush Limbaugh put in a bid to buy the St. Louis Rams. He said it's always been his dream to own black people.
:rofl
Someone watches Rachel Maddow! Bad Republican! Bad!
What would you do with your life if your name was Zig Ziglar?
Saw it posted on reddit. :P
I can't watch a woman that looks like John Kerry.
Have a productive life? zig's zinged!What would you do with your life if your name was Zig Ziglar?Moar like what WOULDN'T you do amirite?
Obama is a one termer unless Palin gets the nom imo. Cheebs disagrees but he's wrong more than I am
but like, what if she won? That's some sad scary shit. Not that I think she would...but what if she did?
Let us take a trip back into history. Not ancient history. Recent history. It is the winter of 2007. The presidential primaries are approaching. The talk jocks like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the rest are over the moon about Fred Thompson. They’re weak at the knees at the thought of Mitt Romney. Meanwhile, they are hurling torrents of abuse at the unreliable deviationists: John McCain and Mike Huckabee.
Yet somehow, despite the fervor of the great microphone giants, the Thompson campaign flops like a fish. Despite the schoolgirl delight from the radio studios, the Romney campaign underperforms.
Meanwhile, Huckabee surges. Limbaugh attacks him, but social conservatives flock.
Along comes New Hampshire and McCain wins! Republican voters have not heeded their masters in the media. Before long, South Carolina looms as the crucial point of the race. The contest is effectively between Romney and McCain. The talk jocks are now in spittle-flecked furor. Day after day, whole programs are dedicated to hurling abuse at McCain and everybody ever associated with him. The jocks are threatening to unleash their angry millions.
Yet the imaginary armies do not materialize. McCain wins the South Carolina primary and goes on to win the nomination. The talk jocks can’t even deliver the conservative voters who show up at Republican primaries. They can’t even deliver South Carolina!
So what is the theme of our history lesson? It is a story of remarkable volume and utter weakness. It is the story of media mavens who claim to represent a hidden majority but who in fact represent a mere niche — even in the Republican Party. It is a story as old as “The Wizard of Oz,” of grand illusions and small men behind the curtain.
But, of course, we shouldn’t be surprised by this story. Over the past few years the talk jocks have demonstrated their real-world weakness time and again. Back in 2006, they threatened to build a new majority on anti-immigration fervor. Republicans like J.D. Hayworth and Randy Graf, both of Arizona, built their House election campaigns under that banner. But these two didn’t march to glory. Both lost their campaigns.
In 2008, after McCain had won his nomination, Limbaugh turned his attention to the Democratic race. He commanded his followers to vote in the Democratic primaries for Hillary Clinton because “we need Barack Obama bloodied up politically.” Todd Donovan of Western Washington University has looked at data from 38 states and could find no strong evidence that significant numbers of people actually did what Limbaugh commanded. Rush blared the trumpets, but few of his Dittoheads advanced.
Over the years, I have asked many politicians what happens when Limbaugh and his colleagues attack. The story is always the same. Hundreds of calls come in. The receptionists are miserable. But the numbers back home do not move. There is no effect on the favorability rating or the re-election prospects. In the media world, he is a giant. In the real world, he’s not.
But this is not merely a story of weakness. It is a story of resilience. For no matter how often their hollowness is exposed, the jocks still reweave the myth of their own power. They still ride the airwaves claiming to speak for millions. They still confuse listeners with voters. And they are aided in this endeavor by their enablers. They are enabled by cynical Democrats, who love to claim that Rush Limbaugh controls the G.O.P. They are enabled by lazy pundits who find it easier to argue with showmen than with people whose opinions are based on knowledge. They are enabled by the slightly educated snobs who believe that Glenn Beck really is the voice of Middle America.
So the myth returns. Just months after the election and the humiliation, everyone is again convinced that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and the rest possess real power. And the saddest thing is that even Republican politicians come to believe it. They mistake media for reality. They pre-emptively surrender to armies that don’t exist.
They pay more attention to Rush’s imaginary millions than to the real voters down the street. The Republican Party is unpopular because it’s more interested in pleasing Rush’s ghosts than actual people. The party is leaderless right now because nobody has the guts to step outside the rigid parameters enforced by the radio jocks and create a new party identity. The party is losing because it has adopted a radio entertainer’s niche-building strategy, while abandoning the politician’s coalition-building strategy.
The rise of Beck, Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest has correlated almost perfectly with the decline of the G.O.P. But it’s not because the talk jocks have real power. It’s because they have illusory power, because Republicans hear the media mythology and fall for it every time.
You guys are underestimating a couple of things- namely, the lack of quality candidates amongst the opposition and the fact that while Obama's ratings have slipped a little bit (since rebounding to the mid 50's) absolutely NO ONE likes the Republicans and pretty much recognize that they don't have any ideas or policies that will help.
If we had an election today obama wouldn't win re-election. So unless things drastically change he's carter 2.0but who would beat him?
(http://www.esquire.com/media/cm/esquire/images/high-five-0808-lg-76258126.jpg)If we had an election today obama wouldn't win re-election. So unless things drastically change he's carter 2.0but who would beat him?
the constitution :smug
firefighting is expensive too..... and is not the same thing.
I don't get the point of that video? I bet some people went bankrupt paying their mortgage too. Should everyone get a free house paid for by uncle sam? What about jobs, I bet people who don't have jobs go bankrupt. Lets just give out money to everyone so nobody ever goes bankrupt.
... and is not the same thing.
[youtube=560,345]rMOBQZwDMAE[/youtube]
That's a Borys-esque SMH moment
A collection of essays about former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, titled Going Rouge, will be released the same day as Palin's own much-awaited book, Going Rogue.
The essays, collected by The Nation senior editors Richard Kim and Betsy Reed and written by Max Blumenthal, Katha Pollitt, Matt Taibbi and several others, will examine "the nightmarish prospect of her continuing to dominate the nation's political scene."
And yes, the book is available for pre-order.
Meh, I'm not so worried about the fabled "nuclear codes" scare-tactic as I am with Willco's fear.
I may be living in London in four years time anyway, so no skin off my nose.
firefighting is expensive too..... and is not the same thing.
London, Kentucky?
London, Kentucky?
There's a London, Kentucky?
FlameofCallandor, can you get a webcam and record your facial reaction after this segment:
[youtube=560,345]TgqqSHr0wVA[/youtube]
How angry are you on a scale of one to ten gold bars?
Every election I hear that "I'll move to another country" threat. Does anyone know anyone that expatriated because of an election?
CNSNews.com: “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?”
Pelosi: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”
CNSNews.com: “Yes, yes I am.”
Almost a year after his election as President, Barack Obama continues to lead his most likely 2012 rivals in hypothetical contests for reelection.http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2009/10/obama-continues-to-lead-2012-contests.html
Obama leads Mike Huckabee 47-43, Mitt Romney 48-40, Sarah Palin 52-40, and Tim Pawlenty 50-30.
This is the seventh time PPP has conducted this poll and the seventh time Huckabee has polled closest to Obama. Speaking to the weakness of the field of potential Republican candidates he's the only with a positive favorability rating and even then it's only 33/29.
Huckabee's doing well because he connects better than the other GOP hopefuls with voters in the Midwest and South. For instance while Romney, Palin, and Pawlenty trail by 9, 17, and 18 points respectively in the Midwest Huckabee is down by just 3, something that could be a good omen for his prospects of again winning the Iowa primary as he did in 2008.
Romney is actually the most popular of the Republican candidates with independents, sporting a 38/28 favorability rating with them and holding Obama to just a 41-40 lead. One thing he'll probably have to contend with to a greater extent if he gets the 2012 nomination is his religion- 34% of respondents say they have an unfavorable opinion of it to 21% who look on it positively.
Palin's numbers have been somewhat mystifying over the last four months. Immediately after her resignation they actually improved to a positive 47/45 favorability rating. Since then though they've plummeted even with her largely out of the public eye and only 36% of voters have a favorable view of her with 51% holding a negative one. She has by far the worst numbers with both Democrats and independents.
Somewhat counterintuitively the best news in this poll might be for Tim Pawlenty. Only 27% of respondents have an opinion of him and it breaks down negatively, 16/11. He trails Obama by the widest margin. But with all of the better known Republican candidates looking pretty weak the door is really open for someone like him to step in and have a big impact on this race. No one expected Barack Obama to be the Democrats' 2008 nominee at this time four years ago, and the best hope for Republicans in 2012 may be to move beyond the Huckabee/Palin/Romney trio that all has the loser stench from last year.
Good luck on relying on pools. I get a better idea of how things really are by reading the newspapers of the states,the blogs,opinions,comments to articles. The bama is hated and he will never be re elected. Keep dreaming though if that works for you.
Huckubee,believe in globe warming,he want a cardon tax, he want to make all the illegal, legal,we need someone like Sarin Palin.
Just another misleading poll not disclosing the people they polled.
likely like that other nonsensical of WaPo that had much too high number of people polled say they were democrats and much less number say they were republicans [ie http://www.dailykostv.com/w/002282/ ]
wonder if this will get through the "moderator" aka censor on this website
Someone raised the point the other day about how it's somewhat difficult to square away the grassroots support for Palin against the minor insurrection that occurred when Huckabee was gaining momentum. Christy's are surprisingly fickle I guess.
meh. not worth it.
America's secular saboteurs
By Bill Donohue
President, Catholic League
There are many ways cultural nihilists are busy trying to sabotage America these days: multiculturalism is used as a club to beat down Western civilization in the classroom; sexual libertines seek to upend the cultural order by attacking religion; artists use their artistic freedoms to mock Christianity; Hollywood relentlessly insults people of faith; activist left-wing legal groups try to scrub society free of the public expression of religion; elements in the Democratic party demonstrate an animus against Catholicism; and secular-minded malcontents within Catholicism and Protestantism seek to sabotage their religion from the inside.
Yesterday's radicals wanted to tear down the economic structure of capitalism and replace it with socialism, and eventually communism. Today's radicals are intellectually spent: they want to annihilate American culture, having absolutely nothing to put in its place. In that regard, these moral anarchists are an even bigger menace than the Marxists who came before them.
If societal destruction is the goal, then it makes no sense to waste time by attacking the political or economic structure: the key to any society is its culture, and the heart of any culture is religion. In this society, that means Christianity, the big prize being Catholicism. Which explains why secular saboteurs are waging war against it.
When Jesse Jackson led students at Stanford University in the late 1980s screaming, "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Western Culture's Got to Go," it was a way of undermining this nation's Judeo-Christian heritage. When Yale University returned $20 million to Lee Bass in the 1990s because the faculty objected to its being used to expand its Western civilization curriculum--they wanted multiculturalism--it showed the power of radical secularists.
Sexual libertines, from the Marquis de Sade to radical gay activists, have sought to pervert society by acting out on their own perversions. What motivates them most of all is a pathological hatred of Christianity. They know, deep down, that what they are doing is wrong, and they shudder at the dreaded words, "Thou Shalt Not." But they continue with their death-style anyway.
Secular saboteurs have often seized the arts to make a statement. That's why the blasphemous often tracks the obscene: if the goal is to put an artistic dagger into the heart of culture, then it makes sense to use all the ammo available by attacking the sacred. And they are certainly masters of that art. From scatological artistic exhibitions to the latest obscene installation, the charlatans have succeeded in politicizing the arts and denigrating Christianity.
There was a time when Hollywood made reverential movies about Christianity. But those days are long gone. Now they just insult. And when someone finally makes a film that makes Christians proud, he is run out of town. Were it not for Mel Gibson, there would have been no "Passion of the Christ." But for every Harvey Weinstein who likes to bash Catholics, there is always someone else waiting in the wings to do the same.
The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State harbor an agenda to smash the last vestiges of Christianity in America. Lying about their real motives, they say their fidelity is to the Constitution. But there is nothing in the Constitution that sanctions the censorship of religious speech. From banning nativity scenes to punishing little kids for painting a picture of Jesus, the zealots give Fidel a good run for his money.
Catholics were once the mainstay of the Democratic Party; now the gay activists are in charge. Indeed, practicing Catholics are no longer welcome in leadership roles in the Party: the contempt that pro-life Catholics experience is palpable. The fact that Catholics for Choice, a notoriously anti-Catholic front group funded by the Ford Foundation, has a close relationship with the Democrats says it all.
Secularists within Catholicism and Protestantism are so out of control that it makes one wonder how any serious-minded person would ever accuse these religions of being oppressive. Insubordination of the most flagrant kind is routinely tolerated in a way that would never be countenanced at the New York Times, yet the bad rap always goes to Christians. We're not talking about those pushing for moderate reforms: we're talking about termites eating away from within.
The only way secular saboteurs can be stopped is by an alliance of religious conservatives across faith lines. The good news is that this is already happening. In the fight over gay marriage, the scorecard is 30-0: traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Mormons, along with a big contribution from the Latino and African American communities, have succeeded in throwing a roadblock at this crazy idea.
The culture war is up for grabs. The good news is that religious conservatives continue to breed like rabbits, while secular saboteurs have shut down: they're too busy walking their dogs, going to bathhouses and aborting their kids. Time, it seems, is on the side of the angels.
meh. not worth it.
Haters gonna hate, don't let them get to you manspoiler (click to show/hide)Romney over Obama in 2012[close]
T EXP: Look at the modern history of GOP nominees. Going back to at least Ford, you're talking the person who was the odds-on favorite a year before the convention, and four of the last five (Reagan, Bush I, Dole, McCain) got nominated after being runner-up in the previous cycle. The sheer amount of money required basically eliminates any late-entry candidates who aren't billionaires (ask Wes Clark about this).
Eh, getting pissy and digging through the EB archives to find equally bad predictions from others violates the golden rule of Evilbore.
I imagine it'll be the same states that opted out of the stimulus moneys.
I imagine it'll be the same states that opted out of the stimulus moneys.
I imagine it'll be the same states that opted out of the stimulus moneys.
Then we'll have a laugh like seven years from now when folks are using the public option and overall health care is better in those states, leading to mass exodus of the dumbass states stupid enough to opt out.
Hidden beneath the public option is something many don't realize. The added volume is going to create tens or even hundreds of thousands of well paying jobs benefiting every community's economy.
Bill Kristol says in his monthly Washington Post column that Republicans are going to continue to be unapologetically conservative because not only is it the right thing to do, but it's what the people are demanding! (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102602651.html?hpid=opinionsbox1)
Bill Kristol says in his monthly Washington Post column that Republicans are going to continue to be unapologetically conservative because not only is it the right thing to do, but it's what the people are demanding! (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102602651.html?hpid=opinionsbox1)
That seems to be the conventional wisdom on the right.
Right after the election, there was a bit of talk from some conservatives about broadening the party's appeal, looking for new approaches, yadda yadda. There was a moment where the movement's elites could have looked around and thought "We've taken two consecutive beatings, we're as popular as herpes among the fastest-growing demographics, we did a horrible job while in office and now that you mention it, yes, half of us are completely unfit to join civilized society."
There wasn't much navel-gazing, but it stopped almost entirely right around when Glenn Beck started catching on. There's a blog called The Next Right (http://www.thenextright.com/), dedicated towards forward-looking rightwingishness, which was getting about a half-dozen posts a day this time last year. Now it's got ten posts for this entire month.
Instead of making changes, they're just going to stick with the old formula and keep telling each other how they need to Get Back To Basics and only lost cause they Abandoned Their Principles. Good luck with that.
So if this were a sport, they'd be trading in Michael Steele for...who exactlyfuture second round draft picks, just to unload his contract really.
Well, Lieberman fucked everyone's chances for universal heathcare. Good jon, you big dumb Jew.
Note that [lieberman] says he would vote to proceed to the bill -- just not to move to final passage. There will be several turning points:http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/10/gaming_out_joes_threat.php?ref=mp
1. Cloture vote cutting off debate on the motion to proceed to the health care bill (60 votes);
2. Motion to proceed to the bill (50 votes, may be waived if we get cloture);
3. Amendments to modify the public option piece, e.g. to a trigger (likely requiring 60 votes);
4. Cloture vote to end debate on the bill and move to final passage (60 votes); and
5. Final passage of the bill (50 votes).
Lieberman says that he'll vote with Leadership through #1 and #2. If the other 59 Dems do so as well, that gets the Senate on to the bill. Once the Senate's on the bill, it will likely take 60 votes to water down the opt-out, #3 above. And those efforts will occur under the threat by Lieberman, and perhaps others, to deny 60 votes for #4.
At a press conference this afternoon, McDonnell compared the idea to another tortured line that cost a Democrat an election. "We all recall Senator Kerry's strained way in the 2004 campaign of explaining why he voted for it before he voted against it," McConnell said. "And I think it is perfectly clear that most Americans will treat the vote to get on the bill as a vote on the substance of the bill."http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/mcconnell-says-a-vote-for-cloture-is-a-vote-for-health-care-reform.php?ref=tn
"So our view is that cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill is a vote to endorse a half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts, $400 billion in new taxes, and higher insurance -- health insurance premiums for everyone else," McConnell continued.
So if this were a sport, they'd be trading in Michael Steele for...who exactly
Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009, confirming a finding that Gallup first noted in June. Forty percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 20% as liberal. This marks a shift from 2005 through 2008, when moderates were tied with conservatives as the most prevalent group.
Combining the responses to those two questions, Gallup found the ideological breakdown of the public shown below. With these two broad questions, Gallup consistently finds about 20 percent of respondents to be libertarian.(http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/wp-content/uploads/libertarianchart.jpg)
Liberals think moderates=liberals!! :lol :lolNo, the article says that conservatives are outnumbering moderates and liberals but only when you split them up. My point is non conservatives still outnumber conservatives.
2010 and 2012 are going to be such glorious year. Can't wait to taste your butt hurt tears.
Continue voting against your own interests FOC, you've been brainwashed to what you are told.
Liberals think moderates=liberals!! :lol :lol
2010 and 2012 are going to be such glorious year. Can't wait to taste your butt hurt tears.
Liberals think moderates=liberals!! :lol :lol
2010 and 2012 are going to be such glorious year. Can't wait to taste your butt hurt tears.
Yet in poll after poll, Republican party identification is lower than it's ever been. :smug
Liberals think moderates=liberals!! :lol :lol
2010 and 2012 are going to be such glorious year. Can't wait to taste your butt hurt tears.
Liberals think moderates=liberals!! :lol :lol
2010 and 2012 are going to be such glorious year. Can't wait to taste your butt hurt tears.
Yet in poll after poll, Republican party identification is lower than it's ever been. :smug
Which would mean there is a problem with the party and not the ideology.
Liberals think moderates=liberals!! :lol :lol
2010 and 2012 are going to be such glorious year. Can't wait to taste your butt hurt tears.
Yet in poll after poll, Republican party identification is lower than it's ever been. :smug
Which would mean there is a problem with the party and not the ideology.
I wonder how the roughly 3/5 of America who want a public option across almost all of the reputable polls convince themselves that it's a conservative position, then.
In any health care proposal, how important do you feel it is to give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance--extremely important, quite important, not that important, or not at all important?
The finding comes from a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Oct. 16-19. In addition to the 39% of Americans still on the fence, 25% say they have already decided to support the final bill while a slightly larger number, 33%, say they will oppose it.
Compared with last month, Americans have become more likely to say the costs their family pays for healthcare will get worse if a healthcare bill passes. Forty-nine percent of Americans say this, up from 42% in September. Meanwhile, the percentage who expect their costs to improve is unchanged.
Americans are more likely to say that their own healthcare costs, coverage, insurance requirements, and quality of care will get worse than get better if a healthcare bill passes this year.
Compared with last month, Americans have become more likely to say the costs their family pays for healthcare will get worse if a healthcare bill passes. Forty-nine percent of Americans say this, up from 42% in September. Meanwhile, the percentage who expect their costs to improve is unchanged.
I bet he's paid to seem fair. Didn't he drop the f bomb live...
[youtube=560,345]OjCzfGm0njM[/youtube]
...without getting suspended?
I wonder how the roughly 3/5 of America who want a public option across almost all of the reputable polls convince themselves that it's a conservative position, then.
I wonder how the roughly 3/5 of America who want a public option across almost all of the reputable polls convince themselves that it's a conservative position, then.
The only 3/5ths FoC cares about is the one the Founding Fathers described in the Constitution! :american
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=18246475&posted=1#post18246475
paging The EXP
It's not that cut and dry.
The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales
Still, auto sales contributed heavily to the economy's expansion in the third quarter, adding 1.7 percentage points to the nation's gross domestic product growth.
...
"The whole purpose of the program was to provide some kind of catalyst to kick-start the economy," he said, "and by all accounts the extra production that was added this year was a boost to the economy."
In order to determine whether these sales would have happened anyway, Edmunds.com analysts looked at sales of luxury cars and other vehicles not included under the Clunkers program.
Using traditional relationships between sales volumes of those vehicles and the types of vehicles sold under Cash for Clunkers, Edmunds.com projected what sales would normally have been during the Cash for Clunkers period and in the weeks after.
2010 and 2012 are going to be such glorious year. Can't wait to taste your butt hurt tears.
Republican Party favorability
Fav Unfav
All 21 67
South 48 37
NE 6 87
Midwest 10 78
West 12 75
.
2010 and 2012 are going to be such glorious year. Can't wait to taste your butt hurt tears.QuoteRepublican Party favorability
Fav Unfav
All 21 67
South 48 37
NE 6 87
Midwest 10 78
West 12 75
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Se...27_NBCPoll.pdf
You were saying? :smug
So basically taxpayers payed $24,000 per car to increase traffic and get a few extra shifts at the dealership.
At least it's not temporary... oh wait.
On her Web site, Taitz wrote, "Keep in mind, what OReilly did, is more dangerous, more harmful then what some idiots like Rachel Maddow or Keith [Olbermann] did, since people believe O’Reilly to be fair and balanced."
I really wanna see O'Reilly's piece on this, little help?
Just follow the link, dude.
There's nothing surprising or novel here. O'Reilly was shrugging this notion off nearly a year ago. Even the much-maligned Beck looks at the birthers with distaste.
You fuck your incestuous whore of a mother with that mouth
You fuck your incestuous whore of a mother with that mouth?
Seriously, exercise your second amendment right to eat a pistol.
You fuck your incestuous whore of a mother with that mouth?
Seriously, exercise your second amendment right to eat a pistol.
Could you stop losing your shit every time someone makes a follow up to one of your posts? Even FOC takes it better than you and he gets annihilated every post he makes.
What follow-up? Fucktard here couldn't make a point if his life depended on it.
You fuck your incestuous whore of a mother with that mouth?
Seriously, exercise your second amendment right to eat a pistol.
Could you stop losing your shit every time someone makes a follow up to one of your posts? Even FOC takes it better than you and he gets annihilated every post he makes.
What follow-up? Fucktard here couldn't make a point if his life depended on it.
You fuck your incestuous whore of a mother with that mouth?
Seriously, exercise your second amendment right to eat a pistol.
Could you stop losing your shit every time someone makes a follow up to one of your posts? Even FOC takes it better than you and he gets annihilated every post he makes.
What follow-up? Fucktard here couldn't make a point if his life depended on it.
Moral indignity is alot more effective coming from people that aren't amoral.
If that were true, you'd spare us all your bullshit. Or maybe you just don't care about your efficacy.
You fuck your incestuous whore of a mother with that mouth?
Seriously, exercise your second amendment right to eat a pistol.
Could you stop losing your shit every time someone makes a follow up to one of your posts? Even FOC takes it better than you and he gets annihilated every post he makes.
What follow-up? Fucktard here couldn't make a point if his life depended on it.
Moral indignity is alot more effective coming from people that aren't amoral.
If that were true, you'd spare us all your bullshit. Or maybe you just don't care about your efficacy.
Who is this "us" you speak of?
Anyone caught in the radius of tragedy that you produce.
lol, your worldview is hinging on a typo before I even read it back and modified it.You fuck your incestuous whore of a mother with that mouth?
Seriously, exercise your second amendment right to eat a pistol.
Could you stop losing your shit every time someone makes a follow up to one of your posts? Even FOC takes it better than you and he gets annihilated every post he makes.
What follow-up? Fucktard here couldn't make a point if his life depended on it.
Moral indignity is alot more effective coming from people that aren't amoral.
If that were true, you'd spare us all your bullshit. Or maybe you just don't care about your efficacy.
Who is this "us" you speak of?
Anyone caught in the radius of tragedy that you produce.
Well that's what you're Uncle's badger said about your Aunt!
Wait? This isn't Monkey Island?
"... that's what you are Uncle's badger said..."
Humor is a lot more effective coming from people that aren't dumbfucks.
The dude who cheerleads for the principle of textualism but imperfectly / inconsistently applies it is still better than the dude that has no principle."I mean, isn't it arguable that the best place for -- for really toxic stuff is at the bottom of a lake so long as it stays there . . ."
The dude who cheerleads for the principle of textualism but imperfectly / inconsistently applies it is still better than the dude that has no principle.
In a huge development in the NY-23 special election, Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava has announced that she is suspending her campaign, citing an inability to win in light of recent polls and a lack of money -- leaving this race as a vote between Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, and a strong message that the Republican Party can no longer nominate moderate candidates, or else face a right-wing revolt.
Scozzafava told the Watertown Daily Times that the new Siena poll, which said she was in third place, meant that she would be unable to catch up with Owens and Hoffman.
man, how did i miss all this awesomeness
The Constitution is awesome and infallible- it tells me that Pee Dee only counts for 3/5 of a real, white person.
The constitution would be cool if it were like, ice cream, or something useful.
Contracts don't just magically change terms because those beholden to the terms want them to.
Point the first, why, yes, FDR was a vile piece of shit.
Point the first, why, yes, FDR was a vile piece of shit.
Point the second, prohibition was very much so promoted as social justice against those mean ol' fat cats in the beer corporations selling poison to our children. It was aimed at using governmental power to abolish what was viewed as one of the chief ills of mankind, and thus, improve society. (See also: Bryan, William Jennings)
Very much so the same sort of blind, utopian, nanny state stupidity found in "progressives" of the modern era.
unless they are choosing to murder adorable baby fetuses, of course, and then jaydubya becomes quite progressiveNo, Drinky, don't!
Wanting to change the law makes you a "progressive". That includes the teetotalers and FDR.I have no idea whether you're being serious.
I am actually being serious. The literal definition of the word just means that you want to change things. Obviously, mostly liberal people are considered "progressives" today but it sounds like jw's just arguing about the literal definition of the word and not on the religious motivation that many prohibition advocates had.Wanting to change the law makes you a "progressive". That includes the teetotalers and FDR.I have no idea whether you're being serious.
I am actually being serious. The literal definition of the word just means that you want to change things. Obviously, mostly liberal people are considered "progressives" today but it sounds like jw's just arguing about the literal definition of the word and not on the religious motivation that many prohibition advocates had.Wanting to change the law makes you a "progressive". That includes the teetotalers and FDR.I have no idea whether you're being serious.
I don't know why you guys even try with JayDubya
It's mostly the quick fix satisfaction of taking on the lowest hanging fruit who seems almost suspiciously compliant in being wrong.
End yourself, you self-righteous fuck.
Let's put it another way - if you would agree to a contract that is the legal analogue to Calvinball, and you're not Calvin, you're a complete idiot.
Contracts don't just change willy nilly; if you alter the terms, that requires a new consent.
God damn the founding fathers were geniuses. Modern politicians aren't worthy.
look, if we don't take an absolutist, quasi-religious view regarding a single document, regardless of -- or perhaps BECAUSE of -- its nominal mechanisms for transformation, we will all fall under the spell of horrid moral relativists and OH GOD THINK OF THE UNBORN BABIES
It's a contract, not an art piece. You don't interpret it. You read it. It's plain and literal.
Of course not, it's just that it's rather silly to call it a "contract" between the law and the citizenry, as if 90% of the citizenry had a choice in the matter!
Of course not, it's just that it's rather silly to call it a "contract" between the law and the citizenry, as if 90% of the citizenry had a choice in the matter!
And the alternative is...
I don't know whether a The Constitution is a contract in a literal sense, but regular contracts are not just read by the courts; they're interpreted. Courts interpret the terms in a contract and even go as far as implying terms not explicitly written.QuoteIt's a contract, not an art piece. You don't interpret it. You read it. It's plain and literal.
:bow :bow
A new constitution that actually has the support and involvement of the common people, isn't developed in secret by an economic elite, and isn't based on a 200-year-old idea of a nation?Of course not, it's just that it's rather silly to call it a "contract" between the law and the citizenry, as if 90% of the citizenry had a choice in the matter!
And the alternative is...
Perhaps you don't understand what a contract is, Crushed.
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF EVILBORIA
Article I: All posters have rights, except for libertarians are subhuman and have no rights.
Article II: Everything on Evilbore will be decided by an admin, as normal posters are too dumb to understand posting.
Article III: Give the official Evilbore sponsors (DoritosTM) your money, forever. All laws will make sure that DoritosTM receive your money.
Article IV: A carrier pigeon, bearing the dried skull of a Cherokee, will be the basis for inter-forums commerce.
Article V: When it comes to abortion, owning guns, and the power of Congress, yaere is the good jon.
I don't know whether a The Constitution is a contract in a literal sense, but regular contracts are not just read by the courts; they're interpreted. Courts interpret the terms in a contract and even go as far as implying terms not explicitly written.
Like people today would be able to even touch the balls of our founding father's genius.
The grammar in your first article is confusing, Crushed. Therefore, libertarians do have rights.
Senator Hatch: Healthcare reform bills threaten survival of two-party system
By Michael O'Brien - 11/02/09 11:15 AM ET
The healthcare reform proposals before Congress threaten the existence of the two-party system, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) alleged Monday morning.
Hatch asserted that the health bills, which he believes represent a "step-by-step approach to socialized medicine," will lead to Americans' dependence on Democrats for their health and other issues.
"And if they get there, of course, you're going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody's going to say, 'All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party,' " Hatch said during an interview with the conservative CNSNews.com.
"That's their goal," Hatch added. "That's what keeps Democrats in power."
That claim led Hatch to suggest that some Democrats are "diabolical" in their pursuit of health reform.
"Do I believe they're that diabolical? I don't believe most of them are, but I think some of them are," Hatch said. "Maybe diabolical's too harsh of a word, but the fact is, they really, really believe in socialized medicine."
During the interview, the Utah Republican worried about the health bill's provisions on public funding for abortion as well as the potential unconstitutionality of the individual mandate conservatives have argued.
First Amendment: No speaking out against Crushed. This is based on the Alien and Sedition Act, a document created by some of the wise and genius Founding Fathers.
Hold the phone.
I don't think I've expressed any love, anywhere for John Adams. Or Alexander Hamilton, for that matter (thank you very much, Vice President Burr).
I'm talking about FoC, who seems to think that the Constitution is like the True Cross and that the body parts of the founding fathers should be enshrined as relics.
isn't this code law vs. common law?Jay, a literal reading of a right can lead to a very limited reading of that right.
Yes.
Jay, a literal reading of a right can lead to a very limited reading of that right.
Yes.
Also, your chief complaint about the founders of a constitutional republic with delicate checks and balances against all parties, whom, by and large, thought pure democracy sucked ass... is that they weren't more democratic in their approach of forming a Constitution?fucking bullshit. How else can you explain why Andrew Jackson's main campaign platform was that he supported white man's suffrage? that sounds like a kkk tactic today but it was actually a legitimate civil rights movement.
The Constitution was drafted by delegates, ratified by the state legislatures. The states appointed their delegates as well. This was not some super sekrit oligarch's club.
I'll reassert that I do not support the use of the death penalty. I would not falsely claim that it's a constitutional matter, however.
Even Naomi Wolf, a noted liberal wrote in the opening chapter of "The End of America" that the constitution was more relevant than ever.
It's not a stupid question, just one you probably already knew my answer to.
People advancing the notion that the death penalty is "cruel" or "unusual," and thus, unconstitutional, are categorically wrong. The death penalty was applied quite routinely when the Constitutional Convention was held, and afterwards, and for far more crimes. Neither the man that wrote the text nor any significant portion of those ratifying it were death penalty abolitionists.
I'll reassert that I do not support the use of the death penalty. I would not falsely claim that it's a constitutional matter, however.
Even Naomi Wolf, a noted liberal wrote in the opening chapter of "The End of America" that the constitution was more relevant than ever.
noted CRAZY, perhaps
how do you feel about that noted libertarian, glenn beck
Even Naomi Wolf, a noted liberal wrote in the opening chapter of "The End of America" that the constitution was more relevant than ever.
noted CRAZY, perhaps
how do you feel about that noted libertarian, glenn beck
libertarian my ass
Even Naomi Wolf, a noted liberal wrote in the opening chapter of "The End of America" that the constitution was more relevant than ever.
noted CRAZY, perhaps
how do you feel about that noted libertarian, glenn beck
libertarian my ass
You're right, Glenn Beck is popular with more than 3% of the country.
I generally refer to libertarians as "Republicans who like weed"
I generally refer to libertarians as "Republicans who like weed"
Your "bucket drops" end up fillling several dozen water towers.
Your "bucket drops" end up fillling several dozen water towers.
So it's financing public utilities, allowing smaller suburban communities with less access to fresh water to lower local tax rates otherwise needed for importing water from larger cities? Great!
Your "bucket drops" end up fillling several dozen water towers.
I'm not even sure how to address the level of contortion in the rest of your justification.
Your "bucket drops" end up fillling several dozen water towers.
So it's financing public utilities, allowing smaller suburban communities with less access to fresh water to lower local tax rates otherwise needed for importing water from larger cities? Great!
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.spoiler (click to show/hide)- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.[close]
science lol am i rite
$30,000 for basket makers
science lol am i rite
And seriously? $30,000 dollars for basket making? It's going to be one or two people who teach people to make traditional baskets at a folk arts museum, or making them for a gift shop, or something like that.
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
"Providing jobs and supporting initiatives and research for improving American productivity!? But... how can this possibly pay off in the future!?"
Artists = not American citizens.
Will the basket maker conspiracy ever cease? Is the White House under the control of the BIG BASKET LOBBY!?
... or going to a museum.
Damn public funding for the arts. It should not happen.
Artists = not American citizens.
Will the basket maker conspiracy ever cease? Is the White House under the control of the BIG BASKET LOBBY!?
I'm gonna make a basket. Please send my 30% of what you make. You will have a fine basket I promise.spoiler (click to show/hide)Dirty hypocrite[close]
Every bit of wasteful spending that you attempt to justify with what you consider to be a relatively low cost adds up. And even then, you miss the point entirely.
Every bit of wasteful spending that you attempt to justify with what you consider to be a relatively low cost adds up. And even then, you miss the point entirely.
It's not just that it's a low cost, it's also that it provides jobs.
Every bit of wasteful spending that you attempt to justify with what you consider to be a relatively low cost adds up. And even then, you miss the point entirely.
It's not just that it's a low cost, it's also that it provides jobs.
You know what also provides jobs? Spending your own money. And those jobs actually, you know, people want.
Damn those nefarious "arts", JayDubya! Damn them to hell!
I enjoy "the arts," and I fund "the arts." It's called buying a movie ticket, or a game, or a CD, or going to a museum.
Damn public funding for the arts. It should not happen.
"Hello, I'm an independent laborer who uses their own talents to earn money, by manufacturing products that people will pay money to use or own!"
Unfortunately, this poor entrepreneur does not exploit the poor or blow up foreigners, so they have no right getting money. :'(
"Hello, I'm an independent laborer who uses their own talents to earn money, by manufacturing products that people will pay money to use or own!"
Unfortunately, this poor entrepreneur does not exploit the poor or blow up foreigners, so they have no right getting money. :'(
Again I'm going to point out that life is not a Captain Planet episode.
* Per CNN, voters in Virginia did not see their state's gubernatorial race as an opportunity to voice opposition to Barack Obama. A 55 percent majority of voters said that the President was not a factor in their vote, and an additional 18 percent indicated their vote in Virginia was one of support in the President. Just 24 percent of voters indicated that their vote was one of opposition to President Obama. The numbers out of New Jersey are not terribly different, with 60 percent saying that Barack Obama played no role in their gubernatorial vote, 19 percent saying that their vote was one in support of the President, and 20 percent saying that their vote was in opposition to President Obama.http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/11/3/800180/-Not-a-referendum-on-Obama
Concludes CNN, this is not a referendum on Barack Obama.
* Chuck Todd reports that Barack Obama's approval rating among Virginia voters stands at 51 percent (just under the 52.6 percent of the vote he received in the state last November) and 57 percent in New Jersey (almost exactly the same as the 57.1 percent of the vote he earned in that state last November). In other words, exit polling indicates President Obama has not really lost supporters over the past year.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/After-a-flurry-of-stimulus-spending_-questionable-projects-pile-up-8474249-68709732.html (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/After-a-flurry-of-stimulus-spending_-questionable-projects-pile-up-8474249-68709732.html)
After a flurry of stimulus spending, questionable projects pile up
The $787 billion stimulus bill was passed in February and was promised as a job saver and economy booster. Here is where some of the money went:
- $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.
- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
- $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.
- $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.
- $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.
- $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.
- $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.
- $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla.
- $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades.
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
- $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.
- $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill.
- $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota.
- $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan.
- $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.
- $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio.
- $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago.
- $356,000 for Indiana University to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech.
- $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths.
- $148,438 for Washington State University to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine.
- $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri
- $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in New York state.
- $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.
- $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle's energy efficiency.
- $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles.
Libertarians>>>>>>Republicans>>>2nd graders> Dirty hobo-lovin hippes A.K.A Liberals
While I do not approve of public funds going to museums, is paying money to attend / making a donation somehow not supporting the arts?
Because that would have to be the case for that to be a salient counterpoint.
Not to take away from this fascinating discussion, but it looks like the Republican might actually win in the NJ Governor's race; that was the one race I was kind of hoping that the Dem would win...
It's beginning.
"2009 elections are a bad omen for Obama White House." :lol
the arts lol am i rite
For purposes of public funding, it's not so much a "lol," as it is incredibly infuriating. No, no public money should go to "the arts."
More troubling is the Maine ballot initiative, which is a toss-up but trending towards the homophobes.
"The whole country's going to hell because of that president. I can't imagine what Dow will do to the county. Talk about a Ron Sims clone—dip him in tar and he'd be the same guy!"
:rock King County :rock
Not really seeing anything that can be divined from the entrails of tonight's elections.
Equality Defeated in Mainehttp://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
The anti-marriage equality initiative appears to have won in Maine. Meanwhile, a civil unions initiative has prevailed in Washington state.
CNN and Fox News called the race for Democrat Bill Owens, making him the first Democrat to hold the upstate New York seat since the Civil War.
That truly is a shame. I hate how buttfuckingly upset Mercury Fred over at GAF is though. I understand and appreciate his passion for the case, but he only ever posts in a political thread to say FUCK OBAMA HE DOES JACK SHIT FUCK THIS COUNTRY
Obama Dealt a Blow as Dems Fall Short in Races
Election of Republican governors in Va., N.J. could mean trouble for Obama, who carried both states in 2008
Democrats lose ground in 2009 election test
Republicans win big in New Jersey and Virginia, a troubling sign for the president and his party
That truly is a shame. I hate how buttfuckingly upset Mercury Fred over at GAF is though. I understand and appreciate his passion for the case, but he only ever posts in a political thread to say FUCK OBAMA HE DOES JACK SHIT FUCK THIS COUNTRY
I don't understand how people voting against gay marriage is Obama's fault. What, were advertising dollars and stump speeches going to flip a switch in people's minds?
"Y'know, I really hated all those gays, but the President started talking about his gay friends, I really think letting them get married is a fabulous idea!"
... Really.
Ref. 71 passed! Suck it homophobes! :rock
Dow Constantine kicked Susan Hutchison's ass! Suck it, East side conservatives! :rock
Ref. 71 passed! Suck it homophobes! :rock
Dow Constantine kicked Susan Hutchison's ass! Suck it, East side conservatives! :rock
:rock :rock :rock I-1033 absolutely scuttled! suck it, tim eyman and his libertarian shitheel sycophants! :rock :rock :rock
i want his head onna pike.
Kalamazoo city voters decisively adopted an ordinance Tuesday that extends anti-discrimination protections to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals.
The ordinance passed 7,671 to 4,731, making Kalamazoo the 16th city in Michigan to adopt such a gay-rights ordinance that grants the protections in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations.
Caught that clip of Michael Steele on CNN this morning - he was relatively humble, and made some good points. If he acted like this on a daily basis, I'd be more supportive for the party, y'know, I am a registered member of.
::) Based on your ideology, I don't think so.
liberals = butthurt :lol
You guys better lube up before november 2010.
liberals = butthurt :lol
You guys better lube up before november 2010.
Over what? More Democrats got sent to Congress, baby. :rock
As such a strict follower of the Constitution, I am surprised you have never heard of the House of Representatives!
But being a bible thumping hypocrite having premarital sex is. Just another religious phony .I don't know. nowadays even most religious people have premarital sex it isn't really something that unordinary. I don't know much about this woman, I'm just saying that the tape existing doesnt really mean anything. It's not like she was against taping sex?
But being a bible thumping hypocrite having premarital sex is. Just another religious phony .I don't know. nowadays even most religious people have premarital sex it isn't really something that unordinary. I don't know much about this woman, I'm just saying that the tape existing doesnt really mean anything. It's not like she was against taping sex?
But being a bible thumping hypocrite having premarital sex is. Just another religious phony .I don't know. nowadays even most religious people have premarital sex it isn't really something that unordinary. I don't know much about this woman, I'm just saying that the tape existing doesnt really mean anything. It's not like she was against taping sex?
It's "unordinary" when the religious person in question tries to lecture the public on moral values and becomes a spokesman for Christian fundies
Nope sorry, I dont see how having a sex tape and gay marriage having anything to do with each other at all.
On the heels of the NY-23 special House election, in which Conservative Party insurgent Doug Hoffman overtook moderate GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava, only to lose to Democrat Bill Owens, NRSC chairman John Cornyn (R-TX) has announced that the GOP's national Senate committee will not be spending money in contested primaries.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/nrsc-wont-spend-money-in-contested-primaries.php?ref=fpblg
"There's no incentive for us to weigh in," Cornyn told ABC News. "We have to look at our resources."
This could have huge ramifications in the Florida Senate race, where moderate Gov. Charlie Crist has been endorsed by the NRSC, and faces the more conservative former state House Speaker Marco Rubio. Crist has already emerged as a new top target for the same right-wing activists who went after Scozzafava.
Crist may be the officially endorsed candidate of the national GOP, but this official support won't count for much if he doesn't get actual money from the party. At best, he could be able to round up extra fundraising and endorsements, separate from the official party apparatus but thanks to its imprimatur. The campaign of the likely Democratic nominee, Rep. Kendrick Meek, sent out the story in a release today, calling the news a "major development."
Cornyn said that the party can learn from NY-23. "The first lesson is that competitive primaries are generally a good thing," Cornyn said. "To me, that's the overarching lesson to be learned out of the 23rd. When 11 people get behind closed doors and pick the nominee ... the grassroots are going to find an alternative."
Late Update: A national GOP source downplayed the story to TPM, telling us: "Far from being a major development, this is really nothing more than clarifying what should be obvious to anyone who has been following the dynamics of the Florida Senate race. It's a major development when the President of the United States comes to your state and doesn't know how to pronounce the last name of the Democrat Senate candidate. This isn't."
And in more teabagger news, they've found newer, hotter targethttp://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/senate-conservatives-fund-picks-sides-in-ca-as-demint-backs-devore.php?ref=fpa
A California Republican aiming to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) next year has gotten a boost from conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC).
DeMint announced last night his Senate Conservatives Fund was endorsing state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore over former Hewlett Packard chief Carly Fiorina. The group supports only "rock solid" conservatives, organizers told supporters on a conference call last night as election results came in.
Jesus FoC you sure play dumb well.
As such a strict follower of the Constitution, I am surprised you have never heard of the House of Representatives!
Now that you have more dems in the house Im sure we will have a public option... right? Right?
Not quite. I'm most definitely a Republican, but Flame is representative of the new and re-energized right that has no room for moderates. I come from a family of conservatives, and while I am more socially progressive then they are, even they are feeling kind of left out.
If being a Republican now constitutes living in a fantasy world detached from reality, prizing your ideology before results, never willing to compromise, hating those that are pro-choice, stopping gays from getting married and supporting frivolous military spending while axing social programs - then yes, I am probably not a Republican.
If being a Republican now constitutes living in a fantasy world detached from reality, prizing your ideology before results, never willing to compromise, hating those that are pro-choice, stopping gays from getting married and supporting frivolous military spending while axing social programs - then yes, I am probably not a Republican.
QuoteIf being a Republican now constitutes living in a fantasy world detached from reality, prizing your ideology before results, never willing to compromise, hating those that are pro-choice, stopping gays from getting married and supporting frivolous military spending while axing social programs - then yes, I am probably not a Republican.
I'm pro choice, have no problem with gays getting married and don't support military spending...
JERUSALEM – Open crates from a cargo ship seized Wednesday by Israel revealed dark green missiles inside. Containers from the vessel bore writing in English that said "I.R. Iranian Shipping Lines Group."
Israel alleged that the shipment of hundreds of tons of rockets, missiles, mortars, grenades and anti-tank weapons — the largest it ever seized — was headed for Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
(http://thisainthell.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/welcome_back_carter.jpg)
:lol :lol
http://cspan.org/Watch/C-SPAN3_wm.aspx
GOP protest at the capitol live. This is surreal
The GOP is really putting it all on the line for health care because they know that when it passes and becomes very popular, it will be thrown in their face for every election from here on out.
The GOP is really putting it all on the line for health care because they know that when it passes and becomes very popular, it will be thrown in their face for every election from here on out.
THis makes no sense at all. If they knew it was going pass why would they want it to be thrown in their face?
Logic fail
They don't want it to pass. Why do you think they are having a 'rally' in DC today. But thankfully, they are powerless to do anything about it. Unless they instigate a riot and take Dems out the old fashioned way.
Election Day losses in Virginia and New Jersey have congressional Democrats focused like never before on jobs — their own.
While the White House and party leaders are urging calm, Democratic incumbents from red states and Republican-leaning districts are anything but; Tuesday's statehouse defeats have left them acutely aware that their votes on health care reform and other major Obama initiatives could be career-enders in 2010 or beyond.
“I should be nervous,” said Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Huntsville, Ala.
Griffith said the Democratic rank and file is “very, very sensitive” to the fact that issues being pushed by party leaders “have the potential to cost some of our front-line members their seats.”
House Democrats, forced to take a tough vote on a controversial cap-and-trade climate change bill in June, may have to vote as earlier as this weekend on the even more controversial health care bill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team have struggled to get moderates on board for that vote, and Tuesday's results won't make the task any easier.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/11/protesters-arrested-at-liebermans-office.html
I was unaware of this faction of tea baggers. :smug
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/11/protesters-arrested-at-liebermans-office.html
I was unaware of this faction of tea baggers. :smug
The same politico that has repeatedly run stories of the public option being dead by quoting anonymous white house aides. :smug
The GOP is doing sooo bad they are winning elections. :lol
The GOP is doing sooo bad they are winning elections. :lol
Never Change you guys :lol
The GOP is doing sooo bad they are winning elections. :lolThey unseated 2 hugely unpopular Dems. What an amazing accomplishment.
Never Change you guys :lol
The GOP is doing sooo bad they are winning elections. :lol
Never Change you guys :lol
I doubt you're this dumb.
I just e-mailed my House rep and told him if he doesn't vote for health care reform that I will gladly vote for someone else next election. :american
Willco can you send me a copy of that letter too, I'm running out of toilet paper.
Republicans are learning an unpleasant lesson this morning: The only thing worse than having no health-care reform plan is releasing a bad one, getting thrashed by CBO and making the House Democrats look good in comparison.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/11/congressional_budget_office_th.html
Late last night, the Congressional Budget Office released its initial analysis of the health-care reform plan that Republican Minority Leader John Boehner offered as a substitute to the Democratic legislation. CBO begins with the baseline estimate that 17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won't have health-care insurance in 2010. In 2019, after 10 years of the Republican plan, CBO estimates that ...17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won't have health-care insurance. The Republican alternative will have helped 3 million people secure coverage, which is barely keeping up with population growth. Compare that to the Democratic bill, which covers 36 million more people and cuts the uninsured population to 4 percent.
But maybe, you say, the Republican bill does a really good job cutting costs. According to CBO, the GOP's alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit.
The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan. And amazingly, the Democratic bill has already been through three committees and a merger process. It's already been shown to interest groups and advocacy organizations and industry stakeholders. It's already made its compromises with reality. It's already been through the legislative sausage grinder. And yet it saves more money and covers more people than the blank-slate alternative proposed by John Boehner and the House Republicans. The Democrats, constrained by reality, produced a far better plan than Boehner, who was constrained solely by his political imagination and legislative skill.
This is a major embarrassment for the Republicans. It's one thing to keep your cards close to your chest. Republicans are in the minority, after all, and their plan stands no chance of passage. It's another to lay them out on the table and show everyone that you have no hand, and aren't even totally sure how to play the game. The Democratic plan isn't perfect, but in comparison, it's looking astonishingly good.
Willco can you send me a copy of that letter too, I'm running out of toilet paper.
I think we know how you deal with that problem. (http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php?topic=10163.msg246866#msg246866)
my worry is that more free-floating independents and moderates could pull democrats more towards the right
These sorts of contradictions were apparent everywhere. But one thing about the rally proved sparklingly clear: Michele Bachmann is a major star. When she stepped up to the podium on the Capitol steps, the crowd went wild. It wasn’t too hard to imagine the event as a warm up for the 2012 presidential election, where Bachmann might prove a far more viable candidate than Sarah Palin. The rally confirmed her primacy as a leading voice of the Republican Party—a party that, with this protest, has fully embraced the conservative movement's most extreme elements.
Has George Will ever written an oped worth reading? Really.
Demon Denim
By George F. Will
Thursday, April 16, 2009
On any American street, or in any airport or mall, you see the same sad tableau: A 10-year-old boy is walking with his father, whose development was evidently arrested when he was that age, judging by his clothes. Father and son are dressed identically -- running shoes, T-shirts. And jeans, always jeans. If mother is there, she, too, is draped in denim.
Writer Daniel Akst has noticed and has had a constructive conniption. He should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has earned it by identifying an obnoxious misuse of freedom. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he has denounced denim, summoning Americans to soul-searching and repentance about the plague of that ubiquitous fabric, which is symptomatic of deep disorders in the national psyche.
It is, he says, a manifestation of "the modern trend toward undifferentiated dressing, in which we all strive to look equally shabby." Denim reflects "our most nostalgic and destructive agrarian longings -- the ones that prompted all those exurban McMansions now sliding off their manicured lawns and into foreclosure." Jeans come prewashed and acid-treated to make them look like what they are not -- authentic work clothes for horny-handed sons of toil and the soil. Denim on the bourgeoisie is, Akst says, the wardrobe equivalent of driving a Hummer to a Whole Foods store -- discordant.
Long ago, when James Dean and Marlon Brando wore it, denim was, Akst says, "a symbol of youthful defiance." Today, Silicon Valley billionaires are rebels without causes beyond poses, wearing jeans when introducing new products. Akst's summa contra denim is grand as far as it goes, but it only scratches the surface of this blight on Americans' surfaces. Denim is the infantile uniform of a nation in which entertainment frequently features childlike adults ("Seinfeld," "Two and a Half Men") and cartoons for adults ("King of the Hill"). Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" -- people who play video games -- are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote. In their undifferentiated dress, children and their childish parents become undifferentiated audiences for juvenilized movies (the six -- so far -- "Batman" adventures and "Indiana Jones and the Credit-Default Swaps," coming soon to a cineplex near you). Denim is the clerical vestment for the priesthood of all believers in democracy's catechism of leveling -- thou shalt not dress better than society's most slovenly. To do so would be to commit the sin of lookism -- of believing that appearance matters. That heresy leads to denying the universal appropriateness of everything, and then to the elitist assertion that there is good and bad taste.
Denim is the carefully calculated costume of people eager to communicate indifference to appearances. But the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves.
Do not blame Levi Strauss for the misuse of Levi's. When the Gold Rush began, Strauss moved to San Francisco planning to sell strong fabric for the 49ers' tents and wagon covers. Eventually, however, he made tough pants, reinforced by copper rivets, for the tough men who knelt on the muddy, stony banks of Northern California creeks, panning for gold. Today it is silly for Americans whose closest approximation of physical labor consists of loading their bags of clubs into golf carts to go around in public dressed for driving steers up the Chisholm Trail to the railhead in Abilene.
This is not complicated. For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don't wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly.
Edmund Burke -- what he would have thought of the denimization of America can be inferred from his lament that the French Revolution assaulted "the decent drapery of life"; it is a straight line from the fall of the Bastille to the rise of denim -- said: "To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely." Ours would be much more so if supposed grown-ups would heed St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, and St. Barack's inaugural sermon to the Americans, by putting away childish things, starting with denim.
(A confession: The author owns one pair of jeans. Wore them once. Had to. Such was the dress code for former senator Jack Danforth's 70th birthday party, where Jerry Jeff Walker sang his classic "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother." Music for a jeans-wearing crowd.)
Has George Will ever written an oped worth reading? Really.
well, there was that one time he totally misrepresented a bunch of research on climate change,
Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry oped on letting the states take care of health care reform, (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/05/AR2009110504328.html) that is despite the fact that his state leads the nation in uninsured. (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/11/dont_listen_to_texas.html) :lol
Texas, never change. :lol
http://twitter.com/msnbcheadlines (http://twitter.com/msnbcheadlines)
MSNBC's twitter hacked, lulz ensue
Holy balls
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/jon-stewart-does-glenn-be_n_348129.html
(http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.a/6a00d83451c45669e20120a65cb52e970b-800wi)
WHAT NOW OBAMA
Also, I could be wrong, but I think I've read that malpractice costs represent a fraction of the health care costs. So even if tort reform, in all its glory, would be passed to appease conservatives, it would do very little in driving down skyrocketing health care costs.
Dumb observation but I notice that starting in 1981, every recession since then has taken longer and longer before complete unemployment recovery. There was barely a recovery period between the end of the 2001 recession and the start of the 2007, according to that chart.
There was barely a recovery period between the end of the 2001 recession and the start of the 2007, according to that chart.dubbed a "jobless recovery". many economists are speculating as to whether there has been a structural shift in the labor market, with a higher natural rate of unemployment.
:lol :lol at the mantra of republicans being brought back in to fix the economy/jobs situation they created. How fucking stupid can people be? :lol
Ugggh, so apparently abortion is going to be stripped not only from any public plan, but also must be stripped from any private plan involved in whatever exchange they set up.
Uhh.
It was never supposed to be allowable under the "public option," if this set of legislators and the president are to be believed.
Granted, there's an exploitable loophole there the size of a mack truck, which I'm guessing some people wanted to use as a run around the Hyde Amendment... thankfully, that shit really won't fly in this country, nor should it be expected to.
Ugggh, so apparently abortion is going to be stripped not only from any public plan, but also must be stripped from any private plan involved in whatever exchange they set up.
Uhh.
It was never supposed to be allowable under the "public option," if this set of legislators and the president are to be believed.
Granted, there's an exploitable loophole there the size of a mack truck, which I'm guessing some people wanted to use as a run around the Hyde Amendment... thankfully, that shit really won't fly in this country, nor should it be expected to.
People should be forced to get abortions in back alleys and run down warehouses - like the good 'ole days!
Poor JayDubya. :lolDoes he agree that fetuses are delicious? :drool
Apparently, abortion is not one of those things people can agree to disagree on. It's either you're right or you're evil!
I'm pretty sure he's not religious.
I OBJECT I OBJECT I OBJECT
I'm going to go ahead and say that pairing with with fetus is based more on the sauce it's served in, rather than any inherent quality that exists in a fetus, unlike say, foie gras.
7:20 PM ET -- Democratic aides: We've got the votes. "Today we will pass the Affordable Health Care for America Act," Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on the House floor Saturday evening. Politico is reporting that Democrats have at least the 218 votes needed to pass the bill. Three Democratic aides tell HuffPost the same thing.
Frank Mocks Health Reform Protesters, Bachmann
Rep. Barney Frank took a swipe at Rep. Michele Bachmann for organizing a rally to protest the Democrats' health care plan.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic Rep. Barney Frank took a dig Friday at the Republican lawmaker who organized a protest by conservatives against health care legislation.
Frank, a Massachusetts liberal, told an audience: "Some of the people (at the rally) that wanted to engage me in conversation appeared to have been the losers in the 'Are you smarter than Michele Bachmann contest?"'
Rep. Bachmann, R-Minn., had organized Thursday's rally attended by thousands of conservatives critical of the Democrats' health care plan. Her spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment. Frank, who recently compared arguing with an angry voter to conversing with a dining room table, said this week's protest was like being trapped inside a furniture warehouse.
Frank, who recently compared arguing with an angry voter to conversing with a dining room table, said this week's protest was like being trapped inside a furniture warehouse.
obama to send in more of Are Troops
The surge that ended up working.
So the surge was an absolute failure
Pulled from Right Wing Watch:I hate Florida... :-\
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/09/florida-tea-party/
Next year will be interesting.
Edit: I'm loving this extremist rhetoric - http://www.grasstopsusa.com/df110609.html
The surge that ended up working.
[youtube=560,345]-BCl8Tqatzw[/youtube]Quote from: Rep. Ron Paul (R-Candyland)So the surge was an absolute failure
Poll: Snowe Could Lose 2012 GOP Primary In Landslide To Conservative Challenger
Eric Kleefeld | November 10, 2009, 11:07AM
A new survey of Maine from Public Policy Polling (D) has some dire news for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), with the moderate Republican potentially losing her 2012 Republican primary against a generic conservative challenger -- and by a landslide, no less.
The numbers: Conservative challenger 59%, Snowe 31%, with a ±4.8% margin of error. It is of course a long way from the idea of a generic conservative challenger to having an actual candidate, but the potential for success by just such an insurgent is certainly there.
Snowe's overall approval is 51%, to 36% disapproval. Democrats approve of her by 60%-29%, Republicans disapprove by 40%-46%, and independents approve by 51%-33%.
The pollster's analysis notes the importance of her vote for a health care bill in the Senate Finance Committee: "Snowe's numbers are steady with independents but down with both Democrats and Republicans compared to three weeks ago, an indication of the perilous political position she finds herself in. Republicans are mad at her for supporting any Democratic bill, while Democrats still are not completely happy with her because of her hesitance to support a public option."
Oh my (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/poll-snowe-could-lose-2012-gop-primary-in-landslide-to-conservative-challenger.php?ref=fpblg)QuotePoll: Snowe Could Lose 2012 GOP Primary In Landslide To Conservative Challenger
Eric Kleefeld | November 10, 2009, 11:07AM
A new survey of Maine from Public Policy Polling (D) has some dire news for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), with the moderate Republican potentially losing her 2012 Republican primary against a generic conservative challenger -- and by a landslide, no less.
The numbers: Conservative challenger 59%, Snowe 31%, with a ±4.8% margin of error. It is of course a long way from the idea of a generic conservative challenger to having an actual candidate, but the potential for success by just such an insurgent is certainly there.
Snowe's overall approval is 51%, to 36% disapproval. Democrats approve of her by 60%-29%, Republicans disapprove by 40%-46%, and independents approve by 51%-33%.
The pollster's analysis notes the importance of her vote for a health care bill in the Senate Finance Committee: "Snowe's numbers are steady with independents but down with both Democrats and Republicans compared to three weeks ago, an indication of the perilous political position she finds herself in. Republicans are mad at her for supporting any Democratic bill, while Democrats still are not completely happy with her because of her hesitance to support a public option."
2012 is a long way off, but still.
[img]http://fffuuucomics.com/big.jpg?im=0290.jpg[img]
Family Feud: How Much Is Moon Church Conflict Driving Wash Times Turmoil?
Justin Elliott | November 10, 2009, 1:25PM
The Sunday firings of executives at the Washington Times and the possible exit of its top editor are apparently being driven more than previously known by last month's transfer of power of the Unification Church and associated business empire from Rev. Sun Myung Moon to his children.
And it looks like the trouble between the Washington Times and Unification Church headquarters in South Korea has been simmering for some time. The AP -- not the church-owned Washington Times -- was given the October 12 scoop about transfer of day-to-day operations to the three sons.
A second newsroom source tells TPM: "I knew something was wrong between the Times and the Moonies about a month ago" when the AP story ran, calling it "a horrific snub on a matter of that consequence."
The Washington Times had to run the AP version of the story the next day, October 13, and finally getting its own original piece published on the 14th.
In the wake of the shakeup, at least one former Times staffer is worried the paper could fold.
"We always thought that wouldn't happen because they have invested so much in it. But anything is possible with Preston Moon," the former staffer told TPM. The source believes the church has invested up to $2 billion in the newspaper, which was founded in the early 1980s to fight Communism. And the church is running a multi-million dollar annual deficit to keep the institution alive.
We've reached out to get the church's comment in response to our story, but did not immediately hear back. We'll update if and when the church has a statement.
The source believes the church has invested up to $2 billion in the newspaper, which was founded in the early 1980s to fight Communism.
Two U.S. Secret Service armored vehicles used to protect Vice President Biden struck and killed a pedestrian in Temple Hills early Wednesday morning, authorities said.
Yeah, that's true. All the decent Post writers have sold out to ESPN or similar television interests.
Is there anything better than vintage Kornheiser, from back in his heyday? I remember reading his columns on the bus to Eastern in the mornings.
Big nostalgia factor for me. I used to get the paper each morning and immediately see if he had written a column.
He was one of the few sports journalists who was a really good writer on his own merits (good enough he had a Sunday column in Style). His stuff was a lot funnier, more engaging, and more perceptive than anyone else I can think of off the bat.
Wilbon said in an interview that Kornheiser worries about his broadcast stuff being dumbed down and no longer having the chops to go back and write like he used to. Even so, he's eons better than the Jim Romes and Jay Mariottis of the world.
Also, it's a little painful watching the WaPo's slow death. On top of the obvious shrinkage, I caught several basic spelling/punctuation errors in two Thomas Boswell columns in a row. For some reason it makes me really sad to think that they must've canned the copy editors.
Palin annihilated
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/14/mccain-campaign-emails-co_n_358124.html
"I am very sorry u guys are working double-triple time on this blundered-up stuff that they spin bc of my visits w press - while I apologize I say I love you guys!!!"
Don't play with my emotions like that, ever again :-\
Fucking disgusting psuedo-scientific bullshit. I never took Maher seriously but he is just fully up his own ass in that clip.
And PD, you're a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow too if you think getting the swine flu vaccine is unsafe.
It's crazy how far Maher has embraced and advocates rationality only to see him take such poor, irrational stances against modern health sciences.
It's crazy how far Maher has embraced and advocates rationality only to see him take such poor, irrational stances against modern health sciences.
So is there anyone who can give an actual rational reason why we shouldn't try and imprison terrorists here in the US? To misquote the immortal Walter Sobchak, these men aren't Lex Luthor, they're cowards, Donny.
Something Bush was to much of a pussy to finish
I though Bush hated brown people blah blah blah liberal.gif
What reason is he giving that he they will be? acquitted
It's funny that your mind works so slowly that it took you a full minute to come up with such a lame response, yet you thought it so witty it was worth a second attempt at postingSomething Bush was to much of a pussy to finish
I though Bush hated brown people blah blah blah liberal.gif
Why is it that when I talk to someone who refuses the flu shot they are either Christian or Libertarian? o wait it makes perfect sense :teehee
On a more general level, however, since when is it something we advertise or say proudly that we're going to change our behavior because we fear terrorists will attack us if we don't? To be unPC about it, isn't there some residual national machismo that keeps us from cowering even before trivially increased dangers? As much as I think the added dangers are basically nil, I'm surprised that people can stand up as say we should change what we do in response to some minuscule added danger and not be embarrassed.
Why is it that when I talk to someone who refuses the flu shot they are either Christian or Libertarian? o wait it makes perfect sense :teehee
Explain nerdling.
Never got the flu shot. Never had the flu, either, until possibly this year. (Doc said I got it, but my new doc's an idiot).Flu virus hates the cold. Canada :rock
Will be getting the H1N1 shot this week though, on account of spending 6 weeks on a cruise ship in February with 5000 other Mounties who will be exposed to thousands of tourists from all over the world.
Why is it that when I talk to someone who refuses the flu shot they are either Christian or Libertarian? o wait it makes perfect sense :teehee
One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country. Unfortunately, many of the largest companies that would seek to enter the biosimilar market have made their money by outsourcing their research to foreign countries like India.
One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country. Unfortunately, many of the largest companies that would seek to enter the biosimilar market have made their money by outsourcing their research to foreign countries like India.
Japan still has Samurai :o
Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.
There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.
In Connecticut's 42nd district (which also does not exist), the Web site claims 25 jobs created with zero stimulus dollars.
The list of spending and job creation in fictional congressional districts extends to U.S. territories as well.
$68.3 million spent and 72.2 million spent in the 1st congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
$8.4 million spent and 40.3 jobs created in the 99th congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
$1.5 million spent and .3 jobs created in the 69th district and $35 million for 142 jobs in the 99th district of the Northern Mariana Islands.
$47.7 million spent and 291 jobs created in Puerto Rico's 99th congressional district.
I can't believe Obama is being so respectful of the customs and traditions of other countries. A true president would punch foreign dignitaries in the face and piss on their prone bodies. Disgraceful. :maf
I’m representing the United States of America. And we’re talking about a friend, and we’re talking about an ally. We’re talking about a nation with whom we have constructive relationships. Sure, we got some problems, but that was all overriding — and respect for the Emperor. And remember back in World War II, if you’d have predicted that I would be here, because of the hard feeling and the symbolic nature of the problem back then of the former Emperor’s standing, I would have said, “No way.” But here we are, and time moves on; and there is a very good lesson for civilized countries in all of this.
Yeah why would anyone think it's odd that our president bows to royalty,.You do know that George Washington was offered kingship/president for life three times, right? Maybe you have your history mixed up because it was the French, not the Americans, who rebelled against the fat royalty getting paid to live in luxury thing. The colonists just wanted the ability to directly control their taxes (see: taxation with representation).
/someone who never took American history.
Try again.Said the doctor to your mama.
Yeah why would anyone think it's odd that our president bows to royalty,.
/someone who never took American history.
Suddenly Fox News turned into a videogame forum, full of dumb honkeys expounding on the nuances of Japanese culture.
And hey, how many weeks ago were we meant to be outraged that Obama failed to show Queen Elizabeth II the proper level of deference?
SOUNDS LIKE DISGUSTING CULTURAL RELATIVISM TO ME CRUSHED, DO YOU LOVE ISLAMISM
HIANG MAI, Thailand: Former US President Jimmy Carter said he was pressed by his advisers to attack Iran during the hostage crisis there more than 30 years ago but resisted because he feared 20,000 Iranians could have died.
Islamist militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and seized its occupants. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days.
Carter said Monday that one proposed option was a military strike on Iran, but he chose to stick with negotiations to prevent bloodshed and bring the hostages home safely.
"My main advisers insisted that I should attack Iran," he told reporters in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, where he was helping build houses for Habitat for Humanity. "I could have destroyed Iran with my weaponry. But I felt in the process it was likely the hostages' lives would be lost, and I didn't want to kill 20,000 Iranians. So I didn't attack."
I can't believe Obama is being so respectful of the customs and traditions of other countries. A true president would punch foreign dignitaries in the face and piss on their prone bodies. Disgraceful. :maf
Generally speaking, an inferior bows longer, more deeply and more frequently than a superior. A superior addressing an inferior will generally only nod the head slightly, while some superiors may not bow at all and an inferior will bend forward slightly from the waist.
The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms….The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.
So would it have been better for Obama to just do the greeting bow then? It's odd sure but I don't really see the big deal. If I were the Japanese guy I'd be flattered, I guess.
So would it have been better for Obama to just do the greeting bow then? It's odd sure but I don't really see the big deal. If I were the Japanese guy I'd be flattered, I guess.
It was probably a bit awkward for the Emperor, since foreign heads of state don't usually bow like that to him. I would be like Obama going to meet Queen Elizabeth and dropping to one knee in front of her. Not really a big deal, at the end of day, but kind of an awkward situation.
When we did an etiquette course at the japanese company I worked for they just told us to bow however we felt like when bowed to since we would never be able to get the nuance right and the Japanese would laugh at us anyway.
Pretty much. Anyway it's already old new.
Also if liberals can nitpick about Bush holding hands with saudi royalty than conservatives can have some candy too.
When we did an etiquette course at the japanese company I worked for they just told us to bow however we felt like when bowed to since we would never be able to get the nuance right and the Japanese would laugh at us anyway.
Democratic leadership has distributed figures to reporters from a CBO analysis of Senate health care legislation. The numbers affirm what we reported this morning--that Majority Leader Harry Reid is very pleased.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/cbo-senate-bill-costs-849-billion-major-deficit-reducer.php
The health care bill--which includes an opt-out public option--will require $849 billion over 10 years in new spending, to be paid for with cuts to Medicare, while reducing the deficit by $127 billion.
In that time it will extend coverage to 31 million Americans--94 percent of citizens will be covered.
Over the second 10 years, CBO projects even greater cost savings--up to $650 billion, with the caveat that after 10 years, their analyses become highly uncertain.
This meets all of President Obama's goals, and, as has been the pattern during this legislative process, the Senate bill comes at a lower cost, and with greater cost-savings than the House bill, while the House bill covers more Americans.
those cuts to medicare are gonna have some NASTY political repercussions. kinda stupid, really.
Also if liberals can nitpick about Bush holding hands with saudi royalty than conservatives can have some candy too.
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200911180038More gotcha journalism. :smug
:smug
why can't norah ask tough questions to the dumbass lawmakers who roll over her on a daily basis
why can't norah ask tough questions to the dumbass lawmakers who roll over her on a daily basis
Because then none of them would talk to her anymore. "Journalists" today value access over everything.
I stood in line to get my copy of this book from the local bookstore fearing it might be sold out early. Hot chick on the cover, so far so good. Then I opened it and started reading.
To my chagrin it didn't start out well. I thought well at some point this has to get better. But guess what it doesn't! There's nothing at all about dex rolls, dps builds, searching for traps, sneak attacks, assassins, +4 daggers or anything!
All it is some woman whining about how everyone in her party wouldn't let her make any decisions, about how something called a Couric made her look like a complete idiot (I couldn't find it in the monster manual but, I'm guessing it must be like a Sphinx), and how her group leader McCain wouldn't let her be rogue enough.
Well, I don't even know where to start addressing this stuff. She doesn't even have any daggers! I mean, that's hardly the group leader's fault! She should have loaded out before the quest started!
Plus, on every single page she bemoans her 8 INT build and blames her horrible playing on everyone else! It's her fault for putting all her stat points into Charisma!
To sum up, this book is terrible. It's anti-rogue if anything. If you want a book on how not to be a rogue this has got to be the bible.
I'm going back to the store now to see if I can get my hard earned plat back for this awful drek.
Review (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/21847117/Going_Rogue) of Going Rogue.QuoteI stood in line to get my copy of this book from the local bookstore fearing it might be sold out early. Hot chick on the cover, so far so good. Then I opened it and started reading.
To my chagrin it didn't start out well. I thought well at some point this has to get better. But guess what it doesn't! There's nothing at all about dex rolls, dps builds, searching for traps, sneak attacks, assassins, +4 daggers or anything!
All it is some woman whining about how everyone in her party wouldn't let her make any decisions, about how something called a Couric made her look like a complete idiot (I couldn't find it in the monster manual but, I'm guessing it must be like a Sphinx), and how her group leader McCain wouldn't let her be rogue enough.
Well, I don't even know where to start addressing this stuff. She doesn't even have any daggers! I mean, that's hardly the group leader's fault! She should have loaded out before the quest started!
Plus, on every single page she bemoans her 8 INT build and blames her horrible playing on everyone else! It's her fault for putting all her stat points into Charisma!
To sum up, this book is terrible. It's anti-rogue if anything. If you want a book on how not to be a rogue this has got to be the bible.
I'm going back to the store now to see if I can get my hard earned plat back for this awful drek.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday night criticized Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) for voting against the Democrats’ signature healthcare bill.
“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”
It's online right now. The vote isn't until the weekend, so 72 hours will have passed
FoC has met his match
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=18557094&postcount=36984
And all our delicious food.
Keep eating like that and maybe Demi will unleper you if you know what I mean.
Keep eating like that and maybe Demi will unleper you if you know what I mean.
go eat some tofu hippie.spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://www.quarrygirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/country-fried-steak.jpg)
:drool[close]
That's chicken friend steak asshole.
How could you possibly eat a chicken friend? :(
yes, we all know how "friendly" you get with chickens in your parts
Is this the house bill or senate bill? I've been out of it for a while.
I read somewhere that the only reason the house bill looks like it saves money is because they are putting the doctors expense in a separate bill being voted on today.
What exactly is the health care bill going to do if there isn't a public option?
I should have stated "some Democrats" but I do find it annoying that barring major problems, the GOP in Congress tends to be pretty lockstep and enforces the party line well. Democrats don't have that strength and the frayed edges lean right of the pack, not left.
So if I am required under this bill to have health insurance, but I can't afford it, what happens then?
So it looks like health insurance companies cannot deny care because of a pre existing condition? Does that mean I should only sign up for healthcare whenever I'm sick?
So it looks like health insurance companies cannot deny care because of a pre existing condition? Does that mean I should only sign up for healthcare whenever I'm sick?
Yeah!
Unless there were some sort of mandate to prevent you from gaming the system...
So it looks like health insurance companies cannot deny care because of a pre existing condition? Does that mean I should only sign up for healthcare whenever I'm sick?
Yeah!
Unless there were some sort of mandate to prevent you from gaming the system...
Like what?
So if I am required under this bill to have health insurance, but I can't afford it, what happens then?
I think you have to pay penalty for not having health insurance ($1500??).
So if I am required under this bill to have health insurance, but I can't afford it, what happens then?
I think you have to pay penalty for not having health insurance ($1500??).
If I don't have the money to pay the penalty?
"Please explain how certain provisions, which are still being negotiated and will be re-negotiated in the conference, will personally affect my situation."
Dude, we just don't know.
The only thing the Republicans are correct about is that this bill is essentially a poison pill for single-payer. Even if there is an opt-out public option that comes to pass, the financial burden created by the health care industry will inevitably lead to a single-payer system.
Is the Senate axing the federal exchange, as well?
Can't blame Reid here. Three senators aren't playing ball, what's he going to do, go all LBJ on them?
Can't blame Reid here. Three senators aren't playing ball, what's he going to do, go all LBJ on them?
Can't blame Reid here. Three senators aren't playing ball, what's he going to do, go all LBJ on them?
Neither Reid nor Obama have suitable balls. I swear the country would be better off with Hillary Clinton running things.
Well, the stimulus bill WAS a jobs bill.
They just grossly underestimated the unemployment figures and eliminated a huge chunk of the "make work" programs because the Obama adminstration was afraid of being labeled "socialist".
Sarah Palin is the Empress-Queen of the screaming-for-screaming’s sake generation. The people who dismiss her book Going Rogue as the petty, vindictive meanderings of a preening paranoiac with the IQ of a celery stalk completely miss the book’s significance, because in some ways it’s really a revolutionary and innovative piece of literature.
Palin — and there’s just no way to deny this — is a supremely gifted politician. She has staked out, as her own personal political turf, the entire landscape of incoherent white American resentment. In this area she leaves even Rush Limbaugh in the dust.
We all get into furious arguments at work that make us want to explode in self-righteous fury (in my office dramas I always realize I was actually the asshole a day or so later)
Quote from: Matt TaibbiWe all get into furious arguments at work that make us want to explode in self-righteous fury (in my office dramas I always realize I was actually the asshole a day or so later)
I know it's mean to take shots at people based on self-deprecating admissions, but boy howdy am I not surprised by this.
But democrats in Nebraska endorsed the idea of a public option ???
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/02/nebraska-voters-favor-pub_n_343061.html
Pretty small sample, I'd like to see some bigger polls; but Nate Silver didn't raise red flags over it.
Nelson initially supported the idea of a public option. He's flip flopped pretty dramatically. Same with Lincoln; her website says she supports a public option.
Why haven't we banned lobbyists yet?
Why would he? He is one of them.
That was our great choice in 2008. Two senators. I don't think it's any coincidence that many of our greatest presidents are not senators.
[youtube=560,345]mKKKgua7wQk[/youtube]
Not so much the bad language as the constant, raging contempt for all people who are not Matt Taibbi. He's written some very good stuff (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/inside_the_great_american_bubble_machine) (and his share of crap (http://www.mensjournal.com/brian-cashman)) but he could be a lot better if he dialed down the Jim Rome act.
"Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution, we call it life." :roflI love CO2 so much I'm going to lock myself in an airtight room and convert all that nasty oxygen to awesome carbon dioxide. I'll post later to let you guys know how it goes.
It is like something from a screenplay for Thank You for Smoking 2: The Green House Effect.
It was announced Thursday afternoon that computer hackers had obtained 160 megabytes of e-mails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in England. Those e-mails involved communication among many scientific researchers and policy advocates with similar ideological positions all across the world. Those purported authorities were brazenly discussing the destruction and hiding of data that did not support global-warming claims.
Professor Phil Jones, the head of the Climate Research Unit, and professor Michael E. Mann at Pennsylvania State University, who has been an important scientist in the climate debate, have come under particular scrutiny. Among his e-mails, Mr. Jones talked to Mr. Mann about the "trick of adding in the real temps to each series ... to hide the decline [in temperature]."
Rates are up 18% over last year for single and family plans.Good luck justifying that cost increase with low inflation the past year.
The family plan deduction is $80.61/week with a $5000 deductible.yeesh. That's terrible
Those Palin supporters are experts in self-annihilation :yuck
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypo1sI_dmso[/youtube]
:bow Martha Stewart
How are they justifying these cost increases?
Anyone want to talk about the email hack of the climate change researchers?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/24/hiding-evidence-of-global-cooling/ (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/24/hiding-evidence-of-global-cooling/)
There is a lot of damning evidence about these researchers concealing information that counters their bias. In another exchange, Mr. Jones told Mr. Mann: "If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the UK, I think I'll delete the file rather than send to anyone" and, "We also have a data protection act, which I will hide behind." Mr. Jones further urged Mr. Mann to join him in deleting e-mail exchanges about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) controversial assessment report (ARA): "Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re [the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report]?"
"We believe it was an intentional act on his part to take his own life," said Rudzinski, who helped lead the investigation.
Sparkman's nude body was found Sept. 12 by people visiting the cemetery. There was a rope around his neck tied to a tree, and he had what appeared to be the word "fed" written on his chest in black marker.
tehjaybo and Bloodwake knew him.
But they actually did know him. They grew up with his son or something.
Census worker Bill Sparkman committed suicide and deliberately made it look like murder as part of an insurance scam, Kentucky state police have concluded.
State police, working with the FBI, said at a press conference moments ago that Sparkman had recently taken out two life insurance policies that would not pay out for suicide. It appears Sparkman hoped that the scheme would benefit his son, Josh Sparkman.
Damn, here I was hoping there was actually a heroic vigilante going around. :'(
Damn, here I was hoping there was actually a heroic vigilante going around. :'(
Yeah, the tyranny of answering the census is truly unforgivable. ::)
No, apparently he thought the only way his kid was ever going to be able to get any money after the economy cratered was if he killed himself and the kid collected the insurance money. 8 years of conservative shitfuck economics will do that to you.
No, apparently he thought the only way his kid was ever going to be able to get any money after the economy cratered was if he killed himself and the kid collected the insurance money. 8 years of conservative shitfuck economics will do that to you.
And yet somehow you're still alive...
Michael Mann discusses how to destroy a journal that has published sceptic papers.(1047388489)
Tim Osborn discusses how data are truncated to stop an apparent cooling trend showing up in the results (0939154709). Analysis of impact here. Wow!
Phil Jones describes the death of sceptic, John Daly, as "cheering news".
Briffa says he tried hard to balance the needs of the IPCC and science, which were not always the same.
Quote
Briffa says he tried hard to balance the needs of the IPCC and science, which were not always the same.
:lol
WTF
I am happy to pass the mantle on to someone else next
time. I feel I have basically produced nothing original or substantive of my own since this
whole process started. I am at this moment , having to work on the ENV submission to the
forthcoming UK Research Assessment exercise , again instead of actually doing some useful
research !
Mandark, admit defeat. You've been foiled. Climate change is an elaborate hoax, and these e-mails prove it.
Carbon dioxide: some call it pollution, we call it life. :rock
I wonder what type of emails scientists send concerning evolution :smug
Weren't many of those things available to the Romans? Isn't that just a logical step in civilization, rather than science pushing an agenda?
If CO2 was found to be a minor player in the greenhouse effect, would that make the green industry disappear? Wouldn't it still continue on? Would we still not seek more efficient homes and appliances? A smarter energy grid? A more varied use of energy sources?
clearly, libertarians have never worked in a real job in their life or participated in a heavily-contextual email thread! :lol
http://www.georgehutchins.com/ (http://www.georgehutchins.com/)
LOL
I guess I don't really care if scientists play up global warming. To be honest, if a scientist is devoting their whole life to global warming, they're not exactly going to be unbiased because if global warming didn't happen, that person is going to have to find something else to do. It's like how oil lobbyists keep pressing the need for oil. We can spend DOD like budgets reforming the grid for green technologies or electric cars but we're all convinced from biased oil lobbyists (indirectly as they funnel influence through government and corporations) that oil is still necessary in society and that alternatives are nice but not feasible. Meanwhile, we spend a few billion on new fighter jets that aren't necessary.
"Trick" isn't the best word choice but if the conversations are between people that know what it means and not the lolbertarians on the internet, then said lolbertarians should shut the fuck up. E-mails between scientists shouldn't type e-mails in special wording so 20 year old middle class suburbanities panties won't get bunched up. Also I find it entertaining how scientists are supposed to choose their words carefully but the same lolbertarian set 8 months ago was wanting us to give a bunch of leeway to the wordings of the numerous racist and irrational Ron Paul newsletter articles.
Or republicans. :smug
clearly, libertarians have never worked in a real job in their life or participated in a heavily-contextual email thread! :lol
You clearly didnt read the emails then. I've had long work emails and never have I said anything remotely similar to what these people said. For crying out loud look at some of this shit. I know it's hard for you to actually look at this objectively. I know it's difficult for people to tell your that your religion is based on lies, but jesus fucking christ look at this shit. It clearly paints a picture that the intentions were not to present facts but to push their belief, whether the facts supported it or not. Get your head out of your asses.
(also i called my boss a fuckface)
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- At first it was just an unverifiable assertion. Now it turns out to have been a case of bureaucratic ineptitude and possible fraud. Transparency and accountability aren’t working out the way President Barack Obama had hoped.
The administration was already skating on thin ice when it announced on Oct. 30, with great fanfare, that 640,329 jobs had been created or saved as a result of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Not 640,000, or even 640,300. Six-hundred-forty-thousand- three-hundred-and-twenty-nine.
Asked about accumulating reports of phony jobs in phantom districts, Obama told Fox News’s Major Garrett that “this is an inexact science.”
Turned into an exact one by his administration, I might add.
Even Vice President Joe Biden had the good sense to round up to the nearest million, which puts the number of jobs created or saved in line with “government and private forecasters’ estimates” for the Recovery Act.
Local newspapers across the country started to notice problems with the, er, jobs. Small stuff, like jobs that weren’t created and congressional districts that don’t exist. You have to admire the consistency.
Does that exculpate them? Absolutely not. Does it explain why Phil Jones thought that private e-mails from climate researchers discussing the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC should be deleted? Nope, not at all. Does it demonstrate that scientific progress, despite supposedly being based on the accumulation of data and the testing of theories, can be a messy, messy business, full of personal intrigue and antipathies? Absolutely yes
I guess I don't really care if scientists play up global warming. To be honest, if a scientist is devoting their whole life to global warming, they're not exactly going to be unbiased because if global warming didn't happen, that person is going to have to find something else to do. It's like how oil lobbyists keep pressing the need for oil. We can spend DOD like budgets reforming the grid for green technologies or electric cars but we're all convinced from biased oil lobbyists (indirectly as they funnel influence through government and corporations) that oil is still necessary in society and that alternatives are nice but not feasible. Meanwhile, we spend a few billion on new fighter jets that aren't necessary.
"Trick" isn't the best word choice but if the conversations are between people that know what it means and not the lolbertarians on the internet, then said lolbertarians should shut the fuck up. E-mails between scientists shouldn't type e-mails in special wording so 20 year old middle class suburbanities panties won't get bunched up. Also I find it entertaining how scientists are supposed to choose their words carefully but the same lolbertarian set 8 months ago was wanting us to give a bunch of leeway to the wordings of the numerous racist and irrational Ron Paul newsletter articles.
Uh... it's not like the stuff they said can be taken out of context. They fucking talk about fucking hiding the facts to support their viewpoint. They might as well be creationists.
toxic, are you skeptical of CO2 physically acting as a "greenhouse" gas or if people produce enough of it to affect the environment.
Most global warming deniers are Republicans/right wingers and most (rational) global warming solutions are typically spearheaded by the Democrats/left wingers. In the black and white world of American politics, to support anti-global warming initiatives means to support socialism. Most deniers think it is just fine to drive 100 mph off the environmental cliff and would rather wait until half of the coastal states are submerged before doing something about it (and dragging their feet every step of the way).
I'm 99.9% sure most of the global warming is man made but even if it is that 0.1%, I have no idea why people would be against renewable energies or initiatives to remove particulates in the air or dumping chemical wastes in the rivers. Well, I do know why and it has everything to do with the black and white, left vs. right, attitude we have in politics today. You're either for socialism or against it!
SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.
It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.
The UEA’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was forced to reveal the loss following requests for the data under Freedom of Information legislation.
The data were gathered from weather stations around the world and then adjusted to take account of variables in the way they were collected. The revised figures were kept, but the originals — stored on paper and magnetic tape — were dumped to save space when the CRU moved to a new building.
I never went past the first few levels of my science classes.:spin
From: ernst.kattweizel@redcar.ac.uk
Sent: 29 October 2009
To: The Knights Carbonic
Gentlemen, the culmination of our great plan approaches fast. What the Master called "the ordering of men's affairs by a transcendent world state, ordained by God and answerable to no man", which we now know as Communist World Government, advances towards its climax at Copenhagen. For 185 years since the Master, known to the laity as Joseph Fourier, launched his scheme for world domination, the entire physical science community has been working towards this moment.
The early phases of the plan worked magnificently. First the Master's initial thesis – that the release of infrared radiation is delayed by the atmosphere – had to be accepted by the scientific establishment. I will not bother you with details of the gold paid, the threats made and the blood spilt to achieve this end. But the result was the elimination of the naysayers and the disgrace or incarceration of the Master's rivals. Within 35 years the 3rd Warden of the Grand Temple of the Knights Carbonic (our revered prophet John Tyndall) was able to "demonstrate" the Master's thesis. Our control of physical science was by then so tight that no major objections were sustained.
More resistance was encountered (and swiftly dispatched) when we sought to install the 6th Warden (Svante Arrhenius) first as professor of physics at Stockholm University, then as rector. From this position he was able to project the Master's second grand law – that the infrared radiation trapped in a planet's atmosphere increases in line with the quantity of carbon dioxide the atmosphere contains. He and his followers (led by the Junior Warden Max Planck) were then able to adapt the entire canon of physical and chemical science to sustain the second law.
Then began the most hazardous task of all: our attempt to control the instrumental record. Securing the consent of the scientific establishment was a simple matter. But thermometers had by then become widely available, and amateur meteorologists were making their own readings. We needed to show a steady rise as industrialisation proceeded, but some of these unfortunates had other ideas. The global co-option of police and coroners required unprecedented resources, but so far we have been able to cover our tracks.
The over-enthusiasm of certain of the Knights Carbonic in 1998 was most regrettable. The high reading in that year has proved impossibly costly to sustain. Those of our enemies who have yet to be silenced maintain that the lower temperatures after that date provide evidence of global cooling, even though we have ensured that eight of the 10 warmest years since 1850 have occurred since 2001. From now on we will engineer a smoother progression.
Our co-option of the physical world has been just as successful. The thinning of the Arctic ice cap was a masterstroke. The ring of secret nuclear power stations around the Arctic circle, attached to giant immersion heaters, remains undetected, as do the space-based lasers dissolving the world's glaciers.
Altering the migratory and reproductive patterns of the world's wildlife has proved more challenging. Though we have now asserted control over the world's biologists, there is no accounting for the unauthorised observations of farmers, gardeners, birdwatchers and other troublemakers. We have therefore been forced to drive migrating birds, fish and insects into higher latitudes, and to release several million tonnes of plant pheromones every year to accelerate flowering and fruiting. None of this is cheap, and ever more public money, secretly diverted from national accounts by compliant governments, is required to sustain it.
The co-operation of these governments requires unflagging effort. The capture of George W Bush, a late convert to the cause of Communist World Government, was made possible only by the threatened release of footage filmed by a knight at Yale, showing the future president engaged in coitus with a Ford Mustang. Most ostensibly capitalist governments remain apprised of where their real interests lie, though I note with disappointment that we have so far failed to eliminate Vaclav Klaus. Through the offices of compliant states, the Master's third grand law has been established: world government will be established under the guise of controlling man-made emissions of greenhouse gases.
Keeping the scientific community in line remains a challenge. The national academies are becoming ever more querulous and greedy, and require higher pay-offs each year. The inexplicable events of the past month, in which the windows of all the leading scientific institutions were broken and a horse's head turned up in James Hansen's bed, appear to have staved off the immediate crisis, but for how much longer can we maintain the consensus? Knights Carbonic, now that the hour of our triumph is at hand, I urge you all to redouble your efforts. In the name of the Master, go forth and terrify.
The truth is that the world isn't divided between the left and the right, it's divided among those that are on the take and those that are not. Good luck trying to figure out who the honest ones are on either side.
The media's fixation on these idiot party crashers is starting to make me crazy, especially the whole "omg they got within an arm's length of the POTUS what could have haaaaaapened" meme. Hey idiots- even though they got in, they STILL had to go through all of the security. Some idiot just thought they were on the list when they weren't. It's not like they could have brought a gun in with them. Fucking media, I swear.
They could have killed the President! WHAT IF IT WAS OSAMA BIN LADEN?!
pd and foc arguing over predictions :lol
Not sure why anyone thinks palin has a chance. She didnt even finish one term.spoiler (click to show/hide)Neither did Obama.
:smug[close]
In an interview with the Politico, former Vice President Dick Cheney attacked President Obama over Afghanistan -- and also insisted that the Bush administration is not responsible for the situation in that country:http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/cheney-i-basically-dont-think-bush-administration-responsible-for-afghanistan-problems.php?ref=mp
But Cheney rejected any suggestion that Obama had to decide on a new strategy for Afghanistan because the one employed by the previous administration failed.
Cheney was asked if he thinks the Bush administration bears any responsibility for the disintegration of Afghanistan because of the attention and resources that were diverted to Iraq. "I basically don't," he replied without elaborating.
As Spencer Ackerman points out, Cheney's statement comes right on the heels of a Senate report saying that the United States missed an opportunity to capture Osama bin Laden in December 2001, in Tora Bora. And even without that relevant piece of news, the fact remains that the Bush Administration handed off the Afghanistan situation to Obama in the eighth year of the conflict.
And yet people still think he (and his fucktard daughter) is a legitimate bastion of foreign policy knowledge/advice
And yet people still think he (and his fucktard daughter) is a legitimate bastion of foreign policy knowledge/advice
The only people who think that are the 33% that cheerleaded Bush no matter how shitty he was.
If 30k now equals an exit by 2011, I think it's worth it.
when the government does less, the corporations do more
and we saw how well THEY ruled the last couple decades with the leashes off, eh
his chicago pals are friends of business if you know what i mean and i think you do
the chicago school is basically the austrian school with less wacky math and more busted kneecaps
In 2011, we'll pull out as losers but only with more casualties and more debt than if we didn't increase the troops.
I also think Obama's pledge for more troops in Afghanistan is a failed attempt to be bipartisan again. The right wing is hoping they can push off health care debates until next year and are using the troop increases to make that happen. Democrats, sackless as ever, sit back and fret about how they can levy an additional tax on the troop surge, not realizing that the GOP succeeded in their goal of dragging out the health care debates longer, as more Americans get pissed that the opportunity to get easily accessible, affordable health care escapes their grasp. This also gives the teabaggers a chance to collect themselves and attack again with neurotic Democrats puzzled as to why public support of the public option wanes, without realizing that they let a good opportunity slip through their hands.
Then when vulnerable Democratic seats get sacked next November, the same Democrats will stand around looking confused, wondering why they get railroaded.
Johnnies-Come-Lately
Where have all these war skeptics on CNN right now been for the last eight years?
Can someone point me to some good pundits/journalists that deal with foreign affairs?
Can someone point me to some good pundits/journalists that deal with foreign affairs?
You looking to learn about anything in particular?
My best advice is to look for writers who stick to their own specializations rather than people who opine about whatever the current hot topic is. Some general pundits are good, but most of them are crap, and reading stuff by an actual regional/national expert always gives you a lot more information.
Can someone point me to some good pundits/journalists that deal with foreign affairs?
You looking to learn about anything in particular?
My best advice is to look for writers who stick to their own specializations rather than people who opine about whatever the current hot topic is. Some general pundits are good, but most of them are crap, and reading stuff by an actual regional/national expert always gives you a lot more information.
Specifically looking about stuff on Afghanistan. Preferably from people who have at least some idea of what they're talking about.
Can someone point me to some good pundits/journalists that deal with foreign affairs?
You looking to learn about anything in particular?
My best advice is to look for writers who stick to their own specializations rather than people who opine about whatever the current hot topic is. Some general pundits are good, but most of them are crap, and reading stuff by an actual regional/national expert always gives you a lot more information.
Specifically looking about stuff on Afghanistan. Preferably from people who have at least some idea of what they're talking about.
distinguished effete fellows of NY still can't get married thanks to 38 Republicans and 8 democrats.
Gay marriage is a pipe dream.
Can someone not explain to me why we cannot abolish marriage, create civil unions to federally protect gay and straight couples, and let folks have a religious ceremony if they so desire?
The technical argument is that marriage is religious in nature, and defined as between a man and a woman.
If so, why can't we take the religion out of it? Everyone gets civil unions, end of story.
Because then you're not just trying to give the homos special rights, you're actually taking rights away from the straights which just isn't allowed.
Can someone point me to some good pundits/journalists that deal with foreign affairs?
You looking to learn about anything in particular?
My best advice is to look for writers who stick to their own specializations rather than people who opine about whatever the current hot topic is. Some general pundits are good, but most of them are crap, and reading stuff by an actual regional/national expert always gives you a lot more information.
Specifically looking about stuff on Afghanistan. Preferably from people who have at least some idea of what they're talking about.
Juan Cole is pretty good.
While I agree in principal with the idea that civil unions should be the law, saying that you'd (said to no one in particular) prefer civil unions to government sanctioned marriage is a cop-out.
Because then you're not just trying to give the homos special rights, you're actually taking rights away from the straights which just isn't allowed.
But you wouldn't be taking away rights from anyone
just separating church and state.
... That said, I think folks would still oppose it, because this isn't about gays ruining the religious definition of marriage, but gay people fucking in our own backyard.
Oh, the humanity.
Separate but equal, eh?
Here's my problem with that. If you went up to the American public and told them, "Guess what, everyone is getting civil unions that will afford all the rights that a marriage license used to carry, and will not prohibit you from exchanging vows at a religious ceremony of your choosing!"
... could they really argue they're losing anything?
Separate but equal, eh?
Huh? Nobody is talking about that.
... Dude, gay marriage got voted down in California and Maine. Yeah, the movement is really snowballing. ::)
Meet Al Gore in Copenhagen." The official announcement from this fair Danish city says it all. The former vice president is getting star treatment when he arrives with an entire swarm of green-minded gadflies for the United Nations' global warming extravaganza, which begins on Dec. 7..
"Have you ever shaken hands with an American vice president? If not, now is your chance. Meet Al Gore in Copenhagen during the UN Climate Change Conference," notes the Danish tourism commission, which is helping Mr. Gore promote "Our Choice," his newest book about global warming in all its alarming modalities.
"Tickets are available in different price ranges for the event. If you want it all, you can purchase a VIP ticket, where you get a chance to shake hands with Al Gore, get a copy of Our Choice and have your picture taken with him. The VIP event costs DKK 5,999 and includes drinks and a light snack."
Wait, what? How much is that in American dollars? The currency conversion says it all, too: 5,999 Danish kroners is equivalent to $1,209
Where were these concern trolls 9 years ago :lol
I like how democrats are ulltra concerned about the debt when the war is brought up.
I like how democrats are ulltra concerned about the debt when the war is brought up.
You know, it's not impossible to be a leftist and not concerned about the debt. Of course, one way of not running deficits is, you know, COLLECTING ENOUGH TAXES TO PAY FOR WHAT YOU'RE SPENDING. But heavens forbid we raise taxes.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/12/teabagging_is_the_new_nr.php?ref=fpblg
I like how democrats are ulltra concerned about the debt when the war is brought up.
You know, it's not impossible to be a leftist and not concerned about the debt. Of course, one way of not running deficits is, you know, COLLECTING ENOUGH TAXES TO PAY FOR WHAT YOU'RE SPENDING. But heavens forbid we raise taxes.
not if we cut taxes as well as spending :smug
To get snow in our typically tropical clime the timing must be just right, with cold air arriving at the same time as atmospheric moisture. It seems plausible this will happen Friday afternoon.
The National Weather Service says much of the area could get from a trace to an inch of snow.
But Houston only sees snow, on average, about every four years. And never this early in the season: Friday's, if it comes, would be the earliest snowfall ever in Houston, beating the record tied last year by six days. So forecasters like Fred Schmude, of ImpactWeather, are wary.
Global warming lol am i rite
Who the fuck cares about the East coast?
Today the temperatures were so cold and winds so high that it felt like my face was freezing off.
I wonder if Global warming will come back... say around next April or so? ???I wonder whether the Earth has a Southern Hemisphere.
Who the fuck cares about the East coast?
Today the temperatures were so cold and winds so high that it felt like my face was freezing off.
1200 km north of you.
Cry moar.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/12/teabagging_is_the_new_nr.php?ref=fpblg
:lol They don't even get why people call them teabaggers.
PPS Did you know that Ron Paul voted for a bill that increased the federal debt by ~$2 trillion? With no offsetting spending cuts attached or anything? Tsk tsk.
I wish I lived in oblivious bliss a.k.a. liberal la la land. :(
I am not the Eric Burns who heads Media Matters, the liberal watchdog group. I am the Eric Burns who used to host Fox News Watch on the right-wing partial-news-but-mostly-opinion network. In the past year and a half, since departing from Ailes and friends, I have been much more silent about media matters than my namesake.
I speak out now because it is the time of year when one is supposed to count blessings. I have several. Among them is that I do not have to face the ethical problem of sharing an employer with Glenn Beck.
Actually, Beck is a problem of taste as well as ethics. He laughs and cries; he pouts and giggles; he makes funny faces and grins like a cartoon character; he makes earnest faces yet insists he is a clown; he cavorts like a victim of St. Vitus's Dance. His means of communicating are, in other words, so wide-ranging as to suggest derangement as much as versatility.
He is Huey Long without the political office.
He is Father Coughlin without the dour expression.
He is John Birch without the Society.
He is an embarrassment to all true conservatives, men and women who believe sincerely, thoughtfully and sensibly that the role of government in American life should be limited.
Of course, Beck does not call himself a conservative; he is, rather, a libertarian, which may be defined as a conservative-squared, a person who wants the feds to collect no money in taxes, spend no money on programs, but make available all services that the libertarian deems necessary for his own convenience and safety.
It is remarkable that Beck has attracted the amount of attention he has. Remarkable because, every night, Fox's Sean Hannity and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann stage a duel of one-sidedness in political commentary that would have been the talk, and the shame, of a more civil era.
Remarkable because, every night, Fox's Bill O'Reilly stages an exhibition of contentiousness, mean-spiritedness and self-aggrandizement that would similarly have affronted civil viewers of the past.
Remarkable because, every night, CNN's Campbell Brown stages an exhibition of a different kind, one of honorable pugnacity, an exhibition that would have stimulated viewers of the past but instead makes her a part of her network's continuing decline in prime-time ratings.
Yet Glenn Beck surpasses them all. He is the talk of the talkers. It is he who causes commentators to comment, fans to swoom, foes to fulminate. And it is he who has motivated me to burrow up from my literary researches to opine on journalism one more time.
I ask myself what I would have done if I worked at Fox now. Would I have quit, as the estimable Jane Hall did? Once a panelist on my program, Hall departed for other reasons as well, but Beck was a particular source of embarrassment to her, even though they never shared a studio, perhaps never even met.
I think . . . I think the answer to my question does not do me proud. I think, more concerned about income than principle, I would have continued to work at Fox, but spent my spare time searching avidly for other employment. I think I would not have been as admirable as Jane Hall. I think I would not have reacted to Beck with the probity I like to think I possess.
But, in my defense, I would never have gone out in public without wearing those funny black eyeglasses with no glass, bushy eyebrows and a fake nose.
PPS Did you know that Ron Paul voted for a bill that increased the federal debt by ~$2 trillion? With no offsetting spending cuts attached or anything? Tsk tsk.
What bill?
What would happen if we went with the Republican agenda, i.e. scrapping the health care bill, stopping cap and trade, cutting spending, cutting taxes?
What would happen if we went with the Republican agenda, i.e. scrapping the health care bill, stopping cap and trade, cutting spending, cutting taxes? I'm having trouble envisioning all the ramifications of their proposals.Couldn't it be said that the way things are now is because of the republican agenda?
What would happen if we went with the Republican agenda, i.e. scrapping the health care bill, stopping cap and trade, cutting spending, cutting taxes? I'm having trouble envisioning all the ramifications of their proposals.Couldn't it be said that the way things are now is because of the republican agenda?
What do you guys make of the notion that the health care bill is one of the big reasons businesses aren't hiring?
What do you guys make of the notion that the health care bill is one of the big reasons businesses aren't hiring?That's bullshit. Sounds almost like Ricardian Equivalence
Blizzard? Really?
Not the first time FoC's wildly exaggerated something that was really just 1-3 inches. :wag
What do you guys think aboutMy wife is working on a project paid for by stimulus money. They just hired some people to work on it.spoiler (click to show/hide)nobody knowing WHERE THE FUCK THE STIMULUS MONEY WENT?[close]
(http://images2.dailykos.com/images/user/191280/privatejobgrowth.png)
:teehee
What do you guys make of the notion that the health care bill is one of the big reasons businesses aren't hiring?
Question: would a big tax hike on the top 2% of earners in the country encourage companies to pay their executives less and hire more workers/raise salaries for the average employee? Or would there be some other result that I'm not thinking of?They only pay capital gains(15%) anyway. Plus, in 2003, Bush cut their tax rate 19% effectively while only giving the other 95% of Americans a 4% tax cut. This is class warfare and it needs to be fought back.
Question: If we raise taxes on people that provide jobs will that make them more likely to spend money?spoiler (click to show/hide):rofl liberal logic[close]
A stick would work better than your shitty logic.
Question: If we raise taxes on people that provide jobs will that make them more likely to spend money?spoiler (click to show/hide):rofl liberal logic[close]
they can always take their ball to dubai if they don't like it here! :smug
Question: If we raise taxes on people that provide jobs will that make them more likely to spend money?spoiler (click to show/hide):rofl liberal logic[close]
But Joe the plumber told me that Jimmy, the cashier monkey at McDonald's will lose the incentive to become a millionaire some day if taxes on the rich are raised. :'(
My biggest problem with this conservative/libertarian philosophy that the less we tax industrialists, the more likely they are to give back to America in philanthropy, programs/services and jobs is the conceit that the wealthy care about nationalism anymore.
Has "trickle down" economics ever been proven to work, let alone in a globalized economy?
Not picking on you or anything, but one of the most frustrating things is seeing lower and middle class people defend the wealth accumulation of the wealthy because they know that one day their hard work/plans will get them to be one of them-when of course this will never actually happen and they'd be better off redistributing the living heck out of said wealth accumulation and having the proceeds benefit people of their station.
The conclusion I draw is that presuming one's money is one's rightful property, whom one chooses to give it to is their business.
However, yes, the right-leaning do donate more to charitable organizations while the left-leaning want to shunt more responsibility onto the government. It seems - for you at least - that one rationale for this is that you want a say in where that cash goes, since presumably you think you have any kind of right to do so.
Which I guess makes for an awesome philosophy in the abstract, but has proven to make a shitty society here in Real World Land.
It's not charity if it doesn't go to the needy.
COPENHAGEN -- Shakespeare's Marcellus was right. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
In this hotbed of homogeneity, where global warming is a sacred assumption for the faithful, 15,000 people will come together from 192 countries to pray for two weeks over what can be done to save the Earth from certain doom. Few places are better suited to handle the throngs of unquestioning believers who will journey from around the globe.
Dissent is not tolerated, and diversity -- in any form other than biodiversity -- is not welcome here.
...
His Democratic majority dwindles to basically nothing without members from coal states, heavy-industry states and other states where people generally would like to find a job.
But this crowd gathering here is far worse than just a bunch of hand-wringing Hamlets dithering in Denmark.
Some 40,000 tons of carbon will be spewed getting this crowd together and keeping them in comfort.
That is the amount of carbon dioxide produced by more than 60 of the world's smaller countries in an entire year -- combined.
Which I guess makes for an awesome philosophy in the abstract, but has proven to make a shitty society here in Real World Land.
ORLY?
Which I guess makes for an awesome philosophy in the abstract, but has proven to make a shitty society here in Real World Land.
ORLY?
YA RLY
Gee, what with your sympathy to the plight of workers being taken advantage of, it's a crying shame that there isn't some sort of organization that these workers could form to make sure they're not being chronically fucked over like that!
Gee, what with your sympathy to the plight of workers being taken advantage of, it's a crying shame that there isn't some sort of organization that these workers could form to make sure they're not being chronically fucked over like that!
What like a class action lawsuit?
That would be anybody who can't afford basic living needs like food, medical care, education, etc. What is your standard for "needy"?It's not charity if it doesn't go to the needy.
And who is needy?
The proposal would lower the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 55, though an age limit of 60 has also been suggested. Crucial details -- such as the timing of the implementation of such a reform -- were not provided due to the sensitivity and ongoing nature of the deliberations. A high-ranking Democratic source off the Hill confirmed that such discussions are taking place.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/exclusive_medicare_buy-in_attr.html
Lowering the floor for Medicare is one of several ideas being discussed as a way to pacify progressives upset over the potential elimination of a public option for insurance coverage, one of the sources added. Senate Democrats held discussions this past weekend about replacing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's version of a public plan with one that would be non-profit-based. The alternative proposal would be offered in state exchanges, run by private insurers but monitored by the Office of Personnel Management.
Then I assume you don't do business at wal-mart?
Problem solved. Company sucks and you don't have to have anything to do with them.
Only people who want to work there, and people who want to shop there need apply.
Capitalism succeeds again.
Then I assume you don't do business at wal-mart?
Problem solved. Company sucks and you don't have to have anything to do with them.
Only people who want to work there, and people who want to shop there need apply.
Capitalism succeeds again.
Yeah, they should just quit and find another job. It's not like we're in a recession or anything.
Then I assume you don't do business at wal-mart?
Problem solved. Company sucks and you don't have to have anything to do with them.
Only people who want to work there, and people who want to shop there need apply.
Capitalism succeeds again.
Yeah, they should just quit and find another job. It's not like we're in a recession or anything.
Are you suggesting that they might be the envy of some jobless people...
No, most people would not envy a minimum wage job where your employer cheats you out of money. Even if you had AIDS, would you envy another guy with anal warts?
I like how it was progressive labor laws that made the lawsuit possible to begin with, and the money is ruled on and doled out by agents of the government.
The conclusion I draw is that presuming one's money is one's rightful property, whom one chooses to give it to is their business.
I like how it was progressive labor laws that made the lawsuit possible to begin with, and the money is ruled on and doled out by agents of the government.
You mean a system of justice that protects the property rights of the party who whose contract was broken? That system? ???
And I guess nobody ever got paid before labor laws.spoiler (click to show/hide):rofl[close]
Who set the requirements of the contract in question?The parties entering into the contract.
What force compels the losing party to pay up, and who decides exactly how much?The legal system.
I'm a fan of some Tort reform
Yeah yeah. Private property's an inalienable right.
If you mean that rights are something which objectively exist outside the conventions of society, please prove it.
If you meant that they don't exist that way, but that society should act as if they do, please explain why.
Either way, show your work.
I'm a fan of some Tort reform
Tort reform.. as in taking power away from juries?
Probably not.
If you mean that rights are something which objectively exist outside the conventions of society, please prove it.
If you meant that they don't exist that way, but that society should act as if they do, please explain why.
Either way, show your work.
If you mean that rights are something which objectively exist outside the conventions of society, please prove it.
If you meant that they don't exist that way, but that society should act as if they do, please explain why.
Either way, show your work.
Regardless of how I proceed, this will be a timesink that will mostly have to wait for tomorrow.
i'm still racking my brain to think of a single facet of the human condition that i can't abrogate! i'm expecting to be AMAZED
Does that mean muslims have no rights?
Does that mean muslims have no rights?
Not sure what you're talking about.
:bow distinguished mentally-challenged liberals.
Rights are only granted because I choose not to kill you. Sounds like mob rule to me.
:bow Democrats
Rights are only granted because I choose not to kill you. Sounds like mob rule to me.
:bow Democrats
Rights are only granted because I choose not to kill you. Sounds like mob rule to me.
:bow Democrats
I would say that no one can be this obtuse, but I have your entire post history across multiple forums to contradict me here.
Rights are only granted because I choose not to kill you. Sounds like mob rule to me.
Go ahead tell me what's wrong with thisQuoteRights are only granted because I choose not to kill you. Sounds like mob rule to me.
You can't, because your basic political ethic system boils down to this shitty shitty depressing line.
your basic political ethic system boils down to this shitty shitty depressing line.
Which is the party that starts all the wars? :smug
Quoteyour basic political ethic system boils down to this shitty shitty depressing line.
the question isn't whether or not its depressing but whether or not it's true. The basic idea is to have a political system founded on the world as it is, however scary, and not on comforting fictions.
Right, because "rights are only granted because I choose not to kill you" is exactly equal to "rights are not inherent and dependent upon what society at large chooses to believe is a right"
i'm still racking my brain to think of a single facet of the human condition that i can't abrogate! i'm expecting to be AMAZED
Who set the requirements of the contract in question?The parties entering into the contract.
Quoteyour basic political ethic system boils down to this shitty shitty depressing line.
the question isn't whether or not its depressing but whether or not it's true. The basic idea is to have a political system founded on the world as it is, however scary, and not on comforting fictions.
Prole is arguing that there is no such thing as inherent rights because we can all kill you and take them away.m
you tell me, you were the one all gung-ho for killin' 'em!::)
In March 2000 the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) organization of Massachusetts held its 10 Year Anniversary GLSEN/Boston conference at Tufts University. This conference was fully supported by the Massachusetts Department of Education, the Safe Schools Program, the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, and some of the presenters even received federal money. During the 2000 conference, workshop leaders led a “youth only, ages 14-21″ session that offered lessons in “fisting” a dangerous sexual practice. During another workshop an activist asked 14 year-old students, “Spit or swallow?… Is it rude?” The unbelievable audio clip is posted here. Barack Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings is the founder of GLSEN. He was paid $273,573.96 as its executive director in 2007. Jennings was the keynote speaker at the 2000 GLSEN conference.
I thought we got behind all government programs ???
Fisting in the real world, for the most part, is girl on girl.
Fistings disgusting
Tiger's story hasn't gotten to fisting yet, but it will.
We're never going to agree on the issue iof natural rights. So to have any kind of discussion you have to find common ground which is gonna happen.
must you mock my quixotic attempts at actual discussion? :maf
we stopped taking libertarians serious eons ago, and now we just push their hot buttons.
for example, i really do believe that a fetus is a lump of useless chemicals without any numinous "human" characteristics or qualities
We're never going to agree on the issue iof natural rights. So to have any kind of discussion you have to find common ground which is gonna happen.
I think both you and I agree that politics should be rooted in reality, so there is a common ground. The problem is that you believe natural rights are real, and most of us haven't yet seen the evidence that you've seen. So present your evidence.
we stopped taking libertarians serious eons ago, and now we just push their hot buttons.
for example, i really do believe that a fetus is a lump of useless chemicals without any numinous "human" characteristics or qualities
See, common ground. I knew we could find it.
Don't wanna short-circut a healthy argument if that's what's happening, but arguing with FoC or JayDubya about inherant rights is just pretty much just arguing about which brand of Pixel Feed to give your Unicorn. Yes you can, but what do you really hope to accomplish?
But the retailers have nearly saturated some Fox shows, particularly Beck’s ratings juggernaut, which this summer maintained a handful of gold advertisers – including Goldline, Rosland Capital, Superior Gold Group and Merit Financial – even as dozens of other advertisers joined a boycott after Beck called Obama “a racist.”
“I could care less what people think of him,” Merit’s Epstein said of Beck. “We advertise on Fox because it makes the phone ring.”
Though Epstein’s firm has advertised on CNN, he said gold resonates more with Fox’s viewers “because it’s the angry white man audience - it’s the conservative audience. … They are distrustful of the government, of the regime.”
a merry christmas to foc: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/200911/ayn-rand-dick-books-fountainhead
None of this matters, right? We're talking about a phase, no different from purple hair and lip rings, right? Well, yes, it's true that in most cases, the fever breaks. That kid stands up, walks outside, and reflects on the 727 pages of Fountainhead and 1,168 of Atlas he's just wolfed down. And realizes: That was nearly 2,000 pages (more, really, given that Rand's loathing of collectivist parasites is matched only by her loathing of paragraph indents) without a single instance of irony or humor. Or subtlety. Or grace. Nearly 2,000 hectoring, brook-no-ambiguity, you're-either-a-lion-or-a-leech pages of breathtaking psychological obtuseness.
But they also tend to be people who—unlike all those semiotics majors who'd written off Rand as Nietzsche in a bra even before they'd graduated—impact our lives in direct ways.
Atlas Shrugged (re)cracked Amazon's top fifty; early estimates place its 2009 sales at 400,000 copies—about double its 2008 total.
We're never going to agree on the issue iof natural rights. So to have any kind of discussion you have to find common ground which is gonna happen.
I thought maybe we could find some common ground on teaching fisting in schools but I guess not. At least you guys continue to amuse me by defending stuff like that.
We're never going to agree on the issue iof natural rights. So to have any kind of discussion you have to find common ground which is gonna happen.
I thought maybe we could find some common ground on teaching fisting in schools but I guess not. At least you guys continue to amuse me by defending stuff like that.
You could have tried responding to my post.
Oh God, the founder of Conservapia is the guest on Colbert
Edit: LOL, there's that open-source Conservative Bible they're working on and Colbert is chewing him out for removing the reference that Colbert was Moses.
I grew up in a christian family. Went to christian school k-6. Today's christians are nothing like what I grew up around. In fact, I was shown plenty of videos showing how the media will try to manipulate you to do "satan's work". I remember it pretty vividly and see it all the time on Fox news. Which leads me to believe that in the past 15 years, at some point, christians were tricked into doing satan's work thinking it was god's.Oh God, the founder of Conservapia is the guest on Colbert
Edit: LOL, there's that open-source Conservative Bible they're working on and Colbert is chewing him out for removing the reference that Colbert was Moses.
That guy was an amazing tool.
"Actually, what Jesus was trying to say was that the filthy poors are the ones that are going to hell!"
"Well what about Bush Junior?" said Grayson. "I remember Bush Junior kissing Prince Abdullah on the cheek, and then holding his hand for an extended period of time. Maybe if he'd let him get to second base, then gasoline would be a dollar a gallon."
No one gives a shit about that, Federwang. Don't catch Maurice disease here.
No one gives a shit about that, Federwang. Don't catch Maurice disease here.
Want to bet? I'm sure there's going to be a dumb poll on his remarks sooner rather than later.
I'm not talking about Cheney. I don't think anyone outside of the hard right actually cares about what he says. I think if left to his own devices, he would just be interpreted as a loud, obnoxious conservative tool.
Grayson, more or less, empowers him with stupid talk like this. Because I can tell you that regardless of their feelings on Dick Cheney, my folks will view any politicians that use crude Internet acronyms as pretty childish.
He'll lose because the economy is still in the shitter, no one can get a job and our President is trying to run the country like he ran the Harvard Law Review instead of growing some balls and telling stupid people to fuck off.
The media's obsession with Cheney just honestly baffles me. Can anyone point to anything the fucker got right, EVER? Then why the fuck to they keep going back to him... oh yeah, they have to be "objective" and represent "both sides of the issue" even if one side is actual reality and the other side is batshit insanity.
Standing in front of the Supreme Court this morning, a group of Republican lawmakers railed against the court system run out of the building behind them. A sign affixed to the plexiglas podium each spoke at in turn spelled out the reasons for their fears. "Protect our homeland," it read. "Keep terrorists out of America."http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/american-justice-system-too-weak-for-terrorists-gopers-say.php?ref=fpa
The justice system laid out in the Constitution, they said, is just too weak to protect American citizens from wiley terror suspects. From "activist judges" to courtroom sketch artists, the group reeled off a list of reasons the Obama administration decision to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S. for trial could quite possibly end in, as Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) suggested, a nuclear attack on the United States.
The group of conservative lawmakers have been arguing against bringing the Gitmo suspects to the U.S. ever since the decision was announced. They suggest, as do most Republicans and some Democrats, that the best way to try terror suspects is through military tribunals on the Guantanamo Bay base itself. Today, they repeated that argument. But they added new focus to their claim that the Constitution and bringing terrorists to justice can't mix.
Gitmo is "the best place to have [trials], it's the best place to house them. It's the safest place," Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told reporters. "More importantly, it's the place that keeps activist federal judges from making activist decisions that could end up turning [terror suspects] loose on the streets of America."
After the press conference, King elaborated on his worries about U.S. judges. "We wouldn't even be thinking about trying these detainees on U.S. soil if it hadn't been for activist judges who decided they were going to confer constitutional rights on people that have never seen the United States of America," he said, referring to the 2006 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Supreme Court decision that said military commissions as set up by the Bush administration violated the Geneva conventions.
King suggested that "activist" judges could be inclined to release terror suspects over some liberal legal principle or another. "A judge can rationalize most anything," he said. "If you're a living, breathing -- how should I say it? -- 'evolving' constitutionalist than you can write anything you want to justify your own rationale."
Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) was troubled by what might happen when waterboarding and the American right to a fair trial met in a U.S. courtroom. She worried what might happen if terror suspects argued they'd been given "cruel and unusual" punishment at Gitmo.
"This is what scares me because they're in a U.S. court now and the rights are different," she said. "What will they say [about their detention] and what could happen and could they be out among the people again? It's very frightening."
How frightening? Mushroom cloud frightening, according to Franks. He said that a federal trial would give the suspects "a megaphone to speak to the planet," which he said "only hastens the danger" of, literally, a nuclear terrorist attack.
When a reporter pointed out that federal trials aren't televised, perhaps making the "megaphone" a little less likely, Republicans said there were other ways for terror suspects to peddle their propoganda from a U.S. courtroom -- for example, sketch artists.
"What we've seen happen is artists draw pictures and this will be written up and there will be defense attorneys taking the global stage," King said. "We are in an electronic era where they Internet and all these other media that we have will create a real time look at what's going on in New York."
According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday, 40 percent of people questioned say the U.S. would be better off if Democrats ran Congress while 39 percent feel things would be better if Republicans took charge on Capitol Hill. The 1-point margin is a statistical tie.
Support for Democrats is down from a 10-point advantage in August and a 25-point margin in January.
... Maybe someone at the DNC needs to tell Grayson to STFU.
I don't think this has anything to do with media coverage of the Tea Party movement (or Cheney for that matter), but do I agree with your assessment that the Democrats' lack of political backbone is a huge contributor.
But let's not confuse political backbone with crude remarks, or to be more concise, language most of us use as a joke on this very forum.
And if evilbore is to be the political thesaurus for the Democrats, then yeah, they're in trouble.
I doubt it. She was pretty unpopular on her way out; her approval ratings tanked. And with all her incompetency catching up with her, it was only a matter of time until a legitimate scandal broke.
... I expect liberals to do what they were voted into office to do, Prole. America voted behind a platform of change, and Obama and the Democrats have delivered, uh, a Nobel prize?
We're now further entrenched in Afghanistan, the economy is still in the dumps, the banks robbed us blind (and Obama and the Democrats are more than happy to let them do so), nobody has any health care, etc.
The biggest travesty is the complete lack of regulation of the markets, and the fact that there still really is none! Where's the accountability for TARP funds? Why has nobody explained why we let the banks rob us blind? Etc.
Americans, by and large, like firm leadership - even when they don't necessarily agree with it. This short-lived Democratic era can only be defined by futility and compromise.
you'd hafta vote actual liberals into office for that to happen! instead, you elected moderates, moderate!
:lol
Here's where this whole, "I think he should do it more!" argument falls apart: what did he gain from doing that, Prole? Your respect? Were you going to vote for Cheney next election anyway? No? Then...
we don't want to appeal to moderates if moderates are fuckin' pussies!
The question isn't whether or not its depressing but whether or not it's true.
Prole and Mandark, as much as you may disagree with Objectivism, do you really want to make the assertion that people should have no rights except what society chooses to give them (and that these rights can be taken away at any time)? It seems to me that following this logic, one could say that the Holocaust was justified by the anti-Semitic nature of German society at the time. After all, who is to say that a minority group has the inalienable right to live? Even if we back away from such an extreme, one could certainly justify all sorts of discrimination or even wholesale apartheid if we take the position that humans have no rights except what society decides.
Now you're trolling!
Just because you feel something should be a right, doesn't necessarily make it so. If that's the case, we could take random women by force and have our way with them. I mean, that's what we're genetically predisposed to do, is it not? That should be a right!
What's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.
What we do know is that Barack Obama pulled a bait-and-switch on us. If it were any other politician, we wouldn't be surprised. Maybe it's our fault, for thinking he was different.
Yeah, I'm not really down with Prole's facile expressions of subjectivism in this thread. Actually over however many weeks or months this has been going on I've started on a few posts explaining why, but I keep discovering I'm not ready for a philosophical argument right now, so you'll have to make do with this bare assertion.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/printQuote from: Matt TaibbiWhat's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.
:-\
god, all of those interns look like your standard southern frat boy
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/printQuote from: Matt TaibbiWhat's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.
:-\
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=12&year=2009&base_name=oh_matt_taibbi
annihilated
However, do you believe that there is any such thing as right and wrong? Was the Holocaust objectively wrong?
Yes, absolutely.
Natural rights are the basis by which you can even call such a thing "wrong" without it being nothing more than a meaningless opinion, and one that should carry no force, whether alone or in tandem with others. Certainly, the quantity of people holding an opinion does not make it true.
But since you brought it up, no, if genocide is made legal within your jurisdiction, then no, outside of the bounds of unalienable rights, there is nothing "wrong" with genocide, no valid or meaningful criticism to be had - your society has deemed your subgroup's presumed right to life null and void, have a nice day.
I'm getting flashbacks to my first college roommate, who asked me how I couldn't believe in God, cause then there would be no basis for ethics or morality whatsoever.
It's like he was scared to believe that humans created their own rules of behavior and interaction. He had to believe that it came from some transcendent, authoritative source.
If you mean that rights are something which objectively exist outside the conventions of society, please prove it.
If you meant that they don't exist that way, but that society should act as if they do, please explain why.
Either way, show your work.
If you mean that rights are something which objectively exist outside the conventions of society,
I believe they do.
please prove it.
50 best protest signs of 2009 (http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-50-best-protest-signs-of-2009)
edit: #50 especially for Ghengis
No, they exist because they do.
No, they exist because they do.
:lol
They exist because they just do! Case closed!
If you're just going to keep quoting yourself whilst ignoring anything I say, we're done with this.
For my part, I hold to Jefferson's statement about natural rights from the Declaration of Independence, that they are "self-evident truths," and I simply say I support the notion. Which I said, and have said before. That's not a serviceable "proof," so we move on to question two.
No, they exist because they do.
And then you asked to demonstrate why it's important that they exist, or at least why we proceed as such.
No, they exist because they do.
I'm also pretty sure that unicorns exist because I want them to, Jaydubya.
But they don't. Furthermore, to the second line, there's no benefit to proceeding as though they do.
I'm also pretty sure that unicorns exist because I want them to, Jaydubya.
But they don't. Furthermore, to the second line, there's no benefit to proceeding as though they do.
No, they exist because they do.
I don't know, I think there's a pretty good case to be made for the idea that sentience grants you the right to not be killed, not be enslaved and to basically pursue your own goals as long as they don't fuck with other people's shit.
Fucking bingo?
Alternatively, hey look, a sane person that doesn't believe so hard in mob rule politics that they think ethics should be run the same way.
They exist because they do.
QuoteThey exist because they do.
add this to the news cycle, this is better than yaere is th
QuoteThey exist because they do.
add this to the news cycle, this is better than yaere is th
http://consc.net/misc/proofs.html
http://consc.net/misc/proofs.html
:lol
Plato:
SOCRATES: Is it not true that p?
GLAUCON: I agree.
CEPHALUS: It would seem so.
POLEMARCHUS: Necessarily.
THRASYMACHUS: Yes, Socrates.
ALCIBIADES: Certainly, Socrates.
PAUSANIAS: Quite so, if we are to be consistent.
ARISTOPHANES: Assuredly.
ERYXIMACHUS: The argument certainly points that way.
PHAEDO: By all means.
PHAEDRUS: What you say is true, Socrates.
It's always something like "I like my health care."
But what about your fucking next door neighboor who just lost his job? What if he gets hit by a car tomorrow? WTF will he do then?
"Why should I have to pay to take care of his problem?"
There's no Picard gif big enough for this kind of shit.
It's the kind of fucking greed and complete lack of compassion that makes me hate conservatives so much. People who would rather lay off 500 employees than lose a dollar off their company's stock price. People who don't give a fuck about their neighbors who can't see a doctor without going bankrupt because we have this ridiculous idea that health care should be tied to a job or privately funded. Asshole stockholders who demand that their company's managers lay off 25% of the workforce rather than accepting a temporary reduction in profits. Douchebag bankers who have the gall to give themselves multimillion dollar bonuses after their companies wreaked havoc on the American middle class.
Sometimes I think I should just stay in Korea permanently.
It's starting to seem like it may just be better for Dems to try to make a deal with Olympia Snowe, kick Joe Lieberman out of the party and be done with it. The leadership in the senate thought that Lieberman was on board with the latest compromise. But in an appearance on Face the Nation and later in a sit-down with Sen. Reid, Lieberman said he'd join the Republican filibuster if the Medicare buy-in remained in the bill.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/12/lieberman_again.php?ref=fpblg
What's most telling about Lieberman isn't his positions, which are not that much different from Sen. Nelson's and perhaps Sen. Lincoln's. It's more that he seems to keep upping the ante just when the rest of the caucus thinks they've got a deal.
If it happened once, a misunderstanding might be a credible explanation. But it's happened too many times. Sen. Nelson has driven Dems to distraction on this bill. But his demands have been fairly consistent over time. Lieberman just doesn't seem to be negotiating in good faith. He keeps pulling his caucus to some new compromise, waiting a few days and then saying he can't agree to that either.
It's coming to a breaking point.
It's always something like "I like my health care."
But what about your fucking next door neighboor who just lost his job? What if he gets hit by a car tomorrow? WTF will he do then?
"Why should I have to pay to take care of his problem?"
The worst to me is my aunt living in California, who relays to me all of the absolutely false, slanderous shit that Republicans spout about health care in Canada. Like, literally, the most insane lies you can think of, and everyone laps it up, and my aunt is forced to correcting and educating everyone against the propaganda machine.
In a move that senior leadership aides say has left them stunned, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) that he will filibuster a tentative public option compromise unless it's stripped of its key component: a measure that would allow people aged 55-64 to buy insurance through Medicare.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/health-care-reform-in-peril.php
The development casts substantial doubt on whether or not a health care reform bill can pass in the Senate, and even more doubt on whether a bill that does pass the Senate will be reconcilable with substantially more progressive House legislation in such a way that a final reform package can once again pass in both chambers of Congress.
Lieberman told Reid this afternoon, after a contentious appearance on Face the Nation, that he's a "no" vote on the new compromise unless the Medicare buy-in is stripped, and he's not even waiting for the CBO to weigh in--a move one leadership aide described as "extremely unfair."
What makes the new turn even more outlandish in the eyes of leadership and others is that Lieberman ran for Vice President on a platform that included a Medicare buy-in for people not-yet eligible for the program. Last week, he and Reid clashed when Lieberman began raising less definitive objections to the plan.
This afternoon, on Face the Nation, Lieberman said that, to get 60 votes, "You've got to take out the Medicare buy-in. You've got to forget about the public option. You probably have to take out the Class Act, which was a whole new entitlement program that will, in future years, put us further into deficit. And you've got to adopt some of the cost containment provisions that will strengthen cost containment, that all of us favor."
Soon thereafter came the confrontation in Reid's office, and that's left the prospects of the Medicare buy-in--and the greater reform bill--very much in doubt.
On Friday, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) told me and other reporters that she opposes the Medicare buy-in but, when pressed, did not make an explicit filibuster threat, saying instead that she'd make her final decision when CBO weighs in. A report is expected early this week.
This past Wednesday, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)--who is now skeptical of the Medicare buy-in proposal--was singing a somewhat different tune. Though he insisted his ultimate support for the public option compromise was contingent on a passing CBO score, he told me that he and other health care principals liked the idea in theory. "I'm not aware of anything that was raising serious objections about it, I think it was about, 'Well, that sounds okay, let's see how it scores,'" Nelson said.
The very next day, he told reporters he was concerned the Medicare buy-in would become a vehicle for single-payer, and cast doubt on its ultimate viability. "I wouldn't be surprised if this thing does not become a viable option," Nelson said. "I think it is going to be the lesser of the popular things, but I am keeping an open mind."
I asked him about his swift change in tone late Friday.
"Conceptually, I am concerned about the Medicare buy-in, the more I've thought about it," Nelson said. "I think the numbers will be very disturbing if for no other reason you already have underpayment in Medicare right now for providers, so shoring that up has to be accomplished--where does the money come from and what have you."
With Lieberman out, and with Snowe and Nelson leaning no, that leaves Reid shy of the 60 votes he needs to seal the deal.
So what happens if he strips the buy-in? That may do him no good. Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) has suggested he'll filibuster a bill without a viable public option, and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) has said he can not support a bill that includes only private insurance options for consumers, who will be required to have insurance under the terms of the legislation.
And even if their cloture votes can be won, it's not at all clear if a health care bill with no public option and no Medicare buy-in can pass in the House. In other words, it's going to be a long week. Stay tuned.
Once again, dude, you knew that this was a philosophic discussion about an intangible property.
I have to admit that I haven't been following the health care reform debate much at all. Is this bill even going to be a net positive? As I understand it (which is not very well) the original health care reform concept was that we'd mandate insurance purchase to expand the pool, subsidize it to make sure everyone could afford it, and then add other stuff like the public option to keep private insurers from abusing the mandate/subsidies. Without the public option, how does this not amount to a giveaway to private companies, like Medicare Part D? At this point, would no bill at all be better than what's apparently likely to pass the Senate?
People are talking a lot about how the Democrats could lose seats in the House and Senate next year. Does that look really likely at this point? Is there any chance that they could actually make gains?
Over time, he found that all of his strongest defenders were to be found among hawks in the GOP, and most of his fiercest critics were within his own party. It has become easier to side with his new friends rather than with other Democrats. In this way, Lieberman is just like McCain, whose flirtations with the Democratic Party and the occasional liberal legislative initiative were similarly driven by bitterness over his experience in the 2000 primaries. Arguably, the health care fight ought to have pulled Lieberman back into his party’s orbit and could have won him new respect among the party rank-and-file, but the problem is that he is too much like McCain. They both have an unusually inflated estimate of their own importance, they both tend towards sanctimonious moralizing, and they enjoy the attention they receive for breaking with their party leaders. The more contentious the issue, and the more the party’s base wants something, the more attractive breaking ranks becomes. The health care debate was too tempting.
Domestic policy is secondary to both McCain and Lieberman, and they take their positions on it based on what will make them appear “independent-minded” and secure their “centrist” reputations. He cannot emphasize his unflagging hawkishness as McCain did when the latter needed to rehabilitate himself with Republican primary voters, and the habits of years of hewing to the “centrist” line have finally made it impossible for him to align himself with progressives in a major domestic policy debate.
Sadly, No! eviscerates the stoopit libertopian argument (basically "I got mine, screw you!") against the govt. intervening in the health care market here. (http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/27151.html)
"France has a demonstrably better health care system than the United States. It isn’t even close. There are no medical bankruptcies, there are no people denied treatment because they lack insurance..."
Hrm. It's like he thinks the one sentence logically flows from the other, somehow, but it's just not making sense.
For a dozen years now I’ve led a dual life, spending more than 90 percent of my time and money in the U.S. while receiving 90 percent of my health care in my wife’s native France. On a personal level the comparison is no contest: I’ll take the French experience any day. ObamaCare opponents often warn that a new system will lead to long waiting times, mountains of paperwork, and less choice among doctors. Yet on all three of those counts the French system is significantly better, not worse, than what the U.S. has now.
What’s more, none of these anecdotes scratches the surface of France’s chief advantage, and the main reason socialized medicine remains a perennial temptation in this country: In France, you are covered, period. It doesn’t depend on your job, it doesn’t depend on a health maintenance organization, and it doesn’t depend on whether you filled out the paperwork right. Those who (like me) oppose ObamaCare, need to understand (also like me, unfortunately) what it’s like to be serially rejected by insurance companies even though you’re perfectly healthy. It’s an enraging, anxiety-inducing, indelible experience, one that both softens the intellectual ground for increased government intervention and produces active resentment toward anyone who argues that the U.S. has “the best health care in the world.”
While that's true about the idiot centrists Mandark, I seem to recall Republicans forcing their agenda down America's throat without 60 votes pretty reliably for 6 years there. Democrats are just pussies and Harry Reid is a prime example.
Yeah, but I'm a Hunter Thompson democrat dammit. I like guns, drinking and general rowdiness.
While that's true about the idiot centrists Mandark, I seem to recall Republicans forcing their agenda down America's throat without 60 votes pretty reliably for 6 years there. Democrats are just pussies and Harry Reid is a prime example.
Yeah, Bush/DeLay had a pretty successful run there. But let's call it four years, not six. In fact, let's call it the four years immediately following the 9/11 attacks.
The success they enjoyed was because of a fluke of history, and because their agenda was 90% corporate giveaways. Bad policy is easier to pass because it avoids hard decisions and buys out the relevant lobbies.
I'm sure they could find 60 votes in the Senate easy if the bill was as crappy as Medicare Part D (or the energy bill, or the bankruptcy bill, or NCLB, or the farm bill), but why would we want that? Bush was working with a different coalition pursuing different goals. It's crazy to look at him as a model for achieving liberal-progressive reforms.
Also, how do so many liberals write stuff like this without realizing that they're recapitulating the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics (http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2006/07/10/the_green_lantern_theory_of_ge/), except applying it to the legislative procedure. "If only our guys were more masculine and tougher, and not so Frenchy, Ben Nelson would cower at our might and vote the right way!"
We're Democrats, damn it. We shouldn't be the ones pining for powerful daddy figures.
Bunch of shitThanks for saving me the cash. I wanted to get the book and read what all the hooplah was about. But I now realize that I never would have finished it before its fiery demise.
Also, speaking of the good Dr. it looks like California is gonna maybe legalize weed next year. (http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/144561/breaking%3A_marijuana_legalization_will_be_on_california%27s_2010_ballot/)
I just read a market-based approach to the health care problem that seems to actually make sense. But I might be overlooking something. Anyone care to take a look? It's a good read.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200909/health-care (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200909/health-care)
edit: Okay, I saw the phrase "moral hazard" and decided to search on page for "HSA". Bingo. This is ~90% Republican boilerplate. Let the consumers directly assume more cost and more risk, and tell women to stop expecting pre-natal care. Sluts knew what they were getting into.
You don't think there could be some validity to the idea that insurance really drives up costs, and if the majority of medical procedures were paid for out of pocket, the costs would fall to levels people could afford out of necessity?
edit: Okay, I saw the phrase "moral hazard" and decided to search on page for "HSA". Bingo. This is ~90% Republican boilerplate. Let the consumers directly assume more cost and more risk, and tell women to stop expecting pre-natal care. Sluts knew what they were getting into.
You don't think there could be some validity to the idea that insurance really drives up costs, and if the majority of medical procedures were paid for out of pocket, the costs would fall to levels people could afford out of necessity?
But in the interview, Mr. Lieberman said that he grew apprehensive when a formal proposal began to take shape. He said he worried that the program would lead to financial trouble and contribute to the instability of the existing Medicare program.
And he said he was particularly troubled by the overly enthusiastic reaction to the proposal by some liberals, including Representative Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, who champions a fully government-run health care system.
“Congressman Weiner made a comment that Medicare-buy in is better than a public option, it’s the beginning of a road to single-payer,” Mr. Lieberman said. “Jacob Hacker, who’s a Yale professor who is actually the man who created the public option, said, ‘This is a dream. This is better than a public option. This is a giant step.’”
Meet your swing vote on every important bill over the next year. (http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/lieberman-the-fallout/)QuoteBut in the interview, Mr. Lieberman said that he grew apprehensive when a formal proposal began to take shape. He said he worried that the program would lead to financial trouble and contribute to the instability of the existing Medicare program.
And he said he was particularly troubled by the overly enthusiastic reaction to the proposal by some liberals, including Representative Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, who champions a fully government-run health care system.
“Congressman Weiner made a comment that Medicare-buy in is better than a public option, it’s the beginning of a road to single-payer,” Mr. Lieberman said. “Jacob Hacker, who’s a Yale professor who is actually the man who created the public option, said, ‘This is a dream. This is better than a public option. This is a giant step.’”
But right here is the broken-ass epistemology of a pompous idiot. He's not smart or interested enough to work out the details of the policy, so his shortcut is to see how other people react to something, and if it's praised too much by groups who he thinks as enemies, oppose it.
It's so dumb and tribal and petty. Oh, and apparently he completely made up that quote by Hacker.
The good news is that the bill is definitely (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/is_the_senate_health-care_refo.html) better (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/12/why-progressives-are-batshit-crazy-to.html) than the status quo.
Still, I'd love to be free of the knowledge that assholes and idiots still wield a ton of power over my country. It's alternately numbing and horribly frustrating.
And the entire GOP is still going crazy. I was wondering if they'd declare victory after the public option/medicare buy-in were shitcanned but they're still going full speed. So when this passes what will they say
The thing that pisses me off the most is the mandate coupled with ABSOLUTELY NO COST CONTROLS on these fucking jackal insurance companies.
The good news is that the bill is definitely (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/is_the_senate_health-care_refo.html) better (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/12/why-progressives-are-batshit-crazy-to.html) than the status quo.
Still, I'd love to be free of the knowledge that assholes and idiots still wield a ton of power over my country. It's alternately numbing and horribly frustrating.
Whoa whoa whoa... slow down there pardner. As you well know, there's plenty of opportunities for this thing to get worse. They're not done by a long shot in the Senate yet, and then you've got the inevitable conference committee shenanigans... and Ben Nelson is still apparently upset that Lieberman is getting all the attention and will likely have at least two or three more freakouts over abortion or something equally stupid.
And the entire GOP is still going crazy. I was wondering if they'd declare victory after the public option/medicare buy-in were shitcanned but they're still going full speed. So when this passes what will they say
PS Hey! "No, they exist because they do." on the newsfeed. That makes me a little proud.
Yes. Be proud of acting demonstrably petty and stupid. ::) Be proud of failing to engage in the conversation you demanded.
Yes. Be proud of acting demonstrably petty and stupid. ::) Be proud of failing to engage in the conversation you demanded.
Last time I checked Mandark wasn't the one who responded like an eight year old.
I can't believe health care reform is being killed by the Senate. This is like watching a Redskins game, where they're up by a touchdown and somehow lose by a safety in the final seconds.
This has seriously dampened my enthusiasm and appreciation for the overall legislative process - and my faith in our country as a whole.
Can we not even agree on legislation when the progressive stuff is taken out? What exists is basically the best case scenario for the health care lobby, and it's still going to get shot down.
Because people mistakenly perceive Al Qaeda as a bigger national security threat than the health of our population and the costs associated with it. Osama bin Laden could blow up a building per month, and the physical and financial toll would still be less than what is looming on America's horizon - an entire generation that is obese, asthmatic, autistic, diabetic, etc. and without proper preventative health care.
The Republican talking point should be, "We don't want to pass this debt on to our children, because we have already decided that the nation will collapse before then."
I got to admit, I am amazed that the country hasn't collapsed yet. Maybe it is that good ol' fashioned American resolve. I get the feeling we'll be teetering on the knife's edge for many years.
I really like Ratigan. He's an extremely passionate advocate for the average taxpayer, and he makes a lot of good points. The downside is that he gets extremely frustrated and acts relatively immature when guests start towing the company line, and that kind negates his usually valid argument.
But I do feel like he's the only one that routinely calls out people for their bullshit, and that's on both sides of the aisle. I guess moments like this is the price we pay for having one person trying to keep people accountable.
Oh please. Please. This is a Congresswoman and a cancer survivor? Come on. She can try to answer questions about WHY the market is so excited about this new health insurance plan.
How about this?
Markets are irrational sometimes. Today, insurers can cover everyone and they choose to exclude millions who, like me, have a preexisting condition. This bill will change that. They choose to exclude millions who cannot afford their premiums. This bill will change that. Is it perfect? Nothing that requires Joe LIEberman's signature is perfect. It's better than what we have today, though, and that is why I support it.
I'm almost more proud of that than I am of my own contribution to the newsfeed.
Almost.
You didn't contribute shit to the newsfeed.
Question for Mandark or anyone that has gotten into the nitty gritty of the Senate bill: does the legislation still close the Medicare donut hole?
Anna Bollerman, a retired real estate broker, found herself pleading with doctors for free drug samples and maxing out her credit cards when she wound up in the doughnut hole this year.
“It put me in a position where I was totally embarrassed because I had to beg for medicine,” said Bollerman, 80, of Bayville, N.J. She’s coping with diabetes and a serious degenerative condition that affects her eyes.
A 90-day supply of one of her medications costs $1,496 when she’s in the doughnut hole, said Bollerman. Her monthly income is a little over $1,500.
“All my life I was independent, and this is what I’m left with?” she said. “Whoever thought of this, it wasn’t a very good idea.”
Question for Mandark or anyone that has gotten into the nitty gritty of the Senate bill: does the legislation still close the Medicare donut hole?
Yeah. Link nyah (http://csbj.com/2009/12/17/democrats-vow-to-close-medicare-donut-hole/).
It's pretty much set in stone, unlike the public option and some other stuff. It's been in every version of the bill, it's popular with constituents, and it's a big part of how they got the AARP's support.
From the comments sectionQuoteOh please. Please. This is a Congresswoman and a cancer survivor? Come on. She can try to answer questions about WHY the market is so excited about this new health insurance plan.
How about this?
Markets are irrational sometimes. Today, insurers can cover everyone and they choose to exclude millions who, like me, have a preexisting condition. This bill will change that. They choose to exclude millions who cannot afford their premiums. This bill will change that. Is it perfect? Nothing that requires Joe LIEberman's signature is perfect. It's better than what we have today, though, and that is why I support it.
Pretty much. But even that's not written in stone. iirc the senate bill will allow insurance companies to base their care/services in states with weak regulations. The house bill addresses this with a national exchange instead of state based
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CommentsA new poll suggests that voters are not pleased by the idea of health insurance mandates without a public option or a Medicare expansion.
Conducted by Research 2000 for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and Democracy for America (DFA), the survey finds only 33 percent of likely voters favor a health care bill that does not include a public health insurance option and does not expand Medicare, but does require all Americans to get health insurance. Slightly more Democrats -- 37 percent -- favor the idea, while only 30 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of independents do.
Meanwhile, if the public option and Medicare buy-in are added, 58 percent of people support the idea. The number of Republican supporters drops to 22 percent, but independent support rises to 57 percent and Democratic support to a whopping 88 percent.
"This poll shows voters in full-blown revolt against the Senate bill," said PCCC co-founder Stephanie Taylor. "Only one-third of voters support mandates without a public option, while nearly two-thirds want the public option and Medicare expansion. This will be a disaster of epic proportions for Democrats in 2010 if it's not fixed -- fast."
Has there ever been such brazen and flagrant contempt for the representing one's constituents? "How dare these voters not hold the corporate interests of the health care lobby ahead of their own! We'll show them!"
Has there ever been such brazen and flagrant contempt for the representing one's constituents? "How dare these voters not hold the corporate interests of the health care lobby ahead of their own! We'll show them!"
From Olympia Snowe, on the idea of allowing 55-64 year-olds to buy into Medicare:
I can’t see it. I am talking to a lot of my providers this afternoon and I know they are mighty unhappy.
Maybe she should try talking to some of her constituents instead?
Has there ever been such brazen and flagrant contempt for the representing one's constituents? "How dare these voters not hold the corporate interests of the health care lobby ahead of their own! We'll show them!"
'Cuz corporations are much better at lobbying than the voters. Most people will get pissed if a public option isn't in there but when it comes time for the bedshitters like Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman to be re-elected, the public will have already forgotten and thinks shit like whether they lit up a joint 30 years ago or whether they went to a school that promoted "liberal values" is important.
boogie's butt gets reddened: canada picks up the check. cost: $0.
green shinobi's butt gets reddened: $2500 for the ER visit, $500 for the doctor requested anal probe; $3000 for the overnight stay; $550 for the butt pain medication; $750 in miscellaneous consultations; Blue Cross denies him since Butthurt Type B is a pre-existing condition. cost: $7300.
The soon-to-be amended Senate health care bill will cost $871 billion over 10 years according to a new, long-awaited report by the Congressional Budget Office.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/cbo-health-care-bill-now-871-billion-public-option-compromise-does-not-lower-premiums.php?ref=fpa
That's about $22 billion more than the bill was originally expected to cost, before the new changes--including nixing the public option--were offered to the bill. Democrats replaced the public option with a new plan to allow national or multi-state, non-profit insurance plans, regulated by the federal government, to sell insurance on state exchanges.
The CBO has concluded that, on average, premiums will be the same as they would have been if the Senate had the public option, but that the public option saved the federal government more money by putting downward pressure on the premiums of low-cost private plans, which will be heavily subsidized.
The bill remains a big deficit slayer--$132 billion in the first 10 years. Over the next 10 years, CBO warns all estimates are very uncertain. But here's a key conclusion: "CBO expects that the legislation, if enacted, would reduce federal budget deficits over the ensuing decade relative to those projected under current law--with a total effect during that decade that is in a broad range around one-half percent of GDP."
Senior Democratic aides are suggesting that the bill could reduce the deficit, compared to deficits projected under current law, by as much as $1.3 trillion.
You can read the report here (PDF), and a summary on the CBO's blog here.
Possibly really stupid question:
If I'm getting this right, we need 60 votes to break a filibuster just to continue DEBATE. There's still one more instance of voting to go when it goes to conference or whatever, right? And at that point in time, it only needs 51 votes to pass, right? If that's the case, can't the dems/Obama administration just give in to Lieberman's/Nelson's/etc. demands now, and then tell them to fuck off, and put those concessions back in the final bill?
60 votes for cloture, which will happen tomorrow. After that it's conferenced with the house bill, creating the final bill. It'll take another 60 votes for the final version to pass the senate, so they won't be able to just add a public option and call it a day.
This is all about opposing Obama at every chance
Sarah Palin tweets (http://twitter.com/SARAHPalinUSA):
"Copenhgen=arrogance of man2think we can change nature's ways.MUST b good stewards of God's earth,but arrogant&naive2say man overpwers nature"
"Earth saw clmate chnge4 ions;will cont 2 c chnges.R duty2responsbly devlop resorces4humankind/not pollute&destroy;but cant alter naturl chng"
Really, what needs to be said?
Seriously, am I the only one who gets genuinely enraged when conservatives talk down to the media and the public after someone states she doesn't have the credibility to be President - usually after she posts something or says something stupid?
Then I feel like we get a lecture from the right on how America is being sexist and bullying her and "gotcha!" journalism and yadda yadda.
... but really, she is functionally distinguished mentally-challenged, right? I'm not being sexist or delusional, am I?
What exactly counts as "changing nature's ways", anyway? Does, say, clear-cutting a forest not count? Seems like the nature of the forest becomes pretty different once it doesn't exist anymore.
... but really, she is functionally distinguished mentally-challenged, right? I'm not being sexist or delusional, am I?Yes, but she's 1 iota smarter than her supporters, which is apparently all you need.
And the lesson I take from that is that these people are insincere. They like posing as defenders of fiscal rectitude; they like declaring a pox on both houses; but when push comes to shove, their dislike of social insurance, their refusal to consider any government economy measures that don’t involve punishing people with lower incomes, trumps their supposed concern about acting responsibly.
Gentlemen — everyone I can think of here does happen to be male — this was your moment of truth, your test of character. You failed.
How did I not know about this site before?
If Global Warming Is Real Then Why Is It Cold (http://ifglobalwarmingisrealthenwhyisitcold.blogspot.com/)
Oh no, how will Steve Doocey live?!
That could be dangerous. How would they even know when to start the show unless they Googled it?:lol
That could be dangerous. How would they even know when to start the show unless they Googled it?
When it turns out there are no death panels, when there is no bureaucrat between you and your doctor, when the ways your health care changes seem like a good deal to you, and a pretty smart idea, when the American public sees the discrepancy between what really is, and what they were told by the Republicans, there will be a reckoning. There will come a day of judgment about who was telling the truth.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/09/jon-stewart-calls-out-gre_n_385158.htmlDid you click the link 2 posts above yours? ???
holy shit :rofl
FDL has become the go-to place for coverage of the health care bill due to the work of our incredible team. Jon Walker’s second-to-none knowledge of the health care bill has made the policy and political analysis he offers up at FDL Action a driving force. Dave Dayen’s reporting at the FDL News Desk, Marcy Wheeler ’s research and in-depth analysis at Emptywheel, Laura Flanders’ interviews at GritTV, our FDL team of writers and editors, and our community members at The Seminal provide the most independent and comprehensive picture of what’s happening moment-by-moment on the health care debate to be found anywhere.
So, I asked them to help make it simple: how do we let people know what’s going to happen to them if the Senate bill passes? Everyone put their heads together and came up with a list:
Top 10 Reasons to Kill Senate Health Care Bill
-Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations — whether you want to or not.
If you refuse to buy the insurance, you’ll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS.
-Many will be forced to buy poor-quality insurance they can’t afford to use, with $11,900 in annual out-of-pocket expenses over and above their annual premiums.
-Massive restriction on a woman’s right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.
-Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays.
-Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won’t see any benefits — like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions — until 2014 when the program begins.
-Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others.
-Grants monopolies to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.
-No re-importation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years.
-The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of four will rise an average of $1,000 a year — meaning in 10 years, your family’s insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.
-Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays.
See, it's anecdotes like those last two that make me go :o
Because it's not 1920 anymore. :smug
There may be some that want such a thing, but they're by no means entitled to it.
Why?
So if you work at a job that doesn't pay you well enough to afford said care, you should die. Duly noted.
Where did the "should" come from in your reasoning?
Because they're not, because that's directly at odds to everyone else's rights.
Unfortunately what you have elected to opine is wrong, at least if a just society is any sort of goal, let alone a primary one.
No, and here's where you and Mandark are being deliberate idiots:
all I said is that my wanting something to be so or not wanting something to be so does not make it so. There is not oxygen in the air in this room because I will it to be so, it is simply so.
No, they exist because they do
all I said is that my wanting something to be so or not wanting something to be so does not make it so. There is not oxygen in the air in this room because I will it to be so, it is simply so.
Okay, then what does "make it so"? What, beyond "wanting something to be so", "makes it so"?
"Rights" are not a scientific idea that exist independent of human experience, history, and perception. They are ideas that have developed through time, through classical philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, etc, through to Hobbes and Locke. And then to the Enlightenment Philosophes such as Voltaire and Kant, and John Stuart Mill , and even to the modern day.
And yet, you never, ever, EVER reference any of those names! Mandark pokes and prods you, and ALL YOU FUCKING COME UP WITH IS "no, they exist because they do"!
Are you fucking kidding me?! I don't even have any formal training in political philosophy, beyond the introduction I have been given from my study of history, and I can at least acknowledge the legacy and development of the ideas of political rights throughout history.
BUT ALL YOU EVER OFFER is the dick-sucking of the American founding fathers, a slavish devotion to the original framework of the Constitution, and "no, they exist because they do."
Come-fucking-on, man.
Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know I had to name drop to impress you so you'd join in on the reindeer games in a meaningful, non-insulting way.
If you mean that rights are something which objectively exist outside the conventions of society, please prove it.
If you meant that they don't exist that way, but that society should act as if they do, please explain why.
Either way, show your work.
a deity did it" is never going to work as the final word in a society where not everyone agrees upon the nature, capabilities, or the very existence of that entity.
Jefferson asserted in the DoI a belief that rights were endowed by our creator. I do not share his belief in a creator. I still think rights are an innate and descriptive part of our existence, the framework for human civilization and a goalpost for its progression.
I am completely incapable of satisfactorily answering Mandark's question
Where was "intent" mentioned? You did what you did, and I'm labeling an action.
No, and here's where you and Mandark are being deliberate idiots: all I said is that my wanting something to be so or not wanting something to be so does not make it so. There is not oxygen in the air in this room because I will it to be so, it is simply so.
the trouble is, stupid fucking americans like to pretend they don't need it. this is true not just among 20-something prats but even among folks my parents' age, who will find any reason to justify not spending money on healthcare in this day of subpar employer coverage and/or denial of said coverage, largely because they can't afford even cheap premiums.
the truth shitheel americans need to face is that they NEED single-payer. NEED. obviously, they are welcome to follow the optional republican plan and die early and painfully, but the rest of us would like to see a real, tenable solution.
lose your useless pride, flag waving figgurts, and submit to proper collectivism :smug
One problem with you making statements like this is that they make you either a liar or a fucktard (or a lying fucktard) because you know you don't need such a thing, and you know plenty of others that don't need such a thing.
I don't need such a thing.
There may be some that want such a thing, but they're by no means entitled to it.
only lazily berating anyone who disagrees with you.
lazily berating anyone who disagrees with you.
of course no one's entitled to anything. no-one's even entitled to their lives. but if enough of us want it, for ourselves and everyone else, you get it. we call this democratic society. actually, we just plain call it society, despite the best efforts of kings and individualists alike.
Odd to see you likening liberty to monarchy, when living under the mob rule you laud is little better than being a feudal subject.apparently in jaydubya's world, if people don't want the right to live, they can refuse it, even though it is immutable and inalienable WHAT
What the fuck are you on about now?
For the record Boogie, whereas previously I was giving you the benefit of the doubt in suggesting that you were deliberately acting obtuse for yuks, I now acknowledge the possibility that you are, unknowingly, just plain stupid.
I hope that satisfies your earlier query.
So if you work at a job that doesn't pay you well enough to afford said care, you should die. Duly noted.
Where did the "should" come from in your reasoning?
Unmitigated stupidity.
Again, where does the "should" come from in your reasoning?
Cancer is a disease. Potentially lethal, depending on the type, its progression upon discovery, and what interventions are undertaken. Some interventions are fruitful. Others are not. Most of those interventions are going to come from others that probably also want things for their time and effort.
You seem to imply things well beyond this on the basis of nothing.
It is not involved in your personal decisions that may lengthen or shorten that lifespan. It is not, well, most of the silly things you have implied.
i believe the current dogma reads "i'm a libertarian, not an anarchist" although that suggests a level of nuance their argumentational skills are clearly unready for
I forget, did Jaydub ever present his opinion on fire/police departments? Are they unconstitutional too?
I'm pretty sure the federal Constitution doesn't say anything about your city's fire department.
i thought such things were covered under 'general welfare' clause
Really? You thought your city's fire department and police department were "covered" somewhere in the United States Constitution? You thought that, somehow, if you traced things far enough back, they were the creation of Congress? :S
If you mean that rights are something which objectively exist outside the conventions of society, please prove it.
If you meant that they don't exist that way, but that society should act as if they do, please explain why.
Either way, show your work.
Smack, it was laid down. (http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/sen-whitehouse-there-will-be-a-reckoning-for-gops-desperate-no-holds-barred-mission-of-propaganda.php?ref=fpb)QuoteWhen it turns out there are no death panels, when there is no bureaucrat between you and your doctor, when the ways your health care changes seem like a good deal to you, and a pretty smart idea, when the American public sees the discrepancy between what really is, and what they were told by the Republicans, there will be a reckoning. There will come a day of judgment about who was telling the truth.
I'm glad they are calling them out on their bullshit.
The bad behavior you see on the Senate floor is the last, thrashing throes of the health insurance industry as it watches its business model die. You who are watching and listening know this business model if you or a loved one have been sick -- the business model that won't insure you if they think you'll get sick, or you have a pre-existing condition. The business model that if they insure you and you do get sick, Job One is to find loopholes to throw you off your coverage and abandon you alone to your illness. The business model, when they can't find that loophole, that they'll try to interfere with or deny you the care your doctor has ordered. And the business model that, when all else fails and they can't avoid you or abandon you or deny you, they just stiff the doctor and the hospital, and deny and delay their payments for as long as possible -- or perhaps tell the hospital to collect from you first -- and maybe they'll reimburse you. Good riddance to that business model. We know it all too well. It deserves a stake through its cold and greedy heart, but some of our colleagues here are fighting to the death to keep it alive.
Oh hey! Skimming the last couple pages, looks like JD's talking about that system of natural rights which he believes in. This is a great opportunity, cause I find the idea intriguing and want to learn more about it. In fact, I've got some specific questions about it for him:spoiler (click to show/hide)If you mean that rights are something which objectively exist outside the conventions of society, please prove it.
If you meant that they don't exist that way, but that society should act as if they do, please explain why.
Either way, show your work.[close]
Oxygen exists, so why not natural rights ???
At least the feeling is mutual.Oxygen exists, so why not natural rights ???
I think the oxygen quote was even more damning than the "it is because it is" quote everyone keeps slamming him with.
You are a dumbfuck because you are.
Oxygen exists, so why not natural rights ???
I think the oxygen quote was even more damning than the "it is because it is" quote everyone keeps slamming him with.
You can think that, but that would make you a dumbfuck.
Note, you are not a dumbfuck because I say you are a dumbfuck. You are a dumbfuck because you are.
No, and here's where you and Mandark are being deliberate idiots: all I said is that my wanting something to be so or not wanting something to be so does not make it so. There is not oxygen in the air in this room because I will it to be so, it is simply so.
Someone censor Lieberman to Droopy Dog. All I can think of when I see that douchebag's picture is Jon Stewart's impersonation of him.
:rofl Oh my god, is that Mandark?
@ Mandark - I'm not sure why you think you benefit from restating a point I've already conceded: a right is not something I can pick up and show you.
distantmantra has lost the will to post :-\
Just like Obama "inherited" the economy, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, global warming, health care, etc.
New Republican talking point: Bush 'inherited' 9/11. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/28/mary-matalin-bush-inherit_n_404949.html)
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR93iKtFlcQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
New Republican talking point: Bush 'inherited' 9/11. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/28/mary-matalin-bush-inherit_n_404949.html)
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR93iKtFlcQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
When Dana Perino said that I dismissed it as a slip. Now I'm wondering whether this is calculated.
Clinton also dicked around with terrorist intel and half-assed stuff on that front.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/fox-and-friends-to-obama-quit-it-with-your-big-words-like-allegedly.php?ref=fpblg
Clinton also dicked around with terrorist intel and half-assed stuff on that front.
Clinton also dicked around with terrorist intel and half-assed stuff on that front.
Clinton also dicked around with terrorist intel and half-assed stuff on that front.
Such as?
According to Ijaz, the Sudanese government offered the Clinton administration numerous opportunities to arrest bin Laden and those opportunities were met positively by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright but spurned when Susan Rice and counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke persuaded National Security Advisor Sandy Berger to overrule Albright.
Ijaz’s claims in this regard appeared in numerous Op-Ed pieces including one in the Los Angeles Times [3] and one in the Washington Post co-written with former Ambassador to Sudan Timothy Carney .[4]
Similar allegations have been made by Vanity Fair contributing editor David Rose[5] and Richard Miniter, author of Losing bin Laden, in a November 2003 interview with World.[6]
We have to be careful about engaging in what historians call "Whig history," which is the practice of assuming that historical figures value exactly the same things that we do today. It's a fancy term for those "why didn't someone just shoot Hitler in 1930?" questions that one hears in dorm-room bull sessions. The answer, of course, is that no one knew quite how bad Hitler was in 1930. The same is true of bin Laden in 1996.
Sounds like a lot like the current Presidentspoiler (click to show/hide):-\[close]
Saw this graph on National Geographic. I love how it makes its point regarding US health care costs and life expectancy versus the rest of the world.We are subsidizing Mexico's ascent!
http://blogs.ngm.com/.a/6a00e0098226918833012876674340970c-800wi
"But my Senator says we don't need Healthcare reform!"
Saw this on GAF
http://cynthiadavis.net/PDFs/cpr090604_Summer_Food_Program.htm
Folks, the difference between liberals and conservatives
edit: holy shit this woman can't be real, nor an elected official
http://cynthiadavis.net/PDFs/cpr090924.htm
In 1997, after three years of tepid growth, the Japanese government stopped its stimulus: it raised a consumption tax, ended a temporary income tax cut, increased social security premiums and nipped recovery in the bud.
Eh? Isn't that what you're supposed to do in a recession?Stop stimulus and raise taxes in a recession?
Eh? Isn't that what you're supposed to do in a recession?Stop stimulus and raise taxes in a recession?
Generally, no.
Yeah, raising any taxes that predominantly hit the middle and lower classes (like a consumption tax) is a pretty sure fire way to screw up a recovery from a recession. Of course you'd expect a bunch of degenerates like the Japanese to make that mistake.
Can you point me to those articles then? Because I've definitely seen him approve some of the higher multiplier tax cuts such as payroll tax holidays (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/stimulus-arithmetic-wonkish-but-important/). The general goal of any Keynesian response is to grow aggregate demand. This means more spending, less taxes, particularly stuff like payroll or consumption taxes.
I'm generally all for raising taxes in this country, but it's not a Keynesian response to recession.
There are a number of low-marginal-utility type moves that can be done that will have a lower impact, but it doesn't look like that describes what the Japanese were doing.
Yeah, raising any taxes that predominantly hit the middle and lower classes (like a consumption tax) is a pretty sure fire way to screw up a recovery from a recession. Of course you'd expect a bunch of degenerates like the Japanese to make that mistake.
and democrats. cap n trade amirite :smug
Yeah, raising any taxes that predominantly hit the middle and lower classes (like a consumption tax) is a pretty sure fire way to screw up a recovery from a recession. Of course you'd expect a bunch of degenerates like the Japanese to make that mistake.
and democrats. cap n trade amirite :smug
Yeah, except the bill that passed the house would cost the average family about $80 a year... and would generate a shit ton of jobs.
About the first decade of what was to be the Second American Century, the pessimists have been proven right.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States began the century producing 32 percent of the world's gross domestic product. We ended the decade producing 24 percent. No nation in modern history, save for the late Soviet Union, has seen so precipitous a decline in relative power in a single decade.
The United States began the century with a budget surplus. We ended with a deficit of 10 percent of gross domestic product, which will be repeated in 2010. Where the economy was at full employment in 2000, 10 percent of the labor force is out of work today and another 7 percent is underemployed or has given up looking for a job.
Between one-fourth and one-third of all U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared in 10 years, the fruits of a free-trade ideology that has proven anything but free for this country. Our future is being outsourced -- to China.
While the median income of American families was stagnant, the national debt doubled.
The dollar lost half its value against the euro. Once the most self-sufficient republic in history, which produced 96 percent of all it consumed, the U.S.A. is almost as dependent on foreign nations today for manufactured goods, and the loans to pay for them, as we were in the early years of the republic.
What the British were to us then, China is today.
Beijing holds the mortgage and grows impatient as we endlessly borrow on equity and refuse to begin paying it down. The possibility exists of an eventual run on the dollar or even a U.S. debt default.
Who did this to us? We did it to ourselves.
We sold ourselves a lot of snake oil about the Global Economy, interdependence, free trade and "it doesn't make any difference where goods are produced." The George W. Bush Republicans ran up the deficit with tax cuts, two wars and a splurge in social spending to rival the guns-and-butter of the Great Society.
Abandoning its role as the fellow who comes and takes away the punch bowl when the party's getting good, the Fed kept the money flowing fast and free, creating the tech bubble that burst in Y2K and the stock and housing bubble that burst at decade's end.
To pull us back from the cliff's edge, over which we were headed a year ago, the Fed doubled the money supply, while the administration ran up deficit spending to the highest level since World War II.
Unlike World War II, however, there is no end in sight to these deficits.
The stock market, which flat-lined over the decade, had to surge 50 percent in 2009 to retrieve the worst losses since the Depression.
Everyone, it seems, except for Washington bureaucrats and Wall Street, for whom the bonuses never seem to stop, has been hammered by the sinking home values and shrinking portfolios.
After Sept. 11, the nation was united behind a president as it had not been since Pearl Harbor. But instead of focusing on the enemies who did this to us, we took Osama bin Laden's bait and plunged into a war in Iraq that bled and divided us, alienated Europe and the Arab world, and destroyed the Republican Party's reputation as the reliable custodian of national security and foreign policy.
The party paid -- with the loss of both houses in 2006 and the presidency in 2008 -- but the nation has not stopped paying.
With nearly 200,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and another 30,000 more on the way, al-Qaida is now in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa, while the huge U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq serves as its recruiting poster.
Again, it is not a malevolent fate that has done this to us. We did it to ourselves. We believed all that hubristic blather about our being the "greatest empire since Rome," the "indispensable nation" and "unipolar power" advancing to "benevolent global hegemony" in a series of "cakewalk" wars to "end tyranny in our world."
After a decade of self-delusion and self-indulgence, we must stop deceiving ourselves. As Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, the "can-do" nation that won World War II in Europe and the Pacific in less than four years, that put a man on the moon in the same decade JFK said we would, is history.
We have a government that cannot balance its books, defend its borders or win its wars. And what is it now doing? Drafting another entitlement program as we are informed that the Social Security and Medicare trust funds have unfunded liabilities in the trillions.
At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the question is not whether we will preside over the creation of a New World Order, but whether America's decline is irreversible.
Am I the only one that gets creeped out when a person refers to the United States as "the Republic"...
Anyway we had a good run. Its time to kick back and enjoy the slow decline.
So when are we getting gubnent medicine? My mom is constantly sick and her insurance rates at her job more than doubled last year so she can't afford insurance anymore. Capitalism. :american
1. BEGINS TO CLOSE THE MEDICARE PART D DONUT HOLE - Reduces the donut hole by $500 and institutes a 50% discount on brand-name drugs
2. IMMEDIATE HELP FOR THE UNINSURED UNTIL EXCHANGE IS AVAILABLE (INTERIM HIGH-RISK POLL) - Creates a temporary insurance program until the Exchange is available for individuals who have been uninsured for several months or have been denied a policy because of pre-existing conditions.
3. BANS LIFETIME LIMITS ON COVERAGE - Prohibits health insurance companies from placing lifetime caps on coverage.
4. ENDS RESCISSIONS - Prohibits insurers from nullifying or rescinding a patient's policy when they file a claim for benefits, except in the case of fraud.
5. EXTENDS COVERAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE UP TO 27TH BIRTHDAY THROUGH PARENT'S INSURANCE - Requires health plans to allow young people through age 26 to remain n their parents' insurance policy, at the parents' choice.
6. ELIMINATES COST-SHARING FOR PREVENTATIVE SERVICES IN MEDICARE - Eliminates co-payments for preventative services and exempts preventative services from deductibles from the Medicare program.
7. IMPROVES HELP FOR LOW-INCOME MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES - Improves the low-income protection programs in Medicare to assure more individuals are able to access this vital help.
8. PROVIDES NEW CONSUMER PROTECTIONS IN MEDICARE ADVANTAGE - Prohibits Medicare Advantage plans from charging enrollees higher cost-sharing for services in their private plan than what is charged in traditional Medicare.
9. IMMEDIATE SUNSHINE ON PRICE GOUGING - Discourages excessive price increases by insurance companies through review and disclosure of insurance rate increases.
10. CONTINUITY FOR DISPLACED WORKERS - Allows Americans to keep their COBRA coverage until the Exchange is in place and they can access affordable coverage.
11. CREATES NEW, VOLUNTARY, PUBLIC LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE PROGRAM - Creates a long-term care insurance program to be financed by voluntary payroll deductions to provide benefits to adults who become functionally disabled.
12. HELP FOR EARLY RETIREES - Creates a $10 billion fund to finance a temporary reinsurance program to help offset the costs of expensive health claims for employers that provide health benefits for retirees age 55-64.
13. COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS - Increases funding for Community Health Centers to allow for a doubling of the number of patients seen by the centers over the next 5 years.
14. INCREASING NUMBER OF PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS - Provides new investment in training programs to increase the number of primary doctors, nurses, and public health professionals.
5. EXTENDS COVERAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE UP TO 27TH BIRTHDAY THROUGH PARENT'S INSURANCE - Requires health plans to allow young people through age 26 to remain n their parents' insurance policy, at the parents' choice.
Quote5. EXTENDS COVERAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE UP TO 27TH BIRTHDAY THROUGH PARENT'S INSURANCE - Requires health plans to allow young people through age 26 to remain n their parents' insurance policy, at the parents' choice.
Freeloading :rock
Speaker Nancy Pelosi had little to say this afternoon at a press conference following a meeting between House leaders and health care principals. She and other members acknowledged that a number of differences must be resolved between House and Senate bills before a final reform package can be signed in to law--and all are aware that too much tinkering could upset a delicate balance in the Senate, where legislation often must meet a supermajority threshold.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/oh-snap-pelosi-on-obama-there-were-a-number-of-things-he-was-for-on-the-campaign-trail.php?ref=dcblt
But Pelosi did toss a jab President Obama's way.
Referring to one of Obama's campaign pledges, a reporter asked Pelosi whether C-SPAN cameras would be allowed to film the House-Senate negotiations.
"There are a number of things he swore on the campaign trail," said a bemused Pelosi.
Recently Obama infuriated progressives when he claimed he "didn't campaign on the public option." (He did.)
House Democrats now must pass a bill without a public option. Many rank and file Democrats place the blame for the demise of the public option at Obama's feet, and it's hard to imagine his statement, and actions on that front in the past several months, didn't inspire Pelosi's comment.
Either way: Zing!
Quote
5. EXTENDS COVERAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE UP TO 27TH BIRTHDAY THROUGH PARENT'S INSURANCE - Requires health plans to allow young people through age 26 to remain n their parents' insurance policy, at the parents' choice.
Freeloading
So Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd aren't running for re-election. Dodd I get but I'm pretty sure Dorgan could have won- that's a seat that will definitely switch to R now, but the CT seat should stay in Dem hands.
Dodd and Blumenthal were each tested against the three Republican candidates: Former Rep. Rob Simmons, former Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, and financial analyst and Ron Paul activist Peter Schiff. Dodd trailed Simmons by 44%-40%, was tied 43%-43% with McMahon, and led Schiff by 44%-37%. By contrast, Blumenthal leads Simmons by 59%-28%, is ahead of McMahon by 60%-28%, and leads Schiff by 63%-23%.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/poll-blumenthal-already-way-ahead-of-connecticut-gop-senate-candidates.php?ref=fpblg
So Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd aren't running for re-election. Dodd I get but I'm pretty sure Dorgan could have won- that's a seat that will definitely switch to R now, but the CT seat should stay in Dem hands.I agree Dorgan could have won and his retirement is terrible news. I am really impressed that Dodd is taking one for the team on this one though. It's been just about the only bit off good news for recruiting/match ups the Dems have gotten since the last cycle ended. Otherwise been a constant stream of Weak Republican retirements, strong Dem candidates being taken in to the cabinet, and weak Dems getting the governor's nods.
So Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd aren't running for re-election. Dodd I get but I'm pretty sure Dorgan could have won- that's a seat that will definitely switch to R now, but the CT seat should stay in Dem hands.I agree Dorgan could have won and his retirement is terrible news. I am really impressed that Dodd is taking one for the team on this one though. It's been just about the only bit off good news for recruiting/match ups the Dems have gotten since the last cycle ended. Otherwise been a constant stream of Weak Republican retirements, strong Dem candidates being taken in to the cabinet, and weak Dems getting the governor's nods.
oh god, the government spending large amounts of money to protect us. wtf obama200 million a year for trial security is fucking insane. Do the trial elsewhere for fucks sake.
Take one for the team? He'll retire into a cushy lobbying job that probably pays more than double what he is making as a Senator now.Of course, but these guys typically need someone else to make the decision for them. I'm sure there were some words exchanged.
A new Rasmussen poll suggests Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) is in serious danger heading into 2010, with her trailing all four Republican challengers.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/poll-blanche-lincoln-trails-all-gop-challengers.php?ref=fpb
State Sen. Kim Hendren is ahead of Lincoln by 47%-39%; state Sen. Gilbert Baker is ahead 51%-39%. Businessman Curtis Coleman is ahead 48%-38%, and businessman Tom Cox is ahead by an identical 48%-38%. The margin of error is ±4.5%.
From the pollster's analysis: "If the race remains a referendum on Lincoln and the performance of the Democratic leadership in Washington, it could remain a difficult race for the incumbent. If that happens, Lincoln will have to hope for a stronger economy and an improved environment for Democrats nationally."
Republican strategist can't name one thing the republicans have done for the country in the past 20 years. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/06/todd-harris-gop-strategist-decimated-chris-matthews_n_414205.html)
Lieberman is polling about as popular as herpes in Connecticut after the health care debacle. (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/poll-lieberman-hated-by-everyone-in-connecticut-after-health-care-debates.php/)
They can't do anything about him though. In fantasy land they could vote him out the caucus, strip his chairmanship, etc...but then what do they do when they need his vote on a democratic issue he supports?
But how will Obama get anything done when the republicans are willing to filibuster everything he does unless they let them craft the legislation? Nuclear option? I guess Obama might consider that if his legacy was in danger and he was no longer able to check off campaign promises with half assed, compromised bills
A candidate whose aides were prepared to block him from becoming president. A wife whose virtuous image was a mirage. A mistress with a video camera. In an excerpt from the new book Game Change—their sweeping account of the 2008 campaign—the authors reveal that, inside the Edwards triangle, nothing was too crazy to be true.
Read more: An Excerpt From John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's 'Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime' -- New York Magazine
I was an Edwards supporter. :(The guy had a good platform, and he sounded like a real, genuine progressive. I don't doubt that if elected, he wouldn't have been anything slightly above a Palin level disaster, but I couldn't begrudge anybody for supporting him back then.
I was an Edwards supporter. :(
Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else—that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before—and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling, and he decided he couldn't pick Edwards unless he met with him again.
Me too smhI was an Edwards supporter. :(
you an' me both, pal :'(
Sure, it's depressing that Democrats have a Senate majority leader who thinks it's acceptable to use the term "Negro dialect," even in private, off-the-record conversation. It's not just that the term "Negro" was retired about 40 years ago; it's also the notion that there is any one "dialect" spoken by Americans of African descent.http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/politics/2010/01/10/reid_gaffe/
But 70-year-old Harry Reid's gaffe -- he immediately apologized once it was revealed in John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's gossipy "Game Change," and Obama warmly accepted the apology -- has attained near-scandal proportion, pumped up by the right, the shallow MSM as well as a little bit too much debate among Democrats. I dug myself into a hole on this question on Twitter; it can't be debated in 140 characters, so let me try to dig out -- or dig deeper -- with a little more room here.
First of all, I'll share what Reid is quoted as saying. Tangent: I think Heileman and Halperin have probably written an absorbing book (the John Edwards chapter is amazing, and stomach-turning), but if they get dinged for anything, it will be for using a lot of unnamed sources, as well as quoting controversial statements, sometimes firsthand, sometimes with less direct knowledge, in odd sentence fragments. Here's the Reid section:
"[Reid's] encouragement of Obama was unequivocal. He was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama -- a "light-skinned" African American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one," as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama's race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination."
It does feel a little silly to be debating objectionable sentence fragments, although a fuller quote of Reid's remarks might get him in deeper, but there we are.
For Republicans to jump on Reid is both predictable and disgusting. The foolish Michael "Honest Injun" Steele is suggesting that Reid must resign. I think Steele funneled his own book fee to Harper to get them to release "Game Change" this weekend, so the Sunday shows wouldn't be obsessing over whether and when Steele will resign or be pushed out of his post as RNC chair, for gaffing and overspending his way to shame.
I'm glad to know Steele doesn't believe there is any kind of black dialect. I guess that's why he titled his blog "What up?," told the "Today" show in no uncertain terms "brotha's still here" and said the Republican Party had to use hip-hop to reach black voters. No stereotyping there!
Meanwhile, Steele and Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl are shrieking "double standard," comparing Reid's comments to the stunning 2002 musings of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who had to resign after he said the country would have been better off if it had elected Dixiecrat segregationist Strom Thurmond president in 1948. Oh sure: One guy is talking, perhaps inelegantly, about why he's wholeheartedly supporting our first black president; the other is wishing the country had elected a racist. That's exactly the same thing!
But I was a little bit bothered to jump on Twitter today, where my world is very liberal and colorful, and hear some Democrats still trashing Reid for his misstatement. You can read the whole thread here. One person suggested that Reid had no business discussing the issue of whether being light-skinned is an advantage for African-Americans, when that issue is in fact regularly debated in the black community. If we're ever going to have our long-delayed conversation about race, white people are going to have to be able to participate even on issues that black people have considered their own. I can't count the number of conversations I had in 2008, with savvy political observers of every race, talking about the advantages of Obama being light-skinned and biracial.
Seriously, does anyone really think it's coincidence that our first black president is a biracial man who came from Hawaii by way of Harvard (with a little political rough and tumble in Chicago)? If my thinking that means I can't be Senate majority leader ... well, that's OK. I didn't want that job anyway.
Others took issue with the notion of a "Negro dialect," and while the term "Negro" is passé and the idea that there's one dialect spoken by all African-Americans is ridiculous, it's also silly to suggest that there are no words, idioms, sayings or speech patterns common to some or even many African-Americans. During the 1980s, I covered the efforts of some black educators in Oakland, Calif., to get Ebonics designated a language so low-income African-American kids could get English as a second language funding. During the 2008 campaign people noted that not only Obama but Hillary Clinton (with, um, maybe less justification) sounded quite different speaking before black audiences and white ones. Obama is culturally bilingual, and again, if we're supposed to deny that was an advantage for him, we're being willfully blind to the realities of politics.
Having a black president means that issues that some black people think can only be discussed in their community are going to come out in the open. For better, or worse, and in this case, I think better. Harry Reid expressed his thoughts inelegantly, he understands that now, and perhaps we'll retire the term, and the idea of, "Negro dialect." But if progressive racial-justice Democrats don't think politicians of every race size up the field in terms of competitive advantage -- and sadly, even today, accord advantage to African-Americans who put white folks at ease, speak "white" or "standard" English, and even, yes, look "less non-white" -- we're kidding ourselves.
Besides: We have much bigger problems, as a party and as a nation, than the reasons a powerful 70-year-old white politician endorsed Barack Obama for president. Let's get serious here.
I'm trying really hard to understand why Harry Reid's comments about Barack Obama's electability were offensive. Do people seriously dispute that light-skinned African Americans have traditionally been more palatable to white Americans? We literally have studies on this subject. Is there a real argument over whether African American politicians use different cadences in front of primarily black audiences? Ask a political reporter about this sometime. Or go read any of the coverage from any speech Barack Obama has ever given at a black church, which inevitably will mention his "classical preacher's cadence," a description you will not find in any of the write-ups of, say, his health-care speech to the Congress.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/01/reid_and_obama.html
It's weird, of course, that Reid used the word "negro" as opposed to "black" or "African American." But that seems to have a lot more to do with age than with racial attitudes. After all, Reid is the same guy who, In 2007, told Obama, "If you want to be president, you can be president now." Reid has also spent the past year working to push Obama's agenda through Congress and make sure the nation's first African American president has a successful first term and a good shot at reelection. If that's what counts for racism these days, then America has come a long way.
http://nymag.com/news/politics/63045/QuoteA candidate whose aides were prepared to block him from becoming president. A wife whose virtuous image was a mirage. A mistress with a video camera. In an excerpt from the new book Game Change—their sweeping account of the 2008 campaign—the authors reveal that, inside the Edwards triangle, nothing was too crazy to be true.
Read more: An Excerpt From John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's 'Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime' -- New York Magazine
This is a great, great read. Shows exactly how delusional Edwards was (even after the affair was revealed, he thought that if he didn't admit paternity, he still had a shot at becoming Obama's attorney general), how completely different Elizabeth's private and public personas are (publicly saintlike, privately excoriating staffers and even threatening to cut off their health care on a whim), and how horribly Edwards' campaign went off the rails even before '08.
In news that should surprise no one, unemployed blogger Sarah Palin signs on to contribute to Fox News. You betcha! Also. (http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/sarah-palin-to-contribute-to-fox-news/)
Appearing on Hardball tonight, former Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN) made a clear declaration for Chris Matthews, as Ford gears up to challenge appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in the New York Democratic primary.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/harold-ford-i-am-a-new-yorker-i-am-a-new-yorker-i-am-video.php?ref=fpa
Ford, who lost a Senate campaign in his native Tennessee in 2006, said that he lives in New York, he and his wife plan to start a family there, and he's paid taxes there. "And once you pay taxes there, you feel like a New Yorker," Ford quipped.
Matthews asked Ford to declare that he is a New Yorker. Ford replied: "I am a New Yorker. I am a New Yorker. I am a New Yorker. I am a New Yorker." It was certainly entertaining -- and if this New York thing doesn't work out, he'll have no chance of ever running for office in Tennessee again.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/01/09/irish-mrs-robinson-bangs-teenager-may-bring-down-governmentA bit over dramatic ::)
She breaks her vows after 40 years to bang a 19 year old while at the same time making comments about how destructive homosexuality is, despite the fact that she's the MP's wife and such an affair would cause huge political backlash and turmoil in a region not really known for being too peaceful.
The best thing is how gay mags are trying to make pin-ups of the kid though.
It's kinda weird that in recent years she has become the face of Neo-conservatism.
I say that mainly because she is not a very good advocate for it. You would think they would go with somebody else, especially somebody without all the Cheney baggage.
In news that should surprise no one, unemployed blogger Sarah Palin signs on to contribute to Fox News. You betcha! Also. (http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/sarah-palin-to-contribute-to-fox-news/)
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc7LBtRGCd8[/youtube]
Liz Cheney embarrassing herself at the grown ups table
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/10/george-will-takes-on-liz_n_417733.html
EJ Dionne sketches out the likely outcome of the House-Senate negotiations:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/01/previewing_the_final_health-ca.html
Over the past week, I've talked with key figures in the House, Senate and White House, and the outlines of a deal are becoming reasonably clear. The public option is, alas, dead. But the idea of setting up a national insurance exchange -- alongside state exchanges -- where the uninsured can buy coverage is very much alive. The House is demanding this as the price for giving up on the public plan, and a national exchange would provide for much more consumer-friendly regulation of health insurance policies.
Almost everyone in both houses wants to find ways of making insurance more affordable. Steps in this direction would include more generous subsidies for the purchase of insurance than those in the Senate bill and expanding its Medicaid provisions. The bill's price tag will grow from the Senate's $871 billion over a decade, probably to somewhere between $930 billion and $950 billion.
The tax on "Cadillac" insurance plans, opposed by both organized labor and the insurance industry, is likely to be scaled back but not eliminated. Currently, the Senate bill includes a 40 percent excise tax on high-end health insurance plans -- those at or above $23,000 for families and $8,500 for individuals.
Many opponents would settle for raising that ceiling to $28,000 for families, with a comparable increase for individuals. That would reduce the number of policyholders covered by the levy. But because of fierce resistance to the tax from a large group of House Democrats, this could prove to be one of the most vexing issues in the negotiations.
In the meantime, negotiators are looking to extend to all states a version of the special deal that saved Sen. Ben Nelson's home state of Nebraska from the bill's increased Medicaid costs. Nelson himself is pushing for this change, which would cost $25 billion to $30 billion over 10 years. One solution: somewhat more modest across-the-board Medicaid relief to all states.
This basically tracks with what I'm hearing. The Medicare Commission remains unsettled, and the way the excise tax is valued might change. In particular, it may be tied to actuarial value rather than total cost, or it may account more directly for age. The precise mix of insurance regulations might shift as well, as the House has a stronger set than the Senate does. But broadly speaking, people aren't expecting much in the way of surprises.
Q. Guns. Let's talk about this issue.:rofl
A: I never got an A rating, like my opponent -- would-be opponent -- has enjoyed. I don't own them. I do shoot them, and I shoot them at things that can't shoot back. And will continue to do that. And by that, I want to be clear, I don't mean children. I have done a little bird hunting in my day.
Q. ... Have you traveled all five boroughs?smh
A. I will tell you what I did. I was able to do it. Kelly had a -- Chief Kelly, [NYPD] Commissioner Kelly -- invited, I guess, business people in the city, including Sir. Harold Evans, in my group. We spent the afternoon with the special operations force, and so I had the chance to helicopter to various areas in the boroughs. The only place I have not spent considerable time is Staten Island.
Q. Have you been to Staten Island?
A. I landed there in the helicopter, so I can say yes.
Q. Jets or Giants?
A. I had breakfast about every morning when I am in town, or I should say, several mornings, at the Regency. I see my friends the Tisches. [Giants owner] Steve Tisch is my close personal friend. I have been to more Giants games. I spent the holidays, I had lunch over the holidays with [Jets owner] Woody Johnson. We met for the first time. I am happy for his team.
Carville likened the Democratic takeover of Congress to the civil war battle at Gettysburg, which the Union army won but failed to pursue the Confederate army when it retreated.http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/washington/entries/2006/11/15/carville_says_d.html
“We should have chased them down,” Carville said. There was no immediate response from Dean or the DNC.
[youtube=560,345]
Oh god. This is going to be a gold mine of footage in the years to come.
I am stunned that you can visibly see her stalling to come up with George Washington. That was painful to watch. I think she may have gotten dumber since the election.
What a lot of us realized during the Reagan administration, i.e., as it was happening--and what would be made manifest in 1996, when Falwell, Reed, Dobson, and their ilk blessed the candidacy of Bob Dole (R-ADM)--is that the Snake Handling and Ammo Hoarding constituencies of the Republican party would never, ever, understand they were being played. (Though, in fairness, the Second Amendment crowd pretty much gets what it wants legislatively, due both to an historically less penurious approach to divvying up the weekly offering, and the fact that most government officials live far enough away from the automatic weapons fire that they don't give a fuck. Playing that gang involves the same process, though: 1. Read bumper-sticker slogan. 2. Collect donations.) Palin merely (and I emphasize merely) represents the full flowering of the movement: the Played are now the Players, and the fifteen IQ points that might've saved 'em are now gone like a meth-addict's teeth.
billmaher: Did u see Palin on O Reilly yesterday? She's still got it And by it I mean brain damage
I swear, if Obama's agenda gets kneecapped by the Democrats blowing a special Senate election in Massachusetts, I'm going to give this country such a glaring-at.
Even if they pull off healthcare with the various exit strategies, everything else is pretty much out of the question. I'm not glaring at the country at that point. Probably more like crying. Lots of crying.
Even if they pull off healthcare with the various exit strategies, everything else is pretty much out of the question. I'm not glaring at the country at that point. Probably more like crying. Lots of crying.
Oh well, America had a good run. It's a shame that a 30% crazed teabagging minority of nimrods will be able to sink the country, but it just goes to show you that if we'd gone with my plan of throwing all stupid people into the sun, we wouldn't have to essentially dissolve the Federal govt.
Your plan is flawed, as you would be sending the majority of the federal government into the sun, thus dissolving it. On the other hand, either way, essentially dissolving the federal government... :hyper
I guess we know who you're voting for :teehee
Even if they pull off healthcare with the various exit strategies, everything else is pretty much out of the question. I'm not glaring at the country at that point. Probably more like crying. Lots of crying.
Oh well, America had a good run. It's a shame that a 30% crazed teabagging minority of nimrods will be able to sink the country, but it just goes to show you that if we'd gone with my plan of throwing all stupid people into the sun, we wouldn't have to essentially dissolve the Federal govt.
America is not a far right or far left country. It is a moderate/somewhat (not a whole lot) right leaning country. The only thing that changed alot in the last 10-12 years was people's party affiliation as they grew tired of/disliked either side's policies/agenda.
Just like Republicans have done before, Democrats now think that since they won so handily, they have the right to railroad whatever they think is right through and pass it.
Democrats now think that since they won so handily, they have the right to railroad whatever they think is right through and pass it.Obama was voted in for his ideas of what needed to change. He's not doing anything he didn't campaign on. Nothing is being railroaded in. It would only feel that way if you listened and to the bullshit conservative media.
QuoteJust like Republicans have done before, Democrats now think that since they won so handily, they have the right to railroad whatever they think is right through and pass it.
which is precisely why the democrats are totally ignoring the republicans in the house and senate and not trying to get them on board for various policies.
QuoteJust like Republicans have done before, Democrats now think that since they won so handily, they have the right to railroad whatever they think is right through and pass it.
which is precisely why the democrats are totally ignoring the republicans in the house and senate and not trying to get them on board for various policies.
Obama was voted in for his ideas of change.
I think that people want us to make a fast, hard turn into new things/practices/laws etc.
Well, not all people- there are some idiots like the teabaggers that only have a bare grasp on what they THINK they know.
But the point is, the country can't change quickly. Unfortunate, but true.
Former Kennedy aide does the math for a Coakley win
It starts with the numbers for the primaries a month ago: 650,000 Democrats voted, and 160,000 Republicans. Commonwealth Secretary Bill Galvin on Monday estimated that 1.6 to 2.2 million would turn out on Tuesday. For reference, in the November 2008 presidential election, turnout was 3 million.
"My gut -- and early calls -- tell me we're well on the low side of the Galvin estimate because of weather," Parker says, "but we'll make at least 1.2 million easily.
"There are 490,000 registered Republicans in the state. If three-quarters of them turn out -- a big 'if' -- that means Brown needs at least 300,000 independents. Meanwhile, if just the same number of Dem ALONE as showed up in December show up today, Martha wins.
"We'll see. In retail politics, after billions spent on media and contact, it's all turnout, turnout, turnout."
2010 will be a voting of Democrats out because they're not enthusiastic about what they've done (which appears to be very little). I don't know why some people think voting in more Republicans would be the solution but some do...
I still think Obama has 2012.
People who believe strongly in things react loudly and harshly to things they dont like/want. That goes both ways. I recall Liberals who disagreed with Bush/Republican policies (such as the Irag war)camping out at his ranch in Texas protesting. Or kicking the military out of their city.
People who believe strongly in things react loudly and harshly to things they dont like/want.Especially when they are told what not to like by the unchecked, corporation backed media.
Harry Reid should just announce his retirement tomorrow. He's fucked.
Harry Reid should just announce his retirement tomorrow. He's fucked.
Don't expect people on our side of the aisle to be too choked up about it, either. Not because of the stupid fake controversy over something dumb he said (imagine that, a politician said something stupid, let's all get offended) but because an effective Majority Leader should have a seat in a state where they don't have to worry about having a contentious election. He could do his job better if he was from Illinois or New York.
For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of Massachusettes.
Thanks Obama for letting Baucus, Grassley, and Snowe run the clock out, then showing little leadership in, you know, defending your bill.
No way Hillary would have sat on her ass while Baucus and Co. ran the clock out, or gone on a limp wrist "campaign" tour to stump for the bill.
Long term, demographics still favor the party that doesn't only want to cater to white religious hillbillies so I'm not too worried. But this is going to be seriously annoying for the next couple of years.
Obama ought to tell Pelosi and Reid that they've got until this weekend to compromise on something and vote on it before Brown gets seated, and then after that the House would just have to approve the Senate bill verbatim unless they want to try to use reconciliation, which wouldn't work for most of it.
Then Rahm ought to lock Obama in the basement, dose him with acid and show him cg movies of Republicans killing and eating Sasha and Malia so he gets the picture.
The Reps will not win back the House in the fall.
I think it will be a bit higher than that. But, definately under 30.
I know a lot of you are really upset about the loss, but if people want to be honest about what happened tonight, this is not the fault of progressive activists (despite the fact that I am incapable of behaving maturely and insisted on being a jackass on twitter). This is not the fault of the adminstration and Barack Obama, because if Coakley had Obama’s numbers in Mass., she would be the next Senator.
This is about an arrogant state party, a horrible and lazy candidate who was unprepared and unmotivated, out of touch with the voters, incapable or unwilling to put in the work and shake the hands and massage the egos and put in the hours, and they got their asses handed to them. I’m sure the exit polling will give us more information, but right now it looks to me that this was about the fundamentals of running a good campaign. Coakley and company didn’t adhere to them.
9:45 PM: Sen. Webb says no votes on Health Care in the senate until Brown is seated.
TPM
Almost to a man, rank and file House Dems have said tonight they will NOT vote for the Senate bill.http://twitter.com/RussertXM_NBC
QuoteAlmost to a man, rank and file House Dems have said tonight they will NOT vote for the Senate bill.http://twitter.com/RussertXM_NBC
[youtube=560,345]_Xm1XErUvXo[/youtube]
Libertarian FB status of the day:
"[name] appreciates the irony of the situation. A death, that probably would have been prevented in a totally free medical market, saved the country tonight from moving one step closer to slavery at the hands of the departed and his confederates."
No way Hillary would have sat on her ass while Baucus and Co. ran the clock out, or gone on a limp wrist "campaign" tour to stump for the bill.
Jimmy Carter with a tan confirmed
Polish media are calling it "disastrous lose for Obama".
I think GOP has it in the bag now for 2012 elections :smug
Trying to decide between googling job opportunities is Sweden, crying myself to sleep, and finding a way to blame this on Jay Leno.
People who believe strongly in things react loudly and harshly to things they dont like/want. That goes both ways. I recall Liberals who disagreed with Bush/Republican policies (such as the Irag war)camping out at his ranch in Texas protesting. Or kicking the military out of their city.
Surely you could have used a better example than the Iraq war protestors? Might I suggest truthers?
All the republicans, libertardians, and anti-UHC people on my facebook are having a field day with the Mass election - acting like their favorite sports team won :-\
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/obama-senate-will-not-vote-on-health-care-before-brown-is-seated.php?ref=fpa
guess we'll have to look for leadership from somewhere else. not coming from the WH/Obama
given the behavior of lieberman and the blue dogs, the conservatard alliance might actually HAVE a majority
Generally speaking, do you think Democrats in Washington, DC are fighting hard enough to challenge the Republican policies of the Bush years, aren’t fighting hard enough to change those policies, or are fighting about right?
Obama/Brown Voters
NOT ENOUGH / TOO HARD / ABOUT RIGHT / NOT SURE
37% / 15% / 21% / 27%
People demanding "leadership" from Obama are mostly asking for big, public displays of emotion. It's the equivalent of sports radio callers on Monday yelling "Did you see the coach? He was just standing there with this clipboard!"
So, healthcare is done for?
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/obama-senate-will-not-vote-on-health-care-before-brown-is-seated.php?ref=fpa
guess we'll have to look for leadership from somewhere else. not coming from the WH/Obama
:derisivejerkingoffmotion
People demanding "leadership" from Obama are mostly asking for big, public displays of emotion. It's the equivalent of sports radio callers on Monday yelling "Did you see the coach? He was just standing there with this clipboard!"
It's only been 15 years or so since the last try at it.So, healthcare is done for?
Possibly, but if this current form dies then it will get brought back up again at some point. Not sure when though.
So what's the over/under on Brown hitting Lieberman approvals by 2012?
Bush promised, Obama broke it :mafAnd Russia would have fucked it up. They just assume everything the USA does it a plot against them.
given the behavior of lieberman and the blue dogs, the conservatard alliance might actually HAVE a majorityIt's a Superminority! Somehow 2/5 control = total control.
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to propose new limits on the size and risk taken by the country's biggest banks, marking the administration's latest assault on Wall Street in what could mark a return, at least in spirit, to some of the curbs on finance put in place during the Great Depression, according to congressional sources and administration officials.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704320104575015910344117800.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTWhatsNews
The past decade saw widespread consolidation among large financial institutions to create huge banking titans. If Congress approves the proposal, the White House plan could permanently impose government constraints on the size and nature of banking.
Mr. Obama's proposal is expected to include new scale restrictions on the size of the country's largest financial institutions. The goal would be to deter banks from becoming so large they put the broader economy at risk and to also prevent banks from becoming so large they distort normal competitive forces. It couldn't be learned what precise limits the White House will endorse, or whether Mr. Obama will spell out the exact limits on Thursday.
Mr. Obama is also expected to endorse, for the first time publicly, measures pushed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, which would place restrictions on the proprietary trading done by commercial banks, essentially limiting the way banks bet with their own capital. Administration officials say they want to place "firewalls" between different divisions of financial companies to ensure banks don't indirectly subsidize "speculative" trading through other subsidiaries that hold federally insured deposits.
The proposal could have the biggest effect on Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which control a large amount of U.S. deposits, as well as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc., which have a large presence on Wall Street.
If the proposal took effect, big banks could be forced to wall off certain activities in their investing banking units—which trade and underwrite securities and make their own bets on markets—from their traditional businesses, which make loans and take deposits.
The investing banking units have grown dramatically in recent years, were far more profitable than the banking operations and were at the heart of the financial crisis.
The industry has undergone a major consolidation during the financial crisis, leaving the top four banks with an unprecedented market share in businesses such as deposit taking, credit cards and mortgages.
The rules could also keep banks out of the business of running hedge funds, investing in real estate or private equity, all businesses that have become important, profitable parts of these banks. The collapse of two highly leveraged hedge funds began the process that led to the collapse of Bear Stearns.
If investors believe the new rules could take effect, they could sell off the shares of most of the big financial stocks in the belief these companies would be facing years of turmoil and potentially lower profits.
Messrs. Obama and Volcker are scheduled to meet tomorrow in advance of the White House announcement.
The White House's proposal, one aide said, wouldn't resurrect the exact limits put in place by the Depression-era Glass Steagall Act, which essentially walled off commercial banks from investment banks and was repealed in 1999. Instead, the White House proposal would seek to return the "spirit of Glass Steagall," meant to limit large banks from becoming too big and complex that create enormous risk.
Quote<snip>bunch of stuff</snip>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704320104575015910344117800.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTWhatsNews
wat
Elections are even more fucked now. :'(
So, what'll be the first corporation to run for president? I'm hoping for the Carlyle Group or Monsanto. Maybe Genentech; not sure on that one. Will it vote for itself? Might need Diebold for help with that one. Perhaps it'll buy a few luxury boxes at the Electoral College. Or, I guess it could purchase the naming rights. They already sponsor legislation, so it seems a natural extension for the brand.I could vote for a biotech company to be perfectly honest. It's the bankers that keep me up at night.
If democrats drop health care as Barney Frank and others are suggesting, I'm not voting in November.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/01/demoralized_democrats.html
Romney Gingrich 2012 :bow:lol
Romney Gingrich 2012 :bow:lol
I think the biggest mistake the democrats made was deciding that the proper response to the banking crisis that almost brought down the world economy was to try and enact healthcare reform.Definitely, especially since Obama was elected due to the whole economic collapse. McCain's poll numbers never recovered after the events of last summer.
I think the biggest mistake the democrats made was deciding that the proper response to the banking crisis that almost brought down the world economy was to try and enact healthcare reform.
What MegaCorp are you going to ally yourself with? I'm joining ConAltria, myself. They've got the microwave popcorn market nailed down.
NPR is reporting that Air America Radio is going silent, today, as in, within the hour. Not in protest of the Democratic pussery, but out of financial collapse.
Ironic timing, but still, a sad loss.
I apologize for my ignorance on this matter, but can you primary a sitting president? Because I'd kinda like to see that happen with Obama.
So the Repubs will basically filibuster EVERYTHING? Every bill will require 60 votes in the future?
There are a lot of people, when you say banker, people think Jewish. ... People who have a little prejudice about them. ... To some people, banker is a code word for Jewish; and guess who Obama is assaulting? He’s assaulting bankers. He’s assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there’s – if there’s starting to be some buyer’s remorse there.http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/21/828430/-ADL:-Rush-Limbaugh-reached-a-new-low
Rush Limbaugh reached a new low with his borderline anti-Semitic comments about Jews as bankers, their supposed influence on Wall Street, and how they vote.
Limbaugh’s references to Jews and money in a discussion of Massachusetts politics were offensive and inappropriate. While the age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid history, it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is widely accepted by many Americans. His notion that Jews vote based on their religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into the hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.
When he comes to understand why his words were so offensive and unacceptable, Limbaugh should apologize.
What's all the fuss about?
The SCOTUS merely added in the second half of the equation to the formula Barack Obama started when he turned down public financing. Might as well start printing up his second inauguration invitations right now. In the future, WH press briefing will have a daily corporate/union sponsor, a corporate/union sponsorship patch replace the Amercian flag pin on the president's suit, and you'll have to watch a 30-second Cialis advertisement everytime you go to a government website.
Between this ruling and the imminent domain ruling a few years back, the John Roberts court has seriously fucked things up.
THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY CARL'S JR.
If I had the energy and could still search on GAF, right about now I'd be fiendishly searching your post history for any posts defending Roberts prior to and after his appointment.
So wait, what exactly is the legal situation now? Can the House just pass the Senate bill as is without it having to go back to the Senate, since it will have been passed through both houses?
The Constitution seems to be awfully vague on what exactly passing a bill means.
I thought the problem was that "reconciliation" would mean that the Senate would have to pass it again, though. Which they might not have to do if the House just passed the bill as is (?).
Pretty sure passing it through reconciliation requires only 51 votes? I'm not entirely sure.
I thought the problem was that "reconciliation" would mean that the Senate would have to pass it again, though. Which they might not have to do if the House just passed the bill as is (?).
Stuffed passed through budget reconciliation doesn't have to go through a cloture vote (requiring 60 votes).
However, it's only supposed to be used for stuff directly related to the budget. There's a dude named the Senate Parliamentarian (just a dude, not an actual Senator or elected official whatsoever) who gets to decide what does/doesn't qualify, and the thinking is that lots of good stuff (getting rid of discrimination based on preconditions, etc) would get stricken from anything that passed through reconciliation.
What they SHOULD do is suck it up, pass the Senate bill and then immediately introduce legislation to improve it.
I thought the problem was that "reconciliation" would mean that the Senate would have to pass it again, though. Which they might not have to do if the House just passed the bill as is (?).
Stuffed passed through budget reconciliation doesn't have to go through a cloture vote (requiring 60 votes).
However, it's only supposed to be used for stuff directly related to the budget. There's a dude named the Senate Parliamentarian (just a dude, not an actual Senator or elected official whatsoever) who gets to decide what does/doesn't qualify, and the thinking is that lots of good stuff (getting rid of discrimination based on preconditions, etc) would get stricken from anything that passed through reconciliation.
What they SHOULD do is suck it up, pass the Senate bill and then immediately introduce legislation to improve it.
Man, American government is the kludgiest system since the one I'm currently stuck at work at 9pm debugging.
It's like a game with massive exploits that no one bothers to fix.
Man, American government is the kludgiest system since the one I'm currently stuck at work at 9pm debugging.
It's like a game with massive exploits that no one bothers to fix.
That's supposed to be dealt with, with amendments but the purveyors of the status quo have completely eliminated that concept from the political vocabulary. That and the deification of the founding fathers. A group of farmers from a few centuries back who built a government for an agrarian society with a relatively small population and when state's rights was a big issue. In other words nothing to do with the current world.
Percept example of a society in stagnation.
If there's anything that the House should push for, it's to allow the importation of cheaper drugs from overseas.
Man, American government is the kludgiest system since the one I'm currently stuck at work at 9pm debugging.
It's like a game with massive exploits that no one bothers to fix.
That's supposed to be dealt with, with amendments but the purveyors of the status quo have completely eliminated that concept from the political vocabulary. That and the deification of the founding fathers. A group of farmers from a few centuries back who built a government for an agrarian society with a relatively small population and when state's rights was a big issue. In other words nothing to do with the current world.
Percept example of a society in stagnation.
I'm not sure I understand your post. How they are deified doesn't have anything to do with how things are done currently. People just like to reframe their thoughts to be used as a political tool. Nobody (outside of insane libertarians) actually pays attention to what they said or did. It's just another pile of shit to be flung at the other side.
If there's anything that the House should push for, it's to allow the importation of cheaper drugs from overseas.
You're referring to Afghan heroin and Colombian cocaine, not Canadian prescription drugs, right? :smug
Yeah, but I'd be okay with them dropping it in exchange for a no-knock warrant ban concession from the Senate.
If there's anything that the House should push for, it's to allow the importation of cheaper drugs from overseas.
But honestly, if the whole thing fails it might just be for the best. The system as it is currently constructed will collapse sooner rather than later, and single-payer is really the best solution for everyone involved.
So as I asked earlier, back in the day minority parties used to just argue a lot and vote against stuff, but not actually filibuster everything, right? Is that how it worked? I honestly can't remember.
So as I asked earlier, back in the day minority parties used to just argue a lot and vote against stuff, but not actually filibuster everything, right? Is that how it worked? I honestly can't remember.
I think the biggest mistake the democrats made was deciding that the proper response to the banking crisis that almost brought down the world economy was to try and enact healthcare reform.
Sure, that's why Johnson decided not to run in 1968- he was getting primaried and was gonna lose.
I'd say that that's a horrible idea, but after Mr. Harvard Law Review fucked around for a year kissing Republicans' asses in the vain attempt to get them to responsibly govern in lieu of screaming "SOCIALISM" at the top of their lungs and voting no all the time, I'd love to see Howard Dean get in there and spit some fiyah.
Coalition politics means grovelling and scraping at the feet of people who don't have your respect and don't deserve it. You don't have to like it, but if you care more about helping millions of people whose lives are affected by this more than you care about punishing a few pompous officeholders, then you have to accept the reality of it.
What really pisses me off are all of the "progressives" who refuse to hold their nose and give 30 million people access to health care. They're seriously fucking up and should have to pay for it. But they're in safe seats and won't have to, and since they're politicians it's pretty much accepted that they're too stupid to learn anything.
First, Obama proposes to limit the scope and size of large financial institutions. But he ignored suggestions to break up the existing financial behemoths, like Goldman, already in the “too big to fail” category. Instead, his proposed law would simply prevent other, smaller institutions from getting larger.
Of course, this only benefits existing companies, by shielding them from competition. And, of course, these existing companies would still be too big to fail.
So, when Obama says: “I'm also proposing that we prevent the further consolidation of our financial system,” he should not be surprised when people notice the word “further.” The problem isn’t further consolidation of the banking industry. The problem is the consolidation we already have. This is one big reason for the public’s anger.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31855.html#ixzz0dODXy2Al
So here’s an idea, I have been told reliably, that leaders of both Houses are considering: The House would pass a version of the reconciliation bill containing the various amendments and send it to the Senate. The Senate would change it slightly (in ways that the House agreed to), which would require the House to vote on it again. Only after it got the revised reconciliation bill would the House take up the Senate bill. The House could then pass both bills and send both to the president. Problem solved, health-care passes, and we move on.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/01/how_the_democrats_may_solve_th.html
I'm a fan of Olbermann,
I'm a fan of Olbermann,
Why not just watch pro-wrestling instead?
I must say I find this fascinating, though I'm not sure how to relate to it.
My ideological opposites seem to be berating progressive democrats for not compromising enough. ???
I suppose it's like someone said... yeah, maybe from a purely game theory perspective...
seems a lot of these guys would rather bask in the certitude of their own, objective, metaphysical rightness than try to get results in the real world.
(http://www.virtualmarchforlife.com/images/avatars/leaders/leaderavatar_joeplumber.jpg)
http://www.virtualmarchforlife.com/leaders/ (http://www.virtualmarchforlife.com/leaders/)
lawl
I also find it interesting that most of the women have their arms crossed for their avatars.
I'm a fan of Olbermann,
Why not just watch pro-wrestling instead?
WASHINGTON — President Obama is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House to counter Republican challenges in the midterm elections and recalibrate after political setbacks that have narrowed his legislative ambitions.
Mr. Obama has asked his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, to oversee House, Senate and governor’s races to stave off a hemorrhage of seats in the fall. The president ordered a review of the Democratic political operation — from the White House to party committees — after last week’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, aides said.
I'm not sure all of that can go through reconciliation. Medicare buy in and expanding medicaid almost certainly, public option probably not.
I Don't Even Want To Be Alive Anymore
By Rush Limbaugh
January 25, 2010 | Issue 46•04
I know there are a lot of people out there who are upset about some of the things I've been saying on my radio program lately. My comments about the situation in Haiti have hurt and angered many Americans who genuinely care about the plight of the Haitian people, and that hurt and anger will likely never go away. Many of you are probably wondering, "What would compel a human being to say things like that?" Well, here's your answer: I am a very bad person. And, to tell you the truth, I don't really want to be alive anymore.
Try to look at it from my point of view. I have no reason to live. In my 59 years, I've made millions of dollars, built a veritable media empire, and accomplished virtually everything that a man of my limited imagination and worldview could possibly accomplish. And yet, at this point, in no way could you refer to what I'm doing as "living," exactly. I just sort of exist. I derive no real pleasure from life. Oh, sure, I talk a big game about what a golf nut I am and how much I enjoy the taste of a fine cigar, but it's all horseshit. Complete and utter horseshit.
I don't enjoy that stuff. I don't enjoy anything. I don't even want to be here. The sadness and regret I feel every waking hour of my life is absolutely unbearable. I am a miserable pig and I do not want to exist.
The irony is that, even if I did die, the hell I would surely be sent to could not possibly be any worse than the bottomless pool of excrement I already paddle around in like some demented, shit-covered walrus. In fact, every time I hear my voice coming through the headphones I nearly gag, and I think, "What the fuck am I doing?" Why would I say that Michael J. Fox is faking his Parkinson's symptoms? Why would I find it funny to play a song called "Barack the Magic Negro"? Why would I tell people not to give aid to Haiti?
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I live in constant terror and that terror informs my every word, thought, and action.
See, the thing is, I honestly cannot control the bilious hatred and filth that oozes out of my mouth. I want to—believe me, I want to—but I can't. And every time I speak, a tiny voice inside my head is screaming, "Stop talking, you stupid, insensitive prick. JUST STOP FUCKING TALKING. All you do is spread hate and fear, and the world would be a better place without you, you worthless, amoral, cocksucking fuckface."
What I should really do is just commit suicide. I have this little Sunday ritual I started around the time I publicly compared the torture at Abu Ghraib to a fraternity prank, where I climb into my Jacuzzi and put a gun in my mouth. But I can never work up the guts to pull the trigger. A few times I came close to overdosing on prescription pain pills, but my goddamn doctors were always there to save me. If I had any sense, I would just hole myself up in a Red Roof Inn with a case of Jack Daniel's and slowly drink myself into the gaping maw of death itself.
But what can I say? I guess I'm just too much of a fat fucking pussy to follow through.
You know what? I wish someone would just kill me. I'm serious. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking: "Oh my God, how can you say such a thing? You can't print that in a newspaper!" But see, I don't care anymore. I've cried my tears. I've battled my demons, and I've lost. It's over. It's all over. The only thing left for me to do now is just go away. Have I even once contributed a single ounce of good to humanity? Put me out of my misery. I wouldn't make a fuss. I wouldn't even humiliate myself by saying goodbye. For the first time in my odious, pitiful life, I'd accept my fate with quiet dignity.
Then I wouldn't have to live with my wretched, wretched self. Oh, the release.
I've imagined my death a thousand times over, and it's always the same. In my mind's eye, a serene setting comes into view. I see a funeral procession driving down some small-town Main Street in Nowheresville, U.S.A. On one side of the street, a collection of sycophants and morons are paying their respects in subliterate, sanctimonious tones. Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, I can just make out the faint image of a young boy, his brow furrowed in confusion, clutching the hand of his father. "Who is that man, Daddy?" he asks as the hearse containing my bloated, lifeless body rolls by. "Who is that person they speak of?" The father will then lower his head and say, "There, my son, go the remains of Rush Hudson Limbaugh, the most abominable lump of festering dog shit in the history of American broadcasting. May the likes of him never again soil or tarnish the greatness of our fair country."
Please forgive me, everyone. I am so sorry.
Is that an onion article? :lol
Originally Posted by PantherLotus:
The part I really want is the last 4/5 minutes where he starts resetting the Change message.
If you don't hear that appeal to every inner-political dork, to every person that ever wanted to serve our nation to make it better, to every person of this great nation that both loves and lives for the Constitution and capital-F Freedom, you have no clue how important that moment was (and why Republicans were literally hypnotized to applause).
The moment was something being overlooked here, I think. The room was absolutely silent, and he had every single one of them with his fist around their heart. Huge moment. Speaker Pelosi and I can't have been the only two watching and listening that were near tears. Simply amazing.
Anybody else watch the State of the Union speech tonight?
Unfortunately. It's still mind bottling that this man has "Constitutional law professor" on his resume.
i don't think so
i mean they had their supermajority, total democratic acquiescence, and the pure belligerence to do whatever they felt they could, but in the end it didn't really amount to much beyond foreign adventurism
all of which seemed to have helped the deficit which is suddenly so important
gays in your foxholethat could be a movie title.
spending freezes on our military and tax cuts for abortion clinics omfg obama!yeah, pretty much follow the health care playbook. Just outright lie about it.
You don't get bipartisanship by asking politely. Obama made the mistake of asking Republicans over for tea in his first year in office and thought he could charm them into voting his way. You don't swing votes by asking politely, you swing them by implicit political threats. You do it with political force.
So, in financial reform Obama shouldn't ask Republicans to vote with him, he should dare them not to. He should say:
"You want to vote with the bankers. Go ahead. I dare you. Every day I'm going to talk about how these bankers took hard-earned taxpayer money and turned it into record bonuses for themselves. I'm going to show pictures of their yachts and mansions. And then I'm going to say you want to protect them so you can hang out with them on their private jets and play with them in their vacation hideaways. I'm going to take a cut out of you and put it on a picture of their yacht. I'm going to name names. I'm going to make you famous. You still want to vote with the bankers. Make my fucking day."
That's how you get the opposition to vote with you. Who cares if their feelings are hurt, you'll get their votes if, and only if, they think their seat is on the line. Politics is almost always a matter of naked self-interest. Make it politically perilous for them to vote against you and all of a sudden they'll be in a lot more bipartisan mood.
This is one of the few things George Bush did well. Why do you think all those Democrats voted for the Iraq War, because they liked Bush? Because he asked them nicely? No, he made them believe that they will lose their seats if they didn't vote with him. And all of a sudden, he had a solid bipartisan vote in favor his policy.
The new conventional wisdom in DC is that the Democrats are devastated after the Massachusetts loss. And of course there are many who are suggesting that they listen to the Republicans from now on. What the hell are they talking about? The Democrats still have 59 senators! Let me do some quick math for you - that's 18 more senators than the Republicans have. That's a crushing majority, if you're willing to use it.
Bush and Cheney got everything passed with far less senators. Do you think Cheney would have been belly-aching that he only had 59 senators and that he couldn't do anything until he had 60 or more?
If Barack Obama finally does what he was elected to do -- stand up for the people and take on the establishment, there isn't anything he couldn't do with 59 senators. Hit the bankers, hit them hard and dare the Republicans to get in the way. The absolute worst case scenario is that you lose the vote but the Republicans make the dramatic mistake of filibustering to protect the bankers' bonuses. If you thought people were pissed before, wait till you see what happens to the party that makes that mistake.
It's not time to sulk; it's time to saddle up and ride. So far Obama has practiced unilateral disarmament. As the Republicans have pounded on him over and over again, he did not lay out his case or the case against the Republicans for fear of alienating them. What if they got mad and didn't vote with him? I hope to God he's passed that now with the wake up call in Massachusetts.
It's time to stand up for what you believe and challenge the craven positions of your opposition. It's time to show the American people that the Republicans are not on their side. They're with the bankers and the lobbyists. And we're coming for them. We're coming to their house. They can either get out of our way or get crushed. Come on, let's play ball. Let's fuck these guys up.
GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN) held an off-camera/on-the-record talk with the press. He reiterated that they invited the President here and look forward to finding a way towards compromise. However, he followed that with: "Before we can talk about compromise there has to be, the Democratic in the White and Congress have to abandon the habit of reflexively rejecting every idea just because it comes from Republicans[/u].":wtf are you kidding me? :maf
GOP Senator Orrin Hatch is now warning that if Dems pass health care reform via reconciliation it will lead to permanent “war” between the two parties — even though he voted for more than a half dozen GOP bills passed through the process known as…reconciliation.http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/hatch-vows-reconciliation-will-lead-to-permanent-war-beween-parties-but-he-backed-many-reconciliation-bills/
Here’s Hatch, in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, claiming that if Dems use reconciliation it would constitute one of the most despotic acts in the history of the republic:
Hatch said Thursday that using reconciliation would be “one of the worst grabs for power in the history of the country” that would permanently impact relations between the two parties.
“It is going to be outright war and it should be, because it would be such an abuse of the reconciliation rules,” Hatch said. “If they abuse those rules it is going to lead to even more heated animosities between not just the two parties, but even between individual senators.”
Which is interesting, because Hatch voted for…
* The College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, which passed through reconciliation;
* The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, which passed through reconciliation;
* The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which passed through reconciliation;
* The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, which passed through reconciliation;
* The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which passed through reconcilation;
* The Marriage Tax Penalty Relief Reconciliation Act of 2000, which passed through reconciliation; and
* The Taxpayer Refund and Relief Act of 1999, which passed through reconciliation.
Perhaps Hatch would argue that passing health care reform through reconciliation would constitute an abuse of the process in a way that his own votes didn’t. Maybe someone should ask him to explain?
(http://i47.tinypic.com/6syiok.jpg)
Obama annihilating republicans for 90min in a Q&A
http://www.dailykos.com/tv/w/002521/
This country is sooooo fucked once Scott Brown is seated. Some poll came back with the result that only like 26% of the country knew about 60 seats in the Senate to invoke cloture. Dems are gonna get blamed hardcore for nothing happening between now and November.
There are no grown-ups left in the GOP
That's now my second favorite political tweet ever.
I should watch that House Retreat thing. Sounds like Obama respectfully and politely destroyed 'em.
At a Pennsylvania Progressive forum this Saturday, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) were supposed to be doing separate Q&As, one after the other.[youtube=560,345]vEitIiaQtN8[/youtube]
But Specter apparently jumped the gun and climbed onstage while Sestak was giving his closing remarks, and a moderator asked him to get off the stage.
Watch, care of PCN:
boogie:o
Wouldn't the better comparison be Rush Limbaugh, who you were a listener of but realized you couldn't trust when he turned apologist for the Bush I tax hike?
So, to say he is worth 1000 David Brooks is overstating his value immensely. Brooks has the ability to shift public opinion (from either side of the aisle), Taibbi and Buchanan merely convince people to remain in their shells.
He tore Brooks a new one recently after the "Haiti is poor because they worship voodoo; wotta bunch of losers" column.
I think of Taibbi in the same category as Michael Moore. They're generally on the side of the angels, they've gotten people to pay attention to important issues which weren't getting much play from the media, and they're fun polemicists when they're firing on all cylinders. But they're also both capable enough of dishonesty that I'd never believe something they told me without checking the sources, and they seem to love shit-stirring just a bit too much. It's like Hitchens before the turn.
All that said, Taibbi's worth a thousand David Brookses. His passive-aggressive "Oh, but I'm a moderate, Burkean conservative!" schtick gets under my skin in a way that the direct bloodlust of a Charles Krauthammer doesn't.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/supreme_court_allows?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter (http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/supreme_court_allows?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter)
The onion has been killing it lately.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/supreme_court_allows?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter (http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/supreme_court_allows?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter)
The onion has been killing it lately.
Bald Eagle Tired Of Everyone Just Assuming It Supports War
February 1, 2010 | Issue 46•05
The symbol of American might called the 2003 invasion of Iraq "ill-advised at best, illegal at worst."
THE OREGON WILDERNESS—Frustrated by the widely held assumption that he unequivocally endorses the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a bald eagle said Monday that his thoughts on the conflicts were far more nuanced than many Americans might expect.
Speaking to reporters from his nest in the upper branches of a 175-foot ponderosa pine tree, the eagle explained that each member of his species was different and none should be taken for granted as a lockstep supporter of American military policy.
"I think World War II was justified, and I got behind the first Gulf War [in 1990]," said the bird, who has served as the national symbol of the United States since 1782. "But the recent war in Iraq, with its shifting rationale and poor planning, was clearly a huge mistake. Personally, I believe that these crucial, life-and-death matters deserve more honest and less politicized discussion than they get."
"I'm not a hawk or a dove," he added. "I'm an eagle."
The majestic bird of prey, who said he is not registered with any political party, admitted to having some ambivalence about the current mission in Afghanistan, lamenting that any argument one could make seemed to prompt an equally valid counterpoint.
The eagle said he would like to visit Iraq someday, but is worried it might cause impromptu firefights.
"Sure, I understand the reasoning behind the latest troop surge," the eagle said regarding President Obama's plan to commit 30,000 additional soldiers to the region to combat the Taliban. "Can we allow that country to collapse and become an al-Qaeda safe haven again? That seems like a disastrous outcome to me, but at the same time, maybe our continued presence is just creating more terrorists in the long run. Plus, how can we work with someone as corrupt as [Afghan president] Hamid Karzai and still purport to be champions of democracy?"
"You see, these issues are not so cut and dried," continued the Haliaeetus leucocephalus specimen. "And yet, every time I try to explain myself from atop a flag pole or the middle of a baseball field, no one wants to listen. They just cheer and chant 'U.S.A.! U.S.A! U.S.A.!'"
Sources said the eagle then excused himself and launched into the air with a shrill "skree!" sound, returning three minutes later with a glistening fish in his talons.
"And another thing: We can't forget Pakistan," the eagle said as he used his hooked beak to tear at the flesh of the writhing rainbow trout. "We have to make sure that they're not so preoccupied with India that they neglect the terrorist threats within their own borders. Remember, Pakistan has nukes."
The eagle went on to tell reporters that, despite his attempts to individuate himself from the general public's perceptions of bald eagles, he could ultimately control his image only so much. He also admitted that he still had lingering resentment over the fact that someone had covertly photographed him crying on 9/11 and used the picture on a "Never Forget" dinner plate.
"I really hated being exploited like that," the eagle said. "Of course I cried on 9/11. Everyone did. But I guess that's the burden of being the symbol of a nation: People are going to use you in ways you don't always like. You step out of the nest to clear your head with a few minutes of soaring, and people automatically peg you as some kind of embodiment of American freedom worth killing and dying for."
"And, frankly, that's a little messed up," he added. "I'm just a bird."
The best way to view California Senate Candidate Carly Fiorina's awesomely bizarre new primary campaign ad--which includes shots of an alien robot sheep, or something--is by pressing play on your cassette tape of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon just as you click play on YouTube.
The coolest part of the whole thing is that Fiorina is positing fiscal conservatives as sheep, which is a bit like Barack Obama running a spot that posits liberals as leeches or lizards. Also, is it weird that the ad never shows Fiorina's face? Is it better that voters know their candidates by the backs of their heads? More please, more.
ALSO: I must state the obvious: The odd genius of the ad is that it is so weird that you will click on it online, and bloggers like me will link to it. The message is delivered.
It's almost impossible for me to believe that this ad comparing fiscal conservatives to sheep -- but in a good way! -- is real. But it is! The problem with Tom Campbell, the ad says, is all of his independent thought.
Campbell is, to use a current metaphor on this blog, sort of a Paul Ryan figure in California. Very, very conservative. But interested in making progress on the issues facing the state. And that's exactly what the ad takes aim at. The narrator goes through efforts Campbell made to solve problems, and then asks the audience, can you believe all this responsible governance he attempted? The worst part is it's probably effective. Governance is unpopular! After all, if the solutions to all our problems were popular, then we wouldn't have all these problems lying around.
It's funny because he was on video game message boards a decade or so ago, talking about macking on chicks.:lol
http://www.consolecity.com/forum/member.php?u=336
It's funny because he was on video game message boards a decade or so ago, talking about macking on chicks.:lol
http://www.consolecity.com/forum/member.php?u=336
I saw some videos of him and he's a total mouth breather. Makes sense.
I thought the GOP has been known for years to be a party where everyone was in lockstep with one another.It was KNOWN but not proven. This just proves it. Sadly, the more organized a party is, the greater power they hold, regardless of intentions or intelligence.
The GOP voters will just swallow the talking points whole.
What does it mean to you peedee?http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/ID/218924&start=1567&end=1818
Reconcilation is not representative, by Senator Judd Gregg (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32470.html)smh
This piece is a riot. Some highlights:QuoteIn a last-ditch effort to drag their bloated and unpopular $2.3 trillion health care reform package across the finish line, congressional Democrats, reeling from the loss of their 60th Senate seat, are reviewing their options to achieve this goal.
With the election of Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate, more than 40 out of 100 senators now oppose the Democrats’ plan.
Shit, nothing should ever pass if a majority of 41% opposes it!QuoteDemocrats may attempt to use reconciliation to short-circuit every senator’s right and responsibility to fully debate a measure that will affect one-sixth of our economy.
Translation: short-circuit the minority party's right to suspend all debate.QuoteIf reconciliation is used, it will be a clear signal to Americans that the administration and the Democratic majority are willing to trample the spirit of the Senate in order to pass a highly partisan policy, regardless of the damage it does to the concept of representative government.
Kind of like how the Republicans have trampled the spirit of the Senate by using a procedural glitch to derail EVERYTHING they don't agree with?
I'd hesitate to call him "formerly virtuous" but nonetheless, this answers a long standing question of mine... is our pundits learning? I guess so.
LOS ANGELES — Anthem Blue Cross has told some customers it will raise their health insurance premiums as much as 39 percent beginning March 1.
The increases, reported today by the Los Angeles Times, involve as many as 800,000 customers who buy individual coverage. People with group coverage aren't affected.
In a statement, the Woodland Hills-based insurer declined to specify the size of the rate changes or how many people will be affected. The company — which is the largest for-profit health insurer in California — blames the increases on rising health care costs. It says its prices may be adjusted more frequently than its typical annual increases.
Anthem's rates are under review by the state insurance department.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14341404?nclick_check=1
Anthem Blue Cross to hike California health premiums as much as 39 percentQuoteLOS ANGELES — Anthem Blue Cross has told some customers it will raise their health insurance premiums as much as 39 percent beginning March 1.
The increases, reported today by the Los Angeles Times, involve as many as 800,000 customers who buy individual coverage. People with group coverage aren't affected.
In a statement, the Woodland Hills-based insurer declined to specify the size of the rate changes or how many people will be affected. The company — which is the largest for-profit health insurer in California — blames the increases on rising health care costs. It says its prices may be adjusted more frequently than its typical annual increases.
Anthem's rates are under review by the state insurance department.
Looks like the "Double by 2020" estimation is coming a fuck lot sooner. I wonder if that means 800,000 more people supporting health care reform.
Good thing I'm almost done with law school.
Government health plan :rock
90k a year gross w/ overtime :rock
Socialism :rock
Beverage industry douses tax on soft drinks
The idea had been floated as a way to finance a healthcare overhaul while combating obesity. But the industry has lobbied key lawmakers and financed scientific studies favorable to its position.
Reporting from Washington - Employing a broad-based lobbying effort, the soft drink industry has smothered a plan to tax sugared beverages -- a plan advocates said would have reduced obesity and helped finance healthcare reform.
Only months ago, public health advocates thought the tax would be a natural for congressional Democrats looking for revenue to fund expanded health insurance coverage. The soaring costs of treating ailments related to excess weight -- including diabetes and heart disease -- added urgency to the issue.
Well, it IS under investigation, but like fuck they'll do anything. Hell, the Comcast/NBC merger and Ticketmaster/Livenation merger were approved and those contradict SOOO fucking much.
Also, check this:
(http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb225/M3wThr33/0207_sarah_palin_ap.jpg)
"Energy"
"Budget (cut?)"
"Tax"
"Lift American spirits"
Quote from: Sarah Palin's left hand"Energy"
"Budget (cut?)"
"Tax"
"Lift American spirits"
:rofl :rofl :rofl
the team responsible for Sarah Palin should land a sitcom for this.
Another day, another puzzling remark from Harold Ford:http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2010/02/harold-ford-goes-negative-on-eleanor-roosevelt.php
“I’m not comparing myself to Bobby Kennedy by any stretch, but he was opposed by the liberal establishment, too,” Ford said. “Eleanor Roosevelt was the biggest opponent to him running.”
That’s via Ben Smith who observes that Roosevelt died in 1962. Kennedy didn’t run for Senate until 1964. Is Ford going to use a time machine and go back to 2008 to take out Chuck Schumer and other key Gillibrand supporters?
Even GOP conservative Ron Paul draws Tea Party opposition
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, February 7, 2010
By TOM BENNING / The Dallas Morning News
tbenning@dallasnews.com
WASHINGTON – Even anti-government icon Ron Paul can't escape the conservative "Tea Party" fervor stretching across the county.
Paul, the Gulf Coast congressman whose 2008 presidential run excited libertarians nationwide, even though he didn't get much traction overall, is considered by many to be the "father of the Tea Parties." But he has three opponents in the March Republican primary – more than he has faced in his past six primary campaigns combined.
All three have ties to the anti-tax Tea Party movement. And while Paul remains the odds-on favorite to win re-election in his district, the crowded primary highlights the potential conflict between Tea Party activists and a GOP hoping to ride their wave to electoral success this fall.
"The Tea Parties have awakened a lot of everyday people here and across America," said Tim Graney, one of Paul's opponents. "And Ron Paul is worried about getting swept up in the anti-incumbent wave as if he is some exception."
Not in lockstep
It is hard to know where Paul fits into the Tea Party landscape. Paul supporters say he launched the movement in 2007 when he raised $6 million in a one-day, Web-based fundraiser on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. His call for limited government and ending the Federal Reserve also resonates loudly in the Tea Party movement.
"Dr. Paul is proud to play a small role in getting this phenomenon going," said his campaign spokesman, Jesse Benton.
That phenomenon has also propelled Paul's protégés – including his son Rand, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky, and former Paul campaign volunteer Debra Medina, who is surging in the Texas GOP primary race for governor.
But the movement has clearly moved beyond Paul's dedicated core of supporters, a fact the congressman has seemingly acknowledged. He plans to attend a Tea Party-sponsored candidate forum in Katy this month, but he has distanced himself from the Tea Parties in recent interviews because of the antagonistic tone of some rallies.
"He has a very good relationship with the Tea Parties," Benton said. "But it is very important that these rallies maintain a certain level of decorum and respect."
Paul's opponents don't dispute that last point. But both Graney and Gerald Wall said they were inspired to run by their Tea Party involvement, and all three challengers are trying to tap into the movement's passion and enthusiasm.
"The Republican Party left its principles," Wall said. "And these Tea Parties are filled with people who want to take back our party."
John Gay, Paul's third opponent, said he has attended several Tea Parties and related meetings. Both Wall, a machine supervisor, and Graney, a former small-business owner, have helped organize local rallies.
Tea Party associations aside, many of the challengers' criticisms echo concerns of Paul's past opponents: that he is too focused on his national ambitions; that his views are too extreme; that he doesn't support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; that he votes "no" on everything, including federal aid for his district after Hurricane Ike.
"The word I keep hearing is 'ineffective,' " said Gay, a school business administrator. "This district is not really being represented as it could be."
'Attack dogs'
Paul's campaign aides scoffed at those charges. Benton, Paul's spokesman, acknowledged that the vote against hurricane aid was difficult, but he said Paul couldn't set aside his belief in fiscal conservatism.
But Paul is buoyed by the advantages of longtime incumbency and an ability to raise significant campaign cash, and Benton said the campaign wasn't worried about the competition. Paul has more than $1.9 million in the bank, while none of his opponents has more than a few thousand dollars, according to their most recent campaign finance disclosures. Three Democrats are vying to take on the Republican winner in the fall, but the district is overwhelmingly Republican.
"We are not taking these challengers very seriously," Benton said. "But we would never take any votes of the 14th District for granted."
And Paul – who understands a thing or two about grass-roots politics – took a more defensive stance last month in a letter to his supporters. Paul wrote that his opponents had "turned their attack dogs loose on me" and cautioned that the anti-Washington sentiment could take him out as well.
"While I think this development is a good thing," he wrote, "I am going to have to work hard to ensure I am not caught up in the same wave and swept out of office before our job is done."
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/139452/original.jpg
(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/139452/original.jpg)
It's in Wyoming, heh.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/stories/DN-ronpaul_07tex.ART.State.Edition1.4bf50f3.html
Ron Paul isn't Tea Party enough for the Tea Partyers
The head spins. This will take days to filter. Days? Weeks, months even. There’s Tom Tancredo’s recent baby’s-up-past-bedtime blather at a Tea Party event about the “cult of multiculturalism”—wow! Mr. T, do you really want to have a literacy test for voters? Think if they had one when you ran for office that you would have been elected? Oliver North’s melding of homosexuality and pedophilia on Fox News when he flexed his mini-mind and ranted paranoid on the topic of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell—righteous! Ollie, you need better makeup to hide the gills on your neck! Don’t Ask Oliver North where he can get one solid fact to back up his bizarre assertions. Don’t Tell the shamed ex-Marine that the military already has thousands of brave homosexual men and women serving their country and defending the Constitution, who would never think of behaving as he did back in the Iran-Contra days. Then again, why bother with Lieutenant Colonel North? He’s an irrelevant relic of the failed Reagan administration.
Then there’s Sarah Palin, who, egged on by other intellectually malnourished “real Americans,” has said so many startlingly stupid things in the last few days, the comedic furnaces won’t be cooling down any time soon! She’s a dynamo of dumbassity! An inferno of idiocy! Yes, Ms. Palin, 2012 is almost in your grasp! Reach for the stars, get a map, find Iran, start another pointless war we can’t afford! Score!
Just when America really needs to get to work and move forward, some of the dimmest bulbs in the country decide it’s time to turn on and lead the race to the bottom. Christian groups freaked out by the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and its threat to their religious freedom to hate homosexuals—don’t worry, homophobes! The First Amendment protects your right to tell the world that gays are hell-bound! No one’s trying to impose a “homosexual agenda” on you! The rest of us are just trying to impose some much-needed decency and cultural evolution. I know, I know, fear the change, fear the equality, progress, blahblahblah …
You silly grown-ups! The future is hilarious and very problematic, thanks to you. Cheer up! I’ll do my best to track your epic, very public nosedive.
According to a new poll from PPP, right-wing tea party candidate Debra Medina, making her first bid for public office, is nipping at the heels of incumbent Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Texas Republican gubernatorial primary.http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/9/835428/-TX-GOV:-Tea-Party-candidate-surges-with-Ron-Pauls-support
Medina, who wasn't even on the radar before the recent gubernatorial debates, is now within 4 points of Hutchison and 15 points of Perry. Perry clocks in at 39% support, Hutchison at 28%, and Medina at 24%.
If no candidate wins 50% of the vote -- a prospect that seems increasingly likely -- there will be a run-off between the top two finishers. This poll is the first indication that Medina has a decent shot of ending up in the top two positions.
Dave Weigel explains Medina's surge:
Medina owes at least some of her support to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who has employed her on his electoral bids and with his Campaign for Liberty, and who tipped off his supporters to her candidacy in September. While the challenge Paul is facing from three Tea Party candidates reveals that the movement is much more hawkish and traditionally Republican in federal elections, the 10th Amendment argument is clearly a winner with state voters.
And how much further to the right is Medina than the other candidates? While Perry edged away from his apparent endorsement of secession at an April 15 Tea Party, Medina spoke in August at a "sovereignty or secession" rally.
You know the GOP is losing its grip on reality when Rick Perry's pro-secession antics might not be right-wing enough for them.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/stories/DN-ronpaul_07tex.ART.State.Edition1.4bf50f3.html
Ron Paul isn't Tea Party enough for the Tea Partyers
especially now that they think campainging on cutting social security/medicare is a good idea
Republicans -- Not Obama -- More Often on Wrong Side of Public Opinionhttp://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/02/republicans-not-obama-more-often-on.html
One of the more commonplace assertions among pundits on the center-right -- made rather carelessly by Victor Davis Hanson and more thoughtfully by Jay Cost, is that agenda put forward by Obama and the Democrats is overwhelmingly unpopular and that Democrats are simply getting their comeuppance for having pushed such a liberal set of reforms forward. These claims, however, rely on selective evidence, invariably citing policies like health care and the GM bailouts which are indeed unpopular (strongly so, in some cases), while ignoring many other issues on which Obama has been on the right side of public opinion.
In fact, a more objective and equivocal evaluation of public opinion on more than two dozen specific issues finds that the Republican Congress has far more often been on the wrong side of it. Attempting to be as comprehensive as possible, I've identified 25 issues that Obama and the Democrats have made an affirmative effort to push forward since taking office a year ago, and summarized public opinion on each of them. Most of the numbers that I've cited come from PollingReport.com.
Now that corporations are people too, I want Google to run for president. They would be infinitely better than the shitheads that have run the country for the past 20 years.
Now that corporations are people too, I want Google to run for president. They would be infinitely better than the shitheads that have run the country for the past 20 years.
Now that corporations are people too, I want Google to run for president. They would be infinitely better than the shitheads that have run the country for the past 20 years.
What would be the website equivalent of Sarah Palin?
ToxicAdam's solution to corporate interference with democracy: cut out the middle man :lol
Quote from: ToxicAdamNow that corporations are people too, I want Google to run for president. They would be infinitely better than the shitheads that have run the country for the past 20 years.
You just made Prole's shitlist.
I don't think I've ever been so angry in all my time on the internet as I was recently when reading over the comments on union-related stories on politico.There was some rampantly stupid shit going about the airwaves, on frikin national TV, not the mention the net, back when GM was closing all those union-plants. Being in a auto union doesn't mean you glide to work on golden ice skates, but you wouldn't know that from the glee those free market types took in people losing their jobs.
Basically the argument is "If you support a worker's right to make a living wage, you're a goddamn socialist!"
I've never felt such a strong desire to do bodily harm to people on the internet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/10/AR2010021002451.html
According to Politico, Obama was "forceful" with McConnell, saying in the meeting: "If you don't move any, I'm going to do some [recess] appointments."http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/obama-to-mcconnell-stop-the-obstruction.php?ref=fpblg
Bipartisan agreement on jobs lasted all of a few hours. This afternoon, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus announced he'd reached accord with ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). They unveiled what was supposed to be a final jobs package. But the agreement didn't sit well with many Democrats, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has pulled it out of their hands, and announced he'd move ahead with a smaller bill.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/so-much-for-that-bipartisan-jobs-agreement-falls-apart-almost-instantly.php?ref=fpa
Also, how come white people can't say the n word? So unfair.
Financial institutions could face $300bn in losses related to commercial real estate in 2011 and beyond, putting smaller banks at the most risk, according to a report from the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP).
Congress established COP in October 2008 to oversee the spending of the $700bn from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Between 2010 and 2014, the Panel found that $1.4trn in commercial real estate will mature, and almost half are currently underwater.
Also, how come white people can't say the n word? So unfair.
Last I checked, being able to say the word 'nigger' was the only advantage I had to being black. How about we trade: You guys get to say "nigger", and I get to raise interest rates.
Because he's a pussy..
I don't wanna sound racist, but I think Republicans might be genetically incapable of satire.Which is pretty weird considering the fantasy world they live in.
He promised "change" but he turned out to be a weak-kneed do-nothing. He's been nothing but a joke so far, he has horribly mishandled health care reform, and I'll honestly be surprised if he wins a second term.
I still think the disapproval numbers are due to the economy. If there was a strong turnaround, I bet we see a strong turnaround of Democratic disapproval. Especially since Obama won mostly because of the economy.I definitely agree with this one. Especially with the unemployment situation that hovers around 10 percent right now, and many economist believe many of the jobs lost will be gone forever due to the contracting economy.
nintenho related to terrorists!?well terrorists or avatar fans...where exactly do you draw the line?
I still think the disapproval numbers are due to the economy. If there was a strong turnaround, I bet we see a strong turnaround of Democratic disapproval. Especially since Obama won mostly because of the economy.I definitely agree with this one. Especially with the unemployment situation that hovers around 10 percent right now, and many economist believe many of the jobs lost will be gone forever due to the contracting economy.
How?See this is what I don't get. Why is it that we can't find work for all these people? Why can't we have exactly the same economy we have now, but 10% bigger?I still think the disapproval numbers are due to the economy. If there was a strong turnaround, I bet we see a strong turnaround of Democratic disapproval. Especially since Obama won mostly because of the economy.I definitely agree with this one. Especially with the unemployment situation that hovers around 10 percent right now, and many economist believe many of the jobs lost will be gone forever due to the contracting economy.
The unemployed people could be consuming things that would need to be produced.90% can make everything that gets consumed. why is that hard to believe?
Are you saying that 90% of the population does enough work and produces enough for everyone, so 10% is basically useless?
Joe the Plumber goes off on McCain, says he 'screwed up my life'
By Eric Zimmermann - 02/14/10 11:12 AM ET
Joe the Plumber is no longer a fan of either Sarah Palin or John McCain, it seems.
Joe, also known as Sam Wurzelbacher, told an audience in Pennsylvania this week that McCain "is no public servant."
"McCain was trying to use me," Wurzelbacher said, according to public radio correspondent Scott Detrow. "I happened to be the face of middle Americans. It was a ploy.”
"I don’t owe him s—," Wurzelbacher continued. "He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.”
In fact, Wurzelbacher's dislike for McCain is so strong that he no longer supports Sarah Palin simply because Palin will campaign for McCain's re-election.
As for Obama: "I think his ideology is un-American, but he’s one of the more honest politicians. At least he told us what he wanted to do."
James Surowiecki at the New Yorker writes about the problem with the whimsical electorate:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/02/15/100215ta_talk_surowiecki
Good read. He talks about how Americans want things like more jobs, while slashing spending and balancing the budget, which may not possible.
Odd thing about him was that his dad was such a better public servant. He was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Act, the amendment which lowered the voting age to 18, and the Equal Rights Amendment. The son has to be considered a disappointment.
The Harold Ford Jr. camp is changing its story after Ford, a prospective Senate candidate, told a Buffalo TV station that he has never filed a New York State tax return, even though he's been commuting to the city since 2007 to work for Merrill Lynch.http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/ford-spox-he-has-paid-new-york-taxes.php?ref=fpblg
Ford's comments were initially echoed by his spokeswoman, Tammy Sun, who last week told Gawker that Ford "will file a New York tax return in April for the first time."
But now they're telling a different version.
"Harold has always paid New York taxes and filed the appropriate New York tax returns for all income earned in New York. And as a New York resident as of 2009, he is filing a resident tax return this year," Sun told TPM in a statement.
i hear 60% of our tax dollars go to black people
and by "our" i think you know who i mean, you know, the folks that "work hard" and "don't need handouts" wink wink get yer hood
Charles Murray is shocked, shocked (http://blog.american.com/?p=8616) to see darkies in Paris.
He co-authored The Bell Curve, which is purely coincidental, given how that book is merely a dispassionate scientific analysis of the heritability of intelligence and its effects on the American class system, with no social or political agenda whatsoever. *whistles innocently*
Whole buncha rambling
he Anthem Blue Cross saga appears to have a happy ending: After criticism from the administration, the insurer has delayed the planned 40 percent rate hike. That will give the company time to reevaluate whether it's worth the blow-back, and I'd guess there's a good chance it never takes effect at all.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/02/a_california_insurer_shows_how.html#more (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/02/a_california_insurer_shows_how.html#more)
But if this is a good outcome, it's a not a good policy. The insured can't depend on someone in the White House's communications shop noticing when an insurer tries to screw its customers. What we need is an actual policy standing between the insured and the grim incentives of their insurers. That's what health-care reform is meant to be, and the Anthem saga is a good example of how it would work.
The Senate bill contains two separate categories of provisions that would stand between the insured and what Anthem attempted in California. The first are consumer protections that could be invoked if an insurer tried to raise rates precipitously. The second are market reforms that make it less likely for an insurer to try, and less calamitous for individuals if the insurer succeeds.
The hosts were uninterested with how the increasing rates would affect customers and struggling families in California. Instead, the pair attacked Fluegel for re-energizing advocates for health reform. Payne groaned, asking Fluegel why he didn’t "take Wall Street’s lead" and "wait for this to blow over and maybe a year from now try to hike rates":http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/16/837360/-Fox:-The-Wellpoint-Rate-Increase-Was-Bad-Because-it-Re-energized-HCR (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/16/837360/-Fox:-The-Wellpoint-Rate-Increase-Was-Bad-Because-it-Re-energized-HCR)
Someone should tell tea partiers that most libertarians they so identify with would legalize drugz n hookerz.
So I come to find out my roommate's a birther. He insists that chain e-mails are more accurate in reporting than newspapers and independent fact checkers. :-\Shit, so I did win the UK National Lottery?
Since we're talking about fringe movements, ever hear of the "tenther's"? This CNN article was the first time I ever heard of them.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/10/tenth.amendment.movement/index.html
What you are indirectly deriding is the notion that the 10th Amendment has meaning, and that the meaning doesn't change based upon society.
The Mount Vernon Statement Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century
We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.
These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people. They are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other in the world. They are our highest achievements, serving not only as powerful beacons to all who strive for freedom and seek self-government, but as warnings to tyrants and despots everywhere.
Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America's principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The selfevident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.
Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead -- forward or backward, up or down? Isn't this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?
The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature's God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man's self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.
The conservatism of the Constitution limits government's powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic.
A Constitutional conservatism unites all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles. It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America's safety and leadership role in the world.
A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.
* It applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal.
* It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.
* It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.
* It supports America's national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.
* It informs conservatism's firm defense of family, neighborhood, community, and faith.
If we are to succeed in the critical political and policy battles ahead, we must be certain of our purpose.
We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America's founding principles.
February 17, 2010
Instead, I simply advocate that it live up to the terms of the contract we already have.
I think I see why your lot so fears corporations, if you think contracts are inherently meaningless things that can change at any time without the consent of the parties involved.
* It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.Unless you're gay or have a uterus.
* It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.Except if you try to bring to the market a similar product for a cheaper price.
Mount Vernon To Right Wingers: You're Not Welcome Here
Ben Frumin | February 17, 2010, 12:35PM
A lot's been made of the conservative signing later today of "The Mount Vernon Statement" -- the right's "restatement of Constitutional conservatism."
But it turns out that not only is today's signing taking place several miles away from the actual Mount Vernon -- 4.4 miles by car, by our count -- but conservatives asked to sign their declaration at the real Mount Vernon, and were denied.
Melissa Wood, media relations manager for Mount Vernon, tells us that the conservative group "did make a formal request to use Mount Vernon for this announcement. The request by the Mount Vernon Statement group was denied due to Mount Vernon's events policy."
George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate is owned and maintained in trust for the people of the United States by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, a private, non-profit organization. The Association permits outside organizations, companies, or groups to host special events and meetings on the Estate in approved locations. Political, fund-raising, and personal events including, but not limited to, weddings, christenings, bar/bat mitzvahs, or birthday parties, are not permitted.An exception, Wood noted, has been made in the past for presidents. Former President George W. Bush, for instance, was welcomed at Mount Vernon.
"For the president, we feel that George Washington would have hosted them here," Wood said.
"For the president, we feel that George Washington would have hosted them here," Wood said.
A quick review of the organizers behind what the National Journal calls "12 Key Tea Party Players to Watch" gives us the following::-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\
- a Republican Senator (Tom Coburn)
- a wealthy New York real estate developer (Howard Rich)
- the ultraconservative head of Koch Industries (David Koch)
- a former Republican House Majority Leader (Dick Armey)
- the son of a Republican Member of Congress (Ned Ryun)
- the former campaign manager for a Republican Member of Congress (Frank Anderson)
- a former Republican member of the California Assembly (Howard Kaloogian)
- a fulminating Fox News mouthpiece (Glenn Beck)
- a former speechwriter for George H. W. Bush (Michael Johns)
It seems as if the only influential individual without glaring ties to the GOP or the ultra-right is the organizer of the Convention that hosted Palin, and he's a Nashville DUI attorney. (Write your own joke, as Ed McMahon used to say.) If the GOP/Tea Party connection isn't obvious enough already, in South Carolina they made it official. The Republican party and the Tea Partiers agreed to share a variety of resources, turning a long-time flirtation into a vow of marriage.
The "anti-bank" Tea Party movement's a Republican front, and Republicans are actively marketing themselves to Wall Street as a better - make that even better - bang for their campaign contribution buck than the Democrats.
The GOP's push for "less regulation" is exactly what the banking industry needs to confirm its absolute dominance over the American economy. It would ensure that its excesses are never curbed, perpetuating a system where bankers reap the rewards of success and taxpayers bear the cost of failure. And what's the other centerpiece of Republican economic policy?
Privatizing Social Security.
Where would everybody's Social Security dollars go under a privatization scheme? Why, to Wall Street, of course. The Tea Party plan is simple: Use anti-bank rage to help the Republicans win, so they can give banks even more power. Can the banksters really outsmart the Democrats and pull off a trick like that? From the look of things, the answer might well be:
You betcha.
Plain English text can't bear its own meaning. ::)Like the second amendment amirite?
* It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.
I can't stand being lied to, that, and arrogance and condescension, cockiness, unwarranted conceit, those kind of human characters just drive me nuts.
Quote from: rush limbaughI can't stand being lied to, that, and arrogance and condescension, cockiness, unwarranted conceit, those kind of human characters just drive me nuts.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_021710/content/01125100.guest.html
I keep running into this argument that raising the marginal tax rate on individuals making over $250,000 will hurt small businesses, and I just don't get it. It's a tax against the owner and any employees making over that amount, not against the business itself.
What did you expect to happen under a typical tax and spend liberal like Eisenhower.
Judging from studies analyzing voting trends among college educated Americans vs non college educated Americans, if public education were fully subsidized in this country, the entire electorate would probably experience a noticeable and permanent shift to the left.well obviously. that's not to say that conservative "ideals" are bad (fiscal responsibility especially), it's just the ideologue hacks that run the party are idiots.
It would just be quicker and easier to kill all of the stupid people. Drop some napalm on the next teabagger rally.
Family Guy Actress with Down Syndrome's Sarah Palin Smackdown Too Hot for NYT
The latest twist in the important controversy of Family Guy making fun of Trig Palin: An actress with Down syndrome said Sarah Palin "does not have a sense of humor." She was in the offending episode. Updated with more zing!
Andrea Fay Friedman played the girl with Down syndrome Chris dated in the episode. (Her IMDB says she's been on Saving Grace, Law & Order: SVU and 7th Heaven among other shows.) She was the one who said the fateful line which incurred Sarah Palin's facebook-based ire: "My dad's an accountant, and my mom's the former governor of Alaska." (Gawker.tv has got the clip.) And she has something to say to no-fun Sarah Palin, which she said in an email to the New York Times.
However! It appears that what the Times printed was just the nice portion of a much meaner email Friedman sent out to various media outlets. The blog Palingates has published the uncensored email:
My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the "Extra Large Medium" episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine's day. Although they gave me red hair on the show, I am really a blonde. I also wore a red wig for my role in " Smudge" but I was a blonde in "Life Goes On". I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line "I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska" was very funny. I think the word is "sarcasm".
In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.
How does one say in English... "Zing?" The Times, however, stops at "my parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life." They must have done the calculations and figured that being able to interview Sarah Palin in the future was worth more than printing Friedman's awesome email in full. How mainstream media. It's too bad, because the best part about Friedman's response was also the point—such as there was one—of the Family Guy gag: Palin used Trig so blatantly as a campaign tool, and positions herself so squarely as the voice of the disabled community (see: "death panels"), that of course the one person with Down syndrome to appear in the Family Guy episode would be related to her.
We can think of many, many well-meaning but possibly 'edgy' jokes to make right now. But we're watching the Olympics and don't feel like reading a bunch of pissed-off comments from people who would, like Sarah Palin, take these jokes the wrong way. So, let's just say: Excellent work, Andrea Fay Friedman. Stop being so wimpy, New York Times. And: U-S-A! U-S-A!
Although they represent less than 2 percent of federal government spending each year...
Quote from: LVRJ articleAlthough they represent less than 2 percent of federal government spending each year...
People kvetching about earmarks is a dead giveaway that they're uninformed or unserious about the budget.
He wouldn't beat Obama. Hell, even Mittens probably can't beat Obama, considering how far to the right he's gonna have to pretend to go in order to win the primaries in 2012. I hope/bet there's a "Tea Party" candidate in 2012.
I know, I was just considering a magical world where Paul somehow won
Quote from: LVRJ articleAlthough they represent less than 2 percent of federal government spending each year...
People kvetching about earmarks is a dead giveaway that they're uninformed or unserious about the budget.
"anyone but x" doesn't work too wellhe wasn't an incumbent.
ask Kerry, whigz
"anyone but x" doesn't work too wellhe wasn't an incumbent.
ask Kerry, whigz
"anyone but x" doesn't work too wellhe wasn't an incumbent.
ask Kerry, whigz
That's (kind of) the point. Anyone running against Obama is more or less going to be running on the "anyone but Obama" platform.
I wonder how conservatives would react if we catch or kill Bin Laden in the next year or so
Don't tell me 2% ain't shit when 3 extra billion for the Constellation program becomes "too costly" for this administration's budget.
watnerds are mad that Obama cut NASA funding, perhaps the only thing Bush did that they liked.
Mandark's not really good at writing his little fan-fics, is he? Impeachments require a charge.
Seems like Obama is trying some crazy 11th hour plan to save health care reform. (http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/obama-will-propose-federal-oversight-of-rate-hikes/?)
Honestly, while it's not gonna give us the best possible plan, the easiest thing to do at this point is have the House pass the Senate bill and do as much as you can to fix that in reconciliation. Introducing a completely new plan smacks of insanity at this point, cause you're not gonna get one Republican to vote for it in the Senate.
I dunno exactly how much of a Bush apologist Jaydubya is, but does he think that lying to the American people in order to start a war with another country is something that would have had Madison's seal of approval?
I dunno exactly how much of a Bush apologist Jaydubya is, but does he think that lying to the American people in order to start a war with another country is something that would have had Madison's seal of approval?
Barking up the wrong tree here, JD didn't want the Iraq war I'm pretty sure.
I dunno exactly how much of a Bush apologist Jaydubya is, but does he think that lying to the American people in order to start a war with another country is something that would have had Madison's seal of approval?
Barking up the wrong tree here, JD didn't want the Iraq war I'm pretty sure.
bubububu clinton's penis, democrats
Then why are you on about decrying corporate personhood, a completely unrelated concept?
JAYDUBYA: I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of natural rights, which this margin is too small to contain.Impressive, Mandark. :lol
Imagine if Lincoln had cared about alienating plantation owners?The main reason that Northerners supported getting rid of slavery was because they didn't like the plantation owner lifestyle and believed that indentured servitude was too inefficient compared to a wage-based economy. Unfortunately, no democrats are really considering trying to get that type of self-serving attitude on their side.
The Senate is holding a hearing today where several current and former Blackwater employees will be testifying, but honestly the only way Congress would stop giving Blackwater money is if it started registering black people to vote.
Gov. Gibbons Caught Repeatedly Lying About Trip To D.C. With Woman (VIDEO)http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/gov_gibbons_caught_repeatedly_lying_over_dc_trip_w.php?ref=fpblg
I'd be in favor of abolishing the party system completely. Rather than do anything useful, it just breeds an "us vs. them" mentality that bogs everything down and lends itself to lots of pandering to get votes.
I'd be in favor of abolishing the party system completely. Rather than do anything useful, it just breeds an "us vs. them" mentality that bogs everything down and lends itself to lots of pandering to get votes.
Ah, to be twelve and idealistic again.
I'd be more in favor abolishing the Senate. I mean, if we're wishing for crap that we're not gonna get here, that is. Also, a blow job from Angelina Jolie.
[youtube=560,345]KBqtyvn7OVw[/youtube]
Watch until the end. You'll know why.
Just be plain, dude. If you want to chat about something, bring it up.
Just be plain, dude. If you want to chat about something, bring it up.
Hey JayDubya, why don't you read back another couple dozen pages and respond to all the stuff people were saying to you the last time you disappeared?
The corporations in question are referred to as a "class of speaker" or as "associations" on multiple occasions. You'll also see "person or group" on occasion.
Personhood appears in the document in question once, sarcastically, and in quotes, from the dissent.
Free speech, like a lot of freedoms, is something you're all in for, or you're not.
The First Amendment is violated by the Congress passing laws that censor speech - the ruling overturns those laws.
If Malek or anyone else who's qualified wants to smack me down a bit here, I'd more than welcome it.
If Malek or anyone else who's qualified wants to smack me down a bit here, I'd more than welcome it.
I don't have a clue what's going on in the States; I have more than enough English and Canadian cases to read.
Useless Canadian Perspective: The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that corporations do have freedom of expression. The Canadian Charter, however, was written well after the idea of corporate personhood had been accepted into British and Canadian law. The Court has also interpreted all Charter rights very broadly and liberally. It has ruled that soliciting is a protected form of expression. It has, in dicta, even said that illegal parking can be a form expression. So protecting corporate expression isn't much of a stretch.
The Supreme Court has never really had to seriously grapple with the issue because they can rely of Section One of the Canadian Charter, which allows the government to limit Charter rights, as long as those limits are reasonable. This has, imo, allowed the Court to grant corporations freedom of expression without worrying about the consequences: The government can limit corporate speech, which it has constantly, and the Supreme Court then say the limitation is reasonable. Furthermore, the Court has said that commercial speech is less worthy of protection than other speech (this had no basis in law; it was a purely normative judgment on the part of the Majority).spoiler (click to show/hide)I do realize that none of the above was the least bit helpful.[close]
i actually have an ex who's PoliSci PhD thesis was about how the modern Canadian charter left some gaping holes that made the supreme court have to step in and "legislate from the bench" even though they really didn't want to
i actually have an ex who's PoliSci PhD thesis was about how the modern Canadian charter left some gaping holes that made the supreme court have to step in and "legislate from the bench" even though they really didn't want to
That's bullshit. All The Supreme Court needs to do is ascertain the intent of the founding fathers--and, maybe pick up a dictionary--that's it.
Seriously, I'm shocked that merited a PhD thesis. The Charter, like all constitutions, is written in sparse general language; The Court had no choice but to fill in the gaps. Plus, a lot of existing laws conflicted with The Charted once The Charter came into effect.
Picking cotton with black people?
Picking cotton
(http://www.truthinjustice.org/picking-cotton.jpg)
conclusion? There is no reason for a thinking individual to respond to you any longer, as you are likely to bail out at any moment and leave the burden on them to keep track of it all. Fuck off.
This is EB, dude. Who the fuck makes an effort to try to meet the basic standards of debate?
you go above and beyond.
The law limited speech, which was the no-no.
The majority ruling states that the association of the speaker is not grounds for censorship, that said censorship laws violate the First. Corporations are not given special status or special regard in this ruling.
When you say corporate personhood means "a court can extend certain legal rights and protections to corporations in the same way those rights and protections apply to persons, even if the text of the law does not," well there's an obvious counter to that. Chiefly, the text of the law, does not limit freedom of speech, nor does it state who is given free speech. The text of the law forbids our legislative branch from passing laws that are restrictive of free speech.
The ruling doesn't care whether or not corporations are people, or rather, "people." The First Amendment doesn't draw a distinction that would make such a question material.
the government isn't composed of people, of course; rather, it's a terrible violation of nature
P.P.S. Yikes at Canada, per usual, though that was informative. Can you give us an example of how they've employed that "reasonable" clause with regards to, say, freedom of speech?
yes, they are extended protection, but that is because they are a subset of well, all speakers whom Congress has no right to limit in this regard - namely, everyone.
1) The concept of corporate personhood is NOT about whether a corporation is a person.
founder's intent only applies to guns.and rightfully so.
I must say, though, that if the concept of corporate personhood is wholly unrelated to whether a corporation is a person, it's not really well named, is it? And you well know the way our government wields personhood is already a matter of concern for me.
I'm using the definition that's used in the legal profession, as best I can understand it.
And you think I wasn't?
TA has apparently found some magical internet forum where concensus building is the name of the game.
And yet you still read.\
And yet you still read.\
I wish I had that much time to waste. I skim and pray for someone posting relevant information to today's world.
When ideologues collide, we all lose.
Poli-bore: A thread of public masturbation to imaginary ideals.
You would have thought the signs and materials from Citigroup, Pfizer, American Airlines, AT&T, Verizon, Macy's and IBM plastered around the 2008 conference in St. Maarten would have provided a clue that corporate money was involved. But apparently Rangel was clueless. His response to the ethics committee's admonishment? (Rangel) criticized the committee and blamed his staff. "Common sense dictates that members of Congress should not be held responsible for what could be the wrongdoing or mistakes or errors of staff," he said. What a stand-up guy.
perhaps you can graduate to the huffpo in a couple years
Term limits! Earmarks! Frank Luntz! etc.
Getting this back on track:
(http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/651/conflictedconservatives.png)
Note that those are percentages of conservatives who want to cut those programs, not of the population at large.
This pretty well dovetails with Prole's repeated observation that most of the people demanding less spending have absolutely no clue about the composition of the federal budget. Foreign aid is the money that falls out of Social Security's wallet and the State Department finds beneath the sofa cushions a month later.
The hobbyhorses of soi-disant deficit hawks (funding for the arts, foreign aid, earmarked spending, welfare) is a miniscule part of the overall budget, and an even tinier part of future obligations. It's like they believe that the cost of a program is directly proportional to their own sputtering outrage at that program's existence.
Privately owned companies shouldn't be punished legally for discriminating against employees and customers.
Ok, have you ever lived in an area that has its fair share of racist attitudes? Like the South? Have you ever stopped to think that if there are enough racist/apathetic people in an area to support a business than an essential necessary service for daily functioning could be denied to someone because of skin color? This person should have to relocate because of someone's ignorance?
Getting this back on track:
Note that those are percentages of conservatives who want to cut those programs, not of the population at large.
This pretty well dovetails with Prole's repeated observation that most of the people demanding less spending have absolutely no clue about the composition of the federal budget. Foreign aid is the money that falls out of Social Security's wallet and the State Department finds beneath the sofa cushions a month later.
The hobbyhorses of soi-disant deficit hawks (funding for the arts, foreign aid, earmarked spending, welfare) is a miniscule part of the overall budget, and an even tinier part of future obligations. It's like they believe that the cost of a program is directly proportional to their own sputtering outrage at that program's existence.
Malek: Even then you're still assuming a society where most people would boycott a business for being racist, rather than one where most people (and/or the people with most of the money) would boycott one for being colorblind.
So Prole, it struck me that you're basically arguing "Foreign aid makes people feel good, so why the fuck not?"
Whatever you think of the policies (and the politics behind them sure aren't pretty), benefits definitely accrue to US citizens.
It's like a man facing bankruptcy donating thousands of dollars to charity each month. It's insanity.if .16% of what he made every month was thousands of dollars then yeah, it would be exactly like that. not really affecting anything at all in the scheme of things but otoh, from a pragmatic pov, it makes the rest of the world hate us a lot less.
The percentage is relevant because why now? Money you don't have is money you don't have.What is that the cost of?
$50,000,000,000+ is a shitton of money we don't have, and this is what we throw away every year.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but that war involved two major* foreign aid recipients on opposite sides... So. We're encouraging two nations to not fight...
... by giving them free weapons?
In short: read better before getting that snarky.
Probably some logical fallacy that I'm unaware of. I, however, am utterly astounded that libertarians in general disregard historical precedent in nearly every subject discussed. We've had periods of tolerated discrimination (we kinda still do), free markets with no regulation, flat taxes, etc at various points in the USA's history. They were shitcanned for good reasons.
Problem is JD goes on about a "theoretical community" as if there had been no period in our history when an ethnic group was systematically shunned by most of the private sector, and suffered deeply from it.spoiler (click to show/hide)BLACK PEOPLE IN THE POSTBELLUM SOUTH[close]
Talking to libertarians can be like talking to Martians who have some very strong viewpoints about how humans behave, though they haven't done any fieldwork yet.
they have a very reductivist approach to human nature, as though everything can be encoded in simple rules that stupid frustrating libtards refuse to acknowledge with their discussions of "sociology" and "anthropology" and "history"
the idea that we, as individuals, must be in a persistent state of negotiation and compromise with society seems to offend them on some deep level
RE: The market will solve discrimination
This would only be plausible if everyone had access to all relevant information, which wouldn't happen unless a business is being blatant ("no coloreds allowed!") or its discriminatory practices are widely publicized in the press.
Customers would have a hard time boycotting businesses because they would not know which ones were actually discriminatory, especially absent government laws and investigations. Every time a customer buys a product, he is literally dealing with dozens if not hundreds of different corporations. He couldn't possibly take the time to inform himself about each companies' hiring practices. Even if he could, he wouldn't have access to the relevant information anyway.
Malek: Even then you're still assuming a society where most people would boycott a business for being racist, rather than one where most people (and/or the people with most of the money) would boycott one for being colorblind.
It's really hard to imagine how an oppressed minority community bootstraps itself up to economic parity in that case, and harder to find real life examples in the past.
Fine, fine.
Amended to "lower information costs would only help fight discrimination if the population (or segment of it which controlled most of the wealth) were already predisposed against racism".
So Prole, it struck me that you're basically arguing "Foreign aid makes people feel good, so why the fuck not?"
durp durp edited by jaydubya
Jd's responses on racism were ao enlightening. I dont know why i ever gave him shit for dropping arguments he started himself.
Jd should i quote the posts in question for you so you dont have to scroll?
JayDubya:politics::Green Shinobi:movies
JD: now, correct me if I'm wrong, but ...
Boogie: actually, I think you might be wrong.
JD: NO I'M NOT! Also, stop being so snarky and intellectually dishonest!
Hey now, GreenShinobi unflinchingly responds to absolutely everything that anyone says to him. He can't be convinced of anything but at least you know he is reading your posts.
Hey now, GreenShinobi unflinchingly responds to absolutely everything that anyone says to him. He can't be convinced of anything but at least you know he is reading your posts.
Hey now! In just the past two weeks, Mandark convinced me that I had been operating with an incorrect or incomplete definition of the word "melodrama," which led to me spending a few hours reading articles by film critics about melodrama and really improving my knowledge of the subject. I am perfectly willing to admit when I am wrong about something and take steps to rectify that.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The filibuster -- tool of obstruction in the U.S. Senate -- is alternately blamed and praised for wilting President Barack Obama's ambitious agenda. Some even say it's made the nation ungovernable.
Maybe, maybe not. Obama's term still has three years to run.
More certain, however: Opposition Republicans are using the delaying tactic at a record-setting pace.
''The numbers are astonishing in this Congress,'' says Jim Riddlesperger, political science professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
The filibuster, using seemingly endless debate to block legislative action, has become entrenched like a dandelion tap root in the midst of the shrill partisanship gripping Washington.
But the filibuster is nothing new. Its use dates to the mists of Senate history, but until the civil rights era, it was rarely used.
A tactic unique to the Senate, the filibuster means a simple majority guarantees nothing when it comes to passing laws.
''The rules of the Senate are designed to give muscle to the minority,'' said Senate historian Donald Ritchie.
With the Senate now made up of 100 members, two for each of the 50 states, an opposition filibuster can only be broken with 60 votes -- a three-fifths majority.
As a matter of political philosophy, the concept of the filibuster arises from a deep-seated, historic concern among Americans that the minority not be steamrolled by the majority.
It is a brake and protective device rooted in the same U.S. political sensibility that gave each state two senators regardless of population.
The same impulse gave Americans the Electoral College in presidential contests -- a structure from earliest U.S. history designed to give smaller population states greater influence in choosing the nation's leader.
Given recent use of the filibuster by minority Republicans and the party's success in snarling the legislative process in this Congress, Democrats say the minority has gone way beyond just protecting its interests.
The frequency of filibusters -- plus threats to use them -- are measured by the number of times the upper chamber votes on cloture. Such votes test the majority's ability to hold together 60 members to break a filibuster.
Last year, the first of the 111th Congress, there were a record 112 cloture votes. In the first two months of 2010, the number already exceeds 40.
That means, with 10 months left to run in the 111th Congress, Republicans have turned to the filibuster or threatened its use at a pace that will more than triple the old record. The 104th Congress in 1995-96 -- when Republicans held a 53-47 majority -- required 50 cloture votes.
During most of Obama's first year in office and for a few weeks this year, 58 Democratic senators and two Independents who normally vote with them held a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate.
That vanished last month when Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown captured the seat of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died last summer.
Most notably, Brown's victory has stymied Obama's push to overhaul health care just as the bill was approaching the finish line. Before Brown's election, both the Senate and the House of Representatives had passed separate versions of the reform legislation.
Brown broke the Democratic 60-seat majority before the two chambers could meld differences in their bills for a final vote in both houses.
However, one of Brown's first votes after taking office saw him joining four other Republicans to help Democrats break a threatened filibuster by his party's leaders against a job bill.
The measure, $13 billion in tax incentives for businesses to hire unemployed workers, was quickly passed the next day with 12 Republicans joining Brown and 55 Democrats in favor of it.
Filibusters to make the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress look inept are one thing. Quite another is a vote against creating jobs in an economy with nearly 10 percent unemployment and midterm elections nine months away.
Washington, D.C. - Congressman Ron Paul has continued to run his Congressional office in a frugal manner, and was able to return more than $100,000 from his allotted office budget to the Treasury this year, an increase over the $90,000 returned last year.
“Since my first year in Congress representing the 14th district I have managed my office in a frugal manner, instructing staff to provide the greatest possible service to the people of the 14th district at the least possible cost to taxpayers,” said Paul.
edit: Speaking of DLC golden boys, looks like New York won't have Harold Ford to kick around anymore.
There is no question that Medicare is on an unsustainable course; the government has promised far more than it can deliver. But this problem will not be solved by cutting Medicare in order to create new unfunded liabilities for young people.
It's hard to remember when Ford was the Max Cleland of the 2006 election cycle: a Democrat who wasn't that far to the left but got a lot of sympathy from liberals thanks to his opponent's ad campaign. He just proved to be amazingly tone deaf. I can't remember the last candidate who was meant to be taken seriously yet had such consistently awful instincts.
Obama caught lip-syncing speech (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_caught_lip_syncing_speech) :lol
But seriously, what's with the fetish for state authority? Why not county or municipality or region? Who died and made the state the one natural, pure unit of governmental authority?
states are great incubators for ideas and new programs.
But seriously, what's with the fetish for state authority? Why not county or municipality or region? Who died and made the state the one natural, pure unit of governmental authority?
I can watch Dana Carvey do Bush Sr. all day.
I really didn't find it funny at all. Carrey was the best, but even then...
I didn't think it was funny either. And it took me a while to figure out who Dan Aykroyd was supposed to be since Carter's so skinny.
What got into David Broder? (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030301776.html?hpid=opinionsbox1)
This is literally the first good column I've ever read of his.
@sportsguy33 Keith Olbermann, please know the feeling is mutual. You're my worst case scenario for my career in 12 yrs: a pious, unlikable blowhard who lives alone. about 4 hours ago
@sportsguy33 I feel bad about saying Olbermann lives alone. I forgot about his cats. about 3 hours ago
What got into David Broder? (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030301776.html?hpid=opinionsbox1)
This is literally the first good column I've ever read of his.
broken clock, right time, twice a day, etc etcspoiler (click to show/hide)I was shocked as well. I had to scroll back up and make sure that I actually just read a David Broder column, myself. I wonder- does this mean that the rest of his columns bemoaning the lack of bipartisanship can now be ignored under his own maxim?[close]
Simmons has his moments though. Some of his stuff is hilarious, and like I said he's kinda harmless during this time of the year. Olbermann is full blown aids every day
his rankings of nba players (like the worst to best list) are pretty hilarious
Perfect Storm Nearly Killed Health Reform; Another Storm May Save It (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/03/perfect-storm-nearly-killed-health-reform-another-storm-may-save-it/37009)
Bad habits of political journalists: assigning way to much importance to events, so they can weave a more dramatic narrative filled with victories and setbacks and shocking reversals. It was especially bad during the campaign (game changer! Joe the Plumber!), but it never goes away.
Ambinder's piece is an okay timeline of what's happened, but he gives a lot of weight to things that probably didn't shift a single vote in the House.
Perfect Storm Nearly Killed Health Reform; Another Storm May Save It (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/03/perfect-storm-nearly-killed-health-reform-another-storm-may-save-it/37009)
Bad habits of political journalists: assigning way to much importance to events, so they can weave a more dramatic narrative filled with victories and setbacks and shocking reversals. It was especially bad during the campaign (game changer! Joe the Plumber!), but it never goes away.
Ambinder's piece is an okay timeline of what's happened, but he gives a lot of weight to things that probably didn't shift a single vote in the House.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1JAZwOSA1s[/youtube]
I was so disappointed they stopped those after the election. Even if it was only a once a month thing, I would haved loved to have seen those continued. And huffington post shouldn't have dropped the comedy portion of their site. It was hit or miss mostly but it was worth sustaining.
I call it the "POLITICO-ization" of journalism. Actually, I should probably call it the "Cheebsification" of political journalism.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- who has gone to great lengths to hype the supposed dangers of a big government takeover of American health care -- admitted over the weekend that she used to get her treatment in Canada's single-payer system.
"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. "And I think now, isn't that ironic?"
The irony, one guesses, is that Palin now views Canada's health care system as revolting: with its government-run administration and 'death-panel'-like rationing. Clearly, however, she and her family once found it more alluring than, at the very least, the coverage available in rural Alaska. Up to the age of six, Palin lived in a remote town near the closest Canadian city, Whitehorse.
Officials at several hospitals in that area declined to give out information on patient visits.
Israel Embarrasses Vice President Biden, Sparks Rebuke From U.S.
This appears to be the diplomatic equivalent of an ambush. Vice President Biden, on a visit to Israel, spent the day talking up the close relationship between Israel and the United States.
"Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel," Biden said. "The United States will always stand with those who take risks for peace," Biden said, telling [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, "you're prepared to do that."
Then Israel, playing not-quite gracious host, announced the construction of 1,600 new homes for Jews in the disputed territories of East Jerusalem, a move that kicks sand in the face of Obama Administration requests to stop such settlement expansion. The press pool following Biden reports that the Vice President showed up 90 minutes late for dinner with Netanyahu, and that reporters were wondering if he would show up at all.
In the briefing room, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the timing of the announcement was not helpful. Biden, who has not taken questions from the press today, then put out his own statement:
I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem. The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I've had here in Israel. We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them. This announcement underscores the need to get negotiations under way that can resolve all the outstanding issues of the conflict.
As long as the Likudniks are running Israel, shit is just FUCKED over there.That's the thing. What we'd call "Likudnik" ten years ago is now the consensus opinion, including the center-left.
I agree with Ackerman and Yglesias that defining "pro-Israel" on the basis of belief in a particular narrative of national foundation is ridiculous and absurd. In addition to being practically nonsensical, such a metric would serve to throw a blanket on genuine historical scholarship of Zionism, the development of the Jewish population within mandate Palestine, and the early Arab-Israeli wars. Although I count myself as a patriotic American, I have few illusions about the validity or accuracy of the mythical narrative of the founding of the United States.
At the same time, I find myself pretty comfortably within the "pro-two state, pro-Israel" faction. The case against the two state solution rests, as far as I can tell, on two arguments. The first is that the creation of Israel represents a historic crime against the Palestinian people, and that this crime should be rectified. The second is that a cosmopolitan, democratic single state covering the territory of Israel/Palestine is possible, and is both ideologically and practically preferable to the division of the area into two states.
Regarding the first argument, I can only say: Meh. The founding of Israel involved brutality, theft, appropriation of land, ethnic cleansing, and murder. It also involved heroism, selflessness, generosity, hard work, and sense of historic destiny. Furthermore, the narrative that developed within Israel regarding the founding emphasizes the second set of traits at the expense of the first. These two facts distinguish Israel from approximately zero nation-states in the international system. Statebuilding and consolidation is brutal, murderous work; every major modern nation-state has bloody hands, and every modern nation-state has developed a narrative that de-emphasizes the brutality of its founding. The historic crime of Israel's founding, such that it was, is different only in that it was more recent than the crimes associated with the development of Russia, Japan, France, the United States, and so forth. The crimes serve to "delegitimate" Israel only in the sense that such crimes delegitimate the project of the modern nation-state. There's some value to that, but there's little reason to make Israel the focus of such an effort.
Regarding the second, every democracy includes groups of people who are likely to disagree with each other about how the state should be constituted. I think it's fair to say, however, that some groups of people may, as a practical matter, have views regarding the nature of the body politic that are so divergent that there is little point in including them under the same state. I think that Israelis and Palestinians represent, collectively, an example of this; the institutions of a prospective Israeli-Palestinian state seem unlikely to me to function in a very democratic or effective manner. Another way to put this is that I trust neither Israelis nor Palestinians to live in a state with the other; I trust neither to sufficiently respect the rights of the other to make democratic life enjoyable, or even possible.
And so, in this sense, I'm strongly pro-Israel. I think that the achievement of a two-state solution is both possible (although perhaps not forever) and desireable, and that both the Israelis and the Palestinians will benefit from such a separation. Moreover, within this context, I strongly support policies that increase the security and prosperity of both states. I also strongly oppose policies that make the development of two states more difficult; Israeli settlement activity is among the most important of these policies, as is the quasi-eliminationist rhetorical stance adopted by Hamas. Such a settlement would, in some sense, validate the historic crime of Israel's founding, but for me that objection carries very little weight.
I can't even have that discussion with my grandparents, who view every criticism of Israel as a crime on par with the Holocaust. I understand that they are just a generation removed from the genocide of much of their extended family, but I can't get behind the sentiment that such atrocities gives Israel carte blanche in terms of handling their neighbors.
Trust me: If you talk to an unemployed, uninsured mother of two in Greenville, she'll tell you that jobs and reliable medical coverage come a distant second to the crafting of meticulous talking points that deftly omit the facts and reduce what should be honest discourse about our country's future to a series of contrived, easy-to-digest sound bites designed to sway crucial independent voters.The Onion has just been killing it lately.
Subject: Palin Attacks Grayson; Grayson Applies Calamine Lotion to the Resulting Reddish Skin
On Friday night, Sarah Palin came to Orlando, and attacked Rep. Alan Grayson. This is what she said:
"I got to meet quite a few candidates who are lining up in a contested primary who want to take out Alan Grayson. And I think Alan Grayson -- what can you say about Alan Grayson? Piper is with me tonight, so I won't say anything about Alan Grayson that can't be said around children. [Good one, Sarah!] But thank you, Florida, for allowing candidates in a contested primary to duke it out over ideas and principles and values, all with the same goal, and that is unseating those who have such a disconnect from the people of America. That's what the goal is here in this race against Alan Grayson. Please fight hard, and do this for the rest of the country. Fight hard, and send a conservative to Washington, DC."
Palin, the former half-term Governor, current-nothing and future-even-less, charmed the all-Republican audience with her folksy folksiness and her homespun homespunnery. Atypically, Palin was wearing clothes that she had paid for herself. At the end of the event, she shared her recipe for mooseface pie.
In response to Palin's attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson's entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida.
Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin's imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.
When asked to comment about what effect Palin's criticism might have, Grayson pointed out, "As the Knave's horse says in Alice in Wonderland, 'dogs will believe anything.'" Earlier, as the Orlando Sentinel reported, Grayson said, "I'm sure Palin knows all about politics in Central Florida, since from her porch she can see Winter Park," which is part of Grayson's district.
Grayson said that the Alaskan chillbilly was welcome to return to Central Florida anytime, as long as she brings lots of money with her, and spends it. "I look forward to an honest debate with Governor Palin on the issues, in the unlikely event that she ever learns anything about them," Grayson added, alluding to Politifact's "liar, liar, pants on fire" evaluation of much of what Palin has said.
Scientists are studying Sarah Palin's travel between Alaska and Florida carefully. They hope to learn more about the flight patterns of that elusive migratory species, the wild Alaskan dingbat.
:lol That's hilarious, what is it from?Just google "Alaskan dingbat". (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/15/palin-slammed-as-wild-ala_n_499387.html) ;)
But if you see the signs today, you might end up missing the connection to the RNC entirely. That's because the RNC took the unusual step of covering up its involvement. David Weigel of the Washington Independent reports that a black sticker has been placed over the RNC's label at the bottom center of the signs. Apparently, this is a cunning enough stratagem to keep protesters from discovering the RNC's involvement.
don't you have kids? smh that's the dude from Monster's Inc ::)It's Mike! Mike Wazowski!
don't you have kids? smh that's the dude from Monster's Inc ::)
"So this is just like Prague under communist rule?" the Huffington Post asked.
"Oh yeah, it is very, very close," King replied. "It is the nationalization of our liberty and the federal government taking our liberty over. So there are a lot of similarities there."
I SMH so hard every time I read a religio-conservatard comment related to the healthcare debate along the lines of "weeping and praying for my country."These people are just answering the call to defend their corporate lords. Thankfully, these morons are the minority.
If I'm to understand it properly, they are praying that God will prevent health insurance from being made available to those who can't afford it or outright can't get it due to pre-existing conditions?
Sounds exactly like the shit Jesus was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/steve-king-calls-for-revolution-in-the-streets-of-washington-to-stop-health-care-bill.php?ref=fpblgQuote"So this is just like Prague under communist rule?" the Huffington Post asked.
"Oh yeah, it is very, very close," King replied. "It is the nationalization of our liberty and the federal government taking our liberty over. So there are a lot of similarities there."
the nationalization of our liberty?
what the fuck does that even mean?
one good buzzword tacked on to one bad buzzword
it's like watching management talk
I SMH so hard every time I read a religio-conservatard comment related to the healthcare debate along the lines of "weeping and praying for my country."
If I'm to understand it properly, they are praying that God will prevent health insurance from being made available to those who can't afford it or outright can't get it due to pre-existing conditions?
Sounds exactly like the shit Jesus was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount.
Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Mich, responded sharply to White House officials touting a letter representing 59,000nuns that was sent to lawmakers urging them to pass the health care bill.
The conservative Democrat dismissed the action by the White House saying, “When I’m drafting right to life language, I don’t call up the nuns.” He says he instead confers with other groups including “leading bishops, Focus on the Family, and The National Right to Life Committee.”
Noted conservative lunatic Representative John Shadegg tied himself into knots yesterday on MSNBC trying to attack the health care bill- his premise was that it was all a big give away to the health insurance companies, and that they kept the public option from being in the bill. David Schuster actually got him to say that he wanted Medicare for all, which is hilarious.
Greenwald's actually being pretty disingenuous throughout that column.
His writing on the health care bill has been way, way below the standards he's set writing about the federal government's detainment and torture policies.
Noted conservative lunatic Representative John Shadegg tied himself into knots yesterday on MSNBC trying to attack the health care bill- his premise was that it was all a big give away to the health insurance companies, and that they kept the public option from being in the bill. David Schuster actually got him to say that he wanted Medicare for all, which is hilarious.
Hold on
"bill is a big givaway to insurers. At least we took the public option out!"
that makes no sense :lol
Here you go:
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/republican-congressman-i-would-support-single-payer.php
Pretty funny stuff.
Congressman Shadegg believes health insurance companies should have to compete for our business as individual consumers. Forcing them to compete, even through a public option, would be better than an individual mandate which will not work.
Amanpour Taking 'This Week' Job On ABC
Christina Bellantoni | March 18, 2010, 3:37PM
Longtime CNN foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour will become the new anchor on ABC's political Sunday Show "This Week," the network announced this afternoon. She replaces former host George Stephanopoulos, who joined ABC's "Good Morning America" show.
In an email, ABC News president David Westin told the network's staff that Amanpour will begin in August. "A highly respected journalist recognized around the world for her reporting, she brings to her new position a wealth of experience and knowledge, as well as a deep commitment to bringing news of the world to the American people," Westin wrote.
The network also posted the details here.
Amanpour's CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer tweeted his congratulations. "I want to wish Christiane Amanpour all the best as she gets ready to leave CNN for ABC News," he wrote.
ABC's White House correspondent Jake Tapper will remain as the interim "This Week" host until she begins.
Did I just slip into a dreamland where we can have nice things?QuoteAmanpour Taking 'This Week' Job On ABC
Christina Bellantoni | March 18, 2010, 3:37PM
Longtime CNN foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour will become the new anchor on ABC's political Sunday Show "This Week," the network announced this afternoon. She replaces former host George Stephanopoulos, who joined ABC's "Good Morning America" show.
In an email, ABC News president David Westin told the network's staff that Amanpour will begin in August. "A highly respected journalist recognized around the world for her reporting, she brings to her new position a wealth of experience and knowledge, as well as a deep commitment to bringing news of the world to the American people," Westin wrote.
The network also posted the details here.
Amanpour's CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer tweeted his congratulations. "I want to wish Christiane Amanpour all the best as she gets ready to leave CNN for ABC News," he wrote.
ABC's White House correspondent Jake Tapper will remain as the interim "This Week" host until she begins.
Mandark, even if he's wrong about the actual procedure of reconciliation, his thesis on a number of Dems, including Obama himself, not wanting to actually support the PO, and just put on a show isn't too far off the mark, is it?
What a farce this whole process has been. I've become completely disenchanted with public office as a result, rapidly leaning towards the apathy my brother and many of his peers have for government.
nah, dems are fucked. just a question of how much bleeding they'll do. I don't see how they don't lose at least 20 seats in the house, and a couple senate seats. but overall they'll probably keep control in both
Would you agree that republicans will be coming out due to health care (among other things), whereas independents will be more concerned with the economy?I think some repubs will try to act like they gave a fuck when they inevitably get questioned about how they voted on healtchare reform but everybody's only going to really care about the economy. There's no magic issue that will grab every American's vote but people most likely won't trust themselves to vote based on healthcare reform from 6 months ago since they probably will have forgotten most of the facts.
Clyburn: I heard people saying things today I've not heard since Mar 15th, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus.http://twitter.com/RussertXM_NBC/status/10789565455
so is this shit passing? Stooge on GAF seems to be confident.
I'm actually really impressed that a bunch of white crackers have the cojones to toss around the N word in DC., shouldn't at least some of them have been vicously murdered by the majority black population of the town they shoved aside to protest improved medical care for America? Hell, I'm white and I would have felt justified turning a fire hose on the crowd, just for irony's sake.QuoteClyburn: I heard people saying things today I've not heard since Mar 15th, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus.http://twitter.com/RussertXM_NBC/status/10789565455
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/tea-partiers-call-lewis-nr-frank-ft-at-capitol-hill-protest.php?ref=fpb
Keeping it classy
The Tea Party people represent the heart and soul of America!
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/pelos-no-separate-vote-for-stupak.phpso is this shit passing? Stooge on GAF seems to be confident.pretty sure it's gonna happen at this point. preferably without having to get Stupak and his last couple dead enders on board, cause fuck that dude.
House Democratic leadership has apparently told Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) to go take a hike--and they'll move forward without him, or any other anti-abortion Dems threatening to switch their votes from 'yes' to 'no.'
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/pelos-no-separate-vote-for-stupak.phpso is this shit passing? Stooge on GAF seems to be confident.pretty sure it's gonna happen at this point. preferably without having to get Stupak and his last couple dead enders on board, cause fuck that dude.QuoteHouse Democratic leadership has apparently told Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) to go take a hike--and they'll move forward without him, or any other anti-abortion Dems threatening to switch their votes from 'yes' to 'no.'
I haven't been to church in 5 months due to the absolute hostility and distinguished mentally-challenged during homilies. The catholic church has been forcing the 'kill the bill' narrative down our throats. Absolutely disgusting how much an agenda these people have. Then they go and rape little children.
Does the Senate have to scrounge up 60 votes to pass the House's changes, or are they going to do that by reconciliation?
I haven't been to church in 5 months due to the absolute hostility and distinguished mentally-challenged during homilies. The catholic church has been forcing the 'kill the bill' narrative down our throats. Absolutely disgusting how much an agenda these people have. Then they go and rape little children.
Where do you live? I've never been to a Catholic church that opposed government aid to the poor. But I'm in NY
Does the Senate have to scrounge up 60 votes to pass the House's changes, or are they going to do that by reconciliation?
Reconciliation. And by my understanding, the President can go ahead and sign the shitty Senate bill into law as soon as the House passes it, then can sign the changes after the Senate passes them through reconciliation.
Suck it down, 'pubs. SUCK. IT. DOWN.
I go to HuffPost: huge-ass pro-HC picture, Dems = Saints etc.
So I go to Drudge: typical anti-HC picture, Reps = Saviours etc.
Is there any place for non-biased US political news on the internet?
I go to HuffPost: huge-ass pro-HC picture, Dems = Saints etc.
So I go to Drudge: typical anti-HC picture, Reps = Saviours etc.
Is there any place for non-biased US political news on the internet?
As soon as health care passes, the American people will see immediate benefits. The legislation will:
Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
Require plans to cover an enrollee's dependent children until age 26;
Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.
By enacting these provisions right away, and others over time, we will be able to lower costs for everyone and give all Americans and small businesses more control over their health care choices.
the BEST BEST part is not having to endure cheeb's triumphalism over a totally pyrrhic victory -- the bill sucks ass as far as real reform goes, with its only upside being the blown minds of teabaggers and maybe ending recission
I know exactly what you mean. After the vote went down, I went outside and looked at the sky. I had the thought this this wasn’t a sky over America anymore, and there is no America now, and it felt like America just disappeared into the night’s sky, and now I was standing on someone else’s land, someone else’s home, and I could never go home again.
I will forever look at others as strangers, wondering, “Whose side were you on the night it all disappeared?”
This is the night that Ben Franklin feared when he replied to the question as to what they, the founders had given us, “A republic, if you can hold it.” We failed. We failed to stop the media from destroying George Bush to the point that America thirsted for Democrat rule. The media started the Reichstag fire, and we stood by without even lunging for a water hose
David Brooks: But I persist in the belief that government is more fundamentally messed up than ever in my lifetime. Barack Obama campaigned offering a new era of sane government. And I believe he would do it if he had the chance. But he has been so sucked into the system that now he stands by while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talks about passing health care via “deem and pass” — a tricky legislative device in which things get passed without members having the honor or the guts to stand up and vote for it.
Deem and pass? Are you kidding me? Is this what the Revolutionary War was fought for? Is this what the boys on Normandy beach were trying to defend? Is this where we thought we would end up when Obama was speaking so beautifully in Iowa or promising to put away childish things?
Yes, I know Republicans have used the deem and pass technique. It was terrible then. But those were smallish items. This is the largest piece of legislation in a generation and Pelosi wants to pass it without a vote. It’s unbelievable that people even
...
Either this whole city has gone insane or I have or both. But I’m out here on the ledge and I’m not coming in the window. In my view this is no longer about health care. It’s just Democrats wanting to pass a bill, any bill, and shredding anything they have to in order to get it done. It’s about taking every sin the Republicans committed when they were busy being corrupted by power and matching it with interest.
Looming over all is the biggest risk for the Democrats. Albeit in a worthy cause, Obama has broken faith with American voters. He promised post-partisan leadership. He promised to moderate the warring tribes on Capitol Hill, and strive for common-sense, centrist solutions. Then, on this epic issue, he allied himself with--in fact, subordinated himself to--liberal Democrats in Congress. With help, to be sure, from a rabidly partisan Republican party, he has divided the country more deeply than ever. And he has pushed through a far-reaching measure that country does not want. In November we will find out what, if anything, it will cost his party and his presidency.
Calling it now. The Dems are barely going to lose any seats this fall. This bill will become far more popular now that the vote is done and the smear campaign is over.
so what's next? immigration reform?
yes, but i think it would be hilarious from the casket blowing perspective.
on sunday, there was a pretty large march for immigration reform in dc.
Not to be all Doubting Thomas (especially since I totally support any kind of healthcare reform in this country, even though I am hoping this is just a stepping stone to single-payer)... but are there any accurate breakdowns on where the gov't is getting the money for this?spoiler (click to show/hide)Yes, I need some ammo against a fiscal conservative buddy of mine, who works as an accountant at PWC.[close]
so what's next? immigration reform?
(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/5496/slide_5496_74979_large.jpg)
wtf :lol
Isn't Dodd leading the charge for banking reform a total joke, though?
Obama said he would do everything in his power to forge a bipartisan consensus on immigration reform this year.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35973932/ns/politics/
Is this true or just right-wing FUD:QuoteA high earning physician told me his tax load will increase by $100,000 per year when this bill is fully implemented.
But former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich said Obama and the Democrats will regret their decision to push for comprehensive reform. Calling the bill "the most radical social experiment . . . in modern times," Gingrich said: "They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years" with the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
Blond argues that over the past generation we have witnessed two revolutions, both of which liberated the individual and decimated local associations. First, there was a revolution from the left: a cultural revolution that displaced traditional manners and mores; a legal revolution that emphasized individual rights instead of responsibilities; a welfare revolution in which social workers displaced mutual aid societies and self-organized associations.
...
The effort to liberate individuals from repressive social constraints didn’t produce a flowering of freedom; it weakened families, increased out-of-wedlock births and turned neighbors into strangers. In Britain, you get a country with rising crime, and, as a result, four million security cameras.
I just find it funny that everyone seems oblivious to the fact or is too afraid to admit that the Tea Party is fueled by thinly veiled racism.
turned neighbors into strangers
I just find it funny that everyone seems oblivious to the fact or is too afraid to admit that the Tea Party is fueled by thinly veiled racism.
I just find it funny that everyone seems oblivious to the fact or is too afraid to admit that the Tea Party is fueled by thinly veiled racism.
well, who shapes the talking points?
Yea there's no public option but it's not like insurance companies are breaking out the champagne for this bill either. They know the jig is up soon.
well, who shapes the talking points?
jews
NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - Shares of Medicaid insurers, hospital companies and even drugmakers rose on Monday as many investors concluded that passage of landmark U.S. healthcare legislation will add millions of new paying patients.
The S&P Health Care Sector index .GSPA was up nearly 1 percent on Monday, outpacing the broader market, after the U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval to a sweeping overhaul late on Sunday night. [ID:nN22144256]
Shares of hospital companies such as Community Health Systems (CYH.N) and health insurers such as Amerigroup (AGP.N) that focus on Medicaid plans for the poor led the increases. Analysts expect those companies to benefit as the reform package extends coverage to 32 million Americans.
Politics seems like wrestling to me at this point. The Republicans enjoy playing the heel, but behind the stage, both Democrats and Republicans are best friends. Both are owned by corporate interests - this watered down health care reform bill is evidence of just that.
All this red state/blue state nonsense is less about substance and trying to fight for particular ideologies, but rather manufactured noise created to widen the rift and keep people oblivious to the fact neither party really wants to do anything to help their actual constituencies.
Obama has said he'd support immigration reform, no clue what that would entail.
I went through hell to get my wife here.
"Well, he should have had insurance," I can hear some right wing asshole out there saying. Yeah, he shoulda. Except, even if he'd had the money to buy a policy, no insurance company would ever have issued one for him. He's had a pre-existing condition since childhood.didn't the pubs agree with the democrats on pre-existing conditions?
Update: Lawrence O'Donnell on "Countdown" just reported that the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled against the GOP on what they thought would be their "silver bullet" argument, the impact of the excise tax on Social Security revenues.
http://www.gop.com/firepelosi/
That is on the official website of the Republican National Committee. Gotta love the Satanic flames around Pelosi. :-\
I have never seen conservatives and liberals so divided . . . in beliefs, not values. On the one hand, there are people like the TNR crew, and Jonathan Bernstein, Andrew's guest-blogger, who seem to think that this it's the next best thing to a done deal. Meanwhile, all the conservatives and libertarians I know think that it's pretty much hopeless, because Pelosi can't get it through an increasingly rebellious House. To our jaded eyes it looks as if everyone who can is looking for an excuse not to vote for a bill that is unpopular with their constituents.
The opinions on both sides seem so confident, and so incompatible, that one group of people is clearly borderline delusional. I don't see how they can be right--even if passing health care makes the party better off (I'm doubtful), it does not improve the fortunes of members in conservative districts who do not get much mileage out of their affiliation with the Democratic Party (and will get even less mileage if they are seen as enabling unpopular legislation).
But of course, borderline delusional people don't think they're delusional, or else they wouldn't be delusional. So there you are: either it's a done deal, or it's dead. There's no longer much middle ground in between.
I think she's pretty cute, personally.
true story. one of my friends used to date her.
she was bug fuck crazy
i knew she worked at the economist and she blogged under the name jane galt. but i never put the connection together until just now with your post.
true story. one of my friends used to date her.
she was bug fuck crazy
i knew she worked at the economist and she blogged under the name jane galt. but i never put the connection together until just now with your post.
Haha, that's awesome. I feel validated to hear she was crazy, which is probably wrong on my part.
Always got the sense that Yglesias, Klein, et al treated her with kid gloves cause they had something of a crush on her.
If I don't want to acquire health insurance, all I have to do is die.
Fact is, a lot of the things that would cause you to need medical care aren't really your fault. No one's personal health is an island. If you catch a communicable disease and need medical care, that's not really your fault. If you were born with some kind of condition, that's not your fault. If you get cancer because of toxins/chemicals/radiation in your workplace or the environment, that's not really your fault. If you get hit by a car or if you're involved in an accident in any way other than being the at-fault driver... you see where this is going. It's pretty easy to see that health care funding should come from the society, not from the individual.Oh man, I definitely agree on the fast food/soda tax. If we're taxing things like alcohol and tobacco because they're bad and we're trying to discourage it, then we should do the same for fast food. That shit is horrible and everyone knows it. The only logistical problem is what is considered fast food? Anything with a drive thru? Then what about places like Five Guys? Anything that serves pre-cooked/frozen food? What about places like Shipley Donuts? Or Denny's and Applebee's? Or how about those god-awful Hungry Man meals? In reality, it's really just too difficult to implement.
Granted there are things that make you more of a health risk, and obviously there should be ways of extracting additional revenue from those things. Smokers and drinkers already pay a pretty hefty tax on their indulgences. I'd be in favor of a fast-food and soda tax as well.
In any case, one way or another, everyone in society is going to pay for people's health care. This can be achieved through a taxpayer funded, government run system; a system like the one we're about to implement in the U.S., or you can just let people wait until their conditions deteriorate to the point where they need emergency-room care, and then let everyone who does pay for medical care subsidize these people.
Either way, the notion that every single person in a country should be responsible for his/her own medical care is pretty outdated and reeks of social Darwinism and a Randian-level of disconcern for one's fellow man.
:lol :lol :lol @ :15
[youtube=560,345]0DtwkTS9mq8[/youtube]
Palmer then goes out to make a statement to the press, deeming that the threat is over. He shakes hands with many of the onlookers, one of whom happens to be Mandy, a woman hired in Day 1 to assassinate Palmer. She slips a deadly virus into his hand, and he collapses to the ground, panting.
I have a feeling that most of these undocumented workers will lose their jobs if they take citizenship. Employers will have to pay them minimum wage which is more than they get paid now.
Do employers have to pay taxes on illegals? Or is everything under the book?
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is no longer.
The Arizona-based border watch group that burst onto the national scene in 2005 sent an email to its members this week announcing the corporation has dissolved.
The group’s president, Carmen Mercer, of Tombstone, said she and the board’s two other directors voted to end the group’s five-year run because they were worried her recent “call to action” would attract the wrong people to the border.
On March 16, Mercer sent out an e-mail urging members to come to the border “locked, loaded and ready” and urged people to bring “long arms.” She proposed changing the group’s rules to allow members to track illegal immigrants and drug smugglers instead of just reporting the activity to the Border Patrol.
“We will forcefully engage, detain, and defend our lives and country from the criminals who trample over our culture and laws,” she wrote in the March 16 e-mail.
Mercer said she received a more feverish response than she expected — 350 personal e-mails she said — and decided the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps couldn’t shoulder the responsibility and liability of what could occur, she said.
“People are ready to come lock and loaded and that’s not what we are all about,” Mercer said. “It only takes one bad apple to destroy everything we’ve done for the last eight years.”
The group formed as Civil Homeland Defense in 2002 and later became the Minuteman Project in April 2005. The named changed again to Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
To read more, click on the Border Boletín link in the related stories box at top left.
Read more in tomorrow's Arizona Daily Star
I'd be down with this if it was a one-time thing and came along with stricter immigration enforcement in the future.
Republicans think that anyone who can't get a job in a recession (number of people>number of jobs) has a social responsibility to start a small business. The unemployed have only themselves to blame for not risking a 9/10 failure rate.
What is your stance on this, exactly? That anyone who supports enforcement of immigration laws is a selfish prick?
Yeah, this is why I didn't want to play Internet Debate Club on this. Nobody in the world wants to hear that their beliefs are inconsistent, dumb, or selfish and 99% of the time the cognitive dissonance is resolved by deciding the other people are meanies and they don't know what a swell guy you really are deep down.
Your politics are pretty selfish and uninformed. Don't get too bent out of shape, though. You're in the majority!
I'm tired but I think he's saying you put a premium on a person getting a first or third world country citizenship based on where their mother's vagina shot them out.
He's saying it because you become enraged at the thought of law enforcement using force to put a stop to drug dealers, but you are ok with law enforcement using "tougher interventions" to prevent people from crossing over a line you can only see a map. If those people are carrying drugs for you to buy later, is it then ok to let them through?
Or because you are willing to "separate the ideal from the process" in the case of murderous drug dealers but unwilling to do so for the people who cross our border every day just trying to find work (but if they are here already then you are ok with it).
Or because you are concerned about an influx of poor people breaking our entitlement system but you are unconcerned about the negative effects of an influx of drug addicts on our entitlement system.
Also on the last page you said you're not an "America is white" guy but you just brought up the language argument. Also on the last page you said you think every country should allow every person to take up residence with no barriers and now you are positioning the opposite argument against am nintenho.
I'm just passing through though.
BREAKING NEWS
msnbc.com news services
updated 2 minutes ago
South Korea is investigating whether a naval ship sinking off the west coast of the peninsula was hit by a torpedo fired by the North.
The 1,500-ton vessel, which had more than 100 people on board, started sinking between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. local time (8 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET) near the island of Baengnyeong in the Yellow Sea. There were unconfirmed reports it had already sunk.
South Korean broadcaster SBS said many sailors were feared dead. A rescue operation was under way.
(http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~ms322801/evilbore/gundamspy.jpg)
He's saying it because you become enraged at the thought of law enforcement using force to put a stop to drug dealers, but you are ok with law enforcement using "tougher interventions" to prevent people from crossing over a line you can only see a map. If those people are carrying drugs for you to buy later, is it then ok to let them through?
Or because you are willing to "separate the ideal from the process" in the case of murderous drug dealers but unwilling to do so for the people who cross our border every day just trying to find work (but if they are here already then you are ok with it).
Or because you are concerned about an influx of poor people breaking our entitlement system but you are unconcerned about the negative effects of an influx of drug addicts on our entitlement system.
Also on the last page you said you're not an "America is white" guy but you just brought up the language argument. Also on the last page you said you think every country should allow every person to take up residence with no barriers and now you are positioning the opposite argument against am nintenho.
I'm just passing through though.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/palin-everyone-here-today-supporting-john-mccain-we-are-all-part-of-that-tea-party-movement.php?ref=fpb
I wonder what McCain is thinking as she rambles on
intellectually, i really dislike the compulsory element of it. prgamatically, i am unsure how this can be implemented well. we shall see!
. But how can the anti-weed groups shape the argument? They can't say it's any worse than other substances that most Americans have legally consumed.
Eh, well do you remember any links to the studies because I want to read through them. I can totally see a mentally ill person turning to drugs though so it's relevant if it's any different than alcohol consumption and mentally ill people, otherwise it is about as definitive as saying being homeless makes you mentally ill.. But how can the anti-weed groups shape the argument? They can't say it's any worse than other substances that most Americans have legally consumed.There are plenty of studies that shows links of use to schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. You can say that it is no worse than other legal drugs, but those drugs do not trigger underlying psychosis through casual use.
That's one way to attack it, but I think most Americans think of weed as a safe drug and probably wouldn't respond to it (or change their opinion on it).
I was a heavy user after high school until I was about 23 ... but I would vote against it.
While "a study says" is far from definitive, I'm pretty sure the researchers knew to control for whether the person was already diagnosed with a mental disorder.I don't doubt the researchers' competence but I do doubt how objectively a journalist would report the story.
Eh, well do you remember any links to the studies because I want to read through them. I can totally see a mentally ill person turning to drugs though so it's relevant if it's any different than alcohol consumption and mentally ill people, otherwise it is about as definitive as saying being homeless makes you mentally ill.. But how can the anti-weed groups shape the argument? They can't say it's any worse than other substances that most Americans have legally consumed.There are plenty of studies that shows links of use to schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. You can say that it is no worse than other legal drugs, but those drugs do not trigger underlying psychosis through casual use.
That's one way to attack it, but I think most Americans think of weed as a safe drug and probably wouldn't respond to it (or change their opinion on it).
I was a heavy user after high school until I was about 23 ... but I would vote against it.
Since it would be tough to visualize your entire post history, I think they'd use a pullback shot showing the main character spooning a Neytiri love pillow, going out through the window and revealing a world that looked completely different from the one depicted up to this point in the film, accompanied by a mournful and slightly disconcerting cello score.
You are really losing your edge. I had hoped to argue against the real Mandark, not this lazy, half-assed version of you.
You've annihilated enough people to know how it's done. Even if a guy makes the most self-contradicting, convoluted post ever, you can't just pre-assume annihilation. You have to actually do the work.
Furthermore, do you not see how ludicrous it is to argue against my stance on illegal immigration using almost exclusively my stance on the legalization of drugs? Imagine for a moment that I was either completely against drugs, or I had never made any posts on the matter, and you had no idea what my stance on drugs was. What would you say to me then? Answer that question and you'll have made a real argument for the first time in this debate.
QuoteI'm just passing through though.And getting completely destroyed.
Since it would be tough to visualize your entire post history, I think they'd use a pullback shot showing the main character spooning a Neytiri love pillow, going out through the window and revealing a world that looked completely different from the one depicted up to this point in the film, accompanied by a mournful and slightly disconcerting cello score.
You've annihilated enough people to know how it's done. Even if a guy makes the most self-contradicting, convoluted post ever, you can't just pre-assume annihilation. You have to actually do the work.
also, rush :rock
libertarians, jews, aging hipsters, and weeboos unite against triumph under the banner of prog rock :usa
come, join us in the court of crimson king, hippie
intellectually, i really dislike the compulsory element of it. prgamatically, i am unsure how this can be implemented well. we shall see!
You know, sometimes I wonder why exactly GS hasn't ever caught on that when like EVERYONE BUT YOU is saying the same exact thing, perhaps it's you and your perception of reality that aren't quite jiving with how things really are. But then I remember that he's really into prog rock and it all makes sense!
yeah, i think jd has elves nailed dead-to-rights, and i'd like to thank both him and triumph for saving us from the gruesome tragedy that is green shinobi's last n posts in this thread
I'm really sure the mob-ee could be making his points better.
You teed off on my face, Viscen? ::)
None of what you said attempted to address my stance on illegal immigration AT ALL. You're a fucking joke, man.
can someone take Old Yeller out back to the shed already?
Yeah, Viscen's schtick is getting pretty tired, isn't it?
I watched. :ninjaWould you choke her if she wanted it?
I watched. :ninjaWould you choke her if she wanted it?
Who's talking about drug use or legalization? We were talking about your views on the use of "tougher interventions" in police activity. But no one really cares anymore I don't think.
Who's talking about drug use or legalization? We were talking about your views on the use of "tougher interventions" in police activity. But no one really cares anymore I don't think.
No, you're just contradicting yourself left and right and making your self-applied tag look fucking stupid beyond belief, but you're right, no one cares. I'm done talking about this shit. If anyone wants to actually talk about immigration, I'd be game.
Tea Parties are going broke.
the market works
Tea Parties are going broke.
the market works
Tea Parties are going broke.
the market works
For realsies? What link do you have?
Tea Parties are going broke.Not only that, they are affecting their communities too:
the market works
But Texas can only get those seats, and the congressional clout that comes with it, if Texans stand up to be counted. Any conservative revolt would only reduce the representation in conservative areas of the state, such as rural Texas and the outer rings of suburbs surrounding its largest cities.
Loss of seats and money
What's more, an under-count in Texas could cost the state more than just representation.
For every Texan missed, the state will lose an estimated $12,000 over the next decade in federal funding for transportation, agriculture, health, education, and housing, said Frances Deviney, director of Texas Kids Count, a nonpartisan group in Austin.
Deviney says Texas could lose “hundreds of millions of dollars in lost opportunities” because of uncounted residents.
“We've got that hard-to-count element, along with these fringe (anti-government) groups that are advocating resistance,” she said. “They think they are hurting the government. They are really hurting themselves and their communities.”
it's not about race
it's about making certain that people call in on the right line
was kinda expecting/hoping for the obvious coon-span instead of the boring black-span
Even now I think he self-describes as an independent libertarian.
The thing I can't get over with Reynolds is how fucking stupid he always comes off as. How is he a law professor?
Last time I looked, wanting to start a civil war (insane as it is) was not a crime
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/is_america_yearning_for_fascism_20100329/ -- a bit OMG DOOMSDAY but some good points nonethelessMeh. It's easy to say that both parties are of the same corrupt system. Except that it's clearly been defined over the past 30 years that Democrats are willing to tackle pressing social issues while republicans just care about lining their rich buddies' wallets. The enlargement of corporate welfare by the Dem's at least has a positive social effect whereas repubs hold obvious contempt toward the ~90% of Americans.
Remember during the Bush administration when something like treason was considered a bad thing? No? Well, neither do these guys. (http://firedoglake.com/2010/03/29/in-the-wake-of-arrests-in-three-states-right-wingers-rush-to-defend-terror-suspects-criticize-fbi/)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/is_america_yearning_for_fascism_20100329/ -- a bit OMG DOOMSDAY but some good points nonetheless
Remember during the Bush administration when something like treason was considered a bad thing? No? Well, neither do these guys. (http://firedoglake.com/2010/03/29/in-the-wake-of-arrests-in-three-states-right-wingers-rush-to-defend-terror-suspects-criticize-fbi/)
The polls only supplement the key indicator, which is the tone of the rhetoric coming from the right. It's unsettling just how alienated this entire segment of the population is. I don't think past economic recessions (or even depressions) have produced this kind of vitriol and distrust in our modern day institutions (although I'd be happy to be proven wrong).
At the moment it's just not nearly enough people to generate a real threat, which is why I think the author is a bit more alarmed then he really needs to be. The economy is slowly recovering, and is likely to continue to do so, and that will calm things down alot. And hopefully in a couple decades we'll look back and see all this as a bunch of bigoted old fogies mourning the end of their generation.
But yeah, I'm totally down with a New Left, if it comes to that.
I think the guy somehow mixed up freedom of speech with secession. and typed that out and saw nothing wrong with it.QuoteLast time I looked, wanting to start a civil war (insane as it is) was not a crimedot dot dot
I'm down with a new left too. But I think the whole situation is overblown. I'm kinda a reductionist, so all I'm seeing is a bunch of folks unhappy with a black man telling them what to do. They also need a scapegoat for the economic downturn. They have no justifiable rationale to scourn him, so they get spoon fed all the tea bagger talking points and run with it. In their minds its the closest thing they have for legitimising their irrational hatred when its out in public.
weird.jpgThey are right though.
The polls only supplement the key indicator, which is the tone of the rhetoric coming from the right. It's unsettling just how alienated this entire segment of the population is. I don't think past economic recessions (or even depressions) have produced this kind of vitriol and distrust in our modern day institutions (although I'd be happy to be proven wrong).
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/is_america_yearning_for_fascism_20100329/ -- a bit OMG DOOMSDAY but some good points nonetheless
The polls only supplement the key indicator, which is the tone of the rhetoric coming from the right. It's unsettling just how alienated this entire segment of the population is. I don't think past economic recessions (or even depressions) have produced this kind of vitriol and distrust in our modern day institutions (although I'd be happy to be proven wrong).
It's as American as apple pie. (http://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/0014706)
Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW
http://twitter.com/llcoolj/status/11344726168QuoteFox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else & are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palins Show. WOW
:lol
Real American Stories features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe Mr. Smith's interview fit that criteria. However, as it appears that Mr. Smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career.LL Cool J ethered :'(
QuoteReal American Stories features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe Mr. Smith's interview fit that criteria. However, as it appears that Mr. Smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career.LL Cool J ethered :'(
Even if Israel talk has always been slightly skewed by people not wanting to say what they'd say about any other country, goddamn the dumb has ratcheted up lately.
I never thought I'd do this, but:
:bow Bill O'Riley (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/31/bill-oreilly-to-pay-court_n_520669.html) :bow2
I never thought I'd do this, but:
:bow Bill O'Riley (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/31/bill-oreilly-to-pay-court_n_520669.html) :bow2
Check the date this was posted. :smug
I'm going to fucking hurl
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/mixed-message-party-bucking-blanche-lincoln-boasts-of-helping-obama-to-black-audience.php
I can't believe we allow this bullshit in American society.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/business/economy/02garnish.html?hp (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/business/economy/02garnish.html?hp)
Wage garnishment :piss2
American bankruptcy system :piss2
Creditors shitting on poor people who have already paid far more than the original debt in interest :piss2
[youtube=560,345]zNZczIgVXjg [youtube]
:-X
Mitt Romney is the new Ronald Reagan.Well he's got the hair and insubstantial-ness, but lacks the charisma and crappy acting career.
In a tolerant America he would have won the presidency in 08 :'(shit man, we elected a radical Muslim socialist, what more do you want?
Okay, so most what's been used by the stimulus so far was the tax cut portion, right? Actual spending has been very little up til this year where it's supposed to ramp up, no? If that's the case, does this mean that the repubs were right and tax cuts are in fact the answer afterall? :'(
Okay, so most what's been used by the stimulus so far was the tax cut portion, right? Actual spending has been very little up til this year where it's supposed to ramp up, no? If that's the case, does this mean that the repubs were right and tax cuts are in fact the answer afterall? :'(
Anyone?
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_04/023191.php (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_04/023191.php)
ughh
I know these Tea Partier stories are getting to be like "dog bites man", but the stupid still hurts
<PhoenixDark> We've got Shake and Cheebs back, maybe I can lure FoC out of hiding...
never has another face been quite so smug.
Much as the crowd ate up her every word, Palin had apparently missed the real message this electoral season in Arizona: for his three decades in Congress, McCain hadn't gone with the flow enough, at least not enough to satisfy many Arizona Republicans. Why else would his rival, former congressman J.D. Hayworth, be billing himself as "the consistent conservative"? Many of the GOP's most faithful, the kind who vote in primaries despite 115-degree heat, tired long ago of McCain the Maverick, the man who had crossed the aisle to work with Democrats on issues like immigration reform, global warming, and restricting campaign contributions. "Maverick" is a mantle McCain no longer claims; in fact, he now denies he ever was one. "I never considered myself a maverick," he told me. "I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities." Yet here was Palin, urging her fans four times in 15 minutes to send McCain the Maverick back to Washington.
never has another face been quite so smug.
(http://i40.tinypic.com/qq5s95.gif)
Any respect I gained for McCain after his graceful concession speech has gone down the drain since then, but today is like the icing on the cake. Never a maverick? I would LOVE to see him ousted, but too bad it won't happen.
I think Steele is doing a great job as RNC chairmen. I want to see him continue his position and pour yet even more of the GOP's money down a hole.
I love Steele trying to compare himself to President Obama, when in fact Steele isn’t even a grub on the other side of the President’s shoe. And then he plays the race card, while he’s the head of a party packed to the gills with racist detractors of the President. Such is the life of the black Republican: Nobody actually likes you.
Conservatives have a hard time moving on from anything.
Confederate History Month
WHEREAS, April is the month in which the people of Virginia joined the Confederate States of America in a four year war between the states for independence that concluded at Appomattox Courthouse; and
WHEREAS, Virginia has long recognized her Confederate history, the numerous civil war battlefields that mark every region of the state, the leaders and individuals in the Army, Navy and at home who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth in a time very different than ours today; and
WHEREAS, it is important for all Virginians to reflect upon our Commonwealth’s shared history, to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present; and
WHEREAS, Confederate historical sites such as the White House of the Confederacy are open for people to visit in Richmond today; and
WHEREAS, all Virginians can appreciate the fact that when ultimately overwhelmed by the insurmountable numbers and resources of the Union Army, the surviving, imprisoned and injured Confederate soldiers gave their word and allegiance to the United States of America, and returned to their homes and families to rebuild their communities in peace, following the instruction of General Robert E. Lee of Virginia, who wrote that, “...all should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war and to restore the blessings of peace."; and
WHEREAS, this defining chapter in Virginia’s history should not be forgotten, but instead should be studied, understood and remembered by all Virginians, both in the context of the time in which it took place, but also in the context of the time in which we live, and this study and remembrance takes on particular importance as the Commonwealth prepares to welcome the nation and the world to visit Virginia for the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Civil War, a four-year period in which the exploration of our history can benefit all;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert McDonnell, do hereby recognize April 2010 as CONFEDERATE HISTORY MONTH in our COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.
http://www.theonion.com/video/man-attempts-to-assassinate-obama-but-not-because,17220/whoops. Sorry man.
Or honoring the Confederacy
http://slate.me/b5phTa
The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them.
If the dude is in fact organizing and participating in attacks on the US ("in fact" being the key term here) then is it really that outrageous for him to be put on some CIA hit-list?Yes. In fact being the key term, because in fact is determined in a court of law. US citizens get a trial, period.
but this isn't quite the same as kidnapping random Muslims in the middle of the night and holding them in some secret prison where they do god know what to them just because a neighbor reported that they might, in fact, be dirty stinking terrorists.
I would think the existence of evidence would make one seem like a reasonable course of action, while the other is basically up to the whims of the officials involved and word-of-mouth more than anything. I have to assume there's some evidence out there to support them putting this dude on a hit-list; if there's not then they have no reason to target him, and should be taken to task for it. I'm not saying I think the dude deserves to be killed, but rather if the evidence is out there which unquestionably paints him as a dangerous extremist who can do damage to his "fellow citizens", then snuffing him out isn't the worst thing in the world. It's a difference between one being a known criminal with influence and the ability to hurt us, while the other is arrested and, perhaps, tortured simply because one of his neighbors pointed a finger at him.There's no rational argument for the Executive branch having carte blance to murder US citizens.
Even if the dude is a known criminal organizing and participating in attacks on "his own country"? Again I'm just basing this off accusations and what have you, but if they are indeed true then I see no reason why we shouldn't be doing something to stop people like him. It's not like this is one step away from them being able to murder your grandmother because she's wasting too many tax dollars or something.Even if. We don't do summary executions for known criminals, we put them on trial.
I think the way of stopping him from these is attacks is arresting him, right? I mean, if there is sufficient evidence to kill him, then shouldn't there be sufficient evidence to put him on trial and convict him?No doubt. But this particular guy is hiding in Sudan or some other God awful hell hole, even if we knew where he was it would be a royal pain to capture him, and there can be no trial in his absence. So it's either let him be or launch a costly, dangerous ground mission to capture him.
Would it be possible to revoke his citizenship, then? I admit I'm not too clear on the details surrounding this, but after scanning both articles I really don't see anything to get up in arms about. Yes, it might be unconstitutional, and yes I agree the guy deserves a trial; have they tried any real course of action previously and failed?The realest course of action: this dude is ON the hit list. This isn't a theoretical hit list. It's a real hit list. Presumably, if we do figure out where he is one of these days there will be tactical course of action streaking towards him pretty quickly.
bu bu bu think of all the good things nazis did
In 100 years we will celebrate Tea Party month in the bombed-out remains of post-nuclear-holocaust America.
how come when blacks have a history month that's ok but when confederates have a history month it's "racist." double standards like this continue to discriminateCelebrating a race that has had a lot of hardship over American history is a little different than celebrating an illegal unconstitutional secessionist movement one would imagine.
how come when blacks have a history month that's ok but when confederates have a history month it's "racist." double standards like this continue to discriminateCelebrating a race that has had a lot of hardship over American history is a little different than celebrating an illegal unconstitutional secessionist movement one would imagine.
Why not have northern states create a national union month to celebrate the joy of being part of the union and sticking loyal to the federal government? Seems less silly seeing how they are the ones who won after all.
Even if the dude is a known criminal organizing and participating in attacks on "his own country"? Again I'm just basing this off accusations and what have you, but if they are indeed true then I see no reason why we shouldn't be doing something to stop people like him.
Even if the dude is a known criminal organizing and participating in attacks on "his own country"? Again I'm just basing this off accusations and what have you, but if they are indeed true then I see no reason why we shouldn't be doing something to stop people like him.
Trials are how we determine whether someone has committed a crime or not. That's the entire point.
I want to go for the jugular and have a Sherman's March Appreciation Month.
In 100 years we will celebrate Tea Party month in the bombed-out remains of post-nuclear-holocaust America.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9KjQUSZXqE[/youtube]All I can see is that repeated shot of the hot girl shaking her ass around. :drool
(http://images.politico.com/global/news/100408_obama_medvedev_sign_treaty_ap_605.jpg)
Never knew Obama is left-handed :o :o :o
how come when blacks have a history month that's ok but when confederates have a history month it's "racist." double standards like this continue to discriminate
Sarah Palin's speech today made me gag. :-XAre you still a registered Republican?
i too am a registered republican
i can't wait to primary
Ichi, where did you get this? It is amazing
http://viralpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/coolest-est.jpg
:lol :lol :lol
Are you part of the secret society of Hollywood Republicans, Willco?
I did that and stumbled upon this actual real image of younger Obama. :lolIchi, where did you get this? It is amazing
http://viralpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/coolest-est.jpg
:lol :lol :lol
I think I just did a Google image search on "Obama" and "awesome." :lol
Did any of you expect in your lifetime to have a Pres that had photos that were so mad cool. It's kinda weird.
Obama was the nerd. Bill was the cool one.Really, you think this one is the nerdier of these two (both of them when they were in college)? Clinton got lots of pussy but have you seen his taste in women? That negates his player-ways.
Not trying to cultivate a Cult of Personality here, because god knows I have some issues with his Presidency, but anyone acting like Obama isn't the coolest guy in the room is a filthly liar.What about this room :o
I think one of McCains most effective attacks (whether or not it was grounded in reality) was calling Obama out as a "celebrity". Because it automatically underhanded one of Obama's strengths...people seem to be instantly attracted to him and put their trust in him.
Not trying to cultivate a Cult of Personality here, because god knows I have some issues with his Presidency, but anyone acting like Obama isn't the coolest guy in the room is a filthly liar.What about this room :o
(http://www.dolcemag.com/wp-content/gallery/celeb_obama/obama-deniro.jpg)
I think one of McCains most effective attacks (whether or not it was grounded in reality) was calling Obama out as a "celebrity". Because it automatically underhanded one of Obama's strengths...people seem to be instantly attracted to him and put their trust in him.
The greatest irony being that McCain had the ultimate "celebrity" on his ticket as the VP.
Sarah Palin is truly the Paris Hilton of politicians. Obama is more like the George Clooney. :bowThen which one of these is the clooney of this pic ???
Obama was/is older than Clinton was when he took office.By like 1 or 2 years. Not much. Bill Clinton is the same age as George W. Bush.
True story!
I think one of McCains most effective attacks (whether or not it was grounded in reality) was calling Obama out as a "celebrity". Because it automatically underhanded one of Obama's strengths...people seem to be instantly attracted to him and put their trust in him.
The greatest irony being that McCain had the ultimate "celebrity" on his ticket as the VP.
I think one of McCains most effective attacks (whether or not it was grounded in reality) was calling Obama out as a "celebrity". Because it automatically underhanded one of Obama's strengths...people seem to be instantly attracted to him and put their trust in him.
The greatest irony being that McCain had the ultimate "celebrity" on his ticket as the VP.
Republicans - Masters of projection
"I'll take a TV personality over a community organizer any day."
-- Sen. David Vitter (R-LA),
Community Organizer when a republican says it is simply code word for communist. They never really cared about the experience angle outside of implying do you really want to trust the country to a black muslim communist when you have a perfectlly good old white war hero like McCain standing here.
They will always mention the community organizer thing to imply things they could never directly say.
I couldn't believe Palin criticized Obama as a "part-time" Senator in her speech the other day :lol
I couldn't believe Palin criticized Obama as a "part-time" Senator in her speech the other day :lol
Palin tried to make a story, and will probably succeed, out of Obama dismissing her criticism of a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. Palin, in turn, mocked "all that vast nuclear expertise he acquired as a community organizer, a part-time senator, and a candidate for president." Notably, she attacked Obama for accomplishing "nothing to date with Iran or North Korea."The funny thing is nuclear arms reduction was a big thing for him in his 4 years in the senate. He and Richard Luger did a lot work and research into it together. Which I imagine why Luger was the first and to my knowledge only Republican so far to come out and claim he will vote to ratify the treaty. So I imagine yes, he got more experience and knowledge on that issue in his 4 years in the senate than her 2 years of governor of Alaska.
"Don't retreat. Reload!" she said, invoking a slogan that has lately earned her some criticism. The crowd cheered deafeningly as she added, "And that is NOT a call for violence!"
I'd be curious to see what happens to Palin once she loses the MILF/Soccer Mom factor.The new Reagan :bow2
The GOP to groom Elisabeth Hasselbeck?
Hey, I felt it took a lot of balls to criticize Obama's lack of experience and label him as a "part-time senator", when she couldn't even finish her first term as governor of a state with the third lowest population in the union. :lolAnd her reasoning for quitting was basically that the media wouldn't leave her alone and the other side in the state govt. kept investigating stuff she did.
Sarah Palin, the first presidential hopeful to use the experience issue against an incumbent president.
“We know that Sarah Palin has a real problem with history, but this is sad even by her standards,” party spokesman Hari Sevugan said in a statement. “Palin claims that she vetoed Recovery Act dollars to create jobs for Alaskans, but in fact she accepted nearly every single dime.”
Sarah Palin, the first presidential hopeful to use the experience issue against an incumbent president.
Don't forget that he is alienating our allies, aiding our enemies and is a radical socialist! He should be tried for treason, basically!
How is that going to work out when their front runner, Mitt Romney, has to run on the platform that he plans on repealing a health insurance bill that is awfully similar to the one he has in his home state?Someone explain to me why he is somehow the voice of economic policy and experience when he was a 1 term governor who will be out of office for 6 years as of the next election, and of which was long before the economic crisis in 2008 making that 6 years seem more like 60. It's odd.
How is that going to work out when their front runner, Mitt Romney, has to run on the platform that he plans on repealing a health insurance bill that is awfully similar to the one he has in his home state?
For all her talk of folksyness, she's really one of the first post-modern political candidates...objective truth really holds no value for her.
Sarah Palin, the first presidential hopeful to use the experience issue against an incumbent president.
Don't forget that he is alienating our allies, aiding our enemies and is a radical socialist! He should be tried for treason, basically!
Daniel Larison's been blogging (http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2010/04/07/hawks-are-just-embarrassing-themselves/) recently (http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2010/04/08/deterrence-and-disarmament/) about how hawks are engaging in crazier and crazier fearmongering in response to pretty centrist policies from Obama. The same applies to domestic issues too.
It's like FUD isn't just their chief tactic anymore. It's their reason for existing.
Although since embraced by the left, it's important to remember that "reality-based community" was a term first introduced by the right as a pejorative.
Palin spent a lot of time on energy, and the tone was fascinating. Details about the location of oil and natural gas reserves, which got a cooler response from the crowd, were quickly spiced up with jokes.Really, really, Really?
"The administration is locking up even more federal lands that are filled with this God-given, huge reserve," said Palin. The culprit: the "Economic Punishment Agency." Democrats, she said, were not willing to store nuclear waste or build solar panels in the desert. "God forbid, somebody might see it, or a gecko might bump into one."
Almost every white person I encounter now is some supporter for Ron Paul or some shit.
Can someone please tell me about the rise of the libertarian party? Almost every white person I encounter now is some supporter for Ron Paul or some shit.There is no rise. It's all a handful of loud people making it seem like it is. He barely registered at all in the Republican primary in 2008 back when Paul mania as it were was at it's height. Remember FoC's constant predictions of him winning primaries back then?
What a lot of us realized during the Reagan administration, i.e., as it was happening--and what would be made manifest in 1996, when Falwell, Reed, Dobson, and their ilk blessed the candidacy of Bob Dole (R-ADM)--is that the Snake Handling and Ammo Hoarding constituencies of the Republican party would never, ever, understand they were being played. (Though, in fairness, the Second Amendment crowd pretty much gets what it wants legislatively, due both to an historically less penurious approach to divvying up the weekly offering, and the fact that most government officials live far enough away from the automatic weapons fire that they don't give a fuck. Playing that gang involves the same process, though: 1. Read bumper-sticker slogan. 2. Collect donations.) Palin merely (and I emphasize merely) represents the full flowering of the movement: the Played are now the Players, and the fifteen IQ points that might've saved 'em are now gone like a meth-addict's teeth.
Wow. :lol
http://vimeo.com/10803057
American politics must baffle everyone else.I've been following the upcoming U.K. election pretty closely and they are as fucked up as us.
Presidential hopeful and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R), in an interview with a college magazine, said the country shouldn't "experiment" by allowing gay couples to adopt children.http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/huckabee-on-gay-adoption-children-are-not-puppies.php?ref=fpb
"I think this is not about trying to create statements for people who want to change the basic fundamental definitions of family," Huckabee told The Perspective, a magazine at The College New Jersey. "And always we should act in the best interest of the children, not in the seeming interest of the adults."
"Children are not puppies," he said. "This is not a time to see if we can experiment and find out, how does this work?"
Huckabee also compared gay marriage to drug use, incest and polygamy.
"You don't go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal," he said. "That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let's go ahead and accommodate those who want who use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them."
Experiment? What is he talking about? Gay couples have been adopting for a while now and the kids have turned out just as fine as any other kid.QuotePresidential hopeful and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R), in an interview with a college magazine, said the country shouldn't "experiment" by allowing gay couples to adopt children.http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/huckabee-on-gay-adoption-children-are-not-puppies.php?ref=fpb
"I think this is not about trying to create statements for people who want to change the basic fundamental definitions of family," Huckabee told The Perspective, a magazine at The College New Jersey. "And always we should act in the best interest of the children, not in the seeming interest of the adults."
"Children are not puppies," he said. "This is not a time to see if we can experiment and find out, how does this work?"
Huckabee also compared gay marriage to drug use, incest and polygamy.
"You don't go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal," he said. "That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let's go ahead and accommodate those who want who use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them."
:'(
And the same reason we shouldn't accommodate those who think the earth is only 6000 years old.QuotePresidential hopeful and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R), in an interview with a college magazine, said the country shouldn't "experiment" by allowing gay couples to adopt children.http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/huckabee-on-gay-adoption-children-are-not-puppies.php?ref=fpb
"I think this is not about trying to create statements for people who want to change the basic fundamental definitions of family," Huckabee told The Perspective, a magazine at The College New Jersey. "And always we should act in the best interest of the children, not in the seeming interest of the adults."
"Children are not puppies," he said. "This is not a time to see if we can experiment and find out, how does this work?"
Huckabee also compared gay marriage to drug use, incest and polygamy.
"You don't go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal," he said. "That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let's go ahead and accommodate those who want who use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them."
:'(
I honestly can't understand why any reasonably intelligent person would still claim to be a Republican in this day and age. Maybe you agree with some of their ideals (hopefully not all), but the party itself is just such a fucking joke right now. Democrats ain't perfect, either, but at least they aren't willfully being arrogant fucks getting in the way of any positive social progress to score some political points. Any party against public healthcare isn't a party anyone in this country should identify with; how they have taken platforms that essentially say "keep the rich richer, let the corporations have their way, and oh yeah men kissing men is ruining my day make it stop" and gotten millions of people to cosign this bullshit is sickening.
EDIT - And I used to think of myself as moderate, but lately I'm glad to say that I'm strictly liberal just so no one will even mistake me for sympathizing with the Republican party. :punch
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=253PiA7zIl4[/youtube]It's more depressing that Jolie spouts his bullshit as well. Brad Pitt has said he always has arguments with her about Obama because she hates him and thinks he is a socialist. :'(
Jon Voight :rofl I bet this motherfucker has an account on stormfront
I'll give him a pass since Jolie came from his nuts.I am not so sure about that. She may be hot but she shares much of her old mans wacko views.
She's into education and rehabilitation and thinks Obama is all about welfare and handouts. She thinks Obama is really a socialist in disguise.
I can't wait until Republicans across the country start printing their own altered history books, to compete with the "liberal mainstream" versions :rockThey already are. The Texas school board cut out Thomas Jefferson because he wasn't christian :o
[youtube=560,345]F_1U4r8mWXY[/youtube]
It's more depressing that Jolie spouts his bullshit as well. Brad Pitt has said he always has arguments with her about Obama because she hates him and thinks he is a socialist. :'(
Jesus Christ. 2012 isn't gonna be some crazy act of God, it's gonna be fucktards taking shit over and then nuking the whole world into oblivion out of ignorance and stupidity. :'(Eh, there is not much to worry about. These crazy wackos can have a impact in off year elections like 2010 when nobody votes except for old white people but in presidential elections their strategy will backfire, especially when they see it work in off year elections and embrace it even more fully.
an open, tea party militia?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100412/ap_on_re_us/us_tea_party_militia
it begins.
I can't wait until Republicans across the country start printing their own altered history books, to compete with the "liberal mainstream" versions :rock
I'm still not so sure that their strategy will work this year. For like the first time ever, the DNC has got gobs more money to spend then the RNC, and the vulnerable dems might not actually be that vulnerable iffin they're running against Yosemite Sam in every race.
I'd be rather surprised if the elephants make any significant gains this year.
You definitely can't read in 2012 from 2110 necessarily. Not only because of simply time but because of who votes and the media awareness and build up to any presidential election. It's a completely different beast.The media is going to push it hard for 2012 of course. Regardless if the GOP take back either house and it will be painful to listen to.
I don't know why I ever got the impression that The Atlantic was anything of quality.Marc Ambinder is great and Andrew Sullivan can be sometimes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/13/AR2010041303067.html
:violin
Over the weekend, Obama broke with years of protocol and slipped off to a soccer game without the "protective" pool that is always in the vicinity of the president in case the unthinkable occurs. Obama joked about it later to Pakistan's prime minister, saying reporters "were very upset."
Obama wanted to watch his daughter play soccer without the press there snapping pictures the whole time? How dare he.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/13/AR2010041303067.html
:violinQuoteOver the weekend, Obama broke with years of protocol and slipped off to a soccer game without the "protective" pool that is always in the vicinity of the president in case the unthinkable occurs. Obama joked about it later to Pakistan's prime minister, saying reporters "were very upset."
I'm guessing he's talking about the press pool, and if that's the case why do they have to be there in case the "unthinkable" happens? To take pictures? He makes it sound like Obama ditched the secret service, David Palmer style.
The Washington media is nothing but a bunch of spoiled fucking babies.I like how they act like it is protection in case some emergency happens. :lol What they mean is they want a picture of Obama from that moment they can paste on every magazine cover in case of an emergency.
Pit maverick Republican Congressman Ron Paul against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up, and the race is – virtually dead even.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote. Eleven percent (11%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.
Ask the Political Class, though, and it’s a blowout. While 58% of Mainstream voters favor Paul, 95% of the Political Class vote for Obama.
But Republican voters also have decidedly mixed feelings about Paul, who has been an outspoken critic of the party establishment.
You'd think securing loose nuclear material would be the type of bipartisan issue that would go beyond petty politics and into "making the country safer" territory everyone could agree on.
The meeting went so well that the Americans returned to their hotel and exchanged high fives
By Friday, the two presidents set aside the discord underlying those statements. Speaking on the phone, according to an American official, they congratulated themselves on breaking through the mistrust. “If you want something done right,” Mr. Medvedev began in English, and Mr. Obama finished his thought: “you do it yourself.”
I just wish Rasmussen had a syllable I could insert "lol" into :-\
What a clown show
btw, anyone know what's the timetable for the Supreme Court nom?
Probably because he asks some pretty loaded questions. Nate Silver showed Ras polls were rather accurate during the election iirc, so that's not the question.I think its mostly because Scott Rasmussen is openly Republican and the media probably doesn't want to showcase polls that are done by a partisan pollster even if they get a lot elections right.
Most people don't know who Ron Paul is, and putting much clout in a telephone survey of likely voters is rather ridiculous
Probably because he asks some pretty loaded questions. Nate Silver showed Ras polls were rather accurate during the election iirc, so that's not the question.
Most people don't know who Ron Paul is, and putting much clout in a telephone survey of likely voters is rather ridiculous
If you're running a news organization and you tend to cite Rasmussen's polls disproportionately, it probably means that you are biased -- it does not necessarily mean that Rasmussen is biased.http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/01/is-rasmussen-reports-biased.html
haha wtf Jimmy Fallon attacked Rasmussens polling on his late night show. :lolQuoteIf you're running a news organization and you tend to cite Rasmussen's polls disproportionately, it probably means that you are biased -- it does not necessarily mean that Rasmussen is biased.http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/01/is-rasmussen-reports-biased.html
Also he discusses the loaded wording often found in Ras polls. His polls of the 08 election turned out to be rather accurate compared to say, Zogby lol
Crist will easily win? Isn't he down like 30 points or some shit. Kos has been dreaming about Crist switching parties, but Crist pretty much closed that door when he started going full distinguished mentally-challenged fellow on health care.
Poor Meeks. Whoever wins, he loses.
It blows my mind that he's talking about shitcanning medicare/social security and is still up 30% in fucking Florida. That should be ALL Crist talks about. Instead he takes weak pot shots smh
The base votes in the primary not "normal" people though.It blows my mind that he's talking about shitcanning medicare/social security and is still up 30% in fucking Florida. That should be ALL Crist talks about. Instead he takes weak pot shots smh
Honestly most normal people are only really starting to pay attention to this stuff now and going forward. The primary isn't until August which is still a lifetime away. I expect it to get much more nasty and negative as we get closer.
also, Crist has teh gay (closted, of course). And if being gay and republican isn't a liability, then I don't know what is.
you've seen those pics of crist at the college town clubs? Gaay.also, Crist has teh gay (closted, of course). And if being gay and republican isn't a liability, then I don't know what is.
[youtube=560,345]_3FfrxW6qbQ[/youtube]
:teehee
Jim Bunning has apparently endorsed Rand Paul to succeed him as the Senator from Kentucky.
I just found out there's gonna be some Tea Party event in New York City today. I'm seriously considering crashing it. Apparently Lou Dobbs will be there :teehee :hyper
I just found out there's gonna be some Tea Party event in New York City today. I'm seriously considering crashing it. Apparently Lou Dobbs will be there :teehee :hyperYes! Do it and make a hilariously weird sign to carry around.
(http://i44.tinypic.com/106as9f.jpg)
So apparently the protest is happening tonight from 7-9 at the huge post office in midtown:Bring my sign idea :(
(http://www.nytix.com/Blog/newyorkcity/uploaded_images/farley-715904.jpg)
Yeah, I'm probably gonna check it out :D
And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut.
But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.”
Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.
Others could not explain the contradiction.
“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”
Even though more whites are on welfare than teh blackies.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has rounded up 40 signatures on a letter, to be delivered to Democratic leadership, pushing for a compromise package that has pre-cooked bipartisan support, according to a GOP aide. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is the sole Republican who has not signed on yet--but though she's been long viewed as a potential crossover vote, she's decided to oppose the Dodd bill in its current form.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/head-on-collision-republicans-threaten-to-block-debate-on-financial-reform.php?ref=fpblg
"I oppose Senator Dodd's bill," Collins said
Gaborn's not impressed. Not surprisingly.
IIRC Gaborn's gay and think that any incremental progress in LGBT rights is bad because it will make people complacent about lobbying for totally equal rights.
He's also stunningly ignorant of history. Like crazy uninformed. I think Boogie can vouch for this.
Why should the federal executive branch have any say about the visitation policies of a hospital?
Nice.
gotta be a class a bigot to disagree on that
No, I don't.
Why should the federal executive branch have any say about the visitation policies of a hospital?If he's a libertarian why should he be concerned about the gubment giving him rights? :smug
Silly PeeDee, gubments can't give rights.
Quote from: jaydubyaWhy should the federal executive branch have any say about the visitation policies of a hospital?
Why do hospital visitation rights depend on what you do with your dick?
IIRC Gaborn's gay and think that any incremental progress in LGBT rights is bad because it will make people complacent about lobbying for totally equal rights.
He's also stunningly ignorant of history. Like crazy uninformed. I think Boogie can vouch for this.
Here's the other rub. If you grant that president A can dictate this, you grant that president B can dictate the opposite.So President's shouldn't be allowed extend rights to individuals that another President can remove? So basically President's should do....nothing? So FDR shouldn't have guaranteed the elderly the right that they will have a monthly income because a President could theoretically remove this right? Same applies to the right of freedom for slaves implemented by Lincoln. Since the possibility exists a crazy enough President & Congress could reinstate slavery. Basically this could apply to every single right individuals cherish that came about since post-constitution & bill of rights.
IIRC Gaborn's gay and think that any incremental progress in LGBT rights is bad because it will make people complacent about lobbying for totally equal rights.
He's also stunningly ignorant of history. Like crazy uninformed. I think Boogie can vouch for this.
Yeah, he's the idjit that wanted McCain to win because it would, in his estimation, speed up the process of marriage equality. "Something something incrementalism, blah blah blah" or what have you. I also think he's a libertopian, or has those tendencies.
It's almost like he think's we'll get gay marriage if we treat gays badly enough. I find it really odd. Most social changes and acceptance in our society happened incrementally.
Schools weren't desegregated, and blacks weren't given full voting rights soon as the the slaves were freed. I have no idea where in American history his rational has basis.
It's almost like he think's we'll get gay marriage if we treat gays badly enough. I find it really odd. Most social changes and acceptance in our society happened incrementally.
Schools weren't desegregated, and blacks weren't given full voting rights soon as the the slaves were freed. I have no idea where in American history his rational has basis.
Yeah. It's almost like he wants to be subjected to scrutiny and skepticism so he can always have something to point towards for his shortcomings.
NASA is more than a govt program.It is, but think about it. Space travel and advancement being done via privatized businesses rather than on the govt. dime would be what conservatives in theory would prefer, no?
Not really. I think you're putting too much emphasis on text book descriptions of conservatives. NASA's missions have influenced the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans regardless of political ideology. And of course a lot of NASA's technological advancements have influenced domestic and military products.So you are saying they put NASA in the sacred place with the military in which govt. spending is great and should never be cut? I get that, makes sense.
Then there's the whole nationalistic part of things which is right up conservative's alley. Letting China, Russia, etc get ahead of our space programs is not ideal from that perspective.
The only think about that comment that made me take note was the idea that dismantling NASA is some liberal concoction.
I'm not a nerd so this doesn't bother me :smugYou read fantasy books and play WoW. :smug
I'm not a nerd so this doesn't bother me :smug
You read fantasy books and play WoW. :smug
Quote from: jaydubyaWhy should the federal executive branch have any say about the visitation policies of a hospital?
Why do hospital visitation rights depend on what you do with your dick?
the BEST BEST part is not having to endure cheeb's triumphalism over a totally pyrrhic victory -- the bill sucks ass as far as real reform goes, with its only upside being the blown minds of teabaggers and maybe ending recission
Wait how is giving old people social security money as you put it "morally" wrong? Supporting our citizens who are too old to work for an income themselves is morally wrong? Whaaa
When the right accuses liberals of “fascism,” it almost always does so in an effort to obscure its own fascist
proclivities — and it reminds the rest of us just whose footsoldiers are in reality merrily goosestepping
down the national garden path.
Eco identifies a series of traits that sum up the essence of what he calls “Ur-Fascism,” that is, the beast
that has always been with us and will always be. Now, although this piece was written in 1995, let’s see
how many we can recognize today:
The cult of tradition.
[Who are the folks who beat their breasts (and ours) incessantly over the primacy of
‘traditional Judaeo-Christian culture’?]
The rejection of modernism.
[Think ‘feminazis.’ Think attacks on the NEA. Think attacks on multiculturalism.]
Irrationalism.
[G.W. Bush’s anti-intellectualism and illogical, skewed speech are positively celebrated
by the right.]
Action for action’s sake.
[Exactly why are we making war on Iraq, anyway?]
Disagreement is treason.
[“Liberals are anti-American.”]
Fear of difference.
[Again, think of the attacks on multiculturalism, as well as the attacks on Muslims and
Islam generically.]
Appeal to a frustrated middle class.
[See the Red states — you know, the ones who voted for Bush. The ones where
Limbaugh is on the air incessantly.]
Obsession with a plot.
[limbaugh and conservatives have been obsessed with various “plots” by liberals for the
past decade — see, e.g., the Clinton impeachment, and current claims of a “fifth column”
among liberals.]
5
Both live in the world of their own made up fantasies.
what ever happened to the 9/11 nuts? they seemed to have disappeared
Both live in the world of their own made up fantasies.
Yeah, but which actually has the power and influence to change things in this country? :-\
I am literally disgusted that Fox News exists and is broadcast as some sort of news outlet. And it consistently gets the highest ratings of the lot. And I know people who seem to believe that it is truly "fair and balanced" and "reports the news the mainstream liberal media doesn't want you to hear". It's disgusting to think people who buy into that shit are turning around and helping to pass any sort of legislation in this country.
I meant in comparison to other news outlets. This:NBC Nightly News - 8,050,000
FNC – 1,229,000 viewers
CNN – 385,000 viewers
MSNBC – 407,000 viewers
CNBC – 187,000 viewers
HLN – 393,000 viewers
is troubling :'(
A minor blip that can rally people to do shit like the Tea Party protests? It may not be the biggest, but I think it's certainly has the most influence on its audience.Of course it has way more of a influence but you were posting ratings. ;)
That's right, guys. Taxing people with the goal of helping old people not die homeless is morally reprehensible. And this is why libertarians will never win anything. Good stuff, good stuff.
In a republican primary. A closed republican primary.That's right, guys. Taxing people with the goal of helping old people not die homeless is morally reprehensible. And this is why libertarians will never win anything. Good stuff, good stuff.
Dunno dude, a young messican dude is beating the shit out of a nice older white gentlemen on a platform that calls for cutting social security and medicare in fucking Florida
WALLACE: You said, I never considered myself a maverick.
MCCAIN: Well, all I — what I was saying was that I have considered myself a person who’s a fighter. I wouldn’t be around today if I wasn’t a fighter. I fight for the things that I believe in, and sometimes that’s called a maverick. Sometimes that’s called a partisan. And people can draw their own conclusions. I prefer great American myself, but…
WALLACE: So are you running away from the maverick title…
MCCAIN: No, of course not.
WALLACE: … because somehow it indicates that maybe you’re not a true blue conservative?
http://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/12419104794 (http://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/12419104794):rofl
:rofl
(http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/libertarian.png):lol
6:30 AM: Obama awakened by clock radio tuned to NPR’s popular morning drive-time show, Kronsky the Bomb Thrower and His Anarcho-Syndicalist Zoo. “You know what would be fun?” Kronsky quips. “Getting the workers to seize the means of production and execute the blood-sucking capitalist bosses!” “If only,” mutters Obama.
7:30 AM: on way to Oval Office, Obama ducks into private chapel, slipping off shoes and prostrating self while facing Mecca. He chants high-pitched, ululating prayer to Allah in foreign tongue then before leaving, bows before busts of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Saul Alinsky.
7:40 AM: Rahm Emanuel enters Oval Office, gives Obama secret Illuminati handshake, says, “Good morning, Comrade President. The Iranian ambassador is here to discuss his scheme to undermine America’s security.” Obama says, “Show him right in.”
9:05 AM: Snack of sweetened camel milk served with dates, figs, pita and hummus. Then Iranian ambassador exits White House through secret tunnel so Fox News won’t see him.
9:30 AM: House Speaker Pelosi arrives to plot strategy for government takeover of lucrative garbage-collection industry. Obama gives her large suitcase full of cash for bribing Congressmen.
10 AM: Editors of New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker arrive to receive weekly instructions.
11 AM: Daily intelligence briefing by CIA and Pentagon officials on activities of America’s enemies. Bored, Obama does crossword puzzle, then dozes off.
Noon: Lunch with leaders of world gay conspiracy, who lobby Obama to appoint a transsexual to Supreme Court.
2 PM: Quiet ceremony in Rose Garden, where elders of Kikuyu tribe give Obama plaque honoring him as first Kenyan to become President of U.S.
3 PM: Latte with key advisers Al Gore, Michael Moore, Rev. Wright, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton, Bill Ayers.
4 PM: Basketball with White House staffers. Obama’s side allowed to win, as usual.
7 PM: Dinner with family, leaders of Acorn.
9 PM: Obama reads a chapter from Das Kapital for Kids to Sasha, Malia.
10 PM: In private quarters, Obama, Michelle are so moved watching PBS documentary on suffering of poor widows and children of al Qaeda suicide bombers, they decide to make contribution.
11 PM: Bong hits, anal sex, then sleep.
2:25 AM: Succubus enters bedroom, mounts sleeping President and has her way with him while whispering demonic instructions for next day.
He's also stunningly ignorant of history. Like crazy uninformed. I think Boogie can vouch for this.
The gist was "Woodrow Wilson helped cause post-WWI instability by taking a hardline stance at Versailles". Practically verbatim.
The gist was "Woodrow Wilson helped cause post-WWI instability by taking a hardline stance at Versailles". Practically verbatim.
Republicans Mitt Romney and Michael Steele headlined a Republican National Committee fundraiser six days ago at the home of the hedge fund titan at the center of the Security and Exchange Committee's fraud charges against Goldman Sachs.http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0410/Goldman_figure_Paulson_hosted_Romney_Steele_last_week.html (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0410/Goldman_figure_Paulson_hosted_Romney_Steele_last_week.html)
A spokesman for the RNC confirmed the Tuesday evening event at the Manhattan home of John Paulson, who made a fortune betting against the housing market, and whom Goldman is accused of working to structure products sold to unwitting investors.
Paulson appears not to be facing charges. The RNC spokesman declined to comment on the gathering and a Romney spokesman didn't respond to an email on the topic.
Republicans have by and large fought regulations on derivative trading that would dramatically impact the businesses of hedge fund managers like Paulson.
The Goldman charges have sprayed a toxic political cloud out from one of Wall Street's wealthiest corners, raising questions for politicians of both parties, like New York's Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, who raised heavily from Goldman Sachs, and for the recipients of contributions from the politically-active Paulson.
Though many hedge fund managers lean Democratic, Paulson has split his giving, offering maximum six-figure contributions both the the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and to the Republican National Committee. Paulson, ranked 45 on Forbes' list of America's richest individuals, made maximum contributions to the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani in 2008, but has also given to key Democratic senators for the finance industry, including Chris Dodd and Max Baucus.
Paulson hasn't given directly to Schumer, though he maxed out to Schumer's committee. But he did host a fundraiser for the senior New York senator earlier this month, describing him in the invitation as "one of the few members of Congress that has consistently supported the hedge fund industry."
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Charlie Crist said Monday he may quit his GOP primary race and run for the Senate as an independent, his once-promising career threatened by fast-rising conservative opposition.
After weeks of insisting he would stay in the Aug. 24 primary, Crist told The Associated Press in a phone interview he intends to be "very, very thoughtful and deliberate" as he makes up his mind. The governor trails conservative rival Marco Rubio by double-digit margins in public polls after holding a huge lead at the outset.
The race is being closely watched nationally as a test of the strength of the tea party movement vs. more moderate Republicans. Rubio rose from obscurity to a favorite among conservatives with strong support from tea party activists. Crist, a moderate leader in one of the nation's largest states, had been considered a potential GOP presidential or vice presidential nominee.
Crist said he intends to listen to Florida residents as he decides his political future. He must make up his mind by the April 30 deadline to get on the ballot, and he cannot run as an independent if he gambles on the primary and loses.
Rep. Kendrick Meek is the likely Democratic nominee.
Just two years ago, Crist was riding high within the Republican Party, a popular governor on the short list for vice president on the GOP ticket. When Republican Sen. Mel Martinez announced his retirement, Crist was seen as a shoo-in for the job, a possible stepping stone to a presidential run.
But Crist's fortunes were upended by his embrace – literally and figuratively – of President Barack Obama and his $787 billion stimulus package along with the state's economic woes and the strong challenge from the right.
Now top Republicans are pressuring him to quit rather than run as an independent.
"If Governor Crist believes he cannot win a primary then the proper course of action is he drop out of the race and wait for another day," Rob Jesmer of the National Republican Senatorial Committee wrote in an e-mail to consultants.
VOTE FOR THIS DUDE, IDAHOBORE: http://www.harleydbrownforcongress.org/index.html(http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/assets_c/2010/04/harley_brown-cropped-proto-custom_2.jpg)
:americanSpeak English. Speak American! Speak American!
:americanSpeak English. Speak American! Speak American!
she's not backing down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9o8lVWWDac
This person is going to become a United States senator in January.
Harkin appeared with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to introduce a resolution that would set shrinking vote benchmarks to end filibusters: the first vote on a cloture motion — which ends a filibuster — would require 60 votes to proceed, the next would be two days later and require 57. This process would repeat itself until the number fell to 51, or a simple majority.http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32853.html#ixzz0liQWj8Sf
she's not backing downI can't imagine Harry Reid smacking her down in a debate either. He is just too meekish in his character. :-\
[youtube=560,345]a9o8lVWWDac[/youtube]
This person is going to become a United States senator in January.
Earlier this week, RNC Chairman Michael Steele told a group of 200 students at DePaul University that African-Americans "don't have a reason" to vote for Republican candidates.
During his remarks he also acknowledged that for decades the GOP pursued "'Southern Strategy' that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South."
Steele was asked to explain why an African-American should vote Republican at a university-sponsored discussion on the conservative movement. The RNC chairman's response: "You really don't have a reason to, to be honest -- we haven't done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True."
Steele also discussed with students his own experience being the victim of racial discrimination -- a subject that the he has openly addressed in the past. Steele told TV One's Roland Martin in November that even some of his fellow Republicans are "scared" of him because of his race.
Steele acknowledged his party's failure to reach out and connect with African-Americans and other marginalized communities. "We have lost sight of the historic, integral link between the party and African-Americans," he explained.
Steele went on to make a candid statement about how the disconnect between Republicans and minorities is not new and has been a part of the party's strategy for years. The Chicago-Sun Times reports on what the RNC Chairman had to say:
For the last 40-plus years we had a 'Southern Strategy' that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, 'Bubba' went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.
Did Steele just admit the GOP caters to the southern white racists to win votes? :lol
"Seriously though, most of the dedicated racists in the GOP left for the tea party, and the people that are left merely think you're criminals, they don't want to lynch you or anything. I don't think so, at least. Vote republican 2012."/
Michael Steele, 2010
[youtube=560,345]c_8VQVhRmAc[/youtube]
Imagine if Anderson Cooper wasn't such a pussy?
Michael Steele is a poor man's Michael Scott.I think Jon Stewart is dead on, he is a poor mans Mr. Johnson
By Mike Allen
Thursday, July 14, 2005
It was called "the southern strategy," started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters.
Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, this morning will tell the NAACP national convention in Milwaukee that it was "wrong."
"By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out," Mehlman says in his prepared text. "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."
Mehlman, a Baltimore native who managed President Bush's reelection campaign, goes on to discuss current overtures to minorities, calling it "not healthy for the country for our political parties to be so racially polarized." The party lists century-old outreach efforts in a new feature on its Web site, GOP.com, which was relaunched yesterday with new interactive features and a history section called "Lincoln's Legacy."
Or 35 years from now, when RNC chair Trig Palin says the parhy oosed to mambe espooid pessal nees peeble
The Florida Republican Party on Thursday invoked a "Party Loyalty Oath" forbidding its members from supporting Gov. Charlie Crist should he decide to run as an independent in the state's Senate race.
In a memo obtained by the Palm Beach Post, GOP General Counsel Jason Gonzalez, who used to be a top lawyer in Crist’s office, informed state party members that there would be severe consequences if they did not rescind all support from the Florida governor:
The Republican Party of Florida requires members of all political party committees organized under the RPOF to abide by a Party Loyalty Oath.
...
Any member who fails to formally revoke his or her public support and request the return of any contributions made to a candidate running against the candidate of the Republican Party would be in violation of the RPOF Rules and would be subject to removal from party office and membership on Republican executive committees.
Gonzalez explained that the oath strictly prohibited any "Republican Executive Committee members from supporting any candidate other than the candidate nominated by the voters of the Republican Party through its primary election."
The memo surfaces as time ticks down until the deadline for Crist to decide whether he will make an independent run for Senate -- April 30.
Via the Palm Beach Post, here's General Counsel Jason Gonzalez's memo in full:
MEMORANDUM TO: Ronnie Whitaker Executive Director, Republican Party of Florida FROM: Jason Gonzalez General Counsel, Republican Party of Florida DATE: April 19, 2010
RE: Party Loyalty Oath - Candidates Running with No Party Affiliation
At your request, I have prepared the following memorandum involving the interpretation of Republican Party of Florida Rule 9 (Party Loyalty Oath). You specifically asked me to determine whether the Party Loyalty Oath would allow state and county executive committee members to support a registered Republican running with no party affiliation in a general election over the candidate nominated in the Republican primary election. As described below, my conclusion is that the Party Loyalty Oath forbids Republican Executive Committee members from supporting any candidate other than the candidate nominated by the voters of the Republican Party through its primary election.
The Republican Party of Florida requires members of all political party committees organized under the RPOF to abide by a Party Loyalty Oath. The loyalty oath is contained in Rule 9 of the RPOF Rules of Procedure. The Rule provides, in relevant part, that Members of all political party committees, and the National Committeeman and Committeewoman, shall before taking office, establish by written oath or affirmation that during their term of office they will not actively, publicly, or financially support the election of any candidate other than the Republican candidate in a partisan unitary, general or special election, or a Registered Republican in non-partisan elections, other than Judicial races governed under Florida Statute 105, if there is a registered Republican running for the same office, unless the county executive committee has taken an affirmative vote to endorse one Republican over another per Rule 8(B). The written oath or affirmation will also state that they will not engage in activities or conduct deemed by the Grievance Committee and affirmed by the RPOF Chairman as likely to injure the name of the Republican Party or interfere with the activities of the Republican Party.
At the heart of the Party Loyalty Oath is the requirement that members of the Republican Party of Florida's Executive Committees - from precinct committeemen and committeewomen in each county all the way up to the national committeeman and committeewoman - cannot provide their active, public, or financial support to any candidate other than "the Republican candidate" in a general election. The requirement of party loyalty is appropriate given the leadership roles within the party performed by executive committee members.
RPOF Rule 9 contains a few limited exceptions to its general requirement that members support "the Republican candidate." For "non-partisan" races, in which no partisan primary is held and in which the party affiliation of the candidates does not appear on the ballot, the loyalty oath requires executive committee members to refrain from supporting any candidate other than a registered Republican (if there is a registered Republican running for the office). Because judicial races are specifically exempted from the loyalty oath, executive committee members may support judicial candidates of their choosing without regard to political party affiliation.
The final requirement of Rule 9 relates to Republican primary elections. In a contested primary, Rule 9 prohibits executive committee members (in their official capacities) from supporting one Republican candidate over another unless the county executive committee has formally voted to endorse that candidate under RPOF Rule 8(B).
In sum, Republican Party of Florida Rule 9 prohibits any member of the Republican State Executive Committee or of any County Executive Committee from "actively, publicly, or financially" supporting a candidate running with no party affiliation over "the Republican candidate" chosen in the primary election. Any member who fails to formally revoke his or her public support and request the return of any contributions made to a candidate running against the candidate of the Republican Party would be in violation of the RPOF Rules and would be subject to removal from party office and membership on Republican executive committees.
Please do not hesitate to call should you have any questions.
-- Elyse Siegel
4/23/2010
People are so fucking stupid.
I'm expecting massive tea party protests over the government infringing on American civil rights in this AZ profiling bill.
Fellow Republican state Sen. Frank Antenori said the biggest reason he supported the bill was because a rancher in one of the counties he represents was murdered by someone who crossed the U.S. border with Mexico illegally. He said the person of interest in the killing had crossed the border numerous times and cited other similar violent crimes.
"When you institutionalize a law like this one, you are targeting and discriminating at a wholesale level against a group of people," Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, said Tuesday.
Grijalva closed his two district offices Friday when an unidentified caller threatened to blow up his Tucson office and kill his staff members. The caller also said he was going to be "exercising my civil liberties, and I'm shooting Mexicans at the border," according to Grijalva's district director, Ruben Reyes, who fielded one of the calls.
:cancry http://www.canadafreepress.com/ :cancry
Yes cleaning toilets and shit is a middle class jerb :bow
Climate Bill Derailed: Graham Accuses Dems Of Playing Immigration Politics(letter at link)
A bipartisan deal on climate change legislation suffered a major setback today as a key author of the measure accused Senate Democrats and President Obama of abandoning the issue to instead focus on an election-year immigration bill.
Sen. Lindsey Graham was set to release a climate change plan Monday with Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, but today Graham wrote a letter to "leaders in the energy independence effort" saying it was obvious the energy bill would have "no chance of success." He said politics will "impede, if not derail" the Kerry-Lieberman-Graham efforts that have been in the works for months.
Graham (R-SC) charged that Obama and Senate leaders have signaled immigration is their priority. Graham said that "has destroyed my confidence that there will be a serious commitment and focus to move energy legislation this year."
"All of the key players, particularly the Senate leadership, have to want this debate as much as we do. This is clearly not the case," Graham wrote in in the letter, obtained by TPMDC and included below.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) swiftly responded in a statement pledging that both immigration and climate change are top priorities. He said while he appreciates Graham's work on both issues, "I will not allow him to play one issue off of another."
Reid said energy "could be next" if the measure is ready, and said immigration would require "significant committee work that has not yet begun." The majority leader said the American people "expect us to do both, and they will not accept the notion that trying to act on one is an excuse for not acting on the other."
I'm told a Lieberman statement will be out this evening. The White House released a statement urging Graham to keep working, saying climate legislation can pass "this year" and saying both issues need bipartisan support. (Update: Kerry (D-MA) said in a statement that he and Lieberman are "pressing forward" with or without Graham.)
Graham said the hasty immigration push (following Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signing a controversial bill Friday) is a "cynical political ploy" and cited the 2007 effort that fell apart under President George W. Bush despite months of negotiation. Earlier this spring, Graham told TPMDC that the process of passing health care was a bad sign for both immigration and climate change.
Here is Graham's letter, dated today:
So is being a cop in Arizona, apparently. ::)
What the fuck?QuoteClimate Bill Derailed: Graham Accuses Dems Of Playing Immigration Politics(letter at link)
A bipartisan deal on climate change legislation suffered a major setback today as a key author of the measure accused Senate Democrats and President Obama of abandoning the issue to instead focus on an election-year immigration bill.
Sen. Lindsey Graham was set to release a climate change plan Monday with Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, but today Graham wrote a letter to "leaders in the energy independence effort" saying it was obvious the energy bill would have "no chance of success." He said politics will "impede, if not derail" the Kerry-Lieberman-Graham efforts that have been in the works for months.
Graham (R-SC) charged that Obama and Senate leaders have signaled immigration is their priority. Graham said that "has destroyed my confidence that there will be a serious commitment and focus to move energy legislation this year."
"All of the key players, particularly the Senate leadership, have to want this debate as much as we do. This is clearly not the case," Graham wrote in in the letter, obtained by TPMDC and included below.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) swiftly responded in a statement pledging that both immigration and climate change are top priorities. He said while he appreciates Graham's work on both issues, "I will not allow him to play one issue off of another."
Reid said energy "could be next" if the measure is ready, and said immigration would require "significant committee work that has not yet begun." The majority leader said the American people "expect us to do both, and they will not accept the notion that trying to act on one is an excuse for not acting on the other."
I'm told a Lieberman statement will be out this evening. The White House released a statement urging Graham to keep working, saying climate legislation can pass "this year" and saying both issues need bipartisan support. (Update: Kerry (D-MA) said in a statement that he and Lieberman are "pressing forward" with or without Graham.)
Graham said the hasty immigration push (following Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signing a controversial bill Friday) is a "cynical political ploy" and cited the 2007 effort that fell apart under President George W. Bush despite months of negotiation. Earlier this spring, Graham told TPMDC that the process of passing health care was a bad sign for both immigration and climate change.
Here is Graham's letter, dated today:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/climate-bill-derailed-graham-accuses-dems-of-playing-immigration-politics.php?ref=fpa (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/climate-bill-derailed-graham-accuses-dems-of-playing-immigration-politics.php?ref=fpa)
Seriously?
:teehee
I love being a total fucking moron douchebag, who contributes nothing to the forum other than film talk, and whose timer on being banned from the forum is quickly approaching zero....
So hostile :lol
Is this because I said you probably live a sad life?
Pardon me if I was wrong, but that's what I gather from the majority of your posts on this site. You seem to love trying to be a condescending dick every time I post in a thread that isn't movie related and calling me out on random shit. Yes, I know Willco was making a joke -- am I not allowed to make one too? Was my reply some impassioned rant about the nobility of immigrants?
Please, calm the fuck down.
And yet, you can't get laid.
And yet, you can't get laid.
No one likes? What, you and a handful of other trolls?
Pretty much my point. All I ever see if this dude bitching about how pathetic his love life was, so I figured he was just another internet tough guy who acts like a dick to make up for the pathetic void he is in the physical world. I didn't know I was, in fact, dealing with James fucking Bond. :lol
If me and Ichi both left this place would be pretty boring. Cheebs would probably leave too, then this place would go back to being practically dead.
wrong, boogie: ichi, like shake, is a dude with too much time on his hands who can't let any perceived internet transgression slide. one diss in a thread, and out comes their paper bags and chattering fingers; the only difference is the type of response, with ichi pulling the mother-in-law card and going personal and dredging up unrelated slights from years previous, and shake nervously waggling his chubby index finger and wheezing "nuh-uh, YOU started it" in what he hopes is an appropriately disaffected tone
i was fine with their return, but they're both back to their tired shenanigans. some personalities simply CAN get overexposed to quickly.
Prole, Shake made a fairly weak post, Boogie lectured him for it, and when Shake snapped back (not entirely inappropriately), Boogie wrote an entire paragraph explaining how he his a fucking HERO and Shake is gutter trash.
Then I wrote a one-liner which Boogie could have effectively dismissed with a "Neither can you."
Yes cleaning toilets and shit is a middle class jerb :bow
My fingers ain't so chubby now, Prole. See what I mean about people still using shit from four years ago?
You telling me the Icons don't like me is like telling me the sky is blue. I can't think of anything less shocking. And I'm not posting here for their amusement; I'm posting because people have asked me to come back for years, and because a number of dudes (like Ichi, PD, etc.) here I'm cool with and like to keep contact with on my off-hours.
I think I speak for the majority when I say that we can only hope that boringness comes sooner rather than later.
You know, let me just quote the post that set Boogie off:Yes cleaning toilets and shit is a middle class jerb :bow
This was a frickin' joke made in reply to a post of Willco's. I really don't see why it garnered the reaction it did or why it's now turned into "Let's ban Ichi and Shake, getting tired of their childish shenanigans!"
Prole, Shake made a fairly weak post, Boogie lectured him for it, and when Shake snapped back (not entirely inappropriately), Boogie wrote an entire paragraph explaining how he his a fucking HERO and Shake is gutter trash.
Then I wrote a one-liner which Boogie could have effectively dismissed with a "Neither can you."
I'd be willing to accept an apology, Boogie :-*
I wouldn't say you're out of line, just that you're fuck all obnoxious and for some reason Ichi feels the need to be your over protective boyfriend. The whole thing is tiresome, honestly.
I'd be willing to accept an apology, Boogie :-*
Better check the temperature in hell first, you infantile fuckstick.
Prole, Shake made a fairly weak post, Boogie lectured him for it, and when Shake snapped back (not entirely inappropriately), Boogie wrote an entire paragraph explaining how he his a fucking HERO and Shake is gutter trash.
Then I wrote a one-liner which Boogie could have effectively dismissed with a "Neither can you."
In other words, I made a post on the topic. Shake replied with a post that didn't make any gawdamned sense. I called him out on it. Shake was unable to respond other than posting a cutesy smilie, then a one-liner when I didn't drop the issue.
THEN he starts some bullshit about me living a "sad life", as laughable as that is, and then you rush to his defense about me not being able to "get laid"
In other words, you, a 30-year old in Korea, are so beholden to your 19-year old film school butt-buddie in Michigan, that you are able to completely throw any logic or rationality to the wind.
If you and Shake really want an all-out, drag-em-out shitstorm, I'm all game. Just keep in mind that in between forum taunts, I have actual shit to do so that you don't get all butthurt when I don't respond to you after 6 hours.
Maybe it would be better if Boogie had me on ignore,
or just stopped trying to earn cool points on the "grown up forum" by going after me randomly
and with no provocation whatsoever time and time again. If that's the "Boogie Experience", then it certainly hasn't been confined to one thread either.
It is when you have a small militia still trying to start shit with you after four years of silence. :'(
I don't have a problem with any of you. I just find it odd that you guys still carry so much hate and disdain for posters who contribute more to "your" forum than you actually do.
Boogie, I actually like you and acknowledge you are far more intelligent than I. I have absolutely zero desire to get owned and humiliated, which would be the result of any verbal battle we'd engage in.
My response wasn't so much a defense of shake as the fact that you're always complaining about how hard it is to date and here you are replying to shake talking about all the amazing stuff you've done (some of which, you imply, is so important you can't even talk about it), and I saw a chance for a snarky one-liner. It wasn't meant as a personal jab and I'm sorry if that's how it came out as.
Wait, this thread is for political talk. Maybe you guys would be better off making yet another thread asking for me to be banned and/or lepered? :spin
Because, by all means, please do the adult thing.
I don't have a problem with any of you. I just find it odd that you guys still carry so much hate and disdain for posters who contribute more to "your" forum than you actually do.
I'm still waiting for my apology. :-*
Christ, Shake, stop with the goading. It takes two to tango and you're doing more than your fair share of dancing.
Christ, Shake, stop with the goading. It takes two to tango and you're doing more than your fair share of dancing.
I see two people carrying on. I don't care who "started it," - I'm not a 10 year old. Chill the fuck out, seriously. Or take this convo into another thread, like the off topic/real talk one.
I stopped complaining about the icons the minute I realized I didn't give a shit what people on the internets think about me. You should do the same Shake/Ichi/GS/Boogie/etc. Shake you're a pretty smart dude, doing what you love: film. Boogie you have a damn good career, you're build like an MMA fighter and most people here think you're cool. So why the tension and need to get the final word? Online drama is best when it's everyone laughing at Green Shinobi. Lets keep it that way, ok ladies?
Christ, guys, shut the fuck up! I'm trying to get PD to move to NY here :'(
Boogie you have a damn good career, you're build like an MMA fighter and most people here think you're cool. So why the tension and need to get the final word?
Boogie, if you have a personal issue with me, I'd be more than happy to talk about it with you through PM.
I will say that if I've risen to Shake's defense, it's for the same reason Prole and Triumph have both risen to yours in this thread. And FWIW, Shake should've stopped posting in this thread about a page ago because I'm agreeing with Prole at this point. :-\
i haven't defended boogie. boogie is a big boy who issues terrifying no-knock warrants against innocent potheads and has no need for my defense, nor am i inclined to give it unless he threatens to kamehameha my house from across the border.
i'm here because i came to this thread to read and rant about POLITIX while watching the tube and instead i get shake posting for the sake of it and riling the natives, ruining this hallowed thread with his usual stream-of-consciousness wahjah. fuck that. that gets my ire, as it ALWAYS has when he does it. when i am done watching mst3k and have put away the macbook, i will have promptly forgotten about shake as i lovingly embrace my wife from the side as the good lord intended it and thus fall into a deep, anal sex-free slumber. fuck all y'all babyass niccas.
Mixed feelings, free speech and alll that, but at the same time there's a clear chain of command and BO's top dog, like it or not. I think the issues separate from creating a cult of personality that those pushing the issue might be implying
He's already provided his birth certificate (certificate of live birth) hasn't he? What type of document do these folks want?
Black/secret muslim/foreign-born...at the end of the day, what freaks out the Republican base so much is that he is in any way different from the old white men they've been used to for the past several hundred years and that takes them out of their comfort zone - never mind that he's been mostly governing from the center and has repeatedly tried reaching out to the Republicans in Washington only to get his hand slapped away each time.
I've noticed while traveling abroad that I've never met a conservative American...anyone who's open-minded enough to travel to different countries and experience different cultures always seem to be fairly liberal.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/36765811#36765922 (fixed link)David Brooks likes to attack both sides on issues regardless if one is right or wrong just so he can feel above the fray and important.
David Brooks: yea the AZ bill is horrible, but dems playing politics on this is even worse!
This new "dems are starting the debate before any preparatory work was done" meme is so dumb I'm surprised no one is being called out for it. Shumer and Graham were working on a bill months ago.
David Brooks is a conservative who is embarrassed to be a conservative with his fellow conservatives like Rush Limbaugh so he attacks both sides aggressively. He's a self hating conservative. There are a lot of those now in academia circles.For some reason Obama took a liking to him though and often talks to him, well according to Brooks at least. Brooks has used Obama a unnamed source before in the past.
THe birther "movement" can be summed up in this concise manner:
"Show us your birth certificate, boy."
"No"
Rageeeeeeeeeeeeee, how dare a black man tell his mastah no!
Brooks is very interested in anthropology, psychology and sociology, and likes to apply the language and tools of these fields to his analysis of politics and pop culture. He wishes to be taken very seriously by scholars in these fields, and would be, if only he hadn’t been born extremely lazy.
...
At an early age, he resolved that he would overcome his disability through a combination of dishonesty and smiling.
“All the government does is take my money and give it to other people,” Hess told me. Hess’s own salary is paid by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security; he works for M.I.T.’s Lincoln Laboratory, studying chemical and biological warfare.
"A nurse from Worcester who grew up in the Midwest and is registered as an Independent explained what getting back to the country’s eighteenth-century roots means to her: “I don’t want the government giving money to people who don’t want to work. Government is for the post office, and to defend our country, and maybe for the roads. That’s all.”
“Can you imagine if the British said not only do you have to pay a tax on the tea but you have to buy the tea and you have to buy tea for your neighbor?” Hess said.
They’re mad about the bums—the bums on the streets, the bums in Washington. George said, “Every drug addict gets a check. We write those checks.” Joe said, “Stay out of our wallets. I don’t care: Democrat, Republican? I don’t care.”
Then George told me, “My little girl, when she was three, she got real sick. Had to be in intensive care for ten days. Had to have a tracheotomy. I had shit for insurance. The hospital sent me a bill. Ten thousand dollars. I got a second job; I sent the hospital one hundred bucks a week. That was the right thing to do. This is wrong. People want something, they have to work for it.”
Ah ha. Warren Buffet was lobbying for an exemption in the bill, which has been tossed out (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465204575208030785525128.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories).
Where's his company, Berkshire Hathaway, based? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.
Ah ha. Warren Buffet was lobbying for an exemption in the bill, which has been tossed out (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465204575208030785525128.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories).
Where's his company, Berkshire Hathaway, based? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.
Also: My perspective as a police officer on this Arizona law.
I don't want to come down *too* hard on the law simply based upon the fact that I'm a police officer in Canada, and I don't know the environment of policing in southern states with a high hispanic population. I don't know the community, I don't know the dynamics.
But my instinct is simply that I don't see what "reasonable" suspicion might entail to lead an officer to think that someone is an illegal OTHER than that which leads to unacceptable racial profiling.
MAYBE situations through talking with witnesses where they can provide evidence that someone is an illegal, or through talking with an individual in the course of regular duties where they make statements that provide the officer with "reasonable suspicion" but other than that....
It's not even like, for example, a drug investigation, where you can profile someone based upon their actions, gestures, clothing, smell, or behaviour to articulate a reasonable suspicion or belief of criminal activity. As someone who supports and defends the law enforcement community generally, this is a bad law that will almost certainly lead to the potential for unacceptable racial profiling, even by good officers.
edit: and to drunkenly paraphrase someone else I read on this subject in the past couple days: Any law that might result in the regular demand by law enforcement in the United States of America of "papers, please" is an awful, horrible law.
Even worse is that if the cops want to exercise discretion in dealing with possible illegals, they are opening themselves up to lawsuits from people who don't know shit about shit. Who the hell came up with that provision?
I'm curious, is there any tangible difference between say, hiring a dirty messican for some factory work at $3/hr in California, compared to outsourcing the same job at the same rate to somewhere in China/Honduras/Bangladesh? I ask cause it seems that the same people (or at the very least, many I've spoken to) that complain that they hate illegals cause they "steal their jerbs!" seem to have little issue with the latter. I'm sure I might be missing something here, but I don't see it. Is it one of those "if I can't see it in front of me, it's not actually happening!" cases?
Fox News has learned that Charlie Crist has decided and plans to announce that he is running as an Independent for the U.S. Senate.
Yes!!
The premiums for my wife's work health insurance went up 24% today. The system works!
:piss Republicans :piss2
Non-Hispanic Arizonans of all sorts live congenially with all sorts of persons of Hispanic descent. These include some whose ancestors got to Arizona before statehood — some even before it was a territory. They were in America before most Americans’ ancestors arrived. Arizonans should not be judged disdainfully and from a distance by people whose closest contacts with Hispanics are with fine men and women who trim their lawns and put plates in front of them at restaurants, not with illegal immigrants passing through their back yards at 3 a.m.
I know that Puerto Rico has been up for statehood a couple of times before, but this time is slightly different. The House just passed HR 2499, which is an act that calls for a referendum asking Puerto Ricans if they want to do one of three things:
1. “Independence: Puerto Rico should become fully independent from the United States;”
2. “Sovereignty in Association with the United States: Puerto Rico and the United States should form a political association between sovereign nations that will not be subject to the Territorial Clause of the United States Constitution;”
3. “Statehood: Puerto Rico should be admitted as a State of the Union.”
Conservative blogs are up in arms about this, and with good reason: Republicans aren't too popular with Hispanics right now. Now the bill will go to the Senate. Read more about it at Huffington Post.
Apparently PR has opposed HR 2499 three times since 1970. The question is do Puerto Ricans really care about their representation in Congress?
I'm curious, is there any tangible difference between say, hiring a dirty messican for some factory work at $3/hr in California, compared to outsourcing the same job at the same rate to somewhere in China/Honduras/Bangladesh? I ask cause it seems that the same people (or at the very least, many I've spoken to) that complain that they hate illegals cause they "steal their jerbs!" seem to have little issue with the latter. I'm sure I might be missing something here, but I don't see it. Is it one of those "if I can't see it in front of me, it's not actually happening!" cases?
Really? Companies who outsource much of their labor have been criticized for some time, whereas companies who don't (or claim they don't) are proud to point it out: Made in America, by Americans.
It was mumbling and grumbling rather than a furor but criticism nonetheless.
Just because the statehood option wins doesn't mean it's going to happen though. I can't see Republicans ever admitting an island that's A) Hispanic and B) Spanish-speaking, into the union. :lol
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2cfruqq.jpg)
A case like this, where the bulk of the cops -- who have been given terribly vague guidelines of what constitutes "reasonable suspicion" -- will be from a different ethnic community from the bulk of the offenders is only going to encourage harassment on a racial basis and exacerbate social division and mistrust. Driving a community away from cooperation with the police (let alone other types of civic involvement) is a Very Bad Thing and should be treated like a serious concern.
I wonder where (http://www.evilbore.com/forum/index.php?topic=28125.msg1106496#msg1106496) you might have read that!
Have you ever had to police a Native reserve Boogie?
I thought they had their own police forces?
The reason I ask is both wondering about anything cross-cultural issues you might have, and also I once met a former RCMP officer at a wedding once and he reached his breaking point at a reserve. Picture coming into an empty shed and seeing two guys passed out snoring, a naked, bloody, shivering girl wimpering in the corner and an overturned bucket with some crumpled cheesecloth.spoiler (click to show/hide)They had spent they past few days beating and raping the girl and drinking until they passed out. When they'd puke, they'd use the cheesecloth to strain it into the bucket then drink it again :-\[close]
He said fuck it and got into computers.
I thought they had their own police forces?
You thought wrong.
(A few do. The biggest native reserves in Ontario, a couple in Quebec, and a few in Alberta. But the RCMP has the responsibility for policing the majority of native communities in Canada.)
"Michelle Obama has made child obesity one of her causes...She has started a more intense program. It's called 'Leave No Child With A Bigger Behind.'"
"There's talk now that this oil slick could end up being bigger than that huge disaster they had up in Alaska. Really? Bigger than Sarah Palin?"
New poll: Charlie’s lead about to go poof.
Uncategorized — posted by mike thomas on April, 30 2010 9:57 AM
Discuss This: Comments(43) | Add to del.icio.us | Digg it
Charlie Crist is up by four points in a poll taken April 24-25 for the Associated Industries of Florida. But it’s all downhill from here, says pollster Jim McLaughlin.
In the poll of 600 likely voters, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, Crist was favored by 33 percent of respondents. Marco Rubio was favored by 29 percent and Democrat Kendrick Meek by 15 percent.
The poll shows Crist taking more votes from Meek than Rubio. Crist actually does better with Democrats than Meek, with 41 percent of them saying they would vote for him compared to 31 percent for Meek.
Crist pulls in 22 percent of Republicans, compared to 56 percent for Rubio.
While Crist projects himself as a conservative/moderate, he gets more support from people who consider themselves liberals than Meek – 43 percent to 33 percent.
Crist pulls in 36 percent support from blacks, compared to 45 percent for Meek.
McLaughlin says the numbers are not good for Crist. He notes that Hillary Clinton initially had a lot of black support, but it evaporated as President Obama’s campaign gained steam.
“He’ll be lucky to get 10 percent of the African-American vote on election day,’’ says McLaughlin.
McLaughlin also says as the election goes on, Democrats and Republicans will start heading back to their own candidates. As Crist’s poll numbers drop, that dynamic only will increase.
“I would make a pretty good bet he not only will not win, he will run an embarrassing third,’’ says McLaughlin. “I think he’s done politically.’’
I thought they had their own police forces?
You thought wrong.
(A few do. The biggest native reserves in Ontario, a couple in Quebec, and a few in Alberta. But the RCMP has the responsibility for policing the majority of native communities in Canada.)
The reservation near my parent's house used to have its own police force, but in recent years I think they disbanded and just pay surrounding police forces to police the place because I haven't seen them in years. But this is the US, so probably a lot different.
Are the native lands up in Canada somewhat autonomous?
Out of curiosity.
Someone sent this to me on facebook
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4175805/penchant-for-personal-attacks?playlist_id=86858
Seriously?
MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune's Phil Rosenthal that he hopes MSNBC can grow to be more like Fox News, but that he won't be putting any "hard-right shows" on his network.
Griffin praised Fox News chief Roger Ailes for the television phenomenon he's created.
"He's changed media," Griffin said of Ailes. "Everybody does news differently because Roger's changed the world. Roger early on figured it out and was brilliant."
To Griffin, developing a successful cable news network means creating a place for "like-minded" viewers to come for the network's hosts' takes on the news.
"We're talking about the actions and passions of today, which tend to be political," he said.
"I don't think we have quite the passionate support that Fox does," he said. "Some shows do, but as a network we don't. Our prime time is getting there. But that's what we want to get."
But despite the desire to emulate Fox, Griffin insists he would not put on a hardcore conservative news show
"Could we put on a hard-right show? No. It wouldn't fit," he said. "I want flow
I wonder what will happen if they start protesting with guns. How will the tea partiers feel about that
I wonder what will happen if they start protesting with guns. How will the tea partiers feel about that
I don't think Republicans would just abandon their principles and sell out the Second Amendment (http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=mulford+act&aq=f&aqi=g2g-m2g-msx1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=a86c207b1c79523e) just because a bunch of brown people were carrying. That's just cynical.
Bad policy can decimate the social fabric, but good policy can only modestly improve it.
QuoteBad policy can decimate the social fabric, but good policy can only modestly improve it.
Wait what
Therefore, the first rule of policy-making should be, don’t promulgate a policy that will destroy social bonds. If you take tribes of people, exile them from their homelands and ship them to strange, arid lands, you’re going to produce bad outcomes for generations. Second, try to establish basic security. If the government can establish a basic level of economic and physical security, people may create a culture of achievement — if you’re lucky. Third, try to use policy to strengthen relationships. The best policies, like good preschool and military service, fortify emotional bonds.
On a side note, Ezra Klein's latest tweetYeah after bringing back Cheebs and The Dark Shake 3000 ::)
ezraklein
Lupe Fiasco is still underrated. "That case in court did not defer the dream/I am still a raisin in the sun/raging against the machine"
And his previous tweet was under #realtalk. Might have to invite him to Evilbore
On a side note, Ezra Klein's latest tweet
ezraklein
Lupe Fiasco is still underrated. "That case in court did not defer the dream/I am still a raisin in the sun/raging against the machine"
And his previous tweet was under #realtalk. Might have to invite him to Evilbore
Matthews annihilating Brown
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews#36948458
[youtube=560,345]5vdqUPIq9Nk[/youtube]
wtf
I hope Lincoln loses badly in the primary. Regardless of whether Halter would win in November, she needs to go asap
The term "tea-bagger" is like uttering the "n" word, some say. Though he aspires to promote civility, evidence has surfaced that President Obama has added "tea-bagger" to his public lexicon, though it's considered a cheap and tawdry insult by "tea party" activists. Watchdogs at Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) barked when they saw the proof, tucked in a sneak peak of Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter's new book, "The Promise: President Obama, Year One," to be released May 18. Indeed, it appears the president joined certain partisan critics and the liberal media, and took the tea-bag plunge.
"This remark is the equivalent of using the 'n' word. It shows contempt for middle America, expressed knowingly, contemptuously, on purpose, and with a smirk. It is indefensible to use this word. The president knows what it means, and his people know what it means. The public thought we reached a new low of incivility during the Clinton administration. Well, the Obama administration has just outdone them," ATR president Grover Norquist tells Inside the Beltway.
The word has gone mainstream, really. I have seen it in conservative columns — columns critical of the protesters — which is really deflating. How is it that an obscene putdown is instantly and everywhere acceptable? Not very long ago, Al D’Amato was practically run out of politics for saying “putzhead.”
It could be that conservatives will “own the insult” and use “teabagger” as a badge of honor. It could become some proud conservative N-word. President Reagan said, “I’m a contra, too.” Well, I’m a teabagger too — and the Anderson Cooper types can [go jump in a lake]. Still, I find the word kind of sickening, and its rapid spread and acceptance even more sickening.
Nashville, Tenn.: "Judson -- Are you willing to admit that taxes have actually gone down for the vast majority of Americans under President Obama?
Judson Phillips: No"
Okay - can you provide actual evidence that taxes have increased or stayed the same under President Obama?
Judson Phillips: Let's start with him allowing the bush tax cuts to expire.
Sidney, N.Y.: Many Tea Party supporters I know in Upstate New York receive federal single payer health benefits from VA, Medicare and Medicaid, which they profess to support while vehemently arguing against the still most private market health-care insurance reform. Please help me make sense of this.
Judson Phillips: And I know liberals who believe in the tooth fairy.
Socialism: Are you willing to publicly state that, while you might disagree with President Obama's policies, he's clearly not a socialist?
Judson Phillips: He clearly is. And I strongly disagree with him.
Alexandria, Va.: Are you willing to admit that marginal tax rates went up for the majority of Americans during the Reagan administration? Do you know the difference between average and marginal tax rates? Could you answer a simple econ 101 questions regarding the impact of progressive taxation on the labor-leisure choice?
Judson Phillips: No.
Kansas City: I keep hearing the "I want my country back" Frankly I don't understand what that means. If anything OUR country was taken from US in December 2000 when the Supreme Court got involved in state issues and didn't let counting go one, permitting the second place guy to end up in the White House.
Also, you do understand that the Bush tax cuts expire AFTER 2010 if not reapproved? I believe the previous question was about have taxes gone down now, not guessing about the future.
Judson Phillips: And as soon as we vote out the obama/pelosi/reid axis of fiscal evil, we will get out country back.
Miami: Judson: RE: The Reagan plan
Regardless of what he said he was going to do he brought a tripling of the Gross Federal Debt, from $900 billion to $2.7 trillion.
Among Reagan's failures was that he did not control federal spending growth. Federal spending rose 69 percent from 1981 to 1989.
Why is he a hero to you?
Judson Phillips: Should Reagan have vetoed some of those spending bills. Sure. He should have. But no one is perfect. He defeated communism which is one of the reasons he is a hero to me. The simple fact is under Reagan and his tax cuts, GDP grew faster in a shorter period of time than it did under either Bush or Clinton.
Tea Party composition: All polls indicate that the typical tea partier is indeed white and over 50. Why won't you admit this? Your anecdotal answers aren't persuasive.
Judson Phillips: And your polls are not either. You know what Disreali said. There are lies, damn lies and then there are liberal polls.
Reagan: "The simple fact is under Reagan and his tax cuts, GDP grew faster in a shorter period of time than it did under either Bush or Clinton."
At a cost of the tripling of the deficit.
Let's be real here, you don't have a problem with debt, the deficit, or government spending. You have a problem with Democrats doing it.
This is why no rational person acknowledges your "movement" as anything beyond a cheap shill for the GOP.
Judson Phillips: Yes, and your heros, the liberal democrats of the 80's were spending like drunken democrats. I have problem with democrats and liberals being in control of the government. IT's sort of like leaving a convicted sex offender alone with children. It is a very bad idea.
Maryland: I am sorry but your answer of "I think the political class is afraid of the Tea Party movement. After all, we get people out as volunteers and get them to the polls. For them, it cannot be the same as usual in D.C. A lot of them are going to be unemployed after the first of the year and that does scare them" is really offensive. This us vs. them mentality is really repulsive to me. I am a hard-working middle class American and I don't agree with anything you are saying, and I have a right not agree with you. But you spliting the citizenry into classes of "elites/political class/Washington insiders/liberals" vs "real Americans" is just plain wrong! and that's the problem with your movement.
Liberals are just as American as you are and you and your movement has no right to question people's patriotism or Americanness just because they disagree with you.
Judson Phillips: Yes we do. You folks in the left do far worse. Patriotism is not something that cannot be measured. It can be. And you folks on the left, as a general rule are not patriotic. You do not love this country. You are embarrassed by us.
I hate to tell you this, but those of us in fly over country are the real americans.
Any brits on the board? Just wondering about your thoughts on the election tomorrow?
I remember a lot of people outside of this country being sort of baffled by the results of the 2000 election and our electoral college. Seems like the UK is heading towards their own unique weird situation potentially.
Any brits on the board? Just wondering about your thoughts on the election tomorrow?
I remember a lot of people outside of this country being sort of baffled by the results of the 2000 election and our electoral college. Seems like the UK is heading towards their own unique weird situation potentially.
eh? Doesn't really seem to be a situation very different compared with any other parliamentary democracy, as far as I can tell.
eh? Doesn't really seem to be a situation very different compared with any other parliamentary democracy, as far as I can tell.
eh? Doesn't really seem to be a situation very different compared with any other parliamentary democracy, as far as I can tell.
It probably isn't although a lot of the foreign press and even british press seems to be making a big deal out of the potential outcome and declaring that a lot of reform needs to be done to the process. As an outsider of course perhaps I'm not up to speed with how actual people feel though.
Probably, but from an American pov it's quite odd. A comparable analogy would be if in 2008, there was no presidential election per se, and instead the presidency was won by whichever party won the required seat majority in the House of Representatives (the senate is so shitty it doesn't exist in my analogy!). A lot of people just assume Brits are going to go out and vote for Brown, Cameron, or Clegg.
n 2003, Drudge faced criticism for describing ABC reporter Jeffrey Kofman as "openly gay" in the headline "ABC News Reporter Who Filed Troops Complaint Story — Openly Gay Canadian" after Kofman interviewed anti-war soldiers in Iraq.[30][31][32][33] Drudge's critics, like gay American writer and national talk radio host Michelangelo Signorile,[34][35] point to the allegations of homosexuality leveled at Drudge himself by David Brock of Media Matters in his memoir Blinded by the Right,[36][37] and by columnist Jeannette Walls in her book Dish.[38][39][40][41] Walls wrote that Drudge had a long homosexual relationship with Washington D.C. landscaper, David Cohen. Cohen confirmed the relationship to the New York Daily News.[42][43] Drudge denies that he is gay, telling the Miami New Times in 2001 that "I go to straight bars, I go to gay bars. [Walls] never said there was sex; she said there was dating. She never had enough to go that far."[44]
In 2002, Drudge discussed suing actor Alec Baldwin with his lawyer, after Baldwin claimed, during a Howard Stern interview, that Drudge had propositioned him.[45][46][47] In March 2008, Baldwin repeated the story to the LGBT magazine The Advocate, saying that there was "a kind of creepy quality" to Drudge's sexual advances, and that he was surprised Drudge was so "uptight about being gay".[48]
In 2005, Drudge told The Sunday Times, "No, I’m not gay. I was nearly married a few years ago."[49] He has also said: "How can I be gay when I'm dating a woman with boobs and rollers?"[40]
Out (magazine) named Drudge #6 of the 50 most powerful gay people in the United States in 2009.[50] However, Drudge described the depiction of him in Out as "loving Chaka Khan, The Young and the Restless, and sex with men," and also "antigay, anti-choice and anti-tolerance", as "False. False. False. I do not love sex with men. My site is not anti-gay. I present both sides of the anti-choice-life issue... I liked Chaka in the eighties, and have not watched Young and the Restless in twenty years!"[51] He argues that questions about his sexual orientation are "more examples of liberals attempting to use culture, even dance culture, to advance their agenda."[44]
So I heard Drudge is gay. Wow, didn't know about this
David Brooks (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/opinion/04brooks.html) is a terrible person.He's right though policy rarely works. Or rather government can rarely make policy work effectively.
I could easily churn out an angry tl;dr rant about every single one of his columns lately, if I let myself get started. He's just awful.
He's right though policy rarely works. Or rather government can rarely make policy work effectively.
I love Drudge's obsession with Janet Napolitano. I laugh everytime he puts a bad picture of her on the website.
Who's FoneBone and why is he a member of the walking dead?
(http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20100409/i/r100128668.jpg?x=234&y=345&q=85&sig=P66U9xbvXWKbFLf04y4Scg--)I love Drudge's obsession with Janet Napolitano. I laugh everytime he puts a bad picture of her on the website.
BIG SIS
One of his most obnoxious running gags imo.
So I heard Drudge is gay. Wow, didn't know about this
That was the juiciest tidbit in David Brock's book about being a rightwing operative.
Not surprising, since there are a bunch of closeted guys active in conservative politics. Him, Ken Mehlman, David Dreier (of Barney Frank's "moderate bar" one-liner), Charlie Crist, Larry Craig, and Karl Rove.
On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.
Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.
"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."
An Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students.
Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison wrote the letter to parents following several days of controversy at the school after a field trip last week in which black students got to hear a rocket scientist.
http://www.annarbor.com/news/black-student-only-field-trip-sparks-controversy-at-ann-arbor-elementary-school/QuoteAn Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students.
Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison wrote the letter to parents following several days of controversy at the school after a field trip last week in which black students got to hear a rocket scientist.
Didn't Dr. Martin Luther King have a dream? Something about treating people the same? We may never know his stance on segregating school activities. :'(
http://www.annarbor.com/news/black-student-only-field-trip-sparks-controversy-at-ann-arbor-elementary-school/QuoteAn Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students.
Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison wrote the letter to parents following several days of controversy at the school after a field trip last week in which black students got to hear a rocket scientist.
Didn't Dr. Martin Luther King have a dream? Something about treating people the same? We may never know his stance on segregating school activities. :'(
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Students-Wearing-American-Flag-Shirts-Sent-Home-92945969.htmlQuoteOn any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.
Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.
"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."
On a scale from 1 to 10 how happy does this story make EB liberals?
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/news/companies/dropping_benefits.fortune/?npt=NP1
What does EB think?
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/news/companies/dropping_benefits.fortune/?npt=NP1
What does EB think?
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/news/companies/dropping_benefits.fortune/?npt=NP1
What does EB think?
So I'm guessing I can laugh at Cheebs for his obsession over Clegg's momentum
So I'm guessing I can laugh at Cheebs for his obsession over Clegg's momentum
Britain is heading for its first hung Parliament since 1974, with the Conservatives the largest party, according to an updated Sky News forecast.
The new projection puts the Tories on course to win 309 seats, followed by Labour on 259 and the Lib Dems sliding to 54. Other parties share 28 seats.
The estimated result would see David Cameron's party missing out on the 326 MPs needed for an overall majority by 17 seats.
The candidate, a pilot, insisted the spot wasn't intended to suggest that people with darker skin are more likely to be terrorists. The point, he said, was that people from countries like Iran and Iraq require more security.d
A municipal court judge in New Jersey resigned this week after the state Supreme Court advised him not to promote his new movie -- a satire about President Obama's life that depicts him making a deal with the devil in order to become a communist dictator.[youtube=560,345]CEqVcZyqsC8[/youtube]
"It put me in an impossible position," the ex-judge, Kenneth Del Vecchio, told TPM in an interview today. "I had two choices: Either I could remain as a judge and shut up and have no free speech rights whatsoever ... or I had to resign."
Del Vecchio, a prolific filmmaker and author, produced, wrote and stars in "O.B.A.M. Nude," a movie about a coke-addled college student who sells his soul to the devil in order to impose his socialist will on the country. Satan starts him out by hooking him up with the "Righteous Reverend," a "close friend" of the devil's.
90% of people who whine about political correctness are just mad they can't say the n word without getting in trouble.
QuoteA municipal court judge in New Jersey resigned this week after the state Supreme Court advised him not to promote his new movie -- a satire about President Obama's life that depicts him making a deal with the devil in order to become a communist dictator.[youtube=560,345]CEqVcZyqsC8[/youtube]
"It put me in an impossible position," the ex-judge, Kenneth Del Vecchio, told TPM in an interview today. "I had two choices: Either I could remain as a judge and shut up and have no free speech rights whatsoever ... or I had to resign."
Del Vecchio, a prolific filmmaker and author, produced, wrote and stars in "O.B.A.M. Nude," a movie about a coke-addled college student who sells his soul to the devil in order to impose his socialist will on the country. Satan starts him out by hooking him up with the "Righteous Reverend," a "close friend" of the devil's.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/nj-judge-resigns-over-his-film-about-obamas-deal-with-the-devil.php?ref=fpa
nearly a decade worth of law school down the drain. no words
Rekers Paid Escort $75 A Day For Luggage, Massage Services
Rachel Slajda | May 7, 2010, 5:54PM
George Rekers, a leader of the ex-gay movement who was caught recently employing a male escort, paid the escort $75 a day for his services during a 10-day trip to Europe, which included carrying luggage and daily one-hour massages, according to a contract obtained by CNN.
The escort, "Lucien," gave AC360 a copy of the contract, which also stipulated that Rekers would pay for his airfare. Lucien, which is not his real name, will appear on the show tonight.
Rekers is one of the co-founders of the Family Research Council and a board member at the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. He's also been paid as an expert witness for the states of Arkansas and Florida in their defense of bans on gay couples adopting children. Although he's admitted hiring Lucien, he says he didn't know he was a prostitute and, when he found out, only wanted to save him from his "sins."
He also says nothing sexual happened. Lucien, however, says the daily massages included something called "the long stroke," which included touching Rekers in rather sexual areas.
The contract also suggests Rekers had employed the escort before their trip.
He was to give the massages "using the same procedures ("Lucien") provided to George Rekers in Florida."
NARTH today released a statement on the scandal.
"NARTH takes seriously the accusations that have been made,and we are currently attempting to understand the details behind these press reports," the statement reads. "We are always saddened when this type of controversy impacts the lives of individuals, and we urge all parties to allow a respectful and thorough investigation to take place."
"We also wish to reiterate our traditional position that these personal controversies do not change the scientific data, nor do they detract from the important work of NARTH."
That guy sounds sooooo gay. :lol
[youtube=560,345]K_vkU0Aezvg[/youtube]
What does "one of us" mean?
What does "one of us" mean?
Not "that one"
[youtube=560,345]yo7HiQRM7BA[/youtube]QuoteThe best way to view California Senate Candidate Carly Fiorina's awesomely bizarre new primary campaign ad--which includes shots of an alien robot sheep, or something--is by pressing play on your cassette tape of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon just as you click play on YouTube.
The coolest part of the whole thing is that Fiorina is positing fiscal conservatives as sheep, which is a bit like Barack Obama running a spot that posits liberals as leeches or lizards. Also, is it weird that the ad never shows Fiorina's face? Is it better that voters know their candidates by the backs of their heads? More please, more.
ALSO: I must state the obvious: The odd genius of the ad is that it is so weird that you will click on it online, and bloggers like me will link to it. The message is delivered.
Kagan for the SC. Drudge will have fun with her pics
"Life is all pain. Pain, rejection and gloom. Why do we even pretend that there's anything other than a yawning blankness at the heart of... Hey! 33% extra free! I'm doing excellent shopping."Kagan for the SC. Drudge will have fun with her pics
She looks like David Mitchell in drag
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/lilyallen/images/celeb_davidmitchell.jpg)
Don't forget "activist judge who legislates from the bench".
Obama will probably get another SC pick in his term, I wonder if he'll appoint a liberal then
Obama will probably get another SC pick in his term, I wonder if he'll appoint a liberal then
if he were going to, i think he would have already
I have no idea what kind of Justice Elena Kagan is going to be, and almost no one else does either. She might be a terrific progressive or she might move the Court to the right, as some fear. My problem with her isn't her stated positions, as she doesn't have very many.
My problem with her is my problem with Obama. Cheney and Bush moved the ball 80 yards down-field, whether that was on executive power, warrantless wiretapping, pre-emptive wars or just about any other issue you can think of. And Obama's bold and brilliant response is to move the ball 10 yards in the opposite direction. Not good enough. Not remotely good enough.
His every action drips of conciliation, compromise, gradualism and incrementalism. The conservatives take miles of ideologically territory and convert it into the status quo. Then Obama brags about converting inches back. This isn't change we can believe in. This is pocket change.
So, when conservatives yelled at him about trying Gitmo detainees in civilian courts, his instinct was to back down. When they yelled at him for giving detainees Miranda rights, he is now on the verge of backing down. When they yelled at him about foreign wars, he escalated them. When they yelled at him about the $50 billion "bailout" fund in the financial reform bill, he asked to take it out. When they yelled at him about offshore oil drilling, he gave them more. How did that turn out?
Did you know that after Joe Wilson yelled out "You lie!" on the issue of how immigrants would be treated in the healthcare bill, they quietly gave into him and changed that provision? Is there anything that this guy can't get bullied on? Well, of course, there is. Everything from the left.
So, that brings us to Elena Kagan. Bush picked arguably the two most conservative judges in the country to fill his Supreme Court vacancies. He easily shoved it down the throat of the Democrats. What has been Obama's response - let me pick a centrist!
He can't help himself. He loves establishment players. Look at nearly all of his appointments. Rahm Emanuel, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke. These are the pillars of the establishment. What kind of change is this? He nominated for the head of the Fed the same exact guy who helped destroy our economy for George W. Bush. He can't help himself. He is a politician through and through, and he desperately wants the approval of those around him. And those around him now are the power players in Washington.
So, we get the blank slate of Elena Kagan, with almost no record to speak of, except her affinity for executive power. Joy. Could she turn into a lion of progressivism? Sure. But why do we have to hope against hope on that? Why can't we get a progressive Justice if we elected a progressive president? Because the ugly truth is that we didn't elect a progressive president.
Obama (and Rahm Emanuel) are going to love it if progressives attack Kagan. They will brandish that as a signal that they are soooo centrist. They will crow to their Washington reporter friends that they are being attacked from the left and brag about how much credibility that gives them. And when they win this nomination (non)fight, they will declare victory again, as if they accomplished some major objective. No one loves beating up progressives and winning easy battles in DC more than this administration.
My guess is that at some future date this article will be misinterpreted to say that I argued against Elena Kagan. Except for executive power (where I am as progressive as anyone in the country), I am a judicial moderate. Kagan might wind up being exactly my kind of justice. And so far, Sonia Sotomayor has been great - and Obama picked her (which some will argue is evidence to "trust" him again). My point isn't that Kagan is terrible or can't do the job. My point isn't that Obama secretly wants to pick a conservative (or a progressive, as his defenders would claim). My point is that Obama has no intention of burning up political capital (according to his perception) by publicly standing up and fighting for for his own so-called side and will defer to the center or right-wing given any opportunity to do so. And this is another example of that.
Elena Kagan - safe, no record, never challenged power in any meaningful way, never stood up for progressive ideology, beloved by the establishment in Washington - the perfect Obama candidate. I'm tired of it. The ball is down against our own goal line and the guy thinks he just scored a touchdown.
He is never going to throw the ball down the field. If you like two yard pick-ups by a running-back going straight up the middle, you'll love Obama. It's the Eddie George presidency. What he doesn't seem to get is that the other side is eventually going to get the ball back and then it won't seem like a major accomplishment that we went from our own two-yard line to our own twelve-yard line. It'll be viewed as a tremendous disappointment.
Many gun dealers are fanning the fear on the Internet and in other advertising that President Obama will try to restrict the Second Amendment right to bear arms -- despite signs that major changes in federal weapons regulations are unlikely. The White House says there are no imminent plans to reinstate the federal assault-weapons ban. "The president supports the Second Amendment and respects the tradition of gun ownership in this country," a White House spokesman said.
Restoring the ban on assault weapons has limited support in Congress, even among Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have signaled reluctance in recent weeks to renewing the ban.
Slavery doesn't fit their purpose...well unless they use it as a comparison to the way Obama/gov is treating tax paying Amuricans today
Quick question for folks who follow politics a lot more closely than I do: Has Obama introduced any gun control legislation or discussed introducing any?
I will be pissed if they take my guns away :maf
But I don't believe Obama or anyone in my lifetime will do it.
Kids who wear American Flag t-shirts on 5 May should have to share a lunchroom table with those who wear a hammer and sickle on 4 July.
“I mean honestly. How many pieces need to fall off @ebertchicago before he gets the hint to shut the (expletive) up” and “You know, @ebertchicago, I’m not as expert on flag etiquette as you. Tell me, which do I fly when you die of cancer?”
The impression is spreading that I have drawn an equation between the American flag and the hammer and the sickle. I'm currently serving for target practice on some right-wing websites, and a group of Tweeters are having jolly fun portraying me as an America hater and worse.[..]
[My post] was tweeted at the height of the discussion over five white California kids who wore matching t-shirts to school on Cinco de Mayo, and were sent home by their school. This inspired predictable outrage in the usual circles.
Tweeted from lonestarag05: Its the USA not Mexico. They are allowed to be proud of their country. I wonder sometimes why you even stay here.
Many others informed me that Americans have the right to be proud of our flag, and wear it on T-shirts. Of course they do. That isn't the question. It's not what my Tweet said. What I suggested, in its 108 letters, is that we could all use a little empathy. I wish I had worded it better.
Let's begin with a fact few Americans know: Celebrating Cinco de Mayo is an American custom. The first such celebration was held in California in 1863, and they have continued without interruption. In Mexico itself it is not observed, except in the state of Puebla--the site of Mexico's underdog victory over the French on May 5, 1862.
Cinco de Mayo's purpose is to celebrate Mexican-American culture in the United States. We are a nation of immigrants, and have many such observances, for example St. Patrick's Day parades, which began in Boston in 1737 and not in Ireland until 1931. Or Pulaski Day, officially established in Illinois in 1977, and not observed in Poland. The first Chinese New Year's parade was held in San Francisco in the 1860s, and such parades began only later in China. In Chicago this August we will have the 81st annual Bud Billiken Parade, one of the largest parades in America, celebrating the African-American heritage.[..]
The question is obviously not whether Americans, or anyone else, has the right to wear our flag on their t-shirts. But empathetic people realize much depends on context. If, on Cinco de Mayo, you turn up at your school with a large Mexican-American student population wearing such shirts, are you (1) joining in the spirit of the holiday, or (2) looking for trouble?
I suggest you intend to insult your fellow students. Not because they do not respect THEIR flag, but because you do not respect their heritage. That there are five of you in matching shirts demonstrates you want to be deliberately provocative.
Pinko commie liberal...
...AND hated A Clockwork Orange.
Quick question for folks who follow politics a lot more closely than I do: Has Obama introduced any gun control legislation or discussed introducing any?
Quick question for folks who follow politics a lot more closely than I do: Has Obama introduced any gun control legislation or discussed introducing any?
Hasn't introduced any yet, isn't considering it now, and won't in the future.
On the topic of constructing one's alternate realities, here's a couple (http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2008/09/false-witnesses.html) of very thoughtful posts (http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2008/10/false-witnesses-2.html) on the subject by an ex-evangelical, with the taking-off point being the (apparently popular) conspiracy theory that Proctor and Gamble is run by Satanists.
Though really, the whole phenomenon could be summed up by my favorite blog comment (http://aaronovitch.blogspot.com/2010/03/blair-on-iran.html#3850204084820995844) ever: "It's the main lesson of the Internet age, that something that's untrue is much harder to challenge than something that's true. The most obvious reason being that because it's untrue, people are, necessarily, believing it because they want to."
Though really, the whole phenomenon could be summed up by my favorite blog comment (http://aaronovitch.blogspot.com/2010/03/blair-on-iran.html#3850204084820995844) ever: "It's the main lesson of the Internet age, that something that's untrue is much harder to challenge than something that's true. The most obvious reason being that because it's untrue, people are, necessarily, believing it because they want to."
In other news, this is pretty awesome. Roger Ebert tweeted this on Cinco de Mayo:QuoteKids who wear American Flag t-shirts on 5 May should have to share a lunchroom table with those who wear a hammer and sickle on 4 July.
You oughta get a kick out of this (http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=565866) too, if you haven't seen it already. And here (http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2010/04/empathy-and-epistemic-closure.html) is a bit by Slacktivist on empathy and ignorance.I enjoyed that.
If you can get past how depressing the political scene is in this country, it's really interesting as a case study in human folly.
But I'm guessing. We're all guessing. None of us has a clue - including those who say they are close to her. There are so many things we don't know about this person about to get enormous power over us for life. Which is why I have so far found this nomination so disturbing.
Another observation I have is that whether its the left or the right, the main problem the base always has with their president is that the reason things aren't working out as they expected is because he isn't as liberal as he needs to be or in the case of George W not as conservative as he needs to be. It's always analysis based around the concept that a president needs to listen to them more and if he only did that then everything would be perfect.
Perhaps, but it's hard to look at the administrations attempts to acheive some non-existent middle ground as nothing but disastrous.
This isn't from someone asking for any ideological purity from them, I just want them to get shit done. Having them and others continually see bipartisanship as not a means to an end but an end itself is a constant source of frustration. They're constantly kneecapping themselves.
Not to mention his gross over-exaggeration of the Supreme Court's "enormous power over us." Shut up, the majority of this country can't even name three justices, not to mention landmark and influential decisions.
Not to mention his gross over-exaggeration of the Supreme Court's "enormous power over us." Shut up, the majority of this country can't even name three justices, not to mention landmark and influential decisions.
Palin sure can't LOL
[youtube=560,345]kSyOEnerVQc[/youtube]
Not to mention his gross over-exaggeration of the Supreme Court's "enormous power over us." Shut up, the majority of this country can't even name three justices, not to mention landmark and influential decisions.
Palin sure can't LOL
i think she can name 3 conservative linchpin cases.
[youtube=560,345]kSyOEnerVQc[/youtube]
Jesus fuckin Christ
i tried to read that book but holy fucking shit, it is the MOST CONDESCENDING "HUR HUR GET OFF MY LAWN" bullshit i think i've been exposed to outside of Andy Rooney. I agree with what is said to a point but the tone, good lord the tone of the piece is just so arrogant and smug that it is cringeworthy.
Sarah Palin is so unspeakably beautiful.. omg. :uguu
But anyway
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/14/palin-hits-campaign-trail-for-anti-abortion-group
Why are anti-abortion people so 'pro-life' when it comes to abortions, but so pro-death when it comes anything else? See: war in iraq. The anti-abortion folk are also very anti-condoms, anti-birth control pill, anti anything that could prevent pregnancy. Which made me think, and I thought about it a while ago too, that anti-abortion activists are people who aren't pro-life, but pro-pregnancy. I conjecture that the train of thought is that abortion isn't bad because it kills, but because it interrupts pregnancy.
I want a couple of grandchildren first, then they can do whatever they want.Both my daughters are playing softball. I'm an enabler to their future gay lives. :-\They'll be happier this way.
I want a couple of grandchildren first, then they can do whatever they want.The thing is that they would be more likely to have kids if they were lesbians. Hetrosexual women these days /old man
Outrage is bubbling up through the usual channels about Miss USA's ties to Hamas and Hezbollah. No, I am not kidding.
"I'm a huge believer in states' rights. I think that's what's so wonderful about America," Woolard answered of the law which requires state police to stop and question possible undocumented immigrants. "So I think it's perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law."http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/05/17/2010-05-17_miss_usa_runner_up_miss_oklahoma_morgan_elizabeth_woolard_doomed_by_arizona_immi.html#ixzz0oDQ1e0sA
Woolard added that she is against racial profiling
"Looks like the Miss USA pageant didn't want to risk the wrath of the open-borders mob," wrote conservative blogger Michelle Malkin.
Persian women should win more beauty pagents. :heartbeat
[youtube=560,345]eMUVFctJ2Xw[/youtube]
Persian women should win more beauty pagents. :heartbeatShe's lebanese. Basically arab. Hardcore purrrsians would be insulted by what you said.
Couple of primaries tonight.
Only news so far is Rand Paul son of you know who won.
#PASEN running down the list county-by-county, it's becoming clearer and clearer Specter has no hope of pulling this out
It is quite an understatement to say that I am not Rand Paul's target audience. Still, I couldn't help notice something about his brief acceptance speech and I'm curious to hear whether any of you had a similar take. I don't think I'd ever seen Paul speak at any length. Or if I did I don't have a clear recollection of it. And he came off to me as arrogant, bellicose and even a little messianic in his demeanor. To put it baldly, he sounded like a jerk.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/05/rand_paul.php?ref=fpblg
When I watched it on replay later it didn't sound quite as jarring to me. But maybe that's because my impression from the first viewing was so negative that a second look couldn't live up to my first impression. (see some video highlights here.)
In any case, that's actually quite different from his father. I find Ron Paul's politics awful and he's a classic ideologue. But as a person he comes off as pretty humble and even unassuming, which I've always thought is the reason he manages to have a certain degree of crossover popularity despite his draconian and often ugly politics.
Now does any of that matter? Not necessarily, I guess. And when I mentioned this in the newsroom this evening a couple members of our team pointed out, rightly, that that sort of attitude is part and parcel of the Tea Party movement and really any anti-establishment movement for that matter. But even in a conservative state like Kentucky some measure of pivoting is necessary in a general election. And I wondered after seeing Paul whether he's constitutionally capable of it.
and he came off to me as arrogant, bellicose and even a little messianic in his demeanor.
So is it safe to say that KY is going back to the gold standard? :smug
By now many Texans have heard about the proposed “NAFTA Superhighway,” which is also referred to as the trans-Texas corridor. What you may not know is the extent to which plans for such a superhighway are moving forward without congressional oversight or media attention.
This superhighway would connect Mexico, the United States, and Canada, cutting a wide swath through the middle of Texas and up through Kansas City. Offshoots would connect the main artery to the west coast, Florida, and northeast. Proponents envision a ten-lane colossus the width of several football fields, with freight and rail lines, fiber-optic cable lines, and oil and natural gas pipelines running alongside.
This will require coordinated federal and state eminent domain actions on an unprecedented scale, as literally millions of people and businesses could be displaced. The loss of whole communities is almost certain, as planners cannot wind the highway around every quaint town, historic building, or senior citizen apartment for thousands of miles.
Governor Perry is a supporter of the superhighway project, and Congress has provided small amounts of money to study the proposal. Since this money was just one item in an enormous transportation appropriations bill, however, most members of Congress were not aware of it.
The proposed highway is part of a broader plan advanced by a quasi-government organization called the “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,” or SPP.
The SPP was first launched in 2005 by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico, and the United States at a summit in Waco.
The SPP was not created by a treaty between the nations involved, nor was Congress involved in any way. Instead, the SPP is an unholy alliance of foreign consortiums and officials from several governments. One principal player is a Spanish construction company, which plans to build the highway and operate it as a toll road. But don’t be fooled: the superhighway proposal is not the result of free market demand, but rather an extension of government-managed trade schemes like NAFTA that benefit politically-connected interests.
The real issue is national sovereignty. Once again, decisions that affect millions of Americans are not being made by those Americans themselves, or even by their elected representatives in Congress. Instead, a handful of elites use their government connections to bypass national legislatures and ignore our Constitution – which expressly grants Congress the sole authority to regulate international trade.
The ultimate goal is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy, and virtually borderless travel within the Union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether.
A new resolution, introduced by Representative Virgil Goode of Virginia, expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a NAFTA superhighway, or enter into any agreement that advances the concept of a North American Union. I wholeheartedly support this legislation, and predict that the superhighway will become a sleeper issue in the 2008 election.
Any movement toward a North American Union diminishes the ability of average Americans to influence the laws under which they must live. The SPP agreement, including the plan for a major transnational superhighway through Texas, is moving forward without congressional oversight – and that is an outrage. The administration needs a strong message from Congress that the American people will not tolerate backroom deals that threaten our sovereignty.
[youtube=560,345]FO4nj87gYHU[/youtube]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-sharry/first-lady-michelle-obama_b_582168.html
wut
Questioner: But under your philosophy it would be okay for Dr. King to not be served at the counter at Woolworths?http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/rand-paul-on-civil-rights_b_582674.html
Rand Paul: I would not go to that Woolworth's, and I would stand up in my community and say it's abhorrent. um... But the hard part, and this is the hard part about believing in freedom is, if you believe in the First Amendment, for example, you to, for example-- most good defenders will believe in abhorrent groups standing up and saying awful things, and we're here at the bastion of newspaperdom (sic) and I'm sure you believe in the First Amendment, so I'm sure you understand people can say bad things. It's the same way with other behaviors. In a free society we will tolerate boorish people who have abhorrent behavior, but if we're civilized people we publicly criticize that and don't belong to those groups or associate with those people.
In a letter to the city of LA, a member of Arizona's power commission said he would ask Arizona utility companies to cut off the power supply to Los Angeles. LA gets about 25 percent of its power from Arizona.
Maybe I'm just naive.
If you were a black guy in the sixties would you have "faith" in other people? :lol
Never understood that. ???
Maybe I'm just naive.
Never understood that. ???
Maybe I'm just naive.
Not naive, willfully ignorant.
no, everyone is not EXCLUSIVELY selfish. we are collectively selfless and sacrificin in equal measure. we would not have survived as a specifies if we did not have social mechanisms by which we suborn ourselves to the needs of the larger group. we are SOCIAL CREATURES. we go mad when left in isolation.
I think he's playing by JayDubya rules, where every new page makes the last page null.
no, everyone is not EXCLUSIVELY selfish.
It isn't our nature, either.
It isn't our nature, either.
You don't think that wanting to improve our life is in our nature?
so you have faith that people are NOT selfish when it serves your political purposes, but ARE selfish when it excuses your own bad behavior? i would like to subscribe to your hilariously petty newsletter
how is that a selfish thing? rising tide, lifts all boats, socialism, etc
How is "enlightened" selfishness" an oxymoron?
Everyone is selfish, it's nature. The difference between me and you is that you pretend thats not how it works.
Is it selfish for someone to want to make more money?
Pretty great, deep Rachel Maddow interview with Rand Paul about his thoughts on the Civil Rights Act http://slate.me/bAq7NC
The Rand Paul camp has issued a new statement (via Greg Sargent) saying that Paul does in fact support the power of the federal government "to insure that private businesses don't discriminate based on race."http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/reversal-paul-backs-govt-enforced-ban-on-discrimination.php?ref=fpb
That appears to be a full reversal from Paul's comment on Rachel Maddow Wednesday night that, referring to the section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that bars private institutions from race-based discrimination, "had I been around, I would have tried to modify that."
Said Paul spokesman Jesse Benton (who, by the way, was also a spokesman for Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign):
"Civil Rights legislation that has been affirmed by our courts gives the Federal government the right to insure that private businesses don't discriminate based on race. Dr. Paul supports those powers."
That goes further than the statement from Rand Paul himself earlier today that endorsed the Civil Rights Act because of its "intent" but fell short of supporting the power of the government to ban racial discrimination by private businesses.
Libertarians always do well when they group think among each other. It all sounds wonderful and fair (to them) when they back each other up.
And then they explain what their views actually mean to the general public and people always think they are bat shit insane.
Libertarians On Paul's Civil Rights Stance: 'Very Reasonable'
Rand Paul's apparent opposition to a key provision of the Civil Rights Act places him well within the mainstream of libertarian thought, according to several leading libertarians.
The GOP Senate candidate told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night that he would have tried to "modify" the law's ban on racial discrimination by private businesses. That was an expansion of comments he made last month to a Louisville newspaper, in which he said that opposing the ban was "the hard part about believing in freedom."
...
Walter Block, a libertarian professor of economics at Loyola University, and a senior fellow with the libertarian Ludwig Von Mises Institute, went further. "I think anyone who doesn't believe that isn't a libertarian," he said, calling Paul's comment "a very mainstream libertarianism."
"I'm delighted that Rand Paul said that," an enthusiastic Block added. "I think it's magnificent. I didn't realize that he was that good."
"The spirit of non-discrimination," said Block "ends you right up in compulsory bisexuality."
...
technically Randall Paul
This bold move shows the Tea Party capable of backing down instantly from any stance when it's politically expedient.
Seriously though I think the dude is toast. the tea party is already fighting the racism thing and this is going to maul them if they let it continue..
wait a minute....his real name is fucking Rand Paul?
Jesus Christ.
Oblivion, I don't believe it works backwards.
But I do believe in unicorns in track suits.
Has anyone asked Rand about other widely popular libertarian stances of legalized drugs and prostitution? :teeheethat's the thing, either he wins and becomes a republican who doesn't go with the establishment with the GOP, votes against war and social conservatism, or his stances become so much of a liability that a republican loses to a dem in fucking Kentucky of all places.
with the damn dems and our commy president it wont matter anyhow in a few months the governemnet with fucken control wall street too and make sure everyone forgets what capatilaism was about.....we are screwed....good thing the world is ending in 2012 hahaha
Has anyone asked Rand about other widely popular libertarian stances of legalized drugs and prostitution? :teeheethat's the thing, either he wins and becomes a republican who doesn't go with the establishment with the GOP, votes against war and social conservatism, or his stances become so much of a liability that a republican loses to a dem in fucking Kentucky of all places.
him getting the nomination was lose-lose the GOP.
Even under Mandark's hypothetical of an area where bigots flock together and create a place where the market rewarded such behavior, you would be dealing with a tiny, marginalized, self-selecting group.
Even under Mandark's hypothetical of an area where bigots flock together and create a place where the market rewarded such behavior, you would be dealing with a tiny, marginalized, self-selecting group.
Even under Mandark's hypothetical of an area where bigots flock together and create a place where the market rewarded such behavior, you would be dealing with a tiny, marginalized, self-selecting group.
Even under Mandark's hypothetical of an area where bigots flock together and create a place where the market rewarded such behavior, you would be dealing with a tiny, marginalized, self-selecting group.
Even under Mandark's hypothetical of an area where bigots flock together and create a place where the market rewarded such behavior, you would be dealing with a tiny, marginalized, self-selecting group.
the vast majority of white people in the south were apathetic towards civil rights. They didn't hate black people, they just didn't see a reason to care why their gardener/domestic had to shop at a different store.It's about small mom & pop stores that get healthy revenue from their either apathetic or racist white customers.
Hence, tiny and marginalized.
It wasn't seeing him have to shop at a less convenient store on the black side of the town that got the civil rights act through. It was seeing him get shot with fire hoses and bitten by dogs.
So, emotional overreaction to a clear injustice leading to missing the mark and perpetuating further injustice, then?
JAYDUBYA: Businesses wouldn't discriminate against minorities, it's against their enlightened self-interest!
PHOENIXDARK: Actually, most white-owned businesses throughout a large portion of the United States did just that for roughly a century and only stopped after intervention by the federal government.
JAYDUBYA: I just explained how that would never happen.
PHOENIXDARK: ...but it did happen.
JAYDUBYA: Maybe. But even if it did, it's impossible that it ever could have.
I do think it looks bad to be apathetic to this "realistic" solution, when it's appropriate to condemn it. What you described, the dogs and hosing - represented actions on the part of local governments that violated the constitutional right to peaceably assemble. This is a significant problem, and one that warrants concern. It does not logically follow that the "realistic" or appropriate course of action is to diminish property rights.
Rhetorical question. As a matter of historical record, there was not. Do you think that there would not be widespread boycotting or market share lost in May 2010?
Not wanting to sell someone something does not "victimize" in any conceivable way.
So what you're saying is that it is unrealistic to expect people to get mad at the actual source of a problem.No, I am saying that the illegal actions of the local government were supported by their constituents.
Not wanting to sell someone something does not "victimize" in any conceivable way.If almost all white business owners do this to all blacks then it creates a problem, yes.
Thus voting away essential liberty, and not even for temporary security, but for the sake of maybe making people treat each other nice at some point in the distant future, if we take your argument to its conclusion.
Furthermore, you cannot realistically hope to substantiate that all things that did happen were the only way they could have happened, that they were the best way they could have happened, or that particular objectionable aspects were the chief agents in achieving what you consider a desirable outcome. I don't think you'll find history at large amenable to that reasoning.I never suggested that.
Of course I knew this is where some would want the goalposts moved to; I took this into account well beforehand.
From a utility argument standpoint, it is already in the business's financial best interest to take any paying customer. Overwhelmingly, the sort of practices the law prevents would already be commercial suicide due to boycotts, protests, and the simplicity and speed of modern communication. Even under Mandark's hypothetical of an area where bigots flock together and create a place where the market rewarded such behavior, you would be dealing with a tiny, marginalized, self-selecting group. These laws are useless and outmoded; the assertion that such laws led to a status quo where the laws were rendered useless and outmoded is both unverifiable, and also not particularly salient.
You made a point? It sounds to me like you're trying to make a quote, and one that seems pretty alien to me.
Bigotry along the lines of superficial differences will exist as long as superficial differences do, long after the notion of "race" goes out the window (as it should and hopefully will).
We still have an amendment that makes it illegal to own slaves.
And that is well. Would that we had equivalent amendments that were as protective of the right to property and the right to life.
Slavery is a violation of the human right to liberty and the right to property - you must have self-ownership, self-determination; someone using aggressive force to take that away that self-determination is inherently and inexorably wrong in a way that makes not selling you a cheeseburger pale in comparison... just a bit.
I'd be scared shitless about the law if I thought it is as bad as liberals think it is.
I'd be scared shitless about the law if I wasn't white.Fixt
I'd be scared shitless about the law if I wasn't white.Fixt
"And I think it's part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it's always got to be somebody's fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen," Paul said.
Accidents happen. I spilled some pasta on the floor, and now the livelihood of everybody in my area is affected.
Not wanting to sell someone something does not "victimize" in any conceivable way.
I hadn't really thought of it that way because that is the kind of (lame)reach that only a conservative could make. A 'leap of faith' I think you guys call it.I'd be scared shitless about the law if I wasn't white.Fixt
Are you suggesting that you can't read (the law) if they aren't white? That's pretty racist.
First of them all, I will for the sake of argument disregard all the cases of blacks being denied cheeseburgers...We still have an amendment that makes it illegal to own slaves.And that is well. Would that we had equivalent amendments that were as protective of the right to property and the right to life.
Slavery is a violation of the human right to liberty and the right to property - you must have self-ownership, self-determination; someone using aggressive force to take that away that self-determination is inherently and inexorably wrong in a way that makes not selling you a cheeseburger pale in comparison... just a bit.
I don't see what the big deal is. So every now and again they couldn't conveniently buy a cheeseburger. I ask you, is that so bad?
"And I think it's part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it's always got to be somebody's fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen or dirty lazy government-teat sucking poors and blacks abuse the hard work of honest white middle-class taxpayers," Paul said.
Accidents happen. I spilled some pasta on the floor, and now the livelihood of everybody in my area is affected.
Say what you will about the Arizona law (it was passed since the Federal Government's Immigration Officers are failing majorly at their job), but I take offense to Obama and Democrats clapping in support of the Mexican President ripping Arizona a new one while he has just as bad, if not worse immigration laws concerning the countries to Mexico's south that Mexico has no intention of repealing.
Say what you will about the Arizona law (it was passed since the Federal Government's Immigration Officers are failing majorly at their job), but I take offense to Obama and Democrats clapping in support of the Mexican President ripping Arizona a new one while he has just as bad, if not worse immigration laws concerning the countries to Mexico's south that Mexico has no intention of repealing.
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/hannity-says-mexican-president-needs
Also, you can't blame Obama and the Dems for 'failing to do their job', when people like Lindsey Graham (despite being a co-author of an immigration bill) are refusing to get involved.
"And I think it's part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it's always got to be somebody's fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen or dirty lazy government-teat sucking poors and blacks abuse the hard work of honest white middle-class taxpayers," Paul said.
Accidents happen. I spilled some pasta on the floor, and now the livelihood of everybody in my area is affected.
fixed for subtext.
and yeah, in a vacuum, where we are all individuals operating in context-free isolation, not selling someone something is victimless. but when the act of "selling" is more than simple an exchange of goods/services/currency, and when like-minded individuals group together in communities, and when those groups form greater societies all of whom are against selling something to someone on account of their skin color or perceived sexual preference or long hair or religious affiliation, well, THEN you have a need for an authority with a larger perspective to step in and bust shit up. the fundamental failing of the libertarian -- the one they just can't wrap their heads around -- is that NO MAN IS AN ISLAND. if you are going to involve other people in ANY aspect of your life, then you must relinquish certain perceived freedoms, many of which are relinquished not because they impact your immediate environs or status but because you have CHOSEN to be part of a larger community that has specific needs to retain overall cohesion. perspective: not something common to lolbertarian outlooks, and the lack of it is why social progressives are so mystified. and *we're* the ones that supposed hate america?
of course, this approach will be rendered into some hilariously binary argument by one of the libertarian set here, because everything is either one thing -OR- another, and there can be no messy, inconvenient, uncomfortable shades of grey that require moral flexibility or cultural adaptation. no, if you practice that approach, you're IMMORAL!!!!! or you must take it some illogical extreme that results in everyone getting sent to camps somewhere.
Not wanting to sell someone something does not "victimize" in any conceivable way.
don't celebrate yet; if the libertarians get their way, policemen will be replaced with robocops and/or mercenaries, depending on which polarized version of reality they prefer
Explain this please.Don't. It's impossible.
Looking solely at the property aspect, Jim Crow laws that dictate what someone must not do and Title IX dictating what someone must do are equally unjust.
JAYDUBYA: Businesses wouldn't discriminate against minorities, it's against their enlightened self-interest!also jaydubs, as always pathologically unable to admit being wrong, still has yet to directly respond to this (other than calling it a "strawman," which isn't an actual response)
PHOENIXDARK: Actually, most white-owned businesses throughout a large portion of the United States did just that for roughly a century and only stopped after intervention by the federal government.
JAYDUBYA: I just explained how that would never happen.
PHOENIXDARK: ...but it did happen.
JAYDUBYA: Maybe. But even if it did, it's impossible that it ever could have.
Has anyone asked Rand about other widely popular libertarian stances of legalized drugs and prostitution? :teeheethat's the thing, either he wins and becomes a republican who doesn't go with the establishment with the GOP, votes against war and social conservatism, or his stances become so much of a liability that a republican loses to a dem in fucking Kentucky of all places.
him getting the nomination was lose-lose the GOP.
then go BE an island, and see how long you last!
Should a black family owned restaurant be forced to serve KKK members? That's pretty absurd.As lomng as they aren't trying to preach hate speech, then yes the KKK members should be served.
Should a black family owned restaurant be forced to serve KKK members? That's pretty absurd.
Should a black family owned restaurant be forced to serve KKK members? That's pretty absurd.
Should a black family owned restaurant be forced to serve KKK members? That's pretty absurd.
Hey wait! You're not Beardo at all!
:wag
I like how JayDubya is the only one who "understands" America. Everyone else is wrong. :lolExcept for him all I see is immigrants and euro-fegs in this thread.
in his defense, internet libertarians often appear functionally interchangable
that's what a good shot of inflexible dogma does to one's interweb dna
don't celebrate yet; if the libertarians get their way, policemen will be replaced with robocops and/or mercenaries, depending on which polarized version of reality they prefer
also magnets how do they work
Love that sketch.
edit: oh shit, I started a new page! nooooooooo, all of the effort to engage JayDubya in debate is now for naught.........
Sarah Palin, who popularized the "drill, baby, drill" slogan as the GOP vice presidential candidate, criticized President Obama's efforts to clean up the Gulf oil spill.
The former Alaska governor, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," questioned whether there's "any connection" between Obama's campaign donations from oil companies and him "taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico," the Los Angeles Times reports.
Palin said she remains a "big supporter" of oil drilling but "these oil companies have got to be held accountable."
In response, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Palin should learn more about the situation.
"My suggestion to Sarah Palin would be to get slightly more informed as to what's going on in and around oil drilling in this country," Gibbs said on CBS News' "Face the Nation." He added:
Sarah Palin was involved in that election, but I don't think, apparently, was paying a whole lot of attention. I'm almost sure that the oil companies don't consider the Obama administration a huge ally. We proposed a windfall profits tax when they jacked their oil prices up to charge more for gasoline.
The oil and gas industry donated $2.4 million to Palin's running mate, Republican John McCain, in the 2008 election cycle, and nearly $900,000 to Obama, according to the Times, which cites data from the Center for Responsive Politics' opensecrets.org website.
"Every bit of government has been activated," Gibbs said CBS News. "The president has told the team to spare nothing in trying to cap this well."
Palin, who has supported drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife, told Fox News that onshore drilling is "even safer than way offshore." She said:
Maybe this (Gulf spill) is a lesson too for those who oppose safe, domestic supplies being extracted on our shores and on the land."
can we get a :palinlol emoticon
I think he's playing by JayDubya rules, where every new page makes the last page null.This is called the Lost strategy. Each season makes the last season completely irrelevant.
(http://tinyurl.com/37269qj)
(CNN) -- North Korea announced Tuesday a freeze in relations with South Korea and threatened military retaliation in response to alleged intrusions into its waters by the South Korean navy.
North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said it would "abrogate the agreement on non-aggression" amid heightened tensions on the divided peninsular over the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year.
An official South Korean report accused the Communist North of firing a torpedo at the ship, killing 46 sailors.
A North Korean military official accused the South of intruding into North Korean waters in the Yellow Sea from May 14 to 24, the Yonhap news agency reported.
"This is a deliberate provocation aimed to spark off another military conflict in the West Sea of Korea and thus push to a war phase the present north-south relations," the official said in a statement, according to Yonhap.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged North Korea Monday to reveal what it knows about the "act of aggression" that sunk a South Korean warship.
She also said the United States' "support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal" and that North Korea should "stop its belligerence and threatening behavior."
South Korea has said a probe concluded the North fired a torpedo that sunk a South Korean military ship in March. The United States supports that finding, Clinton said while in China.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak announced Monday that his country was suspending trade with North Korea, closing its waters to the North's ships and adopting a newly-aggressive military posture toward its neighbor.
"We endorse President Lee's call on North Korea to come forward with the facts regarding this act of aggression and, above all, stop its belligerence and threatening behavior," Clinton said.
U.S. President Barack Obama has directed military commanders to work with South Korean troops "to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression" from North Korea.
Himuro. His brightly-colored cravat will draw enemy fire away from everyone else.
Okay, something seems wrong here.
CBO Estimates Stimulus has put up to 2.8 million to work in first quarter (http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/cbo-stimulus-put-up-to-34m-to-work-in-first-quarter.php?ref=fpa).
Back in February, the CBO said the Stimulus created 2.1 million jobs in the last quarter of 2009. (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2311303720100223)
So with this new report, between the 4th quarter of 2009 and the first quarter 2010, the stimulus created between 3.3 million and 4.9 million jobs, which in turn would mean Herr Obama created more jobs in 6 months than Bush did in 8 years? Am I reading that right? That's almost too good to be true. I'm sure I'm missing something.
A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.
The project's leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children's ethnicity. But the school's principal says the request was only to fix shading and had nothing to do with political pressure.
The "Go on Green" mural, which covers two walls outside Miller Valley Elementary School, was designed to advertise a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation. It features portraits of four children, with a Hispanic boy as the dominant figure.
R.E. Wall, director of Prescott's Downtown Mural Project, said he and other artists were subjected to slurs from motorists as they worked on the painting at one of the town's most prominent intersections.
"We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars," Wall said. "We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics)."
Wall said school Principal Jeff Lane pressed him to make the children's faces appear happier and brighter.
"It is being lightened because of the controversy," Wall said, adding that "they want it to look like the children are coming into light."
Lane said that he received only three complaints about the mural and that his request for a touch-up had nothing to do with political pressure. "We asked them to fix the shading on the children's faces," he said. "We were looking at it from an artistic view. Nothing at all to do with race."
City Councilman Steve Blair spearheaded a public campaign on his talk show at Prescott radio station KYCA-AM (1490) to remove the mural.
In a broadcast last month, according to the Daily Courier in Prescott, Blair mistakenly complained that the most prominent child in the painting is African-American, saying: "To depict the biggest picture on the building as a Black person, I would have to ask the question: Why?"
Blair could not be reached for comment Thursday. In audio archives of his radio show, Blair discusses the mural. He insists the controversy isn't about racism but says the mural is intended to create racial controversy where none existed before.
"Personally, I think it's pathetic," he says. "You have changed the ambience of that building to excite some kind of diversity power struggle that doesn't exist in Prescott, Arizona. And I'm ashamed of that."
Faces in the mural were drawn from photographs of children enrolled at Miller Valley, a K-5 school with 380 students and the highest ethnic mix of any school in Prescott. Wall said thousands of town residents volunteered or donated to the project, the fourth in a series of community murals painted by a group of artists known as the "Mural Mice."
The public art, funded by a $5,000 state grant through the Prescott Alternative Transportation Center, was selected by school students and faculty.
"The parents and children love it," Lane said.
Asked to clarify, he said he did not mean the United States was at war with India, but was at war with "foreign countries."If I had the energy and know-how to make a gif of Riley busting out laughing on the last episode of Boondocks, I would post it here.
I've been sitting here trying to come up with a non-rambling 2a point in relation to how conservatives attempt to frame any civil rights/multiculturalism issue as invasive liberal politics, adding partisan controversy to issues you'd think we could all agree on. Multiculturalism goes from being a good, American/melting pot thing to a liberal conspiracy to make whites feel guilty or left out. Disdain for celebrations of diversity are often hid underneath complaints about "political correctness" and/or the double standards that allegedly limit white people from being on a level playing field with minorities ("how come black pride is ok but white pride isn't; how come black magazines are ok, but if I made a white magazine it would be racist; etc").
Whenever a prominent white personality is caught saying the n word, Fox News wonders why it's ok for black people to say the word, and why black leaders aren't working hard enough to stopthe free marketit.
edit: oh look
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/06/so_carolina_totally_loses_its_mind.php?ref=fpblg
It's amazing how much shit is being thrown at Haley. Holy shitI'm not particularly surprised. She's a white woman. That is only a small step up from being black in these people's minds.
This fits perfectly in with the race conversation though, with a little religion added in the mix ha
With tomorrow's Nevada primary coming up, it's worth looking back on the many gaffes and errors of former state GOP chair Sue Lowden, whose once-mighty Senate campaign has fallen behind Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle. Simply put, the chickens have come home to roost for what may be one of the worst-run Senate primary campaigns of this cycle.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/totally-plucked-what-happened-to-sue-lowdens-once-formidable-campaign.php?ref=fpa
Lowden shot to national fame in April, when she was caught on tape telling people to barter with their doctors in order to lower health care costs. Her other policy prescription for people grappling with expensive health care: "And if you want to save $20,000, good for you. Save it pre-tax."
...
So let's look at the toll that all of this helped to take on Lowden. Two months ago, Mason-Dixon had her leading the GOP primary field with 45%, followed by ex-UNLV basketball player Danny Tarkanian with 27%, and Angle at 5%. A month ago, she was down to 30%, with Angle at 25% and Tarkanian with 22%. And now the latest poll has Angle with 32%, Tarkanian at 24%, and Lowden with 23%.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/media-demands-that-obama-show-more-emotion-about-spill-video.php?ref=fpi
Blanche Lincoln won her primary. I'm gonna be sick
When Democrats were pushing to enact "cram down," which would allow judges to rewrite mortgage contracts in bankruptcy court, conservative Democrats and the GOP argued that it would violate the "sanctity of the contract."
There is only sanctity, however, for one side of that contract. "It also disgusts me that the Republicans would use Big Government to interfere with the sanctity of contract," said Baker in an e-mail. "Those who do a strategic default are complying with their contract. The deal was that the banks get back the house if the homeowner doesn't pay the mortgage. Now, the Republicans are arguing that the nanny state has to look out for the little boys and girls at the big banks who are too dumb to understand contracts. They are going to use the power of the government to punish people because they acted on the terms of the contract to the disadvantage of the banks."
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/jun/10/strange-twist-in-senate-race/I heard them talking about him on the radio yesterday and one theory is that he won because he was the first name on the democratic ballot.
How the hell does this happen? Alvin Greene -- unemployed, lives with his parents, has a felony obscenity charge against his name, and hardly campaigned at all -- wins the SC democratic primary with 59% of the vote. And apparently he's now being accused by folks of being a Republican plant. :lol
Sure the cursing seemed so forced
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/06/olbermann_interviews_alvin_greene.php#more?ref=fpblg
holy fuck :rofl
It's like Himu decided his new hobby would be running for senate
WHY ISN'T THE PRESIDENT ANGRY ENOUGH (BY OUR ARBITRARY STANDARDS, BY THE WAY) ABOUT THIS OIL SPILL? WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS, SPOCK?
*Obama vows to "kick ass" over oil spill*
WHOA WHOA WHOA... SLOW DOWN THERE ANGRY SOCIALIST NEGRO!
The press is probably the most useless part of the whole system by this point.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/06/olbermann_interviews_alvin_greene.php#more?ref=fpblg
holy fuck :rofl
It's like Himu decided his new hobby would be running for senate
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/06/olbermann_interviews_alvin_greene.php#more?ref=fpblg
holy fuck :rofl
It's like Himu decided his new hobby would be running for senate
You can be on unemployment and still have savings. If he spent 9 years in Korea he must have a good amount of money tucked away.Yeah, it is possible that somebody else didn't finance him. But I can't believe that anybody would be that stupid that they would blow their savings while unemployed on long-shot senate run and then do no campaigning.
This really does look like a plan that falls well short of what advocates of strong stimulus were hoping for — and it seems as if that was done in order to win Republican votes. Yet even if the plan gets the hoped-for 80 votes in the Senate, which seems doubtful, responsibility for the plan’s perceived failure, if it’s spun that way, will be placed on Democrats.http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/6/14/875776/-Stimulus-spending:-Paul-Krugman-was-right
I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we’re talking about now, is crafted to win those extra GOP votes. The plan limits the rise in unemployment, but things are still pretty bad, with the rate peaking at something like 9 percent and coming down only slowly. And then Mitch McConnell says “See, government spending doesn’t work.”
Of course the World Trade Center bombings are a uniquely tragic event, and it is vital that we never lose sight of the human tragedy involved. However, we must also consider if this is not also a lesson to us all; a lesson that my political views are correct. Although what is done can never be undone, the fact remains that if the world were organised according to my political views, this tragedy would never have happened.
Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.
Not only are my political views vindicated by this terrible tragedy, but also the status of my profession. Furthermore, it is only in the context of a national and international tragedy like this that we are reminded of the very special status of my hobby, and its particular claim to legislative protection. My religious and spiritual views also have much to teach us about the appropriate reaction to these truly terrible events.
Countries which I like seem to never suffer such tragedies, while countries which, for one reason or another, I dislike, suffer them all the time. The one common factor which seems to explain this has to do with my political views, and it suggests that my political views should be implemented as a matter of urgency, even though they are, as a matter of fact, not implemented in the countries which I like.
Of course the World Trade Center attacks are a uniquely tragic event, and it is vital that we never lose sight of the human tragedy involved. But we must also not lose sight of the fact that I am right on every significant moral and political issue, and everybody ought to agree with me. Please, I ask you as fellow human beings, vote for the political party which I support, and ask your legislators to support policies endorsed by me, as a matter of urgency.
It would be a fitting memorial.
[youtube=560,345]uaHtAxSXMwo[/youtube]
The right wing's war on Miranda rights is so hilarious. I thought they were about freedom and rights :'(
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201006190006
:lol :lol :lol
It's so patriotic to say your country's military can be easily replaced. The country Mr. Beck loves so much it makes him cry. :'(
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201006190006
:lol :lol :lol
It's so patriotic to say your country's military can be easily replaced. The country Mr. Beck loves so much it makes him cry. :'(
That's exactly what we need. A military driven by a profit motive. :american
so it looks like Obama has to fire a general
Obama will spend 4 years cleaning up messes (and making messes), then President Romney will be sworn in and ride the wave of recovery
In what way, Genghis? A corporate military outfit that is big enough to occupy a country sound very dangerous to me.
It's odd hearing that McCrystal apparently also bashed Biden though since I'm pretty sure Biden was always for spending the resources to rebuild properly.
What did this Billy Crystal guy do anyways:lol
The Texas Republican Party gives a whole new meaning to the word conservative. The GOP there has voted on a platform that would ban oral and anal sex.
...
The 25-page proposal, presented last week as a guide for the state GOP over the next two years, includes other measures including outlawing “sexually oriented businesses” like strip clubs and banning “all pornography.”
Hey, Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing is coming up and there doesn't seem to be a consensus talking point against her. What gives?
Hey, Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing is coming up and there doesn't seem to be a consensus talking point against her. What gives?
Are you kidding? All I heard after she was nominated was BLANK SLATE BLANK SLATE BLANK SLATE. And of course the far left is afeard that she's not gonna be liberal enough (although since she's gonna be replacing Stevens, that's a fair worry to have.). I think the problem is that today's conservative is so easily distracted- they can't decide if they want to be mad at Obama for not waving a wand to solve the economy, the oil spill, or for having to basically fire McChrystal for going rogue while maintaining a straight face and forgetting what happened to Shinseki. And then if he DID wave a magic wand and fix anything, they'd bitch about him being a warlock or whatever. And the media would follow along, because they are stupid and useless.
why is Obama still allowing BP to handle the situation?
why is Obama still allowing BP to handle the situation?
Because he is not personally capable of stopping a deepwater oil leak.
FFS dude, we elected a political leader, not a superpowered national daddy figure.
Probably shouldn't jump down anyone's throat for something they preface with "this might be a dumb question". Got irked at hearing for the billionth time that Obama should "take over" or "get involved", so Oblivion wound up with sarcasm as a door prize.
What PD said is right, AFAIK.
Anyways, how about Robert Byrd?
He was the last living link in the Senate to a very different America, politically speaking. Parties that were pretty patchwork nationally, explicit racial apartheid in a big chunk of the country, and a much greater public acceptance of pork barrel politics. He seemed to single-handedly keep the Democratic machine going in West Virginia when the rest of the Appalachians turned Republican.
He wrote an autobiography a few years back. I'd be interested to see what he wrote about filibustering the Civil Rights Act.
[youtube=560,345]GqnjzONrPiA[/youtube]
It's their operation and the US government doesn't have any particular technology to plug the hole. The only thing they could do is blow it up, which could cause problems as well.
The government is more in control of the recovery (cleaning up the spill/compensating those effected) and determining who's to blame.
He's definitely some weird living time capsule. It always bothered me when lizard-brains would say "hey well look at the kkk Democrat Byrd and try to tell me Republicans are the racists hyuk hyuk". smugface x ∞
Anyways, re: the CRA, iirc he's said it was one of his great regrets (in the context of also regretting voting for the Patriot Act)
Offering Prescription Drug Discounts. Seniors who reach the coverage gap will receive a 50 percent discount when buying Medicare Part D covered brand-name prescription drugs. Over the next ten years, seniors will receive additional savings on brand-name and generic drugs until the coverage gap is closed in 2020. Effective January 1, 2011.
Maybe PantherLotus on gaf said it best: "In about 10-15 years, Republicans are going to really, really, REALLY regret branding this as Obamacare."
Maybe PantherLotus on gaf said it best: "In about 10-15 years, Republicans are going to really, really, REALLY regret branding this as Obamacare."
And boy howdy, Beardo's sure keeping it classy up in here.
Your pic wasn't showing up for me so I rehosted it for you. :-*
The people that still want to pass the bill then have to pare it down, or wait. The "CRA of 1965" could have been much better for the delay.
Flawed legislation is bad legislation. If only our law makers were as through as Blizzard EntertainmentThat would be cool because then they would have never finished the second amendment with how fast gun technology/culture changed.
:lolThe people that still want to pass the bill then have to pare it down, or wait. The "CRA of 1965" could have been much better for the delay.
The Bore Presents part 57 of "JayDubya's How The Civil Rights Movement Probably Happened, According to My Models", an ongoing series.
god I sure hate the constitutional fetish. and yet most of them are perfectly fine with American citizens being detained indefinitely, assassinated, and having their Miranda and religious rights waived in the name of freedom and brown hatin'.She said the founding fathers set up the constitution to make sure their were equal rights for people of all races and origins (not religions, though...) and then she railed on schools for not teaching about the founding fathers. :lol
Makes me want to write a Left Behind fanfic where the tea party movement ushers in the anti-Christ
I listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh while working. I find it amusing that they gush over the new iPhone and Apple products in general.Simple advertising.
If anyone needs another reason to avoid Apple products, this should be it.
I listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh while working. I find it amusing that they gush over the new iPhone and Apple products in general.Simple advertising.
If anyone needs another reason to avoid Apple products, this should be it.
looks like an adult version of the kid everyone made fun of in elementary school. The kid, whose mother dressed him, and who always had an extra pair of pants in his cubby because he would shit himself every so often.
Krugman looks like an adult version of the kid everyone made fun of in elementary school. The kid, whose mother dressed him, and who always had an extra pair of pants in his cubby because he would shit himself every so often.
looks like an adult version of the kid everyone made fun of in elementary school. The kid, whose mother dressed him, and who always had an extra pair of pants in his cubby because he would shit himself every so often.
http://www.youngrepublicans.com/ (http://www.youngrepublicans.com/)
NRA Sues to Destroy Gun Records: The National Rifle Association, warning that "a federal police force" is illegally compiling information on gun buyers, has filed suit against Attorney General Janet Reno to require the records used for the instant background check system be destroyed immediately.
Krugman looks like an adult version of the kid everyone made fun of in elementary school. The kid, whose mother dressed him, and who always had an extra pair of pants in his cubby because he would shit himself every so often.spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://uranowski.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/image-axd.jpeg)[close]
Krugman looks like an adult version of the kid everyone made fun of in elementary school. The kid, whose mother dressed him, and who always had an extra pair of pants in his cubby because he would shit himself every so often.spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://uranowski.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/image-axd.jpeg)[close]
(http://drunkenachura.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/internet-serious-business.jpg)Krugman looks like an adult version of the kid everyone made fun of in elementary school. The kid, whose mother dressed him, and who always had an extra pair of pants in his cubby because he would shit himself every so often.spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://uranowski.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/image-axd.jpeg)[close]
With well-reasoned and fact sourced arguments like those, it's a wonder your side is out of power.
Well, it would be nice if we had better quality control so that the latest updates didn't break the game. Even with all the bugs, it was arguably better at launch. I mean, some of the patches improved the gameplay and accessibility, but most of them have been junk.
The short version of the story is as follows: After the former state Rep won Nevada's Republican Senate primary, Angle's campaign took down most of its website, and later replaced it with a relaunched version that in some ways toned down her right-wing rhetoric. But Internet pages are rarely ever forgotten -- the Reid campaign saved the old version, and put up a website called "The Real Sharron Angle," reproducing the old content.
Then, they say, the Angle campaign sent them a cease-and-desist letter, claiming misuse of copyrighted materials in the reposting of the old website -- which was, of course, being posted for the purposes of ridiculing Angle. The Reid campaign has in fact taken down the site, rerouting visitors to another website that goes after Angle's positions, "Sharron's Underground Bunker."
"I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade."http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/07/08/quote_of_the_day.html
-- Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R), quoted by the Huffington Post, on advising a young girl raped by her father against seeking an abortion.
It's going to be hilarious to watch every vulnerable democrat lose EXCEPT Harry Reid. :lol
Quote"I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade."http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/07/08/quote_of_the_day.html
-- Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R), quoted by the Huffington Post, on advising a young girl raped by her father against seeking an abortion.
Thank you for sharing this laudable anecdote.
Quote"I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade."http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/07/08/quote_of_the_day.html
-- Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R), quoted by the Huffington Post, on advising a young girl raped by her father against seeking an abortion.
Thank you for sharing this laudable anecdote.
Quote"I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade."http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/07/08/quote_of_the_day.html
-- Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R), quoted by the Huffington Post, on advising a young girl raped by her father against seeking an abortion.
Thank you for sharing this laudable anecdote.
if life gives you rape, make rapeade
I guess you must love him a lot then Beardo.
Based on your candidate preferences it tends to seem that way.I guess you must love him a lot then Beardo.
Thats how I make all of my political decisions. Who has more corporate dollars supporting them.
It's no secret that the majority of the people who got in during the housing bubble where already well off. Which means all this bailout for the mortgages and housing industry is helping rich people.
God Jon liberals.
How is that right? That's not right.
Minnesota state Rep. Tom Emmer, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, has put forward a new policy for helping the state's businesses: Lowering the minimum wage for waiters and waitresses, and forcing them to rely more heavily on tips.
QuoteMinnesota state Rep. Tom Emmer, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, has put forward a new policy for helping the state's businesses: Lowering the minimum wage for waiters and waitresses, and forcing them to rely more heavily on tips.
what do you think the unintended consequences for this would be?
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/07/05/emmer-small-business-tips/?refid=0&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+MPR_NewsFeatures+%28News+%26+Features+from+Minnesota+Public+Radio%29
Because those laws have UNINTENDED consequences. A term that is lost on bleeding hearts.
Needed to be quoted.Because those laws have UNINTENDED consequences. A term that is lost on bleeding hearts.Eric P: Oh, I'd say the effects of that bill are pretty well intended.
yet the bubble was caused by poor people getting CRA-regulated loans???? I wasnt defending this theory.
Eric P: Oh, I'd say the effects of that bill are pretty well intended.The bill intended for the economy to crash and burn??
When even Bill O' the clown refuses swallow Palin's bullshit, you know the end times are coming.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/38286
??? I wasnt defending this theory.
O'Reilly gets way more shit than he deserves online. He's pretty clear that his show is an opinion show. Hannity is on right afterwards and is leagues worse and doesn't have a sense of humor. Bills probably feels like a Marxist in that place
i dunno
i'm kind of turning staunch anti-obama...
i dunno
i'm kind of turning staunch anti-obama...
i dunno
i'm kind of turning staunch anti-obama...
Don't forget the whole "freaking out over the deficit" thing. Still can't believe he's playing along with that bullshit in the middle of an economic crisis.
Yeah.
Like, I understand that there are certain logistical limits to what he can do, but I really feel like they painted themselves into a corner by not making the argument immediately after he was inaugurated that the economic collapse was a direct result of TOO LITTLE F'N GOVT, and that guess what? Fuck you banksters, we're taking your shit over, firing all of you and replacing you with non-sociopaths.
Instead we've gotten failed attempts to convince Republicans that actually governing the country (beyond tax cuts and wars, of course) is a good idea, and here we are in shitsville.
I'm pretty fairly disenchanted with him and could definitely see myself either not voting in 2012 or voting for a 3rd party candidate again.
How facts backfire
Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains
By Joe Keohane
July 11, 2010
It’s one of the great assumptions underlying modern democracy that an informed citizenry is preferable to an uninformed one. “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789. This notion, carried down through the years, underlies everything from humble political pamphlets to presidential debates to the very notion of a free press. Mankind may be crooked timber, as Kant put it, uniquely susceptible to ignorance and misinformation, but it’s an article of faith that knowledge is the best remedy. If people are furnished with the facts, they will be clearer thinkers and better citizens. If they are ignorant, facts will enlighten them. If they are mistaken, facts will set them straight.
Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.
This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.
“The general idea is that it’s absolutely threatening to admit you’re wrong,” says political scientist Brendan Nyhan, the lead researcher on the Michigan study. The phenomenon — known as “backfire” — is “a natural defense mechanism to avoid that cognitive dissonance.”
These findings open a long-running argument about the political ignorance of American citizens to broader questions about the interplay between the nature of human intelligence and our democratic ideals. Most of us like to believe that our opinions have been formed over time by careful, rational consideration of facts and ideas, and that the decisions based on those opinions, therefore, have the ring of soundness and intelligence. In reality, we often base our opinions on our beliefs, which can have an uneasy relationship with facts. And rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. They can cause us to twist facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions. Worst of all, they can lead us to uncritically accept bad information just because it reinforces our beliefs. This reinforcement makes us more confident we’re right, and even less likely to listen to any new information. And then we vote.
Liberals: I Knew it!
Conservatives: I knew it!
Obama and Co. dropped the ball repeatedly in almost every crucial moment and I won't be shedding tears when the collective Democratic asshole is prolapsed after November.
Obama sucks, not going to vote him in again if all we get is Republican controlled legislation. Might as well let them take complete control if the Dems are going to let them walk all over them.
I'm pretty fairly disenchanted with him and could definitely see myself either not voting in 2012 or voting for a 3rd party candidate again.
I'm pretty fairly disenchanted with him and could definitely see myself either not voting in 2012 or voting for a 3rd party candidate again.
The joyous citizens of Fallujah thank you for your role in making the Nader administration possible.
If you wanted a hands-on president, you should've voted for a white guy geniuses.
Hell, I remember everybody praising his restraint for ignoring the birther, doomsday, freemarketer distinguished mentally-challenged fellows and now NAAAHOOOOH@@! he's a lame duck! He didn't undo a stalemate in the senate. WTF? Why didn't some black guy 1/3 through his first senate term have the connections to get republicans to agree with him? Is it because he's a pussy?
Minnesota state Rep. Tom Emmer, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, made an interesting campaign stop over the weekend as part of his damage control efforts for having supported policies that would effectively lower the minimum wage for waiters: He became a waiter for a day, serving tables at a Mexican restaurant.
I'm pretty fairly disenchanted with him and could definitely see myself either not voting in 2012 or voting for a 3rd party candidate again.
The joyous citizens of Fallujah thank you for your role in making the Nader administration possible.
If you wanted a hands-on president, you should've voted for a white guy geniuses.
Hell, I remember everybody praising his restraint for ignoring the birther, doomsday, freemarketer distinguished mentally-challenged fellows and now NAAAHOOOOH@@! he's a lame duck! He didn't undo a stalemate in the senate. WTF? Why didn't some black guy 1/3 through his first senate term have the connections to get republicans to agree with him? Is it because he's a pussy?
I hate to say I predicted all this way back when...
But I predicted all this way back when.
Mainly progressive disillusionment they created from masturbatory fantasies.
I'm no more or less inclined to vote than I was in 2008. But then my expectations I consider were always realistic.
Besides which, Gore probably would have invaded Iraq too.
My main beef with Obama is that he has done nearly everything poorly almost to where if I were to don a tinfoil hat, I'd suggest he was sabotaging his own initiatives so heavily watered down legislation was the only thing that was produced.That or complete retardican obstruction.
Explain this please. Gore was adamantly against the Iraq War since day one back before most Democrats came out against it.
Besides which, Gore probably would have invaded Iraq too.
Explain this please. Gore was adamantly against the Iraq War since day one back before most Democrats came out against it.
Besides which, Gore probably would have invaded Iraq too.
My main beef with Obama is that he has done nearly everything poorly almost to where if I were to don a tinfoil hat, I'd suggest he was sabotaging his own initiatives so heavily watered down legislation was the only thing that was produced.That or complete retardican obstruction.
Then why didn't Bill Clinton invade Iraq? And why did George H.W. Bush push back against those in his administration who wanted to invade?Explain this please. Gore was adamantly against the Iraq War since day one back before most Democrats came out against it.
Besides which, Gore probably would have invaded Iraq too.
He also had the luxury of not being an elected official and needing to curry favor with PACs and wealthy assholes, you fucking halfwit.
How many republican bills needed 60 republican votes to pass?My main beef with Obama is that he has done nearly everything poorly almost to where if I were to don a tinfoil hat, I'd suggest he was sabotaging his own initiatives so heavily watered down legislation was the only thing that was produced.That or complete retardican obstruction.
Have you forgotten who controls congress? Healthcare could have been passed Day 1 if it wasn't for democrats holding out.
How many republican bills needed 60 republican votes to pass?My main beef with Obama is that he has done nearly everything poorly almost to where if I were to don a tinfoil hat, I'd suggest he was sabotaging his own initiatives so heavily watered down legislation was the only thing that was produced.That or complete retardican obstruction.
Have you forgotten who controls congress? Healthcare could have been passed Day 1 if it wasn't for democrats holding out.
Also, can you name one positive thing the republicans have done for Americans(the other 99%) in the past 50 years?
Explain this please. Gore was adamantly against the Iraq War since day one back before most Democrats came out against it.
Besides which, Gore probably would have invaded Iraq too.
He also had the luxury of not being an elected official and needing to curry favor with PACs and wealthy assholes, you fucking halfwit.
I find this whole "mosque at ground zero" discussion amazing, the old Frankie Boyle joke is becoming a reality and noone realises how brilliant the idea is!
I find this whole "mosque at ground zero" discussion amazing, the old Frankie Boyle joke is becoming a reality and noone realises how brilliant the idea is!
what's the joke?
I didn't realize the WTC was a christian iconic site of worship.It's the pinnacle of supply side Jesus.
On a serious note, I wanted to draw your attention to the news today about Dick Cheney's latest heart setback. The reports have, on their face, been fairly upbeat, with Cheney himself issuing a statement about the surgery he had last week to implant a pump to help his heart overcome his congestive heart failure. The surgery was a success, Cheney is resting comfortably, etc.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/07/grim.php#more (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/07/grim.php#more)
But reading between the lines, you're left with the distinct impression that Cheney, 69, is entering the late stages of congestive heart failure, that his prognosis is not very good, and that the available treatment options are very limited. That's my lay person rendering after a close read of this afternoon's reports. Here's a more informed read from TPM Reader JK:
I'm a surgeon and just read your wire story about Dick Cheney getting a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) placed. The story downplays the seriousness of that procedures...once you've got an LVAD in place, it means your heart is essentially incapable of working on its own and has no potential to improve. While LVAD outcomes have been improving, and some patients live months or even years with one of these devices in place, this is a HUGE operation with MAJOR associated morbidity and mortality. If he's not listed for a heart transplant, his days are seriously numbered. Life on an LVAD isn't something I'd wish on my worst enemy...an axiom that this situation really tests. He's in for a rough time.We've known for a long time that Cheney is suffering from serious heart disease. He has known his fate and been upfront about it. But it does appear that things have entered a new and more serious stage, even if he and everyone else knew it would come eventually.
Richard Nixon created the EPA. Dubya created the "do not call" list for telemarketers. Other than that, it's been pretty terrible.Wasn't the EPA pretty much only made because of DDT paranoia? IIRC, the EPA head was actually from the Audubon society and wasn't even a scientist. There were seven months of testimony on the possible danger of DDT after which the trial judge ruled that DDT posed no threat humans or wildlife, and the the head of the EPA, who hadn't attended a day of the hearings or even read the transcript, overturned his decision and ruled that DDT was carcinogenic and that it had to be pretty much entirely banned.
In response to a proposed mosque blocks from ground zero, controversial televangelist Bill Keller announced on Tuesday that he plans to open a Christian center nearby.
"How do you battle the darkness? With the light!" he states on the 9/11 Christian Center at Ground Zero website.
Rather than hold protests over the Cordoba House – a 15-story facility that project leaders claim will promote tolerance, help improve Muslim-West relations, and serve as a platform for people of all backgrounds to come together – Keller says he wants to take "an ongoing stand" against the mosque in a meaningful way.
The Christian center will serve to "combat this new evil being constructed near ground zero" and "bring people the Truth of God's Word and the love and hope of Jesus Christ," the fire-and-brimstone preacher states.
Probably the most offensive political ad I have seen thus far:Holy shit at the cross made out of I-beams. :rofl Not surprisingly, networks are refusing to air the spot.
[youtube=560,345]mjGJPPRD3u0[/youtube]
Here's a sample (the post is written in the form of a mock letter to President Abraham Lincoln from Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP):
"We Colored People have taken a vote and decided that we don't cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!"
That's just the introduction. Here's the good stuff:
"Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government "stop raising our taxes." That is outrageous! How will we Colored People ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?
Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong."
Again, for the record: this how an official at the Tea Party Express explains how not racist the Tea Party is.
'tea party' sounds so gay
Indeed./
It is much more accurate to call the NAACP racist because they believe that people should be treated differently in the eyes of the law on the basis of race.
Indeed.
It is much more accurate to call the NAACP racist because they believe that people should be treated differently in the eyes of the law on the basis of race.
/
:himu
Indeed.How dare the NAACP infringe on your white privilege.
It is much more accurate to call the NAACP racist because they believe that people should be treated differently in the eyes of the law on the basis of race.
Indeed.
It is much more accurate to call the NAACP racist because they believe that people should be treated differently in the eyes of the law on the basis of race.
How come race satire is fine when Chris Rock does it, but not ok when a white guy does it!
Indeed.
It is much more accurate to call the NAACP racist because they believe that people should be treated differently in the eyes of the law on the basis of race.
Yes, the Tea Party and its officials aren't racist when the president of the Tea Party Express snidely insinuates that black people are too lazy to work for their government-provided HD TEE VEES and are too stupid to think for themselves and instead prefer to pick cotton as slaves (where they belong).
John Calhoun would be proud, JayDubya, you fucking dimwit shitbag.
I literally erupted into a John McEnroe-inspired battle cry of, "You cannot be serious!" when I read JayDubya's reply. He is the best Internet troll ever.
The NAACP Is Right, Cont.
Jul 16 2010, 1:00 PM ET | Comment
Dave notes the following ridiculous statement from Tea Party Patriot leadership:QuoteThe NAACP has long history of liberalism and racism. If you are a conservative -- including a conservative African-American -- there is no room for you at the NAACP. If you have opinions that differ from the NAACP and the liberal establishment, and if you are African-American, you are an "Uncle Tom," a "negro," "not black enough" and "against our people."
Citing his own posts, Dave asserts:QuoteWhen I said the NAACP's move would backfire, I meant things like this would happen. I didn't mean they were wrong to go down that road. It's just that they should know that calling out a group for "racism" is pointless -- whoever's been targeted will simply claim to have been attacked unfairly and had his free speech threatened.Remember what happened when Eric Holder said that America had been a "nation of cowards" in discussing race. Boom: Backlash. Anger. Debate over why he said it, but not what he meant. A year and change later we have a ridiculous national debate over whether Holder's department hates white people because it won't draw and quarter the New Black Panther Party. This stuff is what he meant, of course. But saying it isn't actually starting the debate. It's pretty obvious that the NAACP failed here.
One way of looking at the Tea Party Patriot statement on the facts. It is true that NAACP is fairly liberal. It is also true that Michael Steele is arguably the most prominent black conservative in America. He is also--among many other things--a member of the NAACP, and thus presumably part of a racist group.
To the extent that the NAACP has, as Dave says, "failed," it is because the arbiters of facts have ceded ground, and reporters and writers dutifully, and uncritically, dispense the notion that an organization which helped birth modern America has "a long history of...racism." But it also fails because there is very little pushback on this notion from "sensible" liberal writers. (I don't include Dave among them, mind you.) Instead we're getting calls for the president to condemn the NAACP, essentially, for being the NAACP.
Dave concedes that the NAACP has a case, but concludes that they're wrong for making it. But they're only wrong for making it because the broader society, evidently, believes that objecting to a call for literacy tests is, in fact, just as racist as a call for literacy tests. This inversion, this crime against sound logic, is at the heart of American white supremacy, and at the heart of a country that has nurtured white supremacy all these sad glorious years.
It is the Founders claiming all men are created equal while building a democracy on property in human beings. It is Confederates crying tyranny, while erecting a country based on tyranny. It is Sherman discriminating against black soldiers, while claiming that his superiors are discriminating against whites. It's Ben Tillman justifying racial terrorism, by claiming that he's actually fighting against terrorism. It is George Wallace defending a system built on bombing children in churches, and then asserting that the upholders of that system are "the greatest people to ever trod this earth."
Those who employ racism are not in the habit of confessing their nature--inversion is their cloak. Cutting out the cancer means confronting that inversion, means not wallowing in on-the-other-handism, in post-racialism, means seeing this as more than some kind of political game. Someone has, indeed, failed here. It is not the NAACP.
A Final Thought
Jul 16 2010, 3:25 PM ET | Comment
Here is former head and current spokesperson for the Tea Party Express Mark Williams satirically responding to the NAACP:Quote from: http://www.marktalk.com/blog/?p=10387Dear Mr. Lincoln
We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don't cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!
In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the 'tea party movement'.
The tea party position to "end the bailouts" for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn't that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.
And the ridiculous idea of "reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government." What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!
The racist tea parties also demand that the government "stop the out of control spending." Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.
Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government "stop raising our taxes." That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?
Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.
Sincerely
Precious Ben Jealous, Tom's Nephew
NAACP Head Colored Person
Williams has since taken the original down and posted a half-hearted justification. Mark Williams is the same man who has denounced Barack Obama as "Indonesian Muslim" and a "welfare thug." If Mark Williams is not a racist, then there are no racists in American society--a position which many, some liberals among them, no doubt find plausible.
It's been asked in comments, a few times, what good has come of the NAACP's resolution. I would not endeavor to speak for anyone but myself when I say that I owe the NAACP a debt of gratitude. I have, in my writing, a tendency to become theoretically cute, and overly enamored with my own fair-mindedness. Such vanity has lately been manifested in the form of phrases like "it's worth saying" and "it strikes me that..." or "respectfully..."
When engaging your adversaries, that approach has its place. But it's worth saying that there are other approaches and other places. Among them--respectfully administering the occasional reminder as to the precise nature of the motherfuckers you are dealing with. It strikes me that this is a most appropriate role for the nation's oldest civil rights organization.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/18/BAG71EG92P.DTL&tsp=1 (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/18/BAG71EG92P.DTL&tsp=1)
smh
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/sarah-palin-calls-on-peaceful-muslims-to-refudiate-ground-zero-mosque.php#more
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/18/BAG71EG92P.DTL&tsp=1 (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/18/BAG71EG92P.DTL&tsp=1)
smh
Nah he's just keeping FoC's memory alive
Callandor ain't got nothing on me, though he clearly had good taste in fantasy novels.
Republicans. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/18/pete-sessions-nrcc-chair_n_650431.html) :lol
"We need to balance the budget!" :lol
... that sounds like a total clusterfuck of monumental proportions. We are flushing so much fucking money down the terrorlet.
Fixing the budget deficit means fixing defense/SS/medicare or raising taxes. I'm with Willco that any politician not talking about those four things needs to fuck off.
Fixing the budget deficit means fixing defense/SS/medicare or raising taxes. I'm with Willco that any politician not talking about those four things needs to fuck off.
Intelligence needs to be beefed up. While there are many agencies, many are understaffed. Especially in the area of cyber-security for instance, where China and other nations are rapidly outpacing the US. I was listening to NPR this morning and they were saying agencies are literally desperate for qualified hackers/security people to play offense and defense for online systems.
I'd rather see money spent on intelligence than bombing brown people.
Intelligence needs to be beefed up. While there are many agencies, many are understaffed. Especially in the area of cyber-security for instance, where China and other nations are rapidly outpacing the US. I was listening to NPR this morning and they were saying agencies are literally desperate for qualified hackers/security people to play offense and defense for online systems.
I'd rather see money spent on intelligence than bombing brown people.
More disturbingly, this is what happens when you treat the arrest of a black man, in his home, as something that can be fixed over beers. This is what happens when you silently ascent to the notion that racism and its victims are somehow equally wrong. The ground, itself, is rigged with a narrative of inversion that goes back centuries. When you treat the two side as equals, expect not just more of the same. Expect worse.http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/07/on-lacking-all-conviction/60134/
BLACK POWER ICE CREAM
http://www.therightperspective.org/2010/07/17/obama-visits-black-power-ice-cream/
I'm not a racist. i eat all the flavors in Neapolitan
Out of curiousity what if any cable news shows do you guys watch regularly? I watch o'reilly because I'm a masochist and hannity because his show seems to be the hive where the "crazy GOP talking points" are born, though I'm sure he's mostly a middleman.
The media is largely to blame for all of this bullshit. Instead of properly ignoring Breitbart because he's a disingenuous turd burglar, they feel they have to cover his BS or show their "librul bias" or whatever the fuck. It's pretty obvious from the Obama Presidency and the coverage of the Tea Party Movement (they're Republicans, you ratfucks!) that our great media experiment is made of fail and lose.
I read awhile ago that Shep is part of a strategy that Fox uses to deflect criticisms that the network is nothing but conservative editorial junk, by pointing to Shep and say, "Hah, how can you call us right-wing when we have Shepard Smith?!"
I read awhile ago that Shep is part of a strategy that Fox uses to deflect criticisms that the network is nothing but conservative editorial junk, by pointing to Shep and say, "Hah, how can you call us right-wing when we have Shepard Smith?!"
I would bet on it.
i wonder how many people watching Fox News actually end up agreeing with him instead of the other douche nozzles.
I'm not sure he'll even make it through one-term!
I'm not sure he'll even make it through one-term!
Reported to the FBI.
I'm not sure he'll even make it through one-term!
Reported to the FBI.
You couldn't stand to be a snitch to the cops. :P
Even I fail to see how he will win if he is nominated against someone like Mittens and the economy is still shitty.Anyone else starting to think Obama's a one-termer?Everyone?
Edit: Except Cheebs
Olbermann ended his rant with a plea for Obama to be Obama, to get these handlers away from him so he could do his thing. But maybe this is Obama being Obama. Maybe he wants to pass a bunch of big bills that may or may not do much of anything, avoid scandals/fights, continue trying to be some post-partisan political savior, leave the WH and have health care CEOs and banksters build him the biggest library in the world.
Is this the part where PD says we should have voted Hillary.spoiler (click to show/hide)I sometimes suspect she may have done a better job[close]
People still have this image of Obama in their brains as this kind of inspirational figure who's going to tilt the country in a progressive direction and get us out of this hole we're in, and they haven't realize he's just a political hack with a knack for speeches.
the hope of most rational people is that next cycle the tea party does well in primaries and then self-destructs when it matters.
David Walker makes valid and stupid points, all the same. (http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/07/21/the-problem-is-not-where-we-are-its-where-we-are-h.aspx)
Start with Social Security reform. Make it stronger for people in poverty, and less for people with higher incomes. Raise the retirement age to reflect life expectancy. In 1950, there were 16.5 people working for every Social Security recipient. Today it's around 2. When Social Security was created, senior citizens had the highest poverty rate. Today they have the lowest, children now have the highest. And what are we doing? We're promising more to seniors at the expense of our children and grandchildren. It makes no sense.
go palin!Anyone born around 1960 shouldn't be showing their boobs unless they had work done. Sagging.... :-Xspoiler (click to show/hide)show us your boobs![close]
BOOB JOB?? (http://i31.tinypic.com/5kk2af.jpg)You can have work done without getting the size increased!
spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://www.chiheisen.se/misc/gaf/poopgore.gif)[close]
WHAT IMPORTANT:
1.Education
a. School violents
b. Add reading of the minutes to the U.S.Congress mandatory
c. Get more of the lottery money to 1-12
McCain On The Iraq War: ‘We Already Won That One’
Earlier this month, law professor Marjorie Cohn and Iraq Veterans Against the War board chairman Geoff Millard attended a reception to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Vietnam and spoke with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). When Millard introduced himself to the Arizona senator, Cohn reports that McCain dismissed the relevance of Millard’s organization:
When Geoff introduced himself as chairman of the board of Iraq Veterans against the War, McCain retorted, “You’re too late. We already won that one.” :smug
McCain is now the second U.S. official to declare “mission accomplished” in a war that continues to ravage the people and land of Iraq.
I like his positions on healthcare:
c. See why dental is not in most plans a tooth aches hurt more than a back aches and no teeths depresses people
Who the fuck is going to argue with that?
Basil Marceaux 2012
:american
http://politics.freesitenow.com/basilmarceauxforgovernor/ (http://politics.freesitenow.com/basilmarceauxforgovernor/)
Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, currently running third in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary race, says he's not sure if Constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion apply to the followers of the world's second-largest faith, Islam.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/tennessee-lt-gov-religious-freedom-doesnt-count-if-youre-muslim-video.php?ref=fpa
At a recent event in Hamilton County, Ramsey was asked by a man in the audience about the "threat that's invading our country from the Muslims." Ramsey proclaimed his support for the Constitution and the whole "Congress shall make no law" thing when it comes to religion. But he also said that Islam, arguably, is less a faith than it is a "cult."
"Now, you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, cult whatever you want to call it," Ramsey said. "Now certainly we do protect our religions, but at the same time this is something we are going to have to face."
Cenk Uygur from "The Young Turks" is guest hosting The Dylan Ratigan Show and he is awful on television. Lots of gaffes, dead air, etc. Guess cable television isn't the same as a YouTube podcast, eh?
No fucking way.
The profile describes Haggard's new backyard barn church, which features bags of cement and a pulpit made of buckets.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/ted_haggard_i_over-repented_for_my_meth-gay_prosti.php
no words :lol
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/ted_haggard_i_over-repented_for_my_meth-gay_prosti.php
no words :lol
And how did the purchase of meth factor in to this "massage gone wrong"?
He also thinks the Tea Party/New Republicans are going to fucking crush the democrats in the next three years.
Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
At one rally half the speakers were non-white and he said he couldn't find a single non-white in the audience.
Did I mention racism at all?QuoteAt one rally half the speakers were non-white and he said he couldn't find a single non-white in the audience.
So in other words they are getting speakers from a variety of backgrounds and not only does it now decrease attendance it actually makes them more popular. It's almost as if they are encouraging diversity. Those racist bastards!!
Actually when he goes to a Tea Party gathering the organizers are quick to point out how diverse their group is and they introduce him to all these speakers of different origins and then he goes into the crowd and it paints a different picture entirely.
As for all the research your fiend is doing, it's not surprising. Anyone that talks to real people in real life knows that the general consensus is that Obama is useless.
Of course if you get the majority of your news from MSNBC and Time magazine than you would think that Obama is a 21st century JFK. It's strange to see how detached the media is from real life.
What's interesting is this massive Republican disconnect from what liberals are thinking. I don't know a single liberal who isn't disappointed with Obama and yet talking to republican friends they still think we all still believe that Obama is heaven sent.
So a friend of mine is doing his PhD research on the new Right in America and they've been flying him around the country to attend Tea Party rallies/conventions/planning meetings and he was telling me about the hilarious efforts to make the Tea Party seem multi-racial. At one rally half the speakers were non-white and he said he couldn't find a single non-white in the audience. He also thinks the Tea Party/New Republicans are going to fucking crush the democrats in the next three years.
Exactly.What's interesting is this massive Republican disconnect from what liberals are thinking. I don't know a single liberal who isn't disappointed with Obama and yet talking to republican friends they still think we all still believe that Obama is heaven sent.
Yeah but liberals are mad because he somehow isn't liberal enough. :lol
What's interesting is this massive Republican disconnect from what liberals are thinking. I don't know a single liberal who isn't disappointed with Obama and yet talking to republican friends they still think we all still believe that Obama is heaven sent.
Yeah but liberals are mad because he somehow isn't liberal enough. :lol
I'm guessing you think he's currently somewhere between Stalin and Mao, correct?
I'm guessing you think he's currently somewhere between Stalin and Mao, correct?
Nah, he's just naive. I mean he's probably a nice guy. Just a lousy leader.
Who is someone out there you think would be a good president that could feasibly run for president Beardo.
Cheebs is rich, white, male, and from a potential battleground state. He's a Republican dream candidate.
As for all the research your fiend is doing, it's not surprising. Anyone that talks to real people in real life knows that the general consensus is that Obama is useless.
Of course if you get the majority of your news from MSNBC and Time magazine than you would think that Obama is a 21st century JFK. It's strange to see how detached the media is from real life.
can i think obama is a 21st century reagan instead
Of course if you get the majority of your news from MSNBC and Time magazine than you would think that Obama is a 21st century JFK. It's strange to see how detached the media is from real life.
I avoid all televised media. Feels good man.
Obama could have come in and raped Wall Street but instead he chose to expend all his political capital on health care reform, which was destined to be a crappy cobbled together bill because of the vitriol/misunderstandinga lot of people still have towards socialized medicine that isn't medicare. HE COULD HAVE RAPED THEM. I think that is going to be his biggest failure.
Obama could have come in and raped Wall Street but instead he chose to expend all his political capital on health care reform, which was destined to be a crappy cobbled together bill because of the vitriol/misunderstandinga lot of people still have towards socialized medicine that isn't medicare. HE COULD HAVE RAPED THEM. I think that is going to be his biggest failure.
No way. A poll a few weeks ago showed Wall Street's approval ratings were slightly higher than Al Qaeda's. Like with most things, Obama didn't fight hard for a stronger bill simply cause he didn't want one.
Obama could have come in and raped Wall Street but instead he chose to expend all his political capital on health care reform, which was destined to be a crappy cobbled together bill because of the vitriol/misunderstandinga lot of people still have towards socialized medicine that isn't medicare. HE COULD HAVE RAPED THEM. I think that is going to be his biggest failure.
No way. A poll a few weeks ago showed Wall Street's approval ratings were slightly higher than Al Qaeda's. Like with most things, Obama didn't fight hard for a stronger bill simply cause he didn't want one.
Which still makes it higher than Congress'
First, Snooki took on Obama over Twitter. Then, Obama said he didn't even know who she was. And on Thursday night's second season premiere of MTV's "Jersey Shore," Snooki took the ball back, and went after Obama again.:lol
In one scene, Snooki -- with her impressively orange tan -- broke the shocking news that she's been staying away from her home away from home: Tanning salons.
"I don’t go tanning anymore because Obama put a 10% tax on tanning. McCain would never put a 10% tax on tanning. Because he’s pale and would probably want to be tan," she said.
.In Sicko he talked about how in France they have maids come to your house and do your laundry and take care of your baby for free. Politics aside thats not even sustainable.They actually have that though. :lol
It's not that it's "not perfect", it's that the system that is currently in place is awful.
I don't think he believes we can live in a utopia, but he believes we can all live in a society where we have a single-payer health care system, worker's rights, transparency of financial institutions and government regulation of financial instruments. I don't see why that's not possible.
"Free stuff for everyone." Yup thats a completely sustainable long term plan. Good jon.France, England, Canada are not sustainable?
France and England aren't in the best of financial state.
i don't know about canada, but it's canada. beaver pelts are an infinite sustainable resource so they lucked out there
I dont mean to burst the bubble, but the top 15% pay something like 60-70% of all taxes. Should it be higher?
we had it best when our marginal tax rate was at its highest
Are you denying that the top earners pay for the huge majority of taxes already? ??? I'm not sure where you are going.
I dont mean to burst the bubble, but the top 15% pay something like 60-70% of all taxes. Should it be higher?
Are you denying that the top earners pay for the huge majority of taxes already? ??? I'm not sure where you are going.
[youtube=560,345]W4zwCMf8dsc[/youtube]
:rofl :rock
I dont mean to burst the bubble, but the top 15% pay something like 60-70% of all taxes. Should it be higher?Quote from: Phoenix Darkwe had it best when our marginal tax rate was at its highest
Ding ding ding!
The fact that less people are putting money into the system is indicative that the distribution of wealth is fucked up, simply because more and more people are slipping into lesser tax brackets - not evil government conspiracy! And the belief that the top earners are faithful on their taxes. :rofl
A key backer of the bill, U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Long Island Republican, accused Democrats of staging a "charade."
King said Democrats were "petrified" about casting votes as the fall elections near on controversial amendments, possibly including one that could ban the bill from covering illegal immigrants who were sickened by trade center dust.
The 9/11 compensation bill is pretty much a new low for Republicans.
The 9/11 compensation bill is pretty much a new low for Republicans.
I dunno. It's definitely a close second to not allowing raped women to take their rapist to court. (http://www.republicansforrape.org/)
United Kingdom, whatever. I used to live there for a while so I give myself a free pass.:lol"Free stuff for everyone." Yup thats a completely sustainable long term plan. Good jon.France, England, Canada are not sustainable?
:rofl
:lol
Yeah, do a little research...
I am still in shock how little controversy that caused.The 9/11 compensation bill is pretty much a new low for Republicans.
I dunno. It's definitely a close second to not allowing raped women to take their rapist to court. (http://www.republicansforrape.org/)
It depends, Mandark. Was the woman an illegal alien?
United Kingdom, whatever. I used to live there for a while so I give myself a free pass.
The 9/11 compensation bill is pretty much a new low for Republicans.
I dunno. It's definitely a close second to not allowing raped women to take their rapist to court. (http://www.republicansforrape.org/)
It depends, Mandark. Was the woman an illegal alien?
Speaking of dumb identity politics, the Anti-Defamation League has stated its opposition (http://www.adl.org/PresRele/CvlRt_32/5820_32.htm) to the ground zero Muslim community center.
Abe Foxman is no mensch.
- Dove World Outreach Center to host "International Burn a Quran Day"
- In video, pastor says Islam is "a religion of the devil"
- The National Association of Evangelicals is asking the church to call off the event
- The Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling on Muslims to launch education efforts
:rofl
I have almost become completely exhausted over our political system and our country in general.
- Dove World Outreach Center to host "International Burn a Quran Day"
Just watched No End in Sight, which is a fascinating documentary of the lead up to and execution of post-war Iraqi occupation. Man, if there is a film that makes you hate the government - this one is it. It documents a systemic failure within the Bush administration to properly plan and execute anything resembling adequate foreign policy, mostly by policy makers with no combat experience or post-war experience.
Those with such experience are discarded and ignored.
:'(
I have almost become completely exhausted over our political system and our country in general.
This is pretty much where I'm at. I just don't have time for this bullshit anymore. I would still be more interested and involved if Obama had made fucking the Banksters over and fixing that shit his first priority. Would have made good political sense too, but oh well, he's kind of a fucking pussy.
So the Repubs are saying that they were against the bill cause it might somehow make its way to the illegals right? Now, are they referring to the illegals that helped out with the rescue? Cause if that's the case, isn't that kind of a hard sell? I know that filthy messicans can be scapegoated for a lot of things, but almost anything dealing with 9/11 could be given a free pass nowadays.
I just finished Bush's War, since that was Stony's recommendation, and it makes Rumsfeld look like an incompetent, stubborn egomaniac. He fucked up so much stuff. However, the program - moreso than No End in Sight - makes Condoleeza Rice look like a someone who operated in the shadows and waited for her moment to control the cabinet. In some ways, the battle over control of the war is more interesting than the military battles.
Both programs make Colin Powell look like a competent, wise cabinet member completely alienated by two old dudes with no real combat experience.
Much of the initial information for Mr Powell's speech to the UN was provided by the Pentagon, where Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy defence secretary, set up a special unit, the Office of Special Plans, to counter the uncertainty of the CIA's intelligence on Iraq.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jun/02/usa.iraq
Mr Powell's team removed dozens of pages of alleged evidence about Iraq's banned weapons and ties to terrorists from a draft of his speech, US News and World Report says today. At one point, he became so angry at the lack of adequate sourcing to intelligence claims that he declared: "I'm not reading this. This is bullshit," according to the magazine.
Presented with a script for his speech, Mr Powell suspected that Washington hawks were "cherry picking", the US magazine Newsweek also reports today. Greg Theilmann, a recently retired state department intelligence analyst directly involved in assessing the Iraqi threat, says that inside the Bush administration "there is a lot of sorrow and anger at the way intelligence was misused".
Let's be clear: WikiLeaks is not a news organization; it is a criminal enterprise.
...
[Julian] Assange is a non-U.S. citizen operating outside the territory of the United States. This means the government has a wide range of options for dealing with him. It can employ not only law enforcement but also intelligence and military assets to bring Assange to justice and put his criminal syndicate out of business.
...
With appropriate diplomatic pressure, these governments may cooperate in bringing Assange to justice. But if they refuse, the United States can arrest Assange on their territory without their knowledge or approval. In 1989, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued a memorandum entitled "Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Override International Law in Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities."
This memorandum declares that "the FBI may use its statutory authority to investigate and arrest individuals for violating United States law, even if the FBI's actions contravene customary international law" and that an "arrest that is inconsistent with international or foreign law does not violate the Fourth Amendment." In other words, we do not need permission to apprehend Assange or his co-conspirators anywhere in the world.
I definitely have to check the documentary out, sounds amazing.
On Powell: before giving the speech, he did know a lot of it was false. Perhaps the most memorable moment I remember reading about was him looking over his speech and declaring it bullshit.
I'll never understand those on the far left who honestly believe Bush was some evil dictator in chief who dreamed up a world domination plan. He surrounded himself with hawks, and being the dumbass that he is, he was easily persuaded to allow the neo-conservatives to do what they wanted to do for years. Bush seems like a nice guy, albiet someone obviously more interested in helping his rich buddies than anyone else.
Even more ridiculous is his long standing position on being "The Decider" lol
Obama's stuck to pretty much everything he stated in his campaign. It's the cult following that misled people throughout the campaign and first years of his presidency.
I'm confused how one can argue Bush was a genuine politician whereas Obama is a run of the mill politician with corporation strings. You'd be hard pressed to argue how Bush was less corporate owned considering his war against all regulation, letting oil companies write his energy bill, war contracts, and of course letting Wall Street run a train on the tax payers' asses.
so in other words, palin 2012
this session of Congress has accomplished a hell of a lot by historical standards, there aren't plausible counterfactuals where they did much better, a hefty chunk of liberal criticisms boil down to emotional/tribal complaints, and Bush's admin was a lot less of a juggernaut than y'all remember.
As far as the Bush stuff the documentaries are very interesting. My take on that stuff is Bush was weak. Rumsfeld had balls of steel (I mean that as both a compliment and a criticism) even if he was completely incompetent.
My feelings on Powell have always been mixed. Even if he was the most "sane" one of that group he is the one that put himself in bed with those people. He is the one who went in front of the UN and said what he said and put his legacy on the line and didn't quit when push came to shove.
Cheney is cheney meaning he is an underhanded sneaky bastard who wielded a lot of influence. The only people who sort of come out decent in that administration are Rice and Armitage
As far as the Obama stuff I'm a very unusual liberal in the sense that I never went annoyingly overboard with Obama love before the election. And I'm not nearly as critical as most internet liberals are now. I have no problem casting my vote for him in 2012. Especially when the other side is still people like Sarah Palin or people who had no problem with the bush years. When people say there is no difference I laugh and laugh...
I sort of agree, but again, I can kind of understand the point of thinking, "If I resign, then I risk letting the future of an entire nation rest on Rummy and Cheney's shoulders."
i get what willco is saying and i can see why he makes that argument and to a degree, i would have to agree with his assessment of Bush. it's not like his voters were tricked.
i get what willco is saying and i can see why he makes that argument and to a degree, i would have to agree with his assessment of Bush. it's not like his voters were tricked.
oh come on, neither were obama's. his policies and leanings were right fucking there for people to see.
So the complete failure to rein in the stupid behavior that caused the recession doesn't bother you at all?
He was not a "bible thumping" character by most accounts, and actually despised the religious right as much as McCain did; only difference is that he was able to put that aside and use them as a weapon to bolster his support and propagate wedge issues.
At the end of the day Bush was a horrible president who didn't achieve much of anything outside of bankrupting the country, pissing off the world, starting an unnecessary war, continuing the deregulation of every aspect of the economy/energy, mishandling a massive natural disaster, dropping the ball on national security, and putting two young stud conservatives on the SC. If his right/wrong worldview makes him more "genuine" than Obama's nuanced view on the world, so be it. Moreover, if Obama has to cut deals with the devil to clean up The Decider's mess, so be it.
I gained appreciation for the man on a personal level, but what an awful, awful President. He had no business being in the Oval Office.
He was not a "bible thumping" character by most accounts, and actually despised the religious right as much as McCain did; only difference is that he was able to put that aside and use them as a weapon to bolster his support and propagate wedge issues.
Uh, what?QuoteAt the end of the day Bush was a horrible president who didn't achieve much of anything outside of bankrupting the country, pissing off the world, starting an unnecessary war, continuing the deregulation of every aspect of the economy/energy, mishandling a massive natural disaster, dropping the ball on national security, and putting two young stud conservatives on the SC. If his right/wrong worldview makes him more "genuine" than Obama's nuanced view on the world, so be it. Moreover, if Obama has to cut deals with the devil to clean up The Decider's mess, so be it.
So, again, your argument boils down to the fact that you don't agree with Bush's policies. That has nothing to do with what I was saying. You seem to equate my opinion that Bush is the most genuine of the two Presidents to mean that he is the superior of the two Presidents, which is not just wrong, but silly.
Bush stood by his convictions. No, he did not get everything he wanted - but he got a lot. You knew what you were getting with him, as well. That doesn't make him a great President, so I'm not sure why you even posted all of that?
P.S. Stuff that Obama didn't necessarily have to cut "deals with the devil" on, he's still be more than happy to do so. Dude is just a career politician.
Hyperbole aside, do you not think Obama should have broken up the large institutions and pushed legislation that would prevent such institutions from becoming "too big to fail".[/quote
NO.
1) There's not much genuine about a guy who presented himself as one thing to the American people while working towards a completely different agenda; you may have thought you knew what you were getting, but you got something completely different. You seem to apply this to Obama, why not Bush?
2) Bush got what he wanted because he had a congress/senate willing to give him what he wanted. It has nothing to do with him having convictions or working hard. In fact, whenever he faced opposition in the senate he failed miserably. Therefore it's hard to compare his record to Obama, who's dealing with a congress that won't give him anything without a fight - making it impossible for him to get exactly what he wants, hence the dealmaking that has defined his legislative record.
3) Bush's entire presidency was a disaster. "Standing by your convictions" when you're a disaster is not particularly impressive or a positive. He got the few things he wanted, but ultimately didn't achieve anything "big." Despite having the congress at his feet.
Give an example
Hyperbole aside, do you not think Obama should have broken up the large institutions and pushed legislation that would prevent such institutions from becoming "too big to fail".
NO.
Everyone I've read who I trust on the issue thinks TBTF is a case of sloganeering over policy, and that capping the size of banks wouldn't do anything to solve the problem of interconnectedness and systemic failure.
Bush presented himself as anything but a religious, hard right neocon with a love of supply side economics and a foreign policy constructed from the Reagan years? Really?
So the argument is Bush pushed for what he wanted, and he got it. When he didn't compromise, he didn't get it. So he really only got what he wanted and was unwilling to compromise on stuff that he wanted. What flim flammery!
Big Pharma? Too big to fail? Civil liberties? Etc.
He didn't present himself as a compassionate conservative every man not interested in world building? And then what did he do? Redistributed wealth to the wealthy and created one of the most intrusive foreign policies in US history.
And on religion: he didn't care about gay marriage
wasn't a hardcore pro-lifer
and did not like the religious right.
Sure he read the bible and prayed, but he certainly was not the culture warrior he pretended to be in order to distract voters from Big Issues. And you seriously call this man genuine.
Explain how he didn't have to compromise with Big Pharma? There was not support in the senate for buying perscription drugs over the border. David Vitter and other republicans support for it is no different from republicans claiming cuts in military spending "could" be necessary to cut the deficit: their intention is purely political, and ultimately corporate and political interests determine how they'd actually act if those situations were brought up.
There were not 60 votes for a public option. There weren't 60 votes for a medicare buy-in. There weren't 60 votes to lower the medicare age limit. What exactly could Obama do?
The financial reg bill is an even worse example: there weren't 60 votes to break up the banks, end too big to fail, full Volker Rule, etc. Dodd was pretty firmly up Wall Street's asses, and republicans weren't going to give Obama a political victory.
Civil liberty issues often fall directly in the hands of the executive branch, and Obama has shown himself to be no different from Bush on this issue. So where's the compromise?
We allowed FAILING institutions to survive simply because the amount of the market they controlled was so excessive that the failure could wreck the system.
P.P.S. I won't even get involved in the BP fiasco. I'm not talking about the PR image campaign and that junk. And I don't think Obama should be personally fixing the well, but the I do not know why BP was running local law enforcement, allowed to use excessive amounts of dispersant, the federal government made no effort to accurately gauge the amount of oil leaked, why the federal government has not gotten involved in the claims process, nobody knows where the "$20 billion" is, etc.
\ Posting a link to him proposing an (impossible) constitutional amendment is as irrelevant as Lindsy Graham proposing a constitutional amendment to get rid of birthright citizenship: Neither is going to happen, neither represents the actual beliefs of the politician, and both are merely political ploys to pander to the base.
In terms of Bush's religion and views and the religious right (http://In terms of Bush's religion and views and the religious right
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3686695/Bible-probably-not-true-says-George-Bush.html)
No Child Left Behind was nothing but an expensive failure according to my wife who has been a public school teacher for 11 years. It did nothing but regurgitate failed teaching methods that had been abandoned for a decade. But it had its intended effect... make Bush's friends and family a ton of money on the taxpayer's dime.
If Willcobank has assets of $2 trillion, and Mandark Holdings is valued at $400 billion, then the big bank can step in and buy the other. If both of them are right up against the $100 billion ceiling, then it gets trickier. There are other possible solutions (Willcobank, Cohen Trust, Patel Fargo, and First Cruncheon can create some ad hoc icon rescue group and divvy up the assets in a way that doesn't put them over), but you're taking one off the table.
After hosting the anti-gay groups, Bush could hardly wait to tour the country pushing something he really cares about, his immigration bill, fueling the sense of some conservatives that they've been played.http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&refer=columnist_carlson&sid=axuWXIPksRuE
There is always the underlying suspicion that Bush may revert to his family's default position on social issues, which is not to really care. Barbara Bush didn't hide her respect for Planned Parenthood. Laura Bush said on the ``Today'' show in 2001 that she didn't think Roe v. Wade should be overturned. Just last month, the first lady said gay marriage was a sensitive issue that shouldn't be used for political purposes.
Before running for president, Bush surely didn't seem to worry about gay couples. A good friend of mine who worked closely with Bush in Texas was invited by the then-governor to spend the night at the mansion -- with his gay partner. Back then, Bush discussed the issue of gay marriage as a solution to the problem of promiscuity.
Watch me deflect the argument away with an editorial quote about how Bush might be secretly moderate (although his public record, which apparently I don't follow, is nothing of the sort), and completely disavow idealogical and campaign compromises Obama has made! (Because Congress is tuff!)
For a commencement address at Furman University in spring 2008, Ed Gillespie wanted to insert a few lines condemning gay marriage. Bush called the speech too "condemnatory" and said, "I'm not going to tell some gay kid in the audience that he can't get married." (Of course, Bush ran his 2004 campaign telling that kid just that.)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/20/bush-in-2008-im-not-going_n_292876.html
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are "converting Denver into a United Nations community."
"This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial.
Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor's efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes "that's exactly the attitude they want you to have."
"This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes said.
Republicans Passed the 14th Amendmenthttp://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/8/4/890292/-Irony-alert:-GOP-touts-proud-14th-amendment-history
The 14th Amendment guarantees due process and equal protection of the laws to all citizens. It enshrines in the Constitution provisions of the GOP’s 1866 Civil Rights Act. The original purpose of the 14th Amendment was to defend African-Americans from their Democrat oppressors in the post-Civil War South.
The principal author of the 14th Amendment was U.S. Rep. John Bingham (R-OH). In Congress, all votes in favor of the 14th Amendment were from Republicans, and all votes against it were from Democrats.
In 1868, the Republican Governor of New Jersey vetoed an attempt by the Democrat-controlled legislature to rescind the state's ratification of the 14th Amendment.
He's gay but a lolbertopian that thinks libruls=bad, so to deal with the cognitive dissonance of gay-rights being a socially liberal issue, goes through incredible mental contortions to somehow prove liberals are the REAL homophobes somehow.
Basically take JayDubya's demented civil rights ramblings and imagine he was black and actually making them during the civil right's era.
Though calling her "brilliant," Brown – who had been seen as a potential GOP supporter – said she was missing the necessary background to serve as a justice.
"The best umpires, to use the popular analogy, must not only call balls and strikes, but also have spent enough time on the playing field to know the strike zone," Brown said.
QuoteThough calling her "brilliant," Brown – who had been seen as a potential GOP supporter – said she was missing the necessary background to serve as a justice.
"The best umpires, to use the popular analogy, must not only call balls and strikes, but also have spent enough time on the playing field to know the strike zone," Brown said.
Fucking idiot.
QuoteThough calling her "brilliant," Brown – who had been seen as a potential GOP supporter – said she was missing the necessary background to serve as a justice.
"The best umpires, to use the popular analogy, must not only call balls and strikes, but also have spent enough time on the playing field to know the strike zone," Brown said.
Fucking idiot.
The only thing worse is posting an excerpt from an article without posting a link!
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/08/economy_sheds_131000_jobs_in_july.php?ref=fpa
Non-farm payrolls fell 131,000 the Labor Department said on Friday as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial census dropped by 143,000.
Private employment, considered a better gauge of labor market health, rose 71,000 after increasing 31,000 in June. In addition, the government revised payrolls for May and June to show 97,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast overall employment falling 65,000 and private-sector hiring increasing 90,000.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent in July for a second straight month, just below market expectations for a rise to 9.6 percent. The steady jobless rate largely reflected a drop in the labor force as discouraged workers gave up the search for jobs.
Congrats, Speaker Boehner. Prepare for endless investigations into Obama's birth certificate and the New Black Panther Party. The only silver lining is that I imagine it won't take America long to remember why these idiots got voted out.
QuoteWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/08/economy_sheds_131000_jobs_in_july.php?ref=fpa
Non-farm payrolls fell 131,000 the Labor Department said on Friday as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial census dropped by 143,000.
Private employment, considered a better gauge of labor market health, rose 71,000 after increasing 31,000 in June. In addition, the government revised payrolls for May and June to show 97,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast overall employment falling 65,000 and private-sector hiring increasing 90,000.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent in July for a second straight month, just below market expectations for a rise to 9.6 percent. The steady jobless rate largely reflected a drop in the labor force as discouraged workers gave up the search for jobs.
welcome to the recovery
QuoteWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/08/economy_sheds_131000_jobs_in_july.php?ref=fpa
Non-farm payrolls fell 131,000 the Labor Department said on Friday as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial census dropped by 143,000.
Private employment, considered a better gauge of labor market health, rose 71,000 after increasing 31,000 in June. In addition, the government revised payrolls for May and June to show 97,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast overall employment falling 65,000 and private-sector hiring increasing 90,000.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent in July for a second straight month, just below market expectations for a rise to 9.6 percent. The steady jobless rate largely reflected a drop in the labor force as discouraged workers gave up the search for jobs.
welcome to the recovery
SUMMER OF RECOVERY WOO!
Maybe for an October Surprise, Obama can hire a few hundred thousand ditch diggers to drop the unemployment rate.
[youtube=560,345]oAWsy7VV8oE[/youtube]
How was The View? Did he knock the socks off of the women there? I hope it was worth it.
[youtube=560,345]oAWsy7VV8oE[/youtube]
How was The View? Did he knock the socks off of the women there? I hope it was worth it.
QuoteWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/08/economy_sheds_131000_jobs_in_july.php?ref=fpa
Non-farm payrolls fell 131,000 the Labor Department said on Friday as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial census dropped by 143,000.
Private employment, considered a better gauge of labor market health, rose 71,000 after increasing 31,000 in June. In addition, the government revised payrolls for May and June to show 97,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast overall employment falling 65,000 and private-sector hiring increasing 90,000.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent in July for a second straight month, just below market expectations for a rise to 9.6 percent. The steady jobless rate largely reflected a drop in the labor force as discouraged workers gave up the search for jobs.
welcome to the recovery
SUMMER OF RECOVERY WOO!
Maybe for an October Surprise, Obama can hire a few hundred thousand ditch diggers to drop the unemployment rate.
Add a few hundred thousand ditch fillers, too.
Go Team Keynes!
I bet volunteer Krugman to be the head ditch digger. That would be so awesome he can ramble to the other ditch diggers about how all this ditch digging is gonna get us out of our economic woes.
CEA: Recovery Act has raised employment "by between 2.5 and 3.6 million." In its fourth quarterly report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) stated (http://http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitehouse.gov%2Ffiles%2Fdocuments%2Fcea_4th_arra_report.pdf%23page%3D2): "The CEA estimates that as of the second quarter of 2010, the ARRA has raised employment relative to what it otherwise would have been by between 2.5 and 3.6 million. These estimates are broadly consistent with the direct recipient reporting data available for 2010:Q1."
Independent analysts agree that recovery act significantly raised employment. In its quarterly report, the CEA included (http://http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitehouse.gov%2Ffiles%2Fdocuments%2Fcea_4th_arra_report.pdf%23page%3D23) figures from independent analyses that also credited the recovery act with increasing employment:
Wall Street Journal: 70 percent of economists surveyed said stimulus helped. The Wall Street Journal reported (http://http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052748703625304575115674057260664.html) on March 12 that 38 of the 54 economists it surveyed "said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act boosted growth and mitigated job losses, while six said the legislation had a net negative effect."
ABC News: Most on panel of economists "think the economy would be worse" without the stimulus. ABC News reported (http://http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FBusiness%2Feconomic-stimulus-minus-grade%2Fstory%3Fid%3D9867659%26page%3D1) on February 18 that "most" of the economists on its panel "think the economy would be worse today without the big aid package, which totaled $787 billion and was signed into law by President Obama on Feb. 17, 2009."
NABE: 83 percent say stimulus raised GDP. A February survey of 203 members of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) found (http://http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nabe.com%2Fpublib%2Fpol%2F10%2F03%2Ffiscal.html) that "[e]ighty-three percent believe that GDP is currently higher than it would have been without the 2009 stimulus package (ARRA)."
USA Today: Surveyed economists said "stimulus package saved jobs." USA Today reported (http://http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fmoney%2Feconomy%2F2010-01-25-usa-today-economic-survey-obama-stimulus_N.htm) on January 25:
President Obama's stimulus package saved jobs -- but the government still needs to do more to breathe life into the economy, according to USA TODAY's quarterly survey of 50 economists.
Unemployment would have hit 10.8% -- higher than December's 10% rate -- without Obama's $787 billion stimulus program, according to the economists' median estimate. The difference would translate into another 1.2 million lost jobs.
:derp :derp :derp
you dumb cunts
Why would you count those?
Why would you count those?
No, no. Nobody’s repealing the Fourteenth Amendment. What we’re doing is amending the amendment in a way to allow the Congress to regulate birthright citizenship. These two court cases have interpreted the “jurisdiction of the United States” clause to allow illegal immigrants to come here and their children to be awarded citizenship. I would like to see if we could change that dynamic by statute, but with the Supreme Court rulings I doubt if we can. The change would be simple. It would be an amendment to the amendment that would say: Congress has the authority to regulate birth-right citizenship.http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/242693/birth-strategy-talking-immigration-lindsey-graham-daniel-foster
QuoteWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/08/economy_sheds_131000_jobs_in_july.php?ref=fpa
Non-farm payrolls fell 131,000 the Labor Department said on Friday as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial census dropped by 143,000.
Private employment, considered a better gauge of labor market health, rose 71,000 after increasing 31,000 in June. In addition, the government revised payrolls for May and June to show 97,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast overall employment falling 65,000 and private-sector hiring increasing 90,000.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent in July for a second straight month, just below market expectations for a rise to 9.6 percent. The steady jobless rate largely reflected a drop in the labor force as discouraged workers gave up the search for jobs.
welcome to the recovery
SUMMER OF RECOVERY WOO!
Maybe for an October Surprise, Obama can hire a few hundred thousand ditch diggers to drop the unemployment rate.
Add a few hundred thousand ditch fillers, too.
Go Team Keynes!
Why would you count those?
Gee, I think it's because it got people working. Building things. Getting paid.
As a temporary stopgap. Paid for by the revenue generated by taxing everyone else's income, meaning it's not really generating much of anything, and doesn't really do much to help the underlying problem.
How many private sector employees with average incomes do you have to use their entire average income tax payment to cover one average public sector employee's salary + benefits?
Why would you count those?
Gee, I think it's because it got people working. Building things. Getting paid.
As a temporary stopgap. Paid for by the revenue generated by taxing everyone else's income, meaning it's not really generating much of anything, and doesn't really do much to help the underlying problem.
How many private sector employees with average incomes do you have to use their entire average income tax payment to cover one average public sector employee's salary + benefits?
enough to keep the economy stable enough for those average incomes to be worth something -- or to even exist?
it's all in yer head, man!
[youtube=560,345]oAWsy7VV8oE[/youtube]
How was The View? Did he knock the socks off of the women there? I hope it was worth it.
sure they can. wealth is intangible. if folks want to ascribe value to it, they can. all currency is representational. it's all in yer head, man!
Say what you want about the Boy Scouts but they are the most wholesome quintessential symbol of american values. Getting booed by them? That's pretty bad.
Say what you want about the Boy Scouts but they are the most wholesome quintessential symbol of american values.Really? The MOST?
Say what you want about the Boy Scouts but they are the most wholesome quintessential symbol of american values....that was founded in Britain a century ago.
Why do conservatarians think it's a brilliant insight to point out that government spending is funded either by borrowing or taxation, and why do they think that this implies a zero sum game where the government is only ever capable of redistribution, rather than raising the overall level of production?
Do they not realize that business spending is also funded by debts and revenues? Or do they also think the private sector is equally incapable of creating wealth?
Roads to Ruin: Towns Rip Up the Pavement
Asphalt Is Replaced By Cheaper Gravel; 'Back to Stone Age'
SPIRITWOOD, N.D.—A hulking yellow machine inched along Old Highway 10 here recently in a summer scene that seemed as normal as the nearby corn swaying in the breeze. But instead of laying a blanket of steaming blacktop, the machine was grinding the asphalt road into bits.
...
The moves have angered some residents because of the choking dust and windshield-cracking stones that gravel roads can kick up, not to mention the jarring "washboard" effect of driving on rutted gravel.
But higher taxes for road maintenance are equally unpopular. In June, Stutsman County residents rejected a measure that would have generated more money for roads by increasing property and sales taxes.
"I'd rather my kids drive on a gravel road than stick them with a big tax bill," said Bob Baumann, as he sipped a bottle of Coors Light at the Sportsman's Bar Café and Gas in Spiritwood. :american
Breitbart has sex with goats (http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4ce276af14/andrew-breitbart-has-sex-with-goats?rel=player)
"When you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in 'D,' " Obama said last week at a Democratic National Committee event in Atlanta. "When you want to go back, what do you? You put it in 'R.' " :smug
Say what you want about the Boy Scouts but they are the most wholesome quintessential symbol of american values. Getting booed by them? That's pretty bad. Obama is gonna end up worse than carter at the point.
Update: The “accomplishments” page is now online. An RNC official insists they never removed the page; before publishing this post, I tried to access the site, multiple times and on different browsers, and found the page in question missing. Doug Heye of the RNC says the GOP site was reorganized, so the “Learn” page, where the accomplishments section lived, became “Issues.”
Virtually no one who is taught and believes relativity continues to read the Bible, a book that outsells New York Times bestsellers by a hundred-foldword?
So nobody thought it was humorous that there was not a single minority in any of the Boy Scout photos that Beardo posted? :lol
So nobody thought it was humorous that there was not a single minority in any of the Boy Scout photos that Beardo posted? :lol
that was the reason i commented in the first place, JESUS H CHRISTOS
So nobody thought it was humorous that there was not a single minority in any of the Boy Scout photos that Beardo posted? :lol
that was the reason i commented in the first place, JESUS H CHRISTOS
I'm not talking about the video, I'm talking in his little, sarcastic rebuttal. You didn't reply to that at all!
The new Medicare Trustees Report is out. Comparing Table IIIA-2 in this year’s report and last year’s report, we get this.http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/bending-the-curve/
In other words, the Medicare actuaries believe that the cost-saving provisions in the Obama health reform will make a huge difference to the long-run budget outlook. Yes, it’s just a projection, and debatable like all projections. And it’s still not enough. But anyone who both claims to be worried about the long-run deficit and was opposed to health reform has some explaining to do. All the facts we have suggest that health reform was the biggest move toward fiscal responsibility in a long, long time.
Beardo: A while back you said that Bush was an underrated president and the real problem was Congress. How you figure that?
(http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/curvebend.png)QuoteThe new Medicare Trustees Report is out. Comparing Table IIIA-2 in this year’s report and last year’s report, we get this.http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/bending-the-curve/
In other words, the Medicare actuaries believe that the cost-saving provisions in the Obama health reform will make a huge difference to the long-run budget outlook. Yes, it’s just a projection, and debatable like all projections. And it’s still not enough. But anyone who both claims to be worried about the long-run deficit and was opposed to health reform has some explaining to do. All the facts we have suggest that health reform was the biggest move toward fiscal responsibility in a long, long time.
in short, ben nelson is a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow #2325343
medical costs would go down a hell of a lot more with a full scale public option or medicare for everyone...but socialized medicine :piss2
amirite
I just got my auto insurance for the next six months and they sent me a list of car dealers I could buy from.I wish buying health insurance was half as easy as buying car insurance. I wonder why its so hard...
O wait that was my health insurance. :fbm
On a side note before I go to work, this is the type of bullshit the WSJ is known for
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704388504575419421407147424.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion
medical costs would go down a hell of a lot more with a full scale public option or medicare for everyone...but socialized medicine :piss2
amirite
Sigh...
Yes, clearly making a healthcare a monopoly will decrease costs across the board. Perhaps there are other things you would like socialized too? I want socialized video games. Having multiple VG systems is just too much for the common man to have to worry about. What about the auto industry? Have you seen how many choices are out there? It's just mind boggling.
:lol
Why cant they compete with government run (and completely subsidized) health care? :rofl
How old are you? 12?
If only corporations were bigger. Then they would be more efficient and prices would drop.
Curse you Howard Hughes!!
If only corporations were bigger. Then they would be more efficient and prices would drop.
Curse you Howard Hughes!!
Isn't Walmart doing this with cheap generic meds?
:lol
Why cant they compete with government run (and completely subsidized) health care? :rofl
How old are you? 12?
So then why do you trust government to be big enough to have "efficiencies in economy of scale and bargaining power." But not companies?
If non-profit health insurance was the answer than why don't we see something ala credit unions? A non-profit member run organization? I'm a member of a credit union and I love it! I would probably join the health insurance equivalence in a heart beat.
Why do American conservatives always treat government-run health care like a hypothetical? It's always in theoretical terms, couched in the ideology of anti-government rhetoric, and ignoring, y'know, the actual first-world countries that seem to make it work allright here in reality... ???
Why do American conservatives always treat government-run health care like a hypothetical? It's always in theoretical terms, couched in the ideology of anti-government rhetoric, and ignoring, y'know, the actual first-world countries that seem to make it work allright here in reality... ???
People are left to die in Canada's emergency rooms :'(
Why do American conservatives always treat government-run health care like a hypothetical? It's always in theoretical terms, couched in the ideology of anti-government rhetoric, and ignoring, y'know, the actual first-world countries that seem to make it work allright here in reality... ???
Why do American conservatives always treat government-run health care like a hypothetical? It's always in theoretical terms, couched in the ideology of anti-government rhetoric, and ignoring, y'know, the actual first-world countries that seem to make it work allright here in reality... ???
Hehe, you reminded me of the classic John Oliver bit from Hawaii
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-11-2010/the-apparent-trap (http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-11-2010/the-apparent-trap)
Why do American conservatives always treat government-run health care like a hypothetical? It's always in theoretical terms, couched in the ideology of anti-government rhetoric, and ignoring, y'know, the actual first-world countries that seem to make it work allright here in reality... ???
Hehe, you reminded me of the classic John Oliver bit from Hawaii
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-11-2010/the-apparent-trap (http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-11-2010/the-apparent-trap)
Region-blocked. :'(
(http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/curvebend.png)
They reduced the cost because they were taking the money from elsewhere right?No.
What Krugman fails to talk about is that everyone agrees that the Obama health care plan did nothing to combat high medical costs.
So why would spending go down?
Jeffrey Goldberg, in the new cover story in The Atlantic, on an Israeli attack on Iran::lol
"Israel has twice before successfully attacked and destroyed an enemy's nuclear program. In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed the Iraqi reactor at Osirak, halting -- forever, as it turned out -- Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions; and in 2007, Israeli planes destroyed a North Korean-built reactor in Syria. An attack on Iran, then, would be unprecedented only in scope and complexity."
Good news! Israel can successfully end a country's nuclear program by bombing them, as proven by its 1981 attack on Iraq, which, says Goldberg, halted "forever, as it turned out -- Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions."
Jeffrey Goldberg, The New Yorker, 2002, trying to convince Americans to fear Iraq:
"Saddam Hussein never gave up his hope of turning Iraq into a nuclear power. After the Osirak attack, he rebuilt, redoubled his efforts, and dispersed his facilities. Those who have followed Saddam's progress believe that no single strike today would eradicate his nuclear program."
When it suited him back then, Goldberg made the exact opposite claim, literally, of the one he makes today. Back then, Goldberg wouldn't possibly claim what he claims now -- that the 1981 strike permanently halted Saddam's "nuclear ambitions" -- because, back then, his goal was to scare Americans about The Threat of Saddam. So in 2002, Goldberg warned Americans that Saddam had "redoubled" his efforts to turn Iraq into a nuclear power after the Israeli attack, i.e., that Saddam had a scarier nuclear program than ever before after the 1981 bombing raid. But now, Goldberg has a different goal: to convince Americans of the efficacy of bombing Iran, and thus, without batting an eye, he simply asserts the exact opposite factual premise: that the Israelis successfully and permanently ended Saddam's nuclear ambition back in 1981 by bombing it out of existence (and, therefore, we can do something similar now to Iran).
So "Anchor Babies" are now being regarded as possible future terrorists? ghahahahah. This seems like a new level of shameless terrorism linking. They're being referred to as "Terror Babies" :lol
I cannot believe that there are people in this country who would give a fuck about Iran at this point.
Our economy is completely in the shitter, we are in a boondoggle of a war in Afghanistan, the Republicans would have you believe that the mongrel hordes are flowing over the southern border (i.e. we do need immigration reform, or at least a real discourse)
.....and a few dumb cunts want to make war with Iran. Awesome....just awesome.
The Republican neocon hypocrisy is absolutely mindblowing.
Makes me want to move to Canada.
Can it fit two?
The Republican neocon hypocrisy is absolutely mindblowing.
Makes me want to move to Canada.
I've got a futon available in my living room.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/18/dean/index.html (http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/18/dean/index.html)Oh yeah guess who was right?
:fbm
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/20/goldberg/index.html (http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/20/goldberg/index.html)
wow, complete destruction.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/20/goldberg/index.html (http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/20/goldberg/index.html)
wow, complete destruction.
Update IV seals the deal.
I'm sure Greenwald is right (or at least more right) on the merits, but I ain't reading that.
You'd be hard pressed to find two dudes who cling as tenaciously and humorlessly to political e-beef than those two. It's like Ichi-GS with a bigger audience.
Can someone help me to understand how Russia is helping Iran with it's nuclear reactor in direct contravention with United Nations resolutions concerning the Iranian enrichment of uranium? I don't quite understand how a permanent member of the security council can do this.....sorry, woefully ignorant of how the UN works.
Can someone help me to understand how Russia is helping Iran with it's nuclear reactor in direct contravention with United Nations resolutions concerning the Iranian enrichment of uranium? I don't quite understand how a permanent member of the security council can do this.....sorry, woefully ignorant of how the UN works.
“The most important number here for this recovery plan is how many jobs it produces, not how many votes it gets,” Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
Here is a pretty entertaining read on the Koch family. It's long though.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=1
Here is a pretty entertaining read on the Koch family. It's long though.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=1
Vast right wing conspiracy? Is it 1997 again?
Many of the ideas propounded in the 1980 campaign presaged the Tea Party movement. Ed Clark told The Nation that libertarians were getting ready to stage “a very big tea party,” because people were “sick to death” of taxes. The Libertarian Party platform called for the abolition of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., as well as of federal regulatory agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Energy. The Party wanted to end Social Security, minimum-wage laws, gun control, and all personal and corporate income taxes; it proposed the legalization of prostitution, recreational drugs, and suicide. Government should be reduced to only one function: the protection of individual rights. William F. Buckley, Jr., a more traditional conservative, called the movement “Anarcho-Totalitarianism.”
In 1997, for instance, the E.P.A. moved to reduce surface ozone, a form of pollution caused, in part, by emissions from oil refineries. Susan Dudley, an economist who became a top official at the Mercatus Center, criticized the proposed rule. The E.P.A., she argued, had not taken into account that smog-free skies would result in more cases of skin cancer. She projected that if pollution were controlled it would cause up to eleven thousand additional cases of skin cancer each year. :duh
In 1999, the District of Columbia Circuit Court took up Dudley’s smog argument. Evaluating the E.P.A. rule, the court found that the E.P.A. had “explicitly disregarded” the “possible health benefits of ozone.” In another part of the opinion, the court ruled, 2-1, that the E.P.A. had overstepped its authority in calibrating standards for ozone emissions. As the Constitutional Accountability Center, a think tank, revealed, the judges in the majority had previously attended legal junkets, on a Montana ranch, that were arranged by the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment—a group funded by Koch family foundations. The judges have claimed that the ruling was unaffected by their attendance. :smug
Ideas don’t happen on their own,” Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, a Tea Party advocacy group, told me. “Throughout history, ideas need patrons.” The Koch brothers, after helping to create Cato and Mercatus, concluded that think tanks alone were not enough to effect change. They needed a mechanism to deliver those ideas to the street, and to attract the public’s support. In 1984, David Koch and Richard Fink created yet another organization, and Kibbe joined them. The group, Citizens for a Sound Economy, seemed like a grassroots movement, but according to the Center for Public Integrity it was sponsored principally by the Kochs, who provided $7.9 million between 1986 and 1993. Its mission, Kibbe said, “was to take these heavy ideas and translate them for mass America. . . . We read the same literature Obama did about nonviolent revolutions—Saul Alinsky, Gandhi, Martin Luther King. We studied the idea of the Boston Tea Party as an example of nonviolent social change. We learned we needed boots on the ground to sell ideas, not candidates.” Within a few years, the group had mobilized fifty paid field workers, in twenty-six states, to rally voters behind the Kochs’ agenda. David and Charles, according to one participant, were “very controlling, very top down. You can’t build an organization with them. They run it.”
How can you defend this shit, Beardo? If these people had their way, we would all work for Koch. Earn credits to pay to rent your apartment from Koch and buy goods from the store Koch owned. You would own nothing in their world. The only way you could be rich would be if you were born into it.
QuoteHow can you defend this shit, Beardo? If these people had their way, we would all work for Koch. Earn credits to pay to rent your apartment from Koch and buy goods from the store Koch owned. You would own nothing in their world. The only way you could be rich would be if you were born into it.
What the fuck is wrong with you? You really think I wake up in the morning wishing for this shit? You're fucking distinguished mentally-challenged if that what you think conservatives actually want.
The rub is that YOU actually do want this exact garbage that you think you are against, only you give it a different name. Not with a corporation but with the government. You want a cradle to grave nanny-state where we all are not allowed to do anything without some kind of bureaucratic nightmare. Oh please, Mr. personal overseer can I scratch my ass? Oh, I need a form-77 before I can scratch my ass? Oh okay. You know what I do when I dont want to deal with a big corporation. I just stop using them. Thats it. It's actually very easy. How do you stop using government. You can't. You're dystopian nightmare is the exact thing that you are wishing for.
In Beardo's mind:
Filling out forms = zomg dystopian nightmare! :usacry
Irritation at filling out forms = rugged frontier rebelliousness! :punch
Mind you I think that'd make for some terribly dull sci-fi, but whatever gets you going, man.
QuoteHow can you defend this shit, Beardo? If these people had their way, we would all work for Koch. Earn credits to pay to rent your apartment from Koch and buy goods from the store Koch owned. You would own nothing in their world. The only way you could be rich would be if you were born into it.
What the fuck is wrong with you? You really think I wake up in the morning wishing for this shit? You're fucking distinguished mentally-challenged if that what you think conservatives actually want.
How can you respond to that?
Are Ron and Rand Paul on opposite sides of the Cordoba House debate? Rand, running for Senate in Kentucky, has taken the standard GOP line on the project -- namely, it's up to New York officials to decide the project's fate, but personally he's against it. And now, in an extremely strongly-worded statement posted to his movement's website Friday, father Ron ripped into opponents of the Cordoba House project, saying that the rhetoric taking on the plan is clearly "all about hate and Islamaphobia."http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/rand-vs-ron-cordoba-house-drives-wedge-through-the-paul.php?ref=fpb
Mandark: "I agree some regulation is an unnecessary hassle"
Beardo: "But what about North Korea!"
:wtf
But seriously, don't fall too hard for Voinovich. He's all "Grrrr! Deficits!" now, but he voted for the all the worst budget-busters of the Bush era (tax cuts, Iraq, Medicare Part D) and some of the medium-sized ones to boot. If you really care about this stuff you shouldn't be letting him off the hook so easy.
Instead of funding federal responsibilities that are shovel-ready, like highways, sewers and housing, which would put people back to work quickly and the results of which would contribute to our nation's economic growth, this bill is filled with items that should be funded through the regular appropriations process and compete with other federal priorities in President Obama's budget request.
Voinovich voted against the stimulus because of the way the money was spent, not the total sum itself.
When the Senate voted recently on the non-stimulative spending bill, Sen. Voinovich expressed his disappointment that Congress and the president did not do the work the American people asked them to do: ensure that each and every dollar in this bill is focused on creating jobs, jump-starting the economy and responding to the human needs brought about by the deep recession our country is experiencing. The $789 billion spending package will add more than $1.1 trillion to the national debt over 10 years when interest is included. The Congressional Budget Office projects that this bill will push the deficits for 2009, 2010 and 2011 to well-over a trillion dollars on average. Because of this, the conference report raises the debt limit to an astounding $12.1 trillion compared to today’s already staggering debt of $9.85 trillion. When Sen. Voinovich came to the Senate in 1999, the debt was at $5.6 trillion – less than half of what it is soon to become. Sen. Voinovich said he voted against the bill because it is weighed down by too much spending that is not stimulative and will not provide the jump-start our economy so desperately needs. Instead of funding federal responsibilities that are shovel-ready, like highways, sewers and housing, which would put people back to work quickly and the results of which would contribute to our nation’s economic growth, this bill is filled with items that should be funded through the regular appropriations process and compete with other federal priorities in President Obama’s budget request. Alternatively, Sen. Voinovich worked closely with a group of Senate Republicans who hoped to forge a bipartisan compromise with the Democrats. This group identified roughly $300 billion in spending that arguably does not belong in this bill.
Anyways, when a Senator of either party says that spending on X will stimulate the economy better than spending on Y, my assumption (barring some solid wonkish evidence) is that X will simply funnel more dollars to their constituencies or pet projects
this bill is filled with items that should be funded through the regular appropriations process and compete with other federal priorities in President Obama's budget request.
How can you respond to that?
You cant and you wont.
My nightmare scenario of self sacrifice to the state exists on earth. Your corporation dystopian society does not and has never existed.
Because he voted for programs that are not initiated by Democrats, that is fiscally irresponsible? Sure okay.
Because he voted for programs that are not initiated by Democrats, that is fiscally irresponsible? Sure okay.
Yea dude, you should be hip with the republican who's actually a serious man with respect to the budget: Paul Ryan.
Mr. Ryan’s plan calls for steep cuts in both spending and taxes. He’d have you believe that the combined effect would be much lower budget deficits, and, according to that Washington Post report, he speaks about deficits “in apocalyptic terms.” And The Post also tells us that his plan would, indeed, sharply reduce the flow of red ink: “The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan would cut the budget deficit in half by 2020.”
But the budget office has done no such thing. At Mr. Ryan’s request, it produced an estimate of the budget effects of his proposed spending cuts — period. It didn’t address the revenue losses from his tax cuts.
The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has, however, stepped into the breach. Its numbers indicate that the Ryan plan would reduce revenue by almost $4 trillion over the next decade. If you add these revenue losses to the numbers The Post cites, you get a much larger deficit in 2020, roughly $1.3 trillion.
And that’s about the same as the budget office’s estimate of the 2020 deficit under the Obama administration’s plans. That is, Mr. Ryan may speak about the deficit in apocalyptic terms, but even if you believe that his proposed spending cuts are feasible — which you shouldn’t — the Roadmap wouldn’t reduce the deficit. All it would do is cut benefits for the middle class while slashing taxes on the rich.
And I do mean slash. The Tax Policy Center finds that the Ryan plan would cut taxes on the richest 1 percent of the population in half, giving them 117 percent of the plan’s total tax cuts. That’s not a misprint. Even as it slashed taxes at the top, the plan would raise taxes for 95 percent of the population.
Finally, let’s talk about those spending cuts. In its first decade, most of the alleged savings in the Ryan plan come from assuming zero dollar growth in domestic discretionary spending, which includes everything from energy policy to education to the court system. This would amount to a 25 percent cut once you adjust for inflation and population growth. How would such a severe cut be achieved? What specific programs would be slashed? Mr. Ryan doesn’t say.
One of my favorite things about political threads at the Bore: PD joking and people taking him seriously, as a result of his dry delivery and somewhat dubious posting history.
Liberals want North Korea? You're making some pretty big assumptions here pal.
How can you defend this shit, Beardo? If these people had their way, we would all work for Koch. Earn credits to pay to rent your apartment from Koch and buy goods from the store Koch owned. You would own nothing in their world. The only way you could be rich would be if you were born into it.
how did beardo miss the late 1800s usa
New Yorkers, including the city's mayor, and several national US organisations, have strongly condemned an attack on a taxi driver believed to have been targeted because he is a Muslim.:spin
http://www.smh.com.au/world/new-yorkers-denounce-attack-on-muslim-taxi-driver-20100826-13t09.htmlQuoteNew Yorkers, including the city's mayor, and several national US organisations, have strongly condemned an attack on a taxi driver believed to have been targeted because he is a Muslim.:spin
Quote"You guys better watch it," says one caller. "Now, we are going to destroy and obliterate Rush [limbaugh] and Sean Hannity," said another. "Those two guys are dead."
terrifying :omg
pretty sure the tea party is a minority
"You guys better watch it," says one caller. "Now, we are going to destroy and obliterate Rush [limbaugh] and Sean Hannity," said another. "Those two guys are dead.
Typical conservative response, falsely equivocate. Threatening voicemails is the same as physically attacking a muslim cab driver and going into a mosque and pissing on everything. Same shit guys. I can't believe this has to be pointed out.
If only you could take 1 more step back and find out what was the cause to make 9/11 the effect. Or do you really think they did it because they were just bored that day?Typical conservative response, falsely equivocate. Threatening voicemails is the same as physically attacking a muslim cab driver and going into a mosque and pissing on everything. Same shit guys. I can't believe this has to be pointed out.
Muslims: blowing up subways and flying planes into buildings. Cause
Non-muslims: urinating on stuff. Effect
Clearly the muslims are the victims.
Typical conservative response, falsely equivocate. Threatening voicemails is the same as physically attacking a muslim cab driver and going into a mosque and pissing on everything. Same shit guys. I can't believe this has to be pointed out.
Muslims: blowing up subways and flying planes into buildings.
Non-muslims: urinating on stuff.
Clearly the muslims are the victims.
-- Opposition to the most radical redefinition of marriage in human history, as expressed in Proposition 8 in California? Homophobia.
-- Opposition to a 15-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero? Islamophobia.
Either conservatives believe in mob rule, or the constitution. Sorry, can't have it either way depending on the issue!
Resistance to the vast expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt, as represented by the Tea Party movement? Why, racist resentment toward a black president.
Disgust and alarm with the federal government's unwillingness to curb illegal immigration, as crystallized in the Arizona law? Nativism.
Opposition to a 15-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero? Islamophobia.
Opposition to the most radical redefinition of marriage in human history, as expressed in Proposition 8 in California? Homophobia.
Pretty much sums all of you up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605233.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605233.html)
That WashPo article is full of so much white/conservative victim mentality it's impossible to read it all
The will of the people does not trump constitutional rights.
True. It also doesn't (save for somewhat indirectly and through a very particular methodology) trump the document as written in other ways... such as magically altering the text to grant control to the feds about topics that were never mentioned.
It requires extreme blindness or extreme dishonesty to deny that our politics is more racially and ethnically polarized than it has been in a long time. Virtually every Fox News/right-wing-talk-radio controversy relies on scaring economically anxious white Americans into ignoring the prime cause of their economic insecurity -- plundering by Wall Street bankers, abetted by the government they own -- and focusing instead on some manufactured menace from powerless racial and ethnic minorities: black people preventing them from voting (New Black Panthers), stealing their elections (ACORN), and treating them unequally (Shirley Sherrod and Eric Holder's Justice Department); Muslims who want to conquer their country and celebrate over their Christian corpses (the Triumphalist Ground Zero Mosque); invading, marauding Latino armies coming to steal their property and rape their women while their Marxist allies in Government (led by a black Muslim President) disarm the white victims.http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/27/krauthammer/index.html
It's such a beautiful and peaceful religion. Also they created algebra. Did I mention they are the religion of peace. I wish one would come and suicide-bomb my tender butthole right now.
/librul
It's such a beautiful and peaceful religion. Also they created algebra. Did I mention they are the religion of peace. I wish one would come and suicide-bomb my tender butthole right now.
/librul
WAT
It's such a beautiful and peaceful religion. Also they created algebra. Did I mention they are the religion of peace. I wish one would come and suicide-bomb my tender butthole right now.Sadly I do know people like this.
/librul
It's such a beautiful and peaceful religion. Also they created algebra. Did I mention they are the religion of peace. I wish one would come and suicide-bomb my tender butthole right now.
/librul
[youtube=560,345]ht8PmEjxUfg[/youtube]
True American patriots. :american
It's such a beautiful and peaceful religion. Also they created algebra. Did I mention they are the religion of peace. I wish one would come and suicide-bomb my tender butthole right now.
/librul
Political correctness :yuck
why can't we call a spade a spade. Peaceful Muslims, what an oxygen moran
[youtube=560,345]ht8PmEjxUfg[/youtube]
True American patriots. :american
[youtube=560,345]ht8PmEjxUfg[/youtube]
True American patriots. :american
[youtube=560,345]ht8PmEjxUfg[/youtube](http://i37.tinypic.com/124wy11.jpg)
True American patriots. :american
Ah, Both Sides Are Equally To Blame.Who will the left blame? Business of course :smug
Deep shit, man. *strokes goatee*
http://www.theonion.com/video/alqaeda-calls-off-attack-on-nations-capitol-to-spa,17688/ (http://www.theonion.com/video/alqaeda-calls-off-attack-on-nations-capitol-to-spa,17688/)
It is the next great American movement. President Romney will ride the recovery into the history books, dems will be exiled 12 more years until a brilliant southern governor saves the day.Maybe not Romney but a Repub. probably will ride the recovery. Fuck.
Anyone remember James Carville saying republicans would be irrelevant for a decade or longer? Ah the ever egotistical democrats. :teehee
Anyone remember James Carville saying republicans would be irrelevant for a decade or longer? Ah the ever egotistical democrats. :teehee
Anyone remember Zell Miller saying democrats would be irrelevant for a decade or longer? Ah the ever egotistical conservatives :teehee
I'm sure the GOP will subpoena Sasha, but eventually they'll have to do something constructive. Maybe at that point something will get accomplished.
btw Shogon, republicans are fucked in the long term. Can't wait until Texas turns blue thanks to all this messican hatin' :teehee
btw Shogon, republicans are fucked in the long term. Can't wait until Texas turns blue thanks to all this messican hatin' :teehee
You're right, but you forget that all those messicans are catholic, bu bu but religion. Joking aside, it'll be interesting to see if they stick to the Bush/Cheney neocon ideas or actually go back to being conservatives. It didn't take the neocons long to hijack the teaparty.
Anyways about to call it a night to drink beer, play mass effect, drink coffee, and play more mass effect. PEACE.
Catholics lean Democrat anyway.
I spent the weekend with a group of academics that have been studying the American conservative populist movement for years. They have a very interesting take on how it happened and especially why it persists. They place a lot of blame for the success of Fox News etc. on the liberal media and their inability to see the country's actual tensions while the conservative media taps right into it.
btw Shogon, republicans are fucked in the long term. Can't wait until Texas turns blue thanks to all this messican hatin'
Yeah, but not because of anything intrinsic to Catholicism. It's an artifact of the times when Catholics -- primarily Irish/Italian/Slavic -- were immigrating heavily to the US and seen as a nonwhite cultural threat by certain Americans. So the Republican exploitation of nativist fears drove them to an affiliation with the Democratic party that's lasted over a century.
I mean, what are the odds that'll happen with the American latino community?
I mean things like Obama's birth certificate. Birthers say "show me the certificate" and when he doesn't, to them, it's an admission of guilt.It's easy to create the boogey man. Any defense is an admission of guilt. The success of faux news correlates directly with the disenfranchisement of the older white American. Faux is in the driver's seat for the narrative for the time being it seems.Defense?
Catholics lean Democrat anyway.
Yeah, but not because of anything intrinsic to Catholicism. It's an artifact of the times when Catholics -- primarily Irish/Italian/Slavic -- were immigrating heavily to the US and seen as a nonwhite (http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Became-White-Noel-Ignatiev/dp/0415918251) cultural threat by certain Americans. So the Republican exploitation (http://www.ralphmag.org/BH/rum-romanism.html) of nativist fears drove them to an affiliation with the Democratic party that's lasted over a century.
I mean, what are the odds that'll happen with the American latino community?
Quotebtw Shogon, republicans are fucked in the long term. Can't wait until Texas turns blue thanks to all this messican hatin'
You're joking right. You know illegal immigrants can't vote? You guys really do believe conservatives just hate people. For no other reason to just hate. It has nothing to do with what they look like but go ahead and live in the fantasy land of a liberal Texas.QuoteYeah, but not because of anything intrinsic to Catholicism. It's an artifact of the times when Catholics -- primarily Irish/Italian/Slavic -- were immigrating heavily to the US and seen as a nonwhite cultural threat by certain Americans. So the Republican exploitation of nativist fears drove them to an affiliation with the Democratic party that's lasted over a century.
I mean, what are the odds that'll happen with the American latino community?
You mean democrat, if were speaking pre 20th century and around the turn of the century.
The irony is that the dems are the party that benefit from racism, kind of like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson. They need it for exploitation in their quest for progressive dominance.
What I just read from shogun is "sure republicans are racist, but it's democrats who are bad guys for exploiting our noble racism for nefarious purposes"
What I just read from shogun is "sure republicans are racist, but it's democrats who are bad guys for exploiting our noble racism for nefarious purposes"
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has used his Christian faith to “unequivocally condemn” a Florida church that plans to burn 200 copies of the Muslim holy book.
“I don't speak very often about my own religion, but let me be very clear: My God and my Christ is a tolerant God, and that's what we want to see in this world,” he said.
Mr. Harper was adding his voice to the global outcry against a Florida preacher who plans to burn copies of the Koran in a bonfire Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
...
But Mr. Harper was direct in his denunciation.
“I unequivocally condemn it,” he said. “We all enjoy freedom of religion and that freedom of religion comes from a tolerant spirit.”
“I don't think that's the way you treat other faiths, as different as those faiths may be from your own.”
Against the healthcare bill? Well you must be a racist (Wink Wink)
Against the healthcare bill? Well you must be a racist (Wink Wink)
No, that just makes you an asshole. Or maybe a corporate stooge. Or a cold, indifferent ideologue. Take your pick.
Against the healthcare bill? Well you must be a racist (Wink Wink)
No, that just makes you an asshole. Or maybe a corporate stooge. Or a cold, indifferent ideologue. Take your pick.
I'll take constituionalist.
mumble mumble three fifths of a person mumble
What I just read from shogun is "sure republicans are racist, but it's democrats who are bad guys for exploiting our noble racism for nefarious purposes"
Oh come on man, here let me help you. Dems use it to demonize political opponents, not all, but for the far left it's their ultimate cannon bomb.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms3ruN-joxU[/youtube]http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/phil-davison-of-freakout-viral-video-has-never-used-youtube-it-was-on-some-kind-of-electronic-server.php?ref=dcblt
"MASTERS DEGREE IN COMMUNICATION!!"
"I went home and had a ham sandwich and went to bed and thought that was the end of it," Davison said when reached at home this afternoon. "A friend called, and well, I'm not very good with electronics, is there a YouTube? It was on some kind of electronic server."
To some extent, yes. But there are tensions that run both ways in the immigrant debate and only one side musters them to any real effect. When was the last time you heard anyone from the left's media talking to real immigrant fears instead of assuaging liberal whites that the other side is bad?I spent the weekend with a group of academics that have been studying the American conservative populist movement for years. They have a very interesting take on how it happened and especially why it persists. They place a lot of blame for the success of Fox News etc. on the liberal media and their inability to see the country's actual tensions while the conservative media taps right into it.
So...paranoia and racism?
The irony is that the dems are the party that benefit from racism, kind of like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson. They need it for exploitation in their quest for progressive dominance.
Put more aptly, they benefit from (and stoke) paranoia regarding the perception of racism where it does not exist.
Put more aptly, they benefit from (and stoke) paranoia regarding the perception of racism where it does not exist.
....but, isn't that because those allegations on many of their opponents are usually true?
Also, Shogun, the dems calling someone a racist for opposing the health care bill has less to do with opposing the bill and more to do with showing up at protest rallies with signs depicting Obama as a monkey/being lynched.
QuoteYeah, but not because of anything intrinsic to Catholicism. It's an artifact of the times when Catholics -- primarily Irish/Italian/Slavic -- were immigrating heavily to the US and seen as a nonwhite cultural threat by certain Americans. So the Republican exploitation of nativist fears drove them to an affiliation with the Democratic party that's lasted over a century.
I mean, what are the odds that'll happen with the American latino community?
You mean democrat, if were speaking pre 20th century and around the turn of the century.
Washington (CNN) -- GOP colleagues of House Minority Leader John Boehner are distancing themselves from the Ohio Republican's recent remarks that he would support President Barack Obama's proposal to renew the expiring Bush tax cuts only for those making less than $250,000 if it were his only option.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, announced Monday he will introduce legislation that would ensure that no one pays higher income taxes next year.
"We can't let the people who've been hit hardest by this recession and who we need to create the jobs that will get us out of it foot the bill for the Democrats' two-year adventure in expanded government," McConnell said on the Senate floor.
Republican Party officials who saw Castle as their only hope for winning the Delaware seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden made clear they will not provide funding for O'Donnell in the general election. The Republican state chairman, Tom Ross, has said O'Donnell "could not be elected dogcatcher," and records surfaced during the campaign showing that the IRS had once slapped a lien against her and that her house had been headed for foreclosure. She also claimed -- falsely -- to have carried two of the state's counties in a race against Biden six years ago.
http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article/rr/9009/21341212/Big_night_for_tea_party_ODonnell_wins_DelawareQuoteRepublican Party officials who saw Castle as their only hope for winning the Delaware seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden made clear they will not provide funding for O'Donnell in the general election. The Republican state chairman, Tom Ross, has said O'Donnell "could not be elected dogcatcher," and records surfaced during the campaign showing that the IRS had once slapped a lien against her and that her house had been headed for foreclosure. She also claimed -- falsely -- to have carried two of the state's counties in a race against Biden six years ago.
Even repugs think she's crazy. Wow Americans are stupid.
The primary here today will determine definitively whether the Tea Party is capable of carrying its rebellion to a truly absurd extreme.
Want to know how angry the state’s Republican leaders are at the campaign of Christine O’Donnell, the perennial candidate who is threatening Rep. Mike Castle in the U.S. Senate race? Here’s what Delaware Republican Party chairman Tom Ross told me last night:
" I could buy a parrot and train it to say, ‘tax cuts,’ but at the end of the day, it’s still a parrot, not a conservative."
More needs to be done to put the numbers involved in extending the Bush tax cuts in context, so consider this: There is no policy that President Obama has passed or proposed that added as much to the deficit as the Republican Party's $3.9 trillion extension of the Bush tax cuts. In fact, if you put aside Obama's plan to extend most, but not all, of the Bush tax cuts, there is no policy he has passed or proposed that would do half as much damage to the deficit. There is not even a policy that would do a quarter as much damage to the deficit.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/09/putting_the_39_trillion_extens.html
The stimulus bill, at $787 billion, would do about a fifth as much damage. But that's actually misleading: The stimulus bill was a temporary expense (not to mention a response to an unexpected emergency). Once it's done, it's done. An indefinite extension of the Bush tax cuts is, well, indefinite. It will cost $3.9 trillion in the first 10 years. And then it will cost more than that in the second 10 years. Call that number Y. And then it will cost more than Y in the third 10 years. And so on and on into eternity. Comparatively, the stimulus bill is a tiny fraction of that. The bank bailouts, which were passed by George W. Bush and the Democrats in 2006, will end up costing the government only $66 billion. The health-care bill improves the deficit outlook.
Republicans and tea party candidates are both running campaigns based around concern for the deficit. But both, to my knowledge, support the single-largest increase in the deficit that anyone of either party has proposed in memory.
Democrats will not rule out compromising with Republicans on the Bush tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest Americans, according to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
At his weekly press availability this morning, Hoyer declined to draw a bright line on the issue of tax cuts for the rich, adding to the uncertainty over whether Democrats will force Republicans to choose between tax cuts for the middle class, or no tax cuts at all.
"I'm always, as you know, prepared to discuss alternatives so that we can move forward," Hoyer told reporters.
Though Democrats have committed to ensuring that tax cuts for middle-income brackets are extended permanently, they have yet to determine how or when they'll accomplish that, let alone whether they might be amenable to a temporary extension of tax cuts for the rich. Hoyer said that he personally supports Obama's tax plan and eventually wants to offset the middle class tax cuts.
Nevertheless, they're hoping that House Minority Leader John Boehner's moment of candor this past Sunday has exposed the GOP's dilemma, giving them an upper hand in the debate.
"Mr. Boehner made the mistake of a few short seconds of reasonableness which lead the Wall Street Journal to say that he was maybe not appropriate to be the Speaker," Hoyer said. "So I'm not sure where they're going to go. So I don't want to anticipate what they would or would not do."
I fail to see any hypocrisy on my part... I freely admit that most of my ideas are impractical and not likely to work, it's just that I think publicly beheading Wall St. execs would be COOL.
They Must Really Not Want Herhttp://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/09/they_must_really_not_want_her.php?ref=fpblg (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/09/they_must_really_not_want_her.php?ref=fpblg)
ABC's Jake Tapper has a curious scoop, reporting that President Obama will name Elizabeth Warren not to run the new consumer financial protection bureau but instead will give her the previously unheralded "special position reporting to both him and to the Treasury Department and tasked with heading the effort to get the new federal agency standing." Get that?
We're seeking more clarification now, but it sounds like the White House has decided that instead of nominating Warren to head up the new consumer financial protection bureau, or alternatively avoiding the confirmation process and appointing her as interim director, the President will take a third way and make her a special adviser to help set the bureau up.
I tend to agree with Matt Yglesias on this: "With Warren, Obama showing real innovation in developing odd, satisfying to nobody compromises."
The latest CBS poll shows a majority of Americans want the high-income tax cuts to expire, and yet the Democrats are still bending over backwards to compromise with an uncompromising party.
One party is destructive; the other, through its spinelessness, is merely complicit in the destruction.
ITT: Jaydubya rails against the Post OfficeITT: Poster rails against Jayduya
ITT: Fresh Prince rails against obvious jokeITT: Jaydubya rails against the Post OfficeITT: Poster rails against Jayduya
Woah, what are you guys even talking about? It's been a whole page since then.
"Pledge to America" is unveiled tomorrow, which I hope is anchored by a heartfelt promise to send the homosexuals into labor camps, where they can work the gay away!
-- A repeal of the health-care law signed by President Obama this year.
-- A spending freeze for most domestic programs, exempting some programs for seniors, such as Social Security, and others that affect veterans and the military.
-- Keeping in place for all Americans, including the wealthy, tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003. President Obama has proposed getting rid of tax cuts for household income above $250,000.
-- A ban on any federal funding for abortions.
-- A hiring freeze on all federal agencies except those charged with keeping Americans safe. (Agencies could hire employees only to replace people who leave.)
-- A requirement that Congress post all bills online three days before a vote and that lawmakers cite the specific constitutional authority that enables the legislation.
-- A ban on any efforts to hold trials on U.S. soil for detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay.
-- A stop on all unspent money authorized as part of last year's stimulus bill or the 2008 legislation that aided failing Wall Street firms.
-- A tax deduction for small businesses on up to 20 percent of their business income.
-- A requirement that Congress post all bills online three days before a vote and that lawmakers cite the specific constitutional authority that enables the legislation.:lol
-- A spending freeze for most domestic programs, exempting some programs for seniors, such as Social Security, and others that affect veterans and the military.
Where's the 40% of our budget going to foreign aid ??? Or the 20% going to gay arts programs ???Quote from: GOP Pledge to America-- A spending freeze for most domestic programs, exempting some programs for seniors, such as Social Security, and others that affect veterans and the military.
Cool, so that should save us a lot of
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/budget07/categoryPie07.gif)
...oh.
typical college intellectual propaganda. here are the real, founding father-denying annual federal spend percentages:
(http://i55.tinypic.com/jimc0o.jpg)
WHERE IS THE MONEY TO BUY EVERY IMAGE OF THE BABBY JESUS A TRICORN HAT I ASK
WHY DOES AMERICA HATE AMERICA
Mandark posted a small poll done at a tea party gathering a while back where some people thought foreign aid was seriously 40%. Anyone have a link so we can have a laugh?
typical college intellectual propaganda. here are the real, founding father-denying annual federal spend percentages:
(http://i55.tinypic.com/jimc0o.jpg)
WHERE IS THE MONEY TO BUY EVERY IMAGE OF THE BABBY JESUS A TRICORN HAT I ASK
WHY DOES AMERICA HATE AMERICA
The entirety of your moral, political, and economic philosophies is based upon intangibles that you choose to define based on your own subjective values but lord over others as though they're objective truths.
I'm pretty sure I covered military spending. Also the DOE. I could have made a longer list, but why bother really?
-- A spending freeze for most domestic programs, exempting some programs for seniors, such as Social Security, and others that affect veterans and the military.
:teehee
- A repeal of the health-care law signed by President Obama this year. Repeal doesn't go far enough, they should move to nullify it at the State level.
-- Keeping in place for all Americans, including the wealthy, tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003. President Obama has proposed getting rid of tax cuts for household income above $250,000. Fine, now cut spending.
-- A ban on any federal funding for abortions. Agreed.
-- A hiring freeze on all federal agencies except those charged with keeping Americans safe. (Agencies could hire employees only to replace people who leave.) Check.
-- A requirement that Congress post all bills online three days before a vote and that lawmakers cite the specific constitutional authority that enables the legislation. This is the best part and the way it should be, they have no authority to pass any law not authorized in the constitution. How about also requiring them to read the bill. How about a test before a bill is passed to ensure they've read it? We can do multiple choice, it'll be fun like school and we can air it on CSPAN.
-- A stop on all unspent money authorized as part of last year's stimulus bill or the 2008 legislation that aided failing Wall Street firms. Check.
-- A tax deduction for small businesses on up to 20 percent of their business income. Check.
Now a few things they could have added...
Audit the Fed.
End the department of education.
Shut down the military bases in Europe/Asia.
End all foreign aid. (Yes this includes Israel)
Leave Iraq.
Stop nation building in Afghanistan. (Build a school, they blow it up)
Reel in the executive branch, it's been too powerful for decades.
hey look a white person
it means "ron paul makes sure the few remaining government functions keep the browns in their economic place, because privatizing education can only do so much"
HR1207 ring a bell? It had bipartisan support - 23 Democrats including the ever emotional Grayson.
it means "ron paul makes sure the few remaining government functions keep the browns in their economic place, because privatizing education can only do so much"
SomeDude on neogaf is that you? HR1207 ring a bell? It had bipartisan support - 23 Democrats including the ever emotional Grayson.
It had bipartisan support
End the department of education.
QuoteEnd the department of education.
Dude, seriously?
i just want mandatory abortions for all pregnant teenagers, is that so wrong
Audit the Fed.End the department of education.
Shut down the military bases in Europe/Asia.
End all foreign aid. (Yes this includes Israel)
Leave Iraq.
Stop nation building in Afghanistan. (Build a school, they blow it up)
Reel in the executive branch, it's been too powerful for decades.
you know, white people, especially rich ones
a "Planned Parenthood Express" just opened up here in Orange County
QuoteEnd the department of education.
Dude, seriously?
Why not? There is no support for it within the text of the Constitution.
Conversely, there is support for running school systems within the text of the constitutions of the various states.
By the rule of law, the Department of Education should not exist. The United States should not have an education system.
More accurately: The United States federal government has little to no role to play in the education systems of the constituent states, should the people of those states invest that power with their respective states (and they have, as evidenced by the constitutions of those states). If the various state constitutions did not grant the individual states authority to run an education system in some capacity, the various states also would not have the authority to do so.
If and only if a Constitutional Amendment were passed to authorize such a thing would the federal government have a legitimate basis for involvement under the rule of law.
How can this even be a controversial statement? There is no rational counter-argument.
:lol :lolhttp://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/There was no option to pump more money into federally funded abortions :'(
Fix the debt issue yourselves!
[youtube=560,345]KB0TLgcNesU[/youtube]SMH
You know you done goofed when even Andrew Breitbart can't defend you immediately
There should be an American standard of education. Taking that away only accelerates our demise.So we should keep the people dumb so they don't have to be paid shit?
There's nothing in what I said for you to draw that inference.
Nah, fuck it. Then all of the poor states that get more money back from the federal govt. than they pay in can start having better distinguished mentally-challenged fellows, and NY and California can have awesome schools. Everyone who has the money and is able will move to the swank 1st world states, and the middle of the country will continue to have sloping brows and low iqs. Sounds awesome.Agreed. Also, cut off all federal funding to Alaska.
This is an honest question, JD. I oftentimes see this line of reasoning from the libertarian set on most matters, and the general republican set on matters they disagree with. So, if they believe there is a legitimate claim that all these things are unconstitutional, why don't we more attacks mounted in the courts against them, since that is the ultimate arbiter for these matters?
New Rule: The next rich person who publicly complains about being vilified by the Obama administration must be publicly vilified by the Obama administration. It's so hard for one person to tell another person what constitutes being "rich", or what tax rate is "too much." But I've done some math that indicates that, considering the hole this country is in, if you are earning more than a million dollars a year and are complaining about a 3.6% tax increase, then you are by definition a greedy asshole.
And let's be clear: that's 3.6% only on income above 250 grand -- your first 250, that's still on the house. Now, this week we got some horrible news: that one in seven Americans are now living below the poverty line. But I want to point you to an American who is truly suffering: Ben Stein. You know Ben Stein, the guy who got rich because when he talks it sounds so boring it's actually funny. He had a game show on Comedy Central, does eye drop commercials, doesn't believe in evolution? Yeah, that asshole. I kid Ben -- so, the other day Ben wrote an article about his struggle. His struggle as a wealthy person facing the prospect of a slightly higher marginal tax rate. Specifically, Ben said that when he was finished paying taxes and his agents, he was left with only 35 cents for every dollar he earned. Which is shocking, Ben Stein has an agent? I didn't know Broadway Danny Rose was still working.
Ben whines in his article about how he's worked for every dollar he has -- if by work you mean saying the word "Bueller" in a movie 25 years ago. Which doesn't bother me in the slightest, it's just that at a time when people in America are desperate and you're raking in the bucks promoting some sleazy Free Credit Score dot-com... maybe you shouldn't be asking us for sympathy. Instead, you should be down on your knees thanking God and/or Ronald Reagan that you were lucky enough to be born in a country where a useless schmuck who contributes absolutely nothing to society can somehow manage to find himself in the top marginal tax bracket.
And you're welcome to come on the show anytime.
Now I can hear you out there saying, "Come on Bill, don't be so hard on Ben Stein, he does a lot of voiceover work, and that's hard work." Ok, it's true, Ben is hardly the only rich person these days crying like a baby who's fallen off his bouncy seat. Last week Mayor Bloomberg of New York complained that all his wealthy friends are very upset with mean ol' President Poopy-Pants: He said they all say the same thing: "I knew I was going to have to pay more taxes. But I didn't expect to be vilified." Poor billionaires -- they just can't catch a break.
First off, far from being vilified, we bailed you out -- you mean we were supposed to give you all that money and kiss your ass, too? That's Hollywood you're thinking of. FDR, he knew how to vilify; this guy, not so much. And second, you should have been vilified -- because you're the vill-ains! I'm sure a lot of you are very nice people. And I'm sure a lot of you are jerks. In other words, you're people. But you are the villains. Who do you think outsourced all the jobs, destroyed the unions, and replaced workers with desperate immigrants and teenagers in China. Joe the Plumber?
And right now, while we run trillion dollar deficits, Republicans are holding America hostage to the cause of preserving the Bush tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest 1% of people, many of them dead. They say that we need to keep taxes on the rich low because they're the job creators. They're not. They're much more likely to save money through mergers and outsourcing and cheap immigrant labor, and pass the unemployment along to you.
Americans think rich people must be brilliant; no -- just ruthless. Meg Whitman is running for Governor out here, and her claim to fame is, she started e-Bay. Yes, Meg tapped into the Zeitgeist, the zeitgeist being the desperate need of millions of Americans to scrape a few dollars together by selling the useless crap in their garage. What is e-Bay but a big cyber lawn sale that you can visit without putting your clothes on?
Another of my favorites, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann said, "I don't know where they're going to get all this money, because we're running out of rich people in this country." Actually, we have more billionaires here in the U.S. than all the other countries in the top ten combined, and their wealth grew 27% in the last year. Did yours? Truth is, there are only two things that the United States is not running out of: Rich people and bullshit. Here's the truth: When you raise taxes slightly on the wealthy, it obviously doesn't destroy the economy -- we know this, because we just did it -- remember the '90's? It wasn't that long ago. You were probably listening to grunge music, or dabbling in witchcraft. Clinton moved the top marginal rate from 36 to 39% -- and far from tanking, the economy did so well he had time to get his dick washed.
Even 39% isn't high by historical standards. Under Eisenhower, the top tax rate was 91%. Under Nixon, it was 70%. Obama just wants to kick it back to 39 -- just three more points for the very rich. Not back to 91, or 70. Three points. And they go insane. Steve Forbes said that Obama, quote "believes from his inner core that people... above a certain income have more than they should have and that many probably have gotten it from ill-gotten ways." Which they have. Steve Forbes, of course, came by his fortune honestly: he inherited it from his gay egg-collecting, Elizabeth Taylor cigarillo-hagging father, who inherited it from his father. Of course then they moan about the inheritance tax, how the government took 55% percent when Daddy died -- which means you still got 45% for doing nothing more than starting out life as your father's pecker-snot.
We don't hate rich people, but have a little humility about how you got it and stop complaining. Maybe the worst whiner of all: Stephen Schwarzman, #69 on Forbes' list of richest Americans, compared Obama's tax hike to "when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939." Wow. If Obama were Hitler, Mr. Schwarzman, I think your tax rate would be the least of your worries.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/cartoons/092410_Tea_Party/
If you look hard enough you'll find drew(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BX2aSG8RqEU/THdZ1Tu-2gI/AAAAAAAAEA0/TlqGNu-V-g4/s1600/Leo+Taylor+-+if+you+don%27t+agree+with+me,+you%27re+a+racist+homophobe.png)
A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can't imagine it.http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904
QuoteA hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can't imagine it.http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904
ha
the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit. All of them. At the voter level, the Tea Party is a movement that purports to be furious about government spending — only the reality is that the vast majority of its members are former Bush supporters who yawned through two terms of record deficits and spent the past two electoral cycles frothing not about spending but about John Kerry's medals and Barack Obama's Sixties associations. The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them. In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what this movement is all about — and nowhere do we see that dynamic as clearly as here in Kentucky
the fact that nobody's actually gonna go through the official channels and instead use this as an awesome wowsome way to go on a drunk bender and look at your cock pics
and then we'll slap them on the wrist and say we've weeded out the bad apples, but oh we haven't
Looks like Rahm is leaving, probably to go make a bunch of money for a couple years, then be Governor of Illinois or something. I wonder if Jane Hamsher and Cheebs will throw a party to celebrate.
Obama should hire Grayson to replace him.:rock
"The joke is that the tables have turned on CNN. Using hot blondes to seduce interviewees to get screwed on television, you are faux seducing her in order to screw her on television."
http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/29/from-pimp-to-punk-acorn-vid-kid-fails-to-seduce-cnn-reporter/
I mean, really?
To answer DougJ’s question about what O’Keefe thought he might accomplish, it is just this simple. These are wingnut activists feeding a wingnut audience. Any video he got from the boat would have been “proof” of whatever they claimed it would be. These are the folks who took a video of Shirley Sherrod rejecting racism and used it to… call her a racist. These are the folks who had Acorn officials fired for… calling the authorities when they went in and pretended to be sex traffickers and the Acorn folks did the right thing.
All they needed was videotape of anything involving Abbie Bordreaux on that boat. It doesn’t matter if she was repulsed or what she actually did, they would lie and edit the video and it would become whatever they wanted it to be. The wingnut blogs would all circulate it, Howie Kurtz and Fox news would mainstream it, the WaPo Ombudsman would three weeks later issue an apology for not looking into the sluts at CNN earlier, and the Politico would have a dozen “thought” pieces up discussing how this is bad news for Obama and Democrats.
When you make up your own reality and have a media that refuses to call you on your bullshit, the sky is the limit. The video didn’t have to have any evidence, it just had to exist. The wurlitzer could then turn it into whatever they wanted.
It’s just that simple.
First, Sanchez started out expressing an anecdote from his own experience, when someone who was “top brass” at CNN told Sanchez to his face that he saw Sanchez as “more as John Quiñones,” referring to the Hispanic ABC News reporter. Sanchez’s example was an illustration that the problem of racism in the media business goes further than many expect, enveloping “not just the Right,” but also “elite, Northeast establishment liberals” that “deep down, when they look at a guy like me, they see a guy automatically who belongs in the second tier, and not the top tier.”
That’s when Sanchez really let his feelings loose: “I think to some extent Jon Stewart and [Stephen] Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart’s a bigot.“
Pete noted that Stewart is his former boss, and pressed Sanchez to explain himself further. “How is he a bigot?” Pete asked.
Sanchez:
"I think he looks at the world through, his mom, who was a school teacher, and his dad, who was a physicist or something like that. Great, I’m so happy that he grew up in a suburban middle class New Jersey home with everything you could ever imagine."
Pete pressed, “What group is he bigoted towards?”
Sanchez replied: “Everybody else who’s not like him. Look at his show, I mean, what does he surround himself with?”
Pete asked for a specific example, saying the term “bigot” is pretty strong.
“That’s what happens when you watch yourself on his show every day, and all they ever do is call you stupid.”
Asked again what group Stewart is bigoted against, Sanchez replied, referring to Stewart in the second person:
Anybody who’s different than you are, anybody who’s not form your frame of reference; anybody who doesn’t look and sound exactly like the people that you sound [like] and grew up with. The people that you put on your show, who always reflect somebody who’s, “I’m bringing in to sit around me,” you know, who’s very different from me. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy this thing that the only people out there who are prejudiced… are the Right. There’s people that are prejudiced on both sides.
Sanchez went on to claim that Stewart’s worldview is “very much a white, liberal establishment point of view.” Sanchez added:
He can’t relate to a guy like me. He can’t relate to a guy whose dad worked all his life. He can’t relate to somebody who grew up poor.
“Yeah,” Sanchez snickered sarcastically at the idea that Jews are as much minorities as Latinos in the US.
"Very powerless people… [snickers] He’s such a minority, I mean, you know [sarcastically]… Please, what are you kidding? … I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah. [sarcastically]"
Here's a lengthy Rolling Stone interview with our Kenyan Muslin Soshulist Dictator President. (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/209395?RS_show_page=0)
There's also an excellent Taibbi read on the Tea Party that I can't remember if it got posted or not; those of us who enjoy Taibbi will enjoy it, and those of us who feel the need to be offended by Taibbi because he uses naughty words and writes like a jackass will do their usual thing. Circle of life and all that bullshit.
Here's a lengthy Rolling Stone interview with our Kenyan Muslin Soshulist Dictator President. (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/209395?RS_show_page=0)
There's also an excellent Taibbi read on the Tea Party that I can't remember if it got posted or not; those of us who enjoy Taibbi will enjoy it, and those of us who feel the need to be offended by Taibbi because he uses naughty words and writes like a jackass will do their usual thing. Circle of life and all that bullshit.
Rick Sanchez, a daytime anchor at CNN, was fired on Friday, a day after telling a radio interviewer that Jon Stewart was a bigot and that “everybody that runs CNN is a lot like Stewart.”
The latter comment was made shortly after Mr. Stewart’s faith, Judaism, was invoked.
CNN said in a statement Friday evening, “Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.”
Mr. Sanchez’s comments came Thursday during a contentious conversation with the comedian Pete Dominick on satellite radio. By Friday afternoon, a recording of the conversation had circulated widely on the Internet.
In the conversation Mr. Sanchez, who is Cuban-American, repeatedly suggested that he had experienced subtle forms of discrimination in his television career.
He said that “a lot of elite Northeast establishment liberals” viewed him as someone “who belongs in the second tier and not the top tier.”
Among those establishment figures, he said, was Mr. Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central and a friend of Mr. Dominick’s.
At first, Mr. Sanchez called Mr. Stewart a “bigot,” but later took the word back, calling the comedian “prejudicial” instead.
Prejudicial “against who?” Mr. Dominick asked.
Mr. Sanchez said, “Against anybody who doesn’t agree to his point of view, which is very much a white liberal establishment point of view.”
One of the co-hosts of the radio show brought up the fact that Mr. Stewart was a Jew, saying to Mr. Sanchez that he was a minority “as much as you are.”
Mr. Sanchez answered sarcastically, “Yeah. Yeah. Very powerless people.” He let out a high-pitched laugh.
“Everybody that runs CNN is a lot like Stewart,” Mr. Sanchez said. “And a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart. And to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah.”
Mr. Stewart has made jokes about Mr. Sanchez more than 20 times in the last five years, according to a search of the show’s Web site. Or as Mr. Sanchez put it, “You watch yourself on his show every day and all they ever do is call you stupid.”
Mr. Stewart was far from the only person known to mock Mr. Sanchez, who was once tasered on camera for a segment. He was a polarizing figure within CNN, but under the channel’s former president, Jonathan Klein, he was rewarded with more air time, most recently a two-hour block in the afternoons. Mr. Klein was fired last week.
On Wednesday, Mr. Sanchez ended two months as an interim prime-time anchor. He appeared on the radio show as part of tour to promote his book “Conventional Idiocy.” Attempts to reach Mr. Sanchez were unsuccessful.
Mr. Stewart was far from the only person known to mock Mr. Sanchez, who was once tasered on camera for a segment. He was a polarizing figure within CNN, but under the channel’s former president, Jonathan Klein, he was rewarded with more air time, most recently a two-hour block in the afternoons. Mr. Klein was fired last week.
Here's a lengthy Rolling Stone interview with our Kenyan Muslin Soshulist Dictator President. (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/209395?RS_show_page=0)
There's also an excellent Taibbi read on the Tea Party that I can't remember if it got posted or not; those of us who enjoy Taibbi will enjoy it, and those of us who feel the need to be offended by Taibbi because he uses naughty words and writes like a jackass will do their usual thing. Circle of life and all that bullshit.
Very good article. Thanks for linking to it.
He'll be scooped up by Fox News I'm sure where such comments would be championed.
Probably going on dates with rich old republican donors
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6911YX20101002
Apparently up to 200,000 people attended the liberal rally in Washington DC
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6911YX20101002
Apparently up to 200,000 people attended the liberal rally in Washington DC
For years, Graham had lived in McCain’s shadow. But, as the rebellious politics of 2010 transformed McCain into a harsh partisan, Graham adopted McCain’s old identity as the Senate’s happy moderate. To Graham’s delight, on December 23rd Time posted an online article headlined “LINDSEY GRAHAM: NEW GOP MAVERICK IN THE SENATE.” The photograph showed Graham standing at a lectern with Lieberman and Kerry.
McCain, worried about his reëlection, had been throwing rocks from the sidelines as the cap-and-trade debate progressed. When Waxman-Markey passed, he Tweeted that it was a “1400 page monstrosity.” A month after K.G.L. was formed, McCain told Politico, “Their start has been horrendous. Obviously, they’re going nowhere.” After the Time piece appeared, he was enraged. Graham told colleagues that McCain had called him and yelled at him, incensed that he was stealing the maverick mantle. “After that Graham story came out, McCain completely stopped talking to me,” Jay Newton-Small, the author of the Time piece, said.
california voters :fbm
polling shows california voters split 43%/42% on prop 23 which would suspend AB 32
polling shows 67% of california voters support AB 32
WASHINGTON — The White House blocked efforts by federal scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could have been, according to a panel appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission's staff reveals that in late April or early May the White House budget office denied a request from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make public the worst-case discharge from the blown-out well. The Unified Command — the government team in charge of the spill response — also was discussing the possibility of making the numbers public, the report says, citing interviews with government officials.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Jerry Miller, head of the White House science office's ocean subcommittee, told The Associated Press in an interview at a St. Petersburg, Fla., conference on the oil's flow that he didn't think the budget office censored NOAA.
"I would very much doubt that anyone would put restrictions on NOAA's ability to articulate factual information," Miller said.
The April 20 blowout and explosion in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers, spewed 206 million gallons of oil from the damaged oil well, and sunk the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
BP's drilling permit for the Macondo well originally estimated the worst scenario to be a leak of 6.8 million gallons per day. In late April, the Coast Guard and NOAA received an updated estimate of 2.7 million to 4.6 million gallons per day.
While those figures were used as the basis for the government's response to the spill — they appeared on an internal Coast Guard Situation report and on a dry-erase board in NOAA's Seattle war room — the public was never told.
In the meantime, government officials were telling the public that the well was releasing 210,000 gallons per day — a figure that would be later adjusted to be much closer to the worst-case estimates.
"Despite the fact that the Unified Command had this information, relied on it for operations, and publicly states that it was operating under a worst-case scenario, the government never disclosed what its...scenario was," the report says.
University of South Florida oceanographer David Hollander, who was also at the St. Petersburg meeting of 150 scientists studying the oil flow on Wednesday, said he was surprised to find that the White House budget office gagged NOAA. He said public disclosure would have helped scientists to figure out what was going on.
"It would have been much better to know, from a scientific point of view, the reality," he said in an interview with the AP.
I liked McCain when he was denouncing the military industrial complex and not whining about a fucking wall with Mexico :(
OLUMBUS, Ohio – A Republican congressional candidate from Ohio, countering criticism from a House GOP leader, said he did nothing wrong by wearing a Nazi uniform while participating in World War II re-enactments.Holy shit this country is insane.
Rich Iott told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that he took part in the historical re-enactments to educate the public, and does not agree with the Nazis' views or their actions against Jews.
Asked whether it was wrong to wear a Nazi uniform, Iott said: "I don't see anything wrong about educating the public about events that happened. And that's the whole purpose of historical re-enacting."
Iott faces Democratic incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur in northwest Ohio in the November election.
The Atlantic magazine first reported Friday that Iott had participated in the re-enactments wearing a Waffen-SS uniform.
Iott said Monday he was in a re-enactment group called Wiking for three or four years — though he believed his name remained on the group's roster for longer. He said he and his then-teenage son had joined as a part of a shared interest in history.
The House Republicans' No. 2 leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, on Sunday said he repudiates Iott's actions and would not support someone who would dress in Nazi attire. His remarks on "Fox News Sunday" came after Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Florida, cited Iott as an example of GOP candidates with extreme views.
"You know good and well that I don't support anything like that," said Cantor, who is Jewish.
Iott said Cantor had no information or background about his re-enacting.
(Update: O'Donnell spokesman Dave Yonkman told reporters after the debate that "She was caught off guard." He said O'Donnell disagrees with the high court's 2005 Kelo vs City of New London decision expanding eminent domain authority.)
So, how did she do?
Well, Ms. O’Donnell definitely did not turn into a pumpkin, if you’ll allow a little mixing of metaphors. She was poised, articulate, and rattled off her talking points like a pro. In that sense, she surpassed expectations.
I'm sorry, if I was Coons I'd call her out right there. You can't buy that type of press and there's not much better to rally Dems than a good ol' conservative beatdown.
While Mr. Coons had broader range on issues and current events, he sometimes seemed mean-spirited. When Ms. O’Donnell asked whether a company he was connected to would benefit from the clean energy bill, he scoffed, “It was difficult for me to understand from her question what she was talking about.”
That could just serve to reinforce Ms. O’Donnell’s image, which has had deep resonance this election season — that of an ordinary person trying to bring common sense to Washington.
That appealed to Alexandra Gawel, 23, a sociology major at the university who has worked her way through college as a waitress.
“She is someone I can relate to,” Ms. Gawel said, outside the debate hall in the late afternoon. “She’s not had everything handed to her.”
I had a chick at work seriously defending Palin. Ugh.
For America. For our basic freedoms.
Here I go...
:-X
I'm sorry, if I was Coons I'd call her out right there. You can't buy that type of press and there's not much better to rally Dems than a good ol' conservative beatdown.
But that might rally conservatives as well against that big old meanie Coons!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/us/politics/14delaware.html?src=mv (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/us/politics/14delaware.html?src=mv)Quote from: NYTWhile Mr. Coons had broader range on issues and current events, he sometimes seemed mean-spirited. When Ms. O’Donnell asked whether a company he was connected to would benefit from the clean energy bill, he scoffed, “It was difficult for me to understand from her question what she was talking about.”
That could just serve to reinforce Ms. O’Donnell’s image, which has had deep resonance this election season — that of an ordinary person trying to bring common sense to Washington.
That appealed to Alexandra Gawel, 23, a sociology major at the university who has worked her way through college as a waitress.
“She is someone I can relate to,” Ms. Gawel said, outside the debate hall in the late afternoon. “She’s not had everything handed to her.”
Translation: "She is someone I can relate to because she's also fucking stupid."
That appealed to Alexandra Gawel, 23, a sociology major at the university who has worked her way through college as a waitress.
“She is someone I can relate to,” Ms. Gawel said, outside the debate hall in the late afternoon. “She’s not had everything handed to her.”
so sayeth the history major :teehee
so sayeth the history major :teehee
so sayeth the history major :teehee
No, you see, sociology majors have delusions of being practical and relevant.
Us history students have no such delusions of relevancy. :P
Sarah Palin advisers prepped Christine O'Donnell for debate
Nationalist assholes, same shit wherever you find them (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11555264).
This whole concept of “good welfare” and “bad welfare” is at the heart of the Tea Party ideology, and it’s something that is believed implicitly across the line. It’s why so many of their political champions, like Miller, and sniveling Kentucky rich kid Rand Paul (a doctor whose patient base is 50% state insured), and Nevada “crazy juice” Senate candidate Sharron Angle (who’s covered by husband Ted’s Federal Employee Health Plan insurance), are so completely unapologetic about taking state aid with one hand and jacking off angry pseudo-libertarian mobs with the other.
Who here lives in NY? You are now legally obligated to vote for THIS GUY to be your next Gov:
[youtube=560,345]x4o-TeMHys0[/youtube]
It's baffling how quickly the right has come to Juan Williams' defense over his comments
Can't believe a dude who wants to phase out social security/medicare is going to win in Florida.
this whole country is fucked
:walter
Can't believe a dude who wants to phase out social security/medicare is going to win in Florida.Well he wouldn't have a shot if Crist and Meek weren't splitting the liberal & moderate vote. Either Meek or Crist needed to have their support collapse. It never happened. If dems wanted to hold on to it they should have endorsed Crist, he would have won and caucused with them. Oh well.
this whole country is fucked
:walter
Didn't the founding fathers have the ideals of liberty, enlightenment and a republic? :smug
(http://i.imgur.com/8u5sI.png)
Can't believe a dude who wants to phase out social security/medicare is going to win in Florida.Well he wouldn't have a shot if Crist and Meek weren't splitting the liberal & moderate vote. Either Meek or Crist needed to have their support collapse. It never happened. If dems wanted to hold on to it they should have endorsed Crist, he would have won and caucused with them. Oh well.
this whole country is fucked
:walter
Can't believe a dude who wants to phase out social security/medicare is going to win in Florida.
this whole country is fucked
:walter
(http://i.imgur.com/8u5sI.png)
Good article. That book changed my life.
I feel bad about it but I'm not going to vote. I'm not feeling any side.
Good article. That book changed my life.
I feel bad about it but I'm not going to vote. I'm not feeling any side.
When Obama is being impeached for not vigorously investigating voter intimidation by the New Black Panther party, I will remind you that this is all your fault. You fucking schmuck.
Good article. That book changed my life.
I feel bad about it but I'm not going to vote. I'm not feeling any side.
When Obama is being impeached for not vigorously investigating voter intimidation by the New Black Panther party, I will remind you that this is all your fault. You fucking schmuck.
Good article. That book changed my life.
I feel bad about it but I'm not going to vote. I'm not feeling any side.
When Obama is being impeached for not vigorously investigating voter intimidation by the New Black Panther party, I will remind you that this is all your fault. You fucking schmuck.
I will join this black panther party and Obama has a lot of work to do to make me vote for him again.
Good article. That book changed my life.
I feel bad about it but I'm not going to vote. I'm not feeling any side.
When Obama is being impeached for not vigorously investigating voter intimidation by the New Black Panther party, I will remind you that this is all your fault. You fucking schmuck.
Who knows, maybe Himu will be a republican by then
Good article. That book changed my life.
I feel bad about it but I'm not going to vote. I'm not feeling any side.
When Obama is being impeached for not vigorously investigating voter intimidation by the New Black Panther party, I will remind you that this is all your fault. You fucking schmuck.
I will join this black panther party and Obama has a lot of work to do to make me vote for him again.
Enjoy President Palin then, distinguished mentally-challenged fellow. Binary choice.
is this your homework larry?:lol
Fuck no. Registered democrat, waiting for a fucking moderate candidate that isn't a whack job. Get rid of the two party system, America no longer needs it.
Good article. That book changed my life.
I feel bad about it but I'm not going to vote. I'm not feeling any side.
When Obama is being impeached for not vigorously investigating voter intimidation by the New Black Panther party, I will remind you that this is all your fault. You fucking schmuck.
Who knows, maybe Himu will be a republican by then
Fuck no. Registered democrat, waiting for a fucking moderate candidate that isn't a whack job. Get rid of the two party system, America no longer needs it.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/male-rand-paul-supporter-stomps-head-of-female-moveon-member-outside-debate.php?ref=fpbWe really need to get rid of the two-party system - we got crazies on one side stomping on peoples heads and crazies on the other side scuffing peoples shoes with their face.
I only wish that fox news had standards like NPR. :usacryMaybe they should have just given him an unpaid suspension or something but it did make sense to punish him somehow. If it's your job to represent your boss, a political radio station, and you're showing a biased political viewpoint not in line with that boss, then it makes sense for you to be punished in some way. Now NPR is pretty centrist it seems, they for example also banned their employees from attending a Stewart/Colbert rally.spoiler (click to show/hide)I don't agree with him being fired.[close]
Being racist isn't illegal, I assumed that the reason Zero Hero didn't agree with firing him was because it feels wrong for somebody to be legally required to represent their employer 24/7/365. I didn't assume that Zero Hero was fine with someone announcing their racism on national TV.
Being racist isn't illegal
Being racist isn't illegal, I assumed that the reason Zero Hero didn't agree with firing him was because it feels wrong for somebody to be legally required to represent their employer 24/7/365. I didn't assume that Zero Hero was fine with someone announcing their racism on national TV.
http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201010260025 (http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201010260025)
My reaction can be summed up in a several year old videogame meme:
[img]http://www.rpgland.com/heath/forum/bailout.jpg[img]
What Coons would have our schools teach is not science at all, but superstition.
They have to be shitting themselves laughing at how absurd that all is.
"It's really funny the way that the media reports things," O'Donnell said, in an interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl. "After the debate, my team and I, we were literally high-fiving each other... thinking that we had exposed [that Coons] doesn't know the First Amendment. And then when we read the reports that said the opposite we were all likehttp://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20020296-503544.html
In the grand scheme of things, failing to take the house would be the best outcome for republicans. It would validate the few moderates left like my new bff Mitch Daniels, send a message to the RNC and ensure 2012 isn't another 1964 for them. Winning the house would boost Obama's 2012's chances (assuming the economy improves) and ensure we get another wave election as a larger turnout of voters boots the crazies back to their holes.
In the grand scheme of things, failing to take the house would be the best outcome for republicans. It would validate the few moderates left like my new bff Mitch Daniels, send a message to the RNC and ensure 2012 isn't another 1964 for them. Winning the house would boost Obama's 2012's chances (assuming the economy improves) and ensure we get another wave election as a larger turnout of voters boots the crazies back to their holes.
Mitch Daniels is no freaking moderate. He has the much sought after ability to not sound or look crazy while advocating policies that will continue to destroy America and it's middle class, but that's about it.
Being racist isn't illegal, I assumed that the reason Zero Hero didn't agree with firing him was because it feels wrong for somebody to be legally required to represent their employer 24/7/365. I didn't assume that Zero Hero was fine with someone announcing their racism on national TV.
Why are you acting like he's some janitor who got reported to HR by someone who thinks they heard something from the other table in the lunchroom.
HIS JOB IS TO BE ON TV FLAPPING HIS GUMS, IF HE FUCKS UP WHILE DOING THAT HE IS FAIR GAME
Don't talk about my bff like that. He's a republican with big ideas who isn't afraid to raise taxes and even has the balls to talk about a vat :omg
I'm gonna miss Huck, but Mitch is where it's at yo
Don't talk about my bff like that. He's a republican with big ideas who isn't afraid to raise taxes and even has the balls to talk about a vat :omg
I'm gonna miss Huck, but Mitch is where it's at yo
Didn't Daniels propose a hike on the richest earners in Indiana, then back down when other Republicans opposed it?
The guy's not an obviously raging idealogue, but he is a rich dude enamored with his own management skills and largely devoid of empathy for people harder off than himself. In other words, he's the white Mitt Romney.
Don't talk about my bff like that. He's a republican with big ideas who isn't afraid to raise taxes and even has the balls to talk about a vat :omg
I'm gonna miss Huck, but Mitch is where it's at yo
Didn't Daniels propose a hike on the richest earners in Indiana, then back down when other Republicans opposed it?
The guy's not an obviously raging idealogue, but he is a rich dude enamored with his own management skills and largely devoid of empathy for people harder off than himself. In other words, he's the white Mitt Romney.
When her underwear came off, I immediately noticed that the waxing trend had completely passed her by.
"I haven't paid any attention to the government at all, but I know it's horribly inefficient compared to for-profit."
http://gawker.com/5674353/
Oh. My. Gawd.
Christine O'donnell had a drunken one night stand on Halloween like three years ago with this guy... and he's got pics to kind of prove it (the drunk and Halloween part, not the one night stand)
PLEASE JESUS LET THIS CRAZY BITCH WIN ON TUESDAY I NEED ENTERTAINMENT IN MY LIFE
edit: check it oh christ it was a FAILED ONE NIGHT STAND BECAUSE JESUS DIDN'T WANT HER TO GO ALL THE WAY
Ok, I'm back to hoping she's gonna lose again. I mean, if she's not gonna get drunk and rape male pages in the cloak room there's no reason for her to win.
Computer Programming legend, JOHN CARMACK comments on the state of politics:Quote"I haven't paid any attention to the government at all, but I know it's horribly inefficient compared to for-profit."
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/misc/government.htm
:fbm :fbm :fbm
http://gawker.com/5674353/
While I think certain parts of the story are funny, like born again virgin and just how stupid she sounds in general, I gotta agree with the feminists on this one. I get that she's a hypocrite regarding the ideologies she's running on, but I can't do anything but the hate the idea that almost any normal woman who runs for office probably has shit like this in their past and it's not very fair to be slinging it at them. If a woman wants to run for office she apparently has to wear a chastity belt and be a fucking nun while men get away with fucking their staff in office. I might hate O'Donnell, but I'm not fool enough to think this is the kind of bullshit I want involved in politics.
It's politics though. I can't stand either side stoops that low. but to be fair, if Coons had skeletons like this, she would be all over it.
It's politics though. I can't stand either side stoops that low. but to be fair, if Coons had skeletons like this, she would be all over it.
Or if O'Donnell was a fundie dude no one here would have a problem with it. Especially if gay sex was involved :smug
On a slightly related note, it looks like there might be a cure for you guys coming soon.
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/weird/Scientists-May-Have-IDd-Liberal-Gene-105917218.html (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/weird/Scientists-May-Have-IDd-Liberal-Gene-105917218.html)
However, the, subjects were only more likely to have leanings to the left if they were also socially active during adolescence.
[snip]
...and the environmental condition of having many friends in adolescence -- that is associated with being more liberal,”
cool dudes like people and society, news at 11
I 99% agree - and this story should just die and not become an issue in the election
-but-
the hypocracy is gobsmacking and at least worth a comment. She was almost 40 and I assume far along her career as a professional finger waver.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/29/tea-party-sharron-angle-nevada
"I'm trying to understand why they have 20 kids"
"they have 20 kids?"
"ok maybe I'm exaggerating. how about 15" :smug
She has told rape victims that having their baby turned "lemons into lemonade";wtf
She has told rape victims that when they got AIDS "they should turn it into LemonAIDS"wtf
The worst part of this Republican wave is losing Russ Feingold who is pretty much dead now (the GOP candidate has been surging there pretty consistently). :-\
Posted?He totally nailed with the butthurt Britfag part.
(http://i.imgur.com/8u5sI.png)
:usacry :usacry :usacry
In b4 Obamatards blaming the losses on everything except Obama
However, some warn that the United States could still get it wrong, especially if the midterm elections produced a sharply divided political landscape.
“The danger is if the U.S. plunges into policy paralysis just like Japan in the 1990s,” said Shumpei Takemori, an economist at Keio University in Tokyo. “Ideological divides and political divides can make bold policy action impossible.”
....
Leading Japanese economists also said their nation’s many failures — like the 1997 tax increase — yielded one crucial lesson on combating the aftereffects of a financial panic: the need to avoid policy flip-flops.
“The lesson is that there is a proper sequence for pulling a nation out of a financial crisis,” said Heizo Takenaka, an economist who was the architect of the successful cleanup of Japan’s banking system in the early 2000s. “First, you restore growth before worrying about deficits.”
Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.
Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.
I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get reelected. But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century. If he can confront this threat and contain Iran's nuclear ambitions, he will have made the world safer and may be regarded as one of the most successful presidents in history.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/29/AR2010102905810.html?hpid=opinionsbox1Quote from: David BroderLook back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.
Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.
I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get reelected. But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century. If he can confront this threat and contain Iran's nuclear ambitions, he will have made the world safer and may be regarded as one of the most successful presidents in history.
What is this I don't even
You can't make an omelette (bipartisanship) without breaking a few eggs (other countries)
QuoteWhen her underwear came off, I immediately noticed that the waxing trend had completely passed her by.
:fbm
Top Republicans in Washington and in the national GOP establishment say the 2010 campaign highlighted an urgent task that they will begin in earnest as soon as the elections are over: Stop Sarah Palin.
Interviews with advisers to the main 2012 presidential contenders and with other veteran Republican operatives make clear they see themselves on a common, if uncoordinated, mission of halting the momentum and credibility Palin gained with conservative activists by plunging so aggressively into this year’s midterm campaigns. (See: Sarah Palin wreaking havoc on campaign trail)
There is rising expectation among GOP elites that Palin will probably run for president in 2012 and could win the Republican nomination, a prospect many of them regard as a disaster in waiting.
Sadly, all the ones you listed, plus Florida. I really wish Meek would drop out. :(
So, what's the word out on the street? Dems losing the house, losing seats in Senate but still have enough for a majority? What is the effect of not having the House?
So, what's the word out on the street? Dems losing the house, losing seats in Senate but still have enough for a majority? What is the effect of not having the House?
Sadly, all the ones you listed, plus Florida. I really wish Meek would drop out. :(
:wag Florida was controlled by a Republican to begin with! It's Mel Martinez's old seat.
I totally forgot that after tuesday we won't have Blanche Lincoln to kick around anymore. Finally some good news
if tim eyman's i-1053 in washington passes, we turn into fucking california
So, what's the word out on the street? Dems losing the house, losing seats in Senate but still have enough for a majority? What is the effect of not having the House?Best case scenario with losing the House is that republicans will have enough responsibility in the government that they'll realize they can't keep on obstructing everything. Worst case is that they'll see that their batshit base approves and justifies just about anything so they'll keep on doing what they're doing now, and maybe even impeach Obama even though he would never be convicted. IIRC, Clinton's popularity actually increased with his impeachment so maybe the same effect will happen with Obama where people sympathize with the relatively innocent defendant.
if tim eyman's i-1053 in washington passes, we turn into fucking california
What does it do? Mandatory abortions for everyone? Or is it something bad?
if tim eyman's i-1053 in washington passes, we turn into fucking california
guys does your world really change that much if a bunch of republicans gets voted in?
Just voted. Republican for governor, democrat for congress. I was tempted to vote straight line democrat but the state democratic party has been running my state so badly and the republican is pretty moderate. I couldn't just be a rubber stamp vote this time. I believe my partner in crime PD is doing the same.
Yeah, Obama keeps texting me too. I keep getting texts from the white house in the middle of the night and it wakes me up.
your congressman is as liberal as they come.Just voted. Republican for governor, democrat for congress. I was tempted to vote straight line democrat but the state democratic party has been running my state so badly and the republican is pretty moderate. I couldn't just be a rubber stamp vote this time. I believe my partner in crime PD is doing the same.
Yeah, Obama keeps texting me too. I keep getting texts from the white house in the middle of the night and it wakes me up.
I'm voting for Synder, fuck it. Doing my research now to see if I have any blue dogs on my ballot
I'm gonna vote for Dingell but jeez, he probably shouldn't be running. At his age he should be at home enjoying his last few yearsHe was part of the same freshman house class with John F. Kennedy back in the 50's. He is oddly facing the first decently close election he has had since forever. That GOP wave even started to nip at his heels. He had to have Bill Clinton come in and do a rally for him.
requires a 2/3rds state congressional majority to pass any tax increases
Rubio won with 50%, guess it didn't matter that the other vote was split.
In b4 self-satisfied conservative posters resurface here after the midterms.
What's up mother fuckers? First round is on me!
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_exQ3S7KVDWA/TCy_QdzeGhI/AAAAAAAAC_g/EBi3cj9q2uk/s1600/slurpee.jpg)
Nancy Pelosi fought the good fight as speaker, and will go down in history as one of the most effective house leaders. I always liked her, but my appreciation for her skyrocketed during the health care fight. Amazing woman.
Hopefully global warming will accelerate enough that living in Canada would be bearable.
Hopefully global warming will accelerate enough that living in Canada would be bearable.
With Republicans in control? No problem!
I take it the new people/lurkers in the thread got banned at GAF or something.
Ah, bottled water in Washington. Good thing we've elected a bunch of tea party people to make sure that never happens again.
Millions of dollars have gone toward funding for Nancy Pelosi’s office, printing “important” documents like the new Obamacare health care plan, student loan repayments (a benefit of working for the government), pension costs for retired congressional members, office supplies, electricity, food and tap water.
Right. It's simply not possible that, I don't know, there are recycle bins in the vicinity.
It's especially bad considering it is impossible to recycle plastic.
Everyone should click the link btw, it is very helpfulQuoteMillions of dollars have gone toward funding for Nancy Pelosi’s office, printing “important” documents like the new Obamacare health care plan, student loan repayments (a benefit of working for the government), pension costs for retired congressional members, office supplies, electricity, food and tap water.
sd- do you support the impending impeachment of the President?
sd- do you support the impending impeachment of the President?
Over what?
Obama treats objects like women, man.
In b4 self-satisfied conservative posters resurface here after the midterms.What's up mother fuckers? First round is on me!
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_exQ3S7KVDWA/TCy_QdzeGhI/AAAAAAAAC_g/EBi3cj9q2uk/s1600/slurpee.jpg)Hopefully global warming will accelerate enough that living in Canada would be bearable.
With Republicans in control? No problem!
Ah yes, the old Liberal, do as I say no as I do mantra. Point finger at enemy and back away.
http://www.filtersfast.com/blog/index.php/2010/11/congress-spends-200000-on-bottled-water/
bdoughty, why have you never posted in this thread before today? :smug
Yeah, I see it a lot like you, Stoney.
It also helps that I live in the liberal bastion known as Seattle.
Phoenix Dark Wrote this some other place but was so darn funny... I had to post it somewhere I was not banned so i could reply.QuoteNancy Pelosi fought the good fight as speaker, and will go down in history as one of the most effective house leaders. I always liked her, but my appreciation for her skyrocketed during the health care fight. Amazing woman.
The same amazing woman that called raids by ICE, which is following laws established by Congress, "un-American."
:D
So young, yet easily entranced by the succubus.
It is what it is.
Obviously I'm liberal but some nights the other side has a good night. I won't lose any sleep over it despite thinking all these tea party people are just awful at worst and hypocrites at best.
The older you get the more philosophical you get about the whole thing. (although I get annoyed by people who get dispirited and just lapse into not caring)
It's a revolving circle. You just try to make it revolve back to the philosophies and viewpoints you agree with most.
In b4 self-satisfied conservative posters resurface here after the midterms.
*sigh*
Fucking himuro...
It is what it is.Shut up with your pragmatism! It's clear you guys need a revolution.
Obviously I'm liberal but some nights the other side has a good night. I won't lose any sleep over it despite thinking all these tea party people are just awful at worst and hypocrites at best.
The older you get the more philosophical you get about the whole thing. (although I get annoyed by people who get dispirited and just lapse into not caring)
It's a revolving circle. You just try to make it revolve back to the philosophies and viewpoints you agree with most.
(http://knowyourmeme.com/i/000/052/812/original/Deal_with_it_dog_gif.gif?1275684729)
Mitch Daniels 2012
I love how the election in 2006 was super Kewl. But now that your guys aren't in power, It's such a tragedy that congress cant work together. Well guess what, Congress was doing a shitty job when you had complete control.
NBC is reporting that 30,000 votes for Bennet were accidentally placed in the column for Buck.
Looks like one of Dan Quayle's kids has won a seat in the House.
Prop 19 appears to be going down. What about the Washington state tax measure, Van Cruncheon?
Kentucky – Republican Rand Paul wins the Senate race.
Florida – Republican Marco Rubio wins the Senate seat by a landslide.
West Virginia – Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin wins the Senate race.
Connecticut – Democrat Richard Blumenthal wins the Senate race.
Illinois – Republican Mark Kirk wins his bid for Senate.
Missouri – Republican Roy Blunt wins the Senate seat.
Pennsylvania – Republican Pat Toomey wins the Senate seat.
Colorado – Too close to call.
Wisconsin – Close, but Republican Ron Johnson wins the Senate seat.
California – Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer wins reelection, former Gov. Jerry Brown wins the governorship
Washington – Democratic Sen. Patty Murray wins reelection.
Ohio – Close, but Republican John Kasich wins the governorship.
Nevada – Sen. Harry Reid wins reelection.
Michigan – Republican Rick Snyder wins the governorship.
So far, the FiveThirtyEight House forecasting model has performed well. Of the 339 House races which have been called so far by The New York Times, our model picked the right winner in 332.
[youtube=560,345]SHv-EII7KYQ[/youtube]
holy shit, the announcers respond like parents who stumbled across an NWA album
Looks like one of Dan Quayle's kids has won a seat in the House.
Prop 19 appears to be going down. What about the Washington state tax measure, Van Cruncheon?
oh, we're quite fucked on 1053. it had been polling crazy popular up until now. the good news is that it, like i-960 that preceded it, will be suspended as (state) unconstitutional at some point, because JESUS CHRIST YOU IDIOTS the government needs to be able to raise taxes. thankfully, the state's constitution writers had the foresight to note that ALL acts of state congress can only require a statistical majority (51%) and NOT a supermajority, so tim eyman's dumbass shit flies right in its face.
Looks like one of Dan Quayle's kids has won a seat in the House.
Prop 19 appears to be going down. What about the Washington state tax measure, Van Cruncheon?
oh, we're quite fucked on 1053. it had been polling crazy popular up until now. the good news is that it, like i-960 that preceded it, will be suspended as (state) unconstitutional at some point, because JESUS CHRIST YOU IDIOTS the government needs to be able to raise taxes. thankfully, the state's constitution writers had the foresight to note that ALL acts of state congress can only require a statistical majority (51%) and NOT a supermajority, so tim eyman's dumbass shit flies right in its face.
I'm telling ya man, you and I need to pound the pavement and get the signatures for an initiative to kick that douchebags ass out of the state.
Seems like the entire country failed econ 101. Tax cuts increase the deficit if they aren't offset somewhere else. In Michigan, our deficit could grow by 1.5b if Snyder gets his way by eliminating the Michigan Business Tax - and why won't he given the entire fucking state just went red. Holy shit.If you tax people less, then they'll have more money to spend and then you'll be saved :smug
I don't understand how marajuana can lose.
Older people support it because they were hippies and smoked a lot as teens.
Younger people support it because everyone smokes and it's no big deal.
It's so weird. It's like if there was a proposition for "free ice cream" and half the people vote it down.
I don't understand how marajuana can lose.
Older people support it because they were hippies and smoked a lot as teens.
Younger people support it because everyone smokes and it's no big deal.
It's so weird. It's like if there was a proposition for "free ice cream" and half the people vote it down.
Congratulations. You have no capability to view things from outside of your own perspective.
Just read somewhere that Texas Republicans don't need a single Democratic vote to pass state constitutional ammendments
:rofl :rofl :-\
Just read somewhere that Texas Republicans don't need a single Democratic vote to pass state constitutional ammendments
:rofl :rofl :-\
Just read somewhere that Texas Republicans don't need a single Democratic vote to pass state constitutional ammendments
:rofl :rofl :-\
Texas is about to turn into The Jesus Approved Ass Kicking Republic of Texas. Those Warshington limp-wristed Republicans aren't conservative enough for TEJAS, no sir!
Republicans just performed Inception on the entire US population. This country is fucked for the next decade.
I like how the media portrays voters as hopeful and full of awe when democrats are elected, but angry and frustrated when republicans are elected.
SMH
:lolJust read somewhere that Texas Republicans don't need a single Democratic vote to pass state constitutional ammendments
:rofl :rofl :-\
Texas is about to turn into The Jesus Approved Ass Kicking Republic of Texas. Those Warshington limp-wristed Republicans aren't conservative enough for TEJAS, no sir!
If Florida fucks shit up in 2012, don't blame me, I voted forKodosAlex Sink for governor.
Seriously, Rick Scott, whose hospital chain committed the biggest Medicare fraud in history, is my governor now.
I'm shaking my head. WTF happened?
If Florida fucks shit up in 2012, don't blame me, I voted forKodosAlex Sink for governor.
I won't even be in Florida by the time 2012 comes. :D
Old people shouldn't be allowed to vote.Seriously, Rick Scott, whose hospital chain committed the biggest Medicare fraud in history, is my governor now.
I'm shaking my head. WTF happened?
hahahaha
If Florida fucks shit up in 2012, don't blame me, I voted forKodosAlex Sink for governor.
I won't even be in Florida by the time 2012 comes. :D
I HOPE it isn't Florida next time. I'm sick of this shit.
We're sorry. :(If Florida fucks shit up in 2012, don't blame me, I voted forKodosAlex Sink for governor.
I won't even be in Florida by the time 2012 comes. :D
I HOPE it isn't Florida next time. I'm sick of this shit.
florida sux
bugsbunnyamputatesgangrenousstate.gifYeah, where is that gif? ???
bugsbunnyamputatesgangrenousstate.gifYeah, where is that gif? ???
I am a bit surprised how apathetic I am about all this.
2004 got me angry, 2006 and 2008 I was extremely excited about. Today? Meh. I feel nothing really. It's going to be a messy and useless next 2 years.
LMFAO CALIFORNIAwat ???
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_16492518?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1
props 25 and 26
Republicans just performed Inception on the entire US population. This country is fucked for the next decade.
You act like the democrats have been doing such a great job with the country; they haven't.
Republicans just performed Inception on the entire US population. This country is fucked for the next decade.
You act like the democrats have been doing such a great job with the country; they haven't.
It's hard to take someone seriously who didn't feel like looking into the candidates before deciding not to vote since "everyone is the same."
Democrats collectively shat the bed, tis true. But there's a major difference between democrats and republicans, who are going to cut taxes and further expand deficits across the country, attempt to cut benefits, and obstruct even the most basic government functions like confirming federal reserve chairmen.
Lots of people on twitter are saying 4.7% of black people voted. It's actually 10%, which isn't great either. 9% of young people voted. Unemployment is high, the economy is fucked - you'd think the nation's most vulnerable would give a shit what direction the country is going in.
[youtube=560,345]fl378wA75Mg[/youtube]
Republicans just performed Inception on the entire US population. This country is fucked for the next decade.
You act like the democrats have been doing such a great job with the country; they haven't.
It's hard to take someone seriously who didn't feel like looking into the candidates before deciding not to vote since "everyone is the same."
Democrats collectively shat the bed, tis true. But there's a major difference between democrats and republicans, who are going to cut taxes and further expand deficits across the country, attempt to cut benefits, and obstruct even the most basic government functions like confirming federal reserve chairmen.
Lots of people on twitter are saying 4.7% of black people voted. It's actually 10%, which isn't great either. 9% of young people voted. Unemployment is high, the economy is fucked - you'd think the nation's most vulnerable would give a shit what direction the country is going in.
???
That's not why I didn't vote. I mostly didn't vote because I'm not going to be in Florida for more than a year longer and I don't even live in Texas anymore. What's the point in voting then? If you knew you were going to be leaving Michigan in 2 months to live in I don't know, Illinois, would you bother voting? Maybe, maybe not. But it doesn't feel like your vote would mean much to you, personally, in the long run.
[youtube=560,345]fl378wA75Mg[/youtube]
Jesus, how did none of this even get a mention?
Looks like one of Dan Quayle's kids has won a seat in the House.
Prop 19 appears to be going down. What about the Washington state tax measure, Van Cruncheon?
oh, we're quite fucked on 1053. it had been polling crazy popular up until now. the good news is that it, like i-960 that preceded it, will be suspended as (state) unconstitutional at some point, because JESUS CHRIST YOU IDIOTS the government needs to be able to raise taxes. thankfully, the state's constitution writers had the foresight to note that ALL acts of state congress can only require a statistical majority (51%) and NOT a supermajority, so tim eyman's dumbass shit flies right in its face.
I'm telling ya man, you and I need to pound the pavement and get the signatures for an initiative to kick that douchebags ass out of the state.
or we just organize a roadtrip to spokane and dickpunch him in a kroger's parking lot
either/or, really
Republicans just performed Inception on the entire US population. This country is fucked for the next decade.
You act like the democrats have been doing such a great job with the country; they haven't.
It's hard to take someone seriously who didn't feel like looking into the candidates before deciding not to vote since "everyone is the same."
Democrats collectively shat the bed, tis true. But there's a major difference between democrats and republicans, who are going to cut taxes and further expand deficits across the country, attempt to cut benefits, and obstruct even the most basic government functions like confirming federal reserve chairmen.
Lots of people on twitter are saying 4.7% of black people voted. It's actually 10%, which isn't great either. 9% of young people voted. Unemployment is high, the economy is fucked - you'd think the nation's most vulnerable would give a shit what direction the country is going in.
i thought he operated out of spokane. let's compromise and get the signatures for an initiative to have him dickpunched by former mma "star" tank abbott on the olympia capital rotunda steps
i thought he operated out of spokane. let's compromise and get the signatures for an initiative to have him dickpunched by former mma "star" tank abbott on the olympia capital rotunda steps
Lots of people on twitter are saying 4.7% of black people voted. It's actually 10%, which isn't great either. 9% of young people voted. Unemployment is high, the economy is fucked - you'd think the nation's most vulnerable would give a shit what direction the country is going in.
You sure you want more blacks voting?
Lots of people on twitter are saying 4.7% of black people voted. It's actually 10%, which isn't great either. 9% of young people voted. Unemployment is high, the economy is fucked - you'd think the nation's most vulnerable would give a shit what direction the country is going in.
Using that theory they would have been wise to vote Republican as the ball has been in the democrats court and shit is rolling downhill. Or are we still blaming Bush for everything still.
That said Alvin Green was somehow able to tally 358,069 votes. You sure you want more blacks voting?
We Californians decimated the GOP. Even Kamala may eke out a victory, despite her best effort to lose. And, ding-dong, 2/3 majority is dead for budgets. GOP may as well close up shop, decamp to Orange County and ruin a few more PTAs.
:smug
We Californians decimated the GOP. Even Kamala may eke out a victory, despite her best effort to lose. And, ding-dong, 2/3 majority is dead for budgets. GOP may as well close up shop, decamp to Orange County and ruin a few more PTAs.
Kamala will just pat the killers on the head and give them coupons to Taco Bueno.
I'm going to just ignore the bolded.
If people voted republican, so be it. While I'm definitely disappointed the liberal base didn't come out, if they came out and voted republican I'd honestly feel better. At least they would have mad their voices heard and participated in the election. There aren't many excuses for not voting.
Kamala will just pat the killers on the head and give them coupons to Taco Bueno.
wat
Why ignore the bolded part?
Why ignore the bolded part?
Because it's racist as fuck and PD's trying to let it slide.
I'm going to just ignore the bolded.
If people voted republican, so be it. While I'm definitely disappointed the liberal base didn't come out, if they came out and voted republican I'd honestly feel better. At least they would have mad their voices heard and participated in the election. There aren't many excuses for not voting.
Why ignore the bolded part? It shows what is wrong with our society today. The guy is bat shit crazy, yet 350,000 PEOPLE voted for him. It is like the people who voted for that twat Christine O'Donnell. The straight ticket folks have always been my biggest annoyance in politics.
P.S. I have voted for numerous democrats in my day. I am no Rick perry fan and the only thing that kept me from voting for Bill White was that he turned Houston into a little sanctuary city. That is one of my big issues. Illegal means Illegal.
Also Sarah Palin is truly the devil and if she ran for President, I would probably find myself voting for Donald Duck or a Libertarian.
Fuck it, this is like NeoGaf lite in regards to politics. Life is too short, especially in my case, to go back and forth on this.
PD good to see you again, I do wish you the best.
but Gavin Newsom is cousin to Joanna Newsom
speak italian for me
(http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/richvoter-1.jpg)That really isn't useful. It tells me nothing of demographics, geographic location etc.
LOL. I love how bdoughty's response was "Look, I may be fucking racist, but you're racist, too! That's 'cuz we all are! I'm just willing to admit it and act like a racist prick!"
(http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/richvoter-1.jpg)That really isn't useful. It tells me nothing of demographics, geographic location etc.
Poor people are pissed do they go running in the arms of the free market as recent history suggests or do they go even more to the left.
expected this kinda turnout, especially due to the concerns over unemployment and such. But, should things not get any better, it could easily be Republicans losing seats again in the next election.
*Anecdotal* At work last night, a few outspoken Democrats were at work claiming anyone who voted Republican was racist and that was the only reason they would be voting Republican, instead of other reasons.
Edit: Of course, they also claimed that anyone who didn't vote for Obama in the presidential election was racist as well.
Edit: Of course, they also claimed that anyone who didn't vote for Obama in the presidential election was racist as well.
Also didn't like 90% of black people vote for Al Gore? And he makes PD look like Too Short.
Lessons I've learned from message boards: black people voting for a black man is just as racist (if not more so) as implying that they shouldn't be allowed to vote. Filed next to "having to serve black people at your business is like having to serve KKK members".Also didn't like 90% of black people vote for Al Gore? And he makes PD look like Too Short.
Hell, 90% of black voters went for Kerry, and he makes Al Gore look like Gil Scott-Heron.
Also, in Maryland they overwhelmingly supported Ben Cardin against Michael Steele, thus making them racists in both directions!
guess who's the ranking gop member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Financial_Services_Subcommittee_on_Domestic_Monetary_Policy_and_Technology
cover your mouth because you will lol
guess who's the ranking gop member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and TechnologyOh shit. :-\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Financial_Services_Subcommittee_on_Domestic_Monetary_Policy_and_Technology
cover your mouth because you will lol
yeah, Florida sucks. The only good part is South Florida. I used to defend the state, but not anymore. Thank God I'm moving to Seattle in less than a year.If Rick Scott bankrupts Florida, I'm crashing at your house. I don't care if it rains a lot in there and Starbucks is the local currency.
Huh, looks like Murkowski might win the AK seat with the first write-in victoly in the Senate in over 50 years.IT'S GONNA BE ME! WOO HOO!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/03/AR2010110308817.html
:piss joe miller :piss2
Or maybe all of those write-ins were for the default choice: Mupepe :o :o :o
Dino Rossi has conceded in the Washington state senate race. :rock
Dino Rossi has conceded in the Washington state senate race. :rock
:rock :rock :rock
he'll be back in 6 years :o
he'll be back in 6 years :o
Pfft, he appears to pop up every two years. He'll run for Governor again or the other Senate seat next I'm sure.
My wife got into an argument with someone who used to be a fairly rational but conservative person on facebook about Obama's trip to India. the girl was spouting off the lies about 200 million a day and my wife corrected her, explained what a state visit entailed, told her that state visits used to be viewed as positives with major trade partners and/or nuclear powers in unstable regions of the world. The girl's response?
Thank god for the second amendment.
Like some sort of thinly veiled threat against my wife, liberals, and the government. Kind of sent a chill through my spine and worried me for a bit. Is this really where we're going?spoiler (click to show/hide)Note this girl has also said in the past few days that Obamacare has ruined her chances of getting good insurance. When she finds a job that gives insurance, because right now her current job doesn't offer it.[close]
My wife got into an argument with someone who used to be a fairly rational but conservative person on facebook about Obama's trip to India. the girl was spouting off the lies about 200 million a day and my wife corrected her, explained what a state visit entailed, told her that state visits used to be viewed as positives with major trade partners and/or nuclear powers in unstable regions of the world. The girl's response?
Thank god for the second amendment.
Like some sort of thinly veiled threat against my wife, liberals, and the government. Kind of sent a chill through my spine and worried me for a bit. Is this really where we're going?spoiler (click to show/hide)Note this girl has also said in the past few days that Obamacare has ruined her chances of getting good insurance. When she finds a job that gives insurance, because right now her current job doesn't offer it.[close]
I'm not much of an Olbermann fan, but comparing him to Rush/Beck/Coulter etc. as if he's their equal, just the other side of the same coin is :derp x ∞
No one here, but was just browsing the GAF thread
I used to not like Olbermann, but at this point at I think we need many more Michael Moore/Olbermann raging liberal populists.
My wife got into an argument with someone who used to be a fairly rational but conservative person on facebook about Obama's trip to India. the girl was spouting off the lies about 200 million a day and my wife corrected her, explained what a state visit entailed, told her that state visits used to be viewed as positives with major trade partners and/or nuclear powers in unstable regions of the world. The girl's response?
Thank god for the second amendment.
Like some sort of thinly veiled threat against my wife, liberals, and the government. Kind of sent a chill through my spine and worried me for a bit. Is this really where we're going?spoiler (click to show/hide)Note this girl has also said in the past few days that Obamacare has ruined her chances of getting good insurance. When she finds a job that gives insurance, because right now her current job doesn't offer it.[close]
of course you can be passionate without spouting crazy shit. but the vast majority of people respond to emotion, not logic. I thought the dems learned in 2008 with CHANGE! But apparently not. The right has known this for quite some time and it's why they can continue getting away with telling flat out lies.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTR7V8cA9OY[/youtube]
you mean anything more than the majority and the people who decide the direction of this country?of course you can be passionate without spouting crazy shit. but the vast majority of people respond to emotion, not logic. I thought the dems learned in 2008 with CHANGE! But apparently not. The right has known this for quite some time and it's why they can continue getting away with telling flat out lies.
I never delude myself about the average intelligence of people. People are dumb. They respond to emotional dumb shit which is why our country often sucks. I'm not saying those types are going to disappear. I'm just not going to pretend they are anything more than what they are.
The left desperately needs a Glenn Beck. Not in an asshole, I want to kill myself because this guy lies about facts way, but someone who can pander to the left ideology with gusto, be confrontational, pander to EMOTIONS and the plight of GOOD VERSUS EVIL that is so common in conservative politics. Basically, someone with balls and not a pussy who realizes that the masses are tools and can be convinced with the most simple of arguments so long as they speak to their heart, not so much their head.
I get tired of his holier than thou attitude, and I'm in disagreement with him over the success of Stewart's rally.
[youtube=560,345]yBxzMMCokpI[/youtube]
while it's easy to argue a bubble exists for liberals too, her point still stands. You're not going to find democrat officials fanning the flames of conspiracy nuts whenever possible
Everything Himuro said was dead on, btw. It's not about Obama not being librul enough, but that' he comes off as extremely weak. He gives up his queen before the right even move their first pawn. THAT'S the problem that I have with him. I want a center left democrat not a center right republican.
This country is so fucked, man.
This country is so fucked, man.
Still auctioning off space on my futon...
Do you accept pesos?
This country is so fucked, man.
Still auctioning off space on my futon...
Do you accept pesos?
No. Shit, we're 6 months from me not accepting your filthy worthless greenbacks. :yuck
Well what the fuck am I going to do then? I already turned all my monopoly money into Mexican monopoly money. goddammit.
Will you accept french monopoly money?
Boogie, you know that I've always been almost Canadian anyway. If it will score me points, I'll even stop saying terrible yet true things about poutine.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/07/tea-party-favorites-rand-paul-jim-demint-budget-specifics_n_780043.html
:lol
THE RALLY TO RESTORE VANITY: GENERATION X CELEBRATES ITS HOMERIC STRUGGLE AGAINST LAMENESS (http://exiledonline.com/the-rally-to-restore-vanity-generation-x-celebrates-its-homeric-struggle-against-lameness/)
As for “the American people” themselves, it seems clear enough that their rejection of the Democrats was, above all, an expression of angry anxiety about the ongoing economic firestorm. Though ignited and fanned by an out-of-control financial industry and its (mostly) conservative political and intellectual enablers, the fire has burned hottest since the 2008 Democratic sweep. By the time the flames reached their height, the arsonists had slunk off, and only the firemen were left for people to take out their ire on.
Hendrik Hertzberg with one of the year's best political metaphors:QuoteAs for “the American people” themselves, it seems clear enough that their rejection of the Democrats was, above all, an expression of angry anxiety about the ongoing economic firestorm. Though ignited and fanned by an out-of-control financial industry and its (mostly) conservative political and intellectual enablers, the fire has burned hottest since the 2008 Democratic sweep. By the time the flames reached their height, the arsonists had slunk off, and only the firemen were left for people to take out their ire on.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/11/15/101115taco_talk_hertzberg#ixzz14gI0qDpA
Hendrik Hertzberg with one of the year's best political metaphors:QuoteAs for “the American people” themselves, it seems clear enough that their rejection of the Democrats was, above all, an expression of angry anxiety about the ongoing economic firestorm. Though ignited and fanned by an out-of-control financial industry and its (mostly) conservative political and intellectual enablers, the fire has burned hottest since the 2008 Democratic sweep. By the time the flames reached their height, the arsonists had slunk off, and only the firemen were left for people to take out their ire on.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/11/15/101115taco_talk_hertzberg#ixzz14gI0qDpA
So once again, when republicans are elected, Americans are angry and confused. But when democrats are elected they unicorns are descending from the heavens on rainbow bridges.
Hopefully you guys will keep drinking that flavored koolade.
PD, are you seriously arguing with a guy that can't spell Kool-Aid? :smugHendrik Hertzberg with one of the year's best political metaphors:QuoteAs for “the American people” themselves, it seems clear enough that their rejection of the Democrats was, above all, an expression of angry anxiety about the ongoing economic firestorm. Though ignited and fanned by an out-of-control financial industry and its (mostly) conservative political and intellectual enablers, the fire has burned hottest since the 2008 Democratic sweep. By the time the flames reached their height, the arsonists had slunk off, and only the firemen were left for people to take out their ire on.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/11/15/101115taco_talk_hertzberg#ixzz14gI0qDpA
So once again, when republicans are elected, Americans are angry and confused. But when democrats are elected they unicorns are descending from the heavens on rainbow bridges.
Hopefully you guys will keep drinking that flavored koolade.
Gotta be the stupidest meme you've introduced us to lately. Where did you read it?
November 1980: were Americans happy? Yes
November 1982: were Americans happy? No
November 1984: were Americans happy? Yes
November 1986: were Americans happy? No
November 1992: were Americans happy? No
November 1994: were Americans happy? No
November 1996: were Americans happy? Yes
November 1998: were Americans happy? Yes
Take your victim complex somewhere else. 2010 was a referendum on the bad economy, and democrats. Americans were not happy, excited, positive about the future, etc. In 2008 people were quite hopeful, just as they were hopeful in 1980 only to be upset two years later. It has little to do with dems and reps, and more to do with the economy.
In a stunning display of bipartisanship, President Obama and the Republican Leadership have reached an historic compromise, agreeing to extend indefinitely the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthiest Americans, but allowing the President’s term to expire prematurely, sometime in mid-2011.
Mr. Obama hailed this agreement as an example of “how the two parties can meet in the middle and respond to the needs of the electorate — and without even having to spend taxpayer funds on a slurpee for Mitch McConnell, or a Merlot for Speaker-to-be Boehner.”
The President further emphasized that he had still “stood on principle, by not handing the ‘keys’ back to the Republicans,” but that he would instead “serve as their ‘designated driver,’ by personally driving the car back into the ditch. Since the GOP is now the party of Bachmann and Palin,” Mr. Obama added, “just think of it as Driving Miss Crazy.”
As part of the agreement, the President will also submit a resignation confessing that he’s a Muslim socialist who tried to replace the Constitution with the Koranic Manifesto, but will avoid the harshest demands made by FOX News and Rush Limbaugh: that he be deported to Kenya.
Senate Minority Leader McConnell indicated that he initially harbored some reservations about the agreement, since he “originally wanted to not only impeach the President, but to actually annul his first two years in office.” But McConnell made clear that he and GOP House leaders had moderated their demands with the taxpayers’ best interests at heart, “by saving money on the forest of paper we would’ve used for subpoenas.”
“Besides,” McConnell concluded, “this is much better than our original goal to limit Obama to one full term. After all, we Republicans think it’s an historic compromise to have the nation’s first black President serve only 3/5ths of a term.”
Hillary 2012 :smugObama could switch Biden with Hillary and make Biden Sec of State (which is what he wanted more than VP in the first place) lolololol
There's room for different rhetorical styles in a political movement, that serve different purposes. There's no reason that Stewart, Krugman, Taibbi, Zakaria, etc. shouldn't coexist. Convincing moderates, rallying the troops, bringing in youth, self-policing are all important functions and different writers and media figures are going have different audiences and fill different niches.Here's the problem, Mandark. Conservatives learned a long time ago to amalgamate these these groups and use them to lean each other to get specific messages across. Take a look at Fox News, whose real brilliance is finding enough "experts" to back up the passion of Glenn Beck, Hannity etc. Liberals seem opposed to take taking this whole approach, as if Krugman and Moore shouldn't have anything to do with each other ever even though politically they line up perfectly.
There is no magic language that would turn everyone liberal if only lefty pundits all started speaking it. Even if there were what are you gonna do? Call a huddle, and say "Okay guys, everyone is going to start talking the same way, okay?" This is probably not gonna happen.
If I listen to Michael Jackson, am I co-signing his pedo behavior? Or if I listen to Rolling Stones/Beatles/Bob Dylan/stuffoldwhitepeoplelike am I co-signing drug use and drugs? I love how Fox always gets two black people with bad arguments to duke it out.
naz lost
In a bigger shift from his campaign pledge to end earmarks, he tells me that they are a bad "symbol" of easy spending but that he will fight for Kentucky's share of earmarks and federal pork, as long as it's doled out transparently at the committee level and not parachuted in in the dead of night. "I will advocate for Kentucky's interests," he says.
Greene, the unlikely Democratic Senate nominee in South Carolina who lost overwhelmingly to Republican Sen. Jim DeMint last week, called the state Democratic Party Tuesday to ask how much it would cost to run for president.http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44895.html#ixzz14oJk7bpi
“Maybe. I’ll have to see,” Greene told POLITICO when asked whether he was considering filing to run for president. He confirmed that he called the state party on Tuesday to ask about the fee. The state party’s spokeswoman, Keiana Page, confirmed that someone called the party on Tuesday asking about the presidential filing fee, but said that the caller did not identify himself.
A week to the day (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704353504575596591626268782.html)QuoteIn a bigger shift from his campaign pledge to end earmarks, he tells me that they are a bad "symbol" of easy spending but that he will fight for Kentucky's share of earmarks and federal pork, as long as it's doled out transparently at the committee level and not parachuted in in the dead of night. "I will advocate for Kentucky's interests," he says.
:lol That didn't take long.
Some of the recommendations:http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/deficit-commission-co-chairs-simpson-and-bowles-release-eye-popping-recommendations.php
Social Security cuts:
* Index the retirement age to longevity -- i.e., increase the retirement age to qualify for Social Security -- to age 69 by 2075.
* Index Social Security yearly increases to inflation rather than wages, which will generally mean lower cost of living increases and less money per average recipient.
* "Increase progressivity of benefit formula" -- i.e., means test part of Social Security benefits by 2050.
* Increase the Social Security contribution ceiling: while people only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,800 of their wages today, that's only about 86% of the total potentially taxable wages. The co-chairs suggest raising the ceiling to capture 90% of wages.
Tax reform:
* The co-chairs suggest capping both government expenditures and revenue at 21% of GDP eventually.
* In their first plan, called "The Zero Plan," they suggest reducing the tax brackets to three personal brackets and one corporate rate while eliminated all credits and deductions. Without any credits or deductions (including the ETIC and mortgage interest deductions), the 3 tax rates would be 8, 14 and 23 percent.
* In their second plan, they would increase the personal deduction to $15,000, create 3 tax brackets (15, 25 and 35%); repeal or significantly curtail a number of popular tax deductions (including the state and local deduction and the mortgage interest deduction); and eliminate other tax expenditures.
* The third plan would force Congress to undertake comprehensive tax reform by 2012 by raising taxes for each year Congress fails to act.
* All their proposals limit Congress to collecting taxes on income made within the United States, reducing or eliminating taxes on American expats and revenues companies earn abroad.
* They also suggest raising the federal gas tax to 15 cents per gallon in 2013.
Medicaid/Medicare cuts
* Force more low-income individuals into Medicaid managed care.
* Increase Medicaid co-pays.
* Accelerate already-planned cuts to Medicare Advantage and home health care programs.
* Create a cap for Medicaid/Medicare growth that would force Congress and the President to increase premiums or co-pays or raise the Medicare eligibility age (among other options) if the system encounters cost overruns over the course of 5 years.
Discretionary spending cuts
* Freeze federal worker wage increases through 2014; eliminate 200,000 federal jobs by 2020; and eliminate 250,000 federal non-defense contractor jobs by 2015.
* Establish co-pays in the VA medical system and change the co-pays and deductibles for military retirees that remain in that system.
* Eliminate NASA funding for commercial space flight.
* Require the Smithsonian museums to start charging entrance fees and raise fees at the national parks.
* Eliminate funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- which many conservatives suggested in the wake of the firing of former NPR contributor Juan Williams.
* Reduce farm subsidies by $3 billion per year.
The report also recommends tort reform as a way to reduce Medicare and Medicaid expenditure
* All their proposals limit Congress to collecting taxes on income made within the United States, reducing or eliminating taxes on American expats and revenues companies earn abroad.
So they want to cut farm subsidies by 15%. HOW BOLD.
Also, nothing about cutting defense spending. GOOD JON, GUYS.
Boehner to Fly Commercial as House Speakerspoiler (click to show/hide)(http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/queen-nancy.jpg)[close]
If anything, the Commission represents the consensus among Washington Grown-ups™: a bunch of deeply unpopular moves to close the deficit. It looks a lot like something Robert Samuelson could have drawn up.
Much of it is way over my head in terms of the specifics of government programs and the ability to cut them. But the core proposal is honest, real, and vital
Unserious Peoplehttp://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/unserious-people-2/
OK, let’s say goodbye to the deficit commission. If you’re sincerely worried about the US fiscal future — and there’s good reason to be — you don’t propose a plan that involves large cuts in income taxes. Even if those cuts are offset by supposed elimination of tax breaks elsewhere, balancing the budget is hard enough without giving out a lot of goodies — goodies that fairly obviously, even without having the details, would go largely to the very affluent.
I mean, what’s this about? There is no — zero — evidence that income taxes at current rates are an important drag on growth.
Oh, and they’re talking about raising the retirement age, because people live longer — except that the people who really depend on Social Security, those in the bottom half of the distribution, aren’t living much longer. So you’re going to tell janitors to work until they’re 70 because lawyers are living longer than ever.
Still, I guess this is what it takes to get compromise, if by compromise you mean something the center-right and the hard right can agree on.
Update: It’s here. And it really is that bad. The idea that co-chairs of a commission whose charge is fiscal sustainability should take it upon themselves to (a) declare that federal revenue must not exceed 21 percent of GDP — that’s right, putting a cap on receipts and (b) call for reducing the top rate from 35 to 23 is just awesome.
yeah i love how we're going to cut 250k federal jobs by 2015 as long as they're not defense contractors. what did we expect from an administration with no balls though?
At this point we DESERVE to be turned into a Chinese fiefdom. Of course, if we give it another couple years of this stupidity not even they're gonna want us as a debtor state.It's refered to as 'Capatilism with an asian flavour'.
President Barack Obama's top adviser suggested to The Huffington Post late Wednesday that the administration is ready to accept an across-the-board continuation of steep Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest taxpayers.
That appears to be the only way, said David Axelrod, that middle-class taxpayers can keep their tax cuts, given the legislative and political realities facing Obama in the aftermath of last week's electoral defeat.
"We have to deal with the world as we find it," Axelrod said during an unusually candid and reflective 90-minute interview in his office, steps away from the Oval Office. "The world of what it takes to get this done."
"There are concerns," he added, that Congress will continue to kick the can down the road in the future by passing temporary extensions for the wealthy time and time again. "But I don't want to trade away security for the middle class in order to make that point."
I saw a good point about just how regressive raising the SS age would be - lifespans aren't rising across the board and are largely tied to one's socio-economic status.
Which means janitors are going to have to work longer because lawyers and engineers are living longer. smh.
Of course, SS hurts minorities with lower than average life explecantcies. But nobody wants to have a serious discussion about SS (on either side)
Haven't you been banging on and on about not voting already?Since the day after Obama was elected basically.
"Hey Himu, did you vote?"
"Nope, too busy playing FFXV"
"But Obama didn't cave on the tax cuts remember?"
"Nope, was too busy playing FFXIII"
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/11/thats_the_mandate.php?ref=fpblg
mandark/willco/etc explain
During a recent appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," McConnell expressed doubt over the ability of an earmark ban to advance spending reduction initiatives.
"The problem is, it doesn't save any money," explained the explained the Senate leader. "What we really need to do is to concentrate on reducing spending and reducing debt. And this debate doesn't save any money, which is why it is kind of exasperating to some of us who really want to cut spending."
No message, the goal is to spread enough FUD that it eventually seeps into the "real" news and gets covered by the MSM and Very Serious People in Washington weigh in on it on the Sunday shows. Meanwhile, please don't pay attention to the fact that the richest people in the country have been systematically looting the vault for 30 years now.
My company just had their (shitty)benefits meeting and shockingly, premiums have gone up! :o
Guess who's fault this is despite huge premium increases before HCR was passed?
Many of the psychologists, artists and moral philosophers I know are liberal, so it seems strange that American liberalism should adopt an economic philosophy that excludes psychology, emotion and morality.
In his first post-election speech, Rep. Buck McKeon, the California Republican who’s about to become the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, warned that cutting defense spending was a “red line for me and should be a red line for all Americans.” Speaking to the conservative Foreign Policy Institute in Washington, McKeon argued that the Pentagon’s projected one percent real growth in the defense budget over the next five years “is a net cut for investment and procurement accounts.”
...
“A defense budget in decline portends an America in decline,” McKeon said, arguing that cuts will have geopolitical consequences, “undermin[ing] our ability to project power, strengthen our adversaries and weaken our alliances.”
...
During a post-speech press conference, McKeon didn’t sound like he was out to cut any specific programs. He reminded reporters that he supports the funding of a second engine for the F-35, something both Obama and Gates consider unnecessary. With all the talk of cuts, he said, “pretty soon, my concern is that we end up back with a bow and arrow.”
He also wrote a piece explaining how because sitcoms now focus on loose groups of acquaintances rather than families, we (he) can reach sweeping conclusions about the nature of changing American culture.
The best part is he cited The Dick Van Dyke Show, the seminal workplace TV comedy, as an example of a family sitcom.
Someone explain to me why everyone doesn't hate him, Ben Affleck 2005 style.
Why? Have you forgotten 911?
So I'm reading this (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07kristof.html?_r=4&utm_source=Twitterfeed) (hat tip Prole), and I see #7 on the "most popular" sidebar is David Brooks: The Two Cultures (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/opinion/16brooks.html?src=me&ref=general).
I'm saving my blood pressure by not reading it, but at this point he's either deliberately doing self-parody, or he's trolling me personally.
I'm the brown guy who gets a pat-down EVERY TIME I go through security starting at the beginning of my puberty years and now, republicans think that might be wrong? suck a dick.
wtf, I don't even think it was a big invasion of privacy. It was just hypocritical. distinguished mentally-challenged "independents" flip-flopping to get these asshats back in control of something and now they immediately slide both thumbs up all our asses and say it's good for us, cock-gobblers.
Ron Paul introduces legislation, HR 6416, to protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse by federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees conducting screenings at the nation's airports.
Pass this shit before they start handing out prostate exams.
http://www.theonion.com/video/obama-replaces-costly-highspeed-rail-plan-with-hig,18473/ (http://www.theonion.com/video/obama-replaces-costly-highspeed-rail-plan-with-hig,18473/)
:usacry
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/129723-house-gop-to-force-vote-on-npr-defunding (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/129723-house-gop-to-force-vote-on-npr-defunding)
Why aren't we talking about the right crowdsourcing legislation?
They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don’t want any other point of view. They don’t even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda. They are basically Air America with government funding to keep them alive.
Pat-downs aren't invasive. If you are honestly in some way offended when a person who does dozens of pat-downs a day randomly chooses you to step aside for a pat-down then your priorities are screwed up.I'm the brown guy who gets a pat-down EVERY TIME I go through security starting at the beginning of my puberty years and now, republicans think that might be wrong? suck a dick.
wtf, I don't even think it was a big invasion of privacy. It was just hypocritical. distinguished mentally-challenged "independents" flip-flopping to get these asshats back in control of something and now they immediately slide both thumbs up all our asses and say it's good for us, cock-gobblers.
You're going through puberty, got it.
Perhaps you the one that is screwed up when you dont mind that complete strangers fondle your ball sack in the middle of a busy public area.That's such a distinguished mentally-challenged point I don't know how you could feel anybody cares about your opinion.
Perhaps you the one that is screwed up when you dont mind that complete strangers fondle your ball sack in the middle of a busy public area.
Perhaps you the one that is screwed up when you dont mind that complete strangers fondle your ball sack in the middle of a busy public area.
I fondled no ball sacks when I did pat downs for a week last January. :teehee
From what people are saying TSA has changed their policy to cup breasts and the crotch area. I dont know when they made that change.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/ann-coulter-gets-owned-by-fox-legal-analyst-asks-hannity-to-cut-his-mic.php?ref=fpb
:lol
I know right. It's almost as if they believe muslims are the only people that hijack planes.
Fun fact, when they search people and luggage they aren't just looking for terrorist threats. I know, weird right?
(http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.a/6a00d83451c45669e20133f618ab65970b-550wi)
(http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.a/6a00d83451c45669e20133f618ac1e970b-550wi)
(http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.a/6a00d83451c45669e20133f618ab65970b-550wi)
(http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.a/6a00d83451c45669e20133f618ac1e970b-550wi)
Apparently the "DC handlers" sent to help Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle wouldn't let her staff air this crappy ad. It shows old people scouring the desert for Social Security money. Was it too comically amateurish, or not racist enough?http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/the-dumb-social-security-ad-sharron-angle-never-aired-video.php?ref=fpblg
QuoteApparently the "DC handlers" sent to help Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle wouldn't let her staff air this crappy ad. It shows old people scouring the desert for Social Security money. Was it too comically amateurish, or not racist enough?http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/the-dumb-social-security-ad-sharron-angle-never-aired-video.php?ref=fpblg
[youtube=560,345]StxlCF5_z1o[/youtube]
no fucking way :rofl
QuoteApparently the "DC handlers" sent to help Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle wouldn't let her staff air this crappy ad. It shows old people scouring the desert for Social Security money. Was it too comically amateurish, or not racist enough?http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/the-dumb-social-security-ad-sharron-angle-never-aired-video.php?ref=fpblg
[youtube=560,345]StxlCF5_z1o[/youtube]
no fucking way :rofl
[youtube=560,345]vhBYGX61zxM[/youtube]
:lol
c'mon Obama, listen to Biden more
spoiler (click to show/hide)Malkin gets admitted to the couch. Coulter does not. Also admitted: That insane psycho bitch from the New York Post (or is it NY Daily News?) I've seen on CNN a few times in the past month. Don't know her name, but.... :drool[close]
I think you may be thinking of S.E. Cupp. Bitch could use a good rapin'. :heart
Oblivion: ...
Boogie: Semicolon! The gag was that we all move into your apartment after she wins.
Though I agree, and throw in Mike Orlando's observation years ago (vis Jessica Simpson?) that if a woman's dumb enough, it has the same erotic effect as if she were constantly letting out loud, wet farts.
Of all the babes on Fox you guys pick the average nerd. You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darlings
[youtube=560,345]dydcmwory4k
[/youtube]
unf unf
So what you're really saying is you want to bang Sarah Palin
Rep. Pete Sessions (R., Texas), a senior member of the Republican leadership who coordinated the GOP House campaigns, suggested that it would be different when Republicans raise the debt limit than when Democrats did it.
[youtube=560,345]XSQTz1bccL4[/youtube]
This is the sickest fucking thing I have seen in a long time. I want to vomit after watching this. They are conditioning us to submit from childhood now.
The worst part is that the father just stands there. If anyone tries this on my kid, there will be hell to pay.
I don't know who this Uygur guy is, but that piece he wrote is straight up dumb.Didn't he also name his son Prometheus? smh
[youtube=560,345]XSQTz1bccL4[/youtube]
This is the sickest fucking thing I have seen in a long time. I want to vomit after watching this. They are conditioning us to submit from childhood now.
The worst part is that the father just stands there. If anyone tries this on my kid, there will be hell to pay.
How can everyone just stand there? Especially the boys father?
nah beardo would have led a revolt of guerrilla warfare in the airport
nah beardo would have led a revolt of guerrilla warfare in the airport
nah beardo would have led a revolt of guerrilla warfare in the airport
WOLVERINES!
So Donald Trump is going to make decision about a presidential run by June. If he wins, he could have the most epic inauguration. I can see him stepping up to the mic, turning to Obama, "Mr. Obama you're fired."
Beardo can't be real right? Useless security measures and erosion of civil liberities in the name of "security" is a recent liberal phenomenon? I mean, Beardo can't be real right?remembering when we were crying foul about TORTURE and conservatives were all "eh"
Why bipartisan health-care reform has proven impossiblehttp://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/11/the_political_history_of_healt.html
By Ezra Klein
"Every time we moved toward them, they would move away." -- Hillary Clinton, 1995.
As an addendum to the previous post, it's worth thinking about partisanship and health-care reform not in terms of President Obama, but in terms of presidential efforts over the last century or so. And that story has gone something like this: Democrats moved right every time they failed. And Republicans moved further right every time Democrats tried.
The original idea, of course, was a national health service run by the government. Harry Truman proposed it and fell short. Lyndon Johnson got it for seniors and some groups of the very poor. But Republicans said that was too much government, and it was unacceptable for the whole country. They proposed, through President Richard Nixon, an employer-based, pay-or-play system in which the government would set rules and private insurers would compete for business.
That didn't go anywhere, because Democrats, led by Sen. Ted Kennedy, weren't ready to give up on a national health service. By the 1990s, they were. President Bill Clinton proposed an employer-based, pay-or-play system in which the government would set rules and private insurers would compete for business. Republicans killed it. Government shouldn't be telling businesses what to do, they said, and it shouldn't be restructuring the whole health-care market. Better to center policy around personal responsibility and use an individual mandate combined with subsidies and rules making sure insurers couldn't turn people away. That way, the parts of the system that were working would remain intact, and the government would only really involve itself in the parts that weren't working.
That was what Sen. John Chafee -- and Bob Bennett, Kit Bond, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch and Richard Lugar -- proposed in 1994. It's what Mitt Romney passed in Massachusetts. And so it was what Democrats proposed in 2010. The Republican answer? "Hell no, you can't!"
By this point, there were no more universal health-care approaches for Republicans to hold out as alternatives. So they just turned against the idea entirely. Cato's Michael Cannon organized "the anti-universal coverage club." John Boehner released a bill that the CBO said would cover 8 percent as many people as the Democrats' plan.
So over the last 80 years or so, Democrats have responded to Republican opposition by moving to the right, and Republicans have responded by moving even further to the right. In other words, Democrats have been willing to adopt Republican ideas if doing so meant covering everybody (or nearly everybody), while Republicans were willing to abandon Republican ideas if sticking by them meant compromising with the Democrats. But because Democrats were insistent on getting something that would help the uninsured, they've ended up looking like the partisans, as they keep pushing bills Republicans refuse to sign onto.
Quote.
interesting point
I saw this (not infrequently) made point made in the last week or two as well, or more specifically how every Democratic HCR proposal was really just the previous Republican HCR proposal except now it's allofasudden a Marxist plot - with the pattern repeating all the back to FDR. Again, not a revelation, but it was put across very well.
New legislation, introduced last week by Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) would make a simple tweak to the law: It would allow the states to implement their own health care systems, and thus be exempt from most of the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The catch: Those programs would have to cover, with decent insurance, at least as many people as the health care law does, but without adding to the deficit.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/silver-bullet-can-scott-brown-and-ron-wyden-save-health-care-reform.php?ref=fpa
Asking suspicious people who have committed a crime to show a I.D. = RACIST!!!1!
Asking suspicious people who have committed a crime to show a I.D. = RACIST!!!1!
Can you articulate what constitutes someone being a "suspicious person" in the context of (I presume) illegal immigration?
Aren't you a cop? The arizona law strictly prohibited pulling someone over with the sole intent of questioning citizenship.
I'm really at a loss as to why This TSA business is okay but asking someone who speeds or runs a red light to show citizenship is wrong.
I'm really at a loss as to why This TSA business is okay but asking someone who speeds or runs a red light to show citizenship is wrong.
(http://i52.tinypic.com/2lvcpzb.jpg)
I want to see how conservatives respond. The "repeal the bill" nonsense is not an argument of any substance, and is pretty much impossible.
How can everyone just stand there? Especially the boys father?
http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-seizes-bittorrent-search-engine-domain-and-more-101126/
Keep yer hands off my internets. :-\
http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-seizes-bittorrent-search-engine-domain-and-more-101126/
Keep yer hands off my internets. :-\
Here''s the double kicker to the knees: homeland security is on top of this, making it curious how in the world this is a security issue.
But where will I get my Snike's now?!
Zakaria is not always dispassionate about the global trends he has such a knack for identifying. This year, he controversially returned a $10,000 prize to the Anti-Defamation League after the group announced its opposition to a proposed Muslim cultural center near New York's Ground Zero. "Were this mosque being built in a foreign city, chances are that the U.S. government would be funding it,"
...
Five years ago, the ADL honored me with its Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. I was thrilled to get the award from an organization that I had long admired. But I cannot in good conscience keep it anymore. I have returned both the handsome plaque and the $10,000 honorarium that came with it. I urge the ADL to reverse its decision. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain a reputation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/us/politics/30freeze.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rssPay freeze isn't a bad idea. Pretty common in the private sector.
Remember when Candidate Obama dismissed the gas tax holiday as a gimmick that wouldn't fix anything? I miss that guy
A pay freeze is also calculated to give Obama some leverage later.
Palin will get raped in the primaries. And it will be glorious, because hopefully it will be the last of her.
Palin will get raped in the primaries. And it will be glorious, because hopefully it will be the last of her.
With early primaries in Jesus Crazy states like South Carolina (where the Governor owes Palin her primary victory), Iowa (where people love them some Jesus) and Nevada, land of Sharon Angle, I think she'll probably have the nomination sewn up by the end of January.
So how many of you will be moving to Canada if Palin wins? :teehee
Weekend visits that aren't with Muckhole. Shibas are hyper. I don't want to be around that all the time.
Trips to see Malek would be fun. Living in the US is getting worse day by day. I'm just postponing the inevitable.
Weekend visits that aren't with Muckhole. Shibas are hyper. I don't want to be around that all the time.
Trips to see Malek would be fun. Living in the US is getting worse day by day. I'm just postponing the inevitable.
Weekend trips to Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. Ya, you'll be making the most of life in Canada. ::)
On the other hand, once you experience life in Montreal with Mojo, you'll probably never want to leave there.
I emailed and called both my Senators this morning. :usa
I asked them to support the DREAM Act though. Sorry, homos.
Dear Senator,
As a registered Republican, immigration is a topic which I believe is quite serious to this entire nation. There are many bills and ideas currently being considered on this topic, but I am contacting you specifically to speak about the DREAM Act, which is currently in the Senate.
While I do not believe that we should be giving blanket handouts to illegal immigrants, I am very interested in the DREAM Act and what it offers. Rather than continue to punish children and young people for the actions of their parents, I believe that this act can help them to lead better lives and help assuage the problems of illegal immigration faced by our own country.
By being good citizens, by excelling in education, or serving in this nation's armed forces, surely these young people, illegal though they may be, show a willingness to conform to our laws and beliefs. Is it fair for us then to merely send them packing back to their home countries? I do not believe so, I believe that if they are willing to work hard and willing to integrate themselves into American society, then they should be granted something from us for their struggles.
As I said, I do not believe in blanket pardons or open borders, but I don't see this as either of those things. The DREAM Act will allow them to strive towards something other than the lowest paying jobs and the eternal stigma of being a criminal. If they're willing to earn there residency, in one way or another, then we should be willing to give it to them. In so doing, we help to foster individuals and families that believe in bettering themselves and in what American stands for. At the end of the day, isn't that what all of us want?
Please consider voting for the DREAM Act.
*high five*
Yours sounds so much like mine including starting with "As a registered Republican..."
Kinda mixed on the DREAM Act. On one hand it's a great idea to give people green cards for being good citizens/students. On the other hand wouldn't it only increase illegal immigration?
:lol
Well I just know better in Texas. Plus, I'm actually not lying. I registered as a Republican last time.
If it did, who gives a rip?Blue collar Americans who are currently unemployed?
Yeah that's why I initially threw it in. Every Republican I know IRL here doesn't listen to opinions unless it's from another Republican. Shit, same with all the Democrats I know IRL.:lol
Well I just know better in Texas. Plus, I'm actually not lying. I registered as a Republican last time.
It's a good attention-getter to start out with. That way they know from line one that they're hearing from someone in their own party, instead of somebody looking in from the outside.
Kinda mixed on the DREAM Act. On one hand it's a great idea to give people green cards for being good citizens/students. On the other hand wouldn't it only increase illegal immigration?
If it did, who gives a rip?
To be honest, I don't think the DREAM Act matters to anyone who's not already here. It's intended for children who are illegal and didn't have a choice and I can totally sympathize. Your parents dragged you here. Their parents dragged them here. They didn't have a choice. Most of them are pretty damn Americanized and don't have any real roots in their home country. I don't see a problem with the DREAM Act at all. It seems like more of a proper way or earning citizenship than simply taking a test and paying a lot of fucking money.Kinda mixed on the DREAM Act. On one hand it's a great idea to give people green cards for being good citizens/students. On the other hand wouldn't it only increase illegal immigration?
If it did, who gives a rip?
Giving illegal immigrants even more incentive to enter the country isn't a bad idea? I'm wondering from a fence sitting position, dunno which side of the issue to jump onto. Perhaps not the best analogy for this...
Our newly elected repub Tom Reed(who replaced Eric Massa) is on the front page today boasting that he voted against extending unemployment cause it added to the deficit. Then he goes on to say he wants to keep tax cuts for the rich cause it would be class warfare not to.
Sooo... Is anyone actually surprised by this?I don't think anyone's surprised and to be honest I don't have a problem with it. I can see how some people would feel misled though. But I'm also going to assume the people who feel misled are the ones who aren't really familiar with what was going on during the fall of 2008 and how far it really reached and what it affected.
Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond U.S. banks to industry, foreign firms
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/01/AR2010120106870.html
Obama > Oblivion
Nah, but it's probably really the best deal they can get. Honestly, getting unemployment benefits extended 13 months is probably better than they hoped for.
It does kind of fuck Obama in 2012. "Vote for me and we'll roll back those Bush tax cuts on the rich... FOR REALS THIS TIME!" But at this rate my dog could probably beat him in 2012.
Oblivion: Compared to what?
Compared to say, standing firm and let the republicans risk making the tax cuts expire for everyone? And even if that happened, Obama could bring about new tax cuts for the middle class that would differentiate them from Bush's tax cuts (they'd be the Obama tax cuts).
Nah, but it's probably really the best deal they can get. Honestly, getting unemployment benefits extended 13 months is probably better than they hoped for.Honestly, most people don't really care about the tax cuts in the scheme of things. This is just another failure of representative gov't. The Republicans keep pushing these legislative priorities that one cares about. And no one cares about the deficit, which the Republicans have cleverly took on in the recent campaign.
It does kind of fuck Obama in 2012. "Vote for me and we'll roll back those Bush tax cuts on the rich... FOR REALS THIS TIME!" But at this rate my dog could probably beat him in 2012.
I was at first wondering if you were agreeing with him but yeah I agree with your last post. It would be much harder to pass a bill 6 months from now that actually eliminates the tax cuts for the rich. This is just the best deal possible for the next couple years.Compared to say, standing firm and let the republicans risk making the tax cuts expire for everyone? And even if that happened, Obama could bring about new tax cuts for the middle class that would differentiate them from Bush's tax cuts (they'd be the Obama tax cuts).
...
DECEMBER 6--In the days after Bristol Palin was voted into the finals of “Dancing with the Stars,” viewers from across the country wrote to the Federal Communications Commission accusing the ABC show of everything from running a “payola type program” to “encouraging and promoting teen pregnancy.”
vote on the dream act occurs tomorrow. all those emails and phone calls better have done something
vote on the dream act occurs tomorrow. all those emails and phone calls better have done something
The reply I got back from my Senators was basically "sorry, but you're wrong, DREAM Act is going down."
So this notion that somehow we are willing to compromise too much reminds me of the debate that we had during health care. This is the public option debate all over again. So I pass a signature piece of legislation where we finally get health care for all Americans, something that Democrats had been fighting for for a hundred years, but because there was a provision in there that they didn’t get that would have affected maybe a couple of million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people and the potential for lower premiums for 100 million people, that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise.
Now, if that’s the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let’s face it, we will never get anything done. People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are, and in the meantime, the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of preexisting conditions or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out.
Quote from: ObamaSo this notion that somehow we are willing to compromise too much reminds me of the debate that we had during health care. This is the public option debate all over again. So I pass a signature piece of legislation where we finally get health care for all Americans, something that Democrats had been fighting for for a hundred years, but because there was a provision in there that they didn’t get that would have affected maybe a couple of million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people and the potential for lower premiums for 100 million people, that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise.
Now, if that’s the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let’s face it, we will never get anything done. People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are, and in the meantime, the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of preexisting conditions or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out.
[ ]Strongly disagree
[ ]Somewhat disagree
[ ]Don't know/No opinion
[ ]Somewhat agree
[X]Strongly agree
Quote from: ObamaSo this notion that somehow we are willing to compromise too much reminds me of the debate that we had during health care. This is the public option debate all over again. So I pass a signature piece of legislation where we finally get health care for all Americans, something that Democrats had been fighting for for a hundred years, but because there was a provision in there that they didn’t get that would have affected maybe a couple of million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people and the potential for lower premiums for 100 million people, that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise.
Now, if that’s the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let’s face it, we will never get anything done. People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are, and in the meantime, the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of preexisting conditions or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out.
[X]Strongly disagree
[ ]Somewhat disagree
[ ]Don't know/No opinion
[ ]Somewhat agree
[]Strongly agree
What? Don't compromise and just tell them what they're supposed to do? Why would they listen to him?
For now, I'm going to ignore how very Republican that post was ("All we need is willpower to make this mission succeed! Lemme tell ya how we do it in the corporate sector...") and ask what the counterfactual is in this specific case.
So the alternative is to let the Republicans scream and cry, call the President a socialist, and then give them the only thing they really care about in exchange for keeping some people out of the gutter?
Man, the government is AWESOME. I can't see why anyone would get disenchanted with such a kick-ass system.
are you asking me to state my stance on it? what i'd do? i'd have let them all expire, and waged media war on an epic scale. i'd have pointed out my noble intentions every step of the way from the moment i stepped into office, and when everyone got the tax bill thanks to republican filibustering -- assuming they actually had the cojones to block it entirely -- i woulda told the republicans "well, guess what, motherfuckers, i'm addressing your precious fucking deficit." then i would have stepped into the cockpit of my sr-71 and flew straight into the sun, just because i am THAT FUCKING AWESOME. i'd live my one term LARGE.
Prole: I really mean what I said, not as a troll. When people rehash the same debates over and over, they tend to read anyone who's disagreeing them as fitting whatever the typical opposite viewpoint is.
If I see a liberal use "adult" "grown-up" or "VSP" as a pejorative (see Greenwald, FDL, etc), that's a sign to me they're mocking the Broder/DLC/Hiatt worldview, which holds compromise as more important than the results it produces, and which excludes strong, unapologetic progressive opinions from polite conversation in the political and media classes.
And hey, I agree with the netroots there, completely. The problem is that it's become such sore point that you can't say anything or defense of Democratic officeholders without making a lot of people feel that you're patronizing them. And once people start responding to views that they project on you rather than your own actual opinions, it becomes pretty fucking hopeless (last year I was accused of being a pro-Ahmadinejad stooge in the comment section of a feminist blog! Yay!).
of course i wouldn't brag about it. i wouldn't even talk about myself. i'd say "ENJOY THE TAX HIKE YOUR REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS GOT YOU." and then the business of image management would begin in earnest.
“At one point, Obama said he would rather be a good one-term president rather than a mediocre two-term president. However, because of his failure to challenge the Republicans, it now appears that he will end up being a mediocre (or worse) one-term president.”
(although I'll ask how many government and private sector jobs will be lost by 900b in budget shortfall over the next two years as well).
(http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ld1ptk5AkY1qcb5fko1_r1_250.gif)
Democrats have delayed a showdown vote on legislation carving out a path to legal status for foreign-born youngsters brought to this country illegally.http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/12/democrats_delay_action_on_young_immigrants_bill.php?ref=fpa
Facing GOP objections, Democrats are putting aside the so-called Dream Act. They're short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure.
Democratic officials say they'll try to move a House-passed version after the Senate acts on funding the government and extending tax cuts. Republicans have said they won't agree to consider anything else until those issues are addressed.
wait, wtf is that from?
Pelosi won't hold vote on Obama's tax plan -aide
Dec 9 (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not bring President Barack Obama's current proposed tax plan up for a vote in her chamber, an aide said on Thursday.
The aide said Pelosi would require changes be made to the measure that most of her fellow House Democrats formally opposed by approving a resolution of opposition to it. The aide said: "She (Pelosi) will honor the resolution."
I was just about to post that. That's messed up, very disrespectful. It's like they're trolling to be despised.
running for congress, G?
I for one am looking forward to Fred Phelps' funeral. Not saying I hope he dies, but I'm just saying the awesome stuff done during his funeral is gonna be epic.Ugh. I know it's wrong to want it, but I know somewhere deep down I do. He's a terrible, disgusting piece of shit. Luckily, unlike him, I can separate those feelings and realize I'm better than that.
Fred Phelps is like that Florida preacher who was gonna hold a Koran-burning.
They're shitty dudes, but they're not in positions of power; provocative symbolism's all they got. While everybody's condemning Phelps, it's mainstream organizations and politicians who prevent gay people from actually being treated as equal citizens.
I paid someone like 300 bucks to write a resume for me. It worked like a charm.
Fred Phelps is like that Florida preacher who was gonna hold a Koran-burning.
They're shitty dudes, but they're not in positions of power; provocative symbolism's all they got. While everybody's condemning Phelps, it's mainstream organizations and politicians who prevent gay people from actually being treated as equal citizens.
Over the past week we’ve seen the big differences between cluster liberals and network liberals.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd mandatory insurance ruled unconstitutional by a Virginia judge. That about wraps it up for Obama.
It's fine if the mandate goes. The other insurance rules(ending recision, lifetime caps, etc..) are the most important part if HCR imo.
It's fine if the mandate goes. The other insurance rules(ending recision, lifetime caps, etc..) are the most important part if HCR imo.
The mandate is one of the most essential cost cutting aspects of the bill; it ensures insurance pools aren't filled with old and sick people. The SC would have to ignore a lot of law in order to rule in favor of this nonsense. Personally I'm glad we finally got to this point: this should put the argument to rest.
It's fine if the mandate goes. The other insurance rules(ending recision, lifetime caps, etc..) are the most important part if HCR imo.
The mandate is one of the most essential cost cutting aspects of the bill; it ensures insurance pools aren't filled with old and sick people. The SC would have to ignore a lot of law in order to rule in favor of this nonsense. Personally I'm glad we finally got to this point: this should put the argument to rest.
Wait... You guys actually thought this was cutting costs? This does absolutely nothing to cut costs.
It goes up the ladder until the SC rules on it.
I love the headline on Drudge. It's just a picture of Obama with the words "unconstitutional" underneath. lol
I cant wait for the day liberals are forced to buy something they don't want. The irony will be lost on every one of you hipster douche bags and I shall bask in liberal tears.
Like paying for Kentucky ???
We've been paying for you conservative bastards' emergency room visits for years now, we're used to it
I cant wait for the day liberals are forced to buy something they don't want. The irony will be lost on every one of you hipster douche bags and I shall bask in liberal tears.oh so i guess you dropped the expense argument now.
I cant wait for the day liberals are forced to buy something they don't want. The irony will be lost on every one of you hipster douche bags and I shall bask in liberal tears.
Like paying for Kentucky ???
Or David Brooks' math education?
This is going to set up a pretty epic repeal fight. The 'pubs are going to keep beating that "unconstitutional" drum and the dems, as usual, will change tone 40 times during the debate.
I cant wait for the day liberals are forced to buy something they don't want. The irony will be lost on every one of you hipster douche bags and I shall bask in liberal tears.
During a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases "Wall Street" and "shadow banking" and the words "interconnection" and "deregulation" from the panel's final report, according to a person familiar with the matter and confirmed by Brooksley E. Born, one of the six commissioners who voted against the proposal.
As Nasiripour's reporting anticipated, the words that most people associate with the financial crisis—"Wall Street", "interconnected", "shadow banking", "deregulation", credit default swap—are absent from the Republicans' report. The word "derivative" is nowhere to be found.
Kind of like how Liberals have been claiming the end of poverty since LBJ.
Kind of like how Liberals have been claiming the end of poverty since LBJ.
wat
Kind of like how Liberals have been claiming the end of poverty since LBJ.
wat
wat indeed
Watching the Daily Show, Stewart talking with four 9/11 First Responders.
This is brutal...fuck the Republican senators.
edit: Holy shit. One Senator saying they can't work through the holidays because it would be "disrespectful" to do so to all Christians and their families.
....
..
the contrast of those words being played in front of firefighters and police officers who routinely have to work on holidays. fucking assholes, the lot of 'em.
Kirk, the most junior member of the Senate asked, "Did we just win?"http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/after-spending-bill-implodes-reid-schedules-vote-on-dadt-repeal.php?ref=fpa
McCain responded, "I think there's very little doubt that the Majority Leader of the United States Senate would not have taken the action he just took if we didn't have 41 votes to stop this monstrosity."
Kirk continued, "so for economic conservatives, a 1,924-page bill just died?
"A 1,924-page bill just died," McCain responded laughing.
"House progressives are still prepared for President Obama's tax cut compromise to pass unamended. But they temporarily derailed that train this afternoon to be heard publicly on just how bad they think the package is."
Those who watched Fox News almost daily were significantly more likely than those who never watched it to believe that most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely), most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points), the economy is getting worse (26 points), most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points), the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points), their own income taxes have gone up (14 points), the auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points), when TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points) and that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points). The effect was also not simply a function of partisan bias, as people who voted Democratic and watched Fox News were also more likely to have such misinformation than those who did not watch it--though by a lesser margin than those who voted Republican.
There were cases with some other news sources as well. Daily consumers of MSNBC and public broadcasting (NPR and PBS) were higher (34 points and 25 points respectively) in believing that it was proven that the US Chamber of Commerce was spending money raised from foreign sources to support Republican candidates. Daily watchers of network TV news broadcasts were 12 points higher in believing that TARP was signed into law by President Obama, and 11 points higher in believing that most Republicans oppose TARP.
For today's 'No Shit (http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/671.php?nid=&id=&pnt=671&lb=)' news:QuoteThose who watched Fox News almost daily were significantly more likely than those who never watched it to believe that most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely), most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points), the economy is getting worse (26 points), most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points), the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points), their own income taxes have gone up (14 points), the auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points), when TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points) and that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points). The effect was also not simply a function of partisan bias, as people who voted Democratic and watched Fox News were also more likely to have such misinformation than those who did not watch it--though by a lesser margin than those who voted Republican.QuoteThere were cases with some other news sources as well. Daily consumers of MSNBC and public broadcasting (NPR and PBS) were higher (34 points and 25 points respectively) in believing that it was proven that the US Chamber of Commerce was spending money raised from foreign sources to support Republican candidates. Daily watchers of network TV news broadcasts were 12 points higher in believing that TARP was signed into law by President Obama, and 11 points higher in believing that most Republicans oppose TARP.
tl;dr
Fox news viewers most misinformed. All network news outlets are shit.
From the commission that's meant to investigate and report on the causes of the financial crisis:QuoteDuring a private commission meeting last week, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases "Wall Street" and "shadow banking" and the words "interconnection" and "deregulation" from the panel's final report, according to a person familiar with the matter and confirmed by Brooksley E. Born, one of the six commissioners who voted against the proposal.
I'm not sure if that second half was trying to draw some false equivalency, but it was stretchin'
The conservative movement's been driven by people who feel shunned/marginalized/lied to by academia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_and_Man_at_Yale), Hollywood (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbighollywood.breitbart.com%2F&rct=j&q=big%20hollywood&ei=rSsMTaWwDIO78gaPlcS3Dg&usg=AFQjCNGlwtCZYp7DorhpMn3OCs3wxvvqNA&cad=rja), and the news media (http://www.amazon.com/Bias-Insider-Exposes-Media-Distort/dp/0895261901). Who felt that because they were being shut out, that they needed their own think tanks, publishing houses, news network, (home) school system, etc.
I'm not sure if that second half was trying to draw some false equivalency, but it was stretchin'
It's hard for people to find equally crazy liberal shibboleths, because there generally aren't any*.
The conservative movement's been driven by people who feel shunned/marginalized/lied to by academia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_and_Man_at_Yale), Hollywood (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbighollywood.breitbart.com%2F&rct=j&q=big%20hollywood&ei=rSsMTaWwDIO78gaPlcS3Dg&usg=AFQjCNGlwtCZYp7DorhpMn3OCs3wxvvqNA&cad=rja), and the news media (http://www.amazon.com/Bias-Insider-Exposes-Media-Distort/dp/0895261901). Who felt that because they were being shut out, that they needed their own think tanks, publishing houses, news network, (home) school system, etc.
So rejecting some facets of mainstream knowledge in favor of special conservative "truths" is a way of showing tribal solidarity, in a way that just doesn't have an equivalent on the left.spoiler (click to show/hide)*Which isn't to say that there aren't plenty of liberals/leftists who believe absolutely crazy shit, just that there aren't really beliefs that are 1) obviously, importantly, factually wrong and 2) so widespread that they'd have to be pandered to by an aspiring Democratic candidate. Like say the Laffer Curve stuff with the GOP.[close]
I'm not sure if that second half was trying to draw some false equivalency, but it was stretchin'
It's hard for people to find equally crazy liberal shibboleths, because there generally aren't any*.
The conservative movement's been driven by people who feel shunned/marginalized/lied to by academia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_and_Man_at_Yale), Hollywood (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbighollywood.breitbart.com%2F&rct=j&q=big%20hollywood&ei=rSsMTaWwDIO78gaPlcS3Dg&usg=AFQjCNGlwtCZYp7DorhpMn3OCs3wxvvqNA&cad=rja), and the news media (http://www.amazon.com/Bias-Insider-Exposes-Media-Distort/dp/0895261901). Who felt that because they were being shut out, that they needed their own think tanks, publishing houses, news network, (home) school system, etc.
So rejecting some facets of mainstream knowledge in favor of special conservative "truths" is a way of showing tribal solidarity, in a way that just doesn't have an equivalent on the left.spoiler (click to show/hide)*Which isn't to say that there aren't plenty of liberals/leftists who believe absolutely crazy shit, just that there aren't really beliefs that are 1) obviously, importantly, factually wrong and 2) so widespread that they'd have to be pandered to by an aspiring Democratic candidate. Like say the Laffer Curve stuff with the GOP.[close]
yeah, the most crazy fringe "left" movement i can think of is the "food religious" set -- the folks into naturopathy or gaia mysticism or general food paranoia who push animal rights uber alles and remain steadfastly freaked out about bioengineering in general. there ain't THAT many of them, though, despite hollywood's best recruiting efforts.
so the DADT repeal passed the senate.
In that case they're also opposed to any science that opposes their lifestyle views. It seems like every non-scientific article I read about GM foods wants to call them frankenfoods or something so it's not that small of a group really.
yeah, the most crazy fringe "left" movement i can think of is the "food religious" set -- the folks into naturopathy or gaia mysticism or general food paranoia who push animal rights uber alles and remain steadfastly freaked out about bioengineering in general. there ain't THAT many of them, though, despite hollywood's best recruiting efforts.
:rock :supergay :rock
Props to the Republican Senators who bucked their party, props to the Democratic Senators without safe seats who did the right thing, props to the Democratic leadership for getting this done, props to the activists for bringing the pressure and not shutting up, props to Robert Gates, props to Joe Lieberman (!), props to a big chunk of the American people for making a No vote a political liability in lots of states.
Movement conservatism and ~95% of the GOP establishment get the gas face.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a leading opponent of repeal, warned shortly before the vote that “elites” would celebrate the end of “DADT” without understanding its consequences for the armed forces.
During the debate over repeal, McCain pointed to the concerns of some military commanders that a change in the policy during wartime could jeopardize the cohesion of combat units.
“I hope that when we pass this legislation that we will understand that we are doing great damage,” he said. “And we could possibly – and probably – as the Commandant of the Marine Corps said … harm the battle effectiveness that is so vital to the survival of our young men and women in the military.
I knew Grandpa McCain was an opportunist, but after losing the election, he just seems like a bitter, old dickhead.
John McCain at his fieriest before 'don't ask, don't tell' vote
By Dana Milbank
Saturday, December 18, 2010; 5:48 PM
If John McCain gets any more hostile toward his Senate colleagues, they might consider having him go through the metal detector before he enters the Capitol.
Saturday's debate on the repeal of the "don't-ask-don't-tell" policy was only half an hour old when the Arizona Republican burst onto the floor from the cloakroom, hiked up his pants and stalked over to his friend Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Ignoring Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who had the floor, McCain hectored the men noisily for a few moments, waving his arms for emphasis.
When McCain finally stormed off, Durbin shook his head in exasperation and Lieberman smiled. A minute later, McCain returned - he had apparently remembered another element of his grievance - and resumed his harangue.
It turns out McCain's fury was stirred by a trifle - he had wanted more time for the debate, which the Democrats eventually gave him - but that was typical. It doesn't take much to set off McCain these days.
Earlier in the week, he was observed in the unseemly act of publicly gloating on the Senate floor over his success in killing a massive spending bill. He's also been raising hurdles to the ratification of the Obama administration's nuclear arms treaty with Russia. At the same time, he led the opposition Saturday to repealing the ban on openly gay men and lesbians serving in the military - taking on Lieberman, who led the other side.
McCain's statement on the floor was roughly one part argument, four parts tantrum. "So here we are about six weeks after an election that repudiated the agenda of the other side," he said, and those who would repeal don't-ask-don't-tell "are acting in direct repudiation of the message of the American people." (Actually, polls show support for repeal.)
He bemoaned "this bizarro world that the majority leader has been carrying us in," and taunted: "Maybe it will require another election." The Arizonan suggested those who vote to repeal would have blood on their hands. "Don't think that it won't be at great cost," he said, punctuating his words by bouncing on his toes and chopping with his left hand. It will "probably," he said, "harm the battle effectiveness which is so vital to the survival of our young men and women in the military."
The loss of Republican votes, no doubt, made McCain even angrier. When it came time for his closing argument before the day's key vote, McCain spoke for only a few seconds: "Today's a very sad day. The commandant of the United States Marine Corps says when your life hangs on the line, you don't want anything distracting. . . . I don't want to permit that opportunity to happen and I'll tell you why. You go up to Bethesda Naval Hospital, Marines are up there with no legs, none. You've got Marines at Walter Reed with no limbs."
McCain turned and, without another word, walked into the cloakroom.
Lieberman later said that he expects his friendship with his volatile colleague to recover. "I don't think this will leave any scars," he said. "I just think we leave this fight knowing that I was right and he was wrong. I mean, it's as simple as that."
For today's 'No Shit (http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/671.php?nid=&id=&pnt=671&lb=)' news:QuoteThose who watched Fox News almost daily were significantly more likely than those who never watched it to believe that most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely), most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points), the economy is getting worse (26 points), most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points), the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points), their own income taxes have gone up (14 points), the auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points), when TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points) and that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points). The effect was also not simply a function of partisan bias, as people who voted Democratic and watched Fox News were also more likely to have such misinformation than those who did not watch it--though by a lesser margin than those who voted Republican.QuoteThere were cases with some other news sources as well. Daily consumers of MSNBC and public broadcasting (NPR and PBS) were higher (34 points and 25 points respectively) in believing that it was proven that the US Chamber of Commerce was spending money raised from foreign sources to support Republican candidates. Daily watchers of network TV news broadcasts were 12 points higher in believing that TARP was signed into law by President Obama, and 11 points higher in believing that most Republicans oppose TARP.
tl;dr
Fox news viewers most misinformed. All network news outlets are shit.
Fox News senior vice president for news Michael Clemente has responded to the study which found that his network's viewers are more misinformed about American political issues than any other channel. In a statement to the New York Times' Brian Stelter, Clemente disparaged the University of Maryland, where the study was done.
"The latest Princeton Review ranked the University of Maryland among the top schools for having ‘Students Who Study The Least’ and being the ‘Best Party School’ – given these fine academic distinctions, we’ll regard the study with the same level of veracity it was ‘researched’ with," Clemente said.
"For the record, the Princeton Review says the University of Maryland ranks among the 'Best Northeastern Colleges," Stelter notes. "It was No. 19 on the Review’s list of 'Best Party Schools."
What the president didn’t say was that a few hours earlier he had met with and tried to assauge some his most vociferous liberal critics -- economists Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs, Alan Blinder, and Robert Reich, the former Labor secretary.http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/obama-tried-to-placate-liberal-economists-20101217
In what two participants describe as a somewhat-argumentative one-hour discussion, Obama tried to convince the group that his compromise would deliver more bang for the buck to the economy and to people most in need of help than any other politically feasible option.
The new numbers are a boon for Republicans, with Texas leading the way among GOP-leaning states that will gain House seats at the Rust Belt's expense. Following each once-a-decade census, the nation must reapportion the House's 435 districts to make them roughly equal in population, with each state getting at least one seat.
I think the main point about what you're saying is that the people at MSNBC are dumb enough to read Thomas Friedman.
Not sure what gives the FCC authority to regulate the internet. Seems about right for someone who also thinks Americans can be required buy law to purchase something.Remember when conservatives lost their fucking minds over a nipple? Good times.
I think the main point about what you're saying is that the people at MSNBC are dumb enough to read Thomas Friedman.
Yeah, Friedman's just awful. He's like an Oprahfied version of a public intellectual.
Too bad you don't read Krugman, Beardo. I can't think of a better writer for explaining economic theory to a popular audience. You might learn something.
Looks like people can't leave liberals states fast enough.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2 (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2)QuoteThe new numbers are a boon for Republicans, with Texas leading the way among GOP-leaning states that will gain House seats at the Rust Belt's expense. Following each once-a-decade census, the nation must reapportion the House's 435 districts to make them roughly equal in population, with each state getting at least one seat.
Real question Mandark. Is there any current conservative economists worth reading? Any that can explain conservative positions without slipping into ideology?
Looks like people can't leave liberals states fast enough.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2 (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2)QuoteThe new numbers are a boon for Republicans, with Texas leading the way among GOP-leaning states that will gain House seats at the Rust Belt's expense. Following each once-a-decade census, the nation must reapportion the House's 435 districts to make them roughly equal in population, with each state getting at least one seat.
Remember when Beardo was in disbelief that Texas may turn blue in the coming decades because he didn't seem to understand that there are legal Hispanics in Texas.
Now let's all gather round and listen to his commentary on demographics :teehee
You know a great way of winning people over? Telling them they're too dumb to properly recognize their own self-interests.
Oh right, all hispanics are liberals. I forgot about that.You're being distinguished mentally-challenged here if you can't even admit that conservatives and liberals are polar opposites wrt illegal immigration.
Can't wait till minorities realize that Democrats dont actually do anything except use them for votes.
Speaking of Krugman even MSNBC is wipping their ass with his articles. They made a joke yesterday morning about having to brave the possibility of a Krugman article in the Times just to get ti Freidman.
What a joke.
Looks like people can't leave liberals states fast enough.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2 (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2)QuoteThe new numbers are a boon for Republicans, with Texas leading the way among GOP-leaning states that will gain House seats at the Rust Belt's expense. Following each once-a-decade census, the nation must reapportion the House's 435 districts to make them roughly equal in population, with each state getting at least one seat.
Remember when Beardo was in disbelief that Texas may turn blue in the coming decades because he didn't seem to understand that there are legal Hispanics in Texas.
Now let's all gather round and listen to his commentary on demographics :teehee
Oh right, all hispanics are liberals. I forgot about that.
Can't wait till minorities realize that Democrats dont actually do anything except use them for votes.
Looks like people can't leave liberals states fast enough.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2 (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2)
Looks like people can't leave liberals states fast enough.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2 (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Census-shows-slowing-US-apf-939635687.html?x=0&.v=2)
Anecdotal shit, but when I was doing the census it was interesting seeing so many empty and vacant houses everywhere. Initially we thought they were foreclosure related, and many were, but a shit ton wound up being people who were moving down south (or to Ohio lol)
people who were moving down south (or to Ohio lol)
That's been happening forever since manufacturing died and AC's been cheap and ubiquitous
START passes with 71 votes, which I figured was basically impossible as recently as a week ago. What's with this bizarrely productive lame duck session?Great for finding your backbones guys, think of all the shit that could have been done and done better if they had the cojones for longer then two months.
I wonder how much, if any, of this "comeback" has to do with Emmanuel being gone.
I wonder how much, if any, of this "comeback" has to do with Emmanuel being gone.
Now now, don't be a Cheebs.
It's a lot harder whine about the president's dolchstoss when you actually know people who have been out of work for over a year.
Surprise, surprise, historians have found glaring errors in a textbook claiming that African Americans fought in large numbers for the South during the Civil War.
A number of additional errors have been found in other textbooks being used in some Virginia classrooms, since the state ordered a review of the books, the Washington Post reports.
Among the textbooks' errors are claims that the Confederacy included 12 states and the U.S. entered World War I in 1916. Five professional scholars reviewed the books, with three of them finding "disturbing" results. State officials are scheduled to meet January 10 to review the results.
"I absolutely could not believe the number of mistakes -- wrong dates and wrong facts everywhere. How in the world did these books get approved?" said Ronald Heinemann, a former history professor at Hampden-Sydney College who reviewed "Our Virginia: Past and Present." The other book mentioned in the report was "Our America: To 1865."
Heinemann added that the book "should be withdrawn from the classroom immediately, or at least by the end of the year."
Five Ponds Press, a small publisher in Connecticut, is responsible for the books in question. The Post reports that the publisher e-mailed to say the "historians' critiques," as the Post put it, will be included in the books' next printing.
The Post first reported the errors back in October. The author, Joy Masoff, defended her work, telling the Post, "As controversial as it is, I stand by what I write. I am a fairly respected writer." But when it came to one of the Civil War's most controversial themes -- the role of African Americans in the Confederacy -- she relied primarily on an Internet search, according to the report. And the results were based on the work of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a neo-confederate group based in Tennessee.
Masoff's other literary achievements include "Oh Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty" and "Oh Yikes! History's Grossest Moments."
Virginia's Department of Education requires textbooks to fulfill certain "Standards of Learning" goals, including making sure history standards provide "a basic knowledge of American culture through a chronological survey of major issues, movements, peoples, and events in the United States and Virginia history."
The state's Standards of Learning disqualifies many textbooks produced for a national market from being used, leaving Five Ponds Press in a unique position of providing several books for the state. Five Ponds' books are reportedly less expensive than its competitors, too.
The author, Joy Masoff, defended her work, telling the Post, "As controversial as it is, I stand by what I write. I am a fairly respected writer." But when it came to one of the Civil War's most controversial themes -- the role of African Americans in the Confederacy -- she relied primarily on an Internet search, according to the report. And the results were based on the work of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a neo-confederate group based in Tennessee.
"As controversial as it is, I stand by what I write. I am a fairly respected writer."
Masoff's other literary achievements include "Oh Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty" and "Oh Yikes! History's Grossest Moments."
"Clearly, means testing. Clearly, retirement age, over time. What you’re saying to these younger people is –- who, by the way, I think, barring disasters, are going to live to possibly old ages, as we have always thought of it…They will live to be more than 100, because, again, barring accidents or something, or war, well over. They should. They’ll be replacing body parts like we do tires. If you ask a young person who’s paying any attention to this, “How old do you expect to be, and how long would you like to be a vital working person?” they’re not going to find this offensive. Thirty years from now, you might work at 68, 70, 72…."http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/05/daniels-robots/
So right now I'm despairing about the prospects of anything meaningful being done on either global warming or Israel-Palestine before either of those situations pass the point where they become fundamentally irreparable.
Someone post a dumb Palin quote to distract me with amusement/rage.
*Googles the authors that Boogie mentioned*
Great, now I'm extra-depressed! I hope you're happy, you jerk.
You really think the Arab/Israeli conflict is a regional issue? Really?
Boogie is like old-school Loki: a poster you can reliably troll into a multi-paragraph response with just a throwaway line.
Gov. Quinn promises to quickly sign Ill. 66% tax hike
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110112/ap_on_bi_ge/us_illinois_taxes (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110112/ap_on_bi_ge/us_illinois_taxes)
Auction off Chicago, problem solved?
I was waiting for someone to talk about this.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-maher-tea-party-founding-fathers/
(http://i.imgur.com/teoDp.png)
:bow2
Practicing a piece of music for four hours requires focused attention, but it is nowhere near as cognitively demanding as a sleepover with 14-year-old girls.
Texas is basically putting every conservative policy to work to catastrophic results.
Texas is cutting 5 billion from public education :-\
fuck my home state
Texas is basically putting every conservative policy to work to catastrophic results.
Texas is basically putting every conservative policy to work to catastrophic results.
This quotes is hilarious when you think about what state you are posting this from.
::)Texas is basically putting every conservative policy to work to catastrophic results.
This quotes is hilarious when you think about what state you are posting this from.
Yea, that state where democrat and republican presidents alongside the car industry helped destroy the manufacturing sector
reince priebus has one of those faces that make mothers check sex offender databases when they see him in their neighborhood.
reince priebus has one of those faces that make mothers check sex offender databases when they see him in their neighborhood.
:teehee
Nazi comparisons should be off limits period; the dude was out of order. Although it certainly is funny hearing Fox News beat the outrage drum over it when they ignored all the Nazi comparisons coming from the right last year.
Nazi comparisons should be off limits period; the dude was out of order. Although it certainly is funny hearing Fox News beat the outrage drum over it when they ignored all the Nazi comparisons coming from the right last year.
Can you link me to the C-span footage of republicans calling democrats Nazis on the house floor. I must have missed that.
Nazi comparisons should be off limits period; the dude was out of order. Although it certainly is funny hearing Fox News beat the outrage drum over it when they ignored all the Nazi comparisons coming from the right last year.
Can you link me to the C-span footage of republicans calling democrats Nazis on the house floor. I must have missed that.
as if Rick Santorum didn't have enough negatives already...
that's a bad, bad choice of words there pal. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110120/pl_yblog_theticket/santorum-invokes-obamas-race-in-abortion-debate)
Well, that's one less contender in 2012.
Amateur political ideology speculating and ranting time. Paul Krugman has been wondering about monetary morality lately, and more generally what is causing conservatives, Republicans and indifferent elites to believe Dark Age things about the economy. Some are Austrian economists who have their models and thoughts. But I think we see three general trends in thought that are going to be captured by three different comments: supply-side myopia, business leader pleading for more control, and the ‘Natural’ part of money.
A 19th Century Economist Defending Patriarchy
In 1889, Harvard economist Francis A. Walker wrote a book titled Money in Its Relation to Trade and Industry. Among many other things, he argued:QuoteThe social effects of a paper-money inflation are so fresh in the mind, through our recollections of our own Greenback Era, that I need not recall the wanton bravery of apparel and equipage; the creation of a countless host of artificial necessities in the family beyond the power of the husband and father to supply without a resort to questionable devices or reckless speculations, or to drafts on the proper business capital or the once sacred family reserve; the humiliating imitation of foreign habits of living, with but the faintest conception of the modes of thought and feeling and the customs of social intercourse which underlie them abroad; the loss of that fit and natural leadership of taste and fashion which is the best protection society can have against sordid material aims, and manners at once gross and effeminate, against democracy without equality or fraternity, and exclusiveness without nobility or pride of character.
Paper money decreases the power of the husband over his wife and the father over his family, loosens the natural leadership that serves as the best protection against “effeminate” manners, and gives us a democracy without nobility.
Which is to say, if you are a person who tends to use a capital N “Natural” to describe your political ideology (“I believe in a Natural Order with a Natural Hierarchy, which I get from my engagement with Natural Rights as observed through Natural Law….”), as many conservatives do, then you are going to be likely to think that the dollar is a Natural Thing too. Like women wearing pants and voting, any attempt to disrupt the natural order is going to be dangerous. That the value of a dollar is a social creation, and that if there is excessive demand for money the government should provide extra supply for money, isn’t going to be a convincing argument.
Michael O’Malley has written (h/t matthewstoller) some execellent stuff about this fight from a century ago (“Gold-standard arguments reflected a more generalized concern about and fascination with the insubstantiality of character, race, and value in labor…”).
So if you are a type who believes the government can only do bad, who believes that prosperity flows from how appreciated the business community feels, and who believes strongly in the Natural Order, then you are not going to be in favor of activist monetary and fiscal policy to fix the economy. You also won’t have any actual coherent view of what is wrong with the economy.
Which is to say, if you are a person who tends to use a capital N “Natural” to describe your political ideology (“I believe in a Natural Order with a Natural Hierarchy, which I get from my engagement with Natural Rights as observed through Natural Law….”), as many conservatives do, then you are going to be likely to think that the dollar is a Natural Thing too. Like women wearing pants and voting, any attempt to disrupt the natural order is going to be dangerous. That the value of a dollar is a social creation, and that if there is excessive demand for money the government should provide extra supply for money, isn’t going to be a convincing argument.
It's not really a new meme; pro-lifers have been comparing Roe v Wade to Dred Scott for years now. I'm sure there are a lot of people who read what Santorum said and think he made a great point.
That said, dude isn't getting anywhere near the Oval Office, unless he wins the Super Bowl or sells the most girl scout cookies.
Also, new Avatar get!
Here is an entertaining read that has already been panned as a leftist hit piece:
The 50 most Loathsome people of 2010 (http://www.buffalobeast.com/?p=4182)
Definitely worth reading that, then listening to Joe Lieberman's speech (http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/clip.php?appid=599294761) on the Senate floor before the repeal of DADT.
The right believes that he is a sekrit Muslin Kenyan Soshilust. That is why.
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/28/ayn-rand-took-govern.html (http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/28/ayn-rand-took-govern.html)
:rofl
What's bizarre is that a lot of people think seem to think this is going to lead to democratic reforms :wtf
Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans' disability benefits.
Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.
Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said cutting veterans' health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sullivan said he finds it difficult to see how VA could freeze health care costs without hurting veterans.
"It is really astonishing to see this," he said.
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/28/ayn-rand-took-govern.html (http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/28/ayn-rand-took-govern.html)
:rofl
"Real Time" host Bill Maher asked Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) a fairly straightforward question: "Do you believe in evolution?" Kingston not only said rejects the foundation of modern biology, he explained it this way: "I believe I came from God, not from a monkey." He added, "If it happened over millions and millions of years, there should be lots of fossil evidence."
Seriously, that's what he said.
Let's pause to appreciate the fact that it's the 21st century -- and Jack Kingston is a 10-term congressman who helps oversee federal funding on the Food and Drug Administration.
As part of the same discussion, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell tried to ask Kingston about the overuse of antibiotics. The far-right congressman had no idea how the question related to evolution.
At one point, Kingston, sarcastically, turned to National Review's Will Cain, part of the same roundtable, and said, "Will, help me out anytime you want, buddy."
The assumption, of course, is that Cain, a conservative, must agree with the confused congressman about modern science. Cain responded, "I'm sorry, I believe in evolution."
Will, you're not the one who should be sorry.
In the larger context, there's a renewed push underway for the United States to value and appreciate science in the 21st century -- our future depends on it. And while this push is underway, Republican leaders are more comfortable walking a bridge to the 18th century.
What an embarrassment.
The full text of the decision from Federal Judge Roger Vinson is not available yet, but according to reporters who've seen the decision, he's ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ruling favors of the 26 state attorney generals challenging the law. The judge ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance invalid and, according to the decision, "because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."
http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/breaking-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional (http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/breaking-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional)You mean like the Supreme Court Justices, who will most likely end up ruling on this :wtfQuoteThe full text of the decision from Federal Judge Roger Vinson is not available yet, but according to reporters who've seen the decision, he's ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ruling favors of the 26 state attorney generals challenging the law. The judge ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance invalid and, according to the decision, "because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."
Man, if only someone who was an expert in constitutional law would chime in. You know, someone who got a good law education at top notch school like Harvard or something. Better yet, someone who taught constitutional law! Surely, someone like that would know...
http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/breaking-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional (http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/breaking-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional)You mean like the Supreme Court Justices, who will most likely end up ruling on this :wtfQuoteThe full text of the decision from Federal Judge Roger Vinson is not available yet, but according to reporters who've seen the decision, he's ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ruling favors of the 26 state attorney generals challenging the law. The judge ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance invalid and, according to the decision, "because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."
Man, if only someone who was an expert in constitutional law would chime in. You know, someone who got a good law education at top notch school like Harvard or something. Better yet, someone who taught constitutional law! Surely, someone like that would know...
who knew that the constitution could be interpreted differently by different experts
it's like thebibleconstitution was a document authored by men and is subject to multiple credible interpretations
So when the SC upholds the mandateto appease their corporate overlords, will Beardo admit he was wrong? :teehee
Seems pretty clear in limiting the power of the federal government to me. But I guess liberals just make up shit as they go along anyway.
We'll all be having fun in 10 years being forced to buy healthcare from one of the 2 health insurance providers. Can't wait to see how liberals blame conservatives for this one. Should be an lolz-worthy explanation.
Can't wait to see how liberals blame conservatives for this one. Should be an lolz-worthy explanation.Well, they sat with their thumbs(or a pool boy's) up their asses during the debate. Added nothing but got some concessions and figured their obstructionism would prevent it from happening. As usual for most conservatives, they got it wrong, again.
School Board Chairman Ron Margiotta referred questions on the matter to the district's attorney, who declined to comment. Tedesco, who has emerged as the most vocal among the new majority on the nine-member board, said he and his colleagues are only seeking a simpler system in which children attend the schools closest to them. If the result is a handful of high-poverty schools, he said, perhaps that will better serve the most challenged students.
"If we had a school that was, like, 80 percent high-poverty, the public would see the challenges, the need to make it successful," he said. "Right now, we have diluted the problem, so we can ignore it."
http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/breaking-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional (http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/breaking-federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional)You mean like the Supreme Court Justices, who will most likely end up ruling on this :wtfQuoteThe full text of the decision from Federal Judge Roger Vinson is not available yet, but according to reporters who've seen the decision, he's ruled the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ruling favors of the 26 state attorney generals challenging the law. The judge ruled the individual mandate that requires all Americans to purchase health insurance invalid and, according to the decision, "because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."
Man, if only someone who was an expert in constitutional law would chime in. You know, someone who got a good law education at top notch school like Harvard or something. Better yet, someone who taught constitutional law! Surely, someone like that would know...
who knew that the constitution could be interpreted differently by different experts
it's like thebibleconstitution was a document authored by men and is subject to multiple credible interpretations
Seems pretty clear in limiting the power of the federal government to me. But I guess liberals just make up shit as they go along anyway.
We'll all be having fun in 10 years being forced to buy healthcare from one of the 2 health insurance providers. Can't wait to see how liberals blame conservatives for this one. Should be an lolz-worthy explanation.
Hey, have we talked about the Wake County school de-integration (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011107063.html) yet?
Basically, Tea Partiers won a bunch of seats in a NC school board and are rolling back a decades-old integration policy. Most frustrating bit for me was this:QuoteSchool Board Chairman Ron Margiotta referred questions on the matter to the district's attorney, who declined to comment. Tedesco, who has emerged as the most vocal among the new majority on the nine-member board, said he and his colleagues are only seeking a simpler system in which children attend the schools closest to them. If the result is a handful of high-poverty schools, he said, perhaps that will better serve the most challenged students.
"If we had a school that was, like, 80 percent high-poverty, the public would see the challenges, the need to make it successful," he said. "Right now, we have diluted the problem, so we can ignore it."
Let's get all the middle-class kids out of here, and pretend we're doing it as a favor to the poor kids! Woo hoo!
And a post (http://www.danagoldstein.net/dana_goldstein/2011/01/on-mlk-day-some-thoughts-on-segregated-schools-arne-duncan-and-president-obama.html) about it from Dana Goldstein.
Hey, have we talked about the Wake County school de-integration (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011107063.html) yet?
Basically, Tea Partiers won a bunch of seats in a NC school board and are rolling back a decades-old integration policy. Most frustrating bit for me was this:QuoteSchool Board Chairman Ron Margiotta referred questions on the matter to the district's attorney, who declined to comment. Tedesco, who has emerged as the most vocal among the new majority on the nine-member board, said he and his colleagues are only seeking a simpler system in which children attend the schools closest to them. If the result is a handful of high-poverty schools, he said, perhaps that will better serve the most challenged students.
"If we had a school that was, like, 80 percent high-poverty, the public would see the challenges, the need to make it successful," he said. "Right now, we have diluted the problem, so we can ignore it."
Let's get all the middle-class kids out of here, and pretend we're doing it as a favor to the poor kids! Woo hoo!
And a post (http://www.danagoldstein.net/dana_goldstein/2011/01/on-mlk-day-some-thoughts-on-segregated-schools-arne-duncan-and-president-obama.html) about it from Dana Goldstein.
Hey, have we talked about the Wake County school de-integration (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011107063.html) yet?
Basically, Tea Partiers won a bunch of seats in a NC school board and are rolling back a decades-old integration policy. Most frustrating bit for me was this:QuoteSchool Board Chairman Ron Margiotta referred questions on the matter to the district's attorney, who declined to comment. Tedesco, who has emerged as the most vocal among the new majority on the nine-member board, said he and his colleagues are only seeking a simpler system in which children attend the schools closest to them. If the result is a handful of high-poverty schools, he said, perhaps that will better serve the most challenged students.
"If we had a school that was, like, 80 percent high-poverty, the public would see the challenges, the need to make it successful," he said. "Right now, we have diluted the problem, so we can ignore it."
Let's get all the middle-class kids out of here, and pretend we're doing it as a favor to the poor kids! Woo hoo!
And a post (http://www.danagoldstein.net/dana_goldstein/2011/01/on-mlk-day-some-thoughts-on-segregated-schools-arne-duncan-and-president-obama.html) about it from Dana Goldstein.
But what if you were poor and your boundary line was suspiciously drawn to include only poor neighborhoods?
But what if you were poor and your boundary line was suspiciously drawn to include only poor neighborhoods?
But what if you were poor and your boundary line was suspiciously drawn to include only poor neighborhoods?
Then maybe you shouldn't have been born poor? :smug
But what if you were poor and your boundary line was suspiciously drawn to include only poor neighborhoods?
Then maybe you shouldn't have been bornpoorblack?
Hey, have we talked about the Wake County school de-integration (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011107063.html) yet?
Basically, Tea Partiers won a bunch of seats in a NC school board and are rolling back a decades-old integration policy. Most frustrating bit for me was this:QuoteSchool Board Chairman Ron Margiotta referred questions on the matter to the district's attorney, who declined to comment. Tedesco, who has emerged as the most vocal among the new majority on the nine-member board, said he and his colleagues are only seeking a simpler system in which children attend the schools closest to them. If the result is a handful of high-poverty schools, he said, perhaps that will better serve the most challenged students.
"If we had a school that was, like, 80 percent high-poverty, the public would see the challenges, the need to make it successful," he said. "Right now, we have diluted the problem, so we can ignore it."
Let's get all the middle-class kids out of here, and pretend we're doing it as a favor to the poor kids! Woo hoo!
And a post (http://www.danagoldstein.net/dana_goldstein/2011/01/on-mlk-day-some-thoughts-on-segregated-schools-arne-duncan-and-president-obama.html) about it from Dana Goldstein.
A high school has defended its decision to segregate students by race and gender.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350864/School-defends-separation-black-students-boost-academic-results.html
The scheme, at McCaskey East High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, separates black students from the rest of the school pupils, and then further breaks it down into black females and black males.
The separation is only for a short period - six minutes each day and 20 minutes twice a month - but it has drawn criticism for raising the spectre of racial segregation.
Today the school's principal defended the policy.
Bill Jimenez said the school noticed that black students were not performing as well as other students, and that research had shown that same-race classes with strong same-race role models led to better academic results.
Mr Jimenez admitted that no other students were divided by race at the school, but he added that academic data dictated the school take a different approach with its black students.
The separation is only for a short period - six minutes each day and 20 minutes twice a month
Huckabee: Palestinians Should Be Resettled In 'Muslim' Territory
Far from Iowa, likely Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told a crowd of Jewish Israelis yesterday that he'd be just as mad as they are if anybody tried to kick him out of America the way Israelis are being asked to not build or live in disputed lands.
"I cannot imagine as an American being told that I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English," Huckabee said. "I would be outraged if someone told me that in my country, I would be prohibited and forbidden to live in a part of that country, for any reason."
Huckabee was attending a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new neighborhood on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem -- a disputed territory in the Middle East that Huckabee says should belong to Israel. East Jerusalem and the adjacent West Bank aren't recognized as Israeli land by most of the international community; Israel annexed East Jerusalem shortly after the Six Day War, while the remainder of the West Bank -- where there are numerous Israeli settlements -- remains under military administration..
Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Huckabee said, should settle in "territory that [is] in the hands of Muslims, in the hands of Arabs," as determined by the "international community."
Huckabee appeared at the event with actor Jon Voight, the Tea Party's favorite celebrity better known to most Israelis as Angelina Jolie's father.
"And now you are here, this is your time, and you are doing what you should be doing, which is to prepare the next generations and to be the hope of the world that you are," Voight said. "I love you all."
With his father’s passing, young Paul collected Social Security benefits until age 18, which he put away for college. To make ends meet, Paul’s mother returned to school to study interior design. His siblings were off at college. Ryan remembers this difficult time bringing him and his mother closer.
Quote from: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/huck-to-israelis-id-be-mad-too-if-somebody-tried-to-kick-me-out-of-america.php?ref=fpbHuckabee: Palestinians Should Be Resettled In 'Muslim' Territory
Far from Iowa, likely Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told a crowd of Jewish Israelis yesterday that he'd be just as mad as they are if anybody tried to kick him out of America the way Israelis are being asked to not build or live in disputed lands.
"I cannot imagine as an American being told that I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English," Huckabee said. "I would be outraged if someone told me that in my country, I would be prohibited and forbidden to live in a part of that country, for any reason."
Huckabee was attending a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new neighborhood on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem -- a disputed territory in the Middle East that Huckabee says should belong to Israel. East Jerusalem and the adjacent West Bank aren't recognized as Israeli land by most of the international community; Israel annexed East Jerusalem shortly after the Six Day War, while the remainder of the West Bank -- where there are numerous Israeli settlements -- remains under military administration..
Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Huckabee said, should settle in "territory that [is] in the hands of Muslims, in the hands of Arabs," as determined by the "international community."
Huckabee appeared at the event with actor Jon Voight, the Tea Party's favorite celebrity better known to most Israelis as Angelina Jolie's father.
"And now you are here, this is your time, and you are doing what you should be doing, which is to prepare the next generations and to be the hope of the world that you are," Voight said. "I love you all."
:Huck
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102020033
Jebus flippin christ.
The poll also shows that while three in four Americans say violence against the government is never justified, 16 percent say it can be justified -- the same percentage that said as much in April. Twenty-eight percent of Republicans said such violence can be justified, compared with 11 percent of Democrats and independents.http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20028218-503544.html
I found video evidence of white protesters calling for the lynching of a black judge! Is this proof that the tea party is racist?spoiler (click to show/hide)[youtube=560,345]E3ctO7fdrcc[/youtube]
1:09 "What do we do after we impeach Clarence Thomas?"
"Put him back in to the fields"
"What about Alito?"
"He should go back to Sicily"
Wow. Liberals advocating deportation and lynching. I'm just shocked I tell ya. Shocked! This is far worse than anything I have ever seen come out of the tea party. What a bunch of distinguished effete fellow hypocrites.[close]
Breitbart? Seriously? I'd be more apt to believe a Goebbels video at this point, honestly. gtfo of here with that bullshit, Beardo.
Posting a Breitbart video and expecting us to take it seriously is pretty insulting. So yeah, we mad.
Most of the SMHing I do at tea party videos is due to "stupid people talking." Guess what, I can SMH at that video too for the same reason.
'spoiler (click to show/hide)Not a Breitbart video anyway, just a video that Breitbart blogged about. But Like everything else with you distinguished effete fellows, that is just a fact which is meaningless.spoiler (click to show/hide)[close][close]
Most of the SMHing I do at tea party videos is due to "stupid people talking." Guess what, I can SMH at that video too for the same reason.
Thats fair, but nobody (including you) isn't SMHing at this video. People (not you) are defending it or worse trying to pretend it didn't actually happen.
It's quite amusing.
Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner with his Gutta-percha wood walking cane in the Senate chamber.
Brooks was a staunch proponent of slavery and was officially associated with the Democratic Party.
Most of the SMHing I do at tea party videos is due to "stupid people talking." Guess what, I can SMH at that video too for the same reason.
Thats fair, but nobody (including you) isn't SMHing at this video. People (not you) are defending it or worse trying to pretend it didn't actually happen.
It's quite amusing.
fwiw, I don't think tea party people are dumb. They just believe dumb things, which is different. Beardo sure is dumb though.
vid:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/06/obama-oreilly-interview-s_n_819315.html
Read some of the article, haven't watched tho
"Due to an onslaught of personal attacks against Governor Palin and others associated with her appearance, it is with deep sadness and disappointment that, in the best interest of all, we cancel the event for safety concerns," the Facebook post reads.
The announcement also states that no direct threats had been made against anyone, but said that the "increase in negative rhetoric against the former Alaska governor" after the Tucson shooting "raises concern for her safety and the safety of others despite the call for civility in America."QuoteThe Post points out that May 2 is also the date of a NBC/Politico 2012 Republican presidential candidates debate, to be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.
I hope she's running. It scrambles the Republican message considerably, especially with her being the Arctic Martyr of the Ages --- they will meet with monumental blow back from her rabid Tea Party fans if they attack her. But it will drive the GOP way to the right, which in normal times I would think would make them weaker and less likely to win a general election. But everything is politically unstable right now and I'm not so sure that will happen. Best to hope for economic rebound of epic proportions (10% growth!) so that people will feel that things are going so well that they don't want to rock the boat. otherwise, I'm afraid anything can happen.http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/sarahs-running-by-digby-if-it-werent.html
Poor interview from O'Reilly. The constant topic jumping/lack of focus was odd, as was his continuation of the right wing attack over Obama refusing to endorse or condone an Egyptian faction.
When Obama lamented not being able to visit the corner anymore, I had visions of The Wire :lol
I mean you would expect people to start laughing when the woman says she think Obama is a Muslim, but the past two have sort of stripped away our freedom to laugh when when people say incredibly dumb shit because you know somewhere in America there's entire towns of voters that believe this shit.
It's really simple. You can't in modern polite society call a black person you don't like a distinguished black fellow. You have to use other code words to express your irrational fear/hatred. So since his name is Barack Obama, "muslim" equates as a very nice code word to replace the other word.
WASHINGTON -- First, a word about hecklers: It's awful that they get so much attention. A few bad apples in a room of thousands can create the impression of massive dissent, when it really isn't there.
That said, boy, was there a lot of heckling when Donald Rumsfeld arrived at CPAC to accept the Defender of the Constitution Award. The ballroom for big events fills up many minutes in advance. In this instance, the people who wanted to hear Rand Paul speak at 3:45 had to arrive around 2:30, and stay there. If they did, they sat through a speech from Donald Trump (a surprise to attendees who weren't checking the news frequently), and used every possible moment to yell "RON PAUL" at the Donald. When Trump responded to one of the heckles, and said that Paul "can't win" the presidency, there were loud and righteous boos.
It takes a while to exit the ballroom. This means that hundreds of Paul fans -- recognizably younger and sometimes beardier than the median CPAC attendee -- are in the room or in lines as Donald Rumsfeld is introduced.
"I am pleased to recognize our chairman, David Keene, to recognize Donald Rumsfeld," says emcee Ted Cruz.
There are loud boos.
Keene mentions that this is the "Defender of the Constitution Award." More boos; also, shouts of "RON PAUL! RON PAUL!"
Paul's holding his first hearings on monetary policy, and is calling on a complete (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121125158705862.html) nutcase (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/johnny-reb-economics/) to testify. Should be elucidating.
[youtube=560,345]TsfqZA6b6JQ[/youtube]
Gov. Rick Scott of Florida declines $2 billion of federal money in deciding not to build a Orlando-to-Tampa high-speed rail line. Two other governors have made similar moves.
In Wisconsin on Wednesday, thousands of protesters again descended on the grounds of the Capitol to oppose a budget proposal by newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Walker wants to strip government unions of most bargaining rights, a move he argues would help bring public sector benefits in line with the private sector.
All week, workers have flocked to the Capitol in giant waves of protests. On Wednesday, they were rallying on the Capitol lawn and picketing the streets on the Capitol Square. Crowds numbering as many as 13,000 have at times shut down traffic. Unions contend that Wednesday's crowd is closer to 30,000.
So many Madison public school teachers called in sick Wednesday that the district closed down.
Inside the Capitol, protesters in the hallways and rotunda chant "Kill the bill." The measure would patch a $137 million hole in the state's current budget, but in the process, it would rework collective bargaining laws that were written 50 years ago.
So...one other thing about the November elections was that Republicans won huge in state legislatures and governorships throughout the country. I thought this could prove to have dire consequences, but it actually turns out, this was actually a GOOD thing (depending on what state your in). Because a bunch of dumbass, reactionary governors, like Rick Scott keep doing things like this:QuoteGov. Rick Scott of Florida declines $2 billion of federal money in deciding not to build a Orlando-to-Tampa high-speed rail line. Two other governors have made similar moves.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0216/Derailed-Third-GOP-governor-rejects-Obama-high-speed-rail-plan
Those funds that these guys rejected then get diverted to states like California (which is where I happen to live). Guess Republicans are great job creators afterall, just in states where they're not governors.
Numerous private corporations — including international conglomerates such as Siemens, Alstom, and JR East — have indicated that they would be willing to pick up the state’s tab and cover construction and operations risks, in exchange for the right to operate the trains.
I'm all for standing up to the man, but fleeing the state because you don't want to take a vote you know you'll lose is just dumb. Draw a line in the sand and fight - if you lose so be it, but at least you tried. Changing the rules or obstructing isn't the way to go.
It doesn't strike me as "trying" if you simply leave the state/not vote though. Seems like an obstruction stunt; eventually they have to vote, might as well get people on record officially and see what happens next.
Republicans who filibuster = "Party of no"
Democrats who physically flee the state so they dont have to vote = "Party of commendably bringing more publicity to the cause"
:lol SMH
I would give you 3 Wisconsin Democrats out of 5 for you sweet mental gymnastics, but nobody knows where they are.
At the end of the day you agree with this form of obstruction because the goal is admirable in your opinion. On the filibuster, you're right about the systematic abuse of the it, but this is more comparable to filibustering legislation (health care) one is ideologically opposed to. In both cases one side halts debate and delays the democratic process. I'm not a fan of the filibuster, and I'm not a fan of fleeing debates to stall them.
Beardo don't make me look bad
At the end of the day you agree with this form of obstruction because the goal is admirable in your opinion. On the filibuster, you're right about the systematic abuse of the it, but this is more comparable to filibustering legislation (health care) one is ideologically opposed to. In both cases one side halts debate and delays the democratic process. I'm not a fan of the filibuster, and I'm not a fan of fleeing debates to stall them.
Beardo don't make me look bad
Everything you have said is true, but at the end of the day at least the Republicans showed up for work and had the guts to show their faces.
Unfortunately, the world seems far more reactionary than proactive, so it's probably going to come down to crunch time before enough people start to say "Hey, maybe me ought to pour a lot more money into alternative fuels and energy-saving programs" before anything actually starts to get done in a meaningful enough amount to make a real difference, which isn't a very fun prospect.
I'm a little late for this, but have yesterday's veto UN draft veto'd been discussed?
I'd like to hear an educated response defending the move.
they're all so damn certain that tyranny in this country comes from government and not corporate powers, in a way, they're not wrong.
all the crap that's holding this country back does come from the government, a government that is bought and paid for by corporate interests. Its like being mad at the gun that shot you and not the person that fired it.
I'm just watching the American Experience on Carter.
:bow He will be forever awesome :bow2
:usacry us rejecting him shows we're been forever fucked :usacry
PUT ON A SWEATER BITCHTES!!!
It's funny that Carter is a bigger bete noir for the right than Clinton or Obama. The man made deregulation a centerpiece of his presidency, signed a capital gains tax cut, pursued a harsher anti-Soviet policy than his predecessors, appointed the Fed chair who beat inflation, and was so out of sync with the liberal establishment that they tried to keep him from getting renominated in 1980.
Seriously, throw the guy a bone.
Those "freeloaders" and "bums" are the firefighters, EMT's, police officers, and nurses that will be there to "help" them.
Interestingly enough, in Wisconsin the gov's budget doesn't target the police/fire unions yet... who also, interestingly enough, backed him in the election for some stupid reason.
Members of the Democratic state House caucus in Indiana have found an unlikely ally in their quest to stop the GOP majority from pushing through a bill that critics say would destroy union organizing in the state. Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) took to the airwaves today to call on members of his party to drop the controversial "right to work" bill that led to Democrats going AWOL.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/mitch-daniels-calls-on-state-gop-to-abandon-union-busting-bill.php?ref=fpb
Daniels' statement, from WISH-TV:
"I'm not sending the state police after anybody. I'm not gonna divert a single trooper from their job of protection the Indiana public. I trust that people's consciences will bring them back to work. ... For reasons I've explained more than once I thought there was a better time and place to have this very important and legitimate issue raised."
One of the worst aspects of this is the effort to make public school teachers into a pariah class, largely responsible both for government deficits and the failure of the educational system (both fictional and factual in both cases).
It's just really nasty to demonize people provide an important public service. To children. Often for less money than they could have made elsewhere.
Compared to the constant, almost socially mandatory reverence for soldiers it's pretty shocking.
More likely, you'll get "sure, $300k sounds like a lot of money..." apologetics in the Todd Henderson (http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/09/in-which-mr-deling-responds-to-someone-who-might-be-professor-todd-henderson.html) mode.
One of the worst aspects of this is the effort to make public school teachers into a pariah class, largely responsible both for government deficits and the failure of the educational system (both fictional and factual in both cases).
It's just really nasty to demonize people provide an important public service. To children. Often for less money than they could have made elsewhere.
Compared to the constant, almost socially mandatory reverence for soldiers it's pretty shocking.
but they make $51,000 a year?!?!?!!?!?11 disgustingly overpayed for only 10 months of work
Sometimes it's necessary to get out on the streets and "get a little bloody," a Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday in reference to labor battles in Wisconsin.
It's the bigger picture, Beardo. Busting a union has NOTHING to do with a budget and everything to do with killing off a large democratic donor.
You guys are acting like the GOP is trying to pull a fast one in Wisconsin. The people voted for them and now it's time for them to legislate the will of the people. Anyone who has seen one of the plethora of documentaries on the subject of the state of our public education system knows that Teachers Unions are slowly destroying the quality of our schools in this country.
You guys are acting like the GOP is trying to pull a fast one in Wisconsin. The people voted for them and now it's time for them to legislate the will of the people. Anyone who has seen one of the plethora of documentaries on the subject of the state of our public education system knows that Teachers Unions are slowly destroying the quality of our schools in this country.
Pretty sure that teachers are paid a lot better in those countries which are currently spanking America's ass in education.
In Ontario, a teacher at the top pay level gets around 90k a year.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/walker_office_confirms_governor_fell_for_koch_pran.php?ref=fpi
holy shit
WALKER: You've got a few of the radical ones -- unfortunately, one of them's the minority leader -- but most of the rest of them are just looking for a way to get out of this. They're scared out of their minds. They don't know what it means. There's a bunch of recalls up against them. They'd really like to just get back up here and get it over with. So the paycheck thing, some of the other things threatening them, I think collectively there's enough going on, and as long as they don't think I'm going to cave, which again we have no interest in. An interesting idea that was brought up to me by my chief of staff, we won't do it until tomorrow, is putting out an appeal to the Democratic leader. I would be willing to sit down and talk to him, the assembly Democrat leader, plus the other two Republican leaders—talk, not negotiate and listen to what they have to say if they will in turn—but I’ll only do it if all 14 of them will come back and sit down in the state assembly. They can recess it... the reason for that, we're verifying it this afternoon, legally, we believe, once they’ve gone into session, they don’t physically have to be there. If they’re actually in session for that day, and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have quorum because it's turned out that way. So we’re double checking that. If you heard I was going to talk to them that’s the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the capitol with all 14 of them. My sense is, hell. I'll talk. If they want to yell at me for an hour, I'm used to that. I can deal with that. But I'm not negotiating.
NY has a higher standard of education. :cookiem
Obama, DOJ Say Part Of DOMA Is Unconstitutional, Will Not Defend It In Court
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/obama_doj_say_part_of_doma_is_unconstitutional_will_not_defend_it_in_court.php
NY has a higher standard of education. :cookiem
Teachers have to get a Masters of Business Administration? Are you sure you don't mean a Masters of Education?
Thats's the point... we spend a huge magnitude more than any other country on education and the quality of it is getting worse! Clearly there is a problem that wont be solved by throwing MORE money at it.
Obama, DOJ Say Part Of DOMA Is Unconstitutional, Will Not Defend It In Courtit seems more like he's content to let other parts of the government do the dirty work of actually getting liberal shit done without muddying his hands too much and seeming like a too-pushy liberal (ala first term Clinton).
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/obama_doj_say_part_of_doma_is_unconstitutional_will_not_defend_it_in_court.php
never let a crisis go to waste, right Beardo?
Seems like Obama firing up his base, and finally realizing the people who'll hate this decision were never going to vote for him anyway.I'd love for the pres to try to only appeal to progressives and moderates, but I do on some level understand his seeming reluctance to be a liberal shit-kicker.
Thats's the point... we spend a huge magnitude more than any other country on education
and the quality of it is getting worse! Clearly there is a problem that wont be solved by throwing MORE money at it.
Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows:
South Carolina – 50th
North Carolina – 49th
Georgia – 48th
Texas – 47th
Virginia – 44th
If you are wondering, Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is ranked 2nd in the country. Let’s keep it that way.
I'm a school pyschologist, not a teacher, but I am part of the teacher's union. My big problem with the current structure is that it is basically impossible to get rid of bad teachers due to seniority. If you're not fired within your first two years in the profession, you're pretty much set for life as long as you don't hit a kid or sleep with them.
I'm on the same pay scale as teachers and make around $55,000 a year with a Master's degree and five years experience. I'd love to make more, but I can't really complain too much, what with great benefits, a pension, and summers off.
Seems like Obama firing up his base, and finally realizing the people who'll hate this decision were never going to vote for him anyway.
It's the bigger picture, Beardo. Busting a union has NOTHING to do with a budget and everything to do with killing off a large democratic donor.
So thats all Public unions are? A "large democratic doner."spoiler (click to show/hide)Clearly worth every tax payer dollar.[close]
It's the bigger picture, Beardo. Busting a union has NOTHING to do with a budget and everything to do with killing off a large democratic donor.
So thats all Public unions are? A "large democratic doner."spoiler (click to show/hide)Clearly worth every tax payer dollar.[close]
While I agree we should make the system more efficient, personally, I'd rather have my tax dollars go to teachers than to fucks that helped crash the economy.
It's the bigger picture, Beardo. Busting a union has NOTHING to do with a budget and everything to do with killing off a large democratic donor.
So thats all Public unions are? A "large democratic doner."spoiler (click to show/hide)Clearly worth every tax payer dollar.[close]
While I agree we should make the system more efficient, personally, I'd rather have my tax dollars go to teachers than to fucks that helped crash the economy.
If by that you mean African Americans who bought homes they couldn't afford, I agree
Sheeple mobbing up and going after f'n schoolteachers as the reason why things are in the shitter has me convinced that we're forever fucked. It's erased any semblance of optimism I had about this POS country.I'm really confused as to why there are so many republicans? Not that there's an overwhelming majority of them in America, but why are there as many as they are.
Meh, that wasn't too bad.
Politics and sausage making blah blah blah.
First, it's remarkable Ian Murphy, pretending to be Koch, even got through. He talked to Walker's chief of staff, Keith Gilkes, and said he couldn't leave a return number because, "My goddamn maid, Maria, put my phone in the washer. I'd have her deported, but she works for next to nothing." This, oddly enough, led Gilkes to invite "Koch" to call back and speak directly to the governor.
Gaddafi: Barakeh Obama is friend
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi considers the US president a blessing to the Muslim world. In a speech published in London-based al-Hayat newspaper on Saturday, Gaddafi praised Barack Obama, called him a "friend" and said there is no longer any dispute between his country and the US.
Speaking in the Libyan city of Sirt at an event marking the 24th anniversary of an American attack on Libya, he said, "At the time, we were the target of the American cannon, the American navy challenged us in the gulf of Sirt and attacked us all along Libya's shores. America tested Libya, and the Libyan people resisted the large country, but today, thank God, the difference is great."
He said, "Now, ruling America is a black man from our continent, an African from Arab descent, from Muslim descent, and this is something we never imagined – that from Reagan we would get to Barakeh Obama."
Gaddafi stressed that Obama's presidency is "a major historical gain" and said, "He is someone I consider a friend. He knows he is a son of Africa. Regardless of his African belonging, he is of Arab Sudanese descent, or of Muslim descent. He is a man whose policy should be supported, and he should be assisted in implementing it in any way possible, since he is now leaning towards peace."
He continued, "I urge all peoples to give him this chance and to support this policy, because America is a country that, when its policy is bad – harms the world, and when it is good – it helps the world."
The Libyan leader also expressed hopes that, "the dream that Obama has for a world free of nuclear weapons will come true. This is something that no previous American president has proposed. Obama is a man who opposes wars that previous American presidents were entangled in; he has declared that he will withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq – something which has never been proposed before."
Despite the warm sentiments towards the American leader, he stressed, "The Arabs hate America, there is no doubt. There is not an Arab that loves America, and even the leaders who the United States considers allies or friends – hate it. The external love is merely hypocrisy or pragmatism. The reason for this is clear – Palestine."
In this context he said, "The Palestinians today are like the Jews of the past – dispersed in exile and persecuted. Now the Palestinians are at a point where they deserve to have the United States on their side and not on the side of the Israelis."
He reiterated his demand to allow the millions of Palestinian refugees around the world to return to the land where, according to his vision, a nuke-free democratic state by the name of Isratine should be established.
Wasn't it proven ages ago that Gaddafi is completely insane?
Wasn't it proven ages ago that Gaddafi is completely insane?
Minuteman Vigilante Shawna Forde Sentenced to Death
The anti-immigration activist who was convicted last week of first-degree murder for her involvement in the May 2009 murders of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul, has been sentenced with the death penalty.
CNN reports that the jury’s unanimous decision is binding:
"If the jury had not voted for the death penalty, the judge would have decided whether Shawna Forde should have received life with a chance of parole after 35 years or life with no possibility of parole.
Forde was convicted February 14 on eight counts, including two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Raul Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, and the attempted murder of the child’s mother, Gina Gonzales."
On May 20, 2009, Forde and two alleged accomplices stormed the Flores’ home in Arivaca, Arizona. Two men killed Raul Flores Jr. and shot his wife and Brisenia’s mother Gina Gonzalez before shooting the 9-year-old girl point-blank. Gonzalez testified during the trial that she could hear her daughter, roused from her sleep in the living room where she was camped out so she could be close to the family’s new dog, ask why her parents had been killed, then silence as the shooter stopped to reload a gun, and finally two shots that went through the little girl’s head.
Forde reportedly planned elaborate heists of suspected drug dealers as a way to fund her anti-immigrant activism and her splinter group, The Minuteman American Defense. Nothing besides pot residue was found in the Flores home, according to Terry Greene Sterling. MAD was inspired by the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, and both groups recruited civilians to patrol the border for migrants attempting to enter the country. Forde was found with Gonzalez’s wedding ring.
During the trial and sentencing phase, Forde’s defense was very disciplined about crafting a portrait of an unstable woman, a big talker with little follow-through. The prosecution argued she could have been both a braggart and a murderer. After Forde was convicted, she reportedly called a press conference. Forde’s defense asked psychologist Dr. Judith Becker how Forde’s actions, including the fact that she called for a press conference, should be interpreted.
“That does not surprise me,” Becker testified, the Green Valley News and Sun reported. “It shows poor judgment.”
Such information is crucial for shaping a jury’s understanding of a person’s health and frame of mind. It’s also a useful way to help anti-immigrant groups like Federation for American Immigration Reform, which have since tried to distance themselves from Forde, further disassociate themselves from one of their former members. Anti-immigrant groups may not want anything to do with Forde these days, but she certainly thought of herself as one of them.
Much of the chatter on the lefty blogs and immigrant rights networks in the weeks of the trial has been dominated by bitter confusion about the lack of media coverage the case got. As Gabe wrote last week, the tragic deaths of two 9-year-old Arizona girls received very different public responses. It may be that the country is not interested in the scary lessons that Brisenia Flores’ murder offers about the real life consequences of the national discourse surrounding immigrants.
Even the radical righties are sensible in Seattle? damn
There are a bunch of people who see her as a martyr. Yeesh. I even overheard a convo here at work the other day about her and let's just say it made me ashamed of humanity.
QuoteMinuteman Vigilante Shawna Forde Sentenced to Death
The anti-immigration activist who was convicted last week of first-degree murder for her involvement in the May 2009 murders of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul, has been sentenced with the death penalty.
CNN reports that the jury’s unanimous decision is binding:
"If the jury had not voted for the death penalty, the judge would have decided whether Shawna Forde should have received life with a chance of parole after 35 years or life with no possibility of parole.
Forde was convicted February 14 on eight counts, including two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Raul Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, and the attempted murder of the child’s mother, Gina Gonzales."
On May 20, 2009, Forde and two alleged accomplices stormed the Flores’ home in Arivaca, Arizona. Two men killed Raul Flores Jr. and shot his wife and Brisenia’s mother Gina Gonzalez before shooting the 9-year-old girl point-blank. Gonzalez testified during the trial that she could hear her daughter, roused from her sleep in the living room where she was camped out so she could be close to the family’s new dog, ask why her parents had been killed, then silence as the shooter stopped to reload a gun, and finally two shots that went through the little girl’s head.
Forde reportedly planned elaborate heists of suspected drug dealers as a way to fund her anti-immigrant activism and her splinter group, The Minuteman American Defense. Nothing besides pot residue was found in the Flores home, according to Terry Greene Sterling. MAD was inspired by the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, and both groups recruited civilians to patrol the border for migrants attempting to enter the country. Forde was found with Gonzalez’s wedding ring.
During the trial and sentencing phase, Forde’s defense was very disciplined about crafting a portrait of an unstable woman, a big talker with little follow-through. The prosecution argued she could have been both a braggart and a murderer. After Forde was convicted, she reportedly called a press conference. Forde’s defense asked psychologist Dr. Judith Becker how Forde’s actions, including the fact that she called for a press conference, should be interpreted.
“That does not surprise me,” Becker testified, the Green Valley News and Sun reported. “It shows poor judgment.”
Such information is crucial for shaping a jury’s understanding of a person’s health and frame of mind. It’s also a useful way to help anti-immigrant groups like Federation for American Immigration Reform, which have since tried to distance themselves from Forde, further disassociate themselves from one of their former members. Anti-immigrant groups may not want anything to do with Forde these days, but she certainly thought of herself as one of them.
Much of the chatter on the lefty blogs and immigrant rights networks in the weeks of the trial has been dominated by bitter confusion about the lack of media coverage the case got. As Gabe wrote last week, the tragic deaths of two 9-year-old Arizona girls received very different public responses. It may be that the country is not interested in the scary lessons that Brisenia Flores’ murder offers about the real life consequences of the national discourse surrounding immigrants.
i think this falls solidly in the "glad that she's gonna die" catagory. good fucking riddance
"They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We've allowed them to take that. That's not theirs, that's a national resource, that's ours. We all have this -- we all benefit from this or we all suffer as a result of not having it," Michael Moore told Laura Flanders of GRITtv.
"I think we need to go back to taxing these people at the proper rates. They need to -- we need to see these jobs as something we some, that we collectively own as Americans and you can't just steal our jobs and take them someplace else," Moore concluded.
Since none of you guys think money is private property, you wont mind if I just take a little bit from your bank accounts do you?
Thanks guys!
No. It's idea that their wealth is built on the backs of others and to a certain extent should be distributed to better everyone and in turn keep the cycle going that keeps their fatasses rich.
And the reason why so many Americans believe rich people are untouchable is that we're raised to believe that if we work hard enough that will be us and when we're there we don't want someone taking it from us because by god, if you're not there you just didn't work hard enough for it.
did we negotiate a contract for you to do that?Meh I just take what I want whenever I need it. It's the only way to be fair really.
Since none of you guys think money is private property, you wont mind if I just take a little bit from your bank accounts do you?you can't be this hard headed. You really can't. no one is advocating pillaging their bank accounts. what's said is that when shit hits the fan, rich people, who can afford the cost much easier than the average person, should be forced to sacrifice some in order to keep the system that allows their lifestyle stable. Deciding now is not the best time to buy that extra yacht is not the same thing as deciding that now is not the best time to take my child to the doctor.
Thanks guys!
Since none of you guys think money is private property, you wont mind if I just take a little bit from your bank accounts do you?you can't be this hard headed. You really can't. no one is advocating pillaging their bank accounts. what's said is that when shit hits the fan, rich people, who can afford the cost much easier than the average person, should be forced to sacrifice some in order to keep the system that allows their lifestyle stable. Deciding now is not the best time to buy that extra yacht is not the same thing as deciding that now is not the best time to take my child to the doctor.
Thanks guys!
Since none of you guys think money is private property, you wont mind if I just take a little bit from your bank accounts do you?you can't be this hard headed. You really can't. no one is advocating pillaging their bank accounts. what's said is that when shit hits the fan, rich people, who can afford the cost much easier than the average person, should be forced to sacrifice some in order to keep the system that allows their lifestyle stable. Deciding now is not the best time to buy that extra yacht is not the same thing as deciding that now is not the best time to take my child to the doctor.
Thanks guys!
How are you gonna enforce this sacrifice?
Ffffuuuu
I just remembered that "private property is a foreign concept to you distinguished effete fellows.Quotedid we negotiate a contract for you to do that?Meh I just take what I want whenever I need it. It's the only way to be fair really.
Since none of you guys think money is private property, you wont mind if I just take a little bit from your bank accounts do you?you can't be this hard headed. You really can't. no one is advocating pillaging their bank accounts. what's said is that when shit hits the fan, rich people, who can afford the cost much easier than the average person, should be forced to sacrifice some in order to keep the system that allows their lifestyle stable. Deciding now is not the best time to buy that extra yacht is not the same thing as deciding that now is not the best time to take my child to the doctor.
Thanks guys!
How are you gonna enforce this sacrifice?
Taxes?
Since none of you guys think money is private property, you wont mind if I just take a little bit from your bank accounts do you?you can't be this hard headed. You really can't. no one is advocating pillaging their bank accounts. what's said is that when shit hits the fan, rich people, who can afford the cost much easier than the average person, should be forced to sacrifice some in order to keep the system that allows their lifestyle stable. Deciding now is not the best time to buy that extra yacht is not the same thing as deciding that now is not the best time to take my child to the doctor.
Thanks guys!
How are you gonna enforce this sacrifice?
Taxes?
And if they choose not to pay?
What happens when YOU don't pay YOUR taxes?
Rich people are rich because other people dont steal their money!!! :lol :lol :lolwhat? this reminds me of talking to one of those chat bots that just randomly busts out with irrelevant statements when it doesn't understand what you're saying.
What happens when YOU don't pay YOUR taxes?
I would go to jail (or some equivalent). So you advocate the use of force to take something that is not yours. So yeah private property IS a foreign concept to you distinguished effete fellows.
Or as triumph put it. You just have to imagine it not existing and it wont!!
What happens when YOU don't pay YOUR taxes?
I would go to jail (or some equivalent). So you advocate the use of force to take something that is not yours. So yeah private property IS a foreign concept to you distinguished effete fellows.
Or as triumph put it. You just have to imagine it not existing and it wont!!
The idea that rich people's money is a "national resource" and a community commodity is pretty shocking. But, I'm guessing nobody here agrees.
Since none of you guys think money is private property, you wont mind if I just take a little bit from your bank accounts do you?you can't be this hard headed. You really can't. no one is advocating pillaging their bank accounts. what's said is that when shit hits the fan, rich people, who can afford the cost much easier than the average person, should be forced to sacrifice some in order to keep the system that allows their lifestyle stable. Deciding now is not the best time to buy that extra yacht is not the same thing as deciding that now is not the best time to take my child to the doctor.
Thanks guys!
How are you gonna enforce this sacrifice?
Taxes?
And if they choose not to pay?
That model is working great in Somalia. They aren't pirates. Just entrepreneurs working without the saddle of government on their backs.
Minnesota Dem wants NASCAR out of Defense budget
WASHINGTON — The Minnesota Democrat who's out to get rid of the Pentagon's sponsorships for NASCAR teams says she won't back away from her efforts and, despite GOP resistance, will broaden her fight to repeal tax breaks for track owners, too.
Rep. Betty McCollum says her work could save U.S. taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. But Defense Department officials and lawmakers from NASCAR country say that the sponsorships help military recruitment and that the tax breaks could save jobs in the struggling economy.
In an interview, McCollum said it doesn't make sense to keep the benefits for NASCAR teams and track owners when other cuts are being made to community health care, programs for homeless veterans and Head Start.
"I started to look at what is in this large defense budget to see what's not related to security that we could redirect to critical supplies or mission support," she said. "Or in the case of racetrack owners, what are some of the special tax perks that some of the special interests are getting?"
She plans to file legislation to prohibit Pentagon sponsorships of dragsters, Indy cars, stock cars and motorcycle racing, affecting just about every level of motorsports.
"We should take a critical eye and a critical look and say, 'Is this an appropriate role for the government?' " McCollum said.
McCollum filed an amendment this month to prohibit the Defense Department from spending money to sponsor NASCAR teams, saying it's a poor use of money given the other cuts the House was making. The amendment came as the House, led by Republicans, spent days wrestling with $60 billion in cuts to the current fiscal year's budget.
In the days before the vote, her office logged angry calls from across NASCAR country. "There were some people that were very upset," McCollum said.
She also received a threatening and racist fax, which received widespread media attention and is being investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police. But her chief of staff said the office also received a lot of calls from tea-party supporters who backed McCollum's amendment.
Her amendment failed, 281-148.
Racetrack owners received tax breaks worth $45 million in 2010 and 2011, aimed at helping them make improvements to their facilities. A two-year extension of the program was included in the tax cuts compromise that President Obama forged with Congress in December.
McCollum said she'll file legislation to repeal the tax benefit. "It's an earmark," she said.
advertising
North Carolina Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry disagrees. His Charlotte-area district is home to half the NASCAR teams. His Twitter avatar recently was the No. 3 logo in memory of legendary driver Dale Earnhardt, who was killed in a crash at the Daytona 500 in 2001.
McCollum insisted that she has nothing against NASCAR.
"This isn't about NASCAR," McCollum said. "I've watched the Indy 500, the Daytona 500. I have friends who are avid fans. ... This is about making tough choices."
the group started in Southern California about eight months ago and is trying to raise $350,000 to start social programs such as women's shelters, fighting hunger and homelessness in the area. (http://www.ocregister.com/news/america-288163-fundraiser-wahhaj.html)but to be fair to all of those horrible, horrible crackers who like to shout at children...
Many in the crowd outside the event said they were concerned about past anti-American statements by the event's two keynote speakers, Imam Siraj Wahhaj and Amir Abdel Malik Ali. Wahhaj is an imam at a mosque in Brooklyn. A U.S. attorney named him and 169 others as co-conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj was never charged and has denied involvement.I would guess that some local demagogue made a big stink about the terrorists coming to town (http://www.nocconservatives.org/?p=1331) under the guise of peaceful charity and manufactured the outrage that is so readily apparent. Reportedly the protest crowd may have outnumbered the attendees, I'm glad the anger there didn't become physically dangerous, but it looks like it very well could have.
Malik Ali is a Bay Area Islamic activist who spoke at "Israeli Apartheid Week" at UC Irvine in 2010. There he said he supports Hezbollah, which the CIA labels a terrorist group.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NutFkykjmbM[/youtube]
:fbm
HUCKABEE: I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American. When he gave the bust back to the Brits --
MALZBERG: Of Winston Churchill.
HUCKABEE: The bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British. But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.
how dare he see the British Empire as imperialists!!
let that be a lesson to you: conservatives are only good to laugh at, never to have as friends
From a radio interview:QuoteHUCKABEE: I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American. When he gave the bust back to the Brits --
MALZBERG: Of Winston Churchill.
HUCKABEE: The bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British. But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.
:spin
From a radio interview:QuoteHUCKABEE: I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American. When he gave the bust back to the Brits --
MALZBERG: Of Winston Churchill.
HUCKABEE: The bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British. But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.
:spin
Still repeating this bullshit?
The bust was on loan to the WH and the amount of time it was on loan for expired. Case closed.
Man, how dare AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT hate on the British.
http://www.visitingdc.com/images/george-washington-picture.jpg
WAIT SHIT WHAT
backtracking and placating to right wing tards. He's on a fucking roll with his base.
My dad is friends with a huge Obama supporter/OFA member. I see him every few weeks and he tries to get me to join OFA for 2012, and I try my hardest to come up with a nice "no thanks" each time. I don't see how any true blue OFA member could possibly be as fired up as they were in 08, yet this guy and others are.
“This is a fakery,” Simpson said on Fox News. “If they care at all about their children or grandchildren, and sometimes I doubt that – I think, you know, grandchildren now don’t write a thank-you for the Christmas presents, they’re walking on their pants with the cap on backwards listening to the enema man and Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg, and they don’t like them!”
I think the “enema man” is Eminem; put that together with the dog, and you have to wonder what Freud would say.
Yeah, a bunch of people here at work (who by the way continually whine about bleeding heart agendas that have nothing to do with America) are saying we should be bombing and sending supplies/troops. If we weren't in two wars right now, maybe. I asked them then "when does our involvement stop?" they say when the good guys win! REALLY? You can't be that unrealistic about what kind of commitment sending troops means. Christ.
The U.N. security council will determine whether a no-fly zone is instituted. People cheering for the US to unilaterally impose one are plain dumb. What happens if a US plane is shot down, or if one of our ships is attacked? All of a sudden we're in an entirely different situation. Just imagine the saber rattling and calls for blood that would be coming from the right in that case. "The US was attacked and Obama does nothing! We should have been at war 5 minutes ago"
We were just complaining about Obama, but this is one of the many cases where I'm glad as fuck he's president and not McCain.
OH SHIT DAVID BRODER IS DEAD
WHO CARES
David Broder covered national politics for the Washington Post for 45 years. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, who died Wednesday, set an example of fairness and tenacity.
But really, not cool when anyone dies (cept maybe Rush, Beck, Savage and Hannity). R.I.P. Sweet Prince :(
OH SHIT DAVID BRODER IS DEAD
WHO CARES
OH SHIT DAVID BRODER IS DEAD
WHO CARES
Judging from his columns, his brain died years ago.
I can't wait for all of the Media/Establishment screeds to "this fine journalist" etc etc
That guy is in a wheelchair. What an idiot.
Right guys?!
I wonder if it's one of those medicare wheelchairs
It's because it gets those ratings/page views. Breitbart doesn't give a shit whether people buy his defense, he just wants to keep his name on the lips of people before he pulls his next stunt. Which it will do. Reminds me of the people that bitch about Sarah Palin selling a book, then buying the book to bash it, and then piss and moan at the high sales of the book.
A great comparison on the right would be the prank call to Scott Walker. He got burned, but instead of turning over and biting the pillow for the plowing that supposedly goes along with allegedly saying something stupid, he just essentially battened down the hatches, extended his middle finger and now look- he got his union busting bill by hook or by crook. Pussy ass liberals might learn something from this.
in b4 Beardo posts video of Obama claiming he visited 57 states
Yea as will Boehner. But will the tea party house go along with it?
Yea as will Boehner. But will the tea party house go along with it?
The fact that the tea party thinks it has any say in things is something that makes me chuckle a bit everyday.
From: Sen.Fitzgerald
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 3:52 PM
To: *Legislative Senate Republicans
Subject: Senate Democrat voting privileges in standing committees
Dear Members,
With the return of the Senate Democrats this weekend, questions have arisen regarding Democrat members’ participation in Senate standing committee public hearings and executive sessions.
Please note that all 14 Democrat senators are still in contempt of the Senate. Therefore, when taking roll call votes on amendments and bills during executive sessions, Senate Democrats’ votes will not be reflected in the Records of Committee Proceedings or the Senate Journal. They are free to attend hearings, listen to testimony, debate legislation, introduce amendments, and cast votes to signal their support/opposition, but those votes will not count, and will not be recorded.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact my office.
Thank you,
Scott Fitzgerald
Senate Majority Leader
13th Senate District
So Mitch McConnell is planning on holding the debt ceiling hostage unless the White House agrees to [strike]cutting[/strike] reforming Social Security, and repealing HCR.
Odds that Obama's gonna cave? :smug
I don't think Boehner or McConnell are particularly serious about much of anything outside of making their donors richer, but they aren't stupid. They've been elected officials long enough to know the dangers of a government shut down, and they both were around when Gingrich did it; in fact that farce is what put Boehner on track to become the minority leader.
That can't be said of the tea party folks, some of whom don't know what they're playing with, and others simply don't care. They're more concerned about raking in donations and ensuring a further right candidate can't challenge them in two years. Democrats are finally pulling back and saying hey, we've offered some concessions while you guys have offered nothing, screw you. Eventually this "fund the government 2weeks at a time" bullshit is going to stop and they'll need to come up with a compromise.
This is why Obama will probably win in 2012. The GOP is being held hostage by a group of insane people, and they're more energized than the George Will types who sit on the sidelines pouting. Whoever gives them the most red meat is going to get their vote.
As he does every year, the President filled out his brackets predicting the winners of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments, but discussing it with Doris Burke of ESPN, he began with a call to stand with the people of Japanhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets)
QuoteAs he does every year, the President filled out his brackets predicting the winners of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments, but discussing it with Doris Burke of ESPN, he began with a call to stand with the people of Japanhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets)
Priorities people! NCAA brackets and then Japan. No need to be rash.
QuoteAs he does every year, the President filled out his brackets predicting the winners of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments, but discussing it with Doris Burke of ESPN, he began with a call to stand with the people of Japanhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets)
Priorities people! NCAA brackets and then Japan. No need to be rash.
QuoteAs he does every year, the President filled out his brackets predicting the winners of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments, but discussing it with Doris Burke of ESPN, he began with a call to stand with the people of Japanhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets)
Priorities people! NCAA brackets and then Japan. No need to be rash.
Today in the Kansas House Appropriations Committee, during a discussion about methods used to exterminate feral swine (which include shooting them from a helicopter), Rep. Virgil Peck (R- Tyro) suggested that Kansas should use the same approach to address immigration.
“It looks like to me if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works maybe we have found a [solution] to our illegal immigration problem,” said Peck.
Peck was approached by press after the committee meeting. He was unapologetic and said he was “just joking.”
"I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person," Peck said to the Lawrence Journal Word.
Wait, I'm confused... is Beardo saying we should increase the amount we spend on... FOREIGN AID??? :smug
http://www.domeontherange.net/2011/03/peck-if-youre-brown-youre-going-down.htmlQuoteToday in the Kansas House Appropriations Committee, during a discussion about methods used to exterminate feral swine (which include shooting them from a helicopter), Rep. Virgil Peck (R- Tyro) suggested that Kansas should use the same approach to address immigration.
“It looks like to me if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works maybe we have found a [solution] to our illegal immigration problem,” said Peck.
Peck was approached by press after the committee meeting. He was unapologetic and said he was “just joking.”
"I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person," Peck said to the Lawrence Journal Word.
Wait, I'm confused... is Beardo saying we should increase the amount we spend on... FOREIGN AID??? :smug
In a Fox Business Network interview, Former Vice President Dan Quayle defended President Obama from Republican criticism that he plays too much golf when there are so many troubles around the world.
Said Quayle: "I'm glad he's out playing golf. I happen to be a golfer. I think presidents deserve down time. And believe me, he is in constant communication with what's going on... I mean, what do you want him to do, stay in his house and be on the phone with the ambassador to Japan all the time?"
Ponder this little development for a moment: Dan Quayle has become the voice of reason in the Republican Party.
QuoteIn a Fox Business Network interview, Former Vice President Dan Quayle defended President Obama from Republican criticism that he plays too much golf when there are so many troubles around the world.
Said Quayle: "I'm glad he's out playing golf. I happen to be a golfer. I think presidents deserve down time. And believe me, he is in constant communication with what's going on... I mean, what do you want him to do, stay in his house and be on the phone with the ambassador to Japan all the time?"QuotePonder this little development for a moment: Dan Quayle has become the voice of reason in the Republican Party.
Beardo annihilated yet again.
I wonder how people will look back on the Tea Party movement a decade or more from now... assuming the Earth doesn't implode by the end of next year.
I wonder how people will look back on the Tea Party movement a decade or more from now... assuming the Earth doesn't implode by the end of next year.
Did Obama get approval from congress to bomb Libya? I figured he'd know to do that being he taught constitutional law. So when do the impeachment hearings begin for this warmongering criminal? Why we still got code pink? :-*
a country that has done no direct harm to us. :)
MARCH 19, 2011
OBAMA: 'Today we are part of a broad coalition. We are answering the calls of a threatened people. And we are acting in the interests of the United States and the world'...
MARCH 19, 2003
BUSH: 'American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger'...
Yeesh. I know you guys don't actually care about Libya except to score points for your team, but you don't have to broadcast it.
Yeesh. I know you guys don't actually care about Libya except to score points for your team, but you don't have to broadcast it.
edit: Besides which, lousy metaphor.
A no-fly zone enforced by the threat of airstrikes (in order to shield a rebelling section (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan) of a country from the central government) isn't analogous to the Iraq War. It's the policy we had in place before Bush, which he said would get us all killed if we didn't scrap it in favor of a full scale ground invasion and occupation.
Yesterday: Obama is Carter
Today: Obama is a Bush
I liked Obama more when he was just a Nazi
Obama is handling the best he can. Kuchinich: go back to Ohio and sleep in your wife's tits.
Obama has been a real buzzkill. I think I'll just write in Anthony Weiner for president.
Somebody wasn't hoping hard enough for change.
Which one of you was it?
State governments are grappling with massive budget deficits, overburdened social programs, and mountains of deferred spending. But never mind all that. For some conservative lawmakers, it's the perfect time to legislate the promotion of creationism in the classroom. In the first three months of 2011, nine creationism-related bills have been introduced in seven states—that's more than in any year in recent memory
Two Quick Thingshttp://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/03/26/two-quick-things/
1.) The reason many pundits sit in the back of class yelling “BORING” while making armpit farty sounds when it comes to Bob Herbert is simply because what he writes about does not affect them. Most of the pundit class is privileged, white, insured, employed, and talking about the widespread despair for millions of Americans is akin to talking to Eskimos about what suntan lotion is the best for a trip to the French Riviera. When you read about the issues Herbert discusses and say to your self that this “his motives were obviously honorable, his compassion deep, and his solutions sincere, if invariably trite,” and that he was such a “boring, familiar voice,” you probably aren’t focusing on what he is saying at all and instead are mentally composing your next piece on Trig Palin or beards, or in Joe Klein’s case, how the DFH’s are ruining America.
2.) Geraldine Ferraro will probably get a lot of pundit love over the next few days, and Anne Laurie does mention the few bright spots, but for me, her legacy is another tough on crime pol whose coke-dealing son got off light, a husband who was a crook, an incompetent pol who lost 49 states in 1984, disappeared for a long while and then re-emerged, offering up some of the ugliest and most racist rhetoric in the 2008 campaign. It’s one thing to start off racist and spend your life atoning, as Robert Byrd did, but Ferraro for me will be just another bitter white crank who still thinks it is 1960 and that it is ok to say things like:
“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”
She ended her life moving in the wrong direction, offering up whatever racist and sexist bilge she could find to sink Obama, and she did it for a profit, vomiting up her bile as a paid commenter on Fox. She was Harriet Christian with name recognition and a (D) after her name, stirring up racial resentment in a shrinking white middle class that, amusingly enough, had already resoundingly rejected her several decades ago and never much cared for her outside of a NY borough. Feminism deserved better.
I won’t miss her or her “contributions,” thank you very much. That’s her legacy, it’s not my fault for pointing it out, and I didn’t join Gerry Ferraro’s idea of the Democratic party.
Let's see...$3.2 billion is $200 million more than the amount that the Obama Administration wanted to slash from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, because the White House was showing that it was serious about restraining spending in tough times. So the poor go without fuel, and G.E. gets $3.2 billion in handouts, and the budget almost balances out. Fiscal discipline!
In the mid-1980s, President Ronald Reagan overhauled the tax system after learning that G.E. — a company for which he had once worked as a commercial pitchman — was among dozens of corporations that had used accounting gamesmanship to avoid paying any taxes.
“I didn’t realize things had gotten that far out of line,” Mr. Reagan told the Treasury secretary, Donald T. Regan, according to Mr. Regan’s 1988 memoir. The president supported a change that closed loopholes and required G.E. to pay a far higher effective rate, up to 32.5 percent.
Nice article on Obama and corporate taxes:QuoteLet's see...$3.2 billion is $200 million more than the amount that the Obama Administration wanted to slash from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, because the White House was showing that it was serious about restraining spending in tough times. So the poor go without fuel, and G.E. gets $3.2 billion in handouts, and the budget almost balances out. Fiscal discipline!QuoteIn the mid-1980s, President Ronald Reagan overhauled the tax system after learning that G.E. — a company for which he had once worked as a commercial pitchman — was among dozens of corporations that had used accounting gamesmanship to avoid paying any taxes.
“I didn’t realize things had gotten that far out of line,” Mr. Reagan told the Treasury secretary, Donald T. Regan, according to Mr. Regan’s 1988 memoir. The president supported a change that closed loopholes and required G.E. to pay a far higher effective rate, up to 32.5 percent.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/scocca/archive/2011/03/28/ronald-reagan-cared-more-about-protecting-americans-from-corporate-greed-than-barack-obama-does.aspx
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/you-ve-come-long-way-baby_555622.html
I'm gonna be sick
I have two grandchildren — Maggie is 11, Robert is 9. I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.
Back in February, Paul Ryan unveiled what was supposed to be the opening bid from the House Republicans: $32 billion in cuts for the rest of 2011. But the Tea Party demanded more and House leadership quickly caved, doubling their proposed cuts to more than $60 billion -- or almost $100 billion less than barack Obama’s 2011 budget request (quick note: different news stories present these numbers differently, as it depends on whether you use Obama’s budget request or 2010’s funding as a baseline. I’m using the difference from 2010 funding, which makes for lower sums). Now Democrats are offering as a compromise measure $30 billion in total cuts, or exactly what Ryan’s original proposal had called for. Pretty neat, huh?
And that’s not the Democrats’ final offer, either. Odds are good that the eventual compromise will see cuts somewhere between the $30 billion Republican leadership called for and the almost $70 billion the conservative wing of the House GOP demanded. “That’s not much of a compromise if we end up with what the House Republican leadership wanted in the first place,” observe Michael Ettlinger and Michael Linden. And they’re right. But the irony is that it’s entirely possible the press will report that Democrats “won” the negotiations, as Republican leadership is likely to have to lose a lot of conservative votes in the House to get any compromise, no matter how radical, through the chamber. That will make them look bad, and in the weird logic of Washington, make the Democrats look good. But if you just keep your eye on the policy, Republicans are moving towards a win far beyond anything the House leadership had initially imagined. Getting there required learning they had less control over their conservative wing that they’d hoped, but it also taught them that their inability to control their conservative wing gave them credibility in negotiations with Democrats and can lead to pretty remarkable policy wins, as no one doubts that House Republicans really will shut down the government or allow for a default.
By Jon Geenen
International Vice President, United Steelworkers
By now anyone who had not yet heard of the Koch brothers has been introduced to them. Every major newspaper and magazine has run an article about the brothers who until recently lived largely under the radar while advancing a political vision via political action committees and think tanks funded by their fortunes.
In the advent of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case, journalists and others have made a clear connection between the Koch brothers and their role and influence in the advancement of the agenda of the far political right. Indeed, it is important, in fact essential, that Americans know who is driving the agenda and what the agenda is about, although the Citizens United decision and federal law allow the Koch brothers and other wealthy funders of the far right to donate in secret.
The groups that generally operate in the middle and to the left of the center of the political spectrum who identify themselves as moderate, progressives, trade unionists and other like-minded people are outraged by this dirty little secret. It has led to a progressive uprising in some areas, with protests that are said to eclipse the anti-war protests of the 1960s. These groups have also launched various efforts to pressure the financiers and architects of this agenda into rethinking their positions.
Therein lies at least one problem.
A number of organizations are advocating a boycott of the products that come from companies owned by the Koch family. This is problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it could potentially hurt the wrong people.
The Koch brothers own Georgia Pacific. It is an American consumer goods company that makes everyday products like facial tissue, napkins, paper towels, paper cups and the like. Their plants are great examples of American advanced manufacturing. Incidentally, GP makes most of its products here in America. The company’s workforce is highly unionized. In fact, 80 percent of its mills are under contract with one or more labor union. It is not inaccurate to say that these are among the best-paid manufacturing jobs in America.
This presents a dilemma and a paradox. While the Koch brothers are credited with advocating an agenda and groups that are clearly hostile to labor and labor’s agenda, the brothers’ company in practice and in general has positive and productive collective bargaining relationships with its unions.
While some companies are running from investment in American jobs, The Koch brothers’ Georgia Pacific just reached agreements with its primary union in the paper industry to invest more than a half a billion dollars in capital to essentially create two state-of-the-art machines that conserve fiber and energy at two separate union mills.
While certainly there are disagreements from time to time on what the right pension program is, or right wage increases and incentives, or the right formula for health care cost sharing, ultimately we end up with negotiated solutions.
So the problem for the advocates of a boycott against Koch is that it can only marginally hurt Koch, and the workers who are the epitome of what advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States ought to look like, would be the first casualties of a boycott. Of course, this will eventually drive a wedge between groups that are otherwise in political alignment.
If consumers pick alternate products (because people will still use toilet paper), in many cases, the substitute will be from a company with a track record that is much less friendly to the values of the workers who would, as a result of the boycott, become the collateral damage. The Koch brothers’ lifestyle will not dramatically change; there are no shareholders that will become concerned; the company is privately owned. The stock won’t plummet either — there is none.
To be sure, I personally have grave concerns about the agenda and influence being wielded by private wealth into our political system. Who doesn’t? I too agree that the Koch brothers are an ideal example of a very broken system. They undoubtedly know that many see them as pariahs, and undoubtedly they don’t care — no more than I care if someone attaches a label to me for my political views.
So the question is: Can you hurt the Koch brothers through this kind of boycott? Or are you inadvertently becoming the bully that is kicking the Koch dog. There is no doubt that the events in my home state of Wisconsin and elsewhere have become an ignition point for action, and thank God that they have.
Arguably we have been rescued from the social hospice overseeing our demise. It is fair to keep the Koch brothers at the center of the debate. There have been fewer clear examples in our lifetime of the corruption of our system. If “Citizens United” gave corporations First Amendment rights, then too it gives them First Amendment responsibility and accountability. It is fair to find a way to make the Koch brothers responsible for promoting an agenda that ultimately hurts workers, but we should not make union workers collateral damage in this contest with Koch.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/03/31/come-with-newt-and-callista-gingrich-on-a-journey-through-time-and-space.aspx
:lol
Poll: Americans Wrongly Estimate $178 Billion In Fed. Budget Goes To Public Broadcasting
In a CNN poll of American adults released Friday, the median guess on what percentage of the federal budget goes to public broadcasting was 5%. With a $3.55 trillion budget last year, that would put funding for the CBP at approximately $178 billion.
In reality though, that's not even close.
The CPB received about $420 million last year from the federal government, making it roughly one one-hundredth of one percent, of the overall budget. That means that the median response was about 424 times higher than the actual amount of federal funding that went to public broadcasting last year.
Further, 20% of respondents thought CPB funding made up over 10% of the entire budget, including 5% who said it made up at least half.
Those findings comes as Congress continues to debate pulling all funding for public broadcasting, including NPR. Fake-pimp and sting video maker James O'Keefe released a video in March that showed an NPR executive bashing Fox News and the Tea Party, a video whose release helped fuel the push to defund NPR.
The survey also underscores how clueless Americans are about where the budget goes in general. For example, Americans on average thought foreign aid took up 10% of the budget; it really makes up about 1%.
The CNN poll was conducted March 11-13 among 1,023 adults nationwide. It has a margin of error of 3.0%.
No exaggeration here: On Tuesday, the GOP will officially propose eliminating the current Medicare system by 2021, replacing it with a system of subsidized private insurance in which Medicare beneficiaries would get the equivalent of vouchers to cover a portion of their premiums.
At least on paper, the proposal would save money, but only because it increases voucher funding more slowly than the cost of health care, guaranteeing that at some point, seniors wouldn't be able to afford to get insurance—assuming that they could even find an insurer interested in covering the elderly.
Republicans say that the plan won't impact the cost or quality of medical care, nor will it leave any seniors with inadequate coverage. But they are also careful to say that their plan would not take effect until 2021, so it would only impact people who are 55 and under.
But if they really believe their plan would be so great for seniors, why wait until 2021? Why not just do it now? I could see needing two or three years for implementation, but 10 years? C'mon, guys. It's obvious that the only reason you're exempting people who are 55 and older from your proposal is because you know that anybody who actually spends any time thinking about it (like, for example, people who are close to Medicare eligibility) will quickly understand that this proposal is a complete joke.
Oh, and for all those older Americans who voted GOP last year because those nasty Democrats were going to cut Medicare, I have just one word: suckers!
I just sent out my resume to like 12 biker gangs today.
now that Glenn Beck is getting bounced off the air, has any other conservative pundits expressed anything about it. Rush, Savage, any columnists saying "shame of it all" and the like?
I'm guessing not so much. I'm figuring he's off Fox on a regular basis less for ratings (still pretty good actually) and more for the fact that he was just an embarrassment to the network.
Thoughts?
good article on Beck's current irrelevance
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-glenn-beck-lost-it/2011/04/06/AFNEgnqC_story.html
On the govt shutdown front...Reid has drawn a line in the sand: 38b in cuts, no Planned Parenthood de-funding or abortion riders, take it or leave it. So republicans get nearly 2/3s of what they want, and yet are willing to shut down the federal government over the small amount of money spent to provide contraception, cancer screenings, etc to women.
This is clearly not about the budget, it's about social issues.
the last time a democrat president cut spending during a period of weak economic performance, bad things happened.
the last time a democrat president cut spending during a period of weak economic performance, bad things happened.
Not actually true.
the last time a democrat president cut spending during a period of weak economic performance, bad things happened.
Not actually true.
bah ToxicAdamn pointed out Clinton made similar moves on gaf, which I didn't know
shit, apparently we'll have to go through this BS again in a few weeks when they hit the debt ceiling?
Once the limit is reached, the Treasury Department would not be able to borrow as it does routinely to finance federal operations and roll over existing debt; ultimately it would be unable to pay off maturing debt, putting the United States government — the global standard-setter for creditworthiness — into default.
The repercussions in that event would be as much economic as political, rippling from the bond market into the lives of ordinary citizens through higher interest rates and financial uncertainty of the sort that the economy is only now overcoming, more than three years after the onset of the last recession.
Also, I wouldn't call Obama care center-left. It's actually pretty far right.
Also, I wouldn't call Obama care center-left. It's actually pretty far right.
Shut up. You're dumb.
How is Obamacare center-left?
there's pretty much as little government involved as possible
for a universal health care plan.
How is Obamacare center-left? Obamacare mandates everyone else to take private insurance, there's pretty much as little government involved as possible for a universal health care plan. I mean, shit have we forgotten that this is the plan that friggin Bob Dole was proposing back in 94 or whatever?
So, how exactly do we get out of debt? I mean, seems kinda impossible to be debt free.
How is Obamacare center-left?
I thought I just explained the different between left and right oriented health reform plans, but lemme simplify.Quote from: Oblivionthere's pretty much as little government involved as possible
Center-Quote from: Oblivionfor a universal health care plan.
left.
Now explain to me how, in a world with HSA+tort reform as one of the major party's proposals, it can be defined as "far right" while keeping a straight face.
PS You realize that Dole voted against that plan, right? OR HAVE WE FORGOTTEN!? herp derp
Obama prevents budget cuts to favorite programs
A close look at the government shutdown-dodging agreement to cut federal spending by $38 billion reveals that lawmakers significantly eased the fiscal pain by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.
Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs — Pell grants for poor college students, health research and "Race to the Top" aid for public schools, among others — from Republican knives.
The full details of Friday's agreement weren't being released until late Monday when it was officially submitted to the House. But the picture already emerging is of legislation financed with a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially "score" as savings to pay for spending elsewhere, but that often have little to no actual impact on the deficit.
As a result of the legerdemain, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber passed a bill slashing this year's budget by more than $60 billion. In doing so, the White House protected favorites like the Head Start early learning program, while maintaining the maximum Pell grant of $5,550 and funding for Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative that provides grants to better-performing schools.
Obama also repelled Republican moves to cut $1 billion in grants for community health centers and $500 million from biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, while blocking them from "zeroing out" the AmeriCorps national service program and subsidies for public broadcasting.
Instead, the cuts that actually will make it into law are far tamer, including cuts to earmarks, unspent census money, leftover federal construction funding, and $2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programs that can't be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another $3.5 billion comes from unused spending authority from a program providing health care to children of lower-income families.
About $10 billion of the cuts already have been enacted as the price for keeping the government open as negotiations progressed; lawmakers tipped their hand regarding another $10 billion or so when the House passed a spending bill last week that ran aground in the Senate.
For instance, the spending measure reaps $350 million by cutting a one-year program enacted in 2009 for dairy farmers then suffering from low milk prices. Another $650 million comes by not repeating a one-time infusion into highway programs passed that same year. And just last Friday, Congress approved Obama's $1 billion request for high-speed rail grants — crediting themselves with $1.5 billion in savings relative to last year.
The underlying issue is long overdue legislation to finance the day-to-day budget of every Cabinet department, including the Pentagon, for the already half-completed 2011 fiscal year. The measure caps 2011 funding for such operating budgets at about $1.2 trillion.
About $10 billion of the cuts comes from targeting appropriations accounts previously used by lawmakers for so-called earmarks, those pet projects like highways, water projects, community development grants and new equipment for police and fire departments. Republicans had already engineered a ban on earmarks when taking back the House this year.
Republicans also claimed $5 billion in savings by capping payments from a fund awarding compensation to crime victims. Under an arcane bookkeeping rule — used for years by appropriators — placing a cap on spending from the Justice Department crime victims fund allows lawmakers to claim the entire contents of the fund as budget savings. The savings are awarded year after year.
Even before details of the bill came out, some conservative Republicans were assailing it. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said he probably won't vote for the measure, and tea party favorite Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is a "nay" as well.
The $38 billion in cuts, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., wrote on his Facebook page, "barely make a dent" in the country's budget woes.
Huelskamp and other conservatives are also upset that most conservative policy "riders" added by Republicans were dropped from the legislation in the course of the talks.
The White House rejected GOP attempts to block the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to issue global warming rules and other reversals of environmental regulations. Obama also forced Republicans to drop an effort to cut off Planned Parenthood from federal funding, as well as GOP moves to stop implementation of Obama's overhauls of health care and Wall Street regulation.
The administration also thwarted a GOP attempt to block new rules governing the Internet, as well as a National Rifle Association-backed attempt to neuter a little-noticed initiative aimed at catching people running guns to Mexican drug lords by having regulators gather information on batch purchases of rifles and shotguns.
Anti-abortion lawmakers did, however, succeed in winning a provision to block taxpayer-funded abortions in the District of Columbia. And House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, won funding for a personal initiative to provide federally funded vouchers for District of Columbia students to attend private schools.
Actually, if anyone wants to feel bad for real, read this (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/opinion/10thompson.html).
Summary:spoiler (click to show/hide)Man is arrested for murder and found guilty, sentenced to death. Exhausts his appeals, is going to be executed a day before his son's HS graduation. A researcher hired by a law firm working pro bono finds a bunch of stuff that prosecutors never shared with defense attorneys, including blood evidence on the scene that clears his name. He sues the prosecutors, case goes to the Supreme Court, where they rule 5-4 (guess how that split went!) to throw out the case.
Meaning you can hide evidence in order to get someone killed for a crime they didn't commit, and not be found guilty in a criminal court or even liable in a civil court. :usacry[close]
"[T]here has always been another thread running through our history -- a belief that we are all connected; and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation. We believe, in the words of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, that through government, we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves. And so we've built a strong military to keep us secure, and public schools and universities to educate our citizens. We've laid down railroads and highways to facilitate travel and commerce. We've supported the work of scientists and researchers whose discoveries have saved lives, unleashed repeated technological revolutions, and led to countless new jobs and entire new industries. Each of us has benefitted from these investments, and we are a more prosperous country as a result.
"Part of this American belief that we are all connected also expresses itself in a conviction that each one of us deserves some basic measure of security and dignity. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, hard times or bad luck, a crippling illness or a layoff, may strike any one of us. 'There but for the grace of God go I,' we say to ourselves, and so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, and those with disabilities. We are a better country because of these commitments. I'll go further -- we would not be a great country without those commitments. [...]
"The America I know is generous and compassionate; a land of opportunity and optimism. We take responsibility for ourselves and each other; for the country we want and the future we share. We are the nation that built a railroad across a continent and brought light to communities shrouded in darkness. We sent a generation to college on the GI bill and saved millions of seniors from poverty with Social Security and Medicare. We have led the world in scientific research and technological breakthroughs that have transformed millions of lives. This is who we are."
last three years...
republican: he's a communist, he's a socialist, he wants people on welfare, etc wants to kill grandma
obama: they have some good ideas and so do we, perhaps we can work together on X and Y, even if we disagree about Z
today...
obama: their plan is simply wrong because of X,Y,Z. it would dismantle medicare and leave the elderly to fend for themselves. but we agree on some other things, so lets work together on them
republican: holy shit you need to apologize for such hurtful, partisan language
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/republicans-reject-obama-speech-on-personal-grounds.php?ref=fpa
That is hilarioud.
I'm sorry if my email offended anyone. I simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth. In no way did I even consider the fact he's half black when I sent out the email. In fact, the thought never entered my mind until one or two other people tried to make this about race. We all know a double standard applies regarding this president. I received plenty of emails about George Bush that I didn't particularly like yet there was no 'cry' in the media about them. One only has to go to Youtube or Google Images to see a plethora or lampooning videos and pictures of Obama, Bush and other politicians. That being said, I will NOT resign my central committee position over this matter that the average person knows and agrees is much to do about nothing. Again, for those select few who might be truly offended by viewing a copy of an email I sent to a select list of friends and acquaintances, unlike the liberal left when they do the same, I offer my sincere apologies to you--the email was not meant for you. For any of my friends or acquaintances who were the recipients of my email and were truly offended, please call me so I may offer a sincere verbal apology to youhttp://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/orange_co_goper_my_obama-as-chimp_pic_was_just_a_birther_joke_meant_for_my_friends.php?ref=fpb
C'mon, Billy. She got close enough to the quote, for all intensive purposes.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-04-18/standard-poor-s-puts-negative-outlook-on-u-s-rating.html
This clashes directly with the Obama cult set's "It's ok to have lots of debt and it is totally ok to pile up more!" that I've seen bandied about on PoliGAF and other places.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-04-18/standard-poor-s-puts-negative-outlook-on-u-s-rating.html
This clashes directly with the Obama cult set's "It's ok to have lots of debt and it is totally ok to pile up more!" that I've seen bandied about on PoliGAF and other places.
Can't the US just buy a AAA rating from Moody's like the big funds? (http://i43.tinypic.com/nqu0s7.jpg)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-04-18/standard-poor-s-puts-negative-outlook-on-u-s-rating.html
This clashes directly with the Obama cult set's "It's ok to have lots of debt and it is totally ok to pile up more!" that I've seen bandied about on PoliGAF and other places.
What's up with the Van Jones hate on the right?
"We must have universal healthcare," wrote Trump. "I'm a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one. We should not hear so many stories of families ruined by healthcare expenses."
The goal of health care reform, wrote Trump, should be a system that looks a lot like Canada. "Doctors might be paid less than they are now, as is the case in Canada, but they would be able to treat more patients because of the reduction in their paperwork," he writes.
Yeah, but that was back before the entire Republican party apparently decided to go Teatard.
Don't worry, his tv show ends soon so he'll stop pretending that he's running.
He's not running
[youtube=560,345]m1JAZwOSA1s[/youtube]
ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida officials are investigating an unemployment agency that spent public money to give 6,000 superhero capes to the jobless.
Workforce Central Florida spent more than $14,000 on the red capes as part of its "Cape-A-Bility Challenge" public relations campaign. The campaign featured a cartoon character, "Dr. Evil Unemployment," who needs to be vanquished.
Florida's unemployment agency director asked Monday for an investigation of the regional operation's spending after the Orlando Sentinel published a story about the program. State director Cynthia Lorenzo said the spending appeared to be "insensitive and wasteful."
Workforce Central Florida Director Gary J. Earl defends the program, saying it is part of a greater effort to connect with the community. The agency says it served 210,000 people during its last fiscal year, placing nearly 59,000 in jobs.
Heaven forbid that money is actually used to create jobs.
The agency says it served 210,000 people during its last fiscal year, placing nearly 59,000 in jobs.
what's worse Beardo, $14k to empower poor people by giving them capes - or $500k to defend the defense of marriage act?
:bow Other people's money :bow2
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42654363#42654363 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42654363#42654363)
:'(
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42654363#42654363 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42654363#42654363)
:'(
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42654363#42654363 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42654363#42654363)
:'(
Jesus, that's fucked up.
and as a well-adjusted and socially aware adult I'm not going to pull a Boogie
You're against empowering poor people? jesus christ
You're against empowering poor people? jesus christ
Beardo is one of those self hating white republican poors. That type of self loathing but dead certain that he will be a millionaire one day so he's gotta support his rich bros!
Edit: I saw the video linked :gloomy
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=77rtyQf6Hwk#at=381[/youtube]
http://www.theonion.com/articles/mitt-romney-haunted-by-past-of-trying-to-help-unin,20097/:lol :lol
"I don't think I can vote for someone like that," Pennsylvania Republican Eric Tolbert said. "He says he's sorry, but how do I know that's the real Mitt Romney? What happens if he gets elected and tries to help sick people again?"
"I like Michele Bachmann now," Tolbert added. "Because what this country needs is a president who doesn't give a fuck about helping people."
You're against empowering poor people? jesus christ
Beardo is one of those self hating white republican poors. That type of self loathing but dead certain that he will be a millionaire one day so he's gotta support his rich bros!
Edit: I saw the video linked :gloomy
i used to joke about those people, thinking they didn't actually exist, and hoping i would shame folks by way of a cariacature. how wrong i was! in the last ten years, i have met SO MANY LIBERTARIPOORS who really think that they are the potential titans of the future destined to make millions, and it is only the filthy libruls and their taxation and/or handouts that keep their online scentsy candle business or telemarketing vendor shop from taking off, and it is ever so terrifying/depressing. rural america is just one giant case of narcissistic personality disorder. actually, so is the middle class, if my facebook is anything to go by
Afterbirthers Demand To See Obama's Placenta
August 27, 2009 | ISSUE 45•35
WASHINGTON–In the continuing controversy surrounding the president's U.S. citizenship, a new fringe group informally known as "Afterbirthers" demanded Monday the authentication of Barack Obama's placenta from his time inside his mother's womb. "All we are asking is that the president produce a sample of his fetal membranes and vessels—preferably along with a photo of the crowning and delivery—and this will all be over," said former presidential candidate and Afterbirthers spokesman Alan Keyes, later adding that his organization would be willing to settle for a half-liter of maternal cord plasma. "To this day, the American people have not seen a cervical mucus plug, let alone one that has been signed and notarized by a state-certified Hawaiian health official. If the president was indeed born in the manner in which he claims, then where is his gestation sac?" Keyes said that if Obama did not soon produce at least a bloody bedsheet from his conception, Afterbirthers would push forward with efforts to exhume the president's deceased mother and inspect the corpse's pelvic bone and birth canal.
"I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?" Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records."
Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York in 1983 with a degree in political science after transferring from Occidental College in California. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude 1991 and was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
Obama's 2008 campaign did not release his college transcripts, and in his best-selling memoir, "Dreams From My Father," Obama indicated he hadn't always been an academic star. Trump told the AP that Obama's refusal to release his college grades were part of a pattern of concealing information about himself.
"I have friends who have smart sons with great marks, great boards, great everything and they can't get into Harvard," Trump said. "We don't know a thing about this guy. There are a lot of questions that are unanswered about our president."
Oh thanks a lot, White House, I'm sure this will be the final nail in the birther movement!
...
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/orly_taitz_obamas_long-form_birth_certificate_should_say_negro_not_african.php?ref=fpblg
Oily Taints for preznit!
Can't wait for Trump's response to the document.
On Wednesday, Trump took credit in the White House's decision to release the president's birth records. "I am really honored to play such a big role in hopefully, hopefully getting rid of this issue," he said.
"Today I'm very proud of myself, because I've accomplished something that no one else has been able to accomplish," said Trump on the release of the president's birth certificate, according to NBC News. "I want to look at it, but I hope it's true. ... But he should have done it a long time ago."
I saw that response, I'm talking about his actual response after seeing the document.
Obama dun got trolled by a fringe movement. Now instead of griping about the birth certificate, now it will be about his grades.
I thought he was better than this to be honest.
Apropos of that, here's Rick Perlstein obliterating the Nixon-as-liberal meme (http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/father-epa-environmentalists-bunch-damned-animals) that used to come mainly from conservatives looking to disassociate themselves from him, but now is popular among Greenwald-style liberals.
Skimming Klein's piece, it illustrates how politicians' alleged positions are temporary and influenced by the pressures around them. It's not really useful in determining what constitutes a conservative or liberal approach to an issue. Not that it matters. Plenty of people will label each and every decision as draconian socialism or sellout corporatism regardless.
Obama dun got trolled by a fringe movement. Now instead of griping about the birth certificate, now it will be about his grades.
I thought he was better than this to be honest.
Texas state legislator Leo Berman, a Republican, has introduced a bill that would require proof of citizenship from presidential candidates. It's one of many such bills in the states. And according to Sharon Guthrie, Berman's legislative director, it is still on the table, because the long-form birth certificate released by the White House today does not satisfy its requirements.
"What I've seen online, what they produced today, still says certificate of live birth across the top," she told me. And she's right.
But why isn't that just a nomenclature issue? Why does it matter?
"We want to see a 'birth certificate,'" Guthrie explained. "The one that we have that says 'birth certificate' is from Mombassa, Kenya, with his footprint on it. He has still not produced an American birth certificate."
Also, good thing this release will finally put the issue to rest:QuoteTexas state legislator Leo Berman, a Republican, has introduced a bill that would require proof of citizenship from presidential candidates. It's one of many such bills in the states. And according to Sharon Guthrie, Berman's legislative director, it is still on the table, because the long-form birth certificate released by the White House today does not satisfy its requirements.
"What I've seen online, what they produced today, still says certificate of live birth across the top," she told me. And she's right.
But why isn't that just a nomenclature issue? Why does it matter?
"We want to see a 'birth certificate,'" Guthrie explained. "The one that we have that says 'birth certificate' is from Mombassa, Kenya, with his footprint on it. He has still not produced an American birth certificate."
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/029157.php
I don't think that when liberals credit Nixon with doing liberal things, that they're trying to imply he did it out of the goodness of his heart. Whatever contempt he may have had for say, environmentalists, it's pretty moot since he DID wind up creating the EPA.
And in the end, isn't it really the results that matter? Does one really care if a president genuinely wanted to do whatever he could to help poor people, if in the end he did something like eliminating welfare?
Road to hell is paved with good intentions...
In the end, the EPA was a sort of confidence game. The new agency represented not a single new penny in federal spending for the environment. It did, however, newly concentrate bureaucracies previously scattered through vast federal bureaucracy under a single administrator loyal to the White House—the better to control them.
I dunno Mandark, I think the fact that NO ONE has gone to a federal ass poundin prison for the economic collapse other than a guy who (SHOCKER!) stole from OTHER RICH PEOPLE tells you all you need to know about this country's priorities.
Also, how did financial regulation of these companies/instruments work out? Yeah...
I dunno Mandark, I think the fact that NO ONE has gone to a federal ass poundin prison for the economic collapse other than a guy who (SHOCKER!) stole from OTHER RICH PEOPLE tells you all you need to know about this country's priorities.
There weren't many convictions for financiers whose speculative zaniness caused the Great Depression either, and that's in the period of US history with the most economic populism.
Personally, I just don't care that much about punishing the people responsible. It seems way, way less important than blunting the immediate effects of the collapse and reforming the system so it's less likely to happen in the future.
Actually, I'm pretty leery of the torches 'n' pitchforks attitude towards this stuff. As a way of blowing off steam, sure, go nuts. There's a big problem with wealth distribution in this country and having a few symbolic villains can be cathartic. But lots of people seemed to judge important legislation aimed at stabilization (TARP) and reform (FinReg) by the yardstick of pain inflicted on the "banksters". That's a really dangerous way to think about things that are going to affect a lot of people.
To be fair, that didn't happen with Dodd-Frank
I don't think that when liberals credit Nixon with doing liberal things, that they're trying to imply he did it out of the goodness of his heart. Whatever contempt he may have had for say, environmentalists, it's pretty moot since he DID wind up creating the EPA.
And in the end, isn't it really the results that matter? Does one really care if a president genuinely wanted to do whatever he could to help poor people, if in the end he did something like eliminating welfare?
Road to hell is paved with good intentions...
First, cause I'm apparently getting no click-through:
Second, my point is that presidents operate within the constraints of their times.
This is a premise constantly being rejected by the Greenwald/Taibbi set, who are only too happy to explain because Obama Policy X was once given lip service by Republican Y that it's inherently conservative and reveals Obama's True Self as a corporatist shill or whatever.
Hell, just a couple weeks ago you were calling Obamacare "far right wing" based on the same unlogic.
And now everyone's like "oh no Obama caved and made a concession by showing his birth certificate". Which is amazing, cause when John Kerry ignored the swiftboaters, I don't remember the liberal grassroots praising him for "standing up to them". If you want a strong daddy figure, go to a fuckin' leather bar. Leave my politix geekery alone.
1. Obama supporting something that was given lip service by a republican being inherently conservative? Isn't it the exact opposite what you claim the Greenwald/Taibbi set try and imply?
I cannot remember the last time a real issue was discussed in American politics - constant fucking minor side shows blown out of proportion i assume so no one notices how badly of a cocking 98% of the population are getting.
I cannot remember the last time a real issue was discussed in American politics - constant fucking minor side shows blown out of proportion i assume so no one notices how badly of a cocking 98% of the population are getting.
I cannot remember the last time a real issue was discussed in American politics - constant fucking minor side shows blown out of proportion i assume so no one notices how badly of a cocking 98% of the population are getting.
That's by design of course.
What a little bitch (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54037.html)
obama's philosophy was clearly on some "See i'm usually non-violent, positively vibin, but every now and then you gotta a nikka wanna try ya" type shyt.http://forums.projectcovo.com/showthread.php?t=3506431
fukk donald trump as a man, a business and a corporation. his kids? fukk them too. sarah palin? fukk her too. my fo-fo make sure all bristol's kids don't grow
Trump kept poking him and obama finally snapped
I don't think the American people are having a good time with $5 gas. ... I was thinking to myself as they were doing this, you know, the American people are really suffering and we're all" having fun at a gala.
Appearing in the Green Room, along with Arianna, Chrystia Freeland and David Stockman, after Sunday's taping of "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour, Will dismissed at the idea that Trump could have a political future.
"He has no future in politics," Will said. "He's a buffoon ... . He's going to come out of this looking like what he is: an overweight, under-educated, silly man."
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Tuesday that private healthcare plans ration care for profit but that consumers should be free to buy whatever coverage they can afford rather than depend on government rationing.
In remarks to the College of American Pathologists, Cantor warned that Democrats' healthcare reform law mandates benefits that are too generous and will bankrupt the country as the government ends up having to offer ever increasing subsidies. That can only lead to government rationing, he said.
where politics and reality clashI especially like the fact that he thinks speculation about Pakistan could have been controlled by anyone. Did anyone who follows the news have the exact same thought when Pakistan was first mentioned? How can you possibly control that?
http://thepage.time.com/2011/05/03/halperins-take-mistakes-were-made/?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29
Looks like I'll be siding with Donald Rumsfield here. There is no "getting your story straight" with a wave of a magic wand - it takes awhile for all the details to become fully clear. Given the 24 hour nature of the news it would be impossible for them to simply wait until the team was debriefed, then address the media; if they had Halperin would write the exact same article, but replace this point with one about the "slow" WH response to rampant speculation.
On Bush...seriously? Obama's speech was pretty clear about this mission being four years in the making - ie of course the previous administration played a part. Why should he go out of his way to praise others when if the mission failed, Obama would get ALL the blame. And the suggestion that inviting Bush to Ground Zero was some attempt to save face is just stupid.
How exactly would he control the rampant Pakistan speculation? Jesus Christ this man is dumb. Hey Halperin, Bin Laden is dead, a year from now he'll still be dead and no one will remember the petty gripes you brought up to "even out" the glowing coverage.
Stewart doesn't destroy anyone. He attacks a bit before falling back to "funny guy" status, and is usually intimidated by people who are well versed in their bullshit (John Yoo)
Update: More bad news for Tim Pawlenty. The focus group also thinks that Rick Santorum was the runner up winner. Meanwhile Herman Cain is up 300% on Intrade.http://elections.americablog.com/2011/05/vast-majority-of-fox-news-focus-group.html
Pawlenty fell flat, and was hit with some tough questions about his past positions on cap and trade.
Personally, I can't wait until Bachmann starts showing up and everyone starts trying to outlunatic each other to appeal to the teatards. Gonna be sweet.
"No Chris, I for one don't believe that merely ending Medicare is enough. We should make our seniors fight to death in Thunderdome."
Sorry Oblivion, I don't think Stewart "destroyed" David Barton in the sense that you were arguing on GAF. Seemed to be a well-spoken argument on both sides, and in fact, I think Stewart was running away with things just to uphold his usual "these right-wingers be crazy, yo" position. Barton was merely trying to explain something he believed in using documents and historical evidence he thought pertained to the issue at hand. I don't agree with his claims, but in no way was there any "destruction."
Stewart doesn't destroy anyone. He attacks a bit before falling back to "funny guy" status, and is usually intimidated by people who are well versed in their bullshit (John Yoo)
That's because he is a funny guy. It's not 60 minutes.
GOP Freshmen On Medicare Attacks: Let's Let Bygones Be Bygones
House Republican freshmen admit that their so-called "MediScare" attacks on Democrats helped them win a big majority in 2010. Democrats had voted for the health care law, which included $500 billion in "cuts" to Medicare -- primarily slashing overpayments to private insurers -- and Republican challengers never let them forget it.
Now, they say, it's time to let bygones be bygones.
Nearly a dozen House Republican freshmen held a press conference outside the Capitol Tuesday morning to "wipe the slate clean," and "hit the reset button."
"Yeah, I mean there's been -- again, this is a both-sides issue," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) when asked if GOP candidates and the NRCC had engaged in 'MediScare' tactics last year. "To say that one side is blameless in trying to use issues to win votes is just dishonest."
On Tuesday, Kinzinger and 41 of his colleagues sent a letter to President Obama, asking him to rein in Democratic attacks on GOP members who voted for the House budget, which includes a plan to privatize Medicare and cap spending on the program.
"We ask that you stand above partisanship, condemn the disingenuous attacks and work with this Congress to reform spending on entitlement programs," the letter reads.
To preempt the press conference, the DCCC responded to the letter with a long list of NRCC and candidate attack ads and statements from the 2010 election -- all of them targeting Democrats for cutting Medicare, all on behalf of GOP candidates who are now hoping for a truce on Medicare attacks.
"Let's get past the past. Let's move forward to the future, and say, 'ok, today is today, and we have a real problem,'" Kinzinger said.
It's a pretty clear indication they're feeling the heat from Dem attacks -- and realize that, after 2010, they're in a pretty weak position to ask for a truce. Read the letter here.
“We make decisions on policy based on what we believe will be in the best interests of Americans over age 50. A recent attack on AARP from a political action committee erroneously suggests otherwise. The truth is that the budget plan passed by the House probably would present more opportunities for AARP to strengthen its finances, since every older American would be forced into private Medicare plans, including those that AARP brands.
“But we opposed the legislation nonetheless because we believe the goal should be to strengthen Medicare, not upend it, just as we’ve expressed concern about alternative plans that could use unelected boards to cut Medicare benefits. That has been AARP’s long-stated position, and the well-being of those who need Medicare is the only ‘interest’ we have in this debate.”
So, I've learned that nothing destroys friendships like politics. After yesterday, I'm pretty much done with my idiot conservative x-roommates, and I don't mean just discussing politics, but just done with them entirely.
Allah almighty knows I've never considered myself the brightest knife in the drawer, and I've been owned plenty of times, particularly this thread even, but if nothing else I've always been willing to give the other side a chance to speak. Meanwhile these mouthbreathing redneck fuckheads come in and spew bullshit that they picked up in chain e-mails and speak like they're fucking constitutional scholars and Ivy league climatologists, and try and roll their eyes at me cause I read the NY Times. The one thing they've managed to convince me during our years of arguing is that some people DO deserve to get fucked over. Hard.
Sorry, just needed to internet rage for a bit.
So, I've learned that nothing destroys friendships like politics. After yesterday, I'm pretty much done with my idiot conservative x-roommates, and I don't mean just discussing politics, but just done with them entirely.
Allah almighty knows I've never considered myself the brightest knife in the drawer, and I've been owned plenty of times, particularly this thread even, but if nothing else I've always been willing to give the other side a chance to speak. Meanwhile these mouthbreathing redneck fuckheads come in and spew bullshit that they picked up in chain e-mails and speak like they're fucking constitutional scholars and Ivy league climatologists, and try and roll their eyes at me cause I read the NY Times. The one thing they've managed to convince me during our years of arguing is that some people DO deserve to get fucked over. Hard.
Sorry, just needed to internet rage for a bit.
u mad?
Millionaires would be hit with a 3 percent surtax under a draft Senate Democratic budget.
A Senate aide told The Hill on Wednesday that the draft 2012 budget outline presented at Tuesday's Democratic policy lunch by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) called for a 3 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year....
For their part, Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate have said that tax increases are off the table in the talks over deficit-reduction, as Washington officials have coalesced around a target of lopping at least $4 trillion off the deficit over a decade.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), one of the more liberal members of the Democratic caucus, introduced legislation earlier this year that would have placed a 5.4 percent surtax on annual of more than $1 million. Sanders said that policy would create roughly $50 billion a year in new revenues for the United States.
The family of Frankie Girard is claiming that their son's civil rights were violated after a teacher allegedly told him that hanging his picture of the American flag would offend another student.
The Butterfield Elementary School is at the center of controversy for the incident on Monday. According to Frankie Girard’s father, John, the boy was in art class drawing a picture.
"He was denied hanging the flag up. And, he asked if he could just even hang it on his desk, and he was told no. He could take the picture that he drew and take it home and be proud of it there,” Girard said.
22News tried to contact the Superintendent, Dr. Paul Burnim. He refused to go on camera, but told 22News over the phone that nobody ever told Franklin the drawing was offensive, and said the only reason it wasn't hung was because Franklin was supposed to be doing other work; not drawing a picture.
FYI, this is how I imagine all liberals.
http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/franklin/Controversy-over-child's-flag-drawing (http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/franklin/Controversy-over-child's-flag-drawing)QuoteThe family of Frankie Girard is claiming that their son's civil rights were violated after a teacher allegedly told him that hanging his picture of the American flag would offend another student.
The Butterfield Elementary School is at the center of controversy for the incident on Monday. According to Frankie Girard’s father, John, the boy was in art class drawing a picture.
"He was denied hanging the flag up. And, he asked if he could just even hang it on his desk, and he was told no. He could take the picture that he drew and take it home and be proud of it there,” Girard said.
:rofl
:piss Self loathing libruls
From that article:Quote22News tried to contact the Superintendent, Dr. Paul Burnim. He refused to go on camera, but told 22News over the phone that nobody ever told Franklin the drawing was offensive, and said the only reason it wasn't hung was because Franklin was supposed to be doing other work; not drawing a picture.
Patriotism, the last refuge of ascoundrelslacker.
Frankie's father told 22News that he is so outraged that he placed a call to the American Civil Liberties Union.
:rofl
Ewww...a gay touched my SUV. Thank Jesus I was doing 75 mph!
9 times out of 10, when parents get hot under the collar about something a teacher did or said to their child, it's usually because the parents are mouth-breathing idiots and not because the teacher did anything reprehensible.
"Our precious angel would NEVER do anything wrong! It must be the fault of that HORRIBLE [America-hating] teacher!"QuoteFrankie's father told 22News that he is so outraged that he placed a call to the American Civil Liberties Union.
:rofl
why the fuck is fox news going after one of my favorite musicians
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/16/6653781-trump-not-running-for-president
What a shock. ::)
So do we get an apology from the media for wasting time on this.
Trump will forever be known as that guy Obama clowned before killing Bin Laden
Trump will forever be known as that guy Obama clowned before killing Bin Laden
Trump will forever be known as that guy Obama clowned before killing Bin Laden
We need a little Facebook thumbs up emoticon.
Trump will forever be known as that guy Obama clowned before killing Bin Laden
OOPS! Historic 'Spending Cut' Bill Increased Spending By $3 Billion
Brian Beutler | May 16, 2011, 6:19PM 190
Republicans stormed Capitol Hill in January vowing to slash discretionary spending by $100 billion right off the bat. In their pledge to America, they promised that, "[w]ith common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone."
As time went on, it became clear that they wouldn't get the whole loaf, and the key question became: How many billions of dollars in spending would Democrats agree to cut, without risking massive Republican defections, and, perhaps, a protracted government shutdown?
A few weeks after they cut the deal, we have an answer. It turns out the six-month spending bill Congress passed in March increased discretionary outlays through the remainder of the fiscal year by a bit over $3 billion. In other words, total direct spending will be higher by the end of September than if Congress had just set spending on autopilot for the remainder of the fiscal year back in April.
"Total discretionary outlays in 2011 will be $3.2 billion higher as a result of the legislation, CBO estimates--an increase of $7.5 billion for defense programs, partially offset by a net reduction of $4.4 billion in other spending," reads a just-released report from the Congressional Budget Office -- Congress' non-partisan scorekeeper. Analysts there conclude that increase is due in large part to the fact that the six month spending bill shifted defense spending to more immediate activities, which means the bills will come due sooner than later.
When the deal went down in early April, both Democrats and Republicans characterized it as a historic spending cut bill -- a triumph of bipartisanship and the first time in memory that the government significantly reduced spending. But the approximately $38 billion in advertised cuts spanned the entire federal budget, including locked-in "mandatory" spending programs, and it reflected reductions in "budget authority" -- how much the government is allowed to spend -- as opposed to projected "outlays" -- how much the government truly will spend. When viewed more narrowly -- how many fewer dollars will the government spend this year as a result of this bill -- the results flip.
Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), explains on the Speaker's blog "The effect on outlays (based on how quickly the administration spends money) meanwhile is slowed due to increased and accelerated spending for our men and women in uniform. As the CBO puts it, 'part of the reason ...is that some defense funding was shifted from slower-spending to faster-spending activities.'"
Before Congress passed the six month spending bill, a similar analysis found that the deal would only cut domestic discretionary spending by about $350 million this fiscal year. House GOP leaders actually invited conservative economist Doug Holtz-Eakin up to the Hill at the zero-hour to forestall a major revolt within their caucus. When you add the new defense spending numbers, the picture changes further.
"CBO had previously estimated that the full-year appropriation act will yield a net reduction of $0.4 billion in nonemergency outlays in 2011," the report says. "The comparison shown here is different: It includes emergency appropriations, excludes the effects of changes in mandatory programs, and incorporates adjustments to various estimating parameters that were applied to the appropriation act to make them consistent with the March 2011 baseline."
A footnote at the end of the report notes, "The extrapolation of 2011 appropriations does not include the effect of changes in mandatory programs that were included in the full-year appropriation act.... The net effect of such changes to mandatory programs over the 2012-2021 period is close to zero."
Republicans have pointed out fairly that reducing budget authority will reduce spending in the coming fiscal year. And overall, CBO finds that the bill Congress passed in April will result in about $122 billion in aggregate spending cuts over 10 years -- and $183 billion in reduced budget authority. "
- ne thing is clear: congressional Republicans were able to save American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in the long term," Buck writes
But that's just to say that in their first bite at the apple, Republicans got done in a 10 year time-frame a bit more than they hoped to accomplished by September. Ouch.
The Republican party is such a joke.
I'd love to read one of those bitchy tell-alls about the failed Gingrich campaign, where advisers all anonymously blame each other, but I don't think he'll get far enough to warrant the book treatment.
“He’s probably one of the most dangerous people for the future of this country that you can possibly imagine. He’s Richard Nixon, glib. It doesn’t matter how much good I do the rest of my life, I can’t ever outweigh the evil that I’ve caused by helping him be elected to Congress.”
I'd love to read one of those bitchy tell-alls about the failed Gingrich campaign, where advisers all anonymously blame each other, but I don't think he'll get far enough to warrant the book treatment.
The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment's cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won't be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/05/inside_the_mind_of_newt.php?ref=fpblg
I'd love to read one of those bitchy tell-alls about the failed Gingrich campaign, where advisers all anonymously blame each other, but I don't think he'll get far enough to warrant the book treatment.
Well if it's anything like this, I'll buy as many copies as possible to finance an HBO miniseriesQuoteThe literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment's cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won't be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/05/inside_the_mind_of_newt.php?ref=fpblg
The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment's cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won't be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.
So I just heard Obama just endorsed 1967 Israel/Palestine borders. Is that true, I'm at work
Aaaaand here's Bibi calling a return to the 67 borders "indefensible". Cue up the AIPAC freak out machine and every Republican questioning Obama's commitment to killing Arabs.
Or more Surfer Rosa than Doolittle? For those of us older than 25 and not black.
Or more Surfer Rosa than Doolittle? For those of us older than 25 and not black.
Fixed because Doolittle is the best
Dunno, after finding him a disappointment* (if only against his transformative potential) Obama has been rocking it this last month or two, whether it's a finally intelligent moderate middle east policy or clowning TEH DONALD, he seems like he has his mojo back.
I don't know how many times I've seen people say this. If this are going well, it's because of some fluke. Obama does some things right, some things wrong. He's a mediocre president. But it's not helping that a substantial portion of the American people are a bunch of lowly, anxiety-ridden, gun-clinging, bible-clenching, reality-denying freaks.
"It's going to take a while for the news media to realize that you're covering something that happens once or twice in a century, a genuine grass-roots campaign of very big ideas," said Gingrich. "I expect it to take a while for it to sink in."
"This is going to be a campaign that constantly changes, that constantly evolves," said Gingrich.
On Sunday, Gingrich told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Ryan's plan to replace Medicare with a voucher system was a radical change that he opposed. On Tuesday, Gingrich called Ryan to apologize for his comments.
I don't think any serious Republican contender will run in 2012, preferring to wait until 2016, gambling on the prospect that the teabagger movement will be dead or near dead at that time. Any Republican that isn't extreme right or has worked with a Democrat once in their 20-30+ years in politics will get roasted, having to explain away their horrible misdeeds of working with socialists ad infinitum. All that does is leave clowns like Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich, the bottom feeders that would get 1-2% in the primaries at any other time in less than recent GOP history.
Not that I feel sorry for them. They chose to let teabaggers run wild and now they effectively run the party. Now they're going to have to deal with the consequences.
I don't think any serious Republican contender will run in 2012, preferring to wait until 2016, gambling on the prospect that the teabagger movement will be dead or near dead at that time. Any Republican that isn't extreme right or has worked with a Democrat once in their 20-30+ years in politics will get roasted, having to explain away their horrible misdeeds of working with socialists ad infinitum. All that does is leave clowns like Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich, the bottom feeders that would get 1-2% in the primaries at any other time in less than recent GOP history.
Not that I feel sorry for them. They chose to let teabaggers run wild and now they effectively run the party. Now they're going to have to deal with the consequences.
Fringe candidates have excelled during the earliest parts of republican primaries before, that's nothing new or exclusive to this election.
I'd say Romney, Pawlenty, Huntsman, and Daniels are serious contenders and they're all running. But they all seem to have some major flaw that will hurt them in the primary or in the general...except for Pawlenty. Which is why I think he'll get the nomination; at some point the anti-Romney religious right folks are going to pick their man, and it has to be Pawlenty.
Obama is vulnerable; the economy is improving slowly, but there's no telling how much it will improve by October 2012, or how the public will perceive the economy's progress by then. I think Romney could have been a potent threat if he wasn't such a flip flopping mess. Daniels could be dangerous, and of course Huntsman is a solid candidate - or was until he declared the Ryan budget to be the best thing ever.
GOP primary voters aren't making the Ryan budget a litmus test. Newt's problem was his tone.
Pawlenty isn't a serious contender. He has all the charisma of a wet sock. Huntsman has to explain the whole working for the enemy thing, and he's the mormon without all the money in the fight. Good luck with that.
Daniels might be dangerous if he cared enough, but apparently he's a crappy campaigner and doesn't like actually campaigning. Which leaves us with Romney, which is where the GOP will end up anyway. Barring another economic disastrophe Obama will beat Mittens. Unemployment is currently at 8.7% and still dropping; stupid deficit rage will probably dissipate as people realize the alternatives are gutting entitilements or, god forbid, raising taxes on the rich. Romney will be forced to constantly tack to the right during the primaries and then try to moderate during the general- he'll end up having to explain himself so much it will be hilarious.
Of course, the GOP will almost surely keep the House and will probably win the Senate too due to the number of Dem seats up for election this cycle. Which will make Obama even more ineffective... he hasn't been, really, but wait until the GOP is smarting from not beating him. He'll get impeached for being black or something, wait and see.
Honestly, the real fun of this election will be in figuring out who the Teatard alternative to Romney is and watching how long they stay in the race. I'm hoping for a '92 Buchanan-esque party split all the way up to the convention. I bet Michelle Bachmann could pull it off.
Ironically, Jeb would be a slam-dunk if Dubya hadn't ruined the brand.
The fact that he's half latino will help out, especially in states like Texas, that will probably have moved from solidly Republican to leaning Republican due to the rising hispanic populations there.
The fact that he's half latino will help out, especially in states like Texas, that will probably have moved from solidly Republican to leaning Republican due to the rising hispanic populations there.
http://www.handresearch.com/news/us-presidents/president-george-h-w-bush-and-barbara-bush-waving-hands.jpg
lolwut?spoiler (click to show/hide)But yeah, his wife is Mexican-American and he's got a much better appreciation of the value of latino voters than most in the current GOP.[close]
It's hard to imagine republicans getting their act together with the Hispanic vote anytime soon. They've invested so much in making older white people mad over the last 50 years they can't simply pivot from that strategy overnight. They better hurry up though. The 2010 census showed booming Hispanic growth in southern states like Virginia, NC, etc - traditionally red states that are turning blue.
Good article on Pawlenty's money problem
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/88802/tim-pawlenty-republicans-2012-campaign-problem-money?page=0,0
If the establishment is going to give him a shot, they better start soon before he gets swamped by Romney's cash.
I'm not buying the George P Bush kool aid just yet. He's currently in the military (:teehee) and hasn't entered politics yet. Gonna wait and see how he pans out. I doubt his name will become significantly less toxic either. Pretty sure we can honestly saw W was one of the worst president's in modern history
Huckabee will win Iowa much like he did in 2008, barring some huge disaster on his part.
Huckabee will win Iowa much like he did in 2008, barring some huge disaster on his part.
A disaster like not running?
Nevertheless, the latest poll shows Democrat Kathy Hochul with a slight lead over Republican Jane Corwin in the race to succeed Republican Chris Lee. Lee resigned in February after shirtless photos surfaced that he'd sent to a woman on Craigslist.:lol
The poll shows Tea Party candidate Jack Davis a distant third.:lol
Davis' candidacy has further complicated matters for Republicans in a district that has many Tea Party supporters. Local GOP leaders tried to make hay of an eyebrow-raising encounter between Davis and a videographer Davis appeared to shove after the videographer taunted him for refusing to appear in a debate with Hochul and Corwin. The GOP tried to use the video to paint Davis as a bully.
But it backfired when the videographer turned out to be Corwin's chief of staff.:rofl
Tim Pawlenty has announced that he's running.Anecdotal evidence incoming...
I think he won't get anywhere: he's a virtual nobody to most people. The right wing media is going to have to work their asses off to get people to even know who the fuck the guy is. At least with people like Bush, McCain, or Giuliani, there wasn't that problem. He'll probably get steamrolled by the Romney money making machine and slink away quietly after poor Iowa and New Hampshire performances.
Regarding hispanics, the problem for the GOP is that they're the fastest growing group in the US and threatens to make solid red states into potential swing states. As fun as it would be to imagine them shrinking away due to demographics, they're a major party and will sooner make attempts to bring more hispanics into the fold. For what it's worth, I thought Bush did an ok job trying to warm them up to the idea of going Republican. The teatards shattered that though and they have to start from scratch. In 10-15 years, the GOP will have a moment of truth: shrink to nothingness or try to bring in some brown people. They'll probably try the latter route. George P. Bush is half latino and the last name is recognizable name to the red states. Knowing the US and their amnesiac tendencies, the Bush brand will be usable again at that time.
I'm guessing here but I'm just sayin'.
Tim Pawlenty has announced that he's running.Anecdotal evidence incoming...
I think he won't get anywhere: he's a virtual nobody to most people. The right wing media is going to have to work their asses off to get people to even know who the fuck the guy is. At least with people like Bush, McCain, or Giuliani, there wasn't that problem. He'll probably get steamrolled by the Romney money making machine and slink away quietly after poor Iowa and New Hampshire performances.
Regarding hispanics, the problem for the GOP is that they're the fastest growing group in the US and threatens to make solid red states into potential swing states. As fun as it would be to imagine them shrinking away due to demographics, they're a major party and will sooner make attempts to bring more hispanics into the fold. For what it's worth, I thought Bush did an ok job trying to warm them up to the idea of going Republican. The teatards shattered that though and they have to start from scratch. In 10-15 years, the GOP will have a moment of truth: shrink to nothingness or try to bring in some brown people. They'll probably try the latter route. George P. Bush is half latino and the last name is recognizable name to the red states. Knowing the US and their amnesiac tendencies, the Bush brand will be usable again at that time.
I'm guessing here but I'm just sayin'.
Out of all the hispanics I know here in Texas, I'd say about 80 percent are hardcore teatard/republican. They might not agree with the immigration bills, but they're sucking on that deficit/lazy entitlements teat of the party. Not to mention the Family Values© shit that comes with being highly religious and is hypocritically spouted by the right wing movement. I'd put money on any election that isn't centered around immigration reforms, they'll vote Republican most likely.
More like Paul 'The republican killer' Ryan. 2012 is gonna be a blood bath. Any chance of Dem's getting the super majority back?Not likely. Too many Dem seats up for grabs this election.
Dude, every hispanic I know has at least one relative or friend or WAS illegal. Shit, Luis didn't get his citizenship until high school.
At his weekly Capitol briefing with reporters Tuesday, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) confirmed what aides in both parties have been telling reporters: Cuts to Medicare will be on the table in deficit and debt limit negotiations, led by Vice President Joe Biden.
So the Senate took the vote today. Failed 57-40:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55721.html
Now let's consider how our tax system today compares with the system that was in place in the late 1980s—when the deficit was only about one-quarter as large as a share of GDP as it is now. After the landmark Tax Reform Act of 1986, which closed special-interest loopholes in exchange for top marginal rates of 28%, the highest combined federal-state marginal tax rate was about 33%.
I like how the article suggests Obama and Bush are clearly more alike than many would believe because they both went to Ivy league schools. The C student and the Harvard Law Review head, joined at the hip.
There's a difference between Obama talking off the cuff and say, Sarah Palin talking off the cuff. And that's all that needs to be said
It's a typical white privilege argument: a black man cannot achieve anything without being the beneficiary of some advantage a white man is not privy to. Donald Trump sort of started this with his questions over Obama's school records; while republicans in the past raised the issue to question Obama's college age views or who paid for his education, Trump argued Obama was a poor student and didn't deserve to get into Harvard. Which of course insinuates that Obama, who became head of the Harvard Law Review, only got into a premier law school because he's black
And of course any pushback against the argument results in the classic "hey now, you brought race into this discussion not me!" retort.
Remember back in 08 when one of McCain's talking points was that while Obama is a great speaker, he's wrong for the country blah blah blah? Now republicans can't even acknowledge something like that, or give Obama any type of compliment. It's all apart of this long running attempt to dehumanize him at every cost. McCain played along with that too, I'm not denying it, but at least he had some sense of decency.
Speaking of right wing outrage, a good article written by Rolling Stone regarding Fox News' Roger Ailes. (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-roger-ailes-built-the-fox-news-fear-factory-20110525?page=1) It's a 13 page read but it's worth reading!
I almost forgot: the latest and greatest manufactured GOP outrage of the day. (http://www.mediaite.com/online/la-times-columnist-obamas-pauses-while-speaking-due-to-%E2%80%98intellectual-stammer%E2%80%99/)
This kind of conflicts with the GOP's earlier assumption that Obama did horribly in school so there are some conservatard blogs and twatter accounts that were alight over this story.
Pawlenty should grow a beard. Anything to make him stand out, and ensure my bet on him winning the nom comes true
Pawlenty should grow a beard. Anything to make him stand out, and ensure my bet on him winning the nom comes true
And who's that way in the back just to the left of Reagan's head? I'd swear it was Edgar Allen Poe.Kinda looks like Grant
Nah, I mean waaaay in the back, the head immediately to the left of Reagan's (and two to the right of Grant's).
who's the guy in the bench supposed to be
who's the guy in the bench supposed to be
The white guy that didn't get into Harvard so that Obama's under achieving ass made it in. Affirmative action ruined his life, now he sucks dick in rest stop bathrooms for five dollar bills to feed his crack addiction.
I do have to say, I'm somewhat surprised the Reps cast out Teddy Roosevelt. I imagine Lincoln's too well respected in elementary school history books to snub, at least for now.
George Washington bowing before a black man
:bow
So ... that picture means we should spend more money helping the homeless, right?
George Washington bowing before a black man
:bow
I think that is James Madison.
I do have to say, I'm somewhat surprised the Reps cast out Teddy Roosevelt. I imagine Lincoln's too well respected in elementary school history books to snub, at least for now.
In 1912, one of Roosevelt's big campaign platforms was socialized health care. He may as well be Lenin.
Romney reaffirms stance that global warming is real (http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/06/04/romney_reaffirms_stance_that_global_warming_is_real/?page=2)
I won't get many chances to do this, so props to Mitt Romney.
Romney reaffirms stance that global warming is real (http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/06/04/romney_reaffirms_stance_that_global_warming_is_real/?page=2)
I won't get many chances to do this, so props to Mitt Romney.
Conceding man has "some" impact on climate change is not a particularly brave position; have any of the major candidates said man has absolutely no impact on climate change?. I can't give him props for admitting the sun rises. It's like the scientific equivalent of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzFTLKWvfE0&t=2m15s)
him and Feingold on the same ticket just has a pleasing sound, don't it.
him and Feingold on the same ticket just has a pleasing sound, don't it.
Still hard to swallow that Feingold lost :usacry
“Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.”
So says an unnamed “ally” of former British Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher about Sarah Palin’s wishes to meet with the Iron Lady, according to the Guardian.
The former Republican vice-presidential nominee recently told the Sunday Times that she hopes to meet Thatcher in England later this summer while on her way to Sudan in July.
“I am just hoping Mrs. Thatcher is well enough to see me as I so admire her,” Palin said.
But the Independent points out that the 85-year-old Thatcher has stopped making public appearances due to poor health and “is seldom at home for guests.” She even missed her own 85th-birthday celebration.
An aide told the paper, “Nowadays, the Lady rarely meets people at all. If a meeting went ahead it would be very much low-key, and would very much depend on how things were on the day. We don't make firm appointments for this sort of meeting."
Given that "low-key" events aren't really Palin's style, a meeting of the two women seemed unlikely from the start.
The former prime minister will, however, attend the July 4 unveiling of a statue of Ronald Regan outside the United States Embassy in London.
The Guardian’s source seemed to reiterate that this will not be an opportunity for Palin to meet Thatcher: “Margaret is focusing on Ronald Reagan and will attend the unveiling of the statue. That is her level.”
WASHINGTON (AP) - AP sources: Senior aides on Gingrich presidential campaign resign en masse
At least he wasn't being treated for cancer when his staff abandoned him.
Just saw human centipede. Best metaphor for socialism ever.
:lolJust saw human centipede. Best metaphor for socialism ever.
Uh...wouldn't it actually be a metaphor for capitalism?
Guy on top gets the food, everybody else gets da poopoo.
Just saw human centipede. Best metaphor for socialism ever.
Uh...wouldn't it actually be a metaphor for capitalism?
Guy on top gets the food, everybody else gets da poopoo.
Just saw human centipede. Best metaphor for socialism ever.
Uh...wouldn't it actually be a metaphor for capitalism?
Guy on top gets the food, everybody else gets da poopoo.
Just saw human centipede. Best metaphor for socialism ever.
Uh...wouldn't it actually be a metaphor for capitalism?
Guy on top gets the food, everybody else gets da poopoo.
All of the justices talk about "legalese" in disparaging terms, and many refer to great fiction writers as masters of language.
"The only good way to learn about writing is to read good writing," says Chief Justice John Roberts.
That sentiment is echoed by Breyer, who points to Proust, Stendhal and Montesquieu as his inspirations. Justice Anthony Kennedy loves Hemingway, Shakespeare, Solzhenitsyn, Dickens and Trollope.
Justice Thomas says a good legal brief reminds him of the TV show 24. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says one of the great influences on her writing was her European literature professor at Cornell, Vladimir Nabokov — yes, the same Nabokov who later rocked the literary world with his widely acclaimed novel Lolita.
[youtube=560,345]JTzMqm2TwgE[/youtube]
Setting aside for a moment the "omg teh moveon is teh LIBRUL BIAS" thing, can someone explain to me how all of the facts in this video aren't, you know, FACTS and the conclusion is pretty self-evident?
Setting aside for a moment the "omg teh moveon is teh LIBRUL BIAS" thing, can someone explain to me how all of the facts in this video aren't, you know, FACTS and the conclusion is pretty self-evident?
As of 2006 (the last year for which trend data are available), real median annual household income had not yet returned to its 1999 peak, making this decade one of the longest downturns ever for this widely-accepted measure of the middle-class standard of living. Over a longer time period, the picture is much brighter; since 1970, median household income has risen by 41%.
If you draw a line from 1970 to 2006 .. it paints a different picture.
If you draw a line from 1970 to 2006 .. it paints a different picture.
Here is that picture. (http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/pages/interactive#/?start=1970&end=2006)
Fuck, why do I even bother.
It's already the talk of the life-deprived political world. Down at the Republican Leadership Conference today an "Obama" impersonator was part of the festivities. And when he came up on stage it got so bad with questionably appropriate jokes that the organizers of the conference themselves escorted him from the stage before he could finish his act.http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/06/fun_times_at_the_republican_leadership_counference.php#more?ref=fpblg
(http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/2722/TMW2011-06-22colorKOS.png)
10k troops out of Afghanistan this year
33k troops out of Afghanistan by next Summer
Barely a month ago, you might recall, Gov. Nathan Deal welcomed the TV cameras into his office as he proudly signed HB 87 into law. Two weeks later, with farmers howling, a scrambling Deal ordered a hasty investigation into the impact of the law he had just signed, as if all this had come as quite a surprise to him.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2011/06/17/gas-farm-labor-crisis-playing-out-as-planned/QuoteBarely a month ago, you might recall, Gov. Nathan Deal welcomed the TV cameras into his office as he proudly signed HB 87 into law. Two weeks later, with farmers howling, a scrambling Deal ordered a hasty investigation into the impact of the law he had just signed, as if all this had come as quite a surprise to him.
:rofl
i can't believe it passed!
Fuck, why do I even bother.
QuoteThe US could withdraw funding from the United Nations if its members decide to recognise and independent Palestinian state, a close ally of President Barack Obama has warned. Susan Rice, the American ambassador to the UN, said there was "no greater threat" to US support and funding of the UN than the prospect of Palestinian statehood being endorsed by member states...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/8597559/US-could-withdraw-funding-from-UN-if-Palestine-state-is-recognised.html
I'm not the only one that expected something different from the Obama administration, am I?
Omg. Grover Norquist on Colbert is (shocku) a tremendous scumbag. He quite literally implied that it's okay for grandma to die than to raise taxes on the top 2%. Holy shit. :lol
If the only way you can avoid something is by increasing inequality, then yeah, maybe you can't justify it.
Omg. Grover Norquist on Colbert is (shocku) a tremendous scumbag. He quite literally implied that it's okay for grandma to die than to raise taxes on the top 2%. Holy shit. :lol
If the only way you can avoid something is by increasing inequality, then yeah, maybe you can't justify it.
Why should tax be "fair"?
Why shouldn't it be?
All government action should be fair; the goal should be to treat all of its citizens equitably.
Why should tax be "fair"?
Why shouldn't it be?
All government action should be fair; the goal should be to treat all of its citizens equitably.
Treating a guy on the street who doesn't have a job or a home exactly the same as a guy that lives in a huge mansion and makes a billion dollars a year kind of misses the point.
Misses the point? Treating them the same IS the point.
Mostly because that depends on what is the text of "the Civil Rights Act" - considering we have had several historically, and / you could be referring to some theoretical future act...
but somehow when it comes to taxes you want nice things and you want them "free" (for others to buy them for you).
I could have sworn Mandark explained this a few pages back, or it might have been Prole on facebook. I'm about to pass out from hunger, can't think straight
wait, when did "fair" get repurposed to mean "people with unequal economic stature pay an equal percentage in taxes"
I'm willing to have an honest discussion with conservatives on most issues, but when someone comes out as a flat-tax advocate, that's when I know for sure that their opinions aren't really worth discussing, and that they really haven't thought about the real-world ramifications of any of their ideas (or just don't care what those ramifications would be).
I'm willing to have an honest discussion with conservatives on most issues, but when someone comes out as a flat-tax advocate, that's when I know for sure that their opinions aren't really worth discussing, and that they really haven't thought about the real-world ramifications of any of their ideas (or just don't care what those ramifications would be).
jaydubya plays pseudo-pragmatist and mooncalf ideologue with a wonderfully bipolar rhythm
If we shared all the money in the world equally, we'd all have about $860.
Actually all I'm contending is that one pays their share by paying, you know, their share.A world without relativity. Brought to you by JayDubya
When you're taxing things by percentage, if you have more or if you do more of what is being taxed, you kind of end up paying more tax. Kind of how a percentage works. Math. Crazy.
the one that gets me, though, is the finger-pointing by the clearly privileged (i.e. anyone with enough to squander on the internets) at that largely fictional bugbear of an undercaste individual who "just wants something for nothing." of course, it's a fundamentally racist thing: the first image that leaps to their minds is that of a fhett-bound black dude...
Actually? You know what I first imagine at this point? You guys.
You want expensive government programs, and you want others to pay for them. It's totally cool in your minds to play off the ability to exploit the majority into voting themselves a raise at the expense of others, over and over again.
Of course, we won't see any political game theorists here ranting about how this is illogical. When middle-income folks vote against raising the taxes of upper-income folks, they're just crazy and voting against their own interest, it surely couldn't be out of principle. When upper-income folks vote for raising the taxes of upper-income folks, that's just being principled, of course.
I wouldn't say it's from being unprincipled, I'd say it's from being naive and misinformed. And there are plenty of polls of Americans regarding the US budget, wealth distribution, history and current politics that back up my theory on them being misinformed.
f course, we won't see any political game theorists here ranting about how this is illogical. When middle-income folks vote against raising the taxes of upper-income folks, they're just crazy and voting against their own interest, it surely couldn't be out of principle. When upper-income folks vote for raising the taxes of upper-income folks, that's just being principled, of course.
Tax revenue is not the only source of government revenue.
You want expensive government programs, and you want others to pay for them. It's totally cool in your minds to play off the ability to exploit the majority into voting themselves a raise at the expense of others, over and over again.
Actually all I'm contending is that one pays their share by paying, you know, their share.
When you're taxing things by percentage, if you have more or if you do more of what is being taxed, you kind of end up paying more tax. Kind of how a percentage works. Math. Crazy.
Jerking off over a Mexican becoming president? You done gone full distinguished mentally-challenged fellow now.
Apparently an elected Democrat thinks an illegal immigrant can be president one day. I bet all you ass cigarillo liberals have wet dreams about that scenario. I'm actually sure that a couple of you guys jerk off to that shit.
"Oh my god we would be soooo progressive."
how were you planning to spank it if john mccain won? there's yer answer, bub
Here was Romney in New Hampshire on Monday:
The people of New Hampshire have waited long enough. They want to see good jobs. They want to see rising incomes. They want to see an economy that's growing again, and the president's failed. He did not cause this recession, but he made it worse.
And he said something similar at the New Hampshire debate earlier this month:
He didn't create the recession, but he made it worse and longer.
But at his press conference today in Allentown, PA -- where he was highlighting a company that had closed, after President Obama touted it benefitting from the stimulus -- Romney backtracked on the he-made-it-worse line.
When NBC producer Sue Kroll asked the former Massachusetts governor why he believes that Obama's policies have made the economy worse -- when the economy is now growing (and not shrinking like it was in 2009), when the Dow is climbing (and no longer in a free-fall like it was in '09), and when the unemployment rate is down a full percentage point from where it was in Oct. '09 -- Romney gave this answer:
I didn't say that things are worse.
A 55-year-old biker protesting New York State’s law requiring helmet use died at a hospital Saturday after striking his head in an accident.
The Associated Press reports that Phillip A. Contos of Parish, N.Y., was riding with others through the town of Onondaga on Saturday afternoon without head protection, to protest the state’s requirement that bikers wear helmets.
State Troopers told the Syracuse Post-Standard that Contos was driving a 1983 Harley Davidson when his bike fishtailed and he flipped over the handlebars, striking his head on the pavement. He was later pronounced dead at Upstate University Hospital. Police say that had he been wearing a helmet, Contos would probably have survived the accident.
The ride was organized in part by ABATE (American Bikers Aimed for Education), according to a local ABC affiliate reporting on the accident. A spokesperson for the group said they didn't know if Contos was a member.
QuoteHere was Romney in New Hampshire on Monday:
The people of New Hampshire have waited long enough. They want to see good jobs. They want to see rising incomes. They want to see an economy that's growing again, and the president's failed. He did not cause this recession, but he made it worse.
But at his press conference today in Allentown, PA -- where he was highlighting a company that had closed, after President Obama touted it benefitting from the stimulus -- Romney backtracked on the he-made-it-worse line.
When NBC producer Sue Kroll asked the former Massachusetts governor why he believes that Obama's policies have made the economy worse -- when the economy is now growing (and not shrinking like it was in 2009), when the Dow is climbing (and no longer in a free-fall like it was in '09), and when the unemployment rate is down a full percentage point from where it was in Oct. '09 -- Romney gave this answer:
I didn't say that things are worse.
“You don’t need foreign policy experience to know who your friends are and who your enemies are. And you don’t need foreign policy experience to know that you don’t tell your enemy what your next move is.”
QuoteHere was Romney in New Hampshire on Monday:
The people of New Hampshire have waited long enough. They want to see good jobs. They want to see rising incomes. They want to see an economy that's growing again, and the president's failed. He did not cause this recession, but he made it worse.
But at his press conference today in Allentown, PA -- where he was highlighting a company that had closed, after President Obama touted it benefitting from the stimulus -- Romney backtracked on the he-made-it-worse line.
When NBC producer Sue Kroll asked the former Massachusetts governor why he believes that Obama's policies have made the economy worse -- when the economy is now growing (and not shrinking like it was in 2009), when the Dow is climbing (and no longer in a free-fall like it was in '09), and when the unemployment rate is down a full percentage point from where it was in Oct. '09 -- Romney gave this answer:
I didn't say that things are worse.
uhhh not that I agree or have any truck for Romney, but doesn't he probably just mean that Obama's policies made the recession worse than it otherwise would have been? worse relative to counterfactual != worse in absolute terms
on that Cain post...I must admit it's kind of weird seeing liberals use caricature black language to sum up everything Cain says. Not that I'm siding with conservatives against Jon Stewart's mockeries, I just find it odd hearing liberals online and irl doing it. Meh
I'm guessing Beardo will be here in 3...2..
yea :fbm
i think liberal or conservative, people just jump at the chance to act like douchebags
I may have entered the Twilight Zone here, but why are Republicans pushing for major cuts to Medicare? :wtf
Edit: It sickens me that the Republican party is pushing for major cuts but won't budge on keeping taxes the same for rich people and it sickens me that the Democrats are giving them exactly that and more. What does that leave us with? :-\
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/giving-away-argument.html
I bet Bill Clinton watches this dude go from disaster to disaster and just laughs. jesus
Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/opinion/05brooks.html (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/opinion/05brooks.html)
Typically not a David Brooks fan, but he really nails the current situation in this one.
Quote from: David BrooksOver the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.
Oddly, Brooks keeps having these epiphanies about Republicans only after they get elected, while stanning shamelessly for them during the campaign build-up. Funny that.
Here is the key paragraph from David Brooks' latest 800-word embarrassment:
"But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative."
Here is how it would have read if David Brooks had a shred of honesty:
But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, Over the past 40 years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.
The first version -- favored by every professional Beltway ball-washer in the media -- permits the David Brookses of the world to continue to play the role of the reasonable, detached witness, merely Observing-With-Alarm the final stages of the complete and completely unforeseeable (No one could have predicted...!) psychotic implosion of his Republican Party.
The second version -- the honest version -- puts Our Mr. Brooks (and the rest of his ilk) at the scene of the crime, squarely behind the wheel and driving the getaway car for the Party of God for virtually his entire adult life.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/giving-away-argument.html
I bet Bill Clinton watches this dude go from disaster to disaster and just laughs. jesus
What's this "the Republicans have already said they'd raise [the debt limit]" stuff? Specifically, what is "the Republicans" synecdoche for in this case? Sure, some of the leadership said they want to raise it, but even now there's a ton of doubt about whether they can get even half their caucus to vote for it.
Which means we've a liberal blogger being either dumb or dishonest (and Digby's too smart for the first) just to make the administration look super extra spineless, so that they and their readership can feel strong and principled by comparison, without ever having to accomplish even so much as a win with the local zoning board.
Political activism as sports talk radio sucks. Don't be a JayDubya.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/opinion/05brooks.html (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/opinion/05brooks.html)
Typically not a David brokks fan, but he really nails the current situation in this one.
What happens if you do what he’s saying, is then you can’t lower tax rates. So it does affect marginal tax rates. In order to lower marginal tax rates, you have to take away those loopholes so you can lower those tax rates. If you want to do what we call being revenue neutral … If you take a deal like that, you’re necessarily requiring tax rates to be higher for everybody. You need lower tax rates by going after tax loopholes. If you take away the tax loopholes without lowering tax rates, then you deny Congress the ability to lower everybody’s tax rates and you keep people’s tax rates high.
QuoteWhat happens if you do what he’s saying, is then you can’t lower tax rates. So it does affect marginal tax rates. In order to lower marginal tax rates, you have to take away those loopholes so you can lower those tax rates. If you want to do what we call being revenue neutral … If you take a deal like that, you’re necessarily requiring tax rates to be higher for everybody. You need lower tax rates by going after tax loopholes. If you take away the tax loopholes without lowering tax rates, then you deny Congress the ability to lower everybody’s tax rates and you keep people’s tax rates high.
http://dailykos.com/story/2011/07/05/991552/-GOP-tax-cut-obsession:-David-Brooks-versus-Paul Ryan?detail=hide&via=blog_1
With that in mind, I find it odd the WH is willing to sell the farm and kitchen sink to get congress to do something they're going to do anyway. I have no problem with the general idea of using this to get spending cuts; it also lines up with Obama's pledge to cut significant amounts of the deficit in his first term. But they're talking about more than a trillion in cuts and the GOP is still not happy. Nor are they willing to make the apparent trade Obama would like to make: spending cuts for irrelevant populist loophole stuff; this almost reminds me of republicans arguing health care costs were all about tort reform during that debate. Hell, republicans won't even agree to an employers payroll tax cut. That's why Digby is calling bs here, as are others.
With that in mind, I find it odd the WH is willing to sell the farm and kitchen sink to get congress to do something they're going to do anyway. I have no problem with the general idea of using this to get spending cuts; it also lines up with Obama's pledge to cut significant amounts of the deficit in his first term. But they're talking about more than a trillion in cuts and the GOP is still not happy. Nor are they willing to make the apparent trade Obama would like to make: spending cuts for irrelevant populist loophole stuff; this almost reminds me of republicans arguing health care costs were all about tort reform during that debate. Hell, republicans won't even agree to an employers payroll tax cut. That's why Digby is calling bs here, as are others.
Mandark's probably gonna internet kill me for this, but what the heck.
It's hard to imagine Obama being a horrendously shitty negotiator 2 years into his term. Going in with such naivete the first few times is one thing, when one might have been under the impression that you're dealing with actual grown ups. But when the Reps fuck you over for the 2oth time, you really start to wonder.
The possibility that Obama (and his entire administration) is the most incompetent negotiator(s) in history very unlikely. Therefore it leads me to believe a second, possibly more depressing theory. That Obama caves in to Republican demands, not because he has to, but because he wants to.
To be honest, to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire or to close loopholes, let alone raising taxes on top of that, is to go up against a strong anti-tax current that has been raging for 40+ years. It takes a leader with a lot of balls (even with generous public support like there is now) to swim against that current and let's be honest, Obama ain't that guy.
To be honest, to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire or to close loopholes, let alone raising taxes on top of that, is to go up against a strong anti-tax current that has been raging for 40+ years. It takes a leader with a lot of balls (even with generous public support like there is now) to swim against that current and let's be honest, Obama ain't that guy.
WTF are you talking about?
Shorter PD: Obama has all the leverage, because he can count on Congressional Republicans rationally dealing with the consequences of policy rather than kowtowing to their base.
Yeah ok.
Obama's major legislative accomplishments are the work of bipartisanship.
Obama's major legislative accomplishments are the work of bipartisanship.
wat
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2009-396
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2010-165
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2009-64
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2009-70
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2010-208
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2010-413
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2010-281
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2010-638
PD: Exactly what provisions of the ACA were dropped in order to win Republicans that would have otherwise been supported by all 60 (later 59) Democratic Senators?
Are those things that were specifically to win GOP votes, with the "stronger" options able to carry all 60 Senate Democrats, though?
Mandark, I agree with you on the ACA for the most part, but do you really think Obama needed to cave on the debt ceiling? Sure, I wouldn't put it past Republicans to destroy the economy for political points, but the problem with fucking up the economy is that it would fuck over their base (Wall Street/other richies) as well, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want that to happen.
Even Newt backed down
Quote from: David BrooksOver the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative.
Oddly, Brooks keeps having these epiphanies about Republicans only after they get elected, while stanning shamelessly for them during the campaign build-up. Funny that.
Look, I think Boehner will back down eventually. I think that. But I realize that there are really significant pressures on the other side (which is why you have stuff like Cantor walking away from talks), and I can't be sure how they'll play out. Besides which, if "my opponent doesn't want a default, so I can take a hard line and wait for him to cave" is a logical play for Obama, then it's a logical one for Boehner. Game theory's a bitch.
But getting back to the main point, your whole spiel about Obama taking a naturally bipartisan approach is still just wrong. The administration's strategy for the big priorities has been to give up just enough to get the minimum number of votes needed to pass. There were negotiations with Republicans on the stimulus and health bills, but the negotiations themselves were concessions to moderate Democrats whose votes were needed for the bill. The final ACA was determined by what was necessary to get moderate Dems on board, with Republicans completely shut out of negotiations.
Let's please please please stay away from dumb received wisdom and narratives based on vague personal impressions of celebrities. We've got sports journalism and TMZ for that.
Yes, but saying one thing and doing another is hardly an impeachable offense.
Yes, but saying one thing and doing another is hardly an impeachable offense.
but going to war without congressional approval IS
Who is the United States at war with?
How is the bipartisan point wrong?
Who is the United States at war with?
Libya, unless those are peace bombs they drop every night :spin
Congress should also grow some testicles... if they're gonna have a vote to say they don't support something (bombing Libya) then they should also, you know vote against funding it.
already current law: letting the Bush tax cuts expire after 2012.
already current law: letting the Bush tax cuts expire after 2012.
The Bush cuts expiring is "already current law" like the AMT, the current debt ceiling, and the Medicare doctor reimbursement formula are "already current law".
And sleeping. That's 8 extra hours right there that he could be working, but I guess he's just too lazy. ::)
It sure would be nice to have someone in charge that cared bout job growth... I mean in between golf games and talk show appearances.
It sure would be nice to have someone in charge that cared bout job growth... I mean in between golf games and talk show appearances.
It sure would be nice to have someone in charge that cared bout job growth... I mean in between golf games and talk show appearances.
http://www.good.is/post/half-of-americans-getting-government-aid-swear-they-ve-never-used-government-programs/ (http://www.good.is/post/half-of-americans-getting-government-aid-swear-they-ve-never-used-government-programs/)
Totally in favor of removing the mortgage interest deduction by the way.
It sure would be nice to have someone in charge that cared bout job growth... I mean in between golf games and talk show appearances.
Yes, all he needs to do is flip the cover on the "Job Growth" switch and finally hit it! I mean, why hasn't he hit the "Job Growth" button yet?! Mannn, economies be so easy.
http://www.good.is/post/half-of-americans-getting-government-aid-swear-they-ve-never-used-government-programs/ (http://www.good.is/post/half-of-americans-getting-government-aid-swear-they-ve-never-used-government-programs/)
Totally in favor of removing the mortgage interest deduction by the way.
It sure would be nice to have someone in charge that cared bout job growth... I mean in between golf games and talk show appearances.
Yes, all he needs to do is flip the cover on the "Job Growth" switch and finally hit it! I mean, why hasn't he hit the "Job Growth" button yet?! Mannn, economies be so easy.
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTwpBLzxe4U[/youtube]
http://www.good.is/post/half-of-americans-getting-government-aid-swear-they-ve-never-used-government-programs/ (http://www.good.is/post/half-of-americans-getting-government-aid-swear-they-ve-never-used-government-programs/)
Totally in favor of removing the mortgage interest deduction by the way.
"Well, yes, I have taken government assistance, but I really needed it! All those other people are just being lazy!"
Senate Democrats have drafted a sweeping debt-reduction plan that would slice $4 trillion from projected borrowing over the next decade without touching the expensive health and retirement programs targeted by President Obama.
Instead, Senate Democrats are proposing to stabilize borrowing through sharp cuts at the Pentagon and other government agencies, as well as $2 trillion in new taxes, primarily on families earning more than $1 million year, according to a copy of the plan obtained by The Washington Post.
........
Under the blueprint, the top income tax rate would rise to 39.6 percent for individuals earning more than $500,000 a year and families earning more than $1 million. That group, which constitutes the nation’s richest 1 percent of households, would also pay a 20 percent rate on capital gains and dividends, rather than the 15 percent rate now in effect.
In addition to raising rates for the very wealthiest families, the blueprint proposes to obtain fresh revenue by targeting offshore tax havens and corporate shelters. It would also scale back the array of tax breaks and deductions known as tax expenditures, perhaps by focusing on the wealthiest households, which claim an average of $205,000 in tax breaks each year on average income of $1.1 million.
The blueprint would take nearly $900 billion from the Pentagon over the next decade — the same amount recommended by Obama’s fiscal commission. It would slice more than $350 billion from domestic programs. And it would produce interest savings of nearly $600 billion attributable to reduced borrowing.
Only about $80 billion would be cut from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health programs, and nothing from Social Security. But even without touching those programs, the plan would stabilize borrowing by 2014 and begin pushing the national debt down as a share of the economy.
The obvious answer to our problems is that the rich in this country aren't rich enough.
Obama had proposed to Republicans a "grand bargain" that accomplished a host of individual things that are unpopular on their own, but that just might pass as a huge package jammed through Congress with default looming. Obama offered to put Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts on the table in exchange for a tax hike of roughly $100 billion per year over 10 years. Meanwhile, government spending would be cut by roughly three times that amount. It's no small irony that the party's dogmatic opposition to tax increases is costing the GOP its best opportunity to roll back social programs it has long targeted.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/09/john-boehner-debt-ceiling_n_893952.html
Republicans are now banking on a smaller deficit reduction deal that would still make major cuts, somewhere in the range of $2 trillion.
Beijing (CNN) -- The top U.S. military officer declared Sunday that China "has arrived as a world power," and that previous U.S. descriptions of China as a "rising power" are now a thing of the past.
...
"China today is a different country than it was 10 years ago, and it certainly will continue to change over the next 10 years," Mullen told the audience at Renmin University. "It is no longer a rising power. It has, in fact, arrived as a world power."
In January, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described China as a "rising power."
"The United States is changing as well," Mullen added in his remarks, "as are the context and global order in which both our countries operate. I believe that our dialogue needs to keep pace with these changes. It needs to move from working out the particular issues and conditions of our bilateral relationship to working together to meet broader -- and common -- goals we share."
The chairman touched on some specific concerns, including the growing territorial disputes over the South China Sea and its potentially huge reserves of oil and natural gas.
"It is certainly the United States' expectation that these be worked out by countries ... in a responsible way, so that a specific incident does not rise to a level of miscalculation which could become very dangerous and get out of control," Mullen said.
I think the President's goal is exactly what he says it is: to do Big Things. I just don't think it matters much what the substance of those Big Things are.http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/austerity-aka-eat-your-peas.html
Is Obama really a shoe in for the 2012 nom? Because I think it'd be to the Democratic party's benefit to propel someone else.
He also said he's willing to take a lot of heat from Democrats to get a deal made. Jeez. He undermines his own party at every fucking turn and caters to the right on every issue.
In his press conference on Monday morning, President Barack Obama repeatedly insisted that he was willing to tackle some sacred cows as part of a larger package to raise the debt ceiling. Just how sacred, however, may surprise political observers.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/obama-medicare-eligibility-age_n_894833.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/obama-medicare-eligibility-age_n_894833.html)
According to five separate sources with knowledge of negotiations -- including both Republicans and Democrats -- the president offered an increase in the eligibility age for Medicare, from 65 to 67, in exchange for Republican movement on increasing tax revenues.
The proposal, as discussed, would not go into effect immediately, but rather would be implemented down the road (likely in 2013). The age at which people would be eligible for Medicare benefits would be raised incrementally, not in one fell swoop.
Sources offered varied accounts regarding the seriousness with which the president had discussed raising the Medicare eligibility age. As the White House is fond of saying, nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to. And with Republicans having turned down a "grand" deal on the debt ceiling -- which would have included $3 trillion in spending cuts, including entitlement reforms, in exchange for up to $1 trillion in revenues -- it is unclear whether the proposal remains alive.
"That is one of the things they put on the table as part of a big solution," said one senior Republican Hill aide.
"It was considered in the context of the big deal," added a top Democratic source briefed on the deliberations.
He also said he's willing to take a lot of heat from Democrats to get a deal made. Jeez. He undermines his own party at every fucking turn and caters to the right on every issue.
I don't think there has been a President so willing to shit on his base as often as Obama. Maybe Lyndon Johnson and that is a stretch.
Nevertheless, Obama is in campaign mode and probably assumes that 2012 will provide another Republican victory with them taking over the Senate. So he is doing whatever he can to distance himself from the Democrats so he can make himself more electable. Which is kind of a gamble because the people he's coddling up to want to throw his ass out. Pissing on his base really can't help his chances, who may end up sitting out the election. He sure as shit isn't going to get the kind of support he received in 2008 and I believe deep down that he knows that.
would it be theoretically/formally possible for both parties to nominate the same man/woman?Yes.
There's no chance Obama loses outside of some insane freak event. People who think otherwise are delusional.
I'm thinking about hiring someone right now. That payroll tax holiday sure would help :gloomy
We're just getting the first word on this. So the details may be subject to clarification. But Senate Minority Leader has just suggested the GOP will give President Obama his debt limit increase without any spending cuts with a legislative maneuver that in essence allows Republicans to say it's all Obama's fault.
If that sounds bizarre, well, it is pretty bizarre. But that's what he said. More in a moment.
What the hell?QuoteWe're just getting the first word on this. So the details may be subject to clarification. But Senate Minority Leader has just suggested the GOP will give President Obama his debt limit increase without any spending cuts with a legislative maneuver that in essence allows Republicans to say it's all Obama's fault.
If that sounds bizarre, well, it is pretty bizarre. But that's what he said. More in a moment.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/07/mcconnell_opens_the_escape_hatch.php?ref=fpa
:o
I just finished explaining that Mitch McConnell epic passing of the buck to President Obama amounts to one of the most brazen and open admissions of cynicism I've ever seen. McConnell is saying: Debt, Schmedt, we'll let you do pretty much anything as long as we're got the politics wired to help us. But I spoke too soon because there are at least a few Democrats who are as craven or perhaps simply as weak-minded as McConnell. Sam Stein tweeted that while Redstate is calling for McConnell to be "burned in effigy" one "Dem source" calls McConnell's move that of an "evil genius".http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/07/craven_reign.php?ref=fpblg
Now the idea here is clear enough. All the blame for increasing the national debt falls on Democrats. But really if McConnell's gambit played out it would simply cede to Democrats the ability to govern as they think is best for the country and presumably best for them politically. If they think a serious deficit reduction plan is necessary, they can still pass it. Yes, there are some ins and outs and complications. Republicans could still raise the debt ceiling and not allow the president's party to vote its own debt reduction plan.
At the end of the day though, McConnell's "evil genius" move seems like all it does is make the Democrats go to the public with what they believe is best for the country and be accountable for it. I have a hard time seeing that as being a meaningful threat. Since that's what people who are given the power to govern are supposed to do.
Huge chutzpah points to House Speaker John Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel, who sends along a statement of support for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's byzantine plan to avoid a debt default.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/spox-boehner-agrees-with-mcconnell-that-dems-should-not-be-allowed-to-take-debt-limit-hostage.php
"The Speaker shares the Leader's frustration," Steel says. "Republicans are unified in our commitment to ensuring that the debt limit is not used as leverage to saddle small businesses with increased taxes that destroy jobs."
So it was the Democrats using the debt limit as leverage this whole time? I have a whole bunch of corrections to write. In any case, Democrats would have to buy in to this plan, and they could just as easily keep turning the screws on Republicans and force a showdown over a major 10 year debt and deficit plan, including significant new taxes. But time's running out, and this (or something like it) is potentially a way out for everyone.
How long until multiple tea party GOPers start calling Obama a dictator and demanding impeachment.
he's becoming an emperor, not a dictator, and will hopefully be impeached through fast and furious means anyway :P/
When Obama was concluding the meeting, giving the closing remarks and talking about returning to the White House for a Thursday meeting, Cantor interrupted him and raised for the third time doing the possibility of a short-term extension. At that point, Obama had had enough and shut him down, said, "See you guys tomorrow," and left.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/president-obama-gave-both-sides.php?ref=fpa
Republicans dispute the account, saying it was Obama who lost his cool and stormed out. Cantor's push for a short-term extension, a GOP aide said, was completely warranted because the White House had been "walking back" the savings on the number discussed during the earlier negotiations with Vice President Biden all week.
"Thursday it was $2 trillion, Monday it was $1.7-1.8 trillion, Tuesday it was $1.6-1.7-1.8 trillion," the staffer said. "This morning our staff met with White House folks and the wrap-up from that meeting said that the White House is now at $1.5 trillion."
Given those figures, Cantor pointed out that right now the two sides were very far apart on their goal of reaching $2.4 trillion in savings, which would satisfy minimum House GOP goals. Cantor told the president that he was moving the goal posts, and pressed for s short-term extension.
That's when Obama got visibly angry, telling Cantor that he could reach major savings if Republicans would agree to revenue increases, according to the GOP aide. He then upped the stakes by telling the group that he isn't afraid to veto a bill Congress produces and take the message and defend it to the American people.
Obama also let it be known that he had enough, noting that if U.S. defaults, it would amount to a tax increase on every American.
"I have reached the point where I say enough," Obama told the leaders, according to the account. "Would Ronald Reagan be sitting here? I've reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this."
So allegedly Obama abruptly walked out of today's debt meeting after multiple tense exchanges with Cantor, who then ran to Fox News to tell everyone.QuoteWhen Obama was concluding the meeting, giving the closing remarks and talking about returning to the White House for a Thursday meeting, Cantor interrupted him and raised for the third time doing the possibility of a short-term extension. At that point, Obama had had enough and shut him down, said, "See you guys tomorrow," and left.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/president-obama-gave-both-sides.php?ref=fpa
Republicans dispute the account, saying it was Obama who lost his cool and stormed out. Cantor's push for a short-term extension, a GOP aide said, was completely warranted because the White House had been "walking back" the savings on the number discussed during the earlier negotiations with Vice President Biden all week.
"Thursday it was $2 trillion, Monday it was $1.7-1.8 trillion, Tuesday it was $1.6-1.7-1.8 trillion," the staffer said. "This morning our staff met with White House folks and the wrap-up from that meeting said that the White House is now at $1.5 trillion."
Given those figures, Cantor pointed out that right now the two sides were very far apart on their goal of reaching $2.4 trillion in savings, which would satisfy minimum House GOP goals. Cantor told the president that he was moving the goal posts, and pressed for s short-term extension.
That's when Obama got visibly angry, telling Cantor that he could reach major savings if Republicans would agree to revenue increases, according to the GOP aide. He then upped the stakes by telling the group that he isn't afraid to veto a bill Congress produces and take the message and defend it to the American people.
Obama also let it be known that he had enough, noting that if U.S. defaults, it would amount to a tax increase on every American.
"I have reached the point where I say enough," Obama told the leaders, according to the account. "Would Ronald Reagan be sitting here? I've reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this."
WTF are you talking about?
What has Obama done that's impeachable?
if people still don't have drew on their ignore list, they should.
Sorry, forgot to check this thread. Basically what others have said based on the candidates within the Republican party. But also because I think there will always be turnout for Obama. Anecdotal completely but many people I know seem to think he's some kind of king and everything but him is irrelevant. Same thing they said about Bush.There's no chance Obama loses outside of some insane freak event. People who think otherwise are delusional.please explain
he ignored pentagon lawyers that were telling him he needed congressional approval to start dropping bombs over Libya, when Congress told him that they'd have his blessing he blew them off saying he didn't need them anyway - a violation of the War Powers Act and an act of high Treason since he seems to be taking his orders from the UN nowIf the President does it, it's not illegal!
what i'm talking about here is the ATF (DEA & FBI) Gunwalker scandal, i personally believe that it was from formation a false flag attack meant to attack gun rights here in the States, I don't buy it that Obama knew nothing of the operation, which is the current statement from the White House. Under intensive trial I believe it very well might be Barack right at the tippy top of the totem pole
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html
also by suggesting that you have me on ignore and that others should despite the fact that you DON'T makes you the definition of a hypocrite
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-w7QAEWudQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
I like her hair in that video. It almost distracts me from her crazy eyes and her equally crazy opinions.Why did you have to bring this up, I've watched this twice now looking at her hair. I almost wish it was real.
what i'm talking about here is the ATF (DEA & FBI) Gunwalker scandal, i personally believe that it was from formation a false flag attack meant to attack gun rights here in the States, I don't buy it that Obama knew nothing of the operation, which is the current statement from the White House. Under intensive trial I believe it very well might be Barack right at the tippy top of the totem pole
First, a piece by China Mieville (http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3328/floating_utopias/) that Prole hipped me to on ocean-based, nationality-free utopias.
A parable from seasteading’s past goes some way in explaining. In 1971, millionaire property developer Michael Oliver attempted to establish the Republic of Minerva on a small South Pacific sand atoll. It was soon off-handedly annexed by Tonga, and, in a traumatic actualized metaphor, allowed to dissolve back into the sea. To defeat the predatory outreach of nations and tides, it is clearly not enough to be offshore: True freedom floats.
:rofl :rofl :rofl :hans1
:rofl :rofl :rofl :hans1
it really isn't far fetched, at all, this is how government operates, and this time they got caught with their pants down
by the way nice rebuttal, i look forward to further battles of cognition and wit with thou ::) ::) ::) :dur
even people with experience in those fields don't know what in the hell their masters are up to, as you have just demonstrated perfectly
WASHINGTON -- The Senate's top two officials are working on what one aide called a "hybrid," fail-safe solution to the debt ceiling debate that could garner enough political support to pass Congress.
The plan, which is being hatched by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), would ensure that over $1.5 trillion in cuts over ten years be passed into law. It would also grant President Obama the authority to extend the debt ceiling through the 2012 election season while requiring him to propose -- but allowing him to ultimately veto -- cuts beyond those initial $1.5 trillion.
Additionally, the deal would create a new "deficit commission" compromised solely of lawmakers who would be tasked with finding additional savings in the budget. The commission's recommendations would be given automatic, amendment-free votes in both chambers of Congress.
First reported by The Washington Post, the plan is far from complete. A Republican source on the Hill cautioned not to treat it as an official option, let alone a top one. "There are a lot of people with a lot of ideas," the source said. A Democratic source said that the language -- let alone composition -- of each part of the deal remains un-finalized.
But the contours do, on the surface, seem promising. The basic premise is to blend the debt ceiling deal crafted in talks led by Vice President Joe Biden with the plan that McConnell proposed this week, which would give the president authority to raise the debt ceiling while vetoing corresponding cuts.
As the dual plan is envisioned, House Republicans would be able to claim that they passed a deal without including revenue raisers or tax hikes. The president, meanwhile, will be able to move the debt ceiling debate into 2013, albeit while having to hold a largely pre-determined vote for a second extension (once the $1.5 trillion in cuts run out) before the election. Democrats would have to swallow a deal that didn't include revenues, but they will have protected entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare from cuts.
"It is a hybrid approach," said the Democratic official familiar with the proposal. "It is a way to get us some cuts now while making sure we have an option that we do not default on our debt."
While the concept may seem politically palatable, it could easily fall apart over the specific details. For starters, negotiators are not yet locked in to the actual cuts that have been suggested during the Biden talks. The president, meanwhile, continues to push for a larger package of cuts and reforms. The failure to include revenue increases in the hybrid plan could pose serious problems for Democratic lawmakers. Further, the composition of the deficit commission -- let alone the number of members -- is subject to haggling.
"There is a lot of detail on the commission part not locked," acknowledged one source familiar with the McConnell-Reid talks.
UPDATE: Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) seemed to embrace the idea of combining the McConnell approach with the Biden talks.
"We would like to see, even if we can't get a grand deal, that some real cuts be added to Senator McConnell's proposal and perhaps Senator McConnell's proposal be modified," Schumer said. "That is another possibility, not as good as a larger deal, but certainly better than just avoiding default."
I wish Obama would re-instate the assault weapons ban. Alas he hasn't touched the issue, which you would think would reassure paranoid types like Drew. But noo, any day he's gonna ban em right? He's just waiting for the chance to piss on your freedomz.
I hurried through the teenage hordes, bypassed a concession stand that sold 1,020 calories of soda for $5.25, and entered theater number 30, hoping I'd have ample time before the previews to talk to some people. But inside, the theater was empty. I sat there alone for 20 minutes, at which point an usher stuck his head in the door, gave me a quizzical smile, and said, "How come you're not watching Harry Potter?" Then he left me by myself again, and without any good answer.
...
Jamie Watkins, 22, is a Missouri native, which qualifies her as a real American. She only recently moved to Southern California, and her little sister, Jessie, age 18, was visiting for the first time.
"So, um, what made you come out here tonight?"
"We're going to Disneyland tomorrow," Jamie said, "but she just got here, so we decided we should go out."
"We looked online for the latest movie playing," Jessie added. "But all the Harry Potters were sold out, and then we saw 'The Undeafeated.' We don't even actually know what we're seeing."
"Well welcome to California," I said. "You're about to see a documentary about Sarah Palin."
"Oh, really?" they said, and started giggling again. I think they were expecting an action flick. When I returned to my seat, I thought maybe I'd talk to them after the movie, and get the perspective of two people who went in with no expectations. But they only lasted 20 minutes before walking out.
Shortly before the end of the film, a young couple entered, walked to the back row, started making out, then interrupted their session and left (spoiler alert) as Andrew Breitbart, who made one of several guest appearances, started talking about eunuchs.
You'll know they're actually in trouble in the US when people like Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer start openly gunning for them. That means they no longer are worried about one day potentially needing to be able to work for for Murdoch, so they'll start stating the obvious for a change.
You'll know they're actually in trouble in the US when people like Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer start openly gunning for them. That means they no longer are worried about one day potentially needing to be able to work for for Murdoch, so they'll start stating the obvious for a change.
If that's the case, then maybe everyone in the beltway media will finally start treating Fox News as the propagandizing pieces of shit they really are.
Oh, this is just what Media Matters, George Soros lives for…you can take it to the bank they will dig and dig (and probably make up a few "facts") until they think they can try and take down Fox News. That is their mission in life… and since they incorrectly believe they 'got Glenn Beck', their chests are puffed out like the attack dogs they are. I can see their tongues salavating now!
Obama and the libs will do anything to degrade the reputation the FoxNews. If it wasn't for Fox, Americans would not hear anything about the lies and illegal operations for the Obama regime. There is nothing here. Holder should find out who the illegal gun runners are in the ATF and DOJ. Oops, it might be him.
George Soros sees a chance to take down his chief adversary and continue moving his Communist Empire forward. The Marxist's hate Murdock because he has a media empire that tells the truth. The destruction of NoBama and Soros will be someone telling the truth.
Non-news about a renegade tabloid. So what. Imagine this country without FNC. Implants!
Liberals are swiftly coming out to see if they can silence the most popular news in America. Well, let us see how this comes about. All those jump into the action are indeed supported by Soros financial empire at one time or the other.
Rupert Murdoch will survive all the pin head politicians. Mr. Murdoch was magnificent in 1980's when he did more than any politician to tear down the thugs known as unionists by closeing Fleet St. Plant. Mr. Murdoch you are a champion!
You can bet Soros and his media matters had something to do with this,..the IRS needs to look into media matters…
Well since it is well known that Democrats a liars and will make up anything (or do anything) if they thought it would benefit them politically, I find their claims to be suspect. Someone else will need to make these accusations, the Democrats simply have no credibility and cannot be believed.
this is just a way to rag on FNC and maybe try to knock them off the air or get their broadcat licence revoked.
congress again picking winners and losers the wniners in this case would be nbc cbs abc cnn msnbc the loser would be you guessed it fox news.
they like the days of old when they could tell america how to think
"Let's go back to the fundamental issue," Cain said. "Islam is both a religion and a set of laws -- Sharia laws. That's the difference between any one of our traditional religions where it's just about religious purposes."http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/herman-cain-american-communities-have-the-right-to-ban-mosques.php
Let's see the cult set try to spin this one. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20110719,0,2277465.column)
Let's see the cult set try to spin this one. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20110719,0,2277465.column)
In a sign that former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s campaign is still struggling, Public Policy Polling announced Monday night that Texas Gov. Rick Perry will replace Pawlenty in general election polling match-ups against Pres. Barack Obama.
Pawlenty will still be included in the organization’s Republican primary polls, but his removal from this company’s general election poll match-ups bodes badly for Pawlenty, who has faltered in recent polls, leading some observers to speculate that his campaign is sinking.
A Bachman nomination will be a gop conciliation until 2016. Plus, with the loss of the senate and house seats back to Dems in '012, the public will have shown the referendum on the right's toxic rhetoric/politics. By time '016 rolls around, the Green party will have more of the popular vote than the gop and good riddance.
It's insane how ingrained it is to the lay public that you either vote red or blue. I'm planning on voting Paul if I have to pencil it in.
If he doesn't get the nom, and admittedly that's likely, the best option among what remains will get my support.
There's absolutely fucking no telling what will happen in next year's elections, but I wouldn't put money on the dems regaining the house. They may very well lose the Senate.
JD, do you agree with Grover Norquist that raising taxes EVER AT ALL is basically the same as Auschwitz?
FUCK, I haven't been this angry in awhile.
http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/outrageous-ceo-pay-how-about-lowering-salaries-of-longtime-workers/12426?promo=713&tag=nl.e713 (http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/outrageous-ceo-pay-how-about-lowering-salaries-of-longtime-workers/12426?promo=713&tag=nl.e713)
“We infantilize workers like Joe by insulating them from the harsh economic realities by paying above market wages … and that failure can be corrected by treating Joe as an adult and having him face the market realities.”
FUCK, I haven't been this angry in awhile.Sort of reminds me of this piece I read yesterday:
http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/outrageous-ceo-pay-how-about-lowering-salaries-of-longtime-workers/12426?promo=713&tag=nl.e713 (http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/outrageous-ceo-pay-how-about-lowering-salaries-of-longtime-workers/12426?promo=713&tag=nl.e713)
FUCK, I haven't been this angry in awhile.Sort of reminds me of this piece I read yesterday:
http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/outrageous-ceo-pay-how-about-lowering-salaries-of-longtime-workers/12426?promo=713&tag=nl.e713 (http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/outrageous-ceo-pay-how-about-lowering-salaries-of-longtime-workers/12426?promo=713&tag=nl.e713)
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speed-up-american-workers-long-hours
Except what's good for American business isn't necessarily good for Americans.
If he does try to raise it unilaterally/goes the 14th amendment route, he's really gonna piss off a lot of people whose votes he needs next year. As distinguished mentally-challenged as it sounds, a lot of squishy moderates/independents/people who stroke their chins and take David Brooks articles seriously because he doesn't say "fuck" that I know are really impressed with Obama for continuing to negotiate and make stupid attempts to cut spending because... it's "bipartisan" or something equally distinguished mentally-challenged. When I try to explain to them that this is distinguished mentally-challenged, they refuse to listen because I inevitably call them stupid... and say "fuck" a lot. What a bunch of fucking pussies.
The Republicans will cave, but probably in a manner that results in the Democrats making a series of votes to raise it, so they can repeatedly hang it over their heads come election time.
FUCK, I haven't been this angry in awhile.Sort of reminds me of this piece I read yesterday:
http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/outrageous-ceo-pay-how-about-lowering-salaries-of-longtime-workers/12426?promo=713&tag=nl.e713 (http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/outrageous-ceo-pay-how-about-lowering-salaries-of-longtime-workers/12426?promo=713&tag=nl.e713)
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speed-up-american-workers-long-hours
I think the GOP will cave by mostly Boehner selling out the freshmen teatards.
What's wrong with a two-pronged approach to reducing the deficit? We'll cut the deficit down faster if government revenues are increased while spending is reduced. It doesn't have to be one or the other.
and from there the debate simply lies in arguing over what constitutes the government's "legitimate functions".
What's there to debate? :smug
Need some reference material?
A new challenger has appeared
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=29533607&postcount=6423
post in reference to: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/us/22haboob.html
(A whole page ago? Weak, you know that's my kryptonite.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/23/super-congress-debt-ceiling_n_907887.html
Did someone hack HuffPo or is this real...
Can any armchair political commentators here, comment on Obama's plan to get reelected by not creating jobs? It seems like a gamble, but then again I dont know how liberals think.
Can any armchair political commentators here, comment on Obama's plan to get reelected by not creating jobs? It seems like a gamble, but then again I dont know how liberals think.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/23/super-congress-debt-ceiling_n_907887.html
Did someone hack HuffPo or is this real...
With its Sarah Palin documentary "The Undefeated" increasing its playdates by 40 percent this weekend, only to watch box office revenue decline by more than 63 percent, distributor Arc Entertainment announced Sunday that the film will soon be available on pay per view.
The movie played in 14 Tea Party-friendly locations this weekend -- up from the 10 in which it opened last week -- but grossed just $24,000.
How can she be undefeated if she was fucking defeated ???
QuoteWith its Sarah Palin documentary "The Undefeated" increasing its playdates by 40 percent this weekend, only to watch box office revenue decline by more than 63 percent, distributor Arc Entertainment announced Sunday that the film will soon be available on pay per view.
The movie played in 14 Tea Party-friendly locations this weekend -- up from the 10 in which it opened last week -- but grossed just $24,000.
http://news.yahoo.com/palin-doc-headed-ppv-ticket-sales-plummet-001216822.html
:rofl
How can she be undefeated if she was fucking defeated ???
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OKSP800.htm
Seriously, Scott Walker is like some stupid and obvious Bond villain. Between the phone call, then passing a law that requires photo id to vote (I'm sure JD will explain how that's ok) and now passing a bill TO CLOSE DMV'S IN DEMOCRATIC AREAS SO EVEN IF PEOPLE WANT TO GET PHOTO ID'S TO VOTE IT'S FUCKING HARDER TO, you kind of have to admire his huge brass testicles. A shame he's gonna get recalled to death and Feingold is gonna win early next year.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OKSP800.htm
Seriously, Scott Walker is like some stupid and obvious Bond villain. Between the phone call, then passing a law that requires photo id to vote (I'm sure JD will explain how that's ok) and now passing a bill TO CLOSE DMV'S IN DEMOCRATIC AREAS SO EVEN IF PEOPLE WANT TO GET PHOTO ID'S TO VOTE IT'S FUCKING HARDER TO, you kind of have to admire his huge brass testicles. A shame he's gonna get recalled to death and Feingold is gonna win early next year.
I'm curious, what's your argument against requiring photo ID at polling booths?
There's no requirement to get a photo ID, so why should there be one to vote when it's such a basic right? It's like saying Freedom of Speech doesn't apply if you don't have a photo ID to prove you're a citizen or something. That wasn't the fucking deal. Either make photo ID's a mandatory requirement or drop it as a requirement for voting.http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OKSP800.htm
Seriously, Scott Walker is like some stupid and obvious Bond villain. Between the phone call, then passing a law that requires photo id to vote (I'm sure JD will explain how that's ok) and now passing a bill TO CLOSE DMV'S IN DEMOCRATIC AREAS SO EVEN IF PEOPLE WANT TO GET PHOTO ID'S TO VOTE IT'S FUCKING HARDER TO, you kind of have to admire his huge brass testicles. A shame he's gonna get recalled to death and Feingold is gonna win early next year.
I'm curious, what's your argument against requiring photo ID at polling booths?
There's no requirement to get a photo ID, so why should there be one to vote when it's such a basic right? It's like saying Freedom of Speech doesn't apply if you don't have a photo ID to prove you're a citizen or something. That wasn't the fucking deal. Either make photo ID's a mandatory requirement or drop it as a requirement for voting.http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OKSP800.htm
Seriously, Scott Walker is like some stupid and obvious Bond villain. Between the phone call, then passing a law that requires photo id to vote (I'm sure JD will explain how that's ok) and now passing a bill TO CLOSE DMV'S IN DEMOCRATIC AREAS SO EVEN IF PEOPLE WANT TO GET PHOTO ID'S TO VOTE IT'S FUCKING HARDER TO, you kind of have to admire his huge brass testicles. A shame he's gonna get recalled to death and Feingold is gonna win early next year.
I'm curious, what's your argument against requiring photo ID at polling booths?
But maybe you wanna go back to the days where you also had to own land. :smug
You've never voted? Did you only become interested in politics 6 months ago? I am honestly very surprised.
Forgive me for being ignorant on the subject, but since I never voted, I thought you had to show photo ID anyway? Apparently that's not the case?
You've never voted? Did you only become interested in politics 6 months ago? I am honestly very surprised.
Forgive me for being ignorant on the subject, but since I never voted, I thought you had to show photo ID anyway? Apparently that's not the case?
Where is the right to vote in the constitution? I guess it's right near the "you have to buy insurance" amendment :teeheeThere may not be an explicit "right to vote" amendment in the constitution but votings rights are explicitly detailed in more than one amendment (by way of stating reasons you can't be denied to vote).
I've never voted without being asked to show some form of ID, be it school or driver's license.
how come convicts can't voteThat's been an ongoing issue for a long time with people stating it's unconstitutional. I personally don't like the idea of someone who's "served their time" being told they can't vote. Let them vote. In other words, states have made it a state issue, not a federal issue since the constitution isn't explicit on convicts. Pretty much every state has a movement trying to challenge it on constitutional grounds.
Where is the right to vote in the constitution? I guess it's right near the "you have to buy insurance" amendment :teeheeOblivion: When you register you get a voter registration card. You take that. One of the reasons why the ID is absurd is because the proper authorities have already done their due process when you registered to vote, hence why you have the card.
Despite featuring Tea Party icons Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rand Paul (R-KY), among others, a gathering outside the Senate organized by the Tea Party Express to urge Republicans to stand firm against a compromise bill drew only a handful of attendees.
Reporters, many of whom came to interview presidential candidate Herman Cain, appeared to easily outnumber protesters. And despite being the most prominent attendee, Cain ended up not addressing the crowd and instead watching from the sidelines.
Talking Points Memo on FacebookThe dismal showing comes as Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations are waging an aggressive campaign against a plan by Republican leaders to raise the debt ceiling with a two-tiered set of cuts and no promise of a balanced budget amendment.
That's not exactly fair to John McCain. We all know McCain, when he's not in election years, is a pretty smart, logical individual. Yeah, he's a Republican, but he's by far one of the most logical ones in DC. He just happens to dumb his positions down whenever he needs reelection.
To be fair, Jesus said love your enemies. Mohammed said kill your enemies. You decide.
That's not exactly fair to John McCain. We all know McCain, when he's not in election years, is a pretty smart, logical individual. Yeah, he's a Republican, but he's by far one of the most logical ones in DC. He just happens to dumb his positions down whenever he needs reelection.No no no. That was McCain. McCain has been in full distinguished mentally-challenged fellow mode for years.
That's not exactly fair to John McCain. We all know McCain, when he's not in election years, is a pretty smart, logical individual. Yeah, he's a Republican, but he's by far one of the most logical ones in DC. He just happens to dumb his positions down whenever he needs reelection.
This is one of those posts that makes Mandark stay up all night googling just to drop a bomb on your ass :-\
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/28/999613/-Sen-Pat-Roberts-writes-his-own-Roberts-Obama-fan-fiction
David Brooks could be the ref!
Nearing the hoop, he jumped into the air. It was graceful, like a Gulfstream G650 with optional four-place conference table. "Why, a recent study shows that ..." He dunked, effortlessly, and I was lost in the moment. "All right, that's 12 points to 10," he said, beaming.
"A study shows that merely reupholstering the seats on a Cessna Citation X on a bi-yearly basis can employ up to 25 people, so—"
The president put his finger to his lips. "Don't speak," he whispered. "Just play."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/28/999613/-Sen-Pat-Roberts-writes-his-own-Roberts-Obama-fan-fiction
David Brooks could be the ref!QuoteNearing the hoop, he jumped into the air. It was graceful, like a Gulfstream G650 with optional four-place conference table. "Why, a recent study shows that ..." He dunked, effortlessly, and I was lost in the moment. "All right, that's 12 points to 10," he said, beaming.
"A study shows that merely reupholstering the seats on a Cessna Citation X on a bi-yearly basis can employ up to 25 people, so—"
The president put his finger to his lips. "Don't speak," he whispered. "Just play."
Holy shit!
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201107280007
:rofl
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201107280007
:rofl
As for a climactic conflict between a once-Christian West and an Islamic world that is growing in numbers and advancing inexorably into Europe for the third time in 14 centuries, on this one, Breivik may be right.
lol PD at gaf. "perry or romney can and will beat Obama"
shut the fuck up, PD :lol You're track record with political predictions is terrible.
That's why we should end the Bush tax cuts, continue drawing down the wars, and implement the healthcare law on time right? Cuz, you know, that would cut the deficit significantly over 10 years.
- Debt ceiling increase of up to $2.8 trillion
- Spending cuts of roughly $1 trillion
- Vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment
- Special committee to recommend cuts of $1.8 trillion (or whatever it takes to add up to the total of the debt ceiling increase)
- Committee must make recommendations before Thanksgiving recess
- If Congress does not approve those cuts by late December, automatic across-the-board cuts go into effect, including cuts to Defense and Medicare.
By all accounts, it looks like a deal is about to be announced in which the debt ceiling is hiked in exchange for the promise of major spending cuts, including to entitlements, totaling at least $2.4 trillion.
Anything can happen, but it apppears the GOP is on the verge of pulling off a political victory that may be unprecedented in American history. Republicans may succeed in using the threat of a potential outcome that they themselves acknowledged would lead to national catastrophe as leverage to extract enormous concessions from Democrats, without giving up anything of any significance in return.
Not only that, but Republicans — in perhaps the most remarkable example of political up-is-downism in recent memory — cast their willingness to dangle the threat of national crisis as a brave and heroic effort they’d undertaken on behalf of the national interest. Only the threat of national crisis could force the immediate spending cuts supposedly necessary to prevent a far more epic crisis later.
I'm still planning on going to Canadia and sleeping on Boogie's couch.
Criminal? Treason? It's politics, gentlemen. The Republicans are doing exactly what their voters expect from them, as distasteful as you might find it.
QuoteThis is fucking criminal. What the fuck, America.
it's borderline treason.
Seems to be a huge section of the right who are quite happy to let the whole country go down. Obama needs to call them out or this will happen every single time they have this debate. Pull 14th Amendment rights and tell them to go f*ck themselves
Strong actions please - it's time to gather in the idiots and put them firmly in their place. Threatening to impeach? Go for it - then charge them with treason to counter.
Considering he claimed full responsibility for them, and refuses to rat out (by most accounts) Rockwell, quite willing to take the blame on himself, not sure what more you'd be looking for.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said Monday that Vice President Joe Biden told the House Democratic Caucus that President Barack Obama was, in fact, prepared to use the Constitution to raise the debt limit.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/31/debt-ceiling-deal-reached_n_905841.html?1312161712#502_defazio-biden-said-obama-was-prepared-to-invoke-14th-amendment
"We heard in there that the president, if this all had failed, was willing to invoke the 14th Amendment," DeFazio said after the meeting ended.
The news runs counter to what the White House, and even Obama himself, had said for weeks: that option has been off the table because it is unclear whether the president has the legal authority to invoke the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling himself.
DeFazio maintained that the 14th Amendment is "the best option now" for raising the debt ceiling. He blasted the debt deal negotiated between the White House and congressional leaders because, he said, it includes no revenues and caters to the Tea Party.
"What's the package about? It's all about cutting, cutting, cutting!" he shouted at reporters. "Tax cuts and reductions in spending are not going to create jobs in this country. We need some investment."
The bottom line, Defazio added, is that Obama should "invoke the 14th Amendment. Don't go forward with this package."
Criminal? Treason? It's politics, gentlemen. The Republicans are doing exactly what their voters expect from them, as distasteful as you might find it.
This is the first time in our history that a political party has threatened not just national but WORLDWIDE economic destruction if they didn't get their way (which ironically, is supposedly to help IMPROVE the economy).
Even fucking Joseph McCarthy didn't pull shit like this. Criminal/Treason/Terrorism is PRECISELY the way this needs to be described by every half sentient journalist in the media.
Criminal? Treason? It's politics, gentlemen. The Republicans are doing exactly what their voters expect from them, as distasteful as you might find it.
Obama should still have plenty of leverage - he can threaten killing the Bush tax cuts and the big decisions on what to cut have been delayed, to a time that may well prove more beneficial to the Democrats (as his seemingly-inevitable reelection in 2012 approaches). The question, as ever with Obama, is does he have the balls to use that leverage. At some point a leader has to lead, not just canvass opinions and try to get something for everyone.
I stand by my post: Obama has no leverage on the Bush tax cuts, as you claim.
Yep. The original version of that post went something like "Cormac nailed it and Oblivion needs to shut the fuck up forever" but I was worried about how that might come across.
I stand by my post: Obama has no leverage on the Bush tax cuts, as you claim.
Yeah he does. We are agreed that he won't use it, so it seems weird that you be freakin' out
Last time the Bush cuts came up, the administration got an extension on unemployment benefits, the Making Work Pay credit, some other stuff and then indirectly got DADT repealed and new START ratified. So it's not like Obama doesn't have leverage or doesn't use that to get things.
But the top rate cuts are probably the highest priority out of everything for the Republican caucus. In the near future, I don't see them letting those expire as long as the GOP controls either the White House or at least one chamber of Congress. Split government probably keeps producing temporary extensions where Republicans make more concessions.
Which isdistinguished mentally-challengedless than ideal, but it's different from "oh noes gop winz everything cuz of willpower!"
Getting republicans to do shit they normally do (like extend unemployment benefits) is not leverage.
Yes.
[youtube=560,345]y83z552NJaw[/youtube]
*daps*
Dude is an asshole, but this is awesome
Dow Jones plunges in worst day for stock market since 2008 crisis.
Republicans: "bu-bubububub-bu.....CONFIDENCE!"
good jon, America.
We going to have Willco-esque word/sentence responses or an actual discussion? Historically republicans have extended unemployment benefits. That's a fact. It's not a leverage piece anymore than paying your mortgage is.
We going to have Willco-esque word/sentence responses or an actual discussion? Historically republicans have extended unemployment benefits. That's a fact. It's not a leverage piece anymore than paying your mortgage is.
I'm just a mite gobsmacked that anyone, much less a liberal political junkie, would actually believe that. When did we get such a high opinion of Congressional Republicans?
Look, one of the biggest, most clear lessons of the past couple years is that politicians change their policy stances based on the political climate. The Wyden-Bennett plan had several Republican cosponsors, as did multiple versions of cap-and-trade. Republicans voted overwhelmingly in favor of an education bill authored primarily by Ted Kennedy, for a large new public health-care obligation with no offsetting cuts or revenues, and for the creation of S-CHIP.
Yeah, the GOP gave two short extensions at the behest of the Bush administration. But is that solid evidence of a principled, unwavering support by the GOP for "always" boosting unemployment insurance in any and every situation, regardless of politics? Does that comport with anything that we know about politicians in general or this crop of Republicans in particular?
This came after a confusing day of reports: Standard & Poor's told the U.S. government Friday afternoon that it was preparing to downgrade the U.S.'s triple-A credit rating but U.S. officials notified the S&P that they had made a mathematical error that was off by "trillions," an administration source told CNBC.http://www.cnbc.com/id/44039103
Allegedly the error was in the calculation of the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio over time and was based on a misreading of what the correct congressional baseline was.
They could have passed a much larger stimulus package, with way more spending than tax cuts. Shocking idea, I know.
Well the next FDR will come through!
S&P is gonna downgrade us, apparently: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/08/govt-official-us-expecting-sp-downgrade.html
But remember, kids, nothing bad could have possibly happened if we had actually defaulted. Michelle Bachmann assured me!
Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor, said the downgrade is "a reflection of the failed leadership of President Obama. He really is inept when it comes to the economy. He's had over three years of being president. Barack Obama has had his chance and it's not working."
Former Senator Rick Santorum, R-Penn., also a candidate, noted the downgrade "happened on the president's watch."
"The markets are scared and the credit downgrade has happened because the president and this Congress continue to address the symptoms and not the disease," Santorum said.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, blamed "the old crowd of elites" for offering "fake" budget cuts and tricks instead of taking "bold actions to reduce out-of-control government spending, and get the federal government out of the way of small business and entrepreneurs so that they can start hiring again."
"Republicans have listened to the voices of the American people and worked to bring the spending binge to a halt," Boehner said. "We are no longer debating how much to spend, but rather how much to cut. Unfortunately, decades of reckless spending cannot be reversed immediately, especially when the Democrats who run Washington remain unwilling to make the tough choices required to put America on solid ground."
Mandark: While it is true UE benefits have never been extended by a GOP house during a democratic president's term, there are only two examples of there being a democrat president and republican house since 1960; we've only had five democrat presidents since 1960, whereas democrats controlled the House until the early 90s.
Mandark: While it is true UE benefits have never been extended by a GOP house during a democratic president's term, there are only two examples of there being a democrat president and republican house since 1960; we've only had five democrat presidents since 1960, whereas democrats controlled the House until the early 90s.
And that's exactly what I was getting at: when you're working from a tiny sample size of relevant historical cases, it's possible to identify a ton of patterns that are 1) factually true in a narrow sense, 2) wildly contradictory, and 3) not meaningful in predicting the future.
The only reason unemployment benefits seem to have become a partisan issue is that this is the first time since the GOP became an ideologically cohesive party (somewhere between 1980 an 1994, I guess) that we've had the trifecta of Republican Congress, Democratic president, and bad employment situation.
This could just as easily have happened if there had been a mid-90's recession or if Gore had won in 2000 and been stuck with the slump of the early 00's and a Delay-Hastert House.
But to get back to where we started, leverage is getting someone to do something they wouldn't have done otherwise. That's what happened, and I think you're pretty much agreeing with that at this point.
alert fox news
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/126825018.html?page=1
"It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people," said Norb Roffers
[...]
Eric, a war veteran, said that the scene he saw Thursday outside State Fair compares to what he saw in combat.
"That rated right up there with it.
[...]
Eric: "I feared for my life"
[...]
Woman: Teenagers in mob didn't attend rap concert
[...]
"The mob of black teenagers involved in the beatings and damage outside of State Fair last night were not there for the MC Hammer concert," said the woman.
On S&P, Downgrades, and Idiots
Posted by Economics of Contempt at 1:36 AM
This is not going to be one of those posts (http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/08/06/the-credibility-and-integrity-of-sp%E2%80%99s-ratings-action/) that laments S&P’s decision to downgrade the US, but then says (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/standard-and-poors-has-been-wrong-before-but-theyre-right-now/2011/07/11/gIQANpnIyI_blog.html) that S&P was probably right about our oh-so-dysfunctional political system.
No, S&P was flat-out wrong — no caveats. They are, to put it very bluntly, idiots, and they deserve every bit of opprobrium coming their way. They were embarrassingly wrong (http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/Just-the-Facts-SPs-2-Trillion-Mistake.aspx) on the basic budget numbers, as everyone knows now, so they were forced to remove that section from their report, and change their rationale for the downgrade. (Always a sign that you’re dealing with hacks.)
S&P’s rationale for the downgrade (http://www.standardandpoors.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobheadername3=MDT-Type&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobheadervalue2=inline%3B+filename%3DUS_Downgraded_AA%2B.pdf&blobheadername2=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobheadername1=content-type&blobwhere=1243942957443&blobheadervalue3=UTF-8) now is based entirely on their subjective political judgement — and their political judgement is wrong. The brilliant political minds over at S&P said that “the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges.”
That sounds like a Very Serious and Sober assessment, but it’s really not. It’s true that the debt limit debate was ridiculous, and that a large contingent of Tea Party freshmen in the House were threatening to not raise the debt ceiling. But here’s the thing: we still raised the debt ceiling, and in such a way that this Congress won’t have the opportunity to use the debt ceiling as a political bargaining chip again.
S&P’s assessment is only remotely serious if you assume that this particular Congress, with its huge contingent of crazy Tea Partiers, is going to serve in perpetuity. But this Congress isn’t going to serve in perpetuity — there are elections next year, and many of the Tea Party freshmen are likely to lose. They won in 2010 because it was a “wave election” in the middle of a very severe economic slump. But 2012 is a presidential election cycle with an incumbent Democratic president. A lot of these Tea Partiers who won in traditionally Democratic districts (and swing districts) are going to lose. In fact, it’s probably even odds that the Dems take back the House.
The simple fact is that the Tea Partiers are almost certainly at the height of their power in this Congress. And no, the debt ceiling debate doesn’t reflect some sort of secular change in US policymaking — the next time there’s a Republican president, House Republicans will be all about raising the debt ceiling, and Democrats won’t engage in the same kind of political brinksmanship. You’d have to be stunningly naïve not to believe this.
There have also been plenty of political de-escalations over the years — Republicans didn’t shut down the government every year after 1995, for instance. After Tom DeLay won the Medicare Part D vote by holding the vote open for 3 hours, everyone claimed that this would be the new normal on all controversial votes. Didn’t happen. There are plenty of one-off political confrontations. Simply assuming that every political confrontation represents a secular change in US politics and policymaking is ridiculous.
(S&P tries to side-step this obvious weakness in their so-called “argument” by claiming that by the time the 2012 elections roll around, it will be too late. Please. The idea that we have to act in the next 18 months in order to meaningfully affect our long-term solvency is patently absurd.)
Look, I know these S&P guys. Not these particular guys — I don’t know John Chambers or David Beers personally. But I know the rating agencies intimately. Back when I was an in-house lawyer for an investment bank, I had extensive interactions with all three rating agencies. We needed to get a lot of deals rated, and I was almost always involved in that process in the deals I worked on. To say that S&P analysts aren’t the sharpest tools in the drawer is a massive understatement.
Naturally, before meeting with a rating agency, we would plan out our arguments — you want to make sure you’re making your strongest arguments, that everyone is on the same page about the deal’s positive attributes, etc. With S&P, it got to the point where we were constantly saying, “that’s a good point, but is S&P smart enough to understand that argument?” I kid you not, that was a hard-constraint in our game-plan. With Moody’s and Fitch, we at least were able to assume that the analysts on our deals would have a minimum level of financial competence.
I’ve seen S&P make far more basic mistakes than the one they made in miscalculating the US’s debt-to-GDP ratio. I’ve seen an S&P managing director who didn’t know the order of operations, and when we pointed it out to him, stopped taking our calls. Despite impressive-sounding titles, these guys personify “amateur hour.” (And my opinion of S&P isn’t just based on a few deals; it’s based on countless deals, meetings, and phone calls over 20 years. It’s also the opinion of practically everyone else who deals with the rating agencies on a semi-regular basis.)
Treasury has every right to be outraged. S&P mangled the economic argument so badly that they had to abandon it entirely, and then fell back on a political argument which they are in no position to make, and which isn’t even correct.
So to S&P, I say: you should be ashamed of yourselves, and I truly hope this is your downfall.
Bachmann’s comment about slavery was not a gaffe. It is, as she would say, a world view. In “Christianity and the Constitution,” the book she worked on with [John] Eidsmoe, her law school mentor, he argues that John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams “expressed their abhorrence for the institution” and explains that “many Christians opposed slavery even though they owned slaves.” They didn’t free their slaves, he writes, because of their benevolence. “It might be very difficult for a freed slave to make a living in that economy; under such circumstances setting slaves free was both inhumane and irresponsible.”http://www.frumforum.com/inside-bachmanns-brain
There may be some small kernel of truth in that,
I don't understand why it somehow needs to be warped into something less severe by jumping through hoops and bending over backwards, but there's a lot of things I don't understand.
There may be some small kernel of truth in that,
actually i think there's pretty much dick-all truth to that; christianity was frequently used to support the institution, and only the most radical citizens were fully opposed to slavery
I feel quite confident our credit rating is fucked and we'll be wasting even more money on the interest on our debt.
...
Well-deserved it will be, unfortunately, and well past time. There is no rational reason to have faith in this federal government's ability to pay the debt when it makes no effort to do so.
At this rate, I'm gonna have to pick something else to major in when I go back to school. Majoring in economics when there's no economy left will be almost as bad as when I was originally a History major.
Why major in economics? At least go for accounting or finance so you'll make some money when you graduate
Why major in economics? At least go for accounting or finance so you'll make some money when you graduate
Money isn't important to me. I'm probably going to double major in Spanish as well and then go to work for my friend's company that does lobbying work for Latino issues, honestly.
QuoteWe'll have to wait and see whether any of these members are willing to budge on taxes, or whether they're hell-bent on giving Democrats a choice between caving and triggering a $1.2 trillion penalty of steep cuts to defense and Medicare providers
hold on, are you fucking serious? there's a clause that says if taxes go up then there is a -penalty- gutting of social services? How fucking abhorant is that?
Of all the excuses I've seen so far for why Obama governs the way he does, this one is probably the closest to reality:
http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2011/08/08/a-simple-theory-of-why-didnt-obama-come-out-fighting-in-2009/
I think that Obama honestly believed he could be that sort of above partisanship, bring people together, kumbaya type figure.
Tea Party aligned Georgia Rep. Tom Graves (R), who castigates Washington for fiscal irresponsibility, reached an out of court settlement Wednesday after he was sued for defaulting on a $2.2 million loan—which his attorney argued is the bank's fault for lending him the money in the first place.
So, the 11th circuit court of appeals has ruled that the individual mandate in the ACA is illegal, which is at odds w/ the 6th circuit court of appeals. This pretty much guarantees that the issue goes to the SC.
Looks like Perry is officially in the race.
Perry seems like the best of both worlds: tea party appeal and corporate backing. Romney might be fucked :o
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/15/110815fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=1
Saw this on gaf. Pretty scary. At least Obama's greatest attribute is that he's inoffensive.
(http://i.imgur.com/s9OvV.png?3935)
Marcus Bachmann plopped down on the seat next to me, in the back of the plane. He pointed at my laptop and asked if he could take a look. “All I want to know is what they’re saying about me,” he said. “Newsweek came up with the word ‘silver fox.’ Tell me what ‘silver fox’ means.”
“Do you want me to tell you honestly?” I asked.
“Oh, don’t tell me it’s something gay!” he [shrieked]
...I explained that “silver fox” probably had more to do with the color of his hair.
The Bachmanns attended Carter’s Inauguration, in January, 1977. Later that year, they experienced a second life-altering event: they watched a series of films by the evangelist and theologian Francis Schaeffer called “How Should We Then Live?”....
The first five installments of the series are something of an art-history and philosophy course. The iconic image from the early episodes is Schaeffer standing on a raised platform next to Michelangelo’s “David” and explaining why, for all its beauty, Renaissance art represented a dangerous turn away from a God-centered world and toward a blasphemous, human-centered world. But the film shifts in the second half. In the sixth episode, a mysterious man in a fake mustache drives around in a white van and furtively pours chemicals into a city’s water supply, while Schaeffer speculates about the possibility that the U.S. government is controlling its citizens by means of psychotropic drugs.
Quote from: new yorkerMarcus Bachmann plopped down on the seat next to me, in the back of the plane. He pointed at my laptop and asked if he could take a look. “All I want to know is what they’re saying about me,” he said. “Newsweek came up with the word ‘silver fox.’ Tell me what ‘silver fox’ means.”
“Do you want me to tell you honestly?” I asked.
“Oh, don’t tell me it’s something gay!” he [shrieked]
...I explained that “silver fox” probably had more to do with the color of his hair.
huahuahuahauhuahuahua.Quote from: new yorkerThe Bachmanns attended Carter’s Inauguration, in January, 1977. Later that year, they experienced a second life-altering event: they watched a series of films by the evangelist and theologian Francis Schaeffer called “How Should We Then Live?”....
The first five installments of the series are something of an art-history and philosophy course. The iconic image from the early episodes is Schaeffer standing on a raised platform next to Michelangelo’s “David” and explaining why, for all its beauty, Renaissance art represented a dangerous turn away from a God-centered world and toward a blasphemous, human-centered world. But the film shifts in the second half. In the sixth episode, a mysterious man in a fake mustache drives around in a white van and furtively pours chemicals into a city’s water supply, while Schaeffer speculates about the possibility that the U.S. government is controlling its citizens by means of psychotropic drugs.
:usacry
It's really bizarre how they just glaze over Ron Paul on the news even though he seems to be actually a pretty strong runner.
Now as to Congresswoman Bachmann's record. Look, she has done wonderful things in her life, absolutely wonderful things, but it is an indisputable fact that in congress her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent. That's not going to be good enough for our candidate for president of the United States, that is not going to be good enough for the president of the United States to serve in that capacity.
I think she's qualified to be President.
lol. T-Paw on Thursday::fbmQuoteNow as to Congresswoman Bachmann's record. Look, she has done wonderful things in her life, absolutely wonderful things, but it is an indisputable fact that in congress her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent. That's not going to be good enough for our candidate for president of the United States, that is not going to be good enough for the president of the United States to serve in that capacity.
T-Paw today:QuoteI think she's qualified to be President.
Romney 17%
Perry 15%
Giuliani 12%
Palin 12%
Paul 12%
Bachmann 7%
Gingrich 5%
Cain 4%
Huntsman 4%
Pawlenty 2%
Santorum 2%
Cheebs has a cute gf, do you?You're not that cute, tbh. Stop defending you boyfriend and tell him to get his arse in here.
Pics?
One of my libertarian facebook friends pulled the "I have an economics degree so i know what i'm talking about" on me and i was like, well Krugman has a PhD and a fucking nobel prize and you don't listen to him and he was all :santocry
Cheebs has a masters degree. Do you?
I'm having dinner with Cheebs tomorrow, fuck you guys!
Cheebs has a masters degree. Do you?
In what? Economics? How is that relevant?
I can't believe you pulled out the 'he has a degree' card. Michelle Bachmann's a lawyer. I guess she's smarter than all of us.
Let him fight his own fights.
Bepbo never falls for the bait. You on the other hand...Nah I know you're just covering. Laugh it off as a joke. I never fallen for your trolls before. At the end of the day you're insecure. You know what I said is 100% true.
Bepbo never falls for the bait. You on the other hand...Nah I know you're just covering. Laugh it off as a joke. I never fallen for your trolls before. At the end of the day you're insecure. You know what I said is 100% true.
(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2011/08/Corndog1-384x288.jpg)
look at the titles of all the MANY threads youve made in the last few days and ask yrself if yr in any position to judge other pplI'm bored. This is the only forum I post in.
I am cool. Laugh it off, PD. Laugh, laugh, laugh and then cry into your pillow at night.
No you do make me angry. This board while small is relatively honest about it's personal life and it's opinions but you always have this vindictive streak (some would say trolling) in you that nobody else on this board has. I ignored Bebpo because I was scared I was going to say something offensive again to him yet it was you before that repeatedly make it a point so clearly to pin him about his profession and salary and not getting what he wants out of a relationship. You did the same with drew regarding his profession even though you've lurked and know that he isn't a waiter but rather a cook and you choose to castigate him over a youtube video for no other reason to get a rise out of him. Has nobody asked themselves why you must be this half troll-half coherent poster character? It's obvious that you're insecure and unhappy about who you are and have this personal vindictive streak you have just seethes out of you so you can feel better about your own life. People simply just dismissed as part of your 'charm' but I noticed it.
Also if you've been in the professional sphere you'd know of the different forms of intelligence and that just because some one has a 'better' degree it does not make them a better professional or their opinions more valid. Also nice dig on the way out.
Fuck that, PD. Admit that's what you've been doing and somebody finally called you out on it.
Fuck this. I'm right. He's wrong. You take too long. You're going on ignore that's what'll hurt you the most you attention whore.
I can't believe you pulled out the 'he has a degree' card. Michelle Bachmann's a lawyer. I guess she's smarter than all of us.
After finishing college, the two committed young Christians moved to Oklahoma, where Michele entered one of the most ridiculous learning institutions in the Western Hemisphere, a sort of highway rest area with legal accreditation called the O.W. Coburn School of Law; Michele was a member of its inaugural class in 1979.
Originally a division of Oral Roberts University, this august academy, dedicated to the teaching of "the law from a biblical worldview," has gone through no fewer than three names — including the Christian Broadcasting Network School of Law. Those familiar with the darker chapters in George W. Bush's presidency might recognize the school's current name, the Regent University School of Law. Yes, this was the tiny educational outhouse that, despite being the 136th-ranked law school in the country, where 60 percent of graduates flunked the bar, produced a flood of entrants into the Bush Justice Department.
One of my libertarian facebook friends pulled the "I have an economics degree so i know what i'm talking about" on me and i was like, well Krugman has a PhD and a fucking nobel prize and you don't listen to him and he was all :santocry
:lol
One of my favorite exchanges was when Michael Kinsley wrote a column warning about inflation a couple years ago, and Krugman said he was confusing two types of inflation and that it was a "textbook mistake".
Kinsley got all huffy and said something to the effect of "Well, this difference isn't explained in the textbook I have!" and Krugman was all "Yeah, well it's in the textbook that I wrote."
The guy gets to be own Marshall McLuhan, so jealous.
The other week K-thug and Grover Norquist were on the same Sunday morning flapping heads show, and Grover basically spewed out all of his talking points in 30-45 seconds, and Krugman was just like "uh, nothing you just said is true. nothing." :lol
The worrisome part of that profile, and of the whole evangelical Christian political movement in the US in general, is how a pretty substantial chunk of the country is dropping out of social institutions and building its own parallel ones. Religious colleges, the home school movement, books and documentaries that get treated like samizdat, novels, music, etc.You have conservatives that build these institutions because of people like Cheebs and his friend who think just because they have a degree it allows them to spew whatever bullshit they want. Look guys I know you're very proud of your degrees. Hell mine cost me nights out and pussy but hell sometimes a degree is just a piece of paper and nothing is going to save you from the real world except experience and quick learning.
I'm always optimistic that America will pull through, or at least muddle along, despite all the anger and discord and crap in our politics, because at the end of the day everyone has to live with each other. I don't think hardcore Christians are going to go to the lengths that Scientologists or fringe Mormons do, but millions of people deliberately alienating themselves from the rest of the country is an unsettling idea.
The other week K-thug and Grover Norquist were on the same Sunday morning flapping heads show, and Grover basically spewed out all of his talking points in 30-45 seconds, and Krugman was just like "uh, nothing you just said is true. nothing." :lol
Cmon this is going so slow, more posts now
Edit: whoa what the fuck how did I do this quick edit thing? Also I'm hoping for M. Night Shamalamadingdong ending where FP and PD are the same Asian girl.
Michele Bachmann gave Elvis Presley, whose songs she uses at her events, happy birthday wishes today while she was in Spartanburg, S.C.
Unfortunately, today's the 34th anniversary of the day he died.
Perry supports the dream act. That's as much as we agree on probably.
You and I might have thought William Butler Yeats, for example, was a great poet who died half a century before the Age of Aquarius, but EdWatch calls him a "New-Age Pantheism Guru" who was aggressively "undermining Christianity."What would she say of Byron?! :teehee
You know, Mr. Perry just got into the presidential race. I think that everybody who runs for president, it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing that this isn't like running for governor or running for senator or running for Congress, and you've got to be a little more careful about what you say. But I'll cut him some slack. He's only been at it for a few days now.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/08/obama-on-perry-ill-cut-him-some-slack.php?ref=fpb
Ron Paul is ignored because Ron Paul is an unelectable fringe candidate whose rabid fanbase swings the results of early polling and contests.
bullshit I called him out and he ran away scared. First he says he was trolling then he says it was sincere then he says it was trolling. First he laughs it off and then he apologizes and then he gets pissed off and goes off thebore. What does that say?
Also it was to prove Mandark wrong about PD's trolling or rather the reason he trolls. PD is insecure it's not for the fun of it that's why he's so butthurt.
No you do make me angry. This board while small is relatively honest about it's personal life and it's opinions but you always have this vindictive streak (some would say trolling) in you that nobody else on this board has
Like I said PM me, or can't you read? Guys if you're trying to defend PD don't do it in this thread because people don't like shitting it up. But apparently people like My Fucking Grandpa can't read and takes a couple of hours to talk to PD so he can finally have a comeback. Also I think that remark by Wrath was a troll by PD and Wrath since I called PD a stereotypical black man which he is. This is all I have to say on the matter in this thread. Again PM me.
bullshit. utter and complete fucking bullshit. they don't mention him because if they did the idiots that watch dancing with the stars and America's got talent every fucking night might realize that they have an option other than the left right paradigm, that they don't have to settle for the better of the worst. Institutions are scared of him and the talking heads think it's cute to nestle up next to whoever is running the show, evil or not.drew last time in 2008 Ron Paul got 14 pledged delegates, 35 total delegates. Okay let's say the Libertarian\Tea Party votes grows to whatever %. Now he has to share that % with Bachmann and possibly Perry and who else?
Just take it to PMs and I'll tear you apartPlease add this to the news feed.
Dear god why did I start. WE DID THIS 4 YEARS AGO.
A lot of this is speculation driven by a media that wants to (for some reason) pretend that the Republican party is not run by people who are stupid enough to want to keep gubmint out of their medicare. The media elites want a serious daddy figure to ride in and white knight it (tee hee, see what I did thar!) for them against President Disappointment. Which is why they're trying real hard to pretend that Rick Perry isn't a gee shucks idiot that was threatening to secede a year ago and is, in fact, a Very Serious Person with good hair and high likability. And those things matter, because the media says they do!You forgot that he's the successful governor of Texas.
I heard the media was ripping Perry apart over the fed comment though? Karl Rove jumped on him too. Perry has never even pretended to be a uniter. It'll be interesting to hear how teh beltway frames his approach over the next few months.
Karl Rove, a Texan who was former President George W. Bush's longtime political adviser, chided Perry for "a very unfortunate comment.".
I believe he was a Democrat when he was first elected to office (not as a gov).
oh gawd, just waking up to the fact that Rick Perry is being trumpeted as the guy riding in at dawn to save these other turds from themselves...and the media swoons.
I'm pricing out a shack in the woods, fuck this society we're doomed.
oh gawd, just waking up to the fact that Rick Perry is being trumpeted as the guy riding in at dawn to save these other turds from themselves...and the media swoons.
I'm pricing out a shack in the woods, fuck this society we're doomed.
I will join you, we should consult T234 on the proper methods to distill us some moonshine and how to handle weapons to protect it.
get rid of the Federal Reserve
oh gawd, just waking up to the fact that Rick Perry is being trumpeted as the guy riding in at dawn to save these other turds from themselves...and the media swoons.
I'm pricing out a shack in the woods, fuck this society we're doomed.
I will join you, we should consult T234 on the proper methods to distill us some moonshine and how to handle weapons to protect it.
Move out to the West coast, we don't give a shit and will continue living our awesome heathen lives regardless of who wins.
get rid of the Federal Reserve
please explain to me in intimate detail on why getting rid of a private organization that is holding the country hostage would be a bad thing?
Also a job creator.
oh boy, it's really too late for me to break this down to you, google is your friend, i guess
if you're not hip to that you probably also don't know that Rick Perry killed little girls with forced inoculations, doesn't sound very electable to me, but i don't know maybe i'm just weird or something
If you're talking about the HPV vaccine, I'm gonna lol.
oh boy, it's really too late for me to break this down to you, google is your friend, i guess
if you're not hip to that you probably also don't know that Rick Perry killed little girls with forced inoculations, doesn't sound very electable to me, but i don't know maybe i'm just weird or something
If you're talking about the HPV vaccine, I'm gonna lol.
why in the world would you want to laugh at that?
Google Translate can't parse any of that.
Where is the DURP DURP filter?
I'm "on board," and I don't think there's been a better candidate in decades.
It's a complete joke. Paul comes in second and you hear more about Rick Ferry who wasn't even there.
Calling any candidate unelectable is bullshit.I agree completely. But I also believe he's unelectable because of the way the system is set up and the current mentality of Americans.
Some would say voting for Ron Paul is a waste of a vote; I say if you're not voting for who you believe should win, that's wasting a vote. You're all free to believe as you will, so am I.
I'll write his name in if that's what it is.
If you approach his position on civil rights act and actually listen to his reasoning it makes sense. He's not saying he hates distinguished black fellows. The man is consistent with his ideology, find me another politician that's been in the game as long as he has with that kind of consistency.But that's not what we're getting at. Look at the spin that can easily be put on it, regardless of the proper interpretation of his statement. The average American will never hear the full story. That is what assures he will never get elected to President.
If you approach his position on civil rights act and actually listen to his reasoning it makes sense. He's not saying he hates distinguished black fellows. The man is consistent with his ideology, find me another politician that's been in the game as long as he has with that kind of consistency.
IIRC correctly it imposed on civil liberties by forcing integration instead of actually improving race relations. It imposed federal powers of businesses regarding hiring, customers, etc.If you approach his position on civil rights act and actually listen to his reasoning it makes sense. He's not saying he hates distinguished black fellows. The man is consistent with his ideology, find me another politician that's been in the game as long as he has with that kind of consistency.
What does he say about it then? What's a solution over the Civil Rights Act? What would he do better?
and wait til economists start slamming him daily in the papers for his gold standard stance (does anyone remember what that did to the economy in the 1870's??? it was called the long depression, dammit).Ron Paul isn't in favor of the gold standard exactly, any commodity will do, he just uses gold or silver or both as examples because of their history with our currency. IIRC he most commonly says his personal preference is the "basket of commodities" idea but that anything is better than the current system.
He is boring on tv despite his positions.BORING? BORING???
I believe both Rand and Ron Paul are fine with all of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 EXCEPT for Title II. Ron might go a bit farther, but that's Rand's stated position anyway and generally the libertarian one.and wait til economists start slamming him daily in the papers for his gold standard stance (does anyone remember what that did to the economy in the 1870's??? it was called the long depression, dammit).Ron Paul isn't in favor of the gold standard exactly, any commodity will do, he just uses gold or silver or both as examples because of their history with our currency. IIRC he most commonly says his personal preference is the "basket of commodities" idea but that anything is better than the current system.
I don't know if I would blame the 1870s entirely on the the dropping of silver for gold alone. That downturn was a long time coming in part because of all sorts of global meddling with the value and relevance of silver in the prior decades that wound up being exacerbated by the Civil War (or War of Southern Independence/Northern Aggression if Thomas Woods is a member here) and Franco-Prussian War.
EDIT: However, I agree that Ron Paul will never win a major party nomination or the Presidency. Sorry. :lol Didn't mean to quibble but it was my Masters in Political Science and History coming out. /more-than-beyond-worthless-elitist-credentials :smug
And Mupepe you're basically saying people wouldn't vote for him because they don't understand him. Wouldn't the logical conclusion be to enlighten the people instead of declaring him unelectable? All I'm saying is just because the average citizen is too fucking dense to get to the truth of a statement shouldn't open up a candidate to be simply brushed aside.I am not brushing him aside. But unfortunately because of the way the media operates (knee jerk, sensationalist reactions) he will be laughed off the national stage and there is no initiative from the average voter to look deeper. Again, I'm not labeling him unelectable because of his views but by the way his views can be easily turned around in 30 second tv ads that Americans get their information from. It's just too easy.
If you approach his position on civil rights act and actually listen to his reasoning it makes sense. He's not saying he hates distinguished black fellows. The man is consistent with his ideology, find me another politician that's been in the game as long as he has with that kind of consistency.
I just meant that's how the media is going to spin it. CNN will devote an entire segment to experts stating that Ron Paul wants the gold standard and how in the 1870's we reverted to the gold standard and the economy crashed regardless of facts (France reparations, collapse of the railroad boom, 1873 panic in Vienna, fall of Jay Cooke and Company etc).Yeah, I realized that after I already rambled for a bit. Apologies again.
I am not brushing him aside. But unfortunately because of the way the media operates (knee jerk, sensationalist reactions) he will be laughed off the national stage and there is no initiative from the average voter to look deeper. Again, I'm not labeling him unelectable because of his views but by the way his views can be easily turned around in 30 second tv ads that Americans get their information from. It's just too easy.I agree fully with this and I'll probably end up voting for him in the open Republican primary we have here. (Since I doubt Gary Johnson will still be in. And the Dem race is very unlikely to even exist.) I don't really get this positivism in the libertarian camps over Ron and how this is his year. But I guess that existed in 2008 as well. His doing solidly and getting real money and ads like I posted above are helping the delusion train roll on. And I think he'll do better than then and possibly win a couple primaries but I don't see how he can win the nomination.
Yes, but Ron Paul's free market is an utopia that just doesn't existPretty much because despite evidence to contrary he believes people will not 'vote' against their self interests but that's something he shares with a lot of liberals.
Please, justify this
Paul was critical of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing that it was unconstitutional and did not improve race relations. He once remarked: "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 not only violated the Constitution and reduced individual liberty; it also failed to achieve its stated goals of promoting racial harmony and a color-blind society"
Reduced individual liberty...of white business owners to not serve blacks.
The existence of affirmative action is not to blame for our lack of a colorblind society, it's a symptom.I can't actually speak further to Ron Paul's exact positions to respond to this but I can speak to a number of the standard libertarian arguments many of which Paul ascribes to, so please forgive me for hopping tracks slightly.
PD, I (to offer my own direct opinion) agree that socioeconomic affirmative action should be the path forward. I've also seen a good amount of support for this in libertarian circles. In some cases (not just libertarian) I've seen socioeconomics with some form of geographical effects, so if you come out of inner Baltimore you are awarded even if you managed to get vouchered or scholarshipped into a private school or something similar. I'd be surprised if such a system or anything like it came into being nationwide before Sandra Day's deadline though. We're in a new era of deadlock like the 1850s probably.So there is such a thing as small 'l' libertarians? Would the AA be up to the control of the college or put into law?
So there is such a thing as small 'l' libertarians? Would the AA be up to the control of the college or put into law?Well, yeah, there are. It's a much smaller group than the "lesser of two evils" libertarians from my estimate. But you can find them.
[It] not only violated the Constitution and reduced individual liberty; it also failed to achieve its stated goals of promoting racial harmony and a color-blind society. Federal bureaucrats and judges cannot read minds to see if actions are motivated by racism. Therefore, the only way the federal government could ensure an employer was not violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was to ensure that the racial composition of a business's workforce matched the racial composition of a bureaucrat or judge's defined body of potential employees. Thus, bureaucrats began forcing employers to hire by racial quota. Racial quotas have not contributed to racial harmony or advanced the goal of a color-blind society. Instead, these quotas encouraged racial balkanization, and fostered racial strife
In his interview with CNN, Paul said that's language he would never use. "People who know me, nobody is going to believe this," he said. "That's just not my language. It's not my life."So basically "Ron Paul is a racist' has already been brought up, he has denied any knowledge and a lolworthy last quote.
He added, "Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Ghandi, they're the heroes [of my life]."
Matt Welch, the editor-in-chief of "Reason" magazine who shares some of Paul's beliefs on big government, says he has never heard the congressman make racist comments like those in the newsletters.
"What I think some people are looking for him to do is to say, 'OK, who wrote that?' I mean, there's 20 years, give or take, worth of newsletters there," Welch said.
Paul said the editor of publications "is responsible for daily activities." But he also cited "transition" and "changes" and said that some people were hired to write stories "but I didn't know their names."
The presidential hopeful described the newsletter revelations as a "rehash" of old material dug up by his opponents because he is gaining ground with black voters due to his stance against the war in Iraq and the war on drugs.
"I am the anti-racist because I am the only candidate -- Republican or Democrat -- who would protect the minority against these vicious drug laws," he said.
"Libertarians are incapable of being a racist, because racism is a collectivist idea."
Yeah I think I understand. He sort of has the 'hope' thing Barack Obama had. Instead of the messy compromises of the Republicans and Democrats he gives people a clean worldview where self-interest garners mutual benefit. Solitaire et de la Solidarité as the French say.I agree but maybe not in the way you may think (I honestly don't know, my opinion only follows) but I felt (and feel in most elections) that people ascribe a lot of their views to a candidate even if they differ. Just for example back in 2004 I knew this Kerry fanatic (yes, it was even strange back then) who was convinced he would immediately end the wars and the Patriot Act even though Kerry voted for both and was campaigning on winning the war on terror harder. (Obviously a campaign ploy, but we can only speculate as to what he'd have done.) I think there was a lot of that, at least in the media and in the people I knew about Obama. And there is also that about Paul.
his presidency has been a massive disappointment
I don't regret voting for him, and will vote for him again
his presidency has been a massive disappointment
I don't regret voting for him, and will vote for him again
Why?
Then why bother to vote?
Because he's the only viable, sane candidate in the race
Then why bother to vote?Because it's a right too many people died for to take lightly?
...do you have any idea what the fuck you are talking about?
EDIT: However, I agree that Ron Paul will never win a major party nomination or the Presidency. Sorry. :lol Didn't mean to quibble but it was my Masters in Political Science and History coming out. /more-than-beyond-worthless-elitist-credentials :smugYes I do. Do you?
Yes I do.
...
Also you of all people confusing 'political correctness' with 'conspiracy theories' have a right to talk.
benjipwns has a masters in history
benjipwns supports Ron Paul
you said Ron Paul supporters don't know BASIC history
benipwns by PD terms invalidates your theory
I say history is subjective
Also My F*cking Grandpa is a bitch because he won't fight me in PMs
You Americans lack the ability to think on your feet. It's why you take half a day to have comebacks.
Haven't seen someone this butt hurt since you know who was you know what in the digital realm.What if I enjoy it? You're a bitch you can't even argue strongly. You walk away and take half a day quoting me out of context to come up with an argument. You're shit. Your reply is 'You're mad'. Is that the best you can do, My F*cking Grandpa? Maybe you're mad too. No I don't think what is it with you. Karl Jaspers. Existentialist? First world problems. If there's anybody more useless than a certified existentialist.
Not to sound "unpatriotic" but it's not like we have a draft. These people volunteered.That's another point. A lot of them joined for the benefits. Watch enlistments drop like a rock
Not to sound "unpatriotic" but it's not like we have a draft. These people volunteered.
It just doesn't make any sense
Re: "wasteful" military spending.
Keeping a standing army around that's larger than what we need to deter an invasion is just as "wasteful" as outside contracts/new weapons system boondoggles. And cutting out the pork would put a financial strain on a lot of working people, just as cutting military retirement benefits would.
It's very different on a gut level, because of what soldiers are asked to do and because everyone knows somebody in the military. We can empathize with them, while the corporations (even though they're employing a ton of people) are abstracted.
Which I think explains what Spencer's saying about the widespread belief that the system is corrupt. Almost everyone seems to disapprove of Congress and vague "special interests", but a ton of people who get special benefits from the government (SS, Medicare, the mortgage deduction, people in a ton of favored industries) don't see themselves as beneficiaries, and would consider it hugely unfair if they were to lose out.
So you can't really expect a big, coherent, popular political movement to arise from that mistrust, and it would be a bigger mistake to interpret that discontent as validation of or support for any particular political program.
Nah man, I've waited too long to get you on a hook with facts.
So have any of these republicans been confronted with Bush and Reagan's 120-160 vacation days through the exact same points of their terms, compared to..you know...Obama's 61.
John Stewart's World of Class Warfare
Part 1: http://www.hulu.com/watch/269536/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-world-of-class-warfare-warren-buffett-vs-wealthy-conservatives
Part 2: http://www.hulu.com/watch/269537/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-world-of-class-warfare-the-poors-free-ride-is-over
Warren Buffet paid (after deductions) 7 mil in taxes for 2010. (http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-warren-buffett-taxes-203903366.html)
7 mil from the 2nd richest dude on the planet goes into the American tax coffers. Seven million out of the BILLIONS (http://www.news.com.au/business/buffett-reaps-10b-on-goldman/story-fn7mjon9-1226024756889) earned by him last year. Isn't that really fucking fucked up?
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but when this dude says "Tax me more" why on earth shouldn't anybody listen?
John Stewart's World of Class Warfare
who cares if people are gaming the system? why look at the folks below you, when you should be worrying about those above you?
capital gets lonely, bro
Many of the same Republicans who fought hammer-and-tong to keep the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts from expiring on schedule are now saying a different "temporary" tax cut should end as planned. By their own definition, that amounts to a tax increase.
"It's always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn," says Rep. Jeb Hensarling, "but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again." The Texas lawmaker is on the House GOP leadership team.
[shrug] People get older and start families and have bills to pay. Some of them get greedy and don't want to help others. [/shrug]
Why we still got conservatives?
Serious question.
I am 100% convinced that smart people cannot be Republicans at this point in history.
Why we still got conservatives?
Serious question.
I am 100% convinced that smart people cannot be Republicans at this point in history.
Being a conservative and being a republican aren't the same thing. People have differing ideological positions on government, it's not surprising. Some people genuinely don't believe government should have a role in everyday life, and believe in low taxes/regulation to stimulate growth. Nothing wrong with that, I just disagree with them.
There are some regulations that could probably be trimmed (mostly at the state level), but wanting to repeal Dodd-Frank or the Credit Card Users Bill of Rights, or wanting to get rid of the CFPB is sheer lunacy after 2008.
Anyway, I'm only talking about modern Republicans. I guess there are still a few decent ones, like Mitch Daniels, but the whole party has swung so hard to the right over the past few years that I feel like someone like Daniels could almost run as Democrats in this current climate.
I grew up hardcore Republican, with an extended family that used "liberal" basically as a synonym for "evil". I was even something of a Bush apologist for the first few years of his Presidency.
At this point though, I just don't see how an independent thinker could do it. There are so many mental gymnastics you'd have to go through to convince yourself that today's Republican party has your interests at heart if you're not a millionaire.
QuoteMany of the same Republicans who fought hammer-and-tong to keep the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts from expiring on schedule are now saying a different "temporary" tax cut should end as planned. By their own definition, that amounts to a tax increase.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44218846/ns/politics/#.TlFzoai4Jl3
:spinQuote"It's always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn," says Rep. Jeb Hensarling, "but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again." The Texas lawmaker is on the House GOP leadership team.
"Tax increases for filthy poors is perfectly fine, but distinguished rich folk need more money."
Also, letting the refundable credits expire is a bad idea. Whatever their comparative effectiveness, they are expansionary. Dropping them wouldn't shut up any of the people who are calling for immediate austerity; generally, the whole "take their ammo away" argument rarely works.
Over the weekend, Jon Huntsman said this:
The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party - the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012. When we take a position that isn't willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Science - Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man's contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position.
Huntsman also went ballistic on his fellow Republican presidential candidates, calling them "fringe" candidates who have "zero substance." Do I think this helps Huntsman in the upcoming primaries? No, I don't. But I tell you this: In my ideal world, Jon Huntsman would be the Republican candidate for president in 2012, and there would be substantive debate about the things that matter along the way, providing Americans with a real choice for president in November.
The vision that Huntsman has for America—one in which Americans are free to live their lives the way they want, in which everyone has a shot at prosperity, in which government is there to help us out when we run out of choices—should be the baseline, the American concept that every candidate believes in. The argument should come in how we reach that goal. Every other Republican candidate is abandoning their responsibility to the country by arguing that baseline concept; they want to give us an every-man-for-himself America—and in a reasonable world, they would be the fringe candidates. I'm not saying I'd vote for Huntsman, but I do think that Huntsman would make Obama a better, and more Democratic, candidate.
Yes, I get the premise and obviously wouldn't dismiss Krugman but I'm curious: based on this logic you would not support ending the Bush tax cuts correct (in our current economic situation)?
Yes, I get the premise and obviously wouldn't dismiss Krugman but I'm curious: based on this logic you would not support ending the Bush tax cuts correct (in our current economic situation)?
.
Excellent article, let's hope our Universities recognize (and adjust accordingly) that intellectualism should not be embraced at the expense of common sense.
Yes, I get the premise and obviously wouldn't dismiss Krugman but I'm curious: based on this logic you would not support ending the Bush tax cuts correct (in our current economic situation)?
If I were godking, I scrap them and replace them with a massive public jobs program and free money for the poors. But realistically, you gotta take politics into account.
Even the Bush cuts are a net positive for growth at a time like this, but it's a weak positive with a bunch of negatives if you're a liberal (funnels money towards the rich, might become semipermanent, could eventually lead to offsetting cuts/regressive tax hikes). So you balance the short-term boost against the long term risks, taking into account what could realistically pass as a substitute.
So now I'm curious: what's the liberal case for ending a fiscally expansionary, progressive tax benefit with 9% unemployment and the threat of a second recession hovering over us? If you mean it's not the most effective use of government money, you're probably right. But I don't think you can just toss it and expect Super Congress or any half-GOP body to propose something better.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/08/22/let-us-now-take-a-moment-to-praise-jon-huntsmanQuote from: The StrangerOver the weekend, Jon Huntsman said this:
The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party - the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012. When we take a position that isn't willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Science - Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man's contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position.
Huntsman also went ballistic on his fellow Republican presidential candidates, calling them "fringe" candidates who have "zero substance." Do I think this helps Huntsman in the upcoming primaries? No, I don't. But I tell you this: In my ideal world, Jon Huntsman would be the Republican candidate for president in 2012, and there would be substantive debate about the things that matter along the way, providing Americans with a real choice for president in November.
The vision that Huntsman has for America—one in which Americans are free to live their lives the way they want, in which everyone has a shot at prosperity, in which government is there to help us out when we run out of choices—should be the baseline, the American concept that every candidate believes in. The argument should come in how we reach that goal. Every other Republican candidate is abandoning their responsibility to the country by arguing that baseline concept; they want to give us an every-man-for-himself America—and in a reasonable world, they would be the fringe candidates. I'm not saying I'd vote for Huntsman, but I do think that Huntsman would make Obama a better, and more Democratic, candidate.
I feel kind of bad for Huntsman. He knows he has no chance at winning the nomination and he gave up his ambassador position.
I hate to piss on everyone's parade, but a Huntsman administration would be so functionally similar to say, a Bachmann administration to make no difference.
A quick summary of why I never got on board with ObamaMania and why, at its top dollar best, our political system today can produce a reformer about as radical as William Howard Taft. Shorter title: This is why we are so fucked.
News item, July 13, 2011: "Immelt: Obama jobs council devising plans for job creation." General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt was the logical choice to serve as Barack Obama's "jobs czar" – who knows more about creating jobs than the CEOs of large, multinational corporations?
News item, July 25, 2011: "GE Moves 115 Year Old X-Ray Unit to China." See? Look at all of the jobs he created. In China. By closing something that has been in Waukesha, WI for more than a century. To "tap growth" in China. And these aren't the kind of pull-the-lever-on-the-kick-press jobs that we keep being told are fated to go overseas because they involve no skill. These are exactly the kind of high-tech buzzword jobs that Obama won't shut the hell up about, excepting the absence of "green" in the description.
This. This is why Barack Obama is a failure of colossal proportions and why I don't want to hear any of the half-assed excuses about how everything that has happened to him is the fault of nasty Republicans, stupid voters, and the like. He's a failure because despite what many of you managed to convince yourselves in 2008, he's just another smiling face in a long line of corporatist whores that have rotted what used to be a somewhat liberal party from within and left us with a political system offering little but the illusion of choice.
For the last decade, many people who study political participation have speculated that 1996 and 2000 might have been the nadir of voter turnout and interest in politics in the U.S. The 1996 election in particular was contested during a strong economy between two candidates no one much cared for. Increased turnout was observed in 2004 and again in 2008. I can't wait to see 2012. We're going to see campaigns spending previously unfathomable amounts of money in an effort to fire up voting bases whose attitudes toward the candidates range from boredom to white-hot anger.
Tell me something: where is that wave of energy and enthusiasm that swept Obama into office in 2008 going to come from in 2012, with the President owning two wars that didn't end (plus a third that just started), the Teabagger austerity agenda that he endorsed wholeheartedly, and supporters already resorting to arguments of last resort like, "Well, he's better than the alternative." On the Republican side the nominee will either be a semi-sane candidate who the base will hate (see: McCain) or a lunatic for whom sane people will be too embarrassed to vote. That record voter turnout in 2008 could turn into record lows in a single election cycle.
Aside from the half-assed health care reform that he allowed insurance companies to write, what has Barack Obama accomplished to encourage – or even mildly please – his core supporters? The Immelt appointment as Jobs Czar and the vignette about GE's job growth plan for China is a good representation of what Obama is all about: repeatedly, naively believing that untrustworthy people – Teabaggers, John Boehner, CEOs of companies that pay no taxes and employ 60% of their workforce outside of the U.S. – will work with him "in good faith" if he uses a lot of soaring rhetoric and asks them nicely enough. He seems fundamentally incapable of realizing that these people do not like him and do not care about his interests or those of anyone but themselves. And so they break it off in his ass, not occasionally but every single time.
The alternative hypothesis is that he fundamentally agrees with a corporate, Wall Street friendly version of liberalism (aka Moderate Republicanism) or, even worse, he is essentially a Manchurian Candidate right-winger. I find that possibility so disheartening that I prefer to believe that he is stupid.
Aside from the half-assed health care reform that he allowed insurance companies to write, what has Barack Obama accomplished to encourage – or even mildly please – his core supporters? The Immelt appointment as Jobs Czar and the vignette about GE's job growth plan for China is a good representation of what Obama is all about: repeatedly, naively believing that untrustworthy people – Teabaggers, John Boehner, CEOs of companies that pay no taxes and employ 60% of their workforce outside of the U.S. – will work with him "in good faith" if he uses a lot of soaring rhetoric and asks them nicely enough. He seems fundamentally incapable of realizing that these people do not like him and do not care about his interests or those of anyone but themselves. And so they break it off in his ass, not occasionally but every single time.
It hasn't worked, and I was just questioning the point in extending them when all they do is expand the deficit.
gin and tacos goes in hard on obama
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2011/08/24/fox-hen-house/
It hasn't worked, and I was just questioning the point in extending them when all they do is expand the deficit.
It's a mistake to think of a policy in binary terms, especially emergency economic measures. They all have marginal effects, and you throw out everything that doesn't by itself restore the US to full employment then you'll wind up doing a lot of unnecessary harm.
Obama Goes All Out For Dirty Banker Dealrest at: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/obama-goes-all-out-for-dirty-banker-deal-20110824
A power play is underway in the foreclosure arena, according to the New York Times.
On the one side is Eric Schneiderman, the New York Attorney General, who is conducting his own investigation into the era of securitizations – the practice of chopping up assets like mortgages and converting them into saleable securities – that led up to the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
On the other side is the Obama administration, all the banks, and, now, apparently, all the other state attorneys general.
This second camp has all gotten together, put their heads together, and cooked up a deal that would allow the banks to walk away with just a seriously discounted fine from a generation of fraud that led to millions of people losing their homes.
The idea behind this federally-guided “settlement” is to concentrate and centralize all the legal exposure accrued by this generation of grotesque banker corruption in one place, put one single price tag on it that everyone can live with, and then stuff the details into a titanium canister before shooting it into deep space.
This deal is all about protecting the banks from future enforcement actions on both the civil and criminal sides. The plan is to provide year-after-year, repeat-offending banks like Bank of America with some stability and certainty, so that they know exactly how much they’ll have to pay in fines (trust me, it will end up being a tiny fraction of what they made off the fraudulent practices) and will also get to know for sure that there are no more criminal investigations in the pipeline.
In a remarkable quote given to the Times, Kathryn Wylde, the Fed board member who ostensibly represents the public said the following about Schneiderman:
It is of concern to the industry that instead of trying to facilitate resolving these issues, you seem to be throwing a wrench into it. Wall Street is our Main Street — love ’em or hate ’em. They are important and we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to support them unless they are doing something indefensible.
This, again, is coming not from a Bank of America attorney, but from the person on the Fed board who is supposedly representing the public!
And allegedly BoA might be failing soon, which complicates things even more. I guess we'll get to put Dodd-Frank's bullshit "ends too big to fail!" talking point to bed early, if this is true that is; iirc BoA has been faced with these rumors many times, only to turn out to be false
gin and tacos goes in hard on obama
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2011/08/24/fox-hen-house/
Sigh.
That article is kinda dumb, kinda wrong, and kinda just a repetition of the last couple years of netroots talking points. Not a knock on Eric, but thanks to Oblivion and PD I'm a bit tired of being the designated fact-checker in this thread.
He means it's adding debt owed by the federal government to the SS trust fund, and that the collected interest would allow SS benefits to continue without being cut.
The guy is basically using gussied-up GOP talking points to argue for austerity, which is why I wondered if you were trolling.
http://www.threedonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/boys-will-be-boys-ug9af.jpg
Old?
My uncle sent me some nonsense about the upcoming Moslem invasion. A quick google search revealed
http://www.loonwatch.com/2011/08/pamela-geller-ready-to-start-holy-war-over-mistranslated-bumper-sticker/
herp a derp :-\
HOW ARE PEOPLE SO DUMB
Heard of it, haven't read it. Had to Google just now to confirm that it wasn't Tom Friedman.Basically that Russia will begin to reassert its influence in its old Soviet borders. The US will back Poland and Turkey to create regional powers but eventually Russia will collapse again.
What are the major predictions?
I saw "Friedman" and "optimism" and thought why the fuck is Mupepe reading Thomas Friedman?I didn't even know who that was :-\
Boogie what is canada's stance on the middle east and all that stuff? I've always wondered.
The space shit is definitely ridiculous though.spoiler (click to show/hide)Japanese launching a Pearl Harbor style attack from a base on the dark side of the moon to destroy our satellite and space systems :lol[close]
the mupepe convo just reminded me of how i want to read friedman just to find out why people on the internet seem to hate him so much
the mupepe convo just reminded me of how i want to read friedman just to find out why people on the internet seem to hate him so much
That's a different Friedman, tho.
Anyone in here read "The Next 100 Years" by Friedman? I'm halfway through it and it'd be cool to find someone to discuss some of his stuff with. A lot of it does seem way too optimistic for the US.
I really fail to see how there can be any large-scale war in the future, unless the world falls into some sort of decades long, global depression that causes massive instability.
I really fail to see how there can be any large-scale war in the future, unless the world falls into some sort of decades long, global depression that causes massive instability.
Experts Question Ratings After S&P Gives Subprime Bonds Higher Rating Than U.S. Debthttp://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/investors-knock-sp-for-giving-subprime-bonds-higher-rating-than-us-debt-4.php?ref=fpa
]Influential investors are scratching their heads over a little-noticed development: After downgrading the country's credit rating, Standard & Poors is continuing to award AAA status to the same class of assets that nearly blew up the world economy three years ago.
From Bloomberg: "S&P is poised to provide AAA grades to 59 percent of Springleaf Mortgage Loan Trust 2011-1, a set of bonds tied to $497 million lent to homeowners with below-average credit scores and almost no equity in their properties."
S&P is shameful :lol
There's some pretty good ideas in the GOP, just not ones held by people with any chance of getting the bid.
Too bad GOP ideas for the economy are straight up distinguished mentally-challenged
Really? I can't sit through 2 minutes of their bullshit.
One of my friends works on his campaign staff, even though she's a big liberal. Says he's a pretty decent guy.
Mike Lofgren has been working for 28 years as a congressional aide, on the Republican side, earning more than $100,000 a year every year since at least 2001. He worked as Repub staff on both the House and Senate Budget Committees. He is a serious insider who knows how things work and where the bodies are buried.
He recently retired and has decided to say what he has learned about the two parties and it’s amazing.
One of my friends works on his campaign staff, even though she's a big liberal. Says he's a pretty decent guy.
a great guy that'd do horrible shit that would fuck over millions of people if he was given a position of power. awesome.
Did Ron Paul actually make an advertisement linking himself to Reagan? What a fucking sell out :lol
Reagan wrote in a diary? what a cigarillo. How am I supposed to project my desire for a commanding father figure on to him now that Newt let that slip :-\.
It makes perfect sense.
Whenever some tard, especially some tard who makes under $100,000 a year bitches about the capital gains tax or the estate tax, most of them think that by helping out their rich buddies at the top, that soon those crumbs from the gilded table will start showering over them. That the Koch Brothers will stop by personally at Buttfuck, Idaho and tell some tea party redneck "Thanks for your contribution to remove the capital gains tax! Here's your $200,000 a year job starting today!" A lot of these people think that only them and the millionaires and billionaires work hard. They're like best friends, working hard to fight Shaniqua the welfare queen and Aydan, the upper middle class hipster type with a tendency for book larnin'.
That is why that truth-out.org article I think gets it wrong. Most people voted in these shitbags like Allen West or Michele Bachmann because most people think that by fervently supporting the upper class, that they will get rewarded. If not, then at least those welfare distinguished black fellows get a smaller piece of the pie. If they can't be rich, they'd sooner just shit all over the rest of the population so everyone else can have it bad as them. The GOP lunatics were voted in and it isn't like people were deceived; no, people voted in droves for these cocksuckers. There is no deception involved and I'm sure the fools that voted in these teabagger clowns are loving every second of how this Congress has turned out. There are a lot of people on the far right that know just how to play off of the general seething hatred that has been bubbling for a while.
I don't really see a solution either. I think angry people are going to stay angry, regardless of the demographic shift. Combine that with a largely deferential, nay, spineless leadership of the opposition, and it's bad news for the rest of us.
Reagan wrote in a diary? what a cigarillo. How am I supposed to project my desire for a commanding father figure on to him now that Newt let that slip :-\.
It makes perfect sense.
Whenever some tard, especially some tard who makes under $100,000 a year bitches about the capital gains tax or the estate tax, most of them think that by helping out their rich buddies at the top, that soon those crumbs from the gilded table will start showering over them. That the Koch Brothers will stop by personally at Buttfuck, Idaho and tell some tea party redneck "Thanks for your contribution to remove the capital gains tax! Here's your $200,000 a year job starting today!" A lot of these people think that only them and the millionaires and billionaires work hard. They're like best friends, working hard to fight Shaniqua the welfare queen and Aydan, the upper middle class hipster type with a tendency for book larnin'.
That is why that truth-out.org article I think gets it wrong. Most people voted in these shitbags like Allen West or Michele Bachmann because most people think that by fervently supporting the upper class, that they will get rewarded. If not, then at least those welfare distinguished black fellows get a smaller piece of the pie. If they can't be rich, they'd sooner just shit all over the rest of the population so everyone else can have it bad as them. The GOP lunatics were voted in and it isn't like people were deceived; no, people voted in droves for these cocksuckers. There is no deception involved and I'm sure the fools that voted in these teabagger clowns are loving every second of how this Congress has turned out. There are a lot of people on the far right that know just how to play off of the general seething hatred that has been bubbling for a while.
I don't really see a solution either. I think angry people are going to stay angry, regardless of the demographic shift. Combine that with a largely deferential, nay, spineless leadership of the opposition, and it's bad news for the rest of us.
What America needs is someone who can tell the country "that's fucking stupid, and you're fucking stupid for thinking that way/supporting this distinguished mentally-challenged fucking idea" without everyone getting feelings about the whole thing.
It makes perfect sense.
Whenever some tard, especially some tard who makes under $100,000 a year bitches about the capital gains tax or the estate tax, most of them think that by helping out their rich buddies at the top, that soon those crumbs from the gilded table will start showering over them. That the Koch Brothers will stop by personally at Buttfuck, Idaho and tell some tea party redneck "Thanks for your contribution to remove the capital gains tax! Here's your $200,000 a year job starting today!" A lot of these people think that only them and the millionaires and billionaires work hard. They're like best friends, working hard to fight Shaniqua the welfare queen and Aydan, the upper middle class hipster type with a tendency for book larnin'.
That is why that truth-out.org article I think gets it wrong. Most people voted in these shitbags like Allen West or Michele Bachmann because most people think that by fervently supporting the upper class, that they will get rewarded. If not, then at least those welfare distinguished black fellows get a smaller piece of the pie. If they can't be rich, they'd sooner just shit all over the rest of the population so everyone else can have it bad as them. The GOP lunatics were voted in and it isn't like people were deceived; no, people voted in droves for these cocksuckers. There is no deception involved and I'm sure the fools that voted in these teabagger clowns are loving every second of how this Congress has turned out. There are a lot of people on the far right that know just how to play off of the general seething hatred that has been bubbling for a while.
I don't really see a solution either. I think angry people are going to stay angry, regardless of the demographic shift. Combine that with a largely deferential, nay, spineless leadership of the opposition, and it's bad news for the rest of us.
i dunno if i agree. most people i know will vote against obama because they see the republican as "the lesser of two evils." crazy, yes, but to them, loving jesus, condemning abortion, and rejecting science makes people "less evil" in their eyes.
The moderation sucked. Brian Williams is cool, but the Politico guy basically asked the same question over and over: "x said y, is he/she crazy? why do you disagree, go on fight each other lolol"
I watched some of the MSNBC reactions after the debate. Their panel: Maddow, Ed Shultz, Lawrence O'Donnell, Al Sharpton, and the black guy from the Washington Post. Seriously. Maddow and the WaPo guy are fine, but having three hardcore partisans on one panel reeks of Fox News shit
Are you one of biz's friends, Consul?
QuoteDid the moderator(s) do even remotely a decent job
No, they were pretty horrible with their questions and the manner in which they asked them. It was a pretty wretched way to spend two hours. Newt was wise to what they were doing but too many of the others took the bait and sniped at each other and often just looked petty. Should have known better guys - it's MSNBC.
Surprisingly, no genitalia was involuntarily placed in others' mouths, so no one had to step in to prevent that.
Fucktard.
It makes perfect sense.
Whenever some tard, especially some tard who makes under $100,000 a year bitches about the capital gains tax or the estate tax, most of them think that by helping out their rich buddies at the top, that soon those crumbs from the gilded table will start showering over them. That the Koch Brothers will stop by personally at Buttfuck, Idaho and tell some tea party redneck "Thanks for your contribution to remove the capital gains tax! Here's your $200,000 a year job starting today!" A lot of these people think that only them and the millionaires and billionaires work hard. They're like best friends, working hard to fight Shaniqua the welfare queen and Aydan, the upper middle class hipster type with a tendency for book larnin'.
That is why that truth-out.org article I think gets it wrong. Most people voted in these shitbags like Allen West or Michele Bachmann because most people think that by fervently supporting the upper class, that they will get rewarded. If not, then at least those welfare distinguished black fellows get a smaller piece of the pie. If they can't be rich, they'd sooner just shit all over the rest of the population so everyone else can have it bad as them. The GOP lunatics were voted in and it isn't like people were deceived; no, people voted in droves for these cocksuckers. There is no deception involved and I'm sure the fools that voted in these teabagger clowns are loving every second of how this Congress has turned out. There are a lot of people on the far right that know just how to play off of the general seething hatred that has been bubbling for a while.
I don't really see a solution either. I think angry people are going to stay angry, regardless of the demographic shift. Combine that with a largely deferential, nay, spineless leadership of the opposition, and it's bad news for the rest of us.
i dunno if i agree. most people i know will vote against obama because they see the republican as "the lesser of two evils." crazy, yes, but to them, loving jesus, condemning abortion, and rejecting science makes people "less evil" in their eyes.
Are you one of biz's friends, Consul?
Perhaps :o
Actually I think "biz" would consider me more of an enemy ;)
I see, what do you fellows disagree on?
If unemployment stays high, I don't see Obama getting re-elected against a decent opponent (Romney). I'm assuming whatever he proposes tonight will be DOA, so all we'll get is ridiculous spending cuts before the end of the year which slows growth even more, followed by another spring/summer of high gas prices. He's fucked unless republicans nominate a complete idiot.
What are you 12?
Fucktard.
Why am I mad that you're a fucktard? Encountered enough fucktards, maybe.
I'm bored and onli
ne, is there anyway to watch it online people?
Let's just summarize the last 28 minutes: Obama wanted to waste everyone's time tonight. He has been successful.
It's never going to pass, so who the fuck cares? If I were Obama, I would have used this speech as an opportunity to publicly berate Republicans (and their rugged individualist Libertopian enablers, of course) as the bunch of half-bright lying shitburgers they really are. Then I would resign, tell the country to eat a bag of dicks and fix it's own shit, and probably move to The Isle of Man or another actual first world country. I seriously don't understand why anyone wants that fucking job.
I know some of you have sworn oaths to never raise any taxes on anyone for as long as you live. Now is not the time to carve out an exception and raise middle-class taxes, which is why you should pass this bill right away.
Good speech, but largely irrelevant considering
1) the bill will never be passed
2) if these are such good ideas, why weren't they implemented before when dems controlled both houses
3) it sounds like a smaller stimulus bill, and the public has already determined the stimulus did not work
Obama always gives good speeches, that's nothing to be surprised over. The problem is actually implemented his pie in the sky bullshit.
It's never going to pass, so who the fuck cares? If I were Obama, I would have used this speech as an opportunity to publicly berate Republicans (and their rugged individualist Libertopian enablers, of course) as the bunch of half-bright lying shitburgers they really are. Then I would resign, tell the country to eat a bag of dicks and fix it's own shit, and probably move to The Isle of Man or another actual first world country. I seriously don't understand why anyone wants that fucking job.
And again, THE BAILOUTS HAPPENED BEFORE OBAMA
If the Republicans were smart, they'd give him everything he asked for and then when (shocker) the economy doesn't magically get better because we hired some people to fix some roads and schools and kept paying unemployment, they can just hang that around his neck too.
Fortunately, Republicans are anything but smart.
Romney isn't going to get the nomination, Maurice. Rick Perry can't say or do anything dumb enough to drive off Republican primary voters.
Romney isn't going to get the nomination, Maurice. Rick Perry can't say or do anything dumb enough to drive off Republican primary voters.
I no longer believe that, after seeing Perry call social security a massive lie that has hurt the country on national television.
Romney isn't going to get the nomination, Maurice. Rick Perry can't say or do anything dumb enough to drive off Republican primary voters.
I no longer believe that, after seeing Perry call social security a massive lie that has hurt the country on national television.
March 6th (Super Tuesday): Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Colorado caucuses, Idaho GOP caucuses, Minnesota Democratic caucuses
Can't have a presidential election around here without my less than stellar wannabe Chris Matthews style analysis. PD can't carry that torch alone.
You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS? In the last twenty years, fifteen to twenty years, we’ve had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the same time frame, there have been hundreds of thousands who have died because of having AIDS. So which one’s the biggest threat? And you know, every day our young people, adults too, but especially our young people, are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines, they’re bombarded with ‘homosexuality is normal and natural.’ It’s something they have to deal with every day. Fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day, and that’s what I mean. It’s more dangerous, and yes I think that it’s also more dangerous because it will tear down the moral fiber of this nation. We were founded as a nation upon the principles of religion and morality, if we take those out from under our society we will lose what has made us a great nation, we will no longer be a virtuous people, which we see happening already. And without virtue this nation will not survive.
Chris Matthews is everything that's wrong with "journalism" and Washington. Insular, stupid and loud. Maybe he was a good person once but these days he's just another beltway idiot. The fact that either of you like him says a lot about you.
Liberal critics of Obama, just like conservative critics of Republican presidents, generally want both maximal partisan conflict and maximal legislative achievement. In the real world, those two things are often at odds. Hence the allure of magical thinking.
I don't see how anyone takes S&P seriously, considering that they consistently rated those toxic mortgage assets as AAA right up until the end. There's only two possibilities when it comes to the ratings agencies- they're either in the pockets of the financial markets, or they're completely distinguished mentally-challenged and not qualified to do basic math, much less their jobs. Neither option is particularly comforting.Consider this about the ratings agencies. They underrated everything in sight for decades. One of them, merely one, has got around to downgrading the government which would fail every GAAP audit that exists. So they could be underrating everything because of their contacts in and fear of both government and other agencies.
What he said was literally incorrect - a Ponzi scheme is not structured that wayI don't know, requiring new cons to supply the funds for earlier entries?
Matthews? Guy is fuckin awful.
On another topic, http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/94722/still-not-done-arguing-yet
:piss Magical-thinking librul wannabe martyrs :piss2
Consider this about the ratings agencies. They underrated everything in sight for decades. One of them, merely one, has got around to downgrading the government which would fail every GAAP audit that exists. So they could be underrating everything because of their contacts in and fear of both government and other agencies.
And the sad part, is they're the best we have, I mean unless you trust the government to properly evaluate and audit its own financial situation.
or the S&P Credit downgrade report - they repeatedly expressed that they expected entitlement reform that didn't happen.
Quote from: JONATHAN CHAITLiberal critics of Obama, just like conservative critics of Republican presidents, generally want both maximal partisan conflict and maximal legislative achievement. In the real world, those two things are often at odds. Hence the allure of magical thinking.
The forum Icons should create a bot that auto-posts this as a response whenever it detects Oblivion posting about politics.
In other words, I don't think S&P is being petty or illogical and underrating us. I think we're pretty much fucked already.
Tea Party vs. New England Patriots fans? I know what I'm doing tonight.spoiler (click to show/hide)Playing video games[close]
LOL at the Retardlican masturbatory fantasies that the US will default on their debt.
holy shit @ at the crowd yelling "yes!" when Blitzer asked the candidates if a person without health insurance should be allowed to die.
If the only options were the government paying for the care with the taxes of the populace or let him die, then by all means let him die.
[youtube=560,345]PepQF7G-It0[/youtube]
6:31 PM PT: Santorum says the GOP should try to appeal to Latinos by making English the official language. Seriously.
instead he should of asked what exactly all the people that dont have enough fucking money for coverage are supposed to do when medical care is needed.
holy shit @ at the crowd yelling "yes!" when Blitzer asked the candidates if a person without health insurance should be allowed to die.
[youtube=560,345]PepQF7G-It0[/youtube]
I'm no fan of Perry but it was nice to hear him point out the fact that "building a fence" to fix immigration is ludicrous - regardless of Huntsman's distinguished mentally-challenged treason charge lol. Not that I think it's him taking a courageous stance: he governs a border state with a huge immigration population, it's hard to be too insane on the issue when you actually have to deal with it.Perry being the governor of Texas is pretty much forced to be moderate on immigration. You can't be governor of a state with such a huge latino population and be "dem messicans are stealing our jobs!". Bush being the gov. there made him fairly moderate on the issue as well. Talking immigration is basically the only time Perry doesn't come across as fucking insane.
I'm pretty sure private charity and pro bono work was the status quo before any countries instituted universal healthcare systems.
Those countries must have found the old status quo inadequate for some reason.
Haha charity.
You don't really "haha" charity. You just (apparently) want it to be forced charity.
Haha charity.
You don't really "haha" charity. You just (apparently) want it to be forced charity.
No, I'm haha-ing the thought process that you actually believe charity is a solution.
And again, you're not getting what I'm saying. Someone wants a service and they can't afford it. How is what you want any less "charity?"
I'd say it's certainly no longer virtuous or altruistic your way, because it wasn't done of one's own free will.
Man I wish I was a fetus so Christians would care about my well being :violin
Man I wish I was a fetus so Christians would care about my well being :violin
Ugh. Such a stupid argument, and so widespread.
In any event, I don't recall feeling particularly permissive towards anyone walking up to Phoenix Dark and impaling the back of his head with scissors.
Man I wish I was a fetus so Christians would care about my well being :violin:lol
Matthews should have asked who should pay for a delivery when a woman can't afford health insurance
Kind of like Libertarianism
It only works as a comic punchline, and only then if the audience doesn't think about it too much.
I don't see how some intangible "natural right" to buy, sell and own property is more important than the life of every single uninsured person who shows up at the ER without any money in the bank account.
Ah, so slavery IS still legal in America. :smug
Man I wish I was a fetus so Christians would care about my well being :violin
30min youtube video? I'm not surprised: a libertarian's definition "great" is "how long something is."
30min youtube video? I'm not surprised: a libertarian's definition "great" is "how long something is."
tl;dr version:
Banks are the physical incarnation of pure evil. Gold standard, y'all!
Stupid??? You really don't know what your talking about do you? If currency is not backed by something of worth then it is worthless. A dollar used to represent a dollar worth of gold. Now it represents nothing, it is worth nothing, logically.
Wow, never would have guessed Rick Perry would be to the left of Jaydubya.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rick-perry-taken-aback-by-audience-cheering-hypothetical-death-of-uninsured-man/
Like forced vaccination on pre-adolescent, not yet sexually active grade schoolers. That is not life saving, it is stripped liberty.
Wow, never would have guessed Rick Perry would be to the left of Jaydubya.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rick-perry-taken-aback-by-audience-cheering-hypothetical-death-of-uninsured-man/
From the comments page:QuoteLike forced vaccination on pre-adolescent, not yet sexually active grade schoolers. That is not life saving, it is stripped liberty.
:rofl
GARDASIL helps protect males and females ages 9 to 26 from 90% of genital warts cases. GARDASIL also helps protect females ages 9 to 26 from about 75% of cervical, 70% of vaginal, and up to 50% of vulvar cancer cases.
This isnt related to anything currently being discussed but I thought I'd share a story.
In fifth grade, I was on a basketball team. At half time, we switched baskets and had a new jump off. The jump off concluded with me with the ball. I immediately started running towards the basket, everyone else went the other way and one of the referees blew his whistle so I stopped. It turns out that everyone else had gone the wrong way, and the majority of people were confused because of the hoop switch. What I should have done was finish my drive and taken the easy shot.
The lesson I learned that day was being in the minority does not make you wrong.
All I was saying, which like I said is outside any conversation going on or any other views I have is this:
Even if someone were to come along with an objectively perfect plan (if such a thing exists) for our country, and again I don't think Ron Paul or any candidate we have to choose from is perfect, we'd probably shoe them off as crazy.
I'd also like to share a story. When I was in fifth grade I was on a rec league soccer team. One game, the ref blew the whistle to start and I assumed my position as centre-back. However, instead of paying attention to the game, my teammates started telling smugly self-congratulatory anecdotes and acting like they knew shit about epidemiology. We lost that game.
The lesson I learned that day was not to trust libertarian autodidacts to make health policy or maintain and offside trap.
30min youtube video? I'm not surprised: a libertarian's definition "great" is "how long something is."
It's really sad that vaccinating innocent 12 year olds against HPV gets far more of an outcry than executing innocent prisoners.
Also she wasn't even married so yeah. I mean even Obama admits to fucking at least one white girl in college in his autobiography.
You know I probably should have posted my little true story in a different thread. It really had nothing to do with my views on Ron Paul or libertarianism. Sure it my point might have been stupid but hand me my ass for that, not views that I didn't even bring up. I'm actually pretty disappointed in how Paul fared in the debates.
Also how did this make the news yet the recently released Jackie Kennedy tapes in which she says she doesn't like Martin Luther King Jr because he was into orgies doesn't cause anyone to bat an eye. That revelation is far weirder to me. For some reason I am not surprised Palin was into BBC. But MLK being a orgy man?
Also how did this make the news yet the recently released Jackie Kennedy tapes in which she says she doesn't like Martin Luther King Jr because he was into orgies doesn't cause anyone to bat an eye. That revelation is far weirder to me. For some reason I am not surprised Palin was into BBC. But MLK being a orgy man?
So if nothing else you gotta give credit to him for sticking to his guns, even if it means the death of a friend. :usacry
So if nothing else you gotta give credit to him for sticking to his guns, even if it means the death of a friend. :usacry
no that just makes him considerably more stupid.
also lol isn't ron paul pretty rich? he couldn't cough up enough to save his friend? or to pay him enough so the guy could afford insurance in the first place?
So if nothing else you gotta give credit to him for sticking to his guns, even if it means the death of a friend. :usacryalso lol isn't ron paul pretty rich? he couldn't cough up enough to save his friend? or to pay him enough so the guy could afford insurance in the first place?
Despite Paul’s insistence that charity is the appropriate response to America’s uninsured crisis, Snyder’s friends raised $34,870.53, far short of the $400,000 necessary to pay off his bills. View a screen shot below
They truly are unrelated polarizing issues, but don't try to convince anyone of that in a heated debate.
So if nothing else you gotta give credit to him for sticking to his guns, even if it means the death of a friend. :usacryalso lol isn't ron paul pretty rich? he couldn't cough up enough to save his friend? or to pay him enough so the guy could afford insurance in the first place?QuoteDespite Paul’s insistence that charity is the appropriate response to America’s uninsured crisis, Snyder’s friends raised $34,870.53, far short of the $400,000 necessary to pay off his bills. View a screen shot below
That in itself was probably more than Ron Paul's campaign coffers accumulated within the past ten years.
So if nothing else you gotta give credit to him for sticking to his guns, even if it means the death of a friend. :usacryalso lol isn't ron paul pretty rich? he couldn't cough up enough to save his friend? or to pay him enough so the guy could afford insurance in the first place?QuoteDespite Paul’s insistence that charity is the appropriate response to America’s uninsured crisis, Snyder’s friends raised $34,870.53, far short of the $400,000 necessary to pay off his bills. View a screen shot below
That in itself was probably more than Ron Paul's campaign coffers accumulated within the past ten years.
MAF -- not an attack, I'm wondering -- if you're anti death penalty, do you not think there are people who deserve to die in this world?
Or do you just feel the risk of innocent life lost is too much? Wouldn't that same falsely tried person suffer more with life in prison?
Edit: Himu, I see you're anti as well feel free to jump in on that.
So it sounds like none of the "jobs act" will be passed. Horay for bipartisanship :bow
Wait let me point out my hypocrisy. I cheered when bin laden died.
I got hammered, smoked cigars and got laid. I partied like a motherfucker that day.
Wait let me point out my hypocrisy. I cheered when bin laden died.
I got hammered, smoked cigars and got laid. I partied like a motherfucker that day.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#44544050
EXOTIC SNAKE IMPORT REGS KILLING ECONOMY! SAVE US CONGRESS!!!
I just watched some 2008 Obama campaign videos. I'm sorry, there's no way he loses 2012. Let's look at this:I only see one of those you listed being something useful to campaign on.
-Improved health careThe public at large doesn't think so, they think it did the opposite. Even though they are wrong. "Obamacare" is a net negative for Obama.
-Out of IraqThe public doesn't care about foreign policy with how horrible the economy is. It isn't an important issue at all in this election
-Success in LibyaSee Iraq
-Jobs billThe one he proposed? Yeah he can campaign on that
-Bin Laden Death mostly orchestrated by himSee Iraq
The economy is shit because of Bush, and it would be getting better if not for an awful republican congress. Obama wins over Perry.
Starting tomorrow, Don't Ask Don't Tell will officially be dead, and gay Americans will be able to serve openly in the military.
Tea party Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) used himself as an example Monday while arguing against President Barack Obama's plan to make sure millionaires pay about the same tax rate as the people that work for them.
"In my own case, I own LLCs," Fleming told MSNBC's Chris Jansing. "The income flows to my personal tax return and whatever is left over after taxes are paid, I feed my family on the one hand and on the other hand, I reinvest in my business."
"With all due respect, The Wall Street Journal estimated that your businesses, which I believe are Subway sandwich shops and UPS stores -- very successful -- brought you last year, over $6 million," Jansing noted.
"Yeah, that's before you pay 500 employees, you pay rent, you pay equipment and food," Fleming agreed. "Since my net income -- and again, that's the individual rate that I told you about -- the amount that I have to reinvest in my business and feed my family is more like $600,000 of that $6.3 million. And so by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over to invest in new locations, upgrade my locations, buy more equipment."
"You do understand, Congressman, the average person out there making 40, 50, $60,000 a year, when they hear that you have $400,000 left over, it's not exactly a sympathetic position?" Jansing asked.
"Again, class warfares never created a job," Fleming replied. "That's people that will not get jobs. This is all about creating jobs. It's not about attacking people who make certain incomes. You know, in this country, most people feel that being successful in their businesses is a virtue, not a vice. And once we begin to identify it as a vice, this country is going down."
It wasn't clear if the numbers cited by Fleming included his $174,000 congressional salary.
Elizabeth Warren: 46 (32)
Scott Brown (R-inc): 44 (47)
Undecided: (21)
The democratic party will be in shambles in the 2012 aftermath. There are no solid candidates on the horizon, Hillary isn't running, Edwards lol, etc. Obama is the new Carter after all :violinAndrew Cuomo clearly wants to be the 2016 nominee.
This is the problem, the majority are fucking distinguished mentally-challenged.
Did anyone read Nader's novel, where a bunch of rich people (real life ones like George Soros) decide they need to band together and save the world? It sounded nuts, like a Bizarro Atlas Shrugged.
as much dissatisfaction as there is with the congress, I really don't know if its actually all that bad for the GOP. Republicans seem to pride themselves on cynicism about governance. If the government really can't do shit and isn't all that helpful doesn't that just prove their point even more?
Not according to the evening news who does as much as they can to remain "neutral".as much dissatisfaction as there is with the congress, I really don't know if its actually all that bad for the GOP. Republicans seem to pride themselves on cynicism about governance. If the government really can't do shit and isn't all that helpful doesn't that just prove their point even more?
It's hard to take that argument seriously when they're the ones being ineffective.
Oh Mitt Romney
"I was in Iowa the other day, and people suggested that we just raise taxes on corporations. I told them, corporations are people... Raising taxes on corporations is raising taxes on people."
[youtube=560,345]8EL5Atp_vF0[/youtube]
:american
I came in here to say that americans are still being stupid if they think they can resolve the Palestine/Israel issue, that is all.
$1 million a week? Geez, that'd be the day.
Do you, Governor Romney, believe that President Obama is a socialist?Didn't inhale! Like Clinton! Remember that guy! Cigars! Did you see this stain?
ROMNEY: Let me tell you the title that I want to hear said about President Obama, and that is: former President Barack Obama. That's the title I want to hear.
Let me tell you this. What President -- what President Obama is, is a big-spending liberal. And he takes his political inspiration from Europe and from the socialist democrats in Europe. Guess what? Europe isn't working in Europe. It's not going to work here.
I believe in America. I believe in the opportunity and in the freedom that is American opportunity and freedom. I believe in free enterprise and capitalism. I believe government is too big. It's gone from 27 percent of our economy in the years of JFK to 37 percent of our economy. We have to rein in the scale of government or we're not going to be -- continue to be a free economy.
I love this country. I spent my life in the private sector, not in government. I only spent four years as a governor. I didn't inhale.
I'm a business guy. I'm going to get America working again, because I believe in the principles that make America the hope of the Earth.
ROMNEY: All across America, you've got families sitting across from their -- sitting in their living rooms and their kitchens, sitting at that kitchen table, with a calculator and a checkbook, seeing if they have enough money to make ends meet for the month or the week.:usacry
You've got people who are sitting at that same table filling out job application forms, knowing that there are hundreds of other people that are doing the same thing for the same job.
These are tough times for a lot of people in this country, but we are a patriotic people. We place our hand over our heart during the playing of the national anthem. No other people on Earth do that. And if we're led by a leader who draws on that patriotism, who tells the truth, who lives with integrity, and who knows how to lead, America will remain the hope of the Earth and the strongest nation in the world.
I'll do it.
WALLACE: Mr. Cain, I want to follow up on your 999 plan for economic growth. That's a 9 percent...Of course there's no chance! Have you heard about it though? It's a 999 plan! 9%! NINE! NINE! NEIN! NINE!
(APPLAUSE)
Well, they seem to already know what it is. But for the few who don't, it's a 9 percent flat corporate tax, a 9 percent flat income tax, and a new 9 percent national sales tax.
Now, conservatives usually say repeal the income tax before you impose a new tax. Isn't there a danger with your 999 plan, with these three taxes, that some government down the road after President Cain is going to increase three forms of taxation on Americans?
HERMAN CAIN, FORMER CEO OF GODFATHER'S PIZZA: No, there's no danger in that. And first, let me answer Dave's question with the 9, 9, 9 plan. Unfortunately, nobody up here answered his question. He wanted to know as a small businessman what are we going to do to help him as a small business person? I have walked in Dave's shoes.
This economy is on life support, that's why my 9, 9, 9 plan is a bold solution. It starts with throw out the current tax code and pass 9 percent business flat tax, 9 percent personal income tax, and the 9% national sales tax. This is the most important part, it eliminates, or replaces corporate income tax, personal income tax, capital gains tax as well as the estate tax.
Then it treats all businesses the same. And the people who are paying only payroll tax, 15.3, that 15.4 they don't have to pay, now they only have to pay that 9 percent.
CAIN: The reason I said that I would be dead under Obamacare is because my cancer was detected in March of 2006. From March 2006 all the way to the end of 2006, for that number of months, I was able to get the necessary CAT scan tests, go to the necessary doctors, get a second opinion, get chemotherapy, go -- get surgery, recuperate from surgery, get more chemotherapy in a span of nine months. If we had been under Obamacare and a bureaucrat was trying to tell me when I could get that CAT scan that would have delayed by treatment.Dude, you were a millionaire CEO under 65, I'm pretty sure your insurance plan wasn't Medicare or Medicaid and you would have it even if ObamaCare was establishing the NHS.
My surgeons and doctors have told me that because I was able get the treatment as fast as I could, based upon my timetable and not the government's timetable that's what saved my life, because I only had a 30 percent chance of survival. And now I'm here five years cancer free, because I could do it on my timetable and not a bureaucrat's timetable.
President Romney here we come(http://i.imgur.com/bpgfN.jpg)
But Lugar’s judicial votes are hardly the only cause for complaint. Among other things, the conservative Indiana activists are angry that he:
• Voted for Obama’s controversial Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, which pumped billions of dollars into ailing banks and financial institutions during the 2008 financial crisis.
• Supported Obama’s renewal of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, with Russia. The original START was an agreement between the former USSR and the United States during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Here comes 4 years of being completely confused as to wtf the president is thinking or doing
Obama at least seems to have some core beliefs and political ideals even if he is too chickenshit to govern by them. Romney seems to literally have no political views other than "lolz I like big business" and just goes with whatever polls over well that day for whatever audience he is talking to. Ted Kennedy's nickname for him sums him up perfectly "Multiple-choice Mitt".Here comes 4 years of being completely confused as to wtf the president is thinking or doing
dunno, that describes Obama's 4 years as well
id be cool with the idea of a DECENT GOP candidate being president, but theyre ALL fucking insane.
I like how TARP is somehow magically Obama's, even though it was passed in 2008 before he was elected, much less sworn in. Pretty soon 9/11 will be his fault somehow too.
they should be worried about the war we're in that never got congressional approval
they should be worried about the war we're in that never got congressional approval
I like how TARP is somehow magically Obama's, even though it was passed in 2008 before he was elected, much less sworn in. Pretty soon 9/11 will be his fault somehow too.They've already changed the article :lol
I talked to someone the other day who assured me that the bailout and the stimulus were voted for at the same time.
Walker Spokesman Given Immunity In Investigation -- Has No Commenthttp://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/walker_spokesman_given_immunity_in_investigation_-.php?ref=fpblg
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) spokesman, plus two supporters, have now been granted immunity in the ongoing campaign finance investigation of former aides to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), from Walker's time as Milwaukee County Executive.
It was the decision by France and Britain to commit their air forces to the defence of the rebels in eastern Libya that saved them from being overrun by Gaddafy’s forces in the early days of the revolt. Other Western countries sent combat aircraft to join them (although the United States drew back after the first few days), and Gaddafy’s army was stopped just short of Benghazi.
Wait, what do you think "drew back" means there, Boogie?
Well, that's definitely not the case. Do you need me to post links or do you got this?
dur hur drew coming in the thread spouting the same moronic shit again
dur hur drew coming in the thread spouting the same moronic shit again
believe me it looks the same way from where i'm sitting :)
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/a-look-at-politifact-grades-of-candidates/
Bachmann :rofl
It's pretty fucked up that any of our candidates and/or elected officials blatantly lie. Like, I feel everyone just says "oh well, that's what politicians do." Why is it basically just accepted?
Drew, believe me when I say this. No one is going to touch intervention in Libya because it would take one of the most important Supreme Court cases in decades to figure it all out, which might call in question the legality of the war powers act etc. It's a non-starter.
aww, you changed it.
That's awesome, because the only person in that field who might really be dumber than Perry and Bachmann is in fact Herman Cain.
That's awesome, because the only person in that field who might really be dumber than Perry and Bachmann is in fact Herman Cain.
no it's not, because the people dumber than perry/bachmann/cain are THE AMERICAN VOTING PUBLIC :'(
David Frum is like my third or fourth favorite Jew :-[
David Frum is like my third or fourth favorite Jew :-[
and he's quite the hardcore pro-Israel type, but I love me some articulate republicans :-[
and he's quite the hardcore pro-Israel type, but I love me some articulate republicans :-[
That's like saying Obama speaks well or some shit. It's pointless and kind of insulting.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/herman-cain-wins-shocker-at-presidency-5-straw-poll.php?ref=fpa
What does "act black" mean?
That wasn't even the most fiery part of the speech.
What does "act black" mean?
What does "act black" mean?
the conscience decision to drop the g's at the end of words
so you're saying that the president, who did not live in an area of southern dialect in his formative years, speaking to a crowd that lacks any sort of regional binding to it's description or of it's members, spoke in a southern drawl for a bit in a way to connect with the audience. gee maybe, just maybe there's another group of people apart from southerners who tend to drop their g's (not to mention the waist of their pants!) a group which is far more likely given the situation.
A large portion of the CBC are from southern states. Furthermore the southern drawl within the black community is not restricted by region since many black people have roots/family in the south regardless of where they live - go to any black church and you'll hear it. Not surprisingly, when Obama speaks to largely black audiences he utilizes the speech patterns of a black preacher. As does Bill Clinton and some other democrats who do it effectively.
Guess what, changing tone based on audience isn't a black exclusive thing. Many groups in America speak differently amongst each other.
Because only black people drop their g's
Hey Drew, why dont you quit bitchin and take those slippers off
itt obama try's to act black in front of black audience
[youtube=560,345]HeoOg3Fj0G0[/youtube]
[youtube=560,345]XNc9IuK0hNc[/youtube]
:drudge
i was just pointing out something odd and then pd had to go all stupid innocent to defend his dear leader so i ran with it, this is a non issue, you idiots, it was a fake argumentHow is it odd? Everyone acts differently if they are around different groups of people. Do you act exactly the same around your parents as you do around your friends? It's all the same thing.
How is it odd? Everyone acts differently if they are around different groups of people. Do you act exactly the same around your parents as you do around your friends? It's all the same thing.
You were "pointing out something odd" that is apparent in basically every single human being out there.
Obama acts different around black people than he does around old rich white politicans. Alert. the. press.
Do you guys think voting should require some form of ID?
Double edged sword. But here in Oregon you vote by mail anyway.
When I registered to vote I satisfied the requirements to vote already so let me vote.Do you guys think voting should require some form of ID?No.
No form of ID whatsoever? How hard is it to get a state-issued ID card? A driver's license should be sufficient, and most everybody of voting age already has one of those, right?
Just imagine a debate between Cain and Obama.
Obama - "Change! Yes we still can! Change!"
Cain - "9-9-9 This economy is on life support. 9-9-9"
I love how Cain does well in one poll and Fox News proclaims him a new top tier candidate while Ron Paul has placed in the top two in numerous polls and is ignored or given seven minutes of talking time in a two hour debate.
Maybe Ron Paul could be a top tier candidate if he was black
That the republicans would faster elect Cain than Paul should tell you something.
Ron Paul has placed in the top two in numerous polls
Cheebs, explainHello President Cain?
Mitt Romney - 23% (+1)
Rick Perry - 19% (-10)
Herman Cain - 17% (+11)
Newt Gingrich - 11% (+8)
Ron Paul - 6% (-2)
Jon Huntsman - 4% (+3)
Michele Bachmann - 3% (-5)
Rick Santorum - 3% (-1)
Gary Johnson - N/A
Buddy Roemer - N/A
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/20...after_all.html
Chris Christie has it in him to be the newest new Nixon, albeit without the personal demons who spent most of their time playing darts in the old Nixon's head. When the old Nixon was plotting his political comeback in the mid-1960's, he did so from the same political-legal-financial nexus in New York and New Jersey that now seems to be the source of the current Christie boomlet, while stoking the anger of just enough of the Goldwater crowd to keep them in the tent. And Christie is adept at the kind of projection that camouflages obvious bullying as legitimate self-defense. Among other things, this technique enables Christie to exercise his natural talent of being a colossal asshole to the mere mortals who challenge him, while allowing him to present himself as a unifying presence to those people in the political sphere who really count. (Damn, Brooks just fainted.) The fact that this makes the latter group a collection of pathetically easy marks is probably beside the point. Thus, can the Fox News website rejoice in Christie's having delivered a "monumental takedown of President Obama," while the Wall Street Journal's site has Christie "calling for unity." It's a neat trick, and Richard Nixon was its past master.
Nixon was the acknowledged maestro of the creative use of various resentments, his own and everyone else's. It's his most lasting gift to American politics. Christie was nasty enough last night, with his paranoid fantasies of Barack Obama's intention to "divide the nation" in order to win an election. (And President Nixon never said that Senator McGovern would weaken the nation, only that his policies would.) But the real deal is in those YouTube clips of which he and his staff are so proud. Richard Nixon fought like a Gaboon viper to keep the world from hearing the angry invective and punk-ass nastiness with which he referred to much of the rest of the political world. Chris Christie's people put it right out there, as though it's a photo-op with him and the family dog. Whether you think one approach is preferable to the other is probably the best measure of the depths to which this nation's political culture has sunk. For those of us who remember how it once worked, Chris Christie is the newest New Nixon, and all of them turn one day into the old one, as sure as god made schoolteachers to be kicked around.
i think the three ring circus they have in place now is a much better venue
Thank GodMy wife is a teacher and says NCLB was awful. But then again it wasn't set up to help kids learn. It was set up to make a lot of people rich. (http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/12-bush-profiteers-collect-billions-from-no-child-left-behind/)
Thank GodMy wife is a teacher and says NCLB was awful. But then again it wasn't set up to help kids learn. It was set up to make a lot of people rich. (http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/12-bush-profiteers-collect-billions-from-no-child-left-behind/)
Thank GodMy wife is a teacher and says NCLB was awful. But then again it wasn't set up to help kids learn. It was set up to make a lot of people rich. (http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/12-bush-profiteers-collect-billions-from-no-child-left-behind/)
That the republicans would faster elect Cain than Paul should tell you something.
The system broken, the schools closed, the prison's open. We ain't got nothing to lose ma'fucker we rollin'
Quote from: Great RumblerAs for the article...yeah, does the government do ANYTHING these days that isn't directly related to stuffing $100 bills into the pants of people who are already millionaires and billionaires?
More than any political position, this is my biggest problem with our government. For the corporations by the corporations.
Yes, well truth be told I have no more intention of voting for Paul after watching the debates. I wouldn't say my support for him was based on dope at all though, it was however based on misconception. I got swept up in the hype train that he was going to turn the political world in it's head. And now for some reason any time I weigh in on something all anyone has to say is lol you like Paul.
Now I'm probably just not going to vote. There's no candidate that I believe in, and even if I were to find one perfectly aligned with my hippy ass views, there's no way like that would stand a chance.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/chris-christie-presidential-bid-6498142?click=pp
the problem with ron paul is that he treats all problems -- social and economic -- as simple, and promises simple solutions couched as dogma. human society and the economic structures that spavine it are anything but. he's a snake oil salesman. anything he croaks from his aged libertarded maw must be factored against that one inescapable truth: NOTHING ABOUT PEOPLE IS SIMPLE.
Rand: The EPA is killing every industry in America!
Jon: Don't you agree that we need regulations to stop people from polluting our air and water supply?
Rand: But we don't need to worry about such things. The "scientists" talked about how the ozone hole would be expanding forever, and acid rain would be happening all the time, but it didn't.
Jon: But that's because there was legislation that was enacted in the early 1990s that curbed CFC and sulfur emissions and the like.
Rand: Exactly, and now we don't need them anymore!
Jon: But then those things will start happening again.
Rand: But we've just proven that the government didn't need to get involved at all.
Jon: ???
Rand: :smug
Jon: :'(
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/rick-perry-says-drug-war-may-require-our-military-in-mexico/
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/rick-perry-says-drug-war-may-require-our-military-in-mexico/
Go big or go home, I say.
But, since Mexico is but a middleman for the hard stuff of coke and South American heroin, y'all should invade Colombia, Peru and Bolivia instead. Go for the source 'n all. :smug
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/rick-perry-says-drug-war-may-require-our-military-in-mexico/
So much wrong it hurts. Looks like I might have to vote Obama again just to help keep the pubs out
Listen I don't know where everyone got this idea that I was Ron Paul's champion.
Hell I actually believe the way our society is set up is holding back the healthy evolution of the human species.
If anything I become more and more of a hippy everyday. Hell I actually believe the way our society is set up is holding back the healthy evolution of the human species.
the problem with ron paul is that he treats all problems -- social and economic -- as simple, and promises simple solutions couched as dogma. human society and the economic structures that spavine it are anything but. he's a snake oil salesman. anything he croaks from his aged libertarded maw must be factored against that one inescapable truth: NOTHING ABOUT PEOPLE IS SIMPLE.
The problem is many libertarians aren't interested with bringing people to their side, and instead seem to revel in smugly listing off the various important social programs and government agencies they want to cut. Programs people like, and others rely on
blah blah blah talkin' what never made a man rich
Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I honestly think this will never stop as long people value money more than their species. Aka forever.
Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I honestly think this will never stop as long people value money more than their species. Aka forever.
Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I honestly think this will never stop as long people value money more than their species. Aka forever.
http://www.cpusa.org/
oh, and i wouldn't mind the option to opt out of social security :P
Okay, you made me look that up finally and wtf?
That plan sure looks 1) designed to benefit the rich, 2) dumb, and 3) like it was ripped off a deal from some pizza delivery chain. Waitaminute...
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/restrictions_could_keep_five_million_traditionally_democratic_voters_from_the_polls_in_2012.php?ref=fpblg
14 months to get people photo IDs. Given how impressive OFA's grass roots efforts are, I think they can combat this effectively
http://www.tnr.com/blog/timothy-noah/95680/gop-harvard-dump-warren - stay classy GOP
I think the interest in Christie is evidence for continuing sexism in politics. His main appeal is that he's a fat douchebag, no? I don't see a woman with that cv getting too far.
He's going to raise close to a billion dollars, not sure that equals "underdog" lol
Looks like Christie will officially announce his plans to enter or not enter on Thursday. So glad that circus is coming to an end
oh em gee @ the latest rick perry controversy
not surprising at all, and i hope it sinks his ass
Remember, there's nothing worse about being a Republican than reminding people that yes, the party is in fact racist as fuck.
Here's a related video:
[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6SfUM964Jk&feature=related[/youtube]
Yikes.
Basically, he's taking any kind of tax increase completely off the table by equating it to an assault on American Exceptionalism, class warfare, etc. So the deficit means we all have to make sacrifices. We can't raise taxes on the wealthy even a little; we have to keep under-funding our infrastructure, take lower benefits, and just get used to a lower standard of living altogether. Because to do otherwise would make us a weaker nation.
I thought this guy was a moderate.
Kinda wished he decided to run just so republicans could find out he supports civil unions, believes in global warming, and put a Moslem on the NJ SC.
tl;dw
sum it up plz
Louis XVI ascended to the throne amidst a financial crisis; the state was nearing bankruptcy and outlays outpaced income. This was because of France’s financial obligations stemming from involvement in the Seven Years War and its participation in the American Revolutionary War. In May 1776, finance minister Turgot was dismissed, after he failed to enact reforms. The next year, Jacques Necker, a foreigner, was appointed Comptroller-General of Finance. He could not be made an official minister because he was a Protestant.
Necker realized that the country's extremely regressive tax system subjected the lower classes to a heavy burden, while numerous exemptions existed for the nobility and clergy. He argued that the country could not be taxed higher; that tax exemptions for the nobility and clergy must be reduced; and proposed that borrowing more money would solve the country's fiscal shortages. Necker published a report to support this claim that underestimated the deficit by roughly 36 million livres, and proposed restricting the power of the parlements.
This was not received well by the King's ministers and Necker, hoping to bolster his position, argued to be made a minister. The King refused, Necker was fired, and Charles Alexandre de Calonne was appointed to the Comptrollership. Calonne initially spent liberally, but he quickly realized the critical financial situation and proposed a new tax code.
The proposal included a consistent land tax, which would include taxation of the nobility and clergy. Faced with opposition from the parlements, Calonne organised the summoning of the Assembly of Notables. But the Assembly failed to endorse Calonne's proposals and instead weakened his position through its criticism. In response, the King announced the calling of the Estates-General for May 1789, the first time the body had been summoned since 1614. This was a signal that the Bourbon monarchy was in a weakened state and subject to the demands of its people.
lol @ Palin's big media day being completely drowned by the Steve Jobs news
Obama's running a great press conference right now. Why didn't he use this language for the last 2 years
I'm either switching to a credit union or a decent bank. There's a TCF right across the street from me, I'll do some research
Not surprising to see costs passed onto the consumer. Not at all.
Not surprising to see costs passed onto the consumer. Not at all.
:bow Capitalism :bow2
Want to sarcastically bow? Bow to market interference. When government tacks onto the costs of doing business, things get more expensive. Every time.
I'm either switching to a credit union or a decent bank. There's a TCF right across the street from me, I'll do some research
It was easy to switch banks, the hard part was getting off my ass and doing it.
Yes because big business has proven in the past that they will act fairly in an environment devoid of regulation
Not surprising to see costs passed onto the consumer. Not at all.
:bow Capitalism :bow2
Want to sarcastically bow? Bow to market interference. When government tacks onto the costs of doing business, things get more expensive. Every time.
In other words, if you support the regulation in question, you have little to stand on when you whine about the costs being passed onto you. If you wanted this to happen, one assumes you thought it worth it the cost. Well, it happened. Now pay up.
There was no added cost, just less profit.
The practical difference being?
But there is no additional costs the banks had to assume. So I'm not following how they can pass the 'no costs' onto their customers.Well they certainly don't want to gamble with your money for free
(http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd58/bizarrosgr/2e5cbed7.jpg)
I'm either switching to a credit union or a decent bank. There's a TCF right across the street from me, I'll do some research
It was easy to switch banks, the hard part was getting off my ass and doing it.
Yea, that's gonna be my problem. I'll have to withdraw all my money right? Why can't I just call BoA and tell them to put my money in another bank :'(
Glad I don't bank at one of the big banks.
When I switched from Wells Fargo I did an online bank transfer to my Chase account and just let the account sit for 60 days and WF closed it automatically.
Gundam, I read somewhere that Wells Fargo is charging for having a debit card soon. IIRC they're already testing it in markets and rolling it out soon
Gundam -- completely unrelated but make sure you're on litter duty while your wifey is preggers, it's a thing.
Hey now. Bank of America has a right to make an exorbitant profit charging outrageous fees! IT'S THEIR RIGHT!
Me? I just shoot from the hip. I also watch Last Word and Rachel- its clear im not up for high level armchair politics.
Hey, where do you get your talking points anyway, drew? I know you act like your beliefs are all sui generis, but real talk here.
How is she dumb?
I think what they're asking for you is for you to actually counter her points with statistics or references since you're accusing her of flat out lying.
i haven't watched the video. Just here to mediate.
Could you paraphrase what's at the link? It redirects me to a mobile site so I can't see the correct article.
I'm going to Occupy Houston today
Occupy Houston had more people than I had anticipated. A good amount were middle aged Ron Paul supporters though :-XI'm going to Occupy Houston today
I went to Occupy Wall Street last night. I was impressed by alot of what I saw, and how focused and level headed the volunteer organizers were, but there seemed to be less people than I had anticipated.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/lawrence-odonnells-offensive-interview-with-herman-cain/246328/#.To9QTEoxQgk.twitter
An utter piece of shit
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/lawrence-odonnells-offensive-interview-with-herman-cain/246328/#.To9QTEoxQgk.twitter
An utter piece of shit
Here's a naive political shoot from the hip:
What if there was a maximum income? Still high enough to be stupid rich, like say a few tens of millions or so a year. Might spur CEOs towards reinvestment into employees and drive average wages up, taking a chunk of out the wealth inequity.
I'm sure the republican answer to that would be WTF SOCIALISM?!!?!! but is there really any reason to allow someone to earn more than 50 million a year?
I'm sure the republican answer to that would be WTF SOCIALISM?!!?!! but is there really any reason to allow someone to earn more than 50 million a year?
I'm sure the republican answer to that would be WTF SOCIALISM?!!?!! but is there really any reason to allow someone to earn more than 50 million a year?
yes, there is, because they EARNED it.
and eh, if you're going to tax people, you better make it the same percentage across the board
In the United States at the end of 2001, 10% of the population owned 71% of the wealth and the top 1% owned 38%. On the other hand, the bottom 40% owned less than 1% of the nation's wealth. According to this 2006 study by the Federal Reserve System, from 1989 to 2004, the distribution in the United States had been changing with indications there was a greater concentration of wealth held by the top 10% and top 1% of the population. A PBS report by Solman on Aug. 16, 2011 now found that financial gains over the last decade in the United States have been mostly made at the "tippy-top" of the economic food chain as more people fall out of the middle class. The top 20 percent of Americans now holds 84 percent of U.S. wealth, the 2nd 20 % holds 11%, the third 20 % 4 %. The following figure shows the actual distribution of wealth in the US. The 4th 20% (0.2%) and the Bottom 20% (0.1%) are not visible.
and eh, if you're going to tax people, you better make it the same percentage across the board
That would make sense, except for this:QuoteIn the United States at the end of 2001, 10% of the population owned 71% of the wealth and the top 1% owned 38%. On the other hand, the bottom 40% owned less than 1% of the nation's wealth. According to this 2006 study by the Federal Reserve System, from 1989 to 2004, the distribution in the United States had been changing with indications there was a greater concentration of wealth held by the top 10% and top 1% of the population. A PBS report by Solman on Aug. 16, 2011 now found that financial gains over the last decade in the United States have been mostly made at the "tippy-top" of the economic food chain as more people fall out of the middle class. The top 20 percent of Americans now holds 84 percent of U.S. wealth, the 2nd 20 % holds 11%, the third 20 % 4 %. The following figure shows the actual distribution of wealth in the US. The 4th 20% (0.2%) and the Bottom 20% (0.1%) are not visible.
The poorest 240,000,000 Americans own 15.3% of the nation's total wealth.
and eh, if you're going to tax people, you better make it the same percentage across the board
That would make sense, except for this:QuoteIn the United States at the end of 2001, 10% of the population owned 71% of the wealth and the top 1% owned 38%. On the other hand, the bottom 40% owned less than 1% of the nation's wealth. According to this 2006 study by the Federal Reserve System, from 1989 to 2004, the distribution in the United States had been changing with indications there was a greater concentration of wealth held by the top 10% and top 1% of the population. A PBS report by Solman on Aug. 16, 2011 now found that financial gains over the last decade in the United States have been mostly made at the "tippy-top" of the economic food chain as more people fall out of the middle class. The top 20 percent of Americans now holds 84 percent of U.S. wealth, the 2nd 20 % holds 11%, the third 20 % 4 %. The following figure shows the actual distribution of wealth in the US. The 4th 20% (0.2%) and the Bottom 20% (0.1%) are not visible.
The poorest 240,000,000 Americans own 15.3% of the nation's total wealth.
What's the source for this? I like pie charts
http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/10/obama-attacks-banks-while-raking-in-wall-street-dough/ (http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/10/obama-attacks-banks-while-raking-in-wall-street-dough/)
So, the daily caller (!) is angry that Obama's a corporatist? Does this mean he isn't a soshulist anymore?
now that "corporatist" is the new epithet to rile up the populists, expect to hear more of that from the right-wing wackadoodle set.
SEE DEM FAT CATS? NOBAMMER WANTS TO GIB EM ALL YER TAX MONIES SO NO MOAR TAXES, ALSO GAY FETUS MARRIAGE!!!!
now that "corporatist" is the new epithet to rile up the populists, expect to hear more of that from the right-wing wackadoodle set.
SEE DEM FAT CATS? NOBAMMER WANTS TO GIB EM ALL YER TAX MONIES SO NO MOAR TAXES, ALSO GAY FETUS MARRIAGE!!!!
Sarah Palin started using "crony capitalism" a few weeks back, too.
WASHINGTON -- In Herman Cain's America, the tax code would be very, very simple: The corporate income tax rate would be 9 percent, the personal income tax rate would be 9 percent and the national sales tax rate would be 9 percent.
But there's already a 999 plan out there, in a land called SimCity.
Long before Cain was running for president and getting attention for his 999 plan, the residents of SimCity 4 -- which was released in 2003 -- were living under a system where the default tax rate was 9 percent for commercial taxes, 9 percent for industrial taxes and 9 percent for residential taxes. (That is, of course, if you didn't use the cheat codes to get unlimited money and avoid taxes altogether.)
......
Kip Katsarelis, a senior producer for Maxis, the company that created the SimCity series, was excited that politicians may be looking to video games for ideas.
"We encourage politicians to continue to look to innovative games like SimCity for inspiration for social and economic change," said Katsarelis. "While we at Maxis and Electronic Arts do not endorse any political candidates or their platforms, it's interesting to see GOP candidate Herman Cain propose a simplified tax system like one we designed for the video game SimCity 4."
Adopting such a simple tax structure, Katsarelis said, would allow fantasy political leaders to focus their energy on infrastructure and national security. "Our game design team thought that an easy to understand taxation system would allow players to focus on building their cities and have fun thwarting giant lizard attacks, rather than be buried by overly complex financial systems."
When asked about similarities between Cain's plan and SimCity's default tax rates, Cain campaign spokesman JD Gordon replied, "Well, we all like 9-9-9."
Rich Lowrie, the Ohio Wells Fargo employee who is the brains behind Cain's plan, did not return a request for comment regarding whether he is a fan of SimCity and looked to the game for inspiration.
A receptionist at Lowrie's Wells Fargo office said she doubted his idea came from SimCity. "Probably not," she told The Huffington Post. "I don't think he's much of a game person."
Presumably, under the Cain plan, disasters would be turned off.
999 plan is so busted- he doesnt even know how it would affect a computer product, with parts manufactured all over the place. Maybe he'll find an advisor for his staff that's good at being president
Bachmann keeps surprising me with her gaffes. Not so much that I think she should be smarter, but because the New Yorker piece on her described a campaign that was working pretty hard on controlling her image and making her seem respectable. This is a major enough proposal/talking point that someone sane-ish on the campaign should have checked it first, right?lol she's been running one of the most undisciplined, stupid campaigns in recent history. No wonder her advisers bail on a monthly basis
Ah, who am I kidding. She's nuts and probably everyone on her campaign is too.999 plan is so busted- he doesnt even know how it would affect a computer product, with parts manufactured all over the place. Maybe he'll find an advisor for his staff that's good at being president
I think that was the plan with Dick Cheney back in the day.
The Netherlands has 4.3% unemployment and legalized weed. What are they going to protest?
That's ok, this morning apparently Bachmann proposed going back to the tax rates from 1981... without realizing that would mean pretty substantial tax hikes for every bracket. And people wonder why I think Republicans are stupid...
Conservatism in the United States includes a variety of political ideologies including fiscal conservatism, supply-side economics, social conservatism, libertarian conservatism, bioconservatism and religious conservatism, as well as support for a strong military. Modern American conservatism was largely born out of alliance between classical liberals and social conservatives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the US, social conservatives emphasize traditional views of social units such as the family, church, or locale. Social conservatism may entail defining marriage as relationships between one man and one woman (thereby prohibiting same-sex marriage and polygamy) and laws placing restrictions on the practice of abortion. While many religious conservatives believe that government should have a role in defending moral values, libertarian conservatives such as Barry Goldwater advocated a hands-off government where social values were concerned.
Neoliberalism seeks to transfer control of the economy from public to the private sector, under the belief that it will produce a more efficient government and improve the economic health of the nation.
The Administration of Ronald Reagan, from 1981 to 1989, made a range of decisions that served to liberalize (in contemporary US terminology, this is more likely to be described as conservative economics rather than liberal; in the sense of this article, liberalize refers to an economic system involving few regulations) the American economy. These policies are often described as Reaganomics, and are often associated with supply-side economics (The notion that, in order to lower prices and cultivate economic prosperity, policies should appeal to producers rather than consumers.).
Neoliberal movements ultimately changed the world's economies in many ways, but some analysts argue that the extent to which the world has liberalized may often be overstated. Some of the past thirty years' changes are clear and unambiguous, like:
Growth in international trade and cross-border capital flows
Elimination of trade barriers
Cutbacks in public sector employment
The privatization of previously public-owned enterprises
The transfer of the share of countries' economic wealth to the top economic percentiles of the population.
Other changes are not so apparent, and are debated in the literature:
Reduction in the size of governments. Governments do not appear to have shrunk wholesale. With the exception of exceptionally high-spending governments, government expenditures (as a percentage of GDP) appears to have stayed the same since 1980. Most of the cuts to government spending appear to have been a temporary phenomenon that took place during the 1990s
To show how this would work, let me offer up a simplified example that is based on Kleinbard’s analysis. Take a firm with gross revenues of a hundred million dollars that pays fifty million dollars in wages and salaries and forty million dollars in other costs (raw materials, advertising, and so on). Under the current system, the firm’s taxable profits are ten million dollars, and its tax bill is $3.5 million.
Under Cain’s proposal, since the firm could no longer deduct the fifty million in wages and salaries, its taxable profit would jump to sixty million. At a tax rate of nine per cent, its tax bill would be $5.4 million. If you compare this figure to $3.5 million, you will see that the firm’s effective tax rate would jump by more than half under the Cain plan. When applied to firms throughout the economy, such a tax hike would generate a very big jump in revenues from the business tax despite the fact that it was being levied at a lower rate.
How much of it would they be able to pass on? According to most economic studies that have looked into this type of question, the answer is almost all of it. The “incidence” of such taxes falls almost entirely on workers. (The technical reason for this is that the supply of labor is less sensitive to the level of wages than the demand for labor.) Ultimately, rather than paying nine per cent of their income in income taxes, workers would face a rate of close to eighteen per cent. Half of these taxes the I.R.S. would collect directly. The other half employers would deduct from workers’ paychecks and pass on to the government.
"We should repeal the CLASS Act and the rest of the health spending law and replace it with the type of common-sense reforms that lower costs and Americans support," McConnell said.
I won't bother to post the link, but David brooks' new piece is perhaps the dumbest thing I've ever read from him.
CNN is reporting Huntsman is dropping out of the race. lol what a waste
also, who do these assholes thinks has to clean up the giant messes they're making? What better way to create solidarity than trash the streets and restaurant bathrooms that the janitor/maintenance members of Teh 99% have to clean.
Dunno if he's joking or serious.
Why don't people protesting Wall Street bailouts OFFER A LONG TERM SOLUTION TO CUT THE DEBT.
Also I'm talking about the latest, latest Brooks piece. In which he compares the World Trade center construction to...something.
trying to have productive, intellegent debates is usually pointless, but how can you not enjoy poking the crazies' hornet nest sometimes? i dont want to get on facebook every day and let loony religious shit and casual racism sit on there without ripping in to whoever said it at least a little bit. its fun to make them feel uncomfortable instead of having it the other way around all the time.
plus seeing people's reactions when you post shit like "be sure to celebrate National Thank Your Abortion Doctor Day!" is priceless
oh lawd
What about arguing on other people's walls? I got banned from someone's wall for arguing on it over health care. I was very cordial and mainly posted link. Probably not a good idea
ot only the Communist Party but also the American Nazi Party has endorsed OWS as well.
The media has been falling all over itself to spin OWS as the newest liberal movement, just like the Tea Party. They have done their best to hide videos that show what the Occupy movement really believes.
Both Communists and Nazi’s are socialists. They hate freedom and liberty and both want to see freedom and liberty replaced with tyranny.
OWS claims to be a leaderless movement, yet no one involved with the movement is willing to denounce the Nazis or the Communists. Contrast that to the Tea Party movement, which went overboard to make sure no one involved with the Tea Party movement was a racist or a Nazi.
OWS seems to have no problem with Nazis or the Communists. OWS supports forms of totalitarianism that directly killed about 250 million people in the last century and enslaved billions in poverty and tyranny.
The OWS movement, contrary to the media myth that is being spun, is not just a spontaneous uprising, but rather a well-planned event. It is not simply a group of dissatisfied Americans seeking redress of their grievances. It is a well thought out plan by far left wing groups.
…
The far left knows as well as well as we do that 2012 will be the ultimate battle between freedom and tyranny. Either real Americans win the battle of 2012 and we will save liberty for our nation or they will win and America will slide into socialism.
Good and evil cannot coexist. One must prevail and the other must fail. Freedom and socialism cannot co-exist. Either we totally defeat the far left in 2012 or we lose.
Losing is not an option.
I'm sure this will get me a reprimand from Mandark, but so fucking what if a plan or idea sounds socialist or communist. Doesn't it stand to logic that pulling some ideas from different political ideologies would be a healthy thing for the system? I guess I just don't get how politicians get away with shooting things down just because "sounds like socialism to me!!"
Maybe it’s part of living in a postmaterialist economy, but nearly every practical question becomes a values question. You get politicians and commentators whose views are entirely predictable because they don’t care about the specifics of any particular issue.
...
At the national level anybody who tries to zig and zag gets regarded as weak and traitorous by the economic values groups. There are rewards for those who fight over symbols, few for those who see the thing itself.
But that doesn’t mean people are just shrinking back. Quietly but decisively, Americans are trying to restore the moral norms that undergird our economic system.
...
These majorities are focused on the fundamentals. They say that repairing the economic moral fabric is the essential national task right now. They are suspicious of government action in general, saying that government often undermines this fabric.
If you're a decent critical thinker than a good policy is good because it gets results, not because of where it was adapted from. If you're a wretched seething primitive that needs All Of Us to do the thinking for It, than socialism is bad because it's Other Than. The question of why it's such a successful political trick is really a question for group psychology.
Roemer is doing an AmA on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/lgklh/iama_2012_gop_presidential_candidate_i_believe_in/
From what I've seen, the audience is very pro-Romney and this shouldn't be taken as a sign that the rest of the tea bagger set approves.Romney's big in Nevada. He got 51% of the vote there last time. There's a solid amount of Mormons there, either second or third with Idaho. (Harry Reid of course being one of them.) Although back in 2008 I read that a lot of his goodwill came from the 2002 Olympics as it boosted tourism in Nevada, for obvious reasons. Plus, it's a convention selected caucus, not a primary. (Angle won in a primary.)
The cult set will get pissy about this but fuck em: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/10/19/Obama-pulling-in-Wall-Street-donations/UPI-18421319065415/?spt=hs&or=tn
First off, your money in insured so it isn't going to disappear when BoA's troubles get worse. This move is probably tied to BoA's unwinding of some of their business (a process which has been ongoing for quite some time) and for the most part most banks have been doing this for years. You should be with a credit union simply because they're easier to deal with, not gigantic macro moves like this.
I think I should hurry up and get my money in a credit union.
After Igniting Wall St. Protests, Magazine Proposes One Clear Demand
Three months ago, the Canadian magazine Adbusters called for a protest on Wall Street, providing the spark that began a wildfire of protest across the country and, over the weekend, in an increasing number of cities around the world.
That first call included a poster of a ballerina on the Wall Street bull, and a question: “What is our one demand?”
At the time, the answer was simple: gather in downtown Manhattan.
Now the magazine is attempting to push the protesters who have since heeded that call in New York and elsewhere — and have so far been united in little more than a shared anger — toward a more concrete, lasting and political set of demands. It is, in part, a reaction to the charge that the protesters lack any common ideas, and a fear that without one, the movement may fizzle.
“As the movement matures, let’s consider a response to our critics,” the magazine’s editors write in their latest “tactical briefing,” sent in a blast e-mail to 90,000 activists and readers on Monday. “Let’s occupy the core of our global system. Let’s dethrone the greed that defines this new century. Let’s work to define our one great demand.”
The e-mail, which was also posted on the magazine’s Web site, goes on:
On October 29, on the eve of the G20 Leaders Summit in France, let’s the people of the world rise up and demand that our G20 leaders immediately impose a 1% #ROBINHOOD tax on all financial transactions and currency trades. Let’s send them a clear message: We want you to slow down some of that $1.3-trillion easy money that’s sloshing around the global casino each day – enough cash to fund every social program and environmental initiative in the world.
The magazine then asks readers to take the idea for this “Robin Hood” tax on financial trades — and a global march on Saturday, Oct. 29 — to the so-called general assemblies that have been at the center of many of the Occupy protests and sit-ins.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/after-igniting-wall-st-protests-magazine-proposes-one-clear-demand/#more-136203What is with all these "Robin Hood" plans lately? Even in the Disney version he's protesting taxes and "stealing" from the government to distribute the unjust taxation back to the people.
Seems like a good idea
That graph is done in such an annoying way I almost like the $9.99 plan now.
Not sure why the "Top 20%" one is blue either.
Taking aim at minimum wage laws, union protections, and even local building codes, Herman Cain has put the finishing touches on the last missing piece of his signature “9-9-9” plan – an elaborate proposal to create “opportunity zones” in inner-city America that the GOP presidential candidate will unveil during a major campaign appearance in Detroit on Friday morning.
Cain hinted at the move during Tuesday night’s GOP debate in Las Vegas. He and his aides hope the details they provide about their plans to encourage growth in impoverished areas will deflect the surge of recent criticism branding “9-9-9” as unfair to the poor.
But details about the opportunity zone proposal, as obtained in advance by Fox News, will likely make “9-9-9” more, not less, controversial, particularly with organized labor.
To qualify for zone status under Cain’s plan, a given jurisdiction will have to enact policies the unions consider anathema – such as the elimination of the minimum wage, the provision of school vouchers, or the declaration of a zone as a “right-to-work” area.
Opportunity Zones must reverse counter-productive incentives and bureaucratic micromanagement created by Democrats and Republicans alike,” the document states. “Access to contracts and capital is skewed towards big business….All building codes, regulations, restrictions, and requirements should be reviewed from the standpoint of whether they impede economic growth.”
“President Obama’s astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women,“ Romney said in a statement. "The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government. The American people deserve to hear the recommendations that were made by our military commanders in Iraq.”
-Mitt Romney, 10/21/11
Bachmann also argued Sunday that Iraq had "disrespected" the U.S. in outlining its conditions for continued U.S. presence there, and urged Mr. Obama to "return to the negotiating table" with the Iraqi government and demand full reimbursement for the $700 billion America has spent on the war over the last eight years.
"The problem is, we've put a lot of deposit into this situation with Iraq," Bachmann told CBS' Bob Schieffer. "To think that we are so disrespected and they have so little fear of the United States that there would be nothing that we would gain from this? That's why I've called on President Obama to return to the negotiating table.
"The Obama administration has said they've gotten everything they wanted. They got exactly nothing," Bachmann said. "I believe that Iraq should reimburse the United States fully for the amount of money that we have spent to liberate these people. They're not a poor country. They're a wealthy country. I think that they need to do that, because what we will be leaving behind is a nation that is very fragile and will be subject to dominance by Iran and their influence in the region. That's not good."
...
Bachmann objected to the Iraqi government's demands and said, if she were president, she would not comply with the Iraqis' demands on continued U.S. involvement there. But she also said it was Mr. Obama's foreign policy "failures" that had led to those demands in the first place.
"We could not allow our troops to be subject to that," Bachmann said. "But again, we are there as the nation that liberated these people. That's the thanks that the United States is getting after 4,400 lives were expended and over $800 billion? So on the way out, we're being kicked out of the country? I think this is absolutely outrageous what's happened."
"Of course. I would agree that the world is better off because all three of those actors are no longer with us, I absolutely agree with that. But I oppose the president putting us into war in Libya.
"Don't forget, the president has put us into two additional wars. One is Libya, and the recent one was at the request of Uganda," she said, referring to the president's recent decision to deploy 100 troops to Uganda to help combat the rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)."
What the above points to is a strategy from which Republicans will recoil, a strategy to increase the GOP share of the white Christian vote and increase the turnout of that vote by specific appeals to social, cultural, and moral issues, and for equal justice for the emerging white minority. If the GOP is not the party of New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci and Cambridge cop James Crowley, it has no future. And although Howard Dean disparages the Republicans as the "white party," why should Republicans be ashamed to represent the progeny of the men who founded, built, and defended America since her birth as a nation?
Perhaps some of us misremember the past. But the racial, religious, cultural, social, political, and economic divides today seem greater than they seemed even in the segregation cities some of us grew up in.
Back then, black and white lived apart, went to different schools and churches, played on different playgrounds, and went to different restaurants, bars, theaters, and soda fountains. But we shared a country and a culture. We were one nation. We were Americans.
Perhaps some of us misremember the past. But the racial, religious, cultural, social, political, and economic divides today seem greater than they seemed even in the segregation cities some of us grew up in.
Back then, black and white lived apart, went to different schools and churches, played on different playgrounds, and went to different restaurants, bars, theaters, and soda fountains. But we shared a country and a culture. We were one nation. We were Americans.
I prefer Buchanan to your average party hack (Stephen Moore, for example), because you know you're getting the real Pat Buchanan, not some poll-tested talking points.
This sort of thing crops up all the time when people complain about the civil rights/feminist/GBLT movements. "I wasn't aware of their problems" becomes "We didn't have those problems".
I'd love to see someone ask Buchanan whether he thinks black Americans his age remember things the same way.
oh boy:lol
Twelve Pretty Racist Or Just Crazy Quotes From Pat Buchanan’s New Book
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/twelve_pretty_racist_or_just_crazy_quotes_from_pat_buchanans_new_book.php?ref=fpa
Perhaps some of us misremember the past. But the racial, religious, cultural, social, political, and economic divides today seem greater than they seemed even in the segregation cities some of us grew up in.
Back then, black and white lived apart, went to different schools and churches, played on different playgrounds, and went to different restaurants, bars, theaters, and soda fountains. But we shared a country and a culture. We were one nation. We were Americans.
You can get banned from EB?
I will take a 3 month ban bet with anyone that Cain will not win one primary.[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhm-22Q0PuM[/youtube]
You can get banned from EB?
I will take a 3 month ban bet with anyone that Cain will not win one primary.
Accepted. Not because I think Cain will win any, but because a 3 month ban wouldn't hurt me nearly as much as you. Consider the bet on.
I will take a 3 month ban bet with anyone that Cain will not win one primary.[youtube=560,345]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhm-22Q0PuM[/youtube]
(http://i.imgur.com/jdJTY.gif)
But wait:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/paul-ryan-heritage-foundation-speech-6530510 (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/paul-ryan-heritage-foundation-speech-6530510)QuotePaul Ryan Is Living in a Fantasy Land Older Than Ayn Rand
I got the second article from Nouriel Roubini's twitter. ;)
Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you today's worst paragraph in political rhetoric, courtesy of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Dickens),
Man, I wonder what HW thinks about all this ragging on coalition buildin', cost effective, American life preservin' winning war shit.Bob Woodward in one of those Bush books he wrote said HW wasn't really on board with the invasion of Iraq but kept his mouth pretty tightly shut about it since well it was his son and all. As far as I could tell HW was more in the Colin Powell camp, against it but too loyal to man up and do anything about it.
(http://gifsoup.com/view3/3104087/perry-syrup-o.gif)what did they give him in this one?
Limbaugh pronounced himself deeply offended by the piece, saying that it trafficked in the "ugliest racial stereotypes"
I've barely been following politics lately but this line is funniest thing I've seen in ages in reference to Cain.QuoteLimbaugh pronounced himself deeply offended by the piece, saying that it trafficked in the "ugliest racial stereotypes"
I still say you guys are over estimating GOP intelligence. He still has a good chance of at least winning one.I'd pay more attention to his poll numbers if he had an actual functioning campaign.
Yea, the man literally doesn't have a functioning campaign staff...anywhere.
train fetishists
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry on Tuesday advised protesters in the Occupy movement to worry less about income inequality.
“You know, we have young people who are today occupying Wall Street, that there are some people out there that are making too much money,” the Texas governor said at an education forum in Des Moines, Iowa.“And if somebody were to ask me what the best advice that I could give them? It would be that money is probably the most highly overrated thing in the world.”
“It’s good to have some,” he admitted. “Because I’ve been without and I’ve had some, and it’s better to have some.
[Perry] was elected senior class social secretary, and was also elected as one of A&M's five yell leaders (a popular Texas A&M tradition analogous to male cheerleaders).[14] Perry graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science with a 2.5 GPA.
The poll also found that 68 percent of Americans think Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would make the best Democratic vice presidential candidate if Joe Biden doesn’t remain on the ticket next year.
Saw this over the weekend (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/opinion/what-the-costumes-reveal.html?_r=4&src=tp&smid=fb-share), pretty fucked up if true.Give a warning before linking to a NYT story. Over the three browsers that I use, I can only read 60 free stories a month.
I bet some really good money he won't dump Biden. Not a chance it is happening, polling or not.
Block mentioned almost in passing that a radio talk show receptionist in Iowa thought Cain's comments were "inappropriate." With no more context than that, audience members did not know whether Block was referring to the Politco story or a new allegation. Only member of the overflow audience shook his head during Block's answer and whispered, "Holy crap."http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2011/11/cains-message-may-be-up-in-smo.php (http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2011/11/cains-message-may-be-up-in-smo.php)
"Like awkward/inappropriate things he's said to two females on my staff, that the fact the guy's wife is never around...that's almost always a warning flag to me," Deace wrote. "But I chose to leave that stuff out [of the opinion piece] and make it about his record and not the personal stuff."
Pressed about what exactly Cain said to the employees of his show, Deace responded by describing how he himself treats his staff.
"Many a man has been done in by the inability to control his urges,” Deace wrote. “I am no different and just as vulnerable as any other man, which is why I put safeguards around me and hold myself accountable to my wife and other men in my life. Especially since I have very talented employees that happen to be women. I go out of my way to treat them like my sisters. For example, I wouldn't tell them or any other woman I am not married to nor related to how pretty she is."
Obama's got this shitAgainst Romney? Eh. It's 50-50.
Interestingly, Gingrich challenged Cain to a Lincoln-Douglass type 3 hour debate
He hates Perry due to immigration. From what I've read/heard he likes Bachman and Santorum. Shit makes no sense. You're never going to find a candidate you agree with on 100% of shit. Perry was governor of a border state with Mexico, of course he had a moderate take on immigration. Same with George Bush - they couldn't afford to play politics, as they have to actually deal with the problem.
Perry is far right, handsome, was a "successful" governor in terms of jobs growth (bullshit, I know), has always been pro-life, and is a firm Christian. So what the fuck is the tea party doing by supporting one idiot after another who has no chance at beating Obama? Perry's numbers are shitty against Obama too, but he certainly has a better chance than Bachmann or Santorum jeez.
So instead they're going to fight until a formerly pro choice, pro gay rights northeast governor who passed the blueprint for Obamacare with Edward Kennedy's help wins the nom. This is hilarious
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/28/graphic-mapping-a-superpower-sized-military/
Obama's promise to have all the soldiers in Iraq "home by Christmas" is unsurprisingly not coming true. Most of them are just redeploying to Kuwait. There's already 23,000 troops here, 4,000 more on the way from Iraq, and the DoD expects a presence of 40,000 in the region after the Iraq withdrawal.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qaTEV7Gy9J8/TrNbKAcbVaI/AAAAAAAAQJo/oZsB3hk5x_4/s1600/gdpemp.png
GDP is back to pre-recession levels, minus 6.6 million jobs.
So, it's either proof we have permanently lost millions of jobs (ie. the new normal) or GDP is a poor metric to measure the economy. Probably a bit of both.
Or maybe the housing crisis is so bad no one is buying shit, so businesses aren't hiring anyone thus creating a highly productive but smaller work force
smh
Yea, interesting points. Can't wait for tomorrow's numbers
Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend up in October (+80,000),
and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.0 percent, the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment in the private
sector rose, with modest job growth continuing in professional and
businesses services, leisure and hospitality, health care, and mining.
Government employment continued to trend down.
http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/11/04/iowa-poll-many-think-cains-9-9-9-plan-would-help-them/ (http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/11/04/iowa-poll-many-think-cains-9-9-9-plan-would-help-them/)
:lol :( :lol
TA, are you ready for... NEWTMENTUM??? (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/newt-gingrich-poll-numbers-6539895)
Yup, after Herman Cain's impending implosion it looks like it's finally time for the GOP's "idea man" to have his turn being the not-Mitt Romney.
I’d like to congratulate the state of Michigan for passing the worst bill in the history of the universe. Read it fast and it just looks like the average rancid river of swill that flows forth any time you have your state government over to people who have developed their political philosophies while waiting on hold for Sean or Rush in their cars everyday during evening drive. But, close up, floating in the middle of it, there’s one particular chunk of offal that makes the rest of the rushing current smell like roses and daffodils. It says this:
This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil and parent or guardian.
Holy god.
I may be unversed in the subtleties of writing legislation, but this certainly seems to me to mean that, if a kid thinks another kid is a great big “faggoty-cigarillo-cigarillo,” and he goes out of his way to beat that kid to a pulp, he can come to the principal or the guidance department or the school board and say that, well, sorry if he offended anyone, but he learned this stuff in the Bible. Leviticus made him do it. And the principal, or the guidance staff, or the school board, or the beaten kid himself has to take this pious savagery seriously, instead of telling the kid that he’s expelled and Jesus can be his cellmate…
In a very real way, this one passage in one piece of really bad legislation is the entire raison d’etre of American “conservatism,” and of the political party that it has turned into its mindless vehicle over the past four decades. Every element of the “movement” is in there. There’s religious paranoia and cultural sociopathy combining to produce a completely irrational sense of victimhood. There’s the carefully chosen choice of targets, and the subsequent inflation of that target into the “real” threat from the “real” oppressors. And then, finally, there’s the framing of legislation to say one thing, but mean another, while maintaining your inherent right as one of society’s overdogs to do pretty much anything you want. You play the victim to reinforce your own long-established privilege.
Without this formula, Republican politics would have no platform. There would be no all-powerful ACORN, pulling strings behind the scenes even though it went broke a couple of years ago. There would be no George Soros, the palindromic plutocrat financing all the critters that dance in Bill O’Reilly’s head. Rick Santorum’s would not get to gussy up in Scripture his tremulous inbred revulsion over other men’s penises. Ron Paul would not hear the black helicopters. Michele Bachmann would not have a vehicle for her concern over AmeriCorps and the incipient Obama Youth. Newt Gingrich would not have any career at all, and Herman Cain would not be able to blame the bitches. And even Mitt Romney wouldn’t be able to go before audiences made up of people who hate him and tell those audience that he shares their fear of the awesome, nation-destroying economic deadweight that is the National Endowment for the Arts…
"If God really did call all three of them [Bachmann, Perry, Cain] to run for president, isn't he just f---ing with two of them?"
"I believe that Barack Obama owns the Occupy Wall Street movement," Rudy Giuliani said at the Defending the American Dream Summit. "It would not have happened, it would not have happened but for his class warfare. And remember, as it gets worse and worse because it's going to get worse and worse, where it came from. Barack Obama. He praised it. He supported it. He agrees with it. He sympathizes with it. And as it gets worse and worse, I believe this will be the millstone around Barack Obama's neck that will take his presidency down."
"How about you occupy a job. How about working? Working. I know that's tough," Giuliani also said.
"How about you occupy a job. How about working? Working. I know that's tough," Giuliani also said.
I heard **** be making
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIqj3CrXwzE
Okay ignoring the Ron Paul pimping, what do you more politically minded people think of this 1% on every level no exceptions idea? It sounds like it makes sense, but obviously it's being presented by someone who supports it. I just haven't heard of this plan and was hoping to get some opinions of people who know better than I.
A "statement of sincere religious belief or moral conviction" is neither a string of personal invective nor a physical attack. On the contrary, a polite / civil "I believe / I was taught x" bullies no one.
It's not really about whether Romney wants to repeal it or not. You don't think a tea party led GOP controlled senate and house (they already passed it in the house once iirc) wouldn't pass a repeal bill? And what would Romney do, veto it? Of course he wouldn't veto that.
It's not really about whether Romney wants to repeal it or not. You don't think a tea party led GOP controlled senate and house (they already passed it in the house once iirc) wouldn't pass a repeal bill? And what would Romney do, veto it? Of course he wouldn't veto that.Besides Mandark's and PD's responses, when was that vote held? January or February or something right? What have they done since then? They haven't pushed for shit. It was a symbolic gesture to show teatards "we tried!!" and it allows them to continue their lip service. Despite what a lot of these idiots say in public they know it makes too much financial sense for the country and the corporate interests at work that helped author the bill are too strong.
(http://i.imgur.com/N681g.jpg):lol :lol
FuckJoe Walsh is a funny motherfucker
And I came here to chat about the tea party rep screaming in that woman's face at a q&a
there's another goddamn gop debate tonight?
how many of these things does the party need?
there's another goddamn gop debate tonight?
how many of these things does the party need?
Cain is asked about the regressive nature of his 9-9-9 tax plan. Naturally, he ignores it and defends the fairness of his tax plan by giving a dictionary definition of "fair". Yes, that will do it.
Asked what's to stop his 9-9-9 tax plan turning into 19-19-19, Cain delivers a magnificent non-sequitur:
"Tax codes don't raise taxes. Politicians do."
Back from break. Housing is the topic of this segment. Some in the crowd applaud Bartiromo's mention of Romney's proposal to let the foreclosure crisis play out.
"Princess Nancy"?
Newt Gingrich attacks CNBC for only giving candidates 30 seconds to answer a question about health care. Maria Bartiromo says, okay, take all the time you need to answer the question. Gingrich says he won't do it, but she pushed him. He says, okay, and gives an answer of about 30 seconds. He could have saved everybody a lot of time by just answering the question in the first place.
OK then, Herman Cain turns up on CNBC for the post-match analysis – and is asked about his nasty "Princess Nancy" reference to Nancy Pelosi. Cain has the good sense to say: "That was a statement I probably should not have made."
QuoteOK then, Herman Cain turns up on CNBC for the post-match analysis – and is asked about his nasty "Princess Nancy" reference to Nancy Pelosi. Cain has the good sense to say: "That was a statement I probably should not have made."
Well, then.
Ultimately, Rick Perry is going to be remembered as the man too stupid to win this Republican nomination. That is a remarkable feat.http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/11/rick-perry-commits-suicide-on-stage-at-debate.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+nymag/intel+%28Daily+Intelligencer+-+New+York+Magazine%29
Here's the clip in question:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYaRM9_eQW4
He actually wasn't doing that bad (judging by the audience reactions) until the very end.
Because they all know they have no chance, they are there to sell books not ruin his general election run
SANTORUM TIME
SANTORUM TIME
"How do you beat Obama – beat him with a Cain," Cain said to the friendly group of supporters.
As Cain was whisked out of the building through a back kitchen, a reporter asked what he meant by that joke.
"Herman Cain – C-A-I-N," Cain responded spelling out the letters of his last name. "Do I have to connect all the dots for you?"
This is the tenth one so far, there's one more on the 22nd, then four in December, then six in January, then one in February and two in March. And those are just the ones scheduled currently.
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich said at the Republican presidential debate here Saturday night that they would be willing to go to war to keep Iran from attaining nuclear weapons if all other strategies failed.
Romney said that if "crippling sanctions" and other strategies fail, military action would be on the table because it is "unacceptable" for Iran to become a nuclear power.
Gingrich agreed, saying that if "maximum covert operations" and other strategies failed there would be no other choice. First, though, the United States consider "taking out their scientists," and "breaking up their systems, all of it covertly, all of it deniable," Gingrich said.
Wasn't there some computer worm or something in 2009 that hit the internets that turned out to be designed to fuck up Iran's nuclear program?
Wasn't there some computer worm or something in 2009 that hit the internets that turned out to be designed to fuck up Iran's nuclear program?
ANARCHY
posted 11.7.2011
Everybody’s been too damn polite about this nonsense:
The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.
“Occupy” is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the “movement” – HAH! Some “movement”, except if the word “bowel” is attached - is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves.
This is no popular uprising. This is garbage. And goodness knows they’re spewing their garbage – both politically and physically – every which way they can find.
Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy.
Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you’ve been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you’ve heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism.
And this enemy of mine — not of yours, apparently - must be getting a dark chuckle, if not an outright horselaugh - out of your vain, childish, self-destructive spectacle.
In the name of decency, go home to your parents, you losers. Go back to your mommas’ basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft.
Or better yet, enlist for the real thing. Maybe our military could whip some of you into shape.
They might not let you babies keep your iPhones, though. Try to soldier on.
Schmucks.
FM
I warned you guys.... COME ON FEEL THE NEWTMENTUM! (http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/new-national-polls-show-newt-coming-on-strong-in-gop-race-yes-really.php?ref=fpa_beta)
Where's TA? This is his moment to shine.
I warned you guys.... COME ON FEEL THE NEWTMENTUM! (http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/new-national-polls-show-newt-coming-on-strong-in-gop-race-yes-really.php?ref=fpa_beta)
Where's TA? This is his moment to shine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxQTp07KS_k
:bow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW_nDFKAmCo
Hermain Cain, serious candidate
Cain is like the black Michael Scott.
Cain is like the black Michael Scott.
I've decided that Michael Steele still holds the title of black Michael Scott while Herman Cain is actually more like the black David Brent.
@AndrewNBCNews
When I asked Cain if today's Libya gaffe builds on idea he doesn't have in depth knowledge of foreign policy, he simply said, "999"
Later:
@AndrewNBCNews
To clarify: My previous tweet was NOT a joke.
From unemployment payments to subsidies and tax breaks on luxury items like vacation homes and yachts, Americans earning more than $1 million collect more than $30 billion in government largesse each year, according to the report assembled by Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, who is so often at odds with members of both parties that colleagues call him “Dr. No.” The Internal Revenue Service provided the data showing how much money was going to the much-referenced top 1 percent.
niceQuoteFrom unemployment payments to subsidies and tax breaks on luxury items like vacation homes and yachts, Americans earning more than $1 million collect more than $30 billion in government largesse each year, according to the report assembled by Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, who is so often at odds with members of both parties that colleagues call him “Dr. No.” The Internal Revenue Service provided the data showing how much money was going to the much-referenced top 1 percent.
Neo-Maverick!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/11/13/coburn-report-welfare-for-millionaires.html
The day the Supreme Court gathered behind closed doors to consider the politically divisive question of whether it would hear a challenge to President Obama’s healthcare law, two of its justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, were feted at a dinner sponsored by the law firm that will argue the case before the high court.
Moreover, conservatives argue that it’s Justice Elena Kagan who has an ethical issue, not Scalia and Thomas. Kagan served as solicitor general in the Obama administration when the first legal challenges to the law were brought at the trial court level. Her critics have pushed for Kagan to recuse herself from hearing the case, saying that she was too invested in defending the law then to be impartial now. Kagan has given no indication she will do so.
On a side note, I guess I'm the only person who first heard the word "largesse" during the pilot of Arrested Development, and initially thought Howard was saying "large ass" huh?
As Paul mentioned, as expected the Supreme Court will be hearing the case. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the Court will be having a longer-than-usual argument about the severability issue alone. I think this should make clear that there is a very real chance that the Supreme Court will strike down at least part of the bill, and also that the possibility of striking down the whole bill is in play.http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/11/the-court-and-the-aca
The stakes of this issue are huge — I believe you would have to go back to the New Deal to find a central part of the domestic agenda of a new President struck down so quickly. More thoughts on this tomorrow.
Huckabee had an early surge. Didn't he win Iowa?I mean in terms of the year build up to Iowa, he was almost non-existent in the polls until Rudy fell apart, Thompson lost his lead, etc. Then Huckabee shot up in the Iowa and national polls in mid-November and December.
Newt Gingrich is the strongest Republican candidate when matched head to head against Democratic President Barack Obama, according to a McClatchy-Marist Poll released Tuesday.
The former speaker of the House of Representatives is neck and neck with the incumbent president, back just 2 percentage points among registered voters. Obama leads 47 percent to 45 percent.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is next closest, trailing Obama by 4 percentage points. In that matchup, Obama leads 48 percent to 44 percent.
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is the third best bet for the Republicans right now, 8 points back from Obama. No other Republican is within single digits of Obama. The survey has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
QuoteNewt Gingrich is the strongest Republican candidate when matched head to head against Democratic President Barack Obama, according to a McClatchy-Marist Poll released Tuesday.
The former speaker of the House of Representatives is neck and neck with the incumbent president, back just 2 percentage points among registered voters. Obama leads 47 percent to 45 percent.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is next closest, trailing Obama by 4 percentage points. In that matchup, Obama leads 48 percent to 44 percent.
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is the third best bet for the Republicans right now, 8 points back from Obama. No other Republican is within single digits of Obama. The survey has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Told you guys, with a shitty economy, people will settle for any Republican that can speak in complete sentences. :'(
Pawlenty probably bailed out too early. Lack of money hasn't appeared to hurt anyone else. And he's a perfect generic Republican to be anti-Romney.
QuoteNewt Gingrich is the strongest Republican candidate when matched head to head against Democratic President Barack Obama, according to a McClatchy-Marist Poll released Tuesday.
The former speaker of the House of Representatives is neck and neck with the incumbent president, back just 2 percentage points among registered voters. Obama leads 47 percent to 45 percent.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is next closest, trailing Obama by 4 percentage points. In that matchup, Obama leads 48 percent to 44 percent.
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is the third best bet for the Republicans right now, 8 points back from Obama. No other Republican is within single digits of Obama. The survey has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Told you guys, with a shitty economy, people will settle for any Republican that can speak in complete sentences. :'(
But Obama is leading in both polls. And he's doing even better against the most likely nominee.
Herman Cain campaigned in New Hampshire today, where he was asked to explain his child-like incoherence on international affairs. The Republican presidential candidate said knowing details isn’t important. Cain added:
“We need a leader, not a reader.”
QuoteHerman Cain campaigned in New Hampshire today, where he was asked to explain his child-like incoherence on international affairs. The Republican presidential candidate said knowing details isn’t important. Cain added:
“We need a leader, not a reader.”
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/quote_of_the_day_23033562.php
:bow Real murika :bow2
Is this the worst bath of presidential candidates...ever? I remember the 2004 dems being pretty laughable, but this is just a riot.
but I'm still trying to wrap my head around their rationale.They were claiming police said he hid out at the Occupy DC camp afterwards. I also heard he read a newspaper story about Occupy Wall Street weeks before the shooting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrNbAe7dOGA
:lol
QuoteHerman Cain campaigned in New Hampshire today, where he was asked to explain his child-like incoherence on international affairs. The Republican presidential candidate said knowing details isn’t important. Cain added:
“We need a leader, not a reader.”
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/quote_of_the_day_23033562.php
:bow Real murika :bow2
QuoteHerman Cain campaigned in New Hampshire today, where he was asked to explain his child-like incoherence on international affairs. The Republican presidential candidate said knowing details isn’t important. Cain added:
“We need a leader, not a reader.”
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_11/quote_of_the_day_23033562.php
:bow Real murika :bow2
Wasn't part of his shit answer that he would make better decisions than Obama by knowing all the info?
Wasn't part of his shit answer that he would make better decisions than Obama by knowing all the info?No, see, he doesn't need to know anything, because he'd ask the experts!
Wasn't part of his shit answer that he would make better decisions than Obama by knowing all the info?No, see, he doesn't need to know anything, because he'd ask the experts!
http://wonkette.com/456567/fox-news-names-white-house-shooting-suspect-occupy-shooter#more-456567
So I'm not surprised that Fox would somehow tie the White House shooter to OSW or any other left leaning group - and was actually musing about that just this morning - but I'm still trying to wrap my head around their rationale.
It's like when that one anti-tax tea bagger crashed a plane into a building that housed an IRS office a few years ago and the righties tried to say he was actually a liberal cause he smoked weed.
So, be honest - how often do you notice when you're doing exactly the thing you're criticizing?
Zero to utter hypocrisy in 50 words.
Has anyone seen the video of the protesters being pepper sprayed at uc Davis? I've dismissed most of the police brutality videos OWS has posted but yeah... Its kinda chilling and really out of line. Wow.
The other videos I've seen have included the protesters kinda being dicks and confrontational. This video has nothing like that. Just a dude being a huge dick.Has anyone seen the video of the protesters being pepper sprayed at uc Davis? I've dismissed most of the police brutality videos OWS has posted but yeah... Its kinda chilling and really out of line. Wow.
I haven't followed OWS stuff very closely, but this seems odd to me.
Pepper spray is lower on the use-of-force model than the baton is, so it's weird you would dismiss previous vids of police whacking protestors with batons, but find pepper spray out of line.
(again, I say this ignorantly without seeing the pepper spray vids myself)
Having been tear gassed and pepper sprayed by riot police before, getting whacked with a baton would be 10x worse.
But Taitz insists that document is fake: The computer file is layered and could have been altered with the Adobe Illustrator program, she said.
"A child can see this is a forgery," she told the commission. "Why are they refusing to show the public the original?"
She also claims Obama doesn't have a valid Social Security number. Included in the 85-page packet Taitz submitted to the commission is a tax return with "a number that was never assigned to him," Taitz said. She said Obama is using a Social Security number issued in Connecticut around 1977.
In conducting her research, Taitz said she also found several birth dates associated with Obama in a national database. And she found information that she said contradicts Obama's claim about the length of time he spent attending Columbia University, which claims the president as a 1983 graduate.
"We have an individual where we don't know who he is," Taitz said. "We need to know that the person who is at the helm of this country, who is leading our military, whose finger is on the red button of nuclear weapons, has proper identification."
She told the commission members they would be responsible for "the most egregious election fraud ever committed" if they didn't take Obama's name off the ballot.
"This is bigger than Watergate. This is a hundred times bigger than Watergate," Taitz said. "Ladies and gentlemen, in your hands is national security for the United States of America."
But the commission wasn't convinced.
"Is there any decision, any place, by any body - adjudicatory body - to the questions you're asking?" said the chairman, Bradford Cook. "Because they've been asked a lot of places."
"No, but -" Taitz began.
"No," Cook said. "Thank you."
"Obama does not have an valid identification papers, which are necessary to be a candidate on the ballot, running for the U.S. presidency, based upon New Hampshire elections law 655-17 and on Article 1, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution," Taitz wrote.:lol "special cold case team"
"This case shows an unprecedented level of corruption and lawlessness in the federal government and in the government of Hawaii, which allowed Obama to get on the ballot in 2008. … Petitioner demands removal of Obama from the ballot in the state of New Hampshire in the Democrat party primary and demands immediate criminal prosecution of Obama and his accomplices for elections fraud, common law fraud and uttering of forged documents."
Meanwhile, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona has assigned a special cold case team to investigate the possibility that Obama could use fraudulent documents to apply to be on the Arizona ballot next year.
He's said the investigators have accumulated thousands of pages of evidence and his report likely will come early in 2012.
Having been tear gassed and pepper sprayed by riot police before, getting whacked with a baton would be 10x worse.
Anyway, the OWS movement will fizzle out next year, especially when Democrats at the higher levels (whose coffers are currently getting filled from all dat Wall Street cash) start turning their backs on them. They'd much rather get the $1 billion they need to campaign with than depend on OWS.
Pepper spray'd in training. That was the most pain I've ever been in. But's it's over within an hour or so.
Was supposed to get tear gassed, but that didn't quite happen. Funny story, I should tell y'all about it some time. But everyone in training says that pepper spray is worse than the gas.
The thing about physical force like the baton is that it has the greater potential for lasting harm/damage, as opposed to gas and spray.Having been tear gassed and pepper sprayed by riot police before, getting whacked with a baton would be 10x worse.
oooh, ooh! Story time, please!
Having been tear gassed and pepper sprayed by riot police before, getting whacked with a baton would be 10x worse.
Anyway, the OWS movement will fizzle out next year, especially when Democrats at the higher levels (whose coffers are currently getting filled from all dat Wall Street cash) start turning their backs on them. They'd much rather get the $1 billion they need to campaign with than depend on OWS.
Dozens of Occupys across US raided this weekend-& now NYC- Planned & coordinated by the Dept. of Homeland Security? Did O give green light?
but I must say I teared up as Santorum told the story about his kid. He's an asshole but that's a heartbreaking situation
David Frum on realizing his party is insane
http://nymag.com/print/?/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/
It was not so long ago that Texas governor Bush denounced attempts to cut the earned-income tax credit as “balancing the budget on the backs of the poor.” By 2011, Republican commentators were noisily complaining that the poorer half of society are “lucky duckies” because the EITC offsets their federal tax obligations—or because the recession had left them with such meager incomes that they had no tax to pay in the first place. In 2000, candidate Bush routinely invoked “churches, synagogues, and mosques.” By 2010, prominent Republicans were denouncing the construction of a mosque in lower Manhattan as an outrageous insult. In 2003, President Bush and a Republican majority in Congress enacted a new prescription-drug program in Medicare. By 2011, all but four Republicans in the House and five in the Senate were voting to withdraw the Medicare guarantee from everybody under age 55. Today, the Fed’s pushing down interest rates in hopes of igniting economic growth is close to treason, according to Governor Rick Perry, coyly seconded by TheWall Street Journal. In 2000, the same policy qualified Alan Greenspan as the “greatest central banker in the history of the world,” according to Perry’s mentor, Senator Phil Gramm. Today, health reform that combines regulation of private insurance, individual mandates, and subsidies for those who need them is considered unconstitutional and an open invitation to “death panels.” A dozen years ago, a very similar reform was the Senate Republican alternative to Hillarycare. Today, stimulative fiscal policy that includes tax cuts for almost every American is “socialism.” In 2001, stimulative fiscal policy that included tax cuts for rather fewer Americans was an economic-recovery program.
I was denounced the next day by my former colleagues at The Wall Street Journal as a turncoat. Three days after that, I was dismissed from the American Enterprise Institute. I’m not a solitary case: In 2005, the economist Bruce Bartlett, a main legislative author of the Kemp-Roth tax cut, was fired from a think tank in Dallas for too loudly denouncing the George W. Bush administration’s record, and I could tell equivalent stories about other major conservative think tanks as well.
I don’t complain from a personal point of view. Happily, I had other economic resources to fall back upon. But the message sent to others with less security was clear: We don’t pay you to think, we pay you to repeat.
Newt Gingrich: 24 (22)http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/21/1038776/-Newt-Gingrich-takes-lead-in-CNN%C2%A0survey?via=blog_1
Mitt Romney: 20 (24)
Herman Cain: 17 (14)
Rick Perry: 11 (12)
Ron Paul: 9 (8)
Michele Bachmann: 5 (6)
Rick Santorum: 4 (3)
Jon Huntsman: 3 (3)
12. Freedom means obeying morality. Santorum concluded, “Our founders understood liberty is not what you want to do, but what you ought to do. That’s what liberty really is about.”I like this comparable Santorum one: "This idea that people should be able to go and do whatever they want and it doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, that's not our founders' view of freedom."
Quote12. Freedom means obeying morality. Santorum concluded, “Our founders understood liberty is not what you want to do, but what you ought to do. That’s what liberty really is about.”I like this comparable Santorum one: "This idea that people should be able to go and do whatever they want and it doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, that's not our founders' view of freedom."
And this Newt one more than the ones quoted there: "I have two grandchildren. I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American."
And for today's episode of 'Herp-Derp':
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/fox-news-on-uc-davis-pepper-spraying-its-a-food-product-essentially.php?ref=fpb
:derp
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/the-very-brief-life-of-fo_n_743569.html
no shame
Newt-owned-again gravity? i give up.
Just when you think he's making progress, his campaign is stuck in Newtral.
Just when you think he's making progress, his campaign is stuck in Newtral.Or maybe his campaign just went Newtcular.
Just when you think he's making progress, his campaign is stuck in Newtral.Or maybe his campaign just went Newtcular.
(http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/151025/Tweet_of_the_day.png)
The View has competition!Okay I'm going back and checking out some Youtube videos I can't watch at work here and I have to ask... Is this serious? It's a parody, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcCvvJWyx4c
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204443404577054141769215880.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204443404577054141769215880.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read)QuoteHis enemy will be the banks, which he bailed out.
???
In a recent profile piece highlighting the case for Santorum, Quin Hillyer asks, “could it be that the sharpest, most accomplished, most campaign-savvy, and most full-spectrum conservative in a quarter-century of presidential contests has been in the contest all along, working harder than anybody, making at least as much intellectual sense as anybody, never blowing a debate, and never failing to stand on principle?” Without getting too carried away, Hillyer has a point, particularly with his last observation.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dec9SceFmJc
When it comes to standing on principle, it’s Santorum in a walk.
For all that the “conservatarian” Ron Paul types will say about Paul’s devotion to small government, only Rick Santorum demonstrates a full recognition that the only way small government is possible is if our culture boasts strong families. The way to accomplish that end is not to take the libertarian, hands-off, anything-goes philosophy towards morality in the public square.
Beck’s point is that in a generation full of soundbite-obsessed, pandering politicians, Santorum is a man of honor. That distinction alone should earn him a chance in the spotlight.
Heck is a public high school government teacher and radio talk show host in central Indiana. Email peter@peterheck.com, visit www.peterheck.com, or like him on Facebook.
Fox News: destroying parody since 1996.
Come on feel the Newtmentum! NH Union Leader endorses Newt (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/new-hampshire-union-leader-endorses-gingrich/2011/11/27/gIQAB6jL1N_blog.html)
Actually kinda surprised by this, figured they'd be endorsing Romney. If Newt manages to win an early state or two... man.
She showed us some of her cell phone bills that included 61 phone calls or text messages to or from a number starting with 678. She says it is Herman Cain's private cell phone. The calls were made during four different months-- calls or texts made as early as 4:26 in the early morning, and as late as 7:52 at night. The latest were in September of this year.http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/ginger-white-claims-affair-herman-cain-20111127-es (http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/ginger-white-claims-affair-herman-cain-20111127-es)
“We've never worked together,” said White. “And I can't imagine someone phoning or texting me for the last two and a half years, just because.”
We texted the number and Herman Cain called us back. He told us he "knew Ginger White" but said these are "more false allegations." He said she had his number because he was "trying to help her financially.”
Why the hell would that idiot even jump into the race with all these skeletons in his closet? Did he really think they wouldn't come out?
"Mr. Cain has been informed today that your television station plans to broadcast a story this evening in which a female will make an accusation that she engaged in a 13-year long physical relationship with Mr. Cain. This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace – this is not an accusation of an assault - which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate.
Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults - a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life. The public's right to know and the media's right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one's bedroom door.
Mr. Cain has alerted his wife to this new accusation and discussed it with her. He has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is viewed unfavorably by members of the media."
The irony in that is palpable.spoiler (click to show/hide)Clinton[close]
Mr. Cain has alerted his wife to this new accusation and discussed it with her. He has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is viewed unfavorably by members of the media."
Quote of the Dayhttp://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/barney-frank-goes-out-swinging-pledges-not-to-be-a-lobbyist.php?ref=fpblg
Retiring member of Congress Barney Frank on the House under Republican rule: "It consists half of people who think like Michele Bachmann and half of people who are afraid of losing a primary to people who think like Michele Bachmann and that leaves very little room to work things out."
You know what's always fascinated me is the canned response you get from ulta libertarians and free market evangelists. "If you don't like x product/your salary/your working conditions/whatever, you're free to find another product/place of employment/whatever. Simple as that."
What I find fascinating is that these people seem to think that 1) this is a completely original argument that no one involved in the debate has ever heard, 2) that using this argument should pretty much end all debate on whatever the subject is, and 3) that this is some natural law as immutable and intrinsic to the fabric of the universe as the Laws of Thermodynamics.
They expect this argument to be some sort of win button, and yet when I see it, all I can do is facepalm.
Well for some discussions - like the completely voluntary associations you outlined - that's all there is to be said if the goal is rhetoric based on rationality; beyond lies the realm of childish, emotional yammering.
You know what's always fascinated me is the canned response you get from ulta libertarians and free market evangelists. "If you don't like x product/your salary/your working conditions/whatever, you're free to find another product/place of employment/whatever. Simple as that."
What I find fascinating is that these people seem to think that 1) this is a completely original argument that no one involved in the debate has ever heard, 2) that using this argument should pretty much end all debate on whatever the subject is, and 3) that this is some natural law as immutable and intrinsic to the fabric of the universe as the Laws of Thermodynamics.
They expect this argument to be some sort of win button, and yet when I see it, all I can do is facepalm.
Well for some discussions - like the completely voluntary associations you outlined - that's all there is to be said if the goal is rhetoric based on rationality; beyond lies the realm of childish, emotional yammering.
In fact, it's the whole reason that libertarians are idiots in the first place... Trying to apply simple solutions to enormously complicated issues.
AZ State Sen. Lori Klein Defends Cain: If He Didn't Hit On Me...http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/updates/2208
As Herman Cain’s campaign deals with allegations of a 13-year long affair to go along with accusations of sexual harassment and assault, one of his supporters says the stories are all wrong — and she would know.
In an interview with CBS, Arizona State Sen. Lori Klein, Cain’s campaign chair in the state, said he’s “never been anything but a gentlemen – and I am not an unattractive woman.”
She said that Cain should sue Ginger White for alleging the affair, adding that in politics “we want a virgin to do a hooker’s job.”
Exactly. The invisible hand will guide the general public's morality.Hey man, if you don't like abortion don't go to the clinics :smug
Hey man, if you don't like slavery, don't go to the market. :smug
Exactly, the invisible hand will end slavery, no problem, right?YOU SON OF A BITCH :lol
Oops. You're deflecting again. I didn't say anything about being fair. I said that telling someone "well find a better paying job" is simple and a childish viewpoint that is void of any real world perspective in what it takes to get said job. Stay on target.It's wholly unrealistic and childish.
The usual "but it's not faaaaaaiir" retort being the apex of realism and maturity, of course.
Wait wait, this can't be serious. Maybe I'm not understanding something. But the fact that I'm pro choice is hypocritical because I'm also against allowing people to buy slaves? Is that what you're saying? It's not like owning farm animals or pets because slavery restricts rights on other people. I'm all fine and dandy with your choices if it doesn't fuck with someone's rights.Exactly. The invisible hand will guide the general public's morality.Hey man, if you don't like abortion don't go to the clinics :smug
Hey man, if you don't like slavery, don't go to the market. :smug
It would, in fact, be more logically consistent for pro-abortion folks to be abject anarchists opposing any laws governing human behavior at all. The usual assertion of "pro-choice" rings pretty hollow in light of the fact that so many wish to impose upon freedom of choice in so many ways.
what happened with the edit, didn't see
Hey man, if you don't like abortion don't go to the clinics :smug
Hey man, if you don't like slavery, don't go to the market. :smug
But the obvious retort is that someone can support freedom of choice and oppose abortion just fine - assuming of course, that one doesn't mind laws against aggressive killing of other humans - whereas total consistency with the notion of all choices should be legally permissable would be anarchy.
As far as the rest, slaves weren't persons. Hence the legality of owning them. Hence the above counterpoint.(http://cdn.gs.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mind-blown-timanderic.gif)
Ooooooh, is that an accusation of dishonesty? You gonna pretend that you never said DC shouldn't have residential areas either? Poor search functions are the last refuge of a scoundrel, as Oscar Wilde said.
Nobody is 'pro-abortion'.I am. I think there's a lot of cases where an abortion is warranted and justified.
Barack Obama is probably tweaking his nipples in joy at the mere thought of getting to run against Newt.
JayDubya: Just to clarify ... you do think your particular moral ruleset is better than total amorality, right? It's not just preferential, right? I mean, naturally being evil all of the time is better than being evil some of the time - I'm just trying to figure out how you rank evil vs whatever it is you're supposed to subscribe to.
JayDubya: Just to clarify ... you do think your particular moral ruleset is better than total amorality, right? It's not just preferential, right? I mean, naturally being evil all of the time is better than being evil some of the time - I'm just trying to figure out how you rank evil vs whatever it is you're supposed to subscribe to.
NOOOO you engaged him on the next page
JayDubya: Just to clarify ... you do think your particular moral ruleset is better than total amorality, right? It's not just preferential, right? I mean, naturally being evil all of the time is better than being evil some of the time - I'm just trying to figure out how you rank evil vs whatever it is you're supposed to subscribe to.
NOOOO you engaged him on the next page
I think I know JayDubya's favorite wizard of oz character.
I think I know JayDubya's favorite wizard of oz character.
the yellow brick road?
I think I know JayDubya's favorite wizard of oz character.
the yellow brick road?
:lolI think I know JayDubya's favorite wizard of oz character.
the yellow brick road?
"This was one clause in an 80 page bill, which CONGRESS passed with an veto proof majority and signing it was necessary to keep lots of necessary programs funded (like the USDA), it also does not provide any funds for USDA inspection of horse meat facilities without which the meat cannot be sold in the US for human consumption, so actually nothing will really change. It's just more politics as usual..... Again, it's congresses bill and it's just pork that some special interest group got a senator or congressman to sneak into an important bill which needed to be passed for important programs to be funded...... Not the Presidents idea.... If you want to do something constructive about it, find out who put the amendment into the bill and lobby to have it removed."
The Newt Gingrich surge has moved him to the top of the polls in Iowa, big gains in New Hampshire and now a two-point edge over President Obama in a hypothetical general election match-up.lol at this
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters finds Gingrich attracting 45% of the vote while President Obama earns support from 43%. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.
Last week, Gingrich trailed the president by six. Two weeks ago, he was down by twelve.
...
In both states, more than 70% of GOP caucus or primary voters see Romney and Gingrich as qualified to be president. No other candidate comes close.
I can't imagine anything more amazing than Newt Gingrich as the nominee. I can't believe its actually a possibility. It's too good to be true. It has to be.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/2012_presidential_matchupsQuoteThe Newt Gingrich surge has moved him to the top of the polls in Iowa, big gains in New Hampshire and now a two-point edge over President Obama in a hypothetical general election match-up.lol at this
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters finds Gingrich attracting 45% of the vote while President Obama earns support from 43%. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.
Last week, Gingrich trailed the president by six. Two weeks ago, he was down by twelve.
...
In both states, more than 70% of GOP caucus or primary voters see Romney and Gingrich as qualified to be president. No other candidate comes close.
At least we'll be safe from the radical Muslim (like our Kenyan President) plot to turn America into a secular nation.
JayDubya: Just to clarify ... you do think your particular moral ruleset is better than total amorality, right? It's not just preferential, right? I mean, naturally being evil all of the time is better than being evil some of the time - I'm just trying to figure out how you rank evil vs lawful neutral or whatever it is you're supposed to subscribe to.
So... I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say.
It's obviously something about ethics theory, put in D&D terms. Since on some level as a gamer geek this appeals to me, I'll give it a go, why the hell not.
Semantically, amorality is neutrality, not evil - which would be immorality.
To super-simplify things (which is needed to avoid a bazillion esoteric tangents), "evil" lies in aggressively hurting others. "Good" lies in helping others. Broadly, both assertions are talking about actions you're doing of your own free will; with coerced action, the moral implications are largely muted and often eliminated altogether.
"Neutral" is neither helping nor hurting; it's usually just someone acting in their own self-interest.
"Lawful Neutral," as you put it, tends to reflect the majority: whether they believe the laws are just or they simply don't want the punishments, most folks obey the law, and don't go out of their way to help or hurt others. Good is still commendable, but there's nothing wrong or contemptible with neutral.
I can't imagine anything more amazing than Newt Gingrich as the nominee. I can't believe its actually a possibility. It's too good to be true. It has to be.
Anybody seen the Republican counter proposal for the payroll tax cut? Its surprisingly not completely insane! I say completely because they actually want an additional line on the tax forms for billionaires like Buffet where they can donate money to the IRS if they think they should pay more in taxes. Lol!
Anybody seen the Republican counter proposal for the payroll tax cut? Its surprisingly not completely insane! I say completely because they actually want an additional line on the tax forms for billionaires like Buffet where they can donate money to the IRS if they think they should pay more in taxes. Lol!
That or direct them here:
https://www.pay.gov/paygov/forms/formInstance.html?agencyFormId=23779454
Newt Gingrich, who has often blasted the press for "stupid," "gotcha" or insider questions, focused closely on process in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News tonight.
Via ABC News, which was given a partial transcript, Gingrich listed his accomplishments this way:
“I helped Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp develop supply side economics. I helped lead the effort to defeat communism in the Congress.”
He also made clear he's stunned by his own success now:
“Whereas I would have thought originally it was going to be Mitt and not-Mitt, I think it’s going to — it may turn out to be Newt and not-Newt,” Gingrich tells Hannity, according to excerpts of the interview. “And that’s a very different formula than, frankly — I mean we’re having to redesign our campaign strategy because we’re at least 60 days ahead of where I thought we’d be.”
The country, he argued, is "talking to itself" and there's only one cure: More Newt.
Anybody seen the Republican counter proposal for the payroll tax cut? Its surprisingly not completely insane! I say completely because they actually want an additional line on the tax forms for billionaires like Buffet where they can donate money to the IRS if they think they should pay more in taxes. Lol!
QuoteSenator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said Tuesday that she had formulated a plan to pay for the extension of a payroll tax holiday for American workers with a tax increase on high earners that carved out employers, so they would not be hit with higher rates.
If we're going to exempt the actual job-creators, there's really no excuse not to pass this.
I'm gonna miss Cain
(http://a.yfrog.com/img740/9310/mj25.jpg)
Is danger and opportunity code for "Invade and pillage"?
Is danger and opportunity code for "Invade and pillage"?In other words, Egypt is as tall as his wife but they might go complain to HR.
The eagerly anticipated new Ron Paul Family Cookbook is finally here!Just $8! (Or less for more copies!)
Featuring 28 pages of tasty recipes from the Paul family and friends, this much-in-demand and collectible cookbook will “warm your kitchen and your heart.” Packed full of photos of the entire Paul family, the book also includes Carol Paul’s “The American Dream” which briefly recounts the history of Ron Paul and the Paul Family.
Share copies of the Ron Paul Family Cookbook with your family and friends this Christmas. The Cookbook makes a great holiday gift! And plan to use the cookbook as one of the best campaign handouts you will ever find.
I'm going to try to see if it is possible to get in the Republican primaries to vote for Gingrich or whoever the not Mitt Romney flavor of the month is.Forgot about this earlier but you just need to check about your state. Michigan for example you can vote in any primary you want but only one of them. Other states you have to register with a party, some let you register Republican, vote, then unregister immediately, others make you stay registered for a year or cycle. (Which isn't a huge deal depending on how often you want to vote in primaries, but will get you some fun mail. Forever.) You can probably find it pretty easily if you look at either the state or in this case the Republican party's websites. In most instances where you can't just pick whatever you just have to register with the party until after the primary.
Imagine: any problem that has ever existed - we can solve it together.What is the alternative? That we must use force, jailing or murdering some segment of people to force them to "solve the problem"? If we cannot voluntarily choose to work together to meet all our demands as best we can, then why should some be allowed to enslave others, no matter how partial, to service only the demands of a few?
Do you think your moral ruleset is better than total amorality? And why?
You're asking me if I think the fairly standard "moral ruleset" of "helping people is commendable" and "aggressively hurting people is contemptible" is better than "total amorality?"
Yes, I'd say so.
Also, make sure to pick up your Ron Paul Family Cookbook:
(http://images.politico.com/global/blogs/Ron%20Paul%20Cookbook_465.jpg)
http://www.ronpaul2012.com/store/miscellaneous/the-2012-ron-paul-family-cookbook/QuoteThe eagerly anticipated new Ron Paul Family Cookbook is finally here!Just $8! (Or less for more copies!)
Featuring 28 pages of tasty recipes from the Paul family and friends, this much-in-demand and collectible cookbook will “warm your kitchen and your heart.” Packed full of photos of the entire Paul family, the book also includes Carol Paul’s “The American Dream” which briefly recounts the history of Ron Paul and the Paul Family.
Share copies of the Ron Paul Family Cookbook with your family and friends this Christmas. The Cookbook makes a great holiday gift! And plan to use the cookbook as one of the best campaign handouts you will ever find.
It also directs you to a myspace page :lol
During a question-and-answer session at the University of Northern Iowa Wednesday, Bachmann was asked if intelligent design should be taught as science in public schools.
"I think that all science should be on the table," the candidate explained. "I think the one thing we do not want to have is censorship by government."
"I do believe that God created the Earth," she continued. "And I believe there are issues that need to be addressed -- the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the issue of irreducible complexity, the dearth of fossil record."
Republican Jewish Coalition Bars Ron Paul From Presidential Debate, Saying He's Too "misguided and extreme"
http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/01/republican-jewish-coalition-bars-ron-pau
I'm going to try to see if it is possible to get in the Republican primaries to vote for Gingrich or whoever the not Mitt Romney flavor of the month is.Forgot about this earlier but you just need to check about your state. Michigan for example you can vote in any primary you want but only one of them. Other states you have to register with a party, some let you register Republican, vote, then unregister immediately, others make you stay registered for a year or cycle. (Which isn't a huge deal depending on how often you want to vote in primaries, but will get you some fun mail. Forever.) You can probably find it pretty easily if you look at either the state or in this case the Republican party's websites. In most instances where you can't just pick whatever you just have to register with the party until after the primary.
Since I know we have some people still trapped in Michigan if you want to vote in the Republican primary you don't have to do anything, just go in and vote only in Republican parts on the ballot. If you vote in anything else it'll invalidate or hold the ballot. (IIRC, the machines will automatically do this now and it may alert so you can get a new ballot if you do screw up. They were talking about this but I don't remember if they actually went through with it.) You can still vote in Democratic primaries or any others any other time you go to the polls, you just get one primary per ballot. And Republicans claim to hate it. They're convinced McCain's wins are due to Democrats crashing the primary polls, and they want to change it and have for like twenty years but I guess they never get around to it or something. I assume it must be more some kind of State GOP and Federal GOP dispute. I mean, the State GOP kept thinking Saul Anuzis was qualified to do, well anything.
EDIT: oops, dpspoiler (click to show/hide):tauntaun[close]
Herman Cain is still campaigning for president. But by most measures, his White House bid is all but over. His standing in polls is cratering. Supporters are wavering if not fleeing. Fundraising is suffering.Whoops!
And, these days, the former pizza company executive is less a serious candidate than the butt of late-night comedy jokes after a string of accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior and, now, an allegation of a 13-yearlong extramarital affair.
"His chance at winning the presidency are effectively zero," said Dave Welch, a Republican strategist who worked on both of John McCain's presidential bids.
And Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway said: "It's the daily dose of the wince-and-cringe factor that leaves people wondering what could be coming next,"
As it has since Ginger White stepped forward Monday, the allegation of an affair overshadowed Cain's campaign for another day Thursday, when he told the New Hampshire Union Leader that his wife, Gloria, did not know he was providing the 46-year-old Atlanta-area businesswoman with money for "month-to-month bills and expenses."
I'm having some difficulty finding the requirements. I'm in Iowa so I want to make sure I vote for the shittiest flavor of the month not-Mitt Romney GOP primary leader.It appears you can just show up at the Caucus on Jan 3rd, register as a Republican and participate, I haven't found anything to contradict that information:
I went to the Iowa Democrat caucus in 2008 for Obama. It was a weird and obnoxious process. I figure I can weather this one fine.Ahh, yeah, shouldn't be too different from that in terms of process then.
I went to the Iowa Democrat caucus in 2008 for Obama. It was a weird and obnoxious process. I figure I can weather this one fine.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has surged to the largest national lead held by any candidate so far in the race for the Republican Presidential Nomination.What.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters finds Gingrich on top with 38% of the vote. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is a distant second at 17%. No other candidate reaches double-digits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YPSqSKt1RY
Well, that settles that. Nothing to see here people, move along.
Gloria Cain Wants Her Husband to Exit Racehttp://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/12/02/gloria_cain_wants_her_husband_to_exit_race.html
Sources close to Herman Cain's presidential campaign tell the Daily Beast that Gloria Cain "wants her husband to leave the race and has no desire to do additional interviews about their marriage or the constant accusations. They describe a woman angry that her life has been turned upside down by her husband's need for attention and power by any means."
However, several people "said they believe Cain will do what's best for him and not his family in deciding whether he'll leave the race."
The Cains are reportedly talking face-to-face today for the first time since a woman publicly said she had a 13 year affair with Cain.
With the Republican presidential primary appearing to have narrowed into a two-man contest, Human Events and Red State moved quickly to lock down a date for a Lincoln-Douglas-style debate between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
The two organizations went so far this past Monday as to firm up the Annenberg Theater at the Newseum in Washington as the venue on Dec. 19 after another debate originally scheduled that day was canceled. For its part, the Newseum was excited to host the pre-primary forum.
There was just one problem. While Gingrich was ready to take his place on the stage, the Romney campaign politely declined in a series of mostly e-mail exchanges.
As Joe Guerriero, publisher of Human Events and Red State, put it to RCP: “Newt was all over it, and the Romney camp basically said no. It wasn’t a harsh no, but it was a no.”
A Gingrich spokesman confirmed to RCP that the candidate was interested and accepted the invitation, but a Romney spokeswoman didn’t return a request for comment.
Guerriero explained that the impetus for the debate was this: Romney has long been presumed to be the nominee. But with Gingrich surging in the polls, why shouldn’t the Republican base get a chance to see the two top candidates go toe-to-toe?
“No disrespect to any of the other candidates,” Guerriero said, but given the state of the country, the economy, and the race to date, if Romney is to be the nominee, "he needs to go against the best debater with the deepest understanding of policy both domestic and foreign, and that appears to be Newt Gingrich.”
...
He continued, “It looks like Newt’s made a real run at this, and the Romney camp is trying to run out the clock, and we don’t think that’s necessarily a wise strategy.” Instead, he said, the base should be able to see the top candidates answer the tough questions that these conservative publications don’t believe are being asked.
Going forward, Guerriero said, they have asked the candidates if they would agree to such a debate after the first few primary contests. Gingrich, he said, “is itching to do it,” but the Romney campaign “has been more circumspect.”
Donald Trump is pairing up with Newsmax, the conservative magazine and news Web site, to moderate a presidential debate in Des Moines on Dec. 27.
“Our readers and the grass roots really love Trump,” said Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media. “They may not agree with
him on everything, but they don’t see him as owned by the Washington establishment, the media establishment.”
Mr. Trump’s role in the debate, which will be broadcast on the cable network Ion Television, is sure to be one of the more memorable moments in a primary season that has already delivered its fair share of circus-like spectacle.
“Our readers and the grass roots really love Trump,” said Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media. “They may not agree with
him on everything, but they don’t see him as owned by the Washington establishment, the media establishment.”
The Republican confusion over the payroll tax cut is hilarious.spoiler (click to show/hide)God I hope they pass it. As someone who benefits from both sides I would love this[close]
Well clearly I'm about to lose the bet if he drops out. I just ask if he drops out before the primaries that I not take my ban until after secret santa has completed.
(http://talkingpointsmemo.com/assets_c/2011/12/Women-For-Cain-cropped-proto-custom_28.jpg)
"HNNG HNNG HNNG"
(http://images.politico.com/global//blogs/AP111201038952.jpg)
Spencer shouldn't have predicted he'd win a primary. Come on, you really thought he would? :lol It was clear even long before the scandal he would burn out like Bachman and Perry. He didn't have a functioning campaign staff. Who was it that made the bet with you anyway? PD?Well clearly I'm about to lose the bet if he drops out. I just ask if he drops out before the primaries that I not take my ban until after secret santa has completed.
The bet should be nullified, no one could have predicted all this
Seasonal hiring+lots of people leaving the work pool (not looking for jobs). There is good news in the report, such as the October numbers being revised up pretty high. But overall there are bad signs like the labor force participation rate dropped from 64.2 to 64 percent, meaning many people are giving up.Seasonal hiring shouldn't effect it much if at all. The reports are adjusted to compensate for that.
It's such a big drop that it's hard for republicans to make a stink, which is why overall media reactions are low imo. There are ways to look at the data negatively as I pointed out, but republicans don't seem interested in making those types of arguments. It's way easier to dominate the news cycle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1JAZwOSA1s) when UE is stagnant or rising (ie "blame it on Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and government expansion!") than when a person can open up yahoo and see "UE falls to 8.6, down from 9%"
“I believe these words came from the Pokemon movie,” Cain said. “Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It’s never easy when there’s so much on the line. But you and I can make a difference. There’s a mission just for you and me.”
He continued: “Just look inside and you will find just what you can do.”
In
POLITICO Breaking Newswhat is happening
-------------------------------------------------
With just over a month to go, a new Des Moines Register poll of likely Iowa caucus voters released Saturday shows Newt Gingrich surging to first place, at 25 percent. Ron Paul is in second place, with 18 percent, while Mitt Romney has fallen to third place, at 16 percent. Michele Bachmann had 8 percent, as did Herman Cain, who suspended his campaign Saturday. Rick Perry and Rick Santorum were tied at 6 percent.
Are republicans even aware that they'd be throwing away the election if they nominate Newt? Do any of them actually think he can win?
Gingrich 26, Romney 18, Paul 17, Cain 9, Bachmann 5, Perry 9, Santorum 5, Huntsman 2
Romney 39, Gingrich 23, Paul 16, Huntsman 9, Cain 2, Perry 3, Bachmann 3, Santorum 1Looks like it might be turning into Gingrich-Romney-Paul with fourth place being dependent on the state. Santorum in Iowa and Huntsman(!?!) in NH?
Trump responded, "Few people take Ron Paul seriously and many of his views and presentation make him a clown-like candidate, I am glad he and Jon Huntsman, who has inconsequential poll numbers or a chance of winning, will not be attending the debate and wasting the time of the viewers who are trying very hard to make a very important decision."
Just to note for reference:
Iowa is Jan 3rd.
NH is Jan 10th.
SC is Jan 21st.
Florida is Jan 31st.
And it's hard to see anyone but Gingrich, Romney and Paul plus one other "surprise" candidate surviving past Florida. (Say a Santorum or Bachmann who does well in Iowa, or if Huntsman can get up there in NH.)
I hope Gingrich bombs in both debates on the 10th and 15th in some horrible way or there's some unseen scandal because I want to see that two week scramble to find another candidate before Iowa.
There's no time though. If Gingrich bombs on the 10th or 15th, Paul or Romney win Iowa.This I think sends the GOP in two directions. If Paul wins Iowa, and Romney wins NH (which is almost assured currently) Gingrich then implodes. If Romney wins Iowa and NH, Gingrich is also doomed. He needs Iowa I think, if something derails him before Iowa there's the possibility.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69642.html (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69642.html)QuoteA Democratic payroll tax-cut proposal, paid for with a millionaires’ surtax — opposed by Republicans because they say it would hurt the economy — also failed in the Senate on a 51-49 vote. The pair of Thursday night “show votes” suggests the two sides need to narrow their differences, Republicans said, and that McConnell tried to provide a GOP alternative that paid for the tax cut extension with cuts to the federal workforce, not tax hikes.
“The conference is united against the job-killing tax hike, and those who wanted to vote for a payroll tax cut extension did,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said Friday. When asked if the GOP vote resulted in a favorable outcome for Republicans, he replied: “There was a favorable outcome for the country that we didn’t pass a job killing tax hike.”
These people are morons.
Not only did 26 out of the 47 Republicans in the Senate vote “no” Thursday night on a GOP version of the bill, McConnell’s top lieutenants bailed on him, including Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona, along with Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and John Thune (R-S.D.) — all members of leadership.I mean Politico considers Mitch McConnell to be "smart" and "astute" and people are talking about taxes?
The lopsided 20-78 vote on McConnell’s version of the payroll tax dealt a rare but embarrassing blow to the Kentucky Republican, regarded as one of the smartest and most politically astute operatives on Capitol Hill. And it marks a setback for the longtime Washington insider as he tries to lay out the major differences between the two parties in his quest to become Senate majority leader in 2012.
IF Republicans truly believe that a millionaire surtax would kill jobs, and IF Republicans actually want to keep the economy stagnant to make things more difficult for Obama, shouldn't they acquiesce on the surtax and let the job losses mount? If your enemy wants to hang himself, toss him some rope; that's what I've always said.
IF Republicans truly believe that a millionaire surtax would kill jobs, and IF Republicans actually want to keep the economy stagnant to make things more difficult for Obama, shouldn't they acquiesce on the surtax and let the job losses mount? If your enemy wants to hang himself, toss him some rope; that's what I've always said.You're assuming Republicans are one united front with no separate interests.
Sentiments I have seen is that they think Newt would crush Obama in the debates and make him look like a child.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKRouCbefdU
Let us take a minute to acknowledge the fact that there are "very serious people" in the media who think that Newt Gingrich could actual IMPROVE his electoral chances by getting the endorsement of Herman Cain.spoiler (click to show/hide)And then take a minute to realize that such an endorsement in our current political environment may actual WORK. :'([close]
Report: Cain To Endorse Gingrich On Monday
Fox 5 Atlanta — the same station that broke the news of Herman Cain’s alleged 13 year extramarital affair — is reporting that, according to a source, Cain will on Monday endorse Newt Gingrich for the GOP nomination.
I forget if someone here said it, but to paraphrase, Newt's like the little, annoying, fat kid who sits in the back of the class who thinks he's smarter than the teacher but is wrong about pretty much everything.
She did admit that the gold standard was stupid
We agree, of course, with former Speaker Gingrich — this is a country of people of enormous talent. Those who deliver thousands of babies like Dr. Paul and those who spend their time focusing on promoting themselves for profit. We even have those who lobby, but don't call it such because, as they say, they can make $60,000 per speech. While those of us in the Paul camp might disagree with Newt Gingrich about whether Donald Trump is the right man to host a serious political debate, we do agree New York is a wonderful place to go at Christmas. We are sure two average Americans like Speaker Gingrich and Donald Trump will have a wonderful time picking out gifts for their wives. We suggest a place called Tiffany's, we her it is quite nice this time of year and given their celebrity status they can probably get special deals and $500,000 lines of credit.
So what kind of politician can meet these basic G.O.P. requirements? There are only two ways to make the cut: to be totally cynical or totally clueless.
Mitt Romney embodies the first option. He’s not a stupid man; he knows perfectly well, to take a not incidental example, that the Obama health reform is identical in all important respects to the reform he himself introduced in Massachusetts — but that doesn’t stop him from denouncing the Obama plan as a vast government takeover that is nothing like what he did. He presumably knows how to read a budget, which means that he must know that defense spending has continued to rise under the current administration, but this doesn’t stop him from pledging to reverse Mr. Obama’s “massive defense cuts.”
Mr. Romney’s strategy, in short, is to pretend that he shares the ignorance and misconceptions of the Republican base. He isn’t a stupid man — but he seems to play one on TV.
Unfortunately from his point of view, however, his acting skills leave something to be desired, and his insincerity shines through. So the base still hungers for someone who really, truly believes what every candidate for the party’s nomination must pretend to believe. Yet as I said, the only way to actually believe the modern G.O.P. catechism is to be completely clueless.
And that’s why the Republican primary has taken the form it has, in which a candidate nobody likes and nobody trusts has faced a series of clueless challengers, each of whom has briefly soared before imploding under the pressure of his or her own cluelessness. Think in particular of Rick Perry, a conservative true believer who seemingly had everything it took to clinch the nomination — until he opened his mouth.
So will Newt Gingrich suffer the same fate? Not necessarily.
Many observers seem surprised that Mr. Gingrich’s, well, colorful personal history isn’t causing him more problems, but they shouldn’t be. If hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, conservatives often seem inclined to accept that tribute, voting for candidates who publicly espouse conservative moral principles whatever their personal behavior. Did I mention that David Vitter is still in the Senate?
And Mr. Gingrich has some advantages none of the previous challengers had. He is by no means the deep thinker he imagines himself to be, but he’s a glib speaker, even when he has no idea what he’s talking about. And my sense is that he’s also very good at doublethink — that even when he knows what he’s saying isn’t true, he manages to believe it while he’s saying it. So he may not implode like his predecessors.
The numbers: Gingrich 27%, Paul 18%, Romney 16%, Michele Bachmann 13%, Rick Perry 9%, Rick Santorum 6%, Jon Huntsman 4%, and Gary Johnson 1%.http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/another-poll-shows-newt-leading-in-iowa.php?ref=fpblg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=KBFHAJG9O3Q
Ron Paul going hip hop.
Interests
911 Truth
Freedom
The Constitution
Ron Paul
everett washington is as snowy white as you can get. seriously, i go there and worry that this largish mole on my cheek might be enough melanin to get me kicked out of the applebee's there
Romney's campaign has been saying they have a big endorsement coming this week. Look's like it will be John McCain:
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/12/07/mccain_likely_to_endorse_romney.html
Then when he suggested a staged alien invasion to end the current economic crisis, I knew I made the right decision.
These days, you constantly see articles that make it seem as if there was a great debate in the 1930s between Keynes and Hayek, and that this debate has continued through the generations. As Warsh says, nothing like this happened. Hayek essentially made a fool of himself early in the Great Depression, and his ideas vanished from the professional discussion.
So why is his name invoked so much now? Because The Road to Serfdom struck a political chord with the American right, which adopted Hayek as a sort of mascot — and retroactively inflated his role as an economic thinker. Warsh is even crueler about this than I would have been; he compares Hayek (or rather the “Hayek” invented by his admirers) to Rosie Ruiz, who claimed to have won the marathon, but actually took the subway to the finish line.
I still am in shock that Newt is likely to be the nominee. I can't get over it. It's amazing Republicans think its a good idea. I just still can't believe it.
Quote from: K-thugThese days, you constantly see articles that make it seem as if there was a great debate in the 1930s between Keynes and Hayek, and that this debate has continued through the generations. As Warsh says, nothing like this happened. Hayek essentially made a fool of himself early in the Great Depression, and his ideas vanished from the professional discussion.
So why is his name invoked so much now? Because The Road to Serfdom struck a political chord with the American right, which adopted Hayek as a sort of mascot and retroactively inflated his role as an economic thinker. Warsh is even crueler about this than I would have been; he compares Hayek (or rather the Hayek invented by his admirers) to Rosie Ruiz, who claimed to have won the marathon, but actually took the subway to the finish line.
Hmm, interesting. So is it fair to say Hayek is to libertarians what Paradise Lost is to Christians?
I honestly stopped taking Krugman seriously when he suggested Greenspan create a housing bubble. Then when he suggested a staged alien invasion to end the current economic crisis, I knew I made the right decision.
If you ever lose $1.2 Billion at your job, just be honest and admit you don't know what happened to it.The worst thing to come out of Corzine's corruption was being responsible for allowing Chris Christie to be elected.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/08/news/companies/corzine_mf_global/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2
I love how Newt is the best friend of liberals right now. Democrats appearing in the media go out of their way to make sure they don't say a single negative thing about him and it seems like Pelosi got hit harder from the left for attacking Newt the other day than she did from the right.
Liberals don't want to do anything to harm the chance of Newt getting nominated. It's hilarious.
Really? You mean you "took him seriously" and read his columns, but when you read that stuff you decided to change your mind? Or are you just a conservative dude who doesn't take liberals seriously, and you're repeating some stuff that circulated around conservative blogs to justify it in this particular case?
He's one of the few pundits who isn't just a "public intellectual" but is also a qualified expert with a real knack for explaining a technical subject in comprehensible prose. Regardless of your political leanings, you can learn a shit-ton of macroeconomics just from reading his blog, much less his book.
the treme shit's the only one worth commenting on, especially because of the godawful bell curve shit that made a resurgence after katrina
Was this posted?Yeah but you are forgetting about the time he wore 3D glasses and looked at a big picture of Yoda.
Via our favourite Cruncheon's FB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJltjwiefKM
WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK OF A FUCK?!?!?!:?!?!?!?!?!
Was this posted?
Via our favourite Cruncheon's FB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJltjwiefKM
WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK OF A FUCK?!?!?!:?!?!?!?!?!
I'll be citing that post when I finally write my thesis on how slasher horror flicks are actually parables for social conservatives (the most promiscuous teens always die first)
Gingrich just dropped a bomb on Romney :lol
"The only reason you aren't a career politician is because you lost an election running left to Ted Kennedy in 1994"
Fresh NBC News/Marist polls show Gingrich holding a commanding lead in South Carolina and Florida among lilekly Republican primary voters.
SC: Gingrich 42 — Romney 23
FL: Gingrich 44 — Romney 29
That Gingrich video points up something I've been thinking about for a while This is gonna be half-cocked, cause I normally wait for someone else to articulate my thoughts and then steal it, but here goes:
[...]
The common thread is the idea that people need the constant threat of punishment to make them behave properly. Besides being a pretty jaundiced view of the world (and one that only seems to apply the poor, the sick, women, and public servants), in some cases it's completely backwards. For a dirty librul chastity is nice insofar as it prevents disease and unwanted pregnancy, but for the James Dobson crowd it is its own end, and the diseases and unwanted pregnancies are useful disincentives.
Wow.QuoteFresh NBC News/Marist polls show Gingrich holding a commanding lead in South Carolina and Florida among lilekly Republican primary voters.
SC: Gingrich 42 — Romney 23
FL: Gingrich 44 — Romney 29
If Newt wins 3 out of the 4 Jan primaries, especially Florida this is quickly over.
Obama's got this on lockdown, he isn't the best president by a large margin but dude is much better than any of these guys and nobody takes any of them seriously. So yeah chillax MAF you got 4 more years of Obama left.
Oh, and he forgot to even give lip service to Krugmans other predictions.
This is one of my favorites because Mr. Krugman was a strong advocate of the housing bubble.
The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn't a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.
Judging by Mr. Greenspan's remarkably cheerful recent testimony, he still thinks he can pull that off.
(http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/6/Liddy)
http://www.10kbet.com/
Man, Hunstman REALLY hates Romney. :lol
I'd imagine it took this long because no one had a problem with Romney's past as a member of a PE firm. Laying off workers to increase productivity seems like it would be quite appealing to conservatives. Hell, I bet ShogunOfFear would gladly take a pink slip if it meant a hard working businessman would benefit. After all, Shogun will be in that businessman's shoes any day now, what hurt can a temporary job loss do?I am not so sure, these guys seem pretty pleased Romney is getting attacked over how he made his money by buying and then closing businesses:
edit: I'm not saying Newt genuinely disagrees with the practice
Well, if you check that guy's blog he just straight up hates Romney. I don't think you can take his post as indicative of how GOP voters will react to this.
I don't think "laid off a bunch of people" will cause a ton of damage if it's not followed with "so they could hire a bunch of Mexicans" but I could be wrong.
Romney's go to line about it now is so overly manufactured to make you feel bad for him.The GOP is pro-rich, but they are also very sensitive to claims that they are useless fatcats. A successful business person is one thing, but a guy who can casually toss out a 10000 bet during a debate is another. Brings to mind lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills.Well, if you check that guy's blog he just straight up hates Romney. I don't think you can take his post as indicative of how GOP voters will react to this.
I don't think "laid off a bunch of people" will cause a ton of damage if it's not followed with "so they could hire a bunch of Mexicans" but I could be wrong.
Similiarly, I also find it odd a lot of Republicans jumped on his 10K line. I can see Democrats jumping on it but since when has the GOP primary base been anti-rich?
"After the debate was over, Ann came up and gave me a kiss," Romney said, referring to his wife. "And she said, `there are a lot of things you do well. Betting isn't one of them.'"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/23/al-sharpton-commercial-msnbc-lean-forward_n_1109818.html
haha THE PIEEEEEEE
It still hurts my head that Newt Gingrich is the frontrunner.
My favorite is this line that I hear all the time:
"Yeah but real unemployment is much higher"
It's not a fucking conspiracy you douchebags. It's the same standard of measuring unemployment that almost every industrialized nation uses. With the reports that come out every week/month there is all the extra information that you're looking for. I fucking hate that line so much. I know too many people IRL who love to spout it out like they've discovered some statistical loophole that liberals just don't want you to know about.
(http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/387888_10150415470736167_26595441166_8856090_123132026_n.jpg)
"I'm not in trouble. I'm in a great spot. I could become our nominee, or someone else might become our nominee and I could go back to business and go back to my family. Either one of those is a very nice outcome."
"To successfully run for president, you have to have a fire burning inside of you... So maybe it's a bad sign for Mitt Romney's chances that he doesn't seem to give a shit about the possibility of losing. If he wins, great. But whatever."
Apparently Romney doesn't care if he loses...? ??? :lolQuote"I'm not in trouble. I'm in a great spot. I could become our nominee, or someone else might become our nominee and I could go back to business and go back to my family. Either one of those is a very nice outcome."
NY Magazine sums it up well:Quote"To successfully run for president, you have to have a fire burning inside of you... So maybe it's a bad sign for Mitt Romney's chances that he doesn't seem to give a shit about the possibility of losing. If he wins, great. But whatever."
Another Mitt Romney awkwardly interacts with human beings video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqMUG1uNK_Y
Apparently Romney doesn't care if he loses...? ??? :lolQuote"I'm not in trouble. I'm in a great spot. I could become our nominee, or someone else might become our nominee and I could go back to business and go back to my family. Either one of those is a very nice outcome."
NY Magazine sums it up well:Quote"To successfully run for president, you have to have a fire burning inside of you... So maybe it's a bad sign for Mitt Romney's chances that he doesn't seem to give a shit about the possibility of losing. If he wins, great. But whatever."
I don't think this is fair. I watched the interview, and it was clear Politico was trying to create news. Most politicians say if they lose they'll just go back to their families. I remember Obama saying that many times during the primaries and general, and even suggesting he wouldn't run for president again if he lost.
Romney has been running for president for five years, he clearly wants to be president more than most people
It still hurts my head that Newt Gingrich is the frontrunner.
Stuff like this is why I still am convinced Mittens is gonna get the nom:
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/nbcwsj-gingrich-hits-40-percent-among-gop-down-against-obama-by-11.php (http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/nbcwsj-gingrich-hits-40-percent-among-gop-down-against-obama-by-11.php)
It still hurts my head that Newt Gingrich is the frontrunner.
Nope, turns out Ron Paul is the frontrunner. He's the Tim Tebow of GOP candidates, he's just waiting for the 4th quarter to take over.
http://situationroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/13/blitzers-blog-ron-paul-could-surprise-us/?hpt=hp_bn3
My money is on some pro Newt dude at fox accidentally the whole picture
It still hurts my head that Newt Gingrich is the frontrunner.
Nope, turns out Ron Paul is the frontrunner. He's the Tim Tebow of GOP candidates, he's just waiting for the 4th quarter to take over.
http://situationroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/13/blitzers-blog-ron-paul-could-surprise-us/?hpt=hp_bn3
Speaking of Tim Tebow, what's the deal with that guy anyway? I hear him getting mentioned a lot in the news, but I just know that he's 1) a football player and 2) Christian. Why is he so popular?
It still hurts my head that Newt Gingrich is the frontrunner.
Nope, turns out Ron Paul is the frontrunner. He's the Tim Tebow of GOP candidates, he's just waiting for the 4th quarter to take over.
http://situationroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/13/blitzers-blog-ron-paul-could-surprise-us/?hpt=hp_bn3
Speaking of Tim Tebow, what's the deal with that guy anyway? I hear him getting mentioned a lot in the news, but I just know that he's 1) a football player and 2) Christian. Why is he so popular?
Actor Gary Busey is withdrawing his endorsement of Newt Gingrich for president.
“It is not time for me to be endorsing anyone at this time! When there are the two final candidates, then I will endorse,” Busey said Wednesday in a statement released through his representative.
Busey endorsed the former Speaker’s presidential campaign Saturday in an exclusive interview with The Hill.
“I’ve never met Newt but I know what he stands for,” Busey said.
Asked why Busey was withdrawing his endorsement, the actor’s spokesman said Busey “likes” Gingrich but “he is not endorsing anyone at this time.”
Johnson has told a reporter that this is something he’s looking at and that he will be in New York tomorrow to do “as many media appearances as they can wind me up and send me in that direction.” But he said he wasn’t announcing the switch tomorrow.http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/199391-gary-johnson-to-leave-gop-race-run-as-libertarian
Stephen Gordon, who identifies himself as the Southern Regional Director of the Gary Johnson 2012 campaign, told me:
“I personally spoke with Governor Johnson a couple of days ago and outlined many of the pros and cons of running for the LP’s presidential nomination. It’s my opinion that certain senior leaders within the GOP have intentionally thrown as many roadblocks as possible into the governor’s path and that the Libertarian Party will be a much more welcoming home to someone of his true small-government ideology and proven track record.”
Gordon added that as of their last conversation the Governor was not yet decided but was strongly considering the idea.
Discussing the possible move late last month, Johnson told KOB Eyewitness News that the party had been unwilling to help him get included in the debates or polls.
"From what I see and hear on the ground, I think a lot more people embrace this message than not, and the Republicans certainly aren't even letting me be heard," Johnson said.
But Johnson believes his message could be better championed as the Libertarian candidate.
"The message wouldn't be changing at all," Johnson said. "It's just a message that hasn't gotten heard. Really, I feel pretty put off by the process and by Republicans not standing for me … just being in the polls to determine whether or not I should be in the debates or not."
“The Ron Paul people are not going to like my saying this,” Wallace began. “But to a certain degree, it will discredit the Iowa caucuses because, rightly or wrongly, I think most of the Republican establishment thinks he’s not going to end up as the nominee.”
“So therefore, Iowa won’t count,” he added. “It would certainly be a knock to Gingrich because, you know, right now he was the frontrunner — or a week ago he was the big frontrunner in this state so it would be missed opportunity for him.”
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/15/143770049/census-1-in-2-americans-are-poor-or-low-income (http://www.npr.org/2011/12/15/143770049/census-1-in-2-americans-are-poor-or-low-income)
:bow Supply-side economics :bow2
Newtmania might be coming to an end:
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/12/15/romney_retakes_lead_in_iowa.html
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/15/143770049/census-1-in-2-americans-are-poor-or-low-income (http://www.npr.org/2011/12/15/143770049/census-1-in-2-americans-are-poor-or-low-income)
:bow Supply-side economics :bow2
So who's poor in that picture, the mother or the child? Assuming the Census is "accurate" :smug
Will Ron Paul keep running for the Republican nomination and losing every 4 years till he dies?He said this is his last "best" attempt, which is why he's not running for re-election to Congress.
Christopher Hitchens just died. :(
Reminds me ofChristopher Hitchens just died. :(
He's with Jesus now
gaf atheists are almost as bad as reddit atheists. and I'm a semi atheist!You are making an ass out of yourself in the Hitchens thread.
Christopher Hitchens just died. :(
He's with Jesus now
Posts like this make me wish this forum had a reputation system.
Filthy libruls? A good tan? Oh my :lolI actually wonder when Obama last had weed. :lol We'll never know. He obviously had to say he quit for political reasons but if you read his autobiography he smoked pot like constantly throughout high school and college. No way he quit cold turkey right at the political safest time like is implied.
Also smoking pot with Obama would be like the coolest thing ever
Reminds me ofChristopher Hitchens just died. :(
He's with Jesus now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M23exYfGBl8&t=5m4s
Second only to this:Reminds me ofChristopher Hitchens just died. :(
He's with Jesus now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M23exYfGBl8&t=5m4s
:rofl
Malcolm's drive/walk to his death is the best thing Spike Lee has EVER done. :bow
Why Obama doesn't care about the Bill of Rights and will not veto the NDAA:Scary thing is Romney will be way way worse in this area. His entire foreign policy team of advisors are Neocons from the Bush white house.
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/obama_to_sign_indefinite_detention_bill_into_law/
After reading this I can't support the guy anymore. His good looks, great speeches, internet savvy campaigners, they all scream "indefinite detention" now. Please, someone, just tell me it isn't true. :(
I guess you were right all along. Ron Paul 2012. :(
Reminds me ofChristopher Hitchens just died. :(
He's with Jesus now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M23exYfGBl8&t=5m4s
:rofl
Malcolm's drive/walk to his death is the best thing Spike Lee has EVER done. :bow
Wait til ads start running about Paul wanting to let your kids smoke crack and how he's a racist. Damn. The election is going to be cake for ObamaPaul isn't leading anything except Iowa. He'll win that one state and thats the end of him. This race is ending exactly where it started with Romney as the likely nominee.
gaf atheists are almost as bad as reddit atheists. and I'm a semi atheist!
gaf atheists are almost as bad as reddit atheists. and I'm a semi atheist!
Semi-atheist? Every single religious person is a semi-atheist--they disbelieve the existence of all deities belonging to other religions.
The poll found that if the November 2012 presidential election were held today, Obama would defeat Gingrich, 51 percent to 38 percent. By contrast, Obama would defeat Romney by a narrower margin, 48 percent to 40 percent.
Mitt Romney appeared on “Fox News Sunday” yesterday, the former governor’s first Sunday show appearance in nearly two years, and Chris Wallace brought up an interesting subject: Romney’s tax plan. From the transcript:
WALLACE: You talk about helping the middle class but your plan that would eliminate the tax on capital gains and dividends doesn’t help them. A recent study showed that a family making $75,000 a year in terms of what they would receive by eliminating capital gains and dividends, $167, sir.
ROMNEY: Well, first of all, $167 is not zero. And number two, one of the reasons people don’t save their money is that they don’t see an incentive to do so…. What I do is allow middle-income families to finally be able to save their money tax free. No tax on interest dividends or capital gains for middle income Americans.
WALLACE: But the argument is middle class people can’t afford, they don’t have enough money to have a lot of capital gains and dividends.
ROMNEY: Look, I recognize it’s not a huge tax cut. It is a tax reduction and it allows middle-income folks to participate in making a brighter future for themselves and for saving.
This was a rather important exchange for a couple of reasons. The first is the basic policy realization, which the former governor is now conceding, that Romney’s plan largely ignores the middle class. For that matter, Romney has been arguing for weeks that $1,000 in middle-class families’ paychecks is a meaningless, but yesterday suggested $167 makes a big difference.
Or put another way, why does Romney think $1,000 a year is a “band-aid,” but $167 helps families make “a brighter future”?
The other problem here is simple dishonesty. Romney has spent the last several months telling voters his plan is focused on “tax cuts for the middle class,” and he doesn’t intend to “waste time trying to get tax cuts for wealthy people.” The reality, of course, is the exact opposite — Romney supports major tax breaks for the very wealthy, and as he conceded yesterday on Fox News, isn’t much focused on tax cuts for the middle class at all.
If Romney wants to make the case that middle-class tax breaks are a bad idea given the deficit, that’s fine; he can make the case. If he wants to argue that tax breaks for the wealthy are worthwhile, he can make that argument, too. But the problem is the casual, effortless dishonesty that tells the public the opposite of the truth.
Paul polling in lead, Newt tankingTwo polls now, second one with Newt below 15%:
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/12/paul-leads-in-iowa.html
The day after the US leaves Iraq, the president has his VP (from a different party and sect) arrested on charges of sponsoring a death squad.
Things might get pretty messy over there, and there's gonna be a lot of bullshit written about it (to the extent that it gets covered here at all).
Romney will easily beat Obama
Romney will easily beat ObamaRomney can win. And I don't think anyone here would be surprised if he does. But it isn't going to be easily. The handful of DNC ads ran against Romney so far were brutal on him.
Will Obama campaign like he did in 2008 or will he half ass it like he has done so many times post-2008? He's done both so this makes a difference between a bigger margin of victory than 2008 or squeaking by.
Let's be honest here- the man has only GOVERNED in a half-assed manner. I think he knows how to campaign. I believe he'll beat whoever emerges from the clown car as the GOP nominee.I think he honestly underestimated the step up to the Presidency. There was a lot written about Bush and Clinton doing the same thing. (Woodward's one book is all about how Clinton came in and thought he could run it like Arkansas and before he could figure it out to adjust properly all the longtimers and opportunists (including in his Cabinet and the "they're Democrats so just appoint them" people in his staff) had decided he was weak and brought out the fangs on him in the 1993 budget fight.) But both got their focuses throw in their face: 9/11 and fighting the budget/losing HillaryCare and then Congress for the first time in half a century. Obama had to go along with his shitty Dem Congress for two years before he got anything like a challenge in the GOP House and they aren't that great and he still has the Senate dicking around being the Senate.
“It would make the caucuses mostly irrelevant if not entirely irrelevant,” said Becky Beach, a longtime Iowa Republican who helped Presidents Bush 41 and Bush 43 here. “It would have a very damaging effect because I don’t think he could be elected president and both Iowa and national Republicans wouldn’t think he represents the will of voters.”http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70674.html
...
“I don’t think any candidate perverting the process in that fashion helps [the caucuses] in any way,” said Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, adding that he didn’t know if that’s necessarily how Paul would win.
While there’s no evidence of an organized effort, public polling shows that Paul’s lead is built in large part with the support of non-Republicans – and few party veterans think such voters would stick with the GOP in November.
“They’ll all go back and vote for Obama,” predicted Beach.
The most troubling eventuality that Iowa Republicans are bracing for is that Paul wins the caucuses only to lose the nomination and run as a third-party candidate in November — all but ensuring President Obama is re-elected.
“If we empower somebody who turns around and elects Obama, then that’s a major problem for the caucuses,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).
...
The short version: Ignore him.
“People are going to look at who comes in second and who comes in third,” said Gov. Terry Branstad. “If [Mitt] Romney comes in a strong second, it definitely helps him going into New Hampshire and the other states.”
public polling shows that Paul’s lead is built in large part with the support of non-Republicans:rofl
The question is how would they wind up being president?I am curious to see how you'd think Romney would be if he ended up winning.
If Ron Paul suddenly inherited the presidency through some obscure federal statute, you'd have massive gridlock because he'd veto everything and tell his cabinet not to administer laws that he thought were unconstitutional (damn near all of them). There would be an impeachment hearing within a year, probably sooner. Newt would look to compromise enough for things to function and to get re-elected, though he'd probably be bad at it.
Who would I prefer if they got to enact all their favored policies? Tough one. Paul would completely gut the social safety net, outlaw abortion (has he ever gone on record saying what the penalties should be?), remove any oversight of corporations, revoke the civil rights act (probably the clean air and water acts too) and fuck the economy by putting us on the gold standard. But he wouldn't start any wars and that's a very, very big deal. Also legalizing drugs on the federal level.
Newt would only somewhat gut the social safety net, outlaw abortion, leave token corporate oversight in place, implement a bunch of small-scale idiotic ideas he had over breakfast, and probably bomb someone.
Dealing with the real life US and its politics? Newt's less of a disaster. Getting to be God-king and writing all the laws? Tough call. Paul would do some stuff I liked, but it would probably take a lot longer to repair the damage.
Just found this:Yeesh. Cringe worthy the way he stalls. But honestly, what do people expect him to say on TV? You know what he's thinking and everyone knows why we keep Israel close. He really just should have said that geopolitics in the Middle East is very complicated. In the interest of stablity we have to sometimes make tough decisions. That's just the way it is. But liberals would bitch about us not being morally upstanding (and finally admitting that we back douchebags) and conservatives would bitch and moan about the fact that our President pretty much just insulted "our greatest ally". Tough spot for him to be in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oniFAoHgSmw
I find Obama being backed into a corner funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEKAsMdIiZA
:lol at the end.
I hate to break it to you, but this is how credible candidates get treated.But you aren't breaking it to me, and it's not how "credible" candidates are treated. Discount that none of the candidates, "credible" or not, are treated with anything regarding sanity or actual depth. The "most credible" candidates get kid glove treatment always. For good reason.
What Paul did was a while ago, granted, but it was politically idiotic and he's never manned up and owned it.And he did, but suddenly dropped it when he "went big" again as I said. I assume he's afraid of losing the money by denouncing Rockwell personally.
rather than getting a martyr complex over the media not covering up on his behalf.I didn't. I pointed out again he's screwing this up to protect Rockwell and I don't buy his entire claim anyway. But added an aside snarking about the medias fascination with meaningless things from decades ago yet little interest in anything logical.
The only safe sex, medically and morally, is that between husband and wife.
there's no way Paul could have been ignorant of the content [of] 8-12 page newsletters published under his name for over ten years. Paul supporters face three losing propositions:
• He lacks the competency to control content published under his own name for over a decade, and is thus unfit to lead a country.
• He doesn't believe these things but considers them a useful political tool to motivate racist whites, which makes him fit to be a GOP candidate, but too obvious about it to win.
• He's actually a racist, which makes him unfit to be a human being.
He has given that same answer for decades, but nobody paid attention so I see why he gets upset when that's all anyone wants to talk about. I don't entirely buy, as I think I've said here before, the claim he didn't completely know what was being published, but it's been at least since the early 90's that he's been saying they were entirely wrong and he disagrees with them. He used to claim he had been derelict in not watching what was being published in his name, but he dropped that when he started running for President again five years ago.Er, he didn't distance himself from the letters until 2001. During his 1996 campaign - when they first surfaced as an issue - he defended their content and implied that he had written them.
Can you say newtmentum?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ4lvRNDWcs
By now you've likely heard that our effort to gain access to the primary ballot in Virginia was not successful. This was not due to a lack of effort by our volunteers, but the cumbersome process in Virginia.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/24/newt-gingrich-virginia-gop-primary_n_1168634.html
We are exploring alternate methods to compete in Virginia - stay tuned.
Going forward, we will be as in-front of the process as possible and with the help of our grassroots volunteers we will make all other deadlines.
Newt and I have talked three or four times today and he stated that this is not catastrophic - we will continue to learn and grow. Remember that it was only a few months ago that pundits and the press declared us dead after the paid consultants left. They declared that the decision not to compete in the Ames Straw Poll would mean that Iowans would ignore us. Some will again state that this is fatal.
Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941: We have experienced an unexpected set-back, but we will re-group and re-focus with increased determination, commitment and positive action. Throughout the next months there will be ups and downs; there will be successes and failures; there will be easy victories and difficult days - but in the end we will stand victorious.
To help achieve that outcome we each need to spend the next 24 hours enjoying our families and friends as much as possible. Enjoy their company. Be grateful for them. Gather strength from them. The promise of a better future for our family and friends is the reason we are committed to rebuilding the America we love.
May the spirit of the season fill each of you. Merry Christmas.
Michael Krull
National Campaign Director
Newt Gingrich failed to amass the 10,000 signatures needed in order to secure a place on the ballot in the party's March 6th primary election.
Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941: We have experienced an unexpected set-back, but we will re-group and re-focus with increased determination, commitment and positive action.
Winning any state primary - V-E Day, the Battle of Agincourt, the Seige of Yorktown, the sinking of the Armada, and the destruction of the Death Star (both times) rolled into one.
:lolQuoteWinning any state primary - V-E Day, the Battle of Agincourt, the Seige of Yorktown, the sinking of the Armada, and the destruction of the Death Star (both times) rolled into one.
:o Like a George Lucas intercutting-between-battle-scenes finale, but with added profound historical insight!
Newt Gingrich voiced enthusiasm for Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health-care law when it was passed five years ago, the same plan he has been denouncing over the past few months as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination.
"The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system," said an April 2006 newsletter published by Mr. Gingrich's former consulting company, the Center for Health Transformation.
I think we all know the real lesson now.
If you want to get elected, never start a newsletter.
“Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source,” Mr. Perry said in Clarinda, earning a loud round of enthusiastic applause.
so i take it you're a fan of... bathing your guts in unnecessary chemicals?
....I'm a supporter of both of those things
....I'm a supporter of both of those things
is that a joke about drinking alcohol? a man as smart as you couldn't possibly want their local government to be tasked with brushing your own god damn teeth.
Santorum, with all his frothiness and unlikability, would probably be the trickiest opponent for Romney, in that he's never done anything obviously "wrong" by conservative standards and seems to have no personal scandals.
I still think Romney's a lock (and wish I could have bet money on him at 5-1), but it would be a lot easier to train his fire on Gingrich or Paul.
i actually have both of those things, a well up in Michigan at the lake house and an under the sink filter for my parents house here in Ohio. i just want to yell at people about how they live their lives from a desk chair like every other god fearing American on this here internet :'(
Just days before the critical Iowa caucus, Ron Paul has secured a major endorsement – from Kelly Clarkson.http://www.gossipcop.com/kelly-clarkson-ron-paul-endorsement-support-president-2012-republican-twitter/
The “American Idol” winner expressed her support for the Republican presidential candidate on Twitter.
“I love Ron Paul,” Clarkson wrote on Thursday. “I liked him a lot during the last republican nomination and no one gave him a chance. If he wins the nomination for the Republican party in 2012 he’s got my vote. Too bad he probably won’t.”
She explained, “Ron Paul is about letting people decide, not the government. I am for this.”
This should be in the dictionary under "confidence"
(http://i.imgur.com/h1mhF.jpg)
Republicans want a candidate who doesn't exist- some sort of absolutely pure representation of movement Conservatism. It ain't out there, because the essence of actually governing is compromising, which the GOP electorate want nothing to do with, as evidenced with the spread of Teahadism, etc etc etc, ad infinitum, blah blah blah.
I just can't see any large amount of republicans staying home and letting Obama get re-elected. They pretty much hate the man across the board and honestly believe he's destroying the country. No way they say "fuck Romney, I'm staying home" next November
Because each one of the GOP nominees are terribly, terribly flawed in some way, and enough idiot voters will probably realize that continuing to give the super rich tax cuts isn't a recipe for success.I am not convinced. It will be very close between Obama and Romney but I give Obama the slight edge.
Mainly though, because you and Cheebs are convinced Obama will lose.
GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, who takes every opportunity possible to assure voters that he is the most serious candidate in the race, said he would be open to appointing Sarah Palin to a high level job in his administration. As Right Wing Watch reports, during a Wednesday night tele-town hall hosted by Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, a caller asked the former Speaker if he would consider Palin as a running mate. Gingrich responded that Palin “is certainly one of the people you would look at” and told the caller that he is “a great admirer of hers.” He also floated the idea of appointing her Secretary of Energy because, he said, “I can’t imagine anybody who would do a better job of driving us to an energy solution than Gov. Palin.” “Tell her that she would certainly be on the list of one of the people we would consider,” he added.Quote
Dear GAWD, this would be the best thing ever.
It's a shame Newt'll never get the nom. :(
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/obama-signs-defense-reauthorization-bill.php?ref=fpa -- the ndaa was a rider on a bill for military funding. if he didn't sign it, he hates the troops and america. it doesn't excuse obama's lack of moral courage, but this is an artifact of congressional patriot games.Not if you believe Sen. Levin, who claims the administration demanded the language be included in the bill
"Above all, he looked like a President. Handsome, silver-haired, robust, masculine, smiling or stern, he seemed cast for the part by Hollywood's Central Casting. Correspondents who liked him called him 'Mr. Straight Arrow;' those whose flesh crawled at his pieties called him 'Mr. Square,' or worse... He would make a forthright statement one day, then, like a man making up his mind in public, contradict it or modify it on another."
The president is officially an asshole. He signed the NDAA, making indefinite detention available to all Americans. :(
a liberal Harvard constitutional law professor
It's interesting that Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma (one of my guys) voted against it. He doesn't seem to be the type that cares too much about civil liberties. He voted to extend the PATRIOT act. He cares about liberty as far as liberty from taxes and that's about it.
It's depressing that 9 out of 10 top Republican contenders basically see Reagan, or at least want their base to perceive that they see Reagan, as basically on par with Jesus [always right, infallible].
Romney was murdered shortly after that picture was taken, and replaced by a satanic cult.
cheebs where are youuuuu. It's time for predictions for Iowa's results tomorrow
Phoenix Dark's prediction:
1. Santorum
2. Paul
3. Romney
4. Gingrich
5. Perry
Paultards are going to be so annoying if he happens to win Iowa.They will shut up in a week when he loses NH at least.
I hope he wins Iowa, just so FoC comes back. A man can dream.I tried to do some google stalking on him to see if he was around somewhere. Every link was either GAF or The Bore. :'(
What time are the caucases today?8 PM EST. If I remember right we found out Obama/Huckabee won in 2008 around 11/12 EST.
“My ambition is to make sure that we start creating jobs again in this country and that we have rising median incomes, as opposed to the 10% decline we’ve seen in the last four years.
“To get people back into work, get higher incomes, and let people have a middle-income life standard they had in the past. That’s the whole effort that I’m involved in.
“Somebody who’s fallen from the middle class to poverty, in my opinion is still middle class.”
I'll probably never go to Iowa, I know thats not fair to say- but that place is like another country
"In my opinion, someone who just got raped has been having sex!"
Fineman is reporting that Bachman's top staff members are suggesting she drop out. Haha
What is that people like about Frothy-Frothy?
I'm gonna laugh so hard if Paul comes in third. Oh man, I might just get banned for trolling Gabron and his ilk
Rick SantorumEntrance polls: http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/states/iowa/exit-polls
26,443 24.6%
—
Mitt Romney
26,398 24.5
—
Ron Paul
22,728 21.1
—
Newt Gingrich
14,244 13.2
—
Rick Perry
11,099 10.3
—
Michele Bachmann
5,496 5.1
—
Jon Huntsman
628 0.6
—
Other
277 0.3
—
No Preference
168 0.2
—
Herman Cain
53 0.1
—
Buddy Roemer
44 0.0
Rick Santorum
28,958 24.6%
—
Mitt Romney
28,879 24.6
cheebs where are youuuuu. It's time for predictions for Iowa's results tomorrow
Phoenix Dark's prediction:
1. Santorum
2. Paul
3. Romney
4. Gingrich
5. Perry
The Greenwald bump not carrying Dr. Paul, it seems.
Perry basically said he's shutting things down.
Perry basically said he's shutting things down.
YESSSSSSSS
Do the right thing, Bachmann. Santorum can TOTALLY win South Carolina.
Ron Paul understand our economy better than almost any "real" economist.
Newt Gingrich announcing that he is essentially transforming his campaign in to a merciless carpet bombing of Mitt Romneys base is just so much fun. There will never be a campaign season this entertaining ever.
Is there a text quite or transcript? My wife is sleepingBest I could find in a minute or so:
We'll have -- one other great debate and that is whether this party wants a Reagan conservative who helped change Washington in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan and helped change Washington in the 1990s as Speaker of the House, or we want a Massachusetts moderate who, in fact, will be pretty good at managing the decay but has given no evidence in his years in Massachusetts of any act to change the culture or change the political structure or change the government.
Let me be clear, because I think it's important given all the things that were done in this state over the last few weeks. We are not going to go out and run nasty ads. We're not going to run 30-second gotchas. But I do reserve the right to tell the truth and if the truth seems negative, that may be more a comment on his record than it is on politics. So this is going to be a debate that begins tomorrow morning in New Hampshire and and will go on for a few months, and I'm convinced that the Republican party will pick an era of Reagan and somebody with a track record of changing Washington.
We are not going to go out and run nasty ads. We're not going to run 30-second gotchas.
he must not know that CS Lewis was an open atheist
fucking morons, ugh
he must not know that CS Lewis was an open atheist
fucking morons, ugh
Yeah, he was. Until Tolkien converted him back to Christianity.
Question: Not knowing how exactly these Republican primaries work, would a hypothetical Santorum win in Iowa actually effect the overall race in any interesting way, or would it just provide some comedy fodder for the cable news networks for a couple of days/weeks?If the Perry/Bachmann voters flock to him as Gingrich keeps falling as the anti-Romney vote then it would.
None of Iowa's 28 delegates will be bound to any candidate as a result of the Jan. 3 precinct caucuses. As in 2008, the state's delegates will be elected at district caucuses and at the state convention, which is scheduled for later in the year. The January caucuses will elect delegates to the county conventions currently scheduled for March.It's really a glorified straw poll.
edit: PD, if you're gonna come back here after posting at GAF, take the troll pants off.
Granted, I've got a couple friends who used to get into arguments with each other all the time over that stuff, but there was a spirit of jovial ball-busting to it.
One of them was a Congressional intern for a summer so he acts like he knows more than anyone because of this.The worst people. Even the state level interns. Never will discuss anything without bringing it up. "Well, when I was interning for blah blah blah."
What's with all these folks getting into political debates IRL? I have some conservative/libertarian friends with whom I deliberately avoid serious and contentious political discussions (steering either towards glib banter or away from the topic at all) because I know I'm not going to change their mind and I value their friendship.
I also have some jackass conservative/libertarian acquaintances/colleagues with whom I avoid serious and contentious political discussions because I don't really wanna be talking to them in the first place.
edit: PD, if you're gonna come back here after posting at GAF, take the troll pants off.
Romney wins with 8 votes. Pathetic for him considering the money he spent.Didn't spend anywhere near as much as Perry.
I thought federalism (at least, the Hamiltonian kind) meant supporting having a stronger central government, but I've been seeing a lot of conservative politicians throwing the 'federalist' term around (in a positive way), so either they don't know what it is, or I don't.It's "both" technically.
Romney wins with 8 votes. Pathetic for him considering the money he spent.Didn't spend anywhere near as much as Perry.I thought federalism (at least, the Hamiltonian kind) meant supporting having a stronger central government, but I've been seeing a lot of conservative politicians throwing the 'federalist' term around (in a positive way), so either they don't know what it is, or I don't.It's "both" technically.
Federalism was originally those who wanted to unify into the United States. And that morphed formally into the Hamiltonian central government concept. "Federalism" is from the late 70s Republican circles and basically is renamed "states rights." I'd have to look but I think it's termed "Dual Federalism" in poli sci works.
he must not know that CS Lewis was an open atheist
fucking morons, ugh
I learned I was wrong, no need to make fun of me more than I already did earlier :(
lol brandnewhahaha that is amazing.
this is like when wrath on twitter thought scorsese was jewish
Michele Bachmann has canceled plans to campaign in South Carolina on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press, and she plans to hold a news conference in Iowa at 11 a.m. EST.
Michele Bachmann will end her presidential campaign Wednesday morning at an event in West Des Moines, Iowa, the Associated Press reported.That might make Perry stay in for South Carolina. Apparently he already bought a bunch of ads to run there.
Are these early caucuses generally so divided? I mean no candidate got more than 25%, you have three over 20.. Seems pretty damn undecided as of yet, no? It will be interesting to see with some candidates dropping out! I honestly can't say I want any of them or Barack to win in November though.
holy fuck reading the GAF Ron Paul thread is fucking irritating. Especially when you're banned.
Angry Fork is an annoying fucking douchebag. If I read "Ron Paul is the nuclear option" one more time I'm going to e-fuck him into oblivion. And that annoying fucking avatar. Argh!
Lewis was an atheist before he became a Christian so bn is half right!
The White House confirmed Wednesday morning that President Obama will announce a recess appointment for Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at a speech in Ohio later today. Cordray was a well-liked Ohio Attorney General until last year, after he was toppled by the GOP midterm wave in 2010.http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/why-obama-could-recess-appoint-top-consumer-watchdog-anyhow.php?ref=fpblg
Things always don't go your way but you just have to keep working hard and getting better, and all I'm thinking about is NH right nowThat one is easy though.
I have no idea how it could possibly ever work, and I mean "work" in the loosest terms. Like FCC style "work" would be a godsend for it.
That's cause you're big into public choice theory, the evo-psych of political science.Probably, but it's more likely my never-ending heavy cynicism* than any actual formal model. It's an agency set inside an "independent" agency with a big stake funded entirely from that and not appropriations with one person basically with all power who can also be overridden by a council of all the agencies that gave up power to the CFPB. I really can't understand any circumstances in which it could "work" and how it could even come to do so. But that is probably just me.
lol WA gov introducing legislation for legalization of gay marriage- religious folks freakin out online. Gonna rule when it PASSES and theyre all butthurt.
Things always don't go your way but you just have to keep working hard and getting betterPlease add this to the news feed
holy fuck reading the GAF Ron Paul thread is fucking irritating. Especially when you're banned.
Angry Fork is an annoying fucking douchebag. If I read "Ron Paul is the nuclear option" one more time I'm going to e-fuck him into oblivion. And that annoying fucking avatar. Argh!
9 VOTES SEPARATING THEM!!!
Who was our Iowa resident that was gonna caucus? TEXP right? I wonder if he caucused for Santorum.
The exit polls show Romney was soundless rejected by voters who described themselves as Evangelical and conservative. And he barely got more votes than in 2008 lol
The exit polls show Romney was soundless rejected by voters who described themselves as Evangelical and conservative. And he barely got more votes than in 2008 lol
Well, Romney won when everyone expected him to be 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71096_Page2.html
Sounds like a train wreck. :rofl
If the audience is puzzled by this — crispy good? Is this KFC? — they must have been downright baffled when a Romney staffer takes the stage and says, “White balance. Get your white balance.”
Meanwhile, my crazy Ron Paul supporter friend (who is a confused anarchist lead singer in a punk band that has convinced himself that RON PAUL is some sort of wonder ointment for what ails America and is obviously wrong about everything) is convinced that since Paul doubled his support from '08 in Iowa this means BIG THINGS AHEAD and is trying to convince all of his friends to vote for Paul in the NC primary, which is... in early May.
Do I
A) tell him Paul won't be in the race by then
B) make the obvious joke that at this rate Paul will win the 2016 Iowa caucus?
New Hampshire GOP Bill Mandates That New Laws Find Their Origin In 1215 English Magna Carta
By Marie Diamond on Jan 4, 2012 at 3:10 pm
New Hampshire Republicans are taking textual originalism to a whole new level: three lawmakers have proposed a bill that requires that all legislation find its origin not in the U.S. constitution, but an English document crafted in 1215.
When the legislature reconvenes this month, Republicans want their colleagues to justify many new bills with a direct quote from the 800-year-old Magna Carta:
House Bill 1580 is the product of such a brainstorming session this summer between three freshman House Republicans: Bob Kingsbury of Laconia, Tim Twombly of Nashua and Lucien Vita of Middleton. The eyebrow-raiser, set to be introduced when the Legislature reconvenes next month, requires legislation to find its origin in an English document crafted in 1215.
“All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived,” is the bill’s one sentence.
The Magna Carta, while famed as the first major declaration of rights under English monarchy, is a bit outdated in its actual prose.
The Magna Carta is indisputably an important historical document, with ideas about liberty that inspired America’s founders. But as the Concord Monitor points out, the substance of the document is fixated on the tedium of feudal times, and has little if any relevance to modern American life.
New Hampshire lawmakers might have trouble applying passages like, “We shall straightway return the son of Llewelin and all the Welsh hostages,” or, “If anyone who has borrowed a sum of money from Jews dies before the debt has been repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt for so long as he remains under age.”
One of the bill’s sponsors admitted that he wasn’t terribly familiar with the actual text, and mainly saw the measure as an homage. New Hampshire Democratic Party spokesman Ray Buckley said he was “mostly speechless” when he heard about the bill. “I appreciate all the hard work the Republican legislators are putting into the effort to make them look like extremists,” he said. “Saves us the trouble.”
Conservatives have long prided themselves on being constitutional “purists” who want to strip government down to the basic form they say was laid out in the country’s founding document. But requiring textual justification from another country’s founding document, which has no legal history or authority in the U.S., is a curious extension of that principle.
As the country’s focus shifts from the Iowa caucus to the more influential New Hampshire primary, it’s worth noting that the state’s Republicans apparently trying to repeal not just the 20th century “welfare state,” or even the 20th century, but the modern era entirely.
“I appreciate all the hard work the Republican legislators are putting into the effort to make them look like extremists,” he said. “Saves us the trouble.”
CHART: Romney Plan Raises Taxes On Lower-Middle Class, Cuts Taxes On Wealthyhttp://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/chart-romney-plan-raise-taxes-on-lower-middle-class-cuts-taxes-on-wealthy.php?ref=fpa
Above that level, Romney’s plan cuts taxes at greater rates for wealthier people. The average millionaire would thus pay $145,568 less in taxes in 2015 than they do today. Taken altogether, that makes the plan a budget buster, meaning greater deficits or deep cuts to federal programs.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/updates/3655
:drudge
Looks like Nostradarkmas was right after all :bow
@ppppolls
PublicPolicyPolling
Mitt up about 10 pts the first night of our South Carolina poll...Gingrich and Santorum close for 2nd.
no way Romney wins SC, I'm calling it right nowIf 1 vote can count for 20 votes when needed, it's possible.
Reporting from Manchester, N.H.— For the second time in as many days, Rick Santorum waded into the issue of gay marriage, suggesting it was so important for children to have both a father and mother that an imprisoned father was preferable to a same-sex parent.I thought he was just going to focus on the economy to win over those "socially libertarian" NH voters? I can't believe every political analyst lied to me.
Citing the work of one anti-poverty expert, Santorum said, "He found that even fathers in jail who had abandoned their kids were still better than no father at all to have in their children's lives."
Allowing gays to marry and raise children, Santorum said, amounts to "robbing children of something they need, they deserve, they have a right to. You may rationalize that that isn't true, but in your own life and in your own heart, you know it's true."
At a private boarding school Friday, the Republican presidential candidate's voice grew emotional as he argued that only a man and woman should be able to marry. "Marriage is not a right," Santorum said. "It's a privilege that is given to society by society for a reason.... We want to encourage what is the best for children."
The audience, half students and half local residents, reacted with snorts and applause. The students at Dublin School, which runs from ninth through 12th grade, were primed for Santorum's visit, said headmaster Brad Bates. He said three students in the audience had gay parents, though they were not among those who asked about the topic.
Santorum's comments once again drew attention away from his efforts to craft a blue-collar economic message. On Thursday he tangled with college students over same-sex marriage. In that encounter, a woman in the audience asked whether the right to happiness was grounds for gay people to marry, and Santorum responded by asking whether she believed more than two people could have that right. "If you're not happy unless you're married to five other people, is that OK?" he asked, prompting boos from the audience.
EDIT: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-campaign-20120107,0,4461003.storyThat is just the favorite rhetorical gambit of shitty people and bigots, isn't it?QuoteYou may rationalize that that isn't true, but in your own life and in your own heart, you know it's true."
may I express my gratitude for the liberal media anyway? You can’t help but think there were some gotcha questions there. And the field made America proud. Rick Santorum is not the caricature of him that the media insists he is. Mitt Romney has led on some of these so-called social issues and got to talk about just that. Newt Gingrich was articulate on the scandal of tolerance these days — as those who want to redefine marriage will not be satisfied until we all are forced to approve. Rick Perry expanded the religious-liberty discussion to discuss how this administration is penalizing human-trafficking victims because of its radical ideology. And the candidates made clear that their interest in these issues stemmed from a concern with freedom and who we are as a country — rather than anyone’s bedroom.:-*
:bowYou know you're wrong when you star quoting the Sith
:bow2
Didn't realize Santorum was such a piece of shit too. What a crap election this is gonna be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5qZ9GrBf4w
We're worried about Iran getting a bomb when they already have the warp drive?
"I started at the bottom like other freshly minted MBA's...you wonder if you're gonna hang on to your job."
Quote"I started at the bottom like other freshly minted MBA's...you wonder if you're gonna hang on to your job."
extravagant
Quoteextravagant
:rofl
Ron Paul is against the drug war, yes, but for the same reasons he is against preventing factories from dumping mercury in our rivers: he opposes any sort of intervention at all by the government to assist those in need, or to stop those who would do harm to others, except in the most simplistic cases of the use of force.
Ron Paul: Secret Homophobe or Misunderstood Ally?
Posted: 12/28/11 02:43 PM ET
In the interest of full disclosure, I avow that I have not directly contributed funds to any candidates or political parties during this election cycle. All my prior campaign contributions should be available online.
With the Iowa caucuses less than a week away, with many legal issues affecting the queer community subject to debate and potential power shifts next year, and with nearly one third of self-identified lesbigay voters recently having voted Republican, a current Republican frontrunner, Rep. Ron Paul, recently has been under fire for vile things -- not so recently -- written under his name, regarding racial minorities, religious minorities, and queer people.
Imagine a candidate who, more than 15 years ago, fundraised and attempted to garner financial and political support from a group of people based on a letter taking a political position offensive to many U.S. voters. That letter was sent from "Friends of" the candidate, contained the candidate's name and signature, and misstated a position that offends many U.S. voters today, 15 years later.
Over a decade later, that formerly obscure candidate starts to matter in politics. And in an attempt to deflect attention from that letter, the candidate's communications director suggests that the document from the 1990s was a fake, "filled out by someone else," not the candidate.
Ron Paul?
Hardly.
The candidate from 15 years ago is now President Barack Obama.
Specifically, the letter, dated Feb. 15, 1996, addressed by "Friends of Barack Obama," signed by "Barack Obama, Candidate for State Senate, 13th District," supported equal marriage rights for lesbian and gay couples.
But as recently as June 17, 2011, President Obama's communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, stated, "If you actually go back and look, that questionnaire was actually filled out by someone else, not the president."
Regarding Rep. Paul, a number of people are implying that Ron Paul may be racist for what was written years ago under Paul's name.
Yet history shows that in 1979, Rep. Paul was the only Texas House Republican to vote in favor of making Rev. Martin Luther King Day a national holiday -- hardly a racist use of political power.
Compared Rep. Paul's vote with that of the most recent GOP presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain. Despite no racist newsletters appearing under his name, John McCain voted against recognizing a national holiday for Rev. King.
Which matters more: newsletters or votes that carry the force of law for millions of people?
And what's written under Ron Paul's name relative to queer people should disgust any reasonable person. But as President Obama demonstrated, what's written under a candidate's name simply doesn't equate to that candidate's ultimate use of power: how the candidate votes.
Examining Votes Ron Paul Has Cast on Political Issues Important to Many Queer Advocates
Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA)
Ron Paul voted against the George-W.-Bush-pushed FMA in both 2004 and 2006. If unfamiliar, think of the FMA as a nationwide Prop 8, nullifying all marriages between persons of the same sex in the U.S, regardless of where a couple lived or married.
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
While Ron Paul stated that he supports DOMA, DOMA is a complex law. Evidencing DOMA's complexity is the pro-queer legal community's general strategy of attacking DOMA Section 3, not DOMA's entirety.
Because I could find nothing in which Paul specifically addressed DOMA Section 3 rather than DOMA in its entirety (including legislative history, as Paul wasn't a member of Congress during the DOMA vote), I requested comment from the Paul campaign on short notice. I did not receive a response prior to submitting this piece. (I'll include an update should I receive a response.)
My guess is that if specifically asked regarding support for DOMA Section 3, Paul would answer no. My further suspicion is that since he supports most of DOMA, Paul can justify saying that he supports DOMA, enabling him to pander to the party primary base.
Even if Paul supports DOMA entirely, President Clinton signed all of DOMA into law, despite being hailed as possibly having "courted the gay vote" more than any other prior candidate. President Clinton's campaign messages didn't equate with his "voting" as president.
Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT)
Of 167 Republican House members voting on the repeal DADT in May 2010, Ron Paul was one of only five GOP members to break with his party and vote for DADT's repeal. Thus, independent of 97 percent of his party's House delegation, Ron Paul supported DADT's repeal, even before the Pentagon survey that many GOP members demanded prior to permitting a vote on DADT. Following release of the report, which allowed DADT to receive a vote in the full Congress, of 179 Republican House members at that time, Ron Paul was one of only 15 who voted to repeal DADT last December.
Unlike 91 percent of his party's House delegation, unlike Sen. John McCain, the GOP's "moderate" presidential candidate in 2008 (and unlike President Clinton, who signed DADT into law), Ron Paul's vote helped queer advocates achieve a landmark victory for many (albeit not enough) people wishing to serve this country openly and honestly.
Conclusion
What gets written under a candidate's name or signature doesn't necessarily reflect that candidate's views or how that candidate will govern.
Comparing President Obama's old letters with his governance regarding equal civil marriage rights for same-sex couples demonstrates a disturbing cognitive dissonance.
President Clinton's pro-queer speeches compared with his use of power in office by signing DADT and DOMA into law demonstrated his beliefs about how queer people should be treated under the law, regardless of his folksy demeanor in courting our vote and funding.
No newsletters may exist evidencing an anti-queer bias from moderate Republican John McCain, but McCain's votes on a recognizing national holiday for Rev. King or repealing DADT may argue otherwise.
As a result, a meaningful disconnect exists between political candidates' disavowed solicitations and those candidates' demonstrated use of power once elected.
I will not be voting Republican in my state's upcoming primary, which means I will not be voting for Ron Paul. But if you plan to vote Republican in your state's primary or caucus, and if queer rights are important factors in determining which GOP candidate earns your approval, then how Ron Paul has wielded the power that his constituents gave him (i.e., his voting record, and not the noise about outdated newsletters and campaign solicitations) deserves your scrutiny, consideration, and perhaps your support.
Because your decisions today become our likely collective choices in November, please be thoughtful in using your vote to help decide which candidates stay and which ones sashay away.
That link is wrong all over the place. It makes many wrong assumptions.QuoteRon Paul is against the drug war, yes, but for the same reasons he is against preventing factories from dumping mercury in our rivers: he opposes any sort of intervention at all by the government to assist those in need, or to stop those who would do harm to others, except in the most simplistic cases of the use of force.
Not true.
Not true. While it isnt really related to this particualr issue, Ron Paul would allow gay marriage because it doesnt harm other people. So inline with that he woudlnt allow companies ot harm other people.
Your parents pay for all your shit too, loser.
man, that's one thinly veiled
Not only is it true, but it's the whole point of his campaign.
If you think Ron Paul is interested in "intervention by the government to assist those in need" then I'm not sure we're talking about the same guy.
Not only is it true, but it's the whole point of his campaign.
If you think Ron Paul is interested in "intervention by the government to assist those in need" then I'm not sure we're talking about the same guy.
I dont agree with that either. I believe Ron Paul is interested in "no government intervention unless it harms someone".
Not only is it true, but it's the whole point of his campaign.
If you think Ron Paul is interested in "intervention by the government to assist those in need" then I'm not sure we're talking about the same guy.
I dont agree with that either. I believe Ron Paul is interested in "no government intervention unless it harms someone".
I bought an xbox for my sister months ago and haven't bothered sending it to her yet
(if you need SOCIAL JUSTICE!!!! REPUBLICAN EDITION, please remember that being poor, even with all the xboxes and RIMZ!!! they are swimming in, is a miserable and shitty way to exist, period.)
Not only is it true, but it's the whole point of his campaign.
If you think Ron Paul is interested in "intervention by the government to assist those in need" then I'm not sure we're talking about the same guy.
I dont agree with that either. I believe Ron Paul is interested in "no government intervention unless it harms someone".
i believe like ron paul himself you have no idea what the fuck his actual positions are
missouri also, of course. we took it so far that now we have drug testing for welfare recipents! because we know all poor people really want is drugs - which is why they are poor - and rich people are all moral hard working people that just want to make sure their money goes towards something good. never mind that a drug test costs $700+
like the civil rights act oh wait
like the civil rights act oh wait
Equality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports.
like the civil rights act oh wait
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMCwr72Dig
(skip to after 2 minutes where he gets the chance to speak)
I dont see what is wrong with what he has said. Equality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports. When you force equality it doesnt work that well. People in America are far more racist than people in Australia or Europe. He also said he woudl have gotten rid of those laws that say black peopel cannot use government benches or taps. He just doesnt agree tht people with private property shouldnt be allowed to discriminate. When people discriminate with private property people who dont like discrimination wiill discriminate againt them and they will lose business.
like the civil rights act oh wait
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMCwr72Dig
(skip to after 2 minutes where he gets the chance to speak)
I dont see what is wrong with what he has said. Equality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports. When you force equality it doesnt work that well. People in America are far more racist than people in Australia or Europe. He also said he woudl have gotten rid of those laws that say black peopel cannot use government benches or taps. He just doesnt agree tht people with private property shouldnt be allowed to discriminate. When people discriminate with private property people who dont like discrimination wiill discriminate againt them and they will lose business.
gee, 200 thousand years of human anthropology would like a word with ron "doesn't believe in evolution" paul.
Rick Santorum said Monday that comments he made last week in Iowa about food stamps that some construed as racially charged were the result of his having been tongue-tied and were not a reference to black people.
Moreover, he said he has done more in black communities “than any Republican in recent memory.”
He maintains that he did not say “black” people’s lives but rather stumbled verbally when he was trying to say “people’s lives” and uttered a short syllable that came out as “plives.”
Equality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports.
Equality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports.
like the civil rights act oh wait
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMCwr72Dig
(skip to after 2 minutes where he gets the chance to speak)
I dont see what is wrong with what he has said. Equality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports. When you force equality it doesnt work that well. People in America are far more racist than people in Australia or Europe. He also said he woudl have gotten rid of those laws that say black peopel cannot use government benches or taps. He just doesnt agree tht people with private property shouldnt be allowed to discriminate. When people discriminate with private property people who dont like discrimination wiill discriminate againt them and they will lose business.
I just logged on, and see that Prole wrote a bunch of ranty posts full of $20 words. Aw, yeah. This is like when I checked my TiVo a few months ago and found a new episode of Archer that I wasn't expecting.
alsoEquality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports.
Pleasepleaseplease newsfeed.
“We’re going to release a short, 27-minute film that is well-documented, and tells the real story of Mitt Romney at Bain Capital—and it’s not a pretty story,” says Rick Tyler, an adviser to the Gingrich-supporting PAC Winning Our Future.
The video, called When Mitt Romney Came to Town, is a slick production focusing on Romney’s tenure as CEO of Bain Capital, a private investment firm.
"Newt Gingrich's attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital are disgusting," Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in a statement Monday night. "There are a number of issues for Mitt Romney's Republican opponents to attack him for, but attacking him for making investments in companies to create a profit for his investors is just wrong.''
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Gingrich "is using the language of the left.''
The National Review weighed in on Gingrich's line of attack this morning, calling it "foolish and destructive.'' Former New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg joined the anti-Gingrich bandwagon in an interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd. "We are a market economy,'' he said. Added Rep. Frank Gunta, sitting to his left: "I don't think (these attacks) belong in a Republican primary.''
I guess this is part of the Gingrich "carpet bombing" campaign:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_evS-T-c35M
Republicans/conservatives aren't happy with Newt:
http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2012/01/gop-establishment-tries-to-rei.php
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577152861984676368.htmlQuote"Newt Gingrich's attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital are disgusting," Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in a statement Monday night. "There are a number of issues for Mitt Romney's Republican opponents to attack him for, but attacking him for making investments in companies to create a profit for his investors is just wrong.''
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Gingrich "is using the language of the left.''
The National Review weighed in on Gingrich's line of attack this morning, calling it "foolish and destructive.'' Former New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg joined the anti-Gingrich bandwagon in an interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd. "We are a market economy,'' he said. Added Rep. Frank Gunta, sitting to his left: "I don't think (these attacks) belong in a Republican primary.''
Well its going to be Romney with the nomination. Not my ideal choice since I actually think people are dumb enough to vote for that dude but what ever.
I do find it amusing that established conservative figures are having such a hard time beating Ron Paul. Think about that for a second and realize how messed up that is.
like the civil rights act oh wait
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMCwr72Dig
(skip to after 2 minutes where he gets the chance to speak)
I dont see what is wrong with what he has said. Equality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports. When you force equality it doesnt work that well. People in America are far more racist than people in Australia or Europe. He also said he woudl have gotten rid of those laws that say black peopel cannot use government benches or taps. He just doesnt agree tht people with private property shouldnt be allowed to discriminate. When people discriminate with private property people who dont like discrimination wiill discriminate againt them and they will lose business.
Well its going to be Romney with the nomination. Not my ideal choice since I actually think people are dumb enough to vote for that dude but what ever.
I do find it amusing that established conservative figures are having such a hard time beating Ron Paul. Think about that for a second and realize how messed up that is.
Hard time my ass. There are about 20-23% of the electorate that will bother showing up for a primary that will vote for Paul. He's not gonna gain any more no matter who drops out because he's already at his ceiling, which consists of the following: libertarians, stupid young people, and Glenn Greenwald. That's it. Ron Paul will never win anything.
That's not what I'm saying. The people who show up for any primary are of course generally the cranks but they've always been the cranks. Those people still tended to vote for whoever the Limbaugh's or the Fox News talking heads told them to vote for. For some reason that isn't happening as much. Because the party is very fragmented.I'm not sure they really have all that much power within the factions of the Republican Party. Limbaugh and Fox for example were heavily for Rudy and despised McCain as a RINO but that didn't do much in the primaries.
Your parents pay for all your shit too, loser.
:lol
I don't know where to start
I don't know where to start
Yeah the last part is dumb in reference to what i said earlier in that post. Still though do you believe that legislation makes people think differently of others?
When you force equality it doesnt work that well. People in America are far more racist than people in Australia or Europe.
like the civil rights act oh wait
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMCwr72Dig
(skip to after 2 minutes where he gets the chance to speak)
I dont see what is wrong with what he has said. Equality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports. When you force equality it doesnt work that well. People in America are far more racist than people in Australia or Europe. He also said he woudl have gotten rid of those laws that say black peopel cannot use government benches or taps. He just doesnt agree tht people with private property shouldnt be allowed to discriminate. When people discriminate with private property people who dont like discrimination wiill discriminate againt them and they will lose business.
What if Mississippi in the 1960s was a place where people who don't like non-racists stop shopping at stores that let black people in, and THOSE stores go out of business?
People in America are far more racist than people in Australia or Europe.
On my way to work I tend to torture myself with a morning radio show of elderly right wing nonsense on a classic rock station. This morning they drove me insane.
They went from calling for support of Ron Paul's ideas and railing against regulation to complaining that Democrats caused the financial meltdown... by removing regulation (Glass Steagall). what what what!
If they're trolling me they're doing a damn good job of it.
I also listened to them throw out "facts" that the amount of federal employees has tripled under Obama :-\
Butt-hurt Bill O piece in the paper today:
"Late night liberals love laughing at republicans"
I know 'he mad' and all, but his dumb ass just doesn't get it. They show clips of repubs talking and laugh at how ridiculous it is. No need to take things out of context or distort it. They write the comedy themselves and want to be taken seriously. It's hilarious. Fox news could have the number 1 late night comedy show if they just recap their day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P76di62jcfk
:lol
oh yeah, that too. But honestly I wouldnt go to a party held for any of those things. extremes are weird,.
What if Mississippi in the 1960s was a place where people who don't like non-racists stop shopping at stores that let black people in, and THOSE stores go out of business?
What if Mississippi in the 1960s was a place where people who don't like non-racists stop shopping at stores that let black people in, and THOSE stores go out of business?
Wouldnt have happened. There would have been less racists out of congress than in congress that passed that bill.
So you're saying that the vote in Congress in favor of the CRA proves that the anti-racists outnumbered the racists? And that this would have applied to the potential customers for a whites-only business in Mississippi in 1964?
So you're saying that the vote in Congress in favor of the CRA proves that the anti-racists outnumbered the racists? And that this would have applied to the potential customers for a whites-only business in Mississippi in 1964?
Most likely yes. Think about the age of the people in Congress. Older people tend to be more racist. 30% of people in America today are racist. I suspect (wild guess mind you I have no numbers) the racism was at 40-50% in the 1960s.
Not only are those numbers totally unsupported guesses, we're talking about RACISM here not party affiliation. You can't just compartmentalize "racist" and "non-racist" as if they are the only possible options.
Okay, let's accept your premise that the vote on the CRA was equivalent to a Yes/No on racism, and that the Congressmen generally reflected the opinions of their constituents.
Here (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h1964-182) is the House roll call vote on the CRA, sorted by state.
Here (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s1964-268) is the Senate roll call.
So tell me, do you think a diner in Mississippi (or Alabama, or Georgia) would have been under pressure from its white customers to desegregate?
Not only are those numbers totally unsupported guesses, we're talking about RACISM here not party affiliation. You can't just compartmentalize "racist" and "non-racist" as if they are the only possible options.
That study isn't saying 30% racism, the guy tried to make an overall matrix of bigotry. From the data source (1999-2000) he used, the % responding "yes" to "I don't want X to live next door" is:
Paper is available here: http://news.ulster.ac.uk/podcasts/Bigotry.pdf
Yes you are right. I didnt realise mississippi was one of your racist states.
anyone who googles "what percentage of people are racists" doesn't understand racism
Yes you are right. I didnt realise mississippi was one of your racist states.
You're not from around here, are you?
anyone who googles "what percentage of people are racists" doesn't understand racism
I have my own weird viewpoint on racism. I belive everyone is racist in some way.
Well, then it's excusable that you are stupendously ignorant of America's civil rights history.
Less excusable that you act like you know what you're talking about. Try to recognize your blind spots, dude.
EDIT: I do it without thinking.
Well, then it's excusable that you are stupendously ignorant of America's civil rights history.
Less excusable that you act like you know what you're talking about. Try to recognize your blind spots, dude.
Its a bad habit i got. It is my lazy way of learning. I talk like i know what i am talking about to get responses to correct me and teach me. I dunno, to actually do research on something just seems hard for me so whenever i want to learn somethign i do this.
EDIT: I do it without thinking.
“Gov. Romney has claimed to have created a 100,00 jobs at Bain, and people are wanting to know, is there proof of that claim and was it U.S. jobs created for United States citizens? … And that’s fair,” Palin told Sean Hannity of Fox News when asked about Rick Perry’s “vulture” caplitalism charge against Romney. “That’s not negative campaigning — that’s fair to get a candidate to be held accountable to what’s being claimed.”
Palin added, “Nobody should be surprised that things about Bain Capital and maybe tax returns not being released yet and maybe some record not being as transparently provided to the public as voters deserve to see right now — don’t be surprised that that’s’ all coming out today.”
I do wonder what a Palin v Romney v the other Not-Romneys race would have looked like
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/candidate-match-game (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/candidate-match-game)
I got Gingrich as my top candidate :-\
(Probably because I support heavy defense spending and placed utmost importance in it...)
due to me not supporting cap n trade,
due to me not supporting cap n trade,
No cap 'n trade? What do you support when it comes to climate change, then, PD?
Yeah some of the choices sucked. I wish there was a "repeal Obamacare with a strong public option" but alas there was none so I went with none of the above.
GAY MARRIAGE IN WA SENATE
Twenty-five votes needed to pass
Yes: 23
No: 20
Undecided: 6
Sen. Joe Fain (R-47), Sen. Brian Hatfield (D-19),
Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10), Sen. Andy Hill (R-45),
Sen. Jim Kastama (D-25), Sen. Paull Shin (D-21)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/candidate-match-game (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/candidate-match-game)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/candidate-match-game (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/candidate-match-game)
"Energy" has five choices, and every single one of them starts with "increase domestic oil and gas production."
Fuck that noise. I'm going to find one of those "Which literary heroine are you?" personality quizzes and rig the answers so I get Lizzy Bennet or Flora Poste.
So they're trying to legalize gay marriage here in Washington...Quote from: The StrangerGAY MARRIAGE IN WA SENATE
Twenty-five votes needed to pass
Yes: 23
No: 20
Undecided: 6
Sen. Joe Fain (R-47), Sen. Brian Hatfield (D-19),
Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10), Sen. Andy Hill (R-45),
Sen. Jim Kastama (D-25), Sen. Paull Shin (D-21)
MY FUCKING UNCLE IS ONE OF THE UNDECIDED VOTES. WHAT THE FUCK. His Uncle died from AIDS in the early 80s. We're a very pro-gay rights family. WHAT THE FUCK, DUDE.
Damn, it's flash. iOS's Achilles heal. I wanted to know who USA today wants me to vote for too :'(Doesn't USA Today have a free iPad app?
So they're trying to legalize gay marriage here in Washington...Quote from: The StrangerGAY MARRIAGE IN WA SENATE
Twenty-five votes needed to pass
Yes: 23
No: 20
Undecided: 6
Sen. Joe Fain (R-47), Sen. Brian Hatfield (D-19),
Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10), Sen. Andy Hill (R-45),
Sen. Jim Kastama (D-25), Sen. Paull Shin (D-21)
MY FUCKING UNCLE IS ONE OF THE UNDECIDED VOTES. WHAT THE FUCK. His Uncle died from AIDS in the early 80s. We're a very pro-gay rights family. WHAT THE FUCK, DUDE.
it's NEVER about what they believe; it's about getting re-elected, or more specifically: what their donors want from them.
That's gonna be an awkward thanksgiving.
Can you pass the gravy?
CAN YOU PASS GAY MARRIAGE?!
Newt Gingrich called on the “super PAC” supporting him to edit or take down a 28-minute pseudodocumentary attacking Mitt Romney’s record at the investment firm Bain Capital after news media fact checkers found a number of inaccuracies.
“I’m calling on them either to edit out every single mistake, or withdraw the entire film,” Mr. Gingrich said. “They cannot run the film with those errors in it.”
Lmfao, I read abovetopsecret for shits and gigs and it appears the birthers are questioning Romney's eligibility now! Does explain why Romney defended Obama on that whole deal.
Here's the link if you feel like taking a dive into ridiculousness
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread797032/pg1
Let me be clear: I think the whole deal is fucking stupid
SUMTER, S.C. — Amid shaking hands and signing campaign posters, Mitt Romney did something he has never done before on the ropeline: He took out his wallet and handed a wad of cash to a woman waiting to shake his hand.:usacry
The woman, 55-year-old Ruth Williams, says she has been following the Romney campaign since he arrived in the state on Jan. 11, when she said she received a message from God to track him down.
“I was on the highway praying and said, ‘God just show me how to get [my] lights on,’ and I pulled up to a stop sign and his bus was there,” said Williams, who has been unemployed since last October. “And then God said, ‘Follow the bus,’ and I followed the bus to the airport.”
According to Williams, she followed the campaign bus to the Columbia airport on Wednesday, the same day Romney was arriving from New Hampshire. When Romney wasn’t on the bus, aides told her to go to the rally scheduled in Columbia later that day. When she showed up, Romney found her to say hello and pulled over South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to say “hello” too.
“He was kind to me and he made Gov. Haley come see about me,” Williams said. “He stopped doing everything.”
Williams, who would not specify how much money Romney gave her, said also that South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis paid her light bill on Thursday. A spokesman for Loftis, one of Romney’s major endorses in the state, confirmed to ABC News that he paid Williams’ bill. While Loftis didn’t know the amount of the bill, he confirmed that he gave her $150.
“God didn’t tell me to go to nobody else, he told me to pray for Romney,” said Williams, when asked why she has decided to support Romney. “I listened to the Lord.”
Williams said she has been volunteering at Romney’s Columbia headquarters since meeting his bus last week.
“I’ve been working at his campaign office cleaning and just doing little things,” she said.
“They really did, they really came through for real,” she said.
While Williams would not specify how much money Romney gave her, a campaign spokesman said that he believes Romney gave the woman between $50 and $60.
You should tell your uncle that a wise man once told you "Equality comes from voluntary acceptance of each other like in sports."
Huntsman's not REALLY going to do anything your garden variety Republican wouldn't do either. He still believes in trickle down economics; while not outright hostile to TEH GAYZ he's not going to go out of his way to help them; and his foreign policy would be worse than Obama's. His thing is that he isn't part of the whole SOCIALIZM, BIRF CERTIFICATES, THE URF IS 6,000 YEARS OLD! wing of the party, but let's be honest- while Obama has been disappointing, if you care about anything on the left side of the spectrum you're not going to get it better with Huntsman.Well, I mean if Obama wasn't running, I'd vote for Huntsman. I still believe in Obama.
what state do you live in again?
what state do you live in again?
NC. If it's close I guess I'll vote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyFaWhygzjQ
Oh hey I live in MA. During Bush's reelection campaign in '04 he just sent is daughters over here in a 'yYeah we're not fucking winning this state ever but thanks for supporting us anyway!' gesture. Kind of weird that they seemingly never have a chance here but we inexplicably put Mitt in as governor but since when have politics ever made any sense?what state do you live in again?
NC. If it's close I guess I'll vote.
It'll be close. Obama won NC by less than 500k votes last time
I wish I lived in MA so I could just vote for Elizabeth Warren
I live in Texas. My presidential vote never counts.At the rate the solidly democratic hispanic population is growing in Texas it will count at somepoint in your life time.
what state do you live in again?
NC. If it's close I guess I'll vote.
It'll be close. Obama won NC by less than 500k votes last time
I wish I lived in MA so I could just vote for Elizabeth Warren
I think we've discussed this before but there are a ton of hispanics that still support conservatives in this state. Even illegals I know who would vote for people who want them thrown out of this country. It's mind boggling. Republicans could (not saying they will) steal their votes if they played it right. You have no idea how much I hear about Obama from my in laws and it's the same Neocon talking points. It's just that on most social issues hispanics are firmly conservative.Romney won't shut up about how pro-Amesty Obama is and how he will have much harsher illegal immagration policy. Republicans at the national level don't seem the slightest bit interested in appealing to the hispanic vote right now. Which is mind boggling.
Hell, I was watching Univision news yesterday morning and they were shit talking Obama over immigration and throwing their support to Perry and to a lesser extent Romney. It doesn't make sense to me but oh well.
And for this particular election there are so many hispanics pissed about the increase in deportations and Obama's failure to enact reform/amnesty that they're looking to vote for someone else. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that is issue #1. They will vote for whoever promises them amnesty/reform for their family members and friends. If a Republican promises change then that's who they'll go for. That's why they voted for Obama but they're pissed because his first term flew by and he didn't attempt major reform.
In an evolving power struggle, religious conservatives are feuding about whether a weekend meeting in Texas yielded a consensus that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is the best bet to stop Mitt Romney’s drive for the Republican presidential nomination.
A leading evangelical and former aide to President George H.W. Bush said he agreed with suspicions voiced by others at the meeting of evangelical and conservative Catholic activists that organizers “manipulated” the gathering and may even have stuffed the ballot to produce an endorsement of Mr. Santorum over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Mr. Santorum, who nearly upset Mr. Romney in the Iowa caucuses, won the first ballot ahead of Mr. Gingrich in Saturday’s Texas meeting but the margin was too slim for organizers to claim a consensus. It was not until the third ballot, taken after many people had left to catch flights back home, that Mr. Santorum won more than 70 percent of those still in attendance and claimed the endorsement.
Former White House evangelical-outreach official Doug Wead, who represented GOP presidential hopeful Texas Rep. Ron Paul at the event, said it appeared the outcome obviously was determined in advance by the choice of the people invited.
“By the time the weekend was over, it was clear that this had been definitely planned all along as a Rick Santorum event,” Mr. Wead said, noting that he was the only supporter of Mr. Paul to receive an invitation.
“The organizer was for Santorum, the person who created the invitation list was for Santorum, the emcee was for Santorum, and after making sure all of the Gingrich people had vented early, the last three speakers before the vote were for Santorum,” he said.
Added a Gingrich supporter, a prominent social conservative who asked not to be named, “My view is that the vote was manipulated.”
Yet another evangelical political organizer who attended the meeting said he witnessed a possible incident of ballot-box stuffing. In at least one instance, the witness said, a participant was seen writing Mr. Santorum´s name on four separate ballots and putting all four in the box.
as gawd-awful as Bush jr. was, at least he didn't have his head all the way up his ass about immigration reform. If hispanics ever do become a reliable GOP block (and I'm not counting on that as they seemingly exist forever as a rage-fueled party) it could be because W laid the groundwork for them.Republicans from border states like Bush (and Perry) tend to be pretty sensible on immigration policy and hispanic voters in general because they actually have to deal with it. It's the more northern Republicans like Romney who never had to deal with it themselves who tend to enjoy saying the "DEM MESSICANS ARE STEALING OUR JOBS" sort of nonsense.
Wouldn't that be weird, if the true successor to Reagan in building a legacy of conservative support, turned out to be George W. Bush?
I'm here for another reason. I'm here to ask for your vote. (Applause.)
No, I know, I know, I know. The Republican party has got a lot of work to do. I understand that. (Laughter and applause.) You didn't need to nod your head that hard, Jesse. (Laughter.)
Do you remember a guy named Charlie Gaines? Somebody gave me a quote he said, which I think kind of describes the environment we're in today. I think he's a friend of Jesse's. He said, "Blacks are gagging on the donkey but not yet ready to swallow the elephant." (Laughter and applause.)
Now that was said a while ago. (Laughter.) I believe you've got to earn the vote and seek it. I think you've got to go to people and say, this is my heart, this is what I believe, and I'd like your help. And as I do, I'm going to ask African American voters to consider some questions.
Does the Democrat party take African American voters for granted? (Applause.) It's a fair question. I know plenty of politicians assume they have your vote. But do they earn it and do they deserve it? (Applause.) Is it a good thing for the African American community to be represented mainly by one political party? That's a legitimate question. (Applause.) How is it possible to gain political leverage if the party is never forced to compete? (Applause.) Have the traditional solutions of the Democrat party truly served the African American community?
Another candidate quiz thing:
http://www.votesmart.org/voteeasy/
1. Gary Johnson: 90%
2. Ron Paul: 81%
Obviously.
Another candidate quiz thing:
http://www.votesmart.org/voteeasy/
1. Gary Johnson: 90%
2. Ron Paul: 81%
Obviously.
Another candidate quiz thing:
http://www.votesmart.org/voteeasy/
1. Gary Johnson: 90%
2. Ron Paul: 81%
Obviously.
Obama 60% and Johnson 56%, Newt also polled surprisingly high for me :-\
If only there was a socially progressive, fiscally middle-of-the-road candidate that supported defense spending. I think I ask for too many contradictions in things.
I do like Paul (even though I may not necessarily agree with him over a lot of things), but Obama is probably gonna get my vote. Even though I am really miffed about NDAA, I think it sets an extremely dangerous precedent. Not to mention cowtailing to corporate interests and the Republican conglomerate.
Might have to look into Johnson some more, considering where I live it doesn't matter who I vote for so I can "waste" it on a 3rd party if need be.
Why in the blue fuck would you want MORE military spending? We spend too fucking much anyway. We could cut like 25% of our military spending and still EASILY spend way more than any other nation. Are you crazy or is this a "I lived in/around NYC on 9/11 and am nervous" thing?
(http://i.imgur.com/pV5Zg.png)
This is amazing.
Why in the blue fuck would you want MORE military spending? We spend too fucking much anyway. We could cut like 25% of our military spending and still EASILY spend way more than any other nation. Are you crazy or is this a "I lived in/around NYC on 9/11 and am nervous" thing?
He works for a military contractor.
The thing I don't understand about or "defense" budget is don't we have the technology to level any country without ever having troops set foot already? So why do we need to spend the money to maintain so many bases and troops all over the world? World police etc etc.
That's fine and good if, you know, we didn't have massively shitty infrastructure, education, health issues and poverty happening in the country right now while we're building jets we don't even need in 40 fucking states so everybody can get in on the pork trough. Pour some tussin on it, get a new job and shut the fuck up in the meantime is my viewpoint.
That's fine and good if, you know, we didn't have massively shitty infrastructure, education, health issues and poverty happening in the country right now while we're building jets we don't even need in 40 fucking states so everybody can get in on the pork trough. Pour some tussin on it, get a new job and shut the fuck up in the meantime is my viewpoint.
Yeah, because cutting the defense budget means that money will go to infrastructure/education/healthcare :rolleyes
It's gonna go to tax breaks for the 1% and you know it.
That's fine and good if, you know, we didn't have massively shitty infrastructure, education, health issues and poverty happening in the country right now while we're building jets we don't even need in 40 fucking states so everybody can get in on the pork trough. Pour some tussin on it, get a new job and shut the fuck up in the meantime is my viewpoint.Hey now, I never said the money couldn't be used better elsewhere. I said it was interesting dagnabbit.
I read something about Russia saying an attack on Tehran is an attack on Moscow, not for sure on the validity of that though.
(http://i.imgur.com/pV5Zg.png)
This is amazing.
Boogie I feel bad you researched all that! I just read it as a blurb somewhere :-[
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/99666/ron-paul-newsletters-part-two?page=0,1
A 1992 issue of the Political Report featured an article headlined, “What Blacks Think,” which concluded that “they have some odd political opinions.”
In its 17-year history, the LP may never have gotten 1% in a national election, but it has smeared the most glorious political idea in human history with libertine muck. For the sake of that glorious idea, it's time to get out the scrub brushes.
Most Americans agree that aggression against the innocent and their property is wrong. Although these millions are potential libertarians, they are put off by the Woodstockian flavor of the movement. Hair may have left Broadway long ago, but the Age of Aquarius survives in the LP. The cultural anti-norms that mark the libertarian image are abhorrent; they have nothing to do with libertarianism per se; and they are deadly baggage. Unless we dump that baggage, we will miss the greatest opportunity in decades.
...
unless we cleanse libertarianism of its cultural image, our movement will fail as miserably as the LP has. We will continue to be seen as a sect that "resists authority" and not just statism, that endorses the behaviors it would legalize, and that rejects the standards of Western civilization. Arguments against the drug war, no matter how intellectually compelling, are undermined when they come from the party of the stoned.
...
It is...understandable and desirable that libertarianism have a cultural tone, but not that it be anti-religious, modernist, morally relativist, and egalitarian. This tone rightly repels the vast majority of Americans and has helped keep libertarianism such a small movement.
...
Libertarians have to catch up with the American people, who are fed up with modernism in arts, literature, and manners that is really an attack on the West.
...
Pornographic photography, "free" thinking, chaotic painting, atonal music, deconstructionist literature, Bauhaus architecture, and modernist films have nothing in common with the libertarian political agenda-no matter how much individual libertarians may revel in them. In addition to their aesthetic and moral disabilities, these "art forms" are political liabilities outside Berkeley and Greenwich Village.
...
The present State monopoly over the production of domestic security is a failure. The streets of our big cities have become the realm of barbarians (if that is not a libel against the Visigoths).
...
Libertarians can and must talk again with the resurgent paleoconservatives, now in the process of breaking away from the neocons. We can even form an alliance with them.
...
Together, we have a chance to attain victory. But first we must junk the libertarian image as repugnant, self-defeating, and unworthy of liberty.
I hesitate to comment on Rockwell's article because I see the debate as being more divisive than productive. I prefer to use my energy attacking those who support statism, whether they do so intentionally or out of ignorance.
Having said this, I will make one comment: it's obvious to me that the Libertarian Party would be a lot bigger than it is now if its image were perceived as more libertarian and less libertine.
Crane, a longtime critic of Mr. Rockwell, called Mr. Paul's close association with him "one of the more perplexing things I've ever come across in my 67 years." He added: "I wish Ron would condemn these fringe things that float around because of Rockwell. I don't believe he believes any of that stuff."
Mr. Paul said in the interview that he did not, but he declined to condemn Mr. Rockwell, saying he did not want to get in the middle of a fight. "I could understand that, but I could also understand the Rothbard group saying, Why don't you quit talking to Cato?" he said.
Mr. Paul described Mr. Rockwell and Mr. Rothbard as political provocateurs. "They enjoyed antagonizing people, to tell you the truth, and trying to split people," he said. "I thought, we're so small, why shouldn't we be talking to everybody and bringing people together?"
Code or coincidence?More facts:
Sarah Palin and John McCain claimed to be a Mavericks
Mark Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks
Obama claims his basketball name was Barack O'Bomber
Sarah Palin claims her basketball name is Sarah Barracuda
Obama claims to have been born in Hawaii
Sarah Palin claims to have attended school at Hawaii Hilo and graduated from U of Idaho in Moscow Idaho
Sarah Palin claims to be able to see Russia from her house
Mark Cuban was under investigation for insider trading of a search engine company named Mamma
Sarah Palin claims to be a Mama Grizzly
Obama was a Chicago Senator
Chicago Bears Chicago Cubs Mama Grizzly
Gayle King was a news anchor
Sarah Palin was a news anchor
Code or coincidence?
Sarah Palin claims to have graduated for University of Idaho in Moscow Idaho
Sarah claims she can see Russia from her house
The longtime leader of Russia was Vladimir Putin
Putin Palin
McCain claimed his favorite band is ABBA which is a palindrome
Another palindrome is the last name of George SoRoS
Long time enemy of Israel is Palestine
The Palin name appears close to many things
You may remember Carly Fiorina ran for Senate in California
One of the codes you may have picked up on I haven't mentioned yet is the repeating of the paired letters MA. MArk Cuban Dallas MAvericks and owner of MAgnolia Pictures investor in MAmma search engine. Sarah Palin is a MAma Grizzly.
What caused the last economic meltdown and forced taxpayer bail outs? The housing crisis. Loans were given to everyone through Freddie MAe and Fannie MAc. I wonder what NEWt gingRICH would make of this site? Newt made a lot of money speaking as a consultant for Freddie.
The First Die Hard came out in 1988 around the time John McCain was elected to the Arizona Senate. The guy that fights the terrorists (who were robbing the place) in Die Hard was named John McClane. The person who played John McClane (drop the L and it sounds different) was Bruce Willis.
Duplication of code or coincidence?
Sarah Palin's siblings names are Heather Heath Bruce and Molly Heath McCann. Sarah Palin's daughter Piper, the name of a plane, shares a birthday of March 19th with actor Bruce Willis.
Sarah Palin wasn't only chosen to be McCain's running mate because they needed someone who could act stupid for the media to attack and play an average American Hockey mom who was in a Miss Alaska pageant. She was also chosen for her face. When I first went to the FBI all I knew was that there was a large extremely intelligent group of scam artists online who 3 of which looked like their most wanted terrorists. Over time I've been able to deduce everything else. "Sarah Palin," or whomever she is, was chosen with the intention of her being played on SNL by Tina Fey. Sarah Palin also claims her mother-in-law's name is Faye Palin. you may remember McCain and his wife appearing on SNL during the campaign mocking home shopping.
Tina Fey is one of the writers of 30 Rock which takes place at the GE building in Rockefeller Center. As for GE, I'm not sure what General Electric makes of the general electorate.
Through endless interrogations it's been implied to me that the writers on 30 Rock (Tina Fey) had a hand in writing the Rich Jerk sales pitch. After reading this watch the first season of 30 Rock. Lorrie Morgan Ferrero was mentioned earlier. Tracy Morgan plays Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock. There's also a character named Toofer, a black Harvard guy which is where they claimed the name Toofer came from. A member of Tracy Jordan's entourage is named Dot Com on the show. Last, Stompernet promoted by the Rich Jerk included the name Brad Fallon. Weren't Fey, Fallon, and Morgan all on SNL around the same time? Some group with serious writing skills is behind all of these money making schemes.
Sarah Palin had to drop out of the race due to people leaking this story. Herman Cain appeared to be following closely in her footsteps in that there was an illusion created around him as well. These online scams are heavily tied to the Atlanta, Georgia area. Robert Johnson Rich Jerk Tony Rezko owns several dozen Papa John's PIZZA places. The Rich Jerk website wanted terrorist Saif al-Adel aka Mark Joyner claims to be the GODFATHER of internet marketing. Sarah Palin ran with John McCAIN in 2008. CAIN appears to be Atlanta + Pizza + Godfather = the next Pentagon plant.
The stories surrounding Cain are as made up as Palin's. How about the ones with anonymous people claiming sexual harassment? He's discrediting the media the same way Sarah Palin did. Cain's wife is Gloria. One woman's attorney is Gloria Allred. Then a week or so later Barney Frank announced he's not seeking reelection while Cain acquires a new accuser named Ginger White. Interesting name since Gingrich is now supposedly leading in the polls and Cain endorsed him. Over the last 6 months I have been blocked from linking to this blog at about 5 or 6 sites. The day before Cain announced he's not running I was blocked by 4 sites on that day alone.
This story is getting harder and harder to leak. Today I was blocked after leaking this to a Sarah Palin story at the Huffington Post after having an account there for about 6 months. Not only am I locked out of most sites for commenting, like many others it appears, sites are no longer allowing links and major stories are being pushed off to places that next to no one gets a comment on (except government). In addition, I'm hacked nonstop so I receive endless errors, screen freezes, and display ads loading in comment fields. Share this story for the sake of our freedom and democracy. Thank you fellow patriots.:usacry
Texas Gov. Rick Perry will end his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday and endorse Newt Gingrich, POLITICO has confirmed. An announcement is scheduled for 11 a.m. in South Carolina.
Maybe we'd be better off if we drafted a president, seems anyone who wants to be POTUS any more probably shouldn't be :lol
Maybe we'd be better off if we drafted a president, seems anyone who wants to be POTUS any more probably shouldn't be :lol
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." - Douglas Adams
Who else is excited about NEWTMENTUM 2: THE STREETS
She said Newt moved for the divorce just months after she had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, with her then-husband present.:rofl
"He also was advised by the doctor when I was sitting there that I was not to be under stress. He knew," she said.
Gingrich divorced his first wife, Jackie, as she was being treated for cancer. His relationship with Marianne began while he was still married to Jackie but in divorce proceedings, Marianne said.
(http://www.drudgereport.com/rs.jpg)
Maybe we'd be better off if we drafted a president, seems anyone who wants to be POTUS any more probably shouldn't be :lol
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." - Douglas Adams
Who else is excited about NEWTMENTUM 2: THE STREETS
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/10103512-418/ex-wife-newt-gingrich-wanted-open-marriage.html
He's always been a shit-bag.The funny thing is everyone knew it and was fine when he got booted in 1998 for comparably boring crap (IIRC all he did was screw up some paperwork but they wanted rid of him) just because he had all this shit in his background. It's like they completely forgot and couldn't get past his asshole debate performance, the fact he wasn't Romney and oh that Contract with America thing from almost twenty years ago.
The only thing that's changed is the spin from all the assholes in that party.
Republicans proving they have a limited sense of humor once again:
(http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404824_10150492036645911_134193140910_9341254_2007361255_n.jpg)
(http://cdn.thegloss.com/files/2011/09/Bachman-Yearbook.jpg)
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/99666/ron-paul-newsletters-part-two?page=0,1
So uh, Ron Paul sounds like a really terrible human being. Why do young people like him so much?
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/99666/ron-paul-newsletters-part-two?page=0,1
So uh, Ron Paul sounds like a really terrible human being. Why do young people like him so much?
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/david-frum-ron-paul-newsletters-6627769
Apparently a lot of people did that(ie appear racist to garner votes). Still though he was a doctor during that period i think he jsut didnt have much time to read through his own newsletters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rv0Z5SNrF4
If he was really racist he wouldnt have done this.
Still though he was a doctor during that period i think he jsut didnt have much time to read through his own newsletters.
Still though he was a doctor during that period i think he jsut didnt have much time to read through his own newsletters.
By his own admission, he got every issue of the newsletter and read it front to back.
Technically it'll never die, and is getting more popular within the republican party. Plus Paul has quite the fail safe with his "bubbles and busts" argument. So when things are going good libertarians get to whine about the inevitable doom, and when things are going bad they get to say "I told you so!"I don't see it being a permanent change to the Republican party. A group of crazies have been voted in by crazy constituents but to move further than that the old Republican guard will have to give in completely (not gonna happen) and half of America will have to buy their nonsense. By the time the next bust comes the short term political memory of Americans will have wiped Ron Paul and the rest of the Tea Party movement from their minds. Not to mention I don't think many people are very happy with the Tea Party fucks that got voted in during the 2010 election. They seem to be getting hammered in the polls just like establishment Democrats and Republicans.
Why are we arguing about this anyways? Ron Paul doesn't matter.
I know how this sounds rhetorically, but besides the letters with his name on them, from what I can find, there has been no other evidence that he is racist or a white supremacists sympathizer, or anything of the sort. You would think there would be other publications or videos where he expresses the same views. He doesn't. All the "exposes" that have been put on the internet recently about it with videos supposedly damning him are just videos from the mid 90s where he mentions the letters and says he puts them out.
The "Ron Paul is a racist" crowd are basically the same as Obama's birthers in my eyes. I mean, I can understand why people would be quick to believe it and repeat it, because they don't like him and it discredits him. But it makes you look just a little bit dumb and lazy. :\
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/20/1056701/-Atlanta-Newspaper-Editor-Suggests-Assassinating-Obama-to-Preserve-Israels-Existence?via=siderec
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/20/1056701/-Atlanta-Newspaper-Editor-Suggests-Assassinating-Obama-to-Preserve-Israels-Existence?via=siderec
I want to be coldly analytical, not moralize, here. I want to tell you what Mr. Gingrich’s behavior could mean for the country, not for the future of his current marriage. So, here’s what one interested in making America stronger can reasonably conclude—psychologically—from Mr. Gingrich’s behavior during his three marriages:
1) Three women have met Mr. Gingrich and been so moved by his emotional energy and intellect that they decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with him.
2) Two of these women felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married.
3 ) One of them felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married for the second time, was not exactly her equal in the looks department and had a wife (Marianne) who wanted to make his life without her as painful as possible.
Conclusion: When three women want to sign on for life with a man who is now running for president, I worry more about whether we’ll be clamoring for a third Gingrich term, not whether we’ll want to let him go after one.
4) Two women—Mr. Gingrich’s first two wives—have sat down with him while he delivered to them incredibly painful truths: that he no longer loved them as he did before, that he had fallen in love with other women and that he needed to follow his heart, despite the great price he would pay financially and the risk he would be taking with his reputation.
Conclusion: I can only hope Mr. Gingrich will be as direct and unsparing with the Congress, the American people and our allies. If this nation must now move with conviction in the direction of its heart, Newt Gingrich is obviously no stranger to that journey.
5) Mr. Gingrich’s daughters from his first marriage are among his most vigorous supporters. They obviously adore him and respect him and feel grateful for the kind of father he was.
When I want to know who in a marriage (or, for that matter, a series of marriages) is the one who actually was aligned with their best interests, I never dismiss evidence of who the children gravitate toward and admire. In this case, they have judged the father who left their family, then remarried twice. And they judge him 10 out of 10. I only hope my own children love me and respect me as much when they are adults.
So, as far as I can tell, judging from the psychological data, we have only one real risk to America from his marital history if Newt Gingrich were to become president: We would need to worry that another nation, perhaps a little younger than ours, would be so taken by Mr. Gingrich that it would seduce him into marrying it and becoming its president. And I think that is exceedingly unlikely.
Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team.
According to the exit polls, Mitt Romney lost all income levels with the exception of those making over $200,000 a year.
QuoteAccording to the exit polls, Mitt Romney lost all income levels with the exception of those making over $200,000 a year.
herp a derp
(http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/151025/Screen_Shot_2012-01-21_at_6.04.45_PM.jpg)
I really wish that during the Iowa caucus/debates/etc, someone would have asked the GOP candidates if Iowa was a worse state than it was 4-6 years ago before gay marriage came into effect, and in what specific ways could it be measured.
A new poll out from Public Policy Polling (D) shows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with a five point lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the two men prepare to battle it out Monday night in Tampa at the NBC debate. Gingrich gets 38 percent in the new survey to Romney’s 33 percent, with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum receiving 13 percent and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) getting 10.http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/updates/4570
Mitt Romney paid a 13.9 percent tax rate on $21.6 million in income last year.http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/mitt-romney-paid-a-139-effective-tax-rate-in-2010.php?ref=fpblg
Well, it's time for the SOTU, which means Cheebs will no doubt be watching and probably doing the wave like a good fanboy.Eh? I been pretty critical of Obama the last few years. He has far from lived up to his potential.
President Barack Obama says Osama bin Laden is not a threat to the U.S. during his State of the Union address.
Andrew Sullivan was horrified that Obama pandered by proposing a bunch of populist programs and didn't propose dickpunching the poor and what's left of the middle class with some good ol' fashioned austerity. Because, you know, the thing to do in an election year is tell everyone that they have to pay more because it makes crazy British people erect.
Castro said he always assumed the candidates would try to outdo each other on the issue of Cuba, but that he was nonetheless appalled by the level of debate.
"The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is – and I mean this seriously – the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been," said the retired Cuban leader, who has dueled with 11 U.S. administrations since his 1959 revolution
http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/politics/2012/01/24/sotu-obama-osama-bin-laden.cnnQuotePresident Barack Obama says Osama bin Laden is not a threat to the U.S. during his State of the Union address.
Breaking news! :omg
East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo is facing heavy criticism for controversial comments made after four police officers were charged for using excessive force against undocumented immigrants and covering up abuses.
In a broadcast interview, New York City-based WPIX reporter Mario Diaz asked Maturo: "What are you going to do for the Latino community today?" And with one hand on his hip Maturo quite proudly responded: "I might have tacos when I go home, I'm not quite sure yet."
You can't make this stuff up.
Diaz even gives Maturo a chance to redeem himself, by saying, "You realize that isn't the comment to say right now, right?"
That's when the interview got a bit, shall we say, ugly, and continued for about another four minutes.
Maturo added: "When you ask me what I would do for Latinos, I may go out and have a Latino dinner in the Latino community. There's nothing wrong with that and you can twist it and turn it whichever way the press decides to do!"
According to Diaz's report, Maturo approached him and apologized for his remarks.
The Latino community in East Haven, according to the Census, make up 10.3% of the town's population.
Yet out of a police force of 50, only one speaks Spanish, and government officials, along with one community resident, informed PIX 11 that he is not even Latino.
Police treatment of Hispanics in East Haven, has been under federal scrutiny since 2009, when the U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe that found a pattern of discrimination and biased policing.
This morning, Governor Dannel Malloy released a public statement regarding East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo's "racially insensitive comments" calling them "repugnant" and "unacceptable."
http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/politics/2012/01/24/sotu-obama-osama-bin-laden.cnnQuotePresident Barack Obama says Osama bin Laden is not a threat to the U.S. during his State of the Union address.
Breaking news! :omg
So Obama is basically saying 9/11 never happened? All those people that died on that day are nothing to him?
Romney’s argument is that even though he pays only 13.9%, he’s really paying something like 45% to 50% because the investment income he lives on comes from corporations. And those corporates also pay taxes. The nominal corporate tax rate is 35%, though of course many pay much lower. But if you add Romney’s rate together with this completely unrelated corporate tax he doesn’t pay, you get 50%, which Romney is now saying is real tax rate. In other words, he’s claiming he pays both taxes.http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/01/romney_actually_i_kind_of_pay_50_tax.php?ref=fpblg
QuoteRomney’s argument is that even though he pays only 13.9%, he’s really paying something like 45% to 50% because the investment income he lives on comes from corporations. And those corporates also pay taxes. The nominal corporate tax rate is 35%, though of course many pay much lower. But if you add Romney’s rate together with this completely unrelated corporate tax he doesn’t pay, you get 50%, which Romney is now saying is real tax rate. In other words, he’s claiming he pays both taxes.http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/01/romney_actually_i_kind_of_pay_50_tax.php?ref=fpblg
This is amazing. Wow :lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyFaWhygzjQ :wtf :wtf :wtf :wtf
QuoteRomney’s argument is that even though he pays only 13.9%, he’s really paying something like 45% to 50% because the investment income he lives on comes from corporations. And those corporates also pay taxes. The nominal corporate tax rate is 35%, though of course many pay much lower. But if you add Romney’s rate together with this completely unrelated corporate tax he doesn’t pay, you get 50%, which Romney is now saying is real tax rate. In other words, he’s claiming he pays both taxes.http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/01/romney_actually_i_kind_of_pay_50_tax.php?ref=fpblg
This is amazing. Wow :lol
i think we need a math test for the presidency
"He's just like this down-to-earth dude who just seems like he knows what he's doing," seventh-grader Danielle Heidkamp said.
to be fair, Ross Perot easily walked away with the win in my grade school 92 mock election.
which is why we don't give children the right to vote.
Paul: "Under my Presidency your school will closed ALL THE TIME and the big bad gov't will never, ever make you do schoolwork AT ALL"
Kids: "YAAAAAAAY!"
What am I missing about that picture? All I see is a dude with his dog
Newt Gingrich gave the Republican presidential front-runner a little nip in the leg on Sunday, reminding voters of an incident from the 1980s when Mitt Romney tied his dog in a kennel to the roof of his car and drove to Canada.http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/16/us-usa-campaign-dog-idUSTRE80F04S20120116
A 14-year-old girl celebrated her birthday with the Maryland’s Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee this afternoon and told lawmakers that it “would be the best birthday present ever if you would vote no on gay marriage.” “I really feel bad for the kids who have two parents of the same gender,” she said, “they have no idea what kind of wonderful experiences they miss out on.” “People have the choice to be gay, but I don’t want to be affected by their choice. People say they were just born that way, but I’ve met really nice adults who did change.”
I think 14 is old enough to get involved in activism. It's certainly an age where we're already encouraging kids to think of civics; my freshman English class was assigned to write a letter to the White House on an issue of our choosing.
Of course it'd be nice if she weren't being raised to be a bigot, butwhatcanyado?spoiler (click to show/hide)Figures she's from Bowie. Nothing worthwhile there. Used to be a bowling alley which was notoriously bad. If you joined a league using an average from Bowie, they'd prorate you because the scores there were so low.[close]
You're right, I was falling into the "politicians must solve all our problems" trap.True. They want everyone else to change. I live in a district in Texas where I cannot stand my representatives but they gets reelected every year. But hey, this is Texas and I'm not a neocon or libertarian so I don't fit in.
It's actually probably not even as deep as "kill whoever tries to make the real changes to the system" when you look at how Congress struggles to crack 20% in approval but more than half are constantly re-elected. It's all those other jerks, not my Congressman!
True. They want everyone else to change. I live in a district in Texas where I cannot stand my representatives but they gets reelected every year. But hey, this is Texas and I'm not a neocon or libertarian so I don't fit in.Well, even in a place like Texas you'll have situations where the districts make it impossible for anyone to challenge. And it's not unheard of to have say a +10 Dem district that votes a Republican into office again and again because he's been a Congressman (or Senator) for 20 years.
why is the debt a massive problem again?Not to get into a whole massive debate, but basically it devalues everything.
in terms of overall debt, it pretty much fixes itself if congress does nothing - ie let the Bush tax cuts expire and draw down the wars. Some argue this isn't the time to raise taxes on people though, so the Bush tax cuts won't go anywhere for awhile; the CBO just reported that they'll cost 3 trillion dollars from now until 2021.Actually the debt can't be addressed by rolling back the Bush tax cuts. Even if we confiscated all the income in the country we couldn't cover the outstanding debt. The debt from Medicare alone is estimated between $40-100 trillion. And that's in a best case scenario.
I mean the deficit, which can be handled by getting rid of the Bush tax cuts and the Iraq/Afghanistan drawdownsI figured you did, but I don't think even either of those do so. I know the Bush Tax Cuts don't if you only do the top two brackets, unsure about if you repeal all of them. (Which will result in a 50% tax increase on the lowest bracket.)
If Libertarians believe in the in the all powerful free market so much, how do they square their gov't deficit/debt bogeyman with the fact that the price of US bonds are at historic highs?Least bad of terrible options? QEx being just another bubble sustaining foolish endeavor?
And we don't "believe in the all powerful free market" it's just we consider it...the least bad of two options. Better that everyone on the planet make multiple decisions for themselves than some small elite group make a few decisions for everyone.
Forgive the snark, but this seems to be more accurate.Could you elaborate with a sentence or two? I don't want to go down the wrong path and miss your point.
If corporations are people, why can't they be sent to jail?
Washington state senate votes on the gay marriage bill tonight at 6pm. If it passes, it just needs the governor's signature, and she's in support of the bill.
http://tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwliveplayer&eventID=2012020049
:rock
Or speak?
One Town's War on Gay Teenshttp://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/one-towns-war-on-gay-teens-20120202#ixzz1lIN3xWgp
In Michele Bachmann's home district, evangelicals have created an extreme anti-gay climate. After a rash of suicides, the kids are fighting back.
243K new jobs were created in January. That's well above the expectations of just 140K new jobs.
And it's even more impressive, since so many people expected it was going to be a miss.
The unemployment rate has fallen to 8.3% from 8.5%.
Past reports were revised UPWARD, which was crucial..
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-january-jobs-report-2012-2#ixzz1lKKSMJle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx3r_K7BXnM&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa3lgb_5Aio&
I don't even know what he looks like.
Mandark fighting the good fight on Facebook, debunking Obama rumorz :lol
-Gave Libyan rebels the aid they need to take down Gadafi
-Gave the order to take down bin Laden
-Signed a law giving himself the right to throw American citizens suspected of terrorism in jail indefinitely
What more could conservatives want?
I wish I had a job building iPhones for 10 cents an hour. Damn you Debbie
It's weird hearing people who are generally smart (or at least "not dumb") make the most asinine, idiotic comments about Obama, as if his mere existence has fried their logical abilities. This is a guy who's entire biographical story is of American exceptionalism and in how "no other country in the world" is story possible, yet he...hates America and doesn't believe it's a great country? Doesn't salute the flag, has disdain for the military, disrespects the constitution..?
-Gave Libyan rebels the aid they need to take down Gadafi
-Gave the order to take down bin Laden
-Signed a law giving himself the right to throw American citizens suspected of terrorism in jail indefinitely
What more could conservatives want?
(http://www.atbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/White-Obama.jpg)
Would, though.
I was friends with Mandark on facebook at one point. I think ???
Oh and yeah, looks like the double whammy of Mitt Romney's tax return and the doesn't care about the poor comment might have had a big effect.
I didn't even realize there were primaries today, and Santorum's running amok?
I didn't even realize there were primaries today, and Santorum's running amok?
And three of them, in fact! Didn't hear jack shit from any of the blogs about this happening today either.
Republican meltdown ongoing right now:
http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwliveplayer&eventID=LIVE247
Not related to the current topic(s) on hand, but I just wanted to post this:
(http://i.imgur.com/TwhmT.png)
But at least he had the good manners to apologize and then die for being a terrible human being.
Hey if Joe Paterno got a pass overall for not reporting kid diddling, why should this guy be held to a different standard?
But at least he had the good manners to apologize and then die for being a terrible human being.
Just trying to think of a reason why some guy would retract an apology for child molestation.
I passed the link along to my largely Catholic family.
Can any members of Euro-Bore offer some history on how things got this bad in Greece?
-Gave Libyan rebels the aid they need to take down Gadafi
-Gave the order to take down bin Laden
-Signed a law giving himself the right to throw American citizens suspected of terrorism in jail indefinitely
What more could conservatives want?
(http://www.atbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/White-Obama.jpg)
Ppp tweet says sanatorium up 10-15 in michigan
Can any members of Euro-Bore offer some history on how things got this bad in Greece?
Ppp tweet says sanatorium up 10-15 in michigan
That would be a huge blow to Romney considering his father was a prominent Michigan politician there.
The trick is that when you're in a recession, you devalue your currency relative to others (like the US making the dollar weaker against the Euro), so that goods made in your country can be exported cheaper, driving up foreign demand. So other people start buying more of your stuff and your economy gets back on track.
Only Greece can't do that, because they're part of the Euro group, and Germany has been the leader in setting monetary policy. Germany hasn't had that bad a recession, so unsurprisingly they push for a policy that works for their economy, even as it screws over Greece. So now Greece is super fucked up and needs to be bailed out, which Germany and France don't want to do, but they also can't afford to let Greece leave the Euro and go back to having its own money. So everyone's got a gun to their head and any possible solution seems politically near-impossible in at least one of the countries.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/12/1064223/-Open-Thread-for-Night-Owls-What-digby-said-about-Liz-Trotta-?via=blog_1
boys will be boys!
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/pew-santorum-passes-romney-nationally?ref=fpb
SANTORUM IS SURGING YES YES ALL OVER MY SHEETS
I'm color blind, but I assume the joke is that it's santorum-colored.
I'm color blind, but I assume the joke is that it's santorum-colored.
Looks like the payroll tax break is getting an extension, with no offsetting spending cuts.
Saul Alinsky!
That fucker!
(http://i.imgur.com/AevFw.png)
The half-century between 1912 and 1962 was a period of great wars and economic tumult but also of impressive social cohesion. Marriage rates were high. Community groups connected people across class.
In the half-century between 1962 and the present, America has become more prosperous, peaceful and fair, but the social fabric has deteriorated. Social trust has plummeted. Society has segmented.
I must admit I'd expect that from Glen Beck, not Brooks :-\
Conservatives have always had this fantasy of the "past" as some idealized version of American with no problems. It's that Leave it to Beaver 50's TV image. It's how their ideology works. It banks on a return to a fictionalized past.Yep yep. I hear that crap all the time from older conservatives. "In the 50's.... blah blah blah" and it's usually completely and factually incorrect. I hear about how today's politicians just aren't the same. Have these people never read a real book on American history? It's full of scandal and shit flinging. I can't stand it.
That is unless a Democrat was recently president when those times were hell on earth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/opinion/brooks-the-materialist-fallacy.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Read the whole thing. If anything, it's more smug than you'd imagine.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/mitt-romney-detroit-free-press-op-ed-6655373
you clearly have not read enough (any?) brooks:lol was going to say this exact thing.
But the elder Santorum matriarch doesn’t understand why he has diverged so far from the family’s longtime political stance. “In Riva del Garda his grandfather Pietro and uncles were ‘red communists’ to the core,” writes Oggi journalist Giuseppe Fumagalli, likening the family to “Peppone” after a famous fictional Italian communist mayor who fought against an ultraconservative priest known as Don Cammillo and about which a popular television series is based. “But on the other side of the ocean, it’s like his family here doesn’t exist. Instead he draws crowds as the head of the ultraconservative faction of the Republican party, against divorce, gay marriage, abortion, and immigration.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOI7fokqkFc
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/11/rick-santorum-s-italian-family-speaks-out.htmlQuoteBut the elder Santorum matriarch doesn’t understand why he has diverged so far from the family’s longtime political stance. “In Riva del Garda his grandfather Pietro and uncles were ‘red communists’ to the core,” writes Oggi journalist Giuseppe Fumagalli, likening the family to “Peppone” after a famous fictional Italian communist mayor who fought against an ultraconservative priest known as Don Cammillo and about which a popular television series is based. “But on the other side of the ocean, it’s like his family here doesn’t exist. Instead he draws crowds as the head of the ultraconservative faction of the Republican party, against divorce, gay marriage, abortion, and immigration.”
Guilty by association like Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright, right?
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/16/israelis_unite_for_war_with_iran/Never mind stuxnet and the assassination of scientists, theses bombs near our embassy are considered an act of war.
The most telling thing is to simply talk to very old people black or white. On average they are the most racist stereotyping group of people you would ever want to me when you really get to know them. They can't stand each other. And I don't blame them. Its the world they grew up in.
Congrats, you unbelievable sellout.
More like the male version of Michelle Bachmann.
Now all he's missing is a gay husband.
Republicans rejoice!
http://www.gallup.com/poll/152753/Unemployment-Increases-Mid-February.aspx
Someone posted this on facebook
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204909104577235471075318762.html herp a derp
Anyone who has payed attention even the slightest would know the gay community isn't particularly happy about Obama's position on gay marriage, and if they give him a "pass" it's because he's been the most pro-gay president in US history. Whereas Santorum might be the most anti-gay "serious" presidential candidate in more than a decade.
WASHINGTON - Laying down an election-year marker in the debate over taxes, the Obama administration is proposing to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, and to seek an even lower effective rate for manufacturers, a senior administration official says.http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57382394/obama-to-propose-corporate-tax-rate-cut/ (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57382394/obama-to-propose-corporate-tax-rate-cut/)
In turn, corporations would have to give up dozens of loopholes and subsidies that they now enjoy. Corporations with overseas operations would also face a minimum tax on their foreign earnings.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday was to detail aspects of President Barack Obama's proposed overhaul of the corporate tax system, a plan Obama broadly outlined in his State of the Union speech last month.
Chances of accomplishing such change in the tax system are slim in a year dominated mostly with presidential and congressional elections. But for Obama, the proposal is part of a larger tax plan that is central to his re-election strategy.
The corporate tax plan dovetails with Obama's call for raising taxes on millionaires and maintaining current rates on individuals making $200,000 or less.
The 35 percent nominal corporate tax rate is the highest in the world after Japan. But deductions, credits and exemptions allow many corporations to pay taxes at a much lower rate.
Under the framework proposed by the administration, the rate cuts, closed loopholes and the minimum tax on overseas earning would result in no increase to the deficit.
That means that many businesses that slip through loopholes or enjoy subsidies and pay an effective tax rate that is substantially less than the 35 percent corporate tax could end up paying more under Obama's plan. Others, however, would pay less while some would simply benefit from a more simplified system.
The official said the Obama plan aims to help U.S. businesses, especially manufacturers who face strong international competition. Obama's plan would lower the effective rate for manufacturers to 25 percent while emphasizing development of clean energy systems. The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe what the administration will do.
The New York Times first reported details of the plan in its online edition early Wednesday.
Many members of both parties have said they favor overhauling the nation's individual and corporate tax systems, which they complain have rates that are too high and are riddled with too many deductions.
The corporate tax debate has made its way into the presidential contest. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has called for a 25 percent rate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., would cut the corporate tax rate to 12.5 percent, and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would exempt domestic manufacturers from the corporate tax and halve the top rate for other businesses.
While Obama has been promoting various aspects of his economic agenda in personal appearances and speeches, the decision to leave the corporate tax plan to the Treasury Department to unveil signaled its lower priority.
What's more, the administration's framework leaves much for Congress to decide — a deliberate move by the administration to encourage negotiations but which also doesn't subject the plan to detailed scrutiny.
Obama's plan is not as ambitious as a House Republican proposal that would lower the corporate rate to 25 percent.
Still, Obama has said corporate tax rates are too high and has proposed eliminating tax breaks for American companies that move jobs and profits overseas. He also has proposed giving tax breaks to U.S. manufacturers, to firms that return jobs to this country and to companies that relocate to some communities that have lost big employers.
Geithner told a House committee last week that the administration wants to create more incentives for corporations to invest in the United States.
"We want to bring down the rate, and we think we can, to a level that's closer to the average of that of our major competitors," Geithner told the House Ways and Means Committee.
White House economic adviser Gene Sperling has advocated a minimum tax on global profits. Currently many corporations do not invest overseas profits in the United States to avoid the 35 percent tax rate.
After tonight's debate, in which Ron Paul and Mitt Romney repeatedly attacked Rick Santorum over his 16-year record in Congress, the former US Senator for Pennsylvania hinted that something nefarious was going on.
"You have to ask Congressman Paul and Governor Romney what they've got going together," Santorum told reporters in the spin room in Mesa, Arizona. "Their commercials look a lot alike and so do their attacks."
Santorum's top strategist John Brabender went even further, charging that the two men had "joined forces" and were coordinating attacks against his man
"Clearly there's a tag team strategy between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. For all I know, Mitt Romney might be considering Ron Paul as his running mate. Clearly there is now an alliance between those two and you saw that certainly in the debate."
I didn't see the debate yesterday, but Romney actually accused RICK "LET'S PARTY LIKE IT'S 1399!" SANTORUM of being too liberal on abortion? What the fucking what?
kickin' a man while he's down
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=35422763&postcount=83
Iran tension also plays a part tho right?
As hilarious as that is, it's still disingenuous for dailykos to compare some random Romney campaign speech with Obama's speech at the friggin' Democratic National Convention.
Clement’s husband, Stephen, said Santorum was right on the mark when he said that Obama wants to send kids to get college degrees so as to produce more liberals.http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/michigan-tea-partiers-share-rick-santorums-fears-over-obamas-college-push.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
“It starts down at the elementary school level with all this bullshit about diversity, pardon my French,” he said. “Diversity and sensitivity and all that crap. That’s the stuff that needs to be taught at home not by my teachers. My teachers need to be academic: Math, science, history, social studies, that sort of thing and keep political opinions out of it, bottom line.”
“There are good, decent men and women who work hard every day and put their skills to the test that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor… That’s why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image,” Santorum said.
I want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his.”
QuoteClement’s husband, Stephen, said Santorum was right on the mark when he said that Obama wants to send kids to get college degrees so as to produce more liberals.http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/michigan-tea-partiers-share-rick-santorums-fears-over-obamas-college-push.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
“It starts down at the elementary school level with all this bullshit about diversity, pardon my French,” he said. “Diversity and sensitivity and all that crap. That’s the stuff that needs to be taught at home not by my teachers. My teachers need to be academic: Math, science, history, social studies, that sort of thing and keep political opinions out of it, bottom line.”
At this point it's time for Obama to propose a complete overturn of Roe v Wade, just to see if republicans respond by becoming pro-choice
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/flashback-in-2006-rick-santorum-wanted-to-send-all-paians-to-college.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
:teehee
Mr. Romney’s Florida trip might have seemed like an odd, if confident, detour from states that will be voting on Tuesday. But Michigan has an ample share of Nascar fans. And the campaign hoped that images of Mr. Romney at the speedway would circulate widely through the Southern states that vote on March 6.
But the crowd initially booed Mr. Romney, who occasionally struck a discordant note, as when he approached a group of fans wearing plastic ponchos. “I like those fancy raincoats you bought,” he said. “Really sprung for the big bucks
How can one have lived so long within political and corporate circles and be so utterly clueless about how to interact with people?Give the guy a break, he's only been running for office for twenty years! He's not a career politician!
PD, you registered to vote in the primary tomorrow? If so, drive Cheebs to the polls too and do what needs to be done. Spread some Santorum!
There goes Obama again, spitting on the idea of civility. :'(
Random question. Not sure if I've asked this before in this thread, but since I don't remember getting a response...
So, I was reading about the Paul Ryan kill-medicare-to-save-medicare plan, and something occurred to me. People on medicare (as well as SS) currently get their benefits that current workers pay into the system. Ryan's plan offers people to opt out of medicare/SS and go into private plans. If people choose to go into those plans, then that means money that would be going to current recipients gets diminished. But the thing is, Ryan said that current beneficiaries won't be effected at all. How exactly is that possible?
my dreams of Santorum 2012 stickers ... fading ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6l3N1qJ_ZY&t=11m1s
:rofl
Santorum losing the Catholic vote doesn't surprise me. There's a reason many people think he's an evangelical and it isn't plain ignorance.
Santorum has gone full distinguished mentally-challenged fellow.
wtf Breitbart died.
Link: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lsolov/2012/03/01/draft/
If Santorum converts to atheism and Romney is killed when his diamond-encrusted private jet crashes into his Scrooge McDuck money vault, Newt is ready to swoop in and grab the nom.Stop stealing memos from the Gingrich campaign.
wtf Breitbart died.
Link: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lsolov/2012/03/01/draft/
I hate to speak ill of the dead, but it couldn't have happened to a nicer smear merchant.
wtf Breitbart died.
Link: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lsolov/2012/03/01/draft/
I hate to speak ill of the dead, but it couldn't have happened to a nicer smear merchant.
Don't worry, just think of it as honoring his memory. It's what he would have wanted.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/08/26/57997/breitbart-kennedy-twitter/
FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Looks like Romney is gonna win, he's up 10k on Santorum with 27% reporting
Just read on Slate that in spite of Romney's "win", the breakdown of the Michigan delegates split evenly between him and Santorum. Keep hope alive!That's a lot of them, NONE of the caucuses will be known until June despite the "vote" counts.
FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Looks like Romney is gonna win, he's up 10k on Santorum with 27% reporting
Just read on Slate that in spite of Romney's "win", the breakdown of the Michigan delegates split evenly between him and Santorum. Keep hope alive!
(http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg206/StickySweater/cenkonb.jpg)
Yech. I had to hear a RL friend go on and on about the loss of Hitchens. STFU. He was an abrasive prick too. Both needed a few good lessons in humility.This is part of why me and my friends liked him, but we never thought he was a paragon of humanity. He was honest. And it was that aspect to aspire to.
O'REILLY: You know whenever you make a joke like you did at the NASCAR race and you said you saw some people in these cheap little rain coats and you go way to spend the big bucks. And you know you're always going to be portrayed as a rich guy who is out of touch with the folks, condescending to the folks. Am I correct? I mean that's the way you're going to be portrayed no matter what you do?
ROMNEY: Yes, you're probably right. I mean, the narrative that the - - that the Obama people want to push and that members of the mainstream media are very anxious to do for them is that anything I do, the joking around and having fun that somehow that fits their narrative.
O'REILLY: Yes, you're going to be a snob and this, that, and the other thing. So is it worth it for you even to say those things?
ROMNEY: Well you know, it's hard to imagine all the things they're going to try and turn into attacks. I mean, that -- that's the first time you've -- I've heard the one you've mentioned. Look I have worn a garbage bag for rain gear myself. And we're out there in the rain. And the rain was getting us soaked. I didn't -- I didn't have a rain coat myself. I would have liked one of those.
I don't think you have to, I mean I think of Hitchens more of a "conservative" (aligned based on his writing being so foreign-policy focused) when he died.
Yeah, I have no problem with people who liked him. But I hate how after death people like them get lifted up onto some pedestal that somehow eradicates a lot of their douchebaggery. And somehow I'm a huge prick if I don't care so much that they're dead. This goes for all celebs (maybe all people?) too. Look at GAF when any celebrity dies. Most recently it was Whitney Houston. For a moment I was like "Damn. That really sucks. She had talent" and then I moved on. But I go on Facebook and GAF and it's a bandwagon of one-upsmanship about who cared more. I hate it I hate it I hate it. I'm not going to pretend I liked the person more than I did or that I somehow just realized their genius and lasting effect on my life. STFU
Sorry about the rant and getting a bit off topic.
Listen, Whitney's been sober for three weeks now, this is awesome for her.:lol :lol :lol
Agreed. In 2012 it was the death of Breitbart and in 2020 we'll hit rock bottom with a live memorial service for Snooki.Yeah, I have no problem with people who liked him. But I hate how after death people like them get lifted up onto some pedestal that somehow eradicates a lot of their douchebaggery. And somehow I'm a huge prick if I don't care so much that they're dead. This goes for all celebs (maybe all people?) too. Look at GAF when any celebrity dies. Most recently it was Whitney Houston. For a moment I was like "Damn. That really sucks. She had talent" and then I moved on. But I go on Facebook and GAF and it's a bandwagon of one-upsmanship about who cared more. I hate it I hate it I hate it. I'm not going to pretend I liked the person more than I did or that I somehow just realized their genius and lasting effect on my life. STFU
Sorry about the rant and getting a bit off topic.
My problem is that there are real thinkers and real great people out there who die all the time. Yet if you were on Real Time with Bill Maher or shot your mouth off like an idiot to get in the public eye then people feel that you were somehow important or special. It's that idea that our public discourse has been hijacked by the loudest+dumbest versus the quality of what people say.
But yeah this is off topic.
Hitchens was an incredible writer, even if Muslims freaked him out and he wanted to bomb all of them into godless enlightenment or whatever.THIS.
Fuck him and anyone who says otherwise.NO FUCK YOU!!! OMG11111
Yeah, I have no problem with people who liked him. But I hate how after death people like them get lifted up onto some pedestal that somehow eradicates a lot of their douchebaggery. And somehow I'm a huge prick if I don't care so much that they're dead. This goes for all celebs (maybe all people?) too. Look at GAF when any celebrity dies. Most recently it was Whitney Houston. For a moment I was like "Damn. That really sucks. She had talent" and then I moved on. But I go on Facebook and GAF and it's a bandwagon of one-upsmanship about who cared more. I hate it I hate it I hate it. I'm not going to pretend I liked the person more than I did or that I somehow just realized their genius and lasting effect on my life. STFUThis also. The celeb stuff sucks. The only part I differ is that Breitbart is getting a lot of hate (right or wrong) which as I noted above is exactly what he would wanted. Him passing and nobody noticing would have meant more than a bunch of people gloating over his death.
Sorry about the rant and getting a bit off topic.
Yet if you were on Real Time with Bill Maher or shot your mouth off like an idiot to get in the public eye then people feel that you were somehow important or special. It's that idea that our public discourse has been hijacked by the loudest+dumbest versus the quality of what people say.I've argued for a while that the role of academy should be to translate things into more common discourse. Even people I know very well are more interested in esoteric academic reviews of some subject and yet they have no grasp of why people reject the fifty studies on how coffee will kill you, save you, make you a demi-god, etc. a year.
I agree that they look stupid for doing so, but they NEVER WOULD HAVE HAD TO LOOK STUPID if some asshole wasn't out there trying to make them look stupid, and the idiot media didn't enable him at every fucking step.
Sorry, you're kind of an idiot benji.I have never denied this.
Because the media, in a falling all over themselves effort to appear NOT LIBERAL, will basically just parrot anything Breitbart decides to feature in his circus. They did, too, in the early stages of it. So it's an issue whether the administration wants to deal with it or not, and they felt (wrongly, but whatever) the quickest way to dispense with it is to fire her and be done with it. Is that dumb? Sure. Do I understand why they felt they had to do it? Absolutely.No, no, no, Breitbart IS to blame.
What you're saying is that the guy who creates a trumped up scandal is completely blameless for anything that happens as a result of it, which is completely distinguished mentally-challenged. Also, if Sherrod had ACTUALLY said something reprehensible then Breitbart wouldn't have been a dick. Let's remember that it was BREITBART who put together and put out there the edited video misrepresenting her.
I don't really buy the "he wanted people to be mad, so he won" thing.That's also possible.
Seems just as likely that he would have taken a lack of attention from the media as proof that his dangerous truths were being suppressed by a huge and powerful liberal conspiracy who feared him. There's a certain personality that is eager to interpret just about any reaction by others as proof of their own importance and righteousness. I never met the guy, but boy howdy does he fit the profile.
Everybody feels sorry for kids who lose a parent. Or for that matter who have shitty parents. It's one of those things that's a given that people feel the need to say aloud.
when dick cheney dies though, i'm throwing a fucking party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5OWRRJh-PI
holy shit, the president of Ireland is a boss :lol
A US president could never get away with this type of rant, or calling someone a wanker :bow
How does Romney pivot to the center after this disasterous primary season? He just came out in support of the ridiculous contraception bill that would allow all health insurance providers to not cover contraception on the grounds of religious freedom. He's argued all illegal immigrants should go through a "self deportation" process. He wants to attack Iran asap.
Japan? Is he suggesting we attack Japan?
I can't possibly understand what that comic is trying to say. Why are the guards Rush's enemies. WTF.
God, editorial cartoons are such a blight on civilization.
"So, Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it.
And I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."
Sadly there are ten Janet Renos for every one Kristen Gillibrand on the gov payroll
But the second part is this idea that asking the rich to pitch in is "punishing" them.
So, Rich Guy, let me explain this as calmly and logically as I can:
Are you fucking 6 years old? Do you still think mom made you clean up your room because she was mean? In the adult world, we get asked to do things because shit needs to get done. It has nothing to do with fairness, it has nothing to do with judging you. It has nothing to do with you at all. There's a whole world out there, with people who need helping and projects that need accomplishing.
You're only being asked to pitch in because you have the resources. You're not a tall person who us dwarfs are jealously trying to cut down to size. You're a tall person being asked to get something down from a very tall shelf because nobody else can fucking reach it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYN-Awrq3ogCain standing on the cliff is too much.
McCain calls for US-led regime change in Syria (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2012/0305/Senator-McCain-calls-for-war-in-Syria).
Meanwhile Israel seems bent on attacking Iran.
Fun times!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYN-Awrq3og
I may be forgetting details but I don't remember Russia or China giving too much of a shit about Saddam/Iraq back then
*waits for Mandark to google*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR4aXOth9hQ
:rofl
I may be forgetting details but I don't remember Russia or China giving too much of a shit about Saddam/Iraq back then
*waits for Mandark to google*
IIRC France wound up being the sticking point for a resolution to use force. I read an account where a US official said they assumed the French were just posturing and would give in eventually. So the Bush admin sort of rationalized the attack by citing an earlier UN resolution on access for weapons inspectors, even though they didn't have the endorsement of the UN.
Anyways, from what I've read the Assad regime is in a lot stronger position than the Qaddafi regime was, with a better army, a less organized/powerful insurgency, and more allies and proxies that could retaliate against Israel and US interests. Plus a full air campaign with the goal of toppling Assad would mean co-ordinating with the rebels, which probably means sending in at least some special forces to establish contact, and then you sustain the bombing for at least a year...
I think there's a tendency, when a bombing campaign goes relatively right (the Balkans, Libya), to whitewash the costs, risks, and failures that came with it, and to think of the USAF as an Easy Button for dealing with leaders we don't like.
my comparison was based soley on the fact that the push for the iraq war was led by a lot of people who said "fuck the u.n. let's blow em up" and now with syria mccain is saying "fuck the u.n. let's blow em up"
CALM DOWN YOU NERDS
Speaking of the Limbaugh/Fluke thing, I finally read his original comments.
Something to the effect of "she's having so much sex she can't afford birth control." I know a million people must have pointed this out, but does Rush Limbaugh not understand how the pill works? Are there adults out there who don't know this?
You'll have to forgive Rush, his previous experiences with pills have lead him to believe that increased dosages are the norm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1oOjKQflN0#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1oOjKQflN0#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR4aXOth9hQ
:rofl
Good a time as any to post this, which has been going around:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-things-rich-people-need-to-stop-saying/
We've got you on ignore due to spam, Mr. I Work For Obama. :smug
Despite growing disappointment in his handling of immigration issues, Latino voters favor President Barack Obama by six-to-one over any of the Republican presidential hopefuls, showed a Fox News Latino poll conducted under the direction of Latin Insights and released Monday.http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/fox-poll-obama-edges-gopers-even-with-latinos
...
While the poll indicates that four of five Latinos who voted for Obama in 2008 would vote for him later this year, Latinos who voted for Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain four years ago are now divided between voting for Obama and the Republican candidates. Forty percent said that they favored Obama while 38 percent said they would vote for Romney. Obama also leads Santorum 38 percent to 34, and Gingrich 40 percent to 38.
You'll have to forgive Rush, his previous experiences with pills have lead him to believe that increased dosages are the norm.
Ron Paul has the best supporters outta all the Republican candidates.. I have never seen a Romney, Santorum, or Gingrich bumper sticker, I have never seen any of those clowns fill up a place as much Paul when it comes to rallies, there was protest in Washington D.C where Military Veterans attended with their back faced the White House and of course no Mainstream Media coverage of the event.. Ron Paul gets the most donations from Veterans then all other 3 candidates combined.. He must be doing something good if no one is willing to give him real coverage, less talking time and cuts his mike off when it comes to issues..
I expect crazy from Paulites so my only reaction is that of glee. I prefer dealing with the slightly more realistic ones, ie those who claim Paul will magically have 500 delegates at the convention and use them in some masterful way that will CHANGE EVERYTHING. Like Ridleyscott on GAF, and a couple real life acquaintancesThose are the worst. Because when you try to ask them how they plan on doing that they deflect with "you just don't know how the nomination process works!" to which I can only respond with "And you definitely don't."
Now another libertopian is telling me that if we have more "freedom" in the marketplace it will stop crony capitalism.Just take the high road and start talking about Paul's shriveled dick. Yes. That is the high road in that conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR4aXOth9hQ
:rofl
Good a time as any to post this, which has been going around:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-things-rich-people-need-to-stop-saying/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR4aXOth9hQ
:rofl
Good a time as any to post this, which has been going around:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-things-rich-people-need-to-stop-saying/
A $3000 per month mortgage doesn't get you a palace in new york
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ64KQCY7ro
Fox News, fighting the good fight
waitress at my work: "I voted for Santorum because I think Obama would be more likely to beat him."
fffffffffUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
NBC just said they won't call Ohio tonight.
Is she black?
Ron Paul got 40% against Romney in Virginia, where they were the only two candidates on the ballot. Utterly amazing. This guy is the worst nominee of a major party since Dukakisgod I remember when people said the same thing Ahoy mccain, and mccain beat romney.
Joe the Plumber won his primary. :lol :-\
NEILL AUGUSTINE
Watch Hannity tonight, TheTruth, for the whole tape. Sean promised it then.
RWOLFRN
Not so sure I trust Fox to release anything with out a left slant. They have really changed.
DPEPPER
I agree, Fox has moved to the left. Obviously Soros has gotten to Murdock and scared him off. Now they are pandering to the left audience. Just look, Fox fires Glenn Beck, then hires George Soros' mouth piece Sally Cohn. I can barely listen to Fox anymore, it sickens me that they are becoming MSNBC lite.
And while there does appear to be editing in the footage available, that was almost certainly done in 1990. The Ten O’Clock News practice was to store completed segments as aired along with any relevant additional footage that might be useful in the future.
http://agoodcartoon.tumblr.com/
(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0e6j1K0lH1rr5t33o1_500.gif)
The reason the pipeline was blocked is because Obama has a brain. A Good Cartoon.
(http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0hpeyfo4o1rr5t33o1_500.jpg)
American women understand that their reproductive rights are under attack from religious conservatives. Instead of contenting themselves with those receding rights and hoping more aren’t taken from them, they stand up in their own defence and confront the politicians responsible. A Good Cartoon.
(http://i.imgur.com/jPAsX.jpg)
He was right. That son of a bitch was right.
For a week now my routine has been the same. I can’t leave. My girlfriend left, said something about freeing herself. I think it called out to her in her dreams. I don’t know. I don’t care. Every morning this week has been the same. Brew a pot of coffee, make some toast, curse that I only bought one loaf, and watch civilization collapse.
Massive wheels dominate my home’s skyline. Every few hours there’s a ‘piff’ noise as one of the numerous wheels spits out a disc. Sometimes it hits a man. The streets are covered in blood, gore, and bone, from men either ignorant or foolish. Some wanted to save their spouses. Some thought they could get food. All are dead.
Women? Different noise. A metal clink audible up here, from thirteen stories up and three blocks away, as a chain shoots out of the hole in the wheel. Some of the women run. Most, especially democrats, embrace the chain. They’re snapped up into the sky like fish. Unlucky ones have their necks broken. It doesn’t kill them, they just flop around on these chains.
One of these wheels is outside my window today. Banging against my window, rattling its harvest to entice me outside. I recognize my girlfriend. The chain cut deep into her throat, spilled her blood over her favorite black dress. She’s still talking though, moaning with the other women. “Pig. Misogynist. Patriarchy.” A few try and get me out by showing a calf muscle or two, but I’m not stupid.
It is pointless though. They’re everywhere now. Yesterday congress, trapped since approving this god forsaken plan, apologized. They said goodbye to their families. They apologized again. They drank something rancid looking and went to sleep. Ramirez had come with an assault rifle to the congressional session to save everyone. He had arrived to late. Now he was stepping over these sleeping old men, putting a round into their heads. He didn’t have enough ammunition. He beat Bernie Sanders to death with the butt of his rifle before choking himself to death with the horrid bill.
I heard when Obama signed the bill into law with his own blood his head snapped off of his body. Just stretched out like silly string before snapping off and floating away. I wasn’t watching. I was too busy enjoying free birth control. What a god damn fool I was.
It was a good cartoon. If only we had listened.
It's also worth pointing out *gasp* contraception is NOT just used for birth control. Most women use it at some point in their lives, be it for birth control or health related issues. My mom had to go on birth control at one point due to Dysmenorrhea (menstrual pain/cramps).
I must admit I'm baffled Obama or anyone else hasn't pointed this out. Perhaps it's because many people know that already, but I'm so tired of the right framing this entirely on sexual and religious grounds.
It's also worth pointing out *gasp* contraception is NOT just used for birth control. Most women use it at some point in their lives, be it for birth control or health related issues. My mom had to go on birth control at one point due to Dysmenorrhea (menstrual pain/cramps).This. My wife has to use birth control if she wants to ever get pregnant actually. She's unable to have children without birth control. lulz
It's also worth pointing out *gasp* contraception is NOT just used for birth control. Most women use it at some point in their lives, be it for birth control or health related issues. My mom had to go on birth control at one point due to Dysmenorrhea (menstrual pain/cramps).This. My wife has to use birth control if she wants to ever get pregnant actually. She's unable to have children without birth control. lulz
Pennsylvania's repub majority senate passed a votersuppressionID law to soon be signed by the repub governor. Great job!
Mandark got a full dose of my Libertarian Super Fiscal Conservative Except for Israel friend on Facebook last night.
Isn't it rather unlikely that a Osirak style bombing run would even work? Iran has hidden their refineries quite well, making the success of a quick unilateral bombing run unlikely for Israel's air force. Unless they plan on bombing for days, I don't see it working.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCua8wsSuH8
Was that post satire or?
The survey of household employment was similarly positive. The unemployment rate held fast at 8.3%. That, however, was due to a surge in workers into the labour force, of nearly 500,000, which offset the rise in employment entirely. Over the past few months, however, the household employment numbers have been, if anything, more bullish than the payroll figures, suggesting that the underlying trend toward improvement is very much the real thing. The employment-population ratio rose a tenth of a point to 58.6%, up from a low of 58.2% last summer. And alternative measures of unemployment are also getting better in a hurry.http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2012/03/americas-economy
Firms are adding workers across the economy. Manufacturing employment rose 31,000 in February and is up 227,000 over the last 12 months. Professional and business services continue to add labour at a rapid clip, including new temporary positions which indicate that further hiring may be on the way. The construction sector is still very weak; residential builders took on just 1,700 new workers in February. A better labour market overall, however, will raise housing demand and translate, eventually, into more of a recovery there.
Mary Brown, a 56-year-old Florida woman who owned a small auto repair shop but had no health insurance, became the lead plaintiff challenging President Obama's healthcare law because she was passionate about the issue.
Brown "doesn't have insurance. She doesn't want to pay for it. And she doesn't want the government to tell her she has to have it," said Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business. Brown is a plaintiff in the federation's case, which the Supreme Court plans to hear later this month.
But court records reveal that Brown and her husband filed for bankruptcy last fall with $4,500 in unpaid medical bills. Those bills could change Brown from a symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to address.
"This is so ironic," Jane Perkins, a health law expert in North Carolina, said of Brown's situation. "It just shows that all Americans inevitably have a need for healthcare. Somebody has paid for her healthcare costs. And she is now among the 62% whose personal bankruptcy was attributable in part to medical bills."
Brown, reached by telephone Thursday, said the medical bills were her husband's. "I always paid my bills, as well as my medical bills," she said angrily. "I never said medical insurance is not a necessity. It should be anyone's right to what kind of health insurance they have.
"I believe that anyone has unforeseen things that happen to them that are beyond their control," Brown said. "Who says I don't have insurance right now?"
In August, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed. Florida and 25 other states were suing, but they needed an individual to contest the mandate. "Mary Brown has standing to challenge the individual mandate," the judges said, and "as long as at least one plaintiff has standing to raise" the claim, the court can rule. The Obama administration appealed, and the Supreme Court said in November it would decide the constitutional challenge.
But by then, Brown's small auto repair shop near Panama City, Fla., had closed, and she and her husband had filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. Brown said in the petition that her only income was $275 a month in unemployment benefits.
Is it wrong to be librul, while also finding this absolutely HIGH-larious?QuoteBut by then, Brown's small auto repair shop near Panama City, Fla., had closed, and she and her husband had filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. Brown said in the petition that her only income was $275 a month in unemployment benefits.
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-plaintiff-20120309,0,6657163.story
The only reason there are so many debates is to sell commercials.That's the ultimate underlying motive but I don't think it's the direct motive.
The Virginia GOP changed the ballot requirements recently to prevent a semi-joke candidate like Trump or Cain winning, right? Even Perry didn't make it, which was pretty nuts.
On 27 December, Rick Perry filed a lawsuit - joined later by Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum - in the federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond that challenged provisions that determine who can appear on the primary ballot. Perry and the other candidates argued that the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party and members of State Board of Elections violated their rights by enforcing state requirements as to the number of signatures, the qualifications for signers and the requirement that all petition circulators be "an eligible or registered qualified voter in Virginia." Perry and the other litigants argued that these restrictions "impose a severe burden" on their freedoms of speech and association under the First and Fourteenth Amendment.
Sounds like Rush and Co. are royally fucked
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/26/obama-won-t-back-an-israeli-strike-on-iran.html
The only reason there are so many debates is to sell commercials.That's the ultimate underlying motive but I don't think it's the direct motive.
Maybe that Johnathan Chait article about this being the (current) GOP's last chance was right.
http://nymag.com/news/features/gop-primary-chait-2012-3/
Sounds like Rush and Co. are royally fucked
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/10/rush-limbaugh-scandal-proves-contagious-for-talk-radio-advertisers.html
Too bad, but this is looking over. If Newt's fucking ego wasn't larger than his head, he would have got out.Not so fast!
Sources close to the Gingrich campaign say preliminary "what-if" conversations are underway that could lead to a Gingrich-Perry ticket being announced prior to the Republican National Convention at the end of August.(http://assets.thefiscaltimes.com/TFT2_20101228/App_Data/MediaFiles/9/9/4/%7B9942F8E3-3014-4FB8-9D30-7EFAA6E72909%7D12282011_Gingrich_Perry_article.jpg)
Gingrich insiders hope forming a predetermined ticket with Perry will unite the evangelical, Tea Party and very conservative voters that make up the core of the GOP.
The message never changes between the debates. If there was actual policy being discussed I'd be inclined to agree with you more. But it's all 'obama herp derrrp' instead what they would do to actually make something better for the citizens of this country.No, I agree with you there. I probably rambled off too much. I was trying to say it's a lot like sports reporting in that something minor and often insignificant say a "gaffe" or great answer or what have you becomes what they talk about for a week as if it's impacting the campaign and then come back and explain everything through these five or six moments or statements.
If the GOP political field weren't so hostile to everyone who isn't a far right extremist, you'd probably have people like Mitch Daniels in the running instead of Rick fucking Santorum.Mitch Daniels probably didn't run because of whatever is the deal with his wife.
Republican Rick Santorum has for quite a while taken issue with candidates on the trail who use a teleprompter. It's a dig on President Barack Obama, and more recently has been used to attack Mitt Romney - a man who's also been known to use a prompter or two.(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lysrbvwSrJ1qmzxy4o1_400.gif)
But campaigning along the Gulf Coast in the Tuesday primary state of Mississippi, Santorum took it a step further, saying use of the digital word machine should be outlawed.
"See, I always believed that when you run for president of the United States, it should be illegal to read off a teleprompter," Santorum said at a Gulfport restaurant. "Because all you're doing is reading someone else's words to people."
He continued to elaborate on why he believes prompters should have no place in politics, saying that people should know that a candidate's words haven't been "focus-grouped" and that the words are the candidate's - not those of "pollsters and speechwriters."
"You're voting for someone who is going to be the leader of our government," Santorum said. "It's important for you to understand who that person is in their own words, see them, look them in the eye...hear what's (in their) heart."
"You're choosing a leader. A leader isn't just about what's written on a piece of paper."
Lincoln had to WRITE DOWN the Gettysburg Address. Fucking failure.
Former Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) writes in a new book that President Obama ditched him in the 2010 election after he helped Obama win the biggest legislative victory of his term by passing healthcare reform.:lol wtf did he expect?
Specter also claims that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not uphold his promise to grant him seniority accrued over 28 years of service in the Senate as a Republican.
...
Specter laments that Obama and Vice President Biden did not do more to help him in the final days of his primary race against former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), who beat him 54 percent to 46 percent in the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate Democratic primary.
Specter writes that Obama turned down a request to campaign with him in the final days of the primary, because the president’s advisers feared he would look weak if he intervened and Specter lost.
...
Specter believes Reid acted with “duplicity” while managing the party switch. Specter said Reid promised him that he would be recognized on the seniority list as a Democrat elected in 1980, but failed to deliver on it.
Had Specter been given the seniority he was promised, he would have become chairman of the powerful Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations subcommittee and next in line to chair the Judiciary Committee.
Instead, Reid stripped Specter of all his seniority by passing a short resolution by unanimous consent in a nearly-empty chamber, burying him at the bottom of the Democrats’ seniority list.
Specter found out about it after his press secretary emailed him a press account of the switch.
...
He says Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), now the chairman of the Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee, declined a request to let Specter take over as chairman at least until the election.
Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) refused to let him move past them in seniority on the Judiciary Committee.
He makes surprising revelations about Republican leaders, as well ... Specter says that one of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s (Ky.) first concerns after learning of the impending party switch was that he might be blamed for driving Specter out of the GOP.The hell is surprising about that?
...
“When I told him I was going to change parties, he was visibly displeased but not ruffled. Mostly, he was taciturn,” Specter recounts. “McConnell and I had a serious discussion. He was very nice and very professional. ‘Don’t do it,’ he said. ‘It’d be a big mistake. Serve out your time as a Republican and retire gracefully.’”
McConnell worried that he might get blamed for driving Specter to join the Democrats. He raised the issue at a meeting of the Senate Republican conference where Specter announced his decision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7r2i6NrqNs
:bow Mississippi bring the real talk :bow2
[youtube]O7r2i6NrqNs[youtube]
:bow Mississippi bring the real talk :bow2
None of those people could spell Mississippi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7r2i6NrqNs
:bow Mississippi bring the real talk :bow2
The funny thing about that Obama ad is that it pretty much plays long ass portions of her comments. There is little splicing and dicing or half second bits.
She literally said he wants to go back to the pre-Civil War days when things were segregated based on race. As if that was the most recent time to harken back to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uNoNn0KjZA
WHAT A RACIST
A couple weeks back I noted that Ron Paul, the lonely delegate hunter, had only one full-time, embedded reporter on his trail: Anthony Terrell of NBC News. Other reporters have provided some coverage of the candidate, but for the last few weeks Terrell was the only proverbial boy on the bus.
But now, Ron Paul is officially embedless.
Earlier this week, NBC decided that Terrell would transition off the trail and back to his job with MSNBC, though a spokesperson there would not comment on the move.
"The man has had a ten-to-one money advantage," Santorum said of Romney on the radio show "Kilmeade & Friends."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/13/rick-santorum-fox-mitt-romney_n_1341823.html
"He's had all the organizational advantage. He has Fox News shilling for him every day -- no offense, Brian, but I see it -- and yet, he can't seal the deal because he just doesn't have the goods to be able to motivate the Republican base and win this election."
...
Santorum said he apologized if his staff had been bad at responding to interview requests and promised to return to the show, but held firm on his accusation. "I can tell you, we watch the coverage there, and you know, look, you guys are allowed to cover what you want to cover," he said.
Van Susteren also called out Santorum for saying Fox News was “shilling” for Romney. Santorum, however, said he “wasn’t talking about your show or Sean [Hannity’s] show.” He called the two hosts “awesome,” but said the network’s news coverage gives too much airtime to Romney.
“Look, I’m not complaining; I’m not going to be whining about this,” Santorum said. “That’s the reality and we’ve had to deal with it, and our feeling is we’re just going to go out and overcome this. We’ve overcome a lot in this race and we’re doing great. We’re on our way to victory.”
The right took what they needed from the Libertarians and discarded the rest. Ron Paul's legacy will have been to create a new batch of slogans for the Republican party. They took the heightened paranoia about debt, the Fed, and the CONSTITUTION from Ron Paul's supporters which allowed them new ways to go on about the same things they always do (how can we fund Planned Parenthood when we are so in debt!). It didn't translate into most spheres of mainstream Republican thought though, no one is rethinking their stance on Israel or military spending because Ron Paul thought it up.
no other candidate can repair the damage done by our federal reserve system, and our worthless dollar, the prices at the pump, and the prices in the grocery store. The wars overseas, and the endless bombing, the endless foreign aid. The only candidate who will preserve the social security for the elderly, and cut the one place it needs to be cut - military.
The right took what they needed from the Libertarians and discarded the rest. Ron Paul's legacy will have been to create a new batch of slogans for the Republican party. They took the heightened paranoia about debt, the Fed, and the CONSTITUTION from Ron Paul's supporters which allowed them new ways to go on about the same things they always do (how can we fund Planned Parenthood when we are so in debt!). It didn't translate into most spheres of mainstream Republican thought though, no one is rethinking their stance on Israel or military spending because Ron Paul thought it up. At the end of the day the guy is going to be judged a pretty massive failure and soon libertarians will return to just guys living in vans down by the river who still collect silver certificates.
Plus Ron Paul is a closet racist.
Apart from those newsletters which he didn't even write, is there any other evidence of Ron Paul being racist? Just curious.
The right took what they needed from the Libertarians and discarded the rest. Ron Paul's legacy will have been to create a new batch of slogans for the Republican party. They took the heightened paranoia about debt, the Fed, and the CONSTITUTION from Ron Paul's supporters which allowed them new ways to go on about the same things they always do (how can we fund Planned Parenthood when we are so in debt!). It didn't translate into most spheres of mainstream Republican thought though, no one is rethinking their stance on Israel or military spending because Ron Paul thought it up.
pretty much this. the RONPAUL2012 audience made a GREAT focus group for current and future GOP messaging. congrats, libertards: you got TOTALLY chumped.
The only real threat Ron faces at this point is outright fraud. Ron very likely won the popular vote in a number of States, including Iowa, Maine, and Nevada, but had it stolen by outright fraud. Dead people voting. Votes being taken or thrown away from Ron Paul.
This puts Ron Paul a close second in the “real” delegate count, that the mainstream media will not show you, just behind Mitt Romney.
Even this however, is not the whole truth.
The whole truth is that Ron Paul is well in first place. He is in first place, and will remain there, because many of his supporters have been posing and winning unbound delegate seats for all three of Dr. Paul’s opponents Mitt/Newt/Rick.
What this means is that come convention time in Tampa Florida, none of Ron Paul’s delegates will be “switching sides”, where as delegates from all three other candidates will be switching to Ron Paul, on the spot. And these are just the “double agent” delegates that have the intention in advance to switch to Ron Paul.
Ron Paul is “last” according to the mainstream media in delegates. They can say this because they simply look at the popular vote and “guess” that when the States make final delegate counts, it will reflect the popular vote. The problem is that this is not at all true, because Ron Paul supporters are generally ready to take a bullet for Dr. Paul.
Quote from: my libertopian nutbar friendno other candidate can repair the damage done by our federal reserve system, and our worthless dollar, the prices at the pump, and the prices in the grocery store. The wars overseas, and the endless bombing, the endless foreign aid. The only candidate who will preserve the social security for the elderly, and cut the one place it needs to be cut - military.
Well then! I especially liked the part about social security.
As America continues moving to the right, economic recovery remains elusive. A good cartoon.
I thought that was a joke at first. A paleo Ron Paul supporter. He must be a hit at parties.
I thought that was a joke at first. A paleo Ron Paul supporter. He must be a hit at parties.
the overlap is horrifying.
i dare not stray into any "off topic" section of any paleo forum.
The two biggest question marks I have about Robb Wolf are: support of Ron Paul, belief that Chinese traditional medicine is anything other than a pile of cynical bullshit
Well, this isn't offensive or anything.
(http://i40.tinypic.com/2dwf7fb.jpg)
I'm sure the driver of this car isn't a racist!
wanted to point out that not re-nigging would keep your same vote that elected Obama in 2008
did quick google search and found it's spelled "renege"...unintentional rascism off the day :gloomy
I had a magnetic "support our troops" ribbon on my old cavalier while my brother was in Afghanistan, but in general, I think all bumper stickers/badges/etc. are tacky.
"Professional wrestling matches, as bizarre as they were and are, at least began as morality plays," Santorum wrote in his 2005 book, It Takes a Family. "Good guys, literally wearing white, fought bad guys, literally wearing black." And as in any good morality play, Santorum argued, there had been a Fall: "Today, professional wrestling is more about titillation than ever. The violence has been sexualized."
The bin Laden plot to kill President Obamahttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-bin-laden-plot-to-kill-president-obama/2012/03/16/gIQAwN5RGS_story.html?hpid=z1
The al-Qaeda brand had become a problem, bin Laden explained, because Obama administration officials “have largely stopped using the phrase ‘the war on terror’ in the context of not wanting to provoke Muslims,” and instead promoted a war against al-Qaeda. The organization’s full name was “Qaeda al-Jihad,” bin Laden noted, but in its shorthand version, “this name reduces the feeling of Muslims that we belong to them.” He proposed 10 alternatives “that would not easily be shortened to a word that does not represent us.” His first recommendation was “Taifat al-tawhid wal-jihad,” or Monotheism and Jihad Group.
Government growth is out of control!
The steady loss of govt jobs as states cut their budgets is what has led to so many pedestrian jobs reports over the last four years; they're still being cut right now
Reading that was :dizzy
Her bullshit doesn't even make sense but it's clear she thinks she's being very clever. You know how really small kids, like four year olds, will try to tell a joke? Only it's completely scrambled and incoherent but they still laugh like crazy afterwards? Yeah.
Reading that was :dizzyIt literally reminds me of elementary school when little kids thought that they were educated and clever for pulling the "N-gger just means ignorant" card
Her bullshit doesn't even make sense but it's clear she thinks she's being very clever. You know how really small kids, like four year olds, will try to tell a joke? Only it's completely scrambled and incoherent but they still laugh like crazy afterwards? Yeah.
So, with Romney crushing Santorum today in Illinois, is that the end of the pretence of Santorum having a chance?
I had fun with Romney fighting and struggling against such a piss poor crop of competitors.
Also fuck Newt Gingrich. Had he pulled out early, Santorum could actually be leading the thing. What an asshole :maf
Ron Paul got more votes than Gingrich tonight :lol
Ron Paul got more votes than Gingrich tonight :lolNewt will just attribute it to 'Chicago style politics'.
“What the president said, in a sense, is disgraceful,” Gingrich said on the Hannity Radio show. “It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period. We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background.http://nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/gingrich-calls-obama-comments-on-martin-slaying-disgraceful--20120323
“Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot, that would be OK because it didn’t look like him. That’s just nonsense dividing this country up. It is a tragedy this young man was shot. It would have been a tragedy if he had been Puerto Rican or Cuban or if he had been white or if he had been Asian American of if he’d been a Native American. At some point, we ought to talk about being Americans. When things go wrong to an American, it is sad for all Americans. Trying to turn it into a racial issue is fundamentally wrong. I really find it appalling.”
Here we go!Quote“What the president said, in a sense, is disgraceful,” Gingrich said on the Hannity Radio show. “It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period. We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background.http://nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/gingrich-calls-obama-comments-on-martin-slaying-disgraceful--20120323
“Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot, that would be OK because it didn’t look like him. That’s just nonsense dividing this country up. It is a tragedy this young man was shot. It would have been a tragedy if he had been Puerto Rican or Cuban or if he had been white or if he had been Asian American of if he’d been a Native American. At some point, we ought to talk about being Americans. When things go wrong to an American, it is sad for all Americans. Trying to turn it into a racial issue is fundamentally wrong. I really find it appalling.”
Sharpton is an ambulance chaser, no question. I honestly have more respect for Farrakhan
(I'll be deleting this post in 30 years when I run for office)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/23/obama-meets-hawaiian-woman-asks-to-see-her-birth-certificate/ (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/23/obama-meets-hawaiian-woman-asks-to-see-her-birth-certificate/)
lol
Dick Cheney sustains his mortal form with a new heart, blood of the innocent (http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/24/politics/cheney-transplant-surgery/index.html?hpt=hp_t3)
Some more news from the real winner of the 2012 GOP primaries, Ron Paul:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/ron-paul-supporters-dominate-gop-caucuses-in-st-louis-jackson/article_4c7977d4-75e0-11e1-858e-001a4bcf6878.html
Some more news from the real winner of the 2012 GOP primaries, Ron Paul:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/ron-paul-supporters-dominate-gop-caucuses-in-st-louis-jackson/article_4c7977d4-75e0-11e1-858e-001a4bcf6878.html
some of my cousins' husbands went to this to support paul :'(
Didn't Obama stay out of it for quite some time until it was clear that it might be a federal issue?
Obama and the White House had previously refrained from commenting on the case. Following demands by the New Black Panthers and others on scene in Sanford, Fla. that the White House get involved, Obama jumped into the fight. When first asked about the case, White House spokesman Jay Carney essentially declined comment, offering a boilerplate statement of condolence to Martin’s family.http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/23/obama-comments-on-trayvon-martin-case-after-black-panthers-sharpton-ralliers-bemoan-wh-silence-video/#ixzz1qFGhZ8eG
(http://i.imgur.com/NMvil.jpg)
MR GUNDAM AND HIS DAUGHTER ARE IN THAT COMMERCIAL
One question... what is the point of the video?
MR GUNDAM AND HIS DAUGHTER ARE IN THAT COMMERCIAL
Videos are blocked at work, really curious what it is. :lol
MR GUNDAM AND HIS DAUGHTER ARE IN THAT COMMERCIAL
Videos are blocked at work, really curious what it is. :lol
From what I gather the clip takes place in the apocalypse where creepy girl finds a little bunny and promptly names it "Small Bisness". Due to the boredom of the apocalypse she places it in a launcher which she has named "Current Tax Code". The launcher shoots it in the air where it turns it into a cheap, green screen effect and her much older lover shoots it with a rifle. As it a splatters into a red bloody mess a black man looks on and a rifle is cocked. A good commerical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdpN5C1_flQ
The small businesses were acting suspicious.
Sounds like the health care mandate is going to be ruled unconstitutional. gg Obama
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/toobin-this-law-looks-like-its-going-to
plaintiffs aiming to strike down the legislation are citing the U.S. Constitution's Kids-With-Pre-Existing-Conditions-Can-Go-Fuck-Themselves clause, which decrees that children who suffer from debilitating illnesses prior to acquiring health insurance "should just go straight to hell." [...] Legal experts noted that if this argument fails, plaintiffs would undoubtedly cite the 24th Amendment's If-You-Don't-Have-Health-Insurance-Already-You-Must-Be-A-Poor-Fuck-Who-Doesn't-Deserve-It-Anyway provision
Sounds like the health care mandate is going to be ruled unconstitutional. gg Obama
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/toobin-this-law-looks-like-its-going-to
Sounds like the health care mandate is going to be ruled unconstitutional. gg Obama
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/toobin-this-law-looks-like-its-going-toQuoteplaintiffs aiming to strike down the legislation are citing the U.S. Constitution's Kids-With-Pre-Existing-Conditions-Can-Go-Fuck-Themselves clause, which decrees that children who suffer from debilitating illnesses prior to acquiring health insurance "should just go straight to hell." [...] Legal experts noted that if this argument fails, plaintiffs would undoubtedly cite the 24th Amendment's If-You-Don't-Have-Health-Insurance-Already-You-Must-Be-A-Poor-Fuck-Who-Doesn't-Deserve-It-Anyway provision
Detroit's financial review team this afternoon declared that the city is under a financial emergency and no consent agreement between the city and state has been adopted, a move that forces Gov. Rick Snyder to appoint an emergency manager within the next 10 days under state law.http://www.freep.com/article/20120326/NEWS06/120326048/Financial-review-team-declares-emergency-Detroit-agreement-can-still-avert-takeover-10-days?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
...
"This is white on black crime," community activist and Minister Malik Shabazz said from a microphone during public comment. "This is white supremacy. Before you can take over our city, we will burn it down."
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/28/markets/oil-speculators-prices/index.htm?iid=HP_LN
I can't make up my mind. Is this:
A) Sound economics
B) Economic blackmail
Mitt Romney trails Barack Obama by 19 points in basic popularity as the 2012 presidential contest inches closer to the main event, with a record 50 percent of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll now rating Romney unfavorably overall.
Thirty-four percent hold a favorable opinion of Romney, the lowest for any leading presidential candidate in ABC/Post polls in primary seasons since 1984. His unfavorable score is higher than Obama ever has received; it’s been exceeded by just one other Republican candidate this year, Newt Gingrich, and by only one top candidate in 28 years, Hillary Clinton in 2008.
In the head-to-head matchup, independents choose Obama by a 55-40 margin. And while Obama leads 54-43 among registered voters, he defeats Romney 56-40 amongst all respondentswhoa wtf
Yup. Romney had a hard time beating Santorum and Newt Fucking Gingrich. That means even his own party finds him "barely tolerable." Obama's team is going to have a field day with the Massachusett's law no matter how the supreme court votes.
More unhappy polls for Mittens and the Republicans:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/03/28/rel3d.pdf
and in key battle ground states:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/87037735/Q-swing-3-27
Romney said he has some connections to Wisconsin.
“One of most humorous I think relates to my father. You may remember my father, George Romney, was president of an automobile company called American Motors … They had a factory in Michigan, and they had a factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and another one in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” said Romney. “And as the president of the company he decided to close the factory in Michigan and move all the production to Wisconsin. Now later he decided to run for governor of Michigan and so you can imagine that having closed the factory and moved all the production to Wisconsin was a very sensitive issue to him, for his campaign.”
Romney said he recalled a parade in which the school band marching with his father’s campaign only knew the Wisconsin fight song, not the Michigan song.
“So every time they would start playing ‘On Wisconsin, on Wisconsin,’ my dad’s political people would jump up and down and try to get them to stop, because they didn’t want people in Michigan to be reminded that my dad had moved production to Wisconsin,” said Romney, laughing.
More unhappy polls for Mittens and the Republicans:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/03/28/rel3d.pdf
and in key battle ground states:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/87037735/Q-swing-3-27
You know what I find nuts about that polling?
Obama assassinates* fuckin' Osama bin Laden and only gets a two percent bump in his approval rating, to 54%, which drops back down to 48 by mid-June! The dude just can't catch a break!
You know what I find nuts about that polling?
Obama assassinates* fuckin' Osama bin Laden and only gets a two percent bump in his approval rating, to 54%, which drops back down to 48 by mid-June! The dude just can't catch a break!
So Romney actually said this:QuoteRomney said he has some connections to Wisconsin.
“One of most humorous I think relates to my father. You may remember my father, George Romney, was president of an automobile company called American Motors … They had a factory in Michigan, and they had a factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and another one in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” said Romney. “And as the president of the company he decided to close the factory in Michigan and move all the production to Wisconsin. Now later he decided to run for governor of Michigan and so you can imagine that having closed the factory and moved all the production to Wisconsin was a very sensitive issue to him, for his campaign.”
Romney said he recalled a parade in which the school band marching with his father’s campaign only knew the Wisconsin fight song, not the Michigan song.
“So every time they would start playing ‘On Wisconsin, on Wisconsin,’ my dad’s political people would jump up and down and try to get them to stop, because they didn’t want people in Michigan to be reminded that my dad had moved production to Wisconsin,” said Romney, laughing.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/28/1078619/-Mitt-Romney-relates-to-the-locals-again
The man is the worst politician in history.
Just thinking about that story made Romney laugh so hard, his monocle popped out.:lol :lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7kGTsKzX5k
The world is moving from anger to indifference, from anti-Americanism to post-Americanism. The fact that new powers are more strongly asserting their interests is the reality of the post-American world. It also raises the political conundrum of how to achieve international objectives in a world of many actors, state and nonstate. Oh, and death to America.
I like Fareed Zakaria. I should read that.
Oh shit. Oh fucking shit.
Guys. You'll never believe this shit. Apparently, the President... READS.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1943976257173&set=p.1943976257173&type=1&ref=nf
Yup. He's a reader. But not only is he a reader, he reads books by MUSLIMS ABOUT POST-AMERICA! HOLY FUCKING SHIT, SEKRIT MUSLIN CONFIRMED!
Yes, "time constraints" likerunning the most powerful country in the worldfundraising. People in power have always relied on others to distill complex matters for them.
If our policy makers are only doing a little light reading on international relations and avoiding the scholarly stuff because of "time constraints" we are fucking doomed. :(
There's a reason foreign affairs is at the bottom -- in the post-Cold War world, the American public doesn't care and doesn't know much about international relations. Short of the presidential level, developing expertise or interest in that area does nothing for a politician's electoral chances -- and even at the presidential leve it's a mixed bag.
With this kind of mindset, giving a Senator a copy of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and assuming they'll get really hooked on the story is faintly absurd. Many of my academic brethren might proffer up one of the more recent classics in international relations theory. To which I say, "BWA HA HA HA HA!!!!" Neither Kenneth Waltz nor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita would last as long in a politicians' hands as Thucydides.
No, if you're educating a politician from scratch, you need something relatively pithy, accessible, relevant to current events, and America-centric. Given those criteria, Friedman's oeuvre makes some kind of inuitive sense, no matter how wrong or ripe for satire it is. I mean, what's the alternative -- Three Cups of Tea?
Neither here nor there, but Zakaria is really bad when he's not talking foreign policy.
Neither here nor there, but Zakaria is really bad when he's not talking foreign policy.
He suffers from the "let's dick punch the poor as a way for them to get some skin in the game" Washington groupthink on domestic stuff, for sure.
I told him that the idea of having no military posts on either side was new to me: that it had never been mentioned among the members of the executive: that therefore I could only speak for myself and sa that, prima facie, it accorded well with two favorite ideas of mine, of leaving commerce free, and never keeping an unnecessary soldier; but when he spoke of having no military posts on either side, there might be difficult in fixing the distance of the nearest posts.
-Jefferson
It's true, I got a $50 quickie abortion just last week at the Mitt Romney Memorial Abortionplex and Job Killingnasium.
Section 1. Presidential performance Issuesaside from stuff like Keep taxes Low and Reducing Federal Spending I have
2. How Important is it to voters in your state for republican candidates to give attention to the following issues during the 2012 campaign?
Exposing Obama's radical left-wing policies; _ Very Important _ Somewhat Important _ Not ImportantI'm too lazy to type it all out, but you can read it here
Repealing Obamacare: _ Very Important _ Somewhat Important _ Not Important
Reining in government employee's unions; _ Very Important _ Somewhat Important _ Not Important
So they're going to wait until January 2017 to hire again ???
Isn't the UE rate for college graduates around 7%?
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised from
+284,000 to +275,000, and the change for February was revised from +227,000
to +240,000.
Restaurants and the food service industry added 188,500 jobs in March, well more than the net gain of 120,000 jobs in the economy as a whole when jobs losses in other sectors are factored in, according to the Labor Department.
Yet the food service and restaurant sector carries another distinction: This is one of just two sectors with wage declines over the past year, according to a new report by PayScale, an online compensation data website. Wages for food service and restaurant jobs dipped 0.6 percent, from March 2011 to March 2012. In contrast, U.S. wages in all industries rose 1.4 percent on average during that same stretch. (The legal sector also experienced wage declines.)
Restaurant and food service jobs are traditionally among some of the lowest paying positions in the U.S. economy, with the average wage in 2010 at just $18,130 per year, according to the Labor Department.
"The growth that is happening in this sector is not really encouraging for the economy," said Katie Bardaro, PayScale's lead economist. "A lot of people are going into [food services who] could have gone into higher-paying better jobs that they are more qualified for. But they can't find them."
Food service wages plunged more than 3 percent from mid-2008 to mid-2009, according to PayScale.
Americans have begun to dine out more often, a reason for the numerous openings in the food sector, but consumers are also eating less per meal, Bardaro said. That means restaurants want to hire more hands at minimum wage or part-time, she said.
The boom in low-wage restaurant jobs may provide much needed relief to some, but it's not necessarily good for the economy as a whole in the long run, she said. The skilled workers who are taking positions in restaurants to make ends meet are losing the skills that they developed through higher education or other jobs, Bardaro said. If that happens, the economy misses out on potential innovation and job creation.
"We have all of these college graduates who are trained in a particular field, and they cannot find jobs in their chosen field," Bardaro said. "Those fields are losing out on new fresh minds and new fresh ideas."
http://takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire
Shit gets really good on the second page.
http://takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire
Shit gets really good on the second page.
I definitely don't like David Brooks, but he should be kept around if only to give someone like Charlie Pierce a reason to continue blogging:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/david-brooks-other-obama-7890505
http://takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire
Shit gets really good on the second page.
meanwhile:
http://news.yahoo.com/police-shootings-tulsa-okla-3-killed-130553271.html
white dude drives around shooting random black people, injures 2 and kills 3
crime rate has already dropped, keep on shooting
Its high time vigilantism made a huge comeback, and we took out the drug dealers like this guy did...
I'll bet my recent MegaMillions winnings the shooter is black. They are killing themselves and yet still want to blame it on the whites for all their inadequecies. When will they ever wake up and see the enemy, and the enemy is THEM!
Who is out walking at 1:00 a.m.? I'd say the neighborhood watch is on its toes.
my local paper just switched their comments section over to facebook-linked posting, so now people have to use their real faces & names. i hoped it'd cut down on the ignorance, but of course it hasn't. most of these fucks think they're speaking truth to pc liberals, so they go right ahead with their bullshit. makes me sick
my local paper just switched their comments section over to facebook-linked posting, so now people have to use their real faces & names. i hoped it'd cut down on the ignorance, but of course it hasn't. most of these fucks think they're speaking truth to pc liberals, so they go right ahead with their bullshit. makes me sick
Whoa, NRO canned Derbyshire
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/295514/parting-ways-rich-lowry
http://takimag.com/article/im_so_bored_with_mlk#axzz1rJCE7FV0
I wonder if they turned the comments off for that announcement, I'd expect lots of pissed off people concerned about FREE SPEECH up in there.
I wonder if they turned the comments off for that announcement, I'd expect lots of pissed off people concerned about FREE SPEECH up in there.
We all know Iran is less than a decade away from a viable nuke. Pakistan already has 'em, and they're just a rat's fart away from a full-blown Islamic revolution. Same for Saudi.quick question, is this a comic book villain from 2005, or the current Republican platform on Iran today?
Which do you think is scarier -- a Sharia state controlling our energy resources, or a Sharia state with nuclear weapons? Because that's what we're looking at, within our lifetime.
Meanwhile, the world keeps getting hotter and before you know it, honest soccer moms won't be able to afford to run the air conditioners in their SUVs! Unless we act.
Its time we took the bull by the horns, mister President. The people are looking to us for leadership. We've always known that World War Three would be fought in the middle east...
...and I say we get our retaliation in first.
Quote from: MaxWe all know Iran is less than a decade away from a viable nuke. Pakistan already has 'em, and they're just a rat's fart away from a full-blown Islamic revolution. Same for Saudi.quick question, is this a comic book villain from 2005, or the current Republican platform on Iran today?
Which do you think is scarier -- a Sharia state controlling our energy resources, or a Sharia state with nuclear weapons? Because that's what we're looking at, within our lifetime.
Meanwhile, the world keeps getting hotter and before you know it, honest soccer moms won't be able to afford to run the air conditioners in their SUVs! Unless we act.
Its time we took the bull by the horns, mister President. The people are looking to us for leadership. We've always known that World War Three would be fought in the middle east...
...and I say we get our retaliation in first.This probably belongs more in the comic thread, but it was so damn close to what's considered mainstream political opinion that I felt compelled to post it. I can't wait until Mitt Romney gets tips from Lex Luthor's run for president.spoiler (click to show/hide)its the main bad guy from the Vertigo comic, The Losers.[close]
Abbasi said Tehran could stop its production of 20 percent enriched uranium needed for a research reactor, and continue enriching uranium to lower levels for power generation.http://m.apnews.mobi/ap/db_6776/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=Q8xO1hFb
This could take place once Iran has stockpiled enough of the 20 percent enriched uranium, Abbasi told state TV. The 20 percent enriched material can be used for medical research and treatments.
The enrichment issue lies at the core of the dispute between Iran and the West, which fears Tehran is seeking an atomic weapon - a charge the country denies, insisting its uranium program is for peaceful purposes only.
Uranium has to be enriched to more than 90 percent to be used for a nuclear weapon, but with Iran enriching uranium to 20 percent levels, there are concerns it has come a step closer to nuclear weapons capability.
I'm gonna meet radical black neo-nazis Tavis Smiley and Cornell West later this week. :hyper
http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/09/the-end-of-my-white-guilt/
Quick translation: MY bike got stolen, and I've always been a racist, but now I'm going to say so out loud and will accept no criticism, because see the thing before about my bike. MY bike.
It’s time to push back against liberals who have goaded whites into guilt. In light of the crimes blacks have committed against whites in the last 100 years, I say it’s even. Move on.
POLITICO Breaking News
-------------------------------------------------
Rick Santorum is suspending his GOP presidential campaign, a source close to the campaign told POLITICO. He will make the announcement in Gettysburg, Pa., shortly.
Rick Santorum called Mitt Romney Tuesday to say he is ending his presidential campaign, Yahoo News has learned.
Santorum is scheduled to make an announcement at a press conference in Gettysburg, Pa., at 2 p.m. ET.
Calls to several campaign aides from Yahoo News were not returned before the event.
Herman Cain made clear Tuesday that he is ready to throw his support behind Mitt Romney, making no mention of his endorsement of Newt Gingrich.
“I have always said I will support whoever the nominee is and it looks like Mitt Romney’s going to be that nominee, and we do need to get behind him,” Cain said on Fox News. “I remind people all the time … ‘Keep your eye on the mission.’ And the mission is to get control of the Senate, maintain control of the House and defeat Barack Obama. That means get behind the nominee, so, yes, I’m ready to get behind the nominee.”
Santorum quits
(http://www.glennbeck.com/publish/uploads/2012/04/PresBeck3-640x451.jpg)
Great article about young people getting screwed over the most in the recession... an argument how the largest cause for political strife is old vs. young, and how neither political party gives a fuck about the young.
http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412?src=soc_fcbk (http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412?src=soc_fcbk)
Great article about young people getting screwed over the most in the recession... an argument how the largest cause for political strife is old vs. young, and how neither political party gives a fuck about the young.
http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412?src=soc_fcbk (http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412?src=soc_fcbk)
Five Republicans have filed the necessary papers and $500 fee to qualify for the June 26 Utah presidential primary election, but with Rick Santorum dropping out of the race Tuesday, only four will be on the ballot.
Or possibly three.
Newt Gingrich’s check bounced.
Utah Elections Director Mark Thomas said a designated agent for the Gingrich campaign brought the filing papers and a check for $500 in March, but the state was notified by the bank that the check had bounced. He said the office has tried to contact the Gingrich campaign through the telephone number and email provided on the application, but has not received a response.
Recently, the state sent a certified letter to the campaign, stating that if the fee isn’t paid by April 20, Gingrich will be disqualified and will not be on the ballot.
Baby boomers more or less feel that the government should serve them and only them. It is the responsibility of the rest of us to prop them up because they earned it, damn it!
Also, Santorum dropping out is shitty news. I really hoped Newt would concede instead and give all delegates over to Santorum. I wanted this thing dragged out to the very end. Unfortunately, it seems like the wagons are starting to collectively circle around Romney.
When Romney loses in November, Santorum will be a shit player in 2016. Yea, Christie will wipe the flood with him, but Santorum has completely fucked his political life.
If Romney loses in November, Santorum will be a major player in 2016. Yea, Christie will probably wipe the flood with him regardless, but Santorum has completely revived his political life.
It would continue the trend of whoever comes in "second" in the Republican primaries usually getting nominated next time around, though (cuz it's HIS TURN lulz). Bush -> McCain -> Romney -> Santorum, before that Ford -> Reagan -> Bush -> Dole
ed: upon searching I'm apparently about the 100000000th person to make this banal/facile observation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1rjf7zdD-M
Holy shit, check out the chart on this page:
http://dailykos.com/story/2012/04/11/1082476/-Obama-leads-Romney-by-landslide-numbers
How the fuck is Obama beating Mitt by THIRTEEN points in Colorado? Isn't that the state where the people of South Park reside?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1rjf7zdD-M
Holy shit, check out the chart on this page:
http://dailykos.com/story/2012/04/11/1082476/-Obama-leads-Romney-by-landslide-numbers
How the fuck is Obama beating Mitt by THIRTEEN points in Colorado? Isn't that the state where the people of South Park reside?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1rjf7zdD-M
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/newark_mayor_cory_booker_taken.html
:o
:american
But as pissed off as I am about the press response to this shit, it's not nearly as bad as knowing the Obama campaign ran as far away from Rosen the NANOSECOND she finished saying her comments. It's just like what they did with Shirley Sherrod. By acknowledging this woman, they're giving this moronic "scandal" some legitimacy. I'd really think these people would be smarter than that.This was part of the point I was trying to make while being a dick back when Breitbart died. The Sherrod thing was absolute Obama team fuckup because they panicked. And now you have Jay Carney going "herp derp which Hillary Rosen was it?!?"
but why the fuck did every other news outlet from the so-called "librul" media jump on this shit too?If Romney isn't competitive, what do they have to fill airtime for the next six months?
It would be nice if we had a media who thought that their prime directive was to deliver truth, no matter how ugly and upsetting to one side of the established political spectrum, to the public at large. That would be great.We do more or less have that, it just takes effort and most people are not interested in any media that upsets them.
If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by [George] Washington. If ever a nation was deceived by a man, the American nation has been deceived by Washington. Let his conduct, then, be an example to future ages; let it serve to be a warning that no man be an idol.Any typos mine. (Or possibly the language of the time. Likely the former.)
Philadelphia Aurora, 1796.
An Anglican monarchical, and aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed object is to draw over us the substance, as they have already done the forms, of the British government. ... It would give you a fever were I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies, men who were Samsons in the field and Solomons in the council, but who have had their heads shorn by the harlot England.
Thomas Jefferson, 1796.
The character which Mr. Washington has attempted to act in this world, is a sort, of non-describable, camelion-colored thing, called prudence. It is, in many cases, a substitute for principle, and is so nearly allied to hypocrisy, that it easily slides into it. ... And as to you, sir, treacherous to private friendship (for so you have been to me, and that in the day of danger) and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are a apostate or an impostor, whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any?"
Thomas Pane, to G Dub, 1796.
Mr. Adams and his Federalists wish to sap The Republic by fraud, destroy it by force, and elect an English monarchy in its place.
Thomas Jefferson
Whether he is spiteful, playful, witty, kind, cold, drunk, sober, angry, easy, stiff, jealous, cautious, confident, close, open, it is always in the wrong place or to the wrong person.
James McHenry, Secretary of War for Adams
The coward wretch at the head, while, like a Parisian revolutionary monster, pratting about humanity, could feel an infernal pleasure in the utter destruction of his opponents. We have too long witnessed his general turpitude, his cruel removals of faithful officers, and the substitution of corruption and baseness for integrity and worth.
Senator Timothy Pickering (MA), 1804.
Really, the only thing that would do any good would be to legalize the hunting, killing, skinning and eating of the DC press corps.And these same press corps say nobody can ever agree on anything.
False equivalencies have officially jumped the shark...and the election campaign's barely even started. Mitt has about the same odds McCain had in '08, Kerry had in '04, etc.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/obama-as-a-boy-ate-dog-meat/
What is the Congress situation like? Is there any chance of the 2010 reversal being rolled back at all?
I most likely won't be saying this again for a good while, but kudos to Romney for not taking Hannity's bait the other day on the dog eating comments.considering that its Romney's people that put the story out there to begin with, I wouldn't give him too much.
“Philadelphia public schools is not the School District,” Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen told a handful of reporters at yesterday's press conference laying out the five-year plan proposed to the School Reform Commission. “There's a redefinition, and we'll get to that later.”
He got to it: talk about “modernization,” “right-sizing,” “entrepreneurialism” and “competition.”
Forty schools would close next year, and six additional schools would be closed every year thereafter until 2017.
"There are other people out there who do these things, if not better, then at least less expensively."
Our public education system is broken, let's fix it by cutting funding and increasing class sizes. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Raising/Cutting funding is only a small part of the problem though. A restructuring of the entire system is what's needed. But funding issues are the only issues simple enough to understand for the average idiot voter.
Our public education system is broken, let's fix it by cutting funding and increasing class sizes. Yeah, that's the ticket.
To be fair we already spend a shitload on education and it hasn't done much for us. This isnt an instance were more money means things will be fixed. My GF is a pretty liberal Jr. High teacher and was totally against charter schools... until she interviewed for one.
"You mean the student to teacher ratio is 11:1?" (her biggest class is 30 kids) :lol
She currently teaches at a low income school in a smallish town and always talks about how much the school asks of her and how much emphasis is put on standardized testing and other B.S. Now she is desperately trying to get a job at one.
ah, an entire generation of dumb, jingoistic unemployables. well, it's GREAT for my hiring prospectus!
You can start to fix education by making it ok to smack kids upside the head for being fucktards.
You can start to fix education by making it ok to smack kids upside the head for being fucktards.
So you're basically saying you want to smack all kids?
I have no idea what to do about education. Throwing money at it doesn't seem to work, but then there are schools where they barely have toilet paper and text books.I agree with this. Not every kid needs to or wants to go to college. There is a shortage of trade work in the US and has been for a long time even though there is decent pay. It's been pounded into heads for the last generation that going into a trade is lowly. That kind of mentality needs to stop. But that's the snobby class culture that's been breeding in this country for a long time.
Maybe moving away from strict academics to also giving kids the option to start learning specific trades.
Beyond that, public education is fighting against a pop culture that enforces images that overpower whatever message the kid gets in school. I think to improve American education, you would actually have to start limiting the amount of media in the country. Kids are receiving two different educations at once. In my High School experience, I don't think the kids saw the High School as a place of learning. It was a social training facility if anything. You got to change that mindset.
you can fix education by putting christians in re-education camps and making all the non-millenialist people understand the idea of "INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE".
I agree with this. Not every kid needs to or wants to go to college. There is a shortage of trade work in the US and has been for a long time even though there is decent pay. It's been pounded into heads for the last generation that going into a trade is lowly. That kind of mentality needs to stop. But that's the snobby class culture that's been breeding in this country for a long time.
FOXX: I went through school, I worked my way through, it took me seven years, I never borrowed a dime of money. He borrowed a little bit because we both were totally on our own when we went to college, totally. [...] I have very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt because there’s no reason for that. We live in an opportunity society and people are forgetting that. I remind folks all the time that the Declaration of Independence says “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” You don’t have it dumped in your lap.
New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week but a trend reading rose to its highest since January, the latest sign of a weaker pace of healing in the still-struggling labor market.http://www.cnbc.com/id/47186701
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised up to 389,000 from the previously reported 386,000.
The four-week moving average for new claims, a closely followed measure of labor market trends, rose 6,250 to 381,750, its highest since the week that ended Jan. 7.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new claims falling to 375,000 last week.
The reading was the latest example of fizzling momentum in the labor market recovery. New claims fell sharply during early winter but the improvement has largely stalled in recent weeks.
Employers added 120,000 new jobs to their payrolls in March, the least since October, after averaging 246,000 jobs per month over the prior three months.
I don't think it's going to happen, I don't think it's a popular opinion. But I do think we have the means to automate and efficasize to a point that we don't need to punish those without jobs with the way money is currently used.
Here we go again!And it's the same exact issues that stalled the economy last year too.QuoteNew U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week but a trend reading rose to its highest since January, the latest sign of a weaker pace of healing in the still-struggling labor market.http://www.cnbc.com/id/47186701
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised up to 389,000 from the previously reported 386,000.
The four-week moving average for new claims, a closely followed measure of labor market trends, rose 6,250 to 381,750, its highest since the week that ended Jan. 7.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new claims falling to 375,000 last week.
The reading was the latest example of fizzling momentum in the labor market recovery. New claims fell sharply during early winter but the improvement has largely stalled in recent weeks.
Employers added 120,000 new jobs to their payrolls in March, the least since October, after averaging 246,000 jobs per month over the prior three months.
Strong early growth followed by stagnation - where have I seen this before. Oh yea, last year.
FoC's idea of getting rid of mandatory attendance would mean poor and minority kids would be more likely to drop out and gaps in wealth/class/capital access would all get ossified even more. Whooooooo! Thankfully there aren't enough super-bitter white people to support this politically.
I agree with Mups that not everyone should have to go to college. There's some creeping credentialism going on. The trick is providing a useful path for learning trade work without it becoming a way to sift the poor kids out early in their education.Agreed. I think that could be done by changing the image of trade work. If people knew that you could make good money as a plumber they might be more inclined to do it regardless of their social class.
How do we propose making High Schools into something other than babysitting for some students.Education is a necessity. Unless you plan on bagging groceries for the rest of your life you need to be educated in something. The solution is to open up our schools to multiple avenues through life, not to just give up on poor performers. More people being productive is better for everyone in the economy. We need to change our definition of education when it comes to our public schools.
No offense, but for some of the people working for their family is gonna do more for them than being forced to do nothing all day. If they don't want to take advantage of free education than it's their problem. No need to lower the standard of the school for people who want to do better.
No offense, but for some of the people working for their family is gonna do more for them than being forced to do nothing all day.
The problem is that if you don't pass the tests you school loses funding. It's a total fucked system.
How do we propose making High Schools into something other than babysitting for some students.Education is a necessity. Unless you plan on bagging groceries for the rest of your life you need to be educated in something. The solution is to open up our schools to multiple avenues through life, not to just give up on poor performers. More people being productive is better for everyone in the economy. We need to change our definition of education when it comes to our public schools.
No offense, but for some of the people working for their family is gonna do more for them than being forced to do nothing all day. If they don't want to take advantage of free education than it's their problem. No need to lower the standard of the school for people who want to do better.
No offense, but for some of the people working for their family is gonna do more for them than being forced to do nothing all day.
Ah, so we'd be changing child labor laws too. I like where this is going!
The point was that student who dont want to be at school are doing a disservice to everyone else. If they can't be participating members of the school body then they should not be forced to participate.
Well yeah, obviously. I'm not saying there shouldn't be a bare minimum of knowledge in the core subjects. Core subjects definitely have their place. I just think electives should play a much bigger role in high school instead of being a "free class" like most kids see them.How do we propose making High Schools into something other than babysitting for some students.Education is a necessity. Unless you plan on bagging groceries for the rest of your life you need to be educated in something. The solution is to open up our schools to multiple avenues through life, not to just give up on poor performers. More people being productive is better for everyone in the economy. We need to change our definition of education when it comes to our public schools.
No offense, but for some of the people working for their family is gonna do more for them than being forced to do nothing all day. If they don't want to take advantage of free education than it's their problem. No need to lower the standard of the school for people who want to do better.
I believe there should be some basic standard required to graduate HS (math, English, etc) even if the school system implements a trade school type program. While it's important to have a skilled work force, it's also important to have an educated one.
The HS I graduated from required you get a technical certificate and Associates Degree in order to graduate. I definitely believe we need more tech high schools that work with community colleges
Things must have changed then because all of my friends had jobs working at Wendys when they were a sophmore in early 2000s. Without any of the restrictions you mentioned.
I brought up trade work/community colleges first and received no recognition. My role as poli-bore's Rosalind Franklin continues
Trade education isn't promoted much in school because it's expensive, so when schools cut back, things like auto-shop and welding are the first things on the chopping block. So again, it comes down to MONEY.
These Rand-related slams, Ryan says, are inaccurate and part of an effort on the left to paint him as a cold-hearted Objectivist. Ryan’s actual philosophy, as reported by my colleague, Brian Bolduc, couldn’t be further from the caricature. As a practicing Roman Catholic, Ryan says, his faith and moral values shape his politics as much as his belief in freedom and capitalism does.
“I, like millions of young people in America, read Rand’s novels when I was young. I enjoyed them,” Ryan says. “They spurred an interest in economics, in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman,” a subject he eventually studied as an undergraduate at Miami University in Ohio. “But it’s a big stretch to suggest that a person is therefore an Objectivist.”
“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.
Surprised this hasn't been posted. Paul Ryan throws his idol, Ayn Rand under the bus. (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_04/paul_ryan_secondhander036945.php)QuoteThese Rand-related slams, Ryan says, are inaccurate and part of an effort on the left to paint him as a cold-hearted Objectivist. Ryan’s actual philosophy, as reported by my colleague, Brian Bolduc, couldn’t be further from the caricature. As a practicing Roman Catholic, Ryan says, his faith and moral values shape his politics as much as his belief in freedom and capitalism does.
“I, like millions of young people in America, read Rand’s novels when I was young. I enjoyed them,” Ryan says. “They spurred an interest in economics, in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman,” a subject he eventually studied as an undergraduate at Miami University in Ohio. “But it’s a big stretch to suggest that a person is therefore an Objectivist.”
“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.
A lot of people have pointed out that Ryan's a lying sack of shit, since he praised Rand multiple times, but here's my question: How does one "reject" her philosophy, while still supporting his own budget?
Earlier this year I wrote about Ryan and his deep devotion to the philosophy of Rand, particularly her inverted Marxist economic-political worldview:
Ryan would retain some bare-bones subsidies for the poorest, but the overwhelming thrust in every way is to liberate the lucky and successful to enjoy their good fortune without burdening them with any responsibility for the welfare of their fellow citizens. This is the core of Ryan's moral philosophy:
"The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand," Ryan said at a D.C. gathering four years ago honoring the author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead." ...
At the Rand celebration he spoke at in 2005, Ryan invoked the central theme of Rand's writings when he told his audience that, "Almost every fight we are involved in here on Capitol Hill ... is a fight that usually comes down to one conflict--individualism versus collectivism."
So, he doesn't like her, but she's the reason he got into public service, he spoke at a "Rand Celebration" and thinks every conflict in Congress can be characterized by Rand's worldview. BUT I NEVER MET THAT BITCH SERIOUSLY!
"[Romney's] position on the bailout was exactly what President Obama followed. I know it infuriates them to hear that," Eric Fehrnstrom, senior adviser to the Romney campaign, said.
"The only economic success that President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney's advice."
"The fact that the auto companies today are profitable is because they've shed costs," Fehronstrom said. "The reason they shed those costs and have got their employee labor contracts less expensive is because they went through that managed bankruptcy process. It is exactly what Mitt Romney told them to do."
Mitt Romney and Rick Perry were both involved in a discussion of bailouts of Europe and the UAW during the current debate. Perry failed to attack Romney when given a huge opening. His press staff sent a copy of what he should have said:
Mitt Romney on Auto Bailout
In 2008, Mitt Romney promised Michigan voters he would "spend billions more in federal money to bolster struggling automakers." He proposed a five-fold increase in federal funding for the automotive industry: $20 billion in new taxpayer-funded spending.
Romney claimed, "I'm not open to a bailout, but I am open to a workout," he said. "Washington should not be a benefactor, but it can and must be a partner."
Gannett News Service called Romney's plan a "massive federal bailout."
The Associated Press said Romney "told voters what he thought they wanted to hear" and would "do whatever it takes to be president" after his promise to Michigan voters.
A poll conducted last year by the Public Religion Research Institute found an incredible 44 percent of Americans (and 67 percent of white evangelical Christians) agreeing with the statement, "The severity of recent natural disasters is evidence that we are in what the Bible calls the end times."
VOTERS!QuoteA poll conducted last year by the Public Religion Research Institute found an incredible 44 percent of Americans (and 67 percent of white evangelical Christians) agreeing with the statement, "The severity of recent natural disasters is evidence that we are in what the Bible calls the end times."
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/0424/40-year-wave-of-Mexican-migration-recedes-as-illegal-immigration-ebbs-video
Looks like there is starting to be a trend of reverse immigration.
This kind of puts a damper on the "end days of conservatism" where theorists were banking on a continual flow of immigrants from mexico and central america to the united states that would result in the death of the GOP and a white minority.
So will republicans decide to take a humane approach to immigration issues before or after Texas goes blue. 2-3 more election cycles should do the trick
It's amazing how far they've strayed from even Reagan on immigration. They won't even support Rubio's band aid version of the DREAM Act; I wish Obama would endorse it, just to put the final nail in its coffin with them tbh.
Given how hard Perry was savaged over his immigration stance in the primary, I don't think the Texas GOP model will work for republicans anytime soon. I'm not sure republicans would even accept Bush's immigration stances in 2011/2012.
The GOP establishment seems willing to move towards some basic level of seriousness, but the base refuses to go along. John Boehner can't pass Rubio's bill because his caucus is filled with people who vehemently oppose anything that addresses the issue on any serious level beyond "build a fence." Perry, Bush and other border republicans actually had to deal with the issue and get their hands dirty - while their counterparts from Kansas to Kentucky get to disagree on everything in the abstract; then there are border republicans like Gov Brewer and her Arizona delegation, who have basically gone insane.
Surprised this hasn't been posted. Paul Ryan throws his idol, Ayn Rand under the bus. (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_04/paul_ryan_secondhander036945.php)QuoteThese Rand-related slams, Ryan says, are inaccurate and part of an effort on the left to paint him as a cold-hearted Objectivist. Ryan’s actual philosophy, as reported by my colleague, Brian Bolduc, couldn’t be further from the caricature. As a practicing Roman Catholic, Ryan says, his faith and moral values shape his politics as much as his belief in freedom and capitalism does.
“I, like millions of young people in America, read Rand’s novels when I was young. I enjoyed them,” Ryan says. “They spurred an interest in economics, in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman,” a subject he eventually studied as an undergraduate at Miami University in Ohio. “But it’s a big stretch to suggest that a person is therefore an Objectivist.”
“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.
A lot of people have pointed out that Ryan's a lying sack of shit, since he praised Rand multiple times, but here's my question: How does one "reject" her philosophy, while still supporting his own budget?
Welcome back JD.
Didn't go anywhere, just seemed like not much was being said. :P
yawwwwn
Don’t Know Much About (Ancient) History
The things I do for book sales. I debated, sort of, Ron Paul on Bloomberg. Video here (http://www.bloomberg.com/video/91689761/). I thought we might have a discussion of why the runaway inflation he and his allies keep predicting keeps not happening. But no, he insisted (if I understood him correctly) that currency debasement and price controls destroyed the Roman Empire. I responded that I am not a defender of the economic policies of the Emperor Diocletian.
Actually, though, appeals to what supposedly happened somewhere in the distant past are quite common on the goldbug side of economics. And it’s kind of telling.
I mean, history is essential to economic analysis. You really do want to know, say, about the failure of Argentina’s convertibility law, of the effects of Chancellor Brüning’s dedication to the gold standard, and many other episodes.
Somehow, though, people like Ron Paul don’t like to talk about events of the past century, for which we have reasonably good data; they like to talk about events in the dim mists of history, where we don’t really know what happened. And I think that’s no accident. Partly it’s the attempt of the autodidact to show off his esoteric knowledge; but it’s also the fact that because we don’t really know what happened — what really did go down during the Diocletian era? — you can project what you think should have happened onto the sketchy record, then claim vindication for whatever you want to believe.
It’s funny, in a way — except that this sort of thinking dominates one of our two main political parties.
I once saw some sidewalk graffiti in Portland where someone had written in one color of chalk, "ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY. BUT ITS COLLAPSE WAS SWIFT. [anarchist symbol]". In another color of chalk, the "WAS SWIFT" had been crossed out and corrected with "TOOK A THOUSAND YEARS". I wish I'd taken a picture.
"I say just because you're offended by it doesn't mean you don't have the right to say something just the opposite,”
For the next hour, the donors relayed to Messina what their friends had been saying. They felt unfairly demonized for being wealthy. They felt scapegoated for the recession. It was a few weeks into the Occupy Wall Street movement, with mass protests against the 1 percent springing up all around the country, and they blamed the president and his party for the public’s nasty mood. The administration, some suggested, had created a hostile environment for job creators.
Messina politely pushed back. It’s not the president’s fault that Americans are still upset with Wall Street, he told them, and given the public’s mood, the administration’s rhetoric had been notably restrained.
One of the guests raised his hand; he knew how to solve the problem. The president had won plaudits for his speech on race during the last campaign, the guest noted. It was a soaring address that acknowledged white resentment and urged national unity. What if Obama gave a similarly healing speech about class and inequality? What if he urged an end to attacks on the rich? Around the table, some people shook their heads in disbelief.
One former supporter, Dan Loeb, compared Obama to Nero; the president’s enemies insinuated worse. In 2010, Stephen A. Schwarzman, a founder of Blackstone, said that an Obama proposal to raise taxes on “carried interest” — the main source of income for most private-equity managers — reminded him of “when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.”
Ron Paul - 93%http://www.isidewith.com/results/5504941
Gary Johnson - 79%
Mitt Romney - 51%
Buddy Roemer - 39%
Jimmy McMillan - 28%
Kent Mesplay - 23%
Fred Karger - 5%
Barack Obama - 3%
Libertarian - 90%
Republican - 44%
Green - 23%
Democratic - 3%
She said Johnson plans to apply for residency so he can stay in New Zealand, and that he intends to donate sperm to additional women.
"He is obsessed with this. He doesn't want to stop," she said.
...
Johnson, a former Birmingham city councilman and cabinet member for Gov. Bob Riley, said he was unable to have children with his wife and that the desire to father a child was “a need that I have.”
Kathy Johnson, a two-time Mrs America finalist with three children from a previous relationship, said the first baby is a girl and due to arrive this month. There are at least two others, also girls, who are due in June and July, she said.
Johnson began donating sperm after arriving in Christchurch in 2011 to work on earthquake recovery. He created an online persona "chchbill" on unofficial websites for those seeking sperm donors. Some women later claimed he misled them about his background and the number of partners that he impregnated, raising concerns among New Zealand fertility specialists.
"He doesn't really know how many pregnancies there are out there. Some women were so angry they didn't want to talk to him again," she said.
New rule: the answer to any question that starts with "does Paul actually have a chance" is no
I will admit that I'm a big big insulter of any scare story, including the Day After Tomorrow, Peter Ehrlich, etc. type of stuff. Inherent skepticism.
I will admit that I'm a big big insulter of any scare story, including the Day After Tomorrow, Peter Ehrlich, etc. type of stuff. Inherent skepticism.
[H]alf-white Barack Obama (exactly my age) didn't say a word, even though he was talking to college kids that day.... Funny the "coolest president ever" doesn't say a word about the passing of MCA. Weird and kinda sad, actually. [...]
The president took time from his busy schedule to comment on the passing of black musicians. When Whitney Houston, a longtime crack addict, died this year, the White House put out a statement.... And when accused pedophile and drug addict Michael Jackson died in 2009, the White House weighed in with the president's thoughts. [...]
Mr. Obama is said to have 2,000 songs on his iPod, but he's never mentioned the Beastie Boys. Too bad. He could learn so much from them. Still can.
I see that and raise you this http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=37652626&postcount=6306
I see that and raise you this http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=37652626&postcount=6306
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/07/120507fa_fact_secor
Story by Laura Secor about visiting Iran for their equivalent of midterm elections. Sort of turns into one of those pieces that's about the reporter's experiences, but for a reason. It's worth reading the whole thing as there's a bit of a punchline to it.
During an interview with WEWS-TV in Cleveland following a campaign stop, Romney said his views helped save the industry.
"I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy," Romney said. "And finally, when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet. So I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry's come back."
Schiff had a (mostly) correct diagnosis, but his prescription was pure libertopian lunacy. Would have made shit about 20 times worse.
I still think that the eventual triumph of the gay rights movement is inevitable, but that's cold comfort if you're a gay person living in North Carolina (or most other states) today.This. It's been two steps forward, one step back for a while. It will eventually get there and even accelerate as older generations pass on and with them a lot of ignorant beliefs.
A hundred years from now, kids will have trouble understanding how people could be so shitty.
I still think that the eventual triumph of the gay rights movement is inevitable, but that's cold comfort if you're a gay person living in North Carolina (or most other states) today.This. It's been two steps forward, one step back for a while. It will eventually get there and even accelerate as older generations pass on and with them a lot of ignorant beliefs.
A hundred years from now, kids will have trouble understanding how people could be so shitty.
I don't think each state will allow it by themselves but I do believe that the national sentiment will change enough that when the Supreme Court chimes they'll rule in favor of gay marriage.
I know Texas isn't the traditional South but it is extremely conservative and I have lived and have family and friends in rural East Tennessee. I've seen a tremendous change in attitude over the last 10 years or so. When I was younger I remember my grandmother saying "fags shouldn't marry" and how it's an abomination. In 2009 when I was visited her she told me that this country cares too much about who's having sex with who and that they should be able to do what they want. I know it's all anecdotal, but I'm hard pressed to think of anyone I know that is truly against gay marriage especially from a younger generation. I'm not saying they don't exist. I'm saying that public sentiment is changing so much that even most of them feel like it's not a good idea to go about ranting and raving anymore. The tide is turning IMO.I don't think each state will allow it by themselves but I do believe that the national sentiment will change enough that when the Supreme Court chimes they'll rule in favor of gay marriage.
If national sentiment means every place outside of the South and other strongly leaning Republican states then I suppose. As long as Republican presidential candidates get elected and put certain ideological judges on the bench it will take decades and decades and decades. All I can say is that if you don't live in the South, you don't understand how entrenched such views are and their kids aren't going to be any more enlightened than the parents were.
Sigh. Obama just did the right thing, but he also just lost any chance of carrying Virginia or NC in the general.
Sigh. Obama just did the right thing, but he also just lost any chance of carrying Virginia or NC in the general.
Thanks for posting a link buddy
Sigh. Obama just did the right thing, but he also just lost any chance of carrying Virginia or NC in the general.
Sigh. Obama just did the right thing, but he also just lost any chance of carrying Virginia or NC in the general.
On national poll last weekend we found most voters opposed to legal recognition for gay couples ALREADY think Obama supports gay marriage
Sigh. Obama just did the right thing, but he also just lost any chance of carrying Virginia or NC in the general.Quote from: PPPOn national poll last weekend we found most voters opposed to legal recognition for gay couples ALREADY think Obama supports gay marriage
And perhaps more importantly, I get to troll Gaborn nonstop now
And perhaps more importantly, I get to troll Gaborn nonstop now
That dude is never happy. He's already pissy about it.
i have my local nbc news channel liked on fbSame thing in georgia. They even had man on the street interviews and stuff.
when obama announced it, they said BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!! and i just laughed. oh texas.
(http://images.politico.com/global/2012/05/snapshot_2012-05-09_15-42-04.jpg)
:lol Fox Nation never disappoints.
(http://images.politico.com/global/2012/05/snapshot_2012-05-09_15-42-04.jpg)
:lol Fox Nation never disappoints.
the liar in chief will say whatever he thinks the group he is talking to want him to say
wait wait wait. So on page 2 of the GAF thread, Gaborn says that he would "respect" Obama if he signed an Executive Order on the topic.yup :lol
It's not clear what that Executive Order would entail, but wouldn't an Executive Order legalizing Gay Marriage directly go against all of that "constitutional states' rights" mumbo jumbo Gaborn's always going on about?
I don't think each state will allow it by themselves but I do believe that the national sentiment will change enough that when the Supreme Court chimes they'll rule in favor of gay marriage.
If national sentiment means every place outside of the South and other strongly leaning Republican states then I suppose. As long as Republican presidential candidates get elected and put certain ideological judges on the bench it will take decades and decades and decades. All I can say is that if you don't live in the South, you don't understand how entrenched such views are and their kids aren't going to be any more enlightened than the parents were.
wait wait wait. So on page 2 of the GAF thread, Gaborn says that he would "respect" Obama if he signed an Executive Order on the topic.
It's not clear what that Executive Order would entail, but wouldn't an Executive Order legalizing Gay Marriage directly go against all of that "constitutional states' rights" mumbo jumbo Gaborn's always going on about?
Out of all the groups that suffer from cognitive dissonance, gay right wingers perplex me the most. At least with the Republican Messicans or Republican the Blacks, I can at least see the righties make the argument that they only hate the illegal/lazy/shiftless ones. But with homosexuals? They all absolutely despise them.
I mean, I get that we all have our priorities and such, but really? I mean, really now?
Creepy Old Dude, I think this only really "hurts" Obama in North Carolina considering the current context, but he doesn't need it. He's got Virginia, and that's all he needs.
That the president has chosen today, when LGBT Americans are mourning the passage of Amendment One, to finally speak up for marriage equality is offensive and callous. Log Cabin Republicans appreciate that President Obama has finally come in line with leaders like Vice President Dick Cheney on this issue, but LGBT Americans are right to be angry that this calculated announcement comes too late to be of any use to the people of North Carolina, or any of the other states that have addressed this issue on his watch. This administration has manipulated LGBT families for political gain as much as anybody, and after his campaign’s ridiculous contortions to deny support for marriage equality this week he does not deserve praise for an announcement that comes a day late and a dollar short.
On Wednesday, MSNBC's Martin Basir invited Rep. Joe Barton to discuss an upcoming vote in the House that would slash funding for, among other things, Meals on Wheels, and school lunches for poor children. Barton, some of you may recall, was the dipshit congressman that apologized on the House floor to British Petroleum for our ocean getting in the way of their oil.
Barton said a few interesting things, but one thing that REALLY caught my attention was when he tried to defend his callous cuts by pointing to the Bible.
Bashir: I know you're a long time member of the Methodist Church. Is that correct?
Barton: Yes, sir. That's a true statement.
Bashir: How do you square your approach with the Psalm 146, where the Psalmist writes this: "He gives food to the hungry. The lord protects foreigners. He defends orphans and widows." Isn't this the exact opposite of the cuts being proposed by Republicans in congress?
Barton: No, the lord helps those who helps themselves...
Bashir: Which verse of scripture is that, sir?
Barton: Well, it's uh..
Bashir: I don't think you'll find that in the Old or New Testament.
Barton: Well, that was taught to me by my father who is president of the United Methodist school board in Waco Texas, and Bryant, Texas.
I find the timing of this announcement hilarious. obama is clearly catering to his base but the day directly after nc gives people the finger? I dunno. makes his intentions seem more political than social. but it's good, either way.
You would think that for people who absolutely love the Bible, republicans would actually bother reading it:
my dad is protestant and they only take new testament stuff as gospel, say the old is for jews and don't care
my dad is protestant and they only take new testament stuff as gospel, say the old is for jews and don't care
my dad is protestant and they only take new testament stuff as gospel, say the old is for jews and don't care
So he's cool with the gheys? Cause I'm pretty sure all mentions of TEH GHEY are in the OT.
my dad is protestant and they only take new testament stuff as gospel, say the old is for jews and don't care
So he's cool with the gheys? Cause I'm pretty sure all mentions of TEH GHEY are in the OT.
yeah, the church denomination i went to is cool with the homos. our piano player is gay even.
Only thing you need to read in the Bible is the Gospels. And Revelations, because DRAGONS
Most Christians in the US don't know shit about the Bible either.
Reading the bible is often a good first step to not being a Christian anymore.
Eh, not if you approach the Bible as simply the oral traditions passed down in written form, and not the book of God. And even now, a lot of modern, nondenominational churches don't even bother with the Old Testament. I've been to a few services in the past year or so that have actually been a breath of fresh air from shit I had to listen to when I was growing up. The church down my street is almost exclusively a homosexual place of worship.Most Christians in the US don't know shit about the Bible either.
Reading the bible is often a good first step to not being a Christian anymore.
I think gay marriage proponents have made a mistake by not trying to campaign for it under the blanket term of "equal rights". Once you look at it through that prism it becomes pretty fucking obvious.
Most Christians in the US don't know shit about the Bible either.
Reading the bible is often a good first step to not being a Christian anymore.
Eh, not if you approach the Bible as simply the oral traditions passed down in written form, and not the book of God. And even now, a lot of modern, nondenominational churches don't even bother with the Old Testament. I've been to a few services in the past year or so that have actually been a breath of fresh air from shit I had to listen to when I was growing up. The church down my street is almost exclusively a homosexual place of worship.
If you do that, you're not Christian. You just have a "Christian" morality. Being Christian is accepting Jesus Christ as your savior, not saying hey that imaginary Jesus dude does have good ethics!
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/eurodammerung-2/
Some crazy shit is going to happen here soon...
Paul Krugman, LOL!
what else are you going to claim now?
You are one clueless Keynesian economist, nobel prize became a joke after you award and Obama's...
This whole democratic establishment beginning with Clinton and Summers who deregulated banks and get China into WTO, and created this crisis in the first place should be paying for it. Instead you got Obama to bail out the bankers......
How can you have people still voting for you guys? Oh yeah, make everyone on the other side a racist so that you get the full "clueless" vote in this country, sadly thats enough to win the presidency these days.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/eurodammerung-2/
Some crazy shit is going to happen here soon...
from the commentsQuotePaul Krugman, LOL!
what else are you going to claim now?
You are one clueless Keynesian economist, nobel prize became a joke after you award and Obama's...
This whole democratic establishment beginning with Clinton and Summers who deregulated banks and get China into WTO, and created this crisis in the first place should be paying for it. Instead you got Obama to bail out the bankers......
How can you have people still voting for you guys? Oh yeah, make everyone on the other side a racist so that you get the full "clueless" vote in this country, sadly thats enough to win the presidency these days.
Obama bailed out the banks, Obama was president during 911, etc
Alternate ending: money is eliminated altogether and everything once done for money is done for love. No more hoarding, no more rich and poor, no more starving children, no more insurance companies. Property becomes the servant of humanity, not its master. The evolution of life proceeds.
"... The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating." -Thomas Jefferson
RNC Chairman: JP Morgan Chase's $2 billion loss proves that we need LESS regulation. (http://readingisforsnobs.blogspot.com/2012/05/df.html)
It won't. Romney is the competition, remember.
http://vimeo.com/42106882
Buttplugs in the shape of republican candidate polling data.
:lol :lol :lol
I want a Santorum.
It won't. Romney is the competition, remember.
Romney isn't the competition imo, the economy is; he's such a weak candidate.
I see you aren't familiar with how things work here vs there :teeheeIt won't. Romney is the competition, remember.
Romney isn't the competition imo, the economy is; he's such a weak candidate.
Really? Are you sure? I heard he might just be running a perfect campaign so far.
It won't. Romney is the competition, remember.
Romney isn't the competition imo, the economy is; he's such a weak candidate.
Really? Are you sure? I heard he might just be running a perfect campaign so far.
It won't. Romney is the competition, remember.
Romney isn't the competition imo, the economy is; he's such a weak candidate.
Really? Are you sure? I heard he might just be running a perfect campaign so far.
lolque
Apparently PD made a avatar bet, with somebody on neogaf, that Romney would win. He likes to troll a lot.
Uh, I'm actually going to to, I'm not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was. And with regards to, uh, I'll go back and take at what was said there.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/05/19/487244/congressmen-seek-to-legalize-the-use-of-propaganda-on-american-audiences/?mobile=wp
Sure sounds great
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/05/19/487244/congressmen-seek-to-legalize-the-use-of-propaganda-on-american-audiences/?mobile=wp
Sure sounds great
Why do people always think that Obama is behind whatever hair-brained scheme a couple of idiot congressmen throw together?
Huh? I didn't see any mention of Obama when I read that?
The movement over the last two months can be explained almost entirely by a major shift in opinion about same-sex marriage among black voters. Previously 56 percent said they would vote against the new law with only 39 percent planning to uphold it. Those numbers have now almost completely flipped, with 55 percent of African Americans planning to vote for the law and only 36 percent now opposed.
That is very impressive to me. From an outsiders point of view, there seems to be a lot of homophobia in the black community.
Omg
Ever since Obama threw down his support for same sex marriage, NAACP, and Colin Powell have thrown in their support. AND there is a surge of black support. Maryland? 59% of blacks were against gay marriage before the announcement, with 30-40% for it give or take (I don't remember the exact number from the article in question and I can't find it right now). Ever since the announcement, those numbers have FLIPPED.
OBAMA :bow
For everyone, but I think PD will get a special kick out of this:
National Review cover story explaining that the GOP is the real civil rights party. (http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/300432)
For everyone, but I think PD will get a special kick out of this:
National Review cover story explaining that the GOP is the real civil rights party. (http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/300432)
Control + F "William F. Buckley"
To the extent that the spirit of the all-white, pro-states' rights, rigidly “Constitutionalist” southern Democrats exists at all today, Williamson locates it not in the nearly all-white, pro-states' rights, rigidly “Constitutionalist” southern Republicans, but rather in the current Democratic Party. This is possibly the most mind-boggling claim in Williamson’s essay:
" Democrats who argue that the best policies for black Americans are those that are soft on crime and generous with welfare are engaged in much the same sort of cynical racial calculation President Johnson was practicing when he informed skeptical southern governors that his plan for the Great Society was “to have them distinguished black fellows voting Democratic for the next two hundred years.” Johnson’s crude racism is, happily, largely a relic of the past, but his strategy endures. "
The strategy of crude Democratic racism endures! That this strategy has sucked in more than 90 percent of the black electorate, and is currently being executed at the highest level by Barack Obama (who — at this point, it may be necessary to inform Williamson — is black) suggests a mind-blowing level of false consciousness at work among the African-American community.
Jon Chait had a pretty sweet take down of that article:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/05/conservative-fantasy-history-of-civil-rights.htmlQuoteTo the extent that the spirit of the all-white, pro-states' rights, rigidly “Constitutionalist” southern Democrats exists at all today, Williamson locates it not in the nearly all-white, pro-states' rights, rigidly “Constitutionalist” southern Republicans, but rather in the current Democratic Party. This is possibly the most mind-boggling claim in Williamson’s essay:
" Democrats who argue that the best policies for black Americans are those that are soft on crime and generous with welfare are engaged in much the same sort of cynical racial calculation President Johnson was practicing when he informed skeptical southern governors that his plan for the Great Society was “to have them distinguished black fellows voting Democratic for the next two hundred years.” Johnson’s crude racism is, happily, largely a relic of the past, but his strategy endures. "
The strategy of crude Democratic racism endures! That this strategy has sucked in more than 90 percent of the black electorate, and is currently being executed at the highest level by Barack Obama (who — at this point, it may be necessary to inform Williamson — is black) suggests a mind-blowing level of false consciousness at work among the African-American community.
The Wisconsin Idea, in United States History, also refers to a series of political reforms of the late 19th century and early 20th century whose strongest advocate was Robert M. La Follette, Sr., Wisconsin's governor (1901–1906) and senator (1906–1925). The Wisconsin Idea was created by the state's progressives to do away with monopolies, trusts, high costs of living, and predatory wealth, which they saw as the problem that must be solved or else "no advancement of human welfare or progress can take place."[4] Reforms in labor and worker's rights were one of the major aspects of the Wisconsin Idea.
The Wisconsin Idea is the political philosophy developed in the American state of Wisconsin that fosters public universities' contributions to the state: "to the government in the forms of serving in office, offering advice about public policy, providing information and exercising technical skill, and to the citizens in the forms of doing research directed at solving problems that are important to the state and conducting outreach activities."[1] A second facet of the philosophy is the effort "to ensure well-constructed legislation aimed at benefiting the greatest number of people."[2] During the Progressive Era, proponents of the Wisconsin Idea saw the state as "the laboratory for democracy", resulting in legislation that served as a model for other states and the federal government.[2]
On that subject: Teddy Roosevelt. It's interesting to read up on what he was doing, and trying to do, around and just after the turn of the century, bearing in mind that he was a Republican PRESIDENT.
On that subject: Teddy Roosevelt. It's interesting to read up on what he was doing, and trying to do, around and just after the turn of the century, bearing in mind that he was a Republican PRESIDENT.
Yup that's what I'm talkin bout. By today's standards Teddy would be a democrat - hell, he'd be called a socialist.
And he palled around with Booker T Washington :piss2
Hippies like their raw milk, let em have it. I mean, if you're stupid enough not to realize the dangers of it, or to ignore them, it's your own damn fault if you get sickuntil these idiots flood the justice system with lawsuits and the state foots the bill when they end up in the ER. Oh and when they give it to their children. Oh and when they decide to start marketing it to the masses as "natural". Or when a bunch of other fringe idiots decide that they want their dangerousand unsanitary foods too. Its a can of worms I'd rather keep a lid on.
It's like the media is a cat, and unable to resist the catnip.
Of course, in this instance the cat is distinguished mentally-challenged and the catnip is a festering pile of shit, but yeah.
It's like the media is a cat, and unable to resist the catnip.
Of course, in this instance the cat is distinguished mentally-challenged and the catnip is a festering pile of shit, but yeah.
(http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/images/item/fnc-ff-20120530-obamaaddebtincrease.png)Can't argue with facts
Governor Romney Inherited An Economy That Was Losing Jobs Each Month And Left Office With An Economy That Was Adding Jobs Each Month. After taking office at a time when the state was losing thousands of jobs every month, Governor Romney’s focus on fiscal responsibility helped create an environment where job growth returned to Massachusetts. Job growth increased throughout his term and the state added over 40,000 payroll jobs during his final year in office —the best year of job growth in Massachusetts over the past decade. Household employment grew by nearly 50,000 under Governor Romney and the unemployment rate declined to well under 5%.
I really don't see the point in attacking Romney's jobs record in Massachusetts. Their unemployment rate was around 4.2-4.5% throughout Romney's term, why is it surprising the state wasn't adding jobs with such a low UE rate?
Same thing with the liberal attacks on Scott Walker to a lesser extent. Wisconsin has one of the lowest UE rates in the country and is doing well
It was explained that Narcisse had broken one of the traditional behavioural codes and was made into a ‘zombie’ as a punishment; when questioned, Narcisse told investigators that the sorcerer involved had ‘taken his soul’. [1] The instigator of the poisoning was alleged to be his brother, with whom he had quarreled over land.[2] After his apparent death and subsequent burial on May 2, 1962, his body was recovered and he was given a paste made from datura which at certain doses has a hallucinogenic effect and can cause memory loss. The bokor who recovered him then forced him, alongside others, to work on a sugar plantation until the master's death two years later. When the bokor died, and regular doses of the hallucinogen ceased, he eventually regained sanity (unlike others who had suffered brain damage from hypoxia while buried alive) and returned to his family after another 16 years, after finding his brother had died.[2]
Narcisse may also have ties to American President Barack Obama. One report suggested Narcisse and Obama are second cousins and such a relationship to a zombie should make Obama ineligible for the presidency. [3]
Norbert Davis on June 2, 2012 at 11:35 am said:
I’m not going to say who told me, but a Hawaiian official who I know told me that Obama’s second cousin might be Clairius Narcisse, a man who was a Haitian zombie. That should disqualify him from being president.
Teddy was a major tree hugger, was a trust buster, advocated for a progressive income tax and was the first president to speak of the idea of UHC. Dude was the original Joseph Stalin. :ussrcryOn that subject: Teddy Roosevelt. It's interesting to read up on what he was doing, and trying to do, around and just after the turn of the century, bearing in mind that he was a Republican PRESIDENT.
Yup that's what I'm talkin bout. By today's standards Teddy would be a democrat - hell, he'd be called a socialist.
And he palled around with Booker T Washington :piss2
EVERY Republican president prior to dubya did at the very least 3 major things that would have them labeled as such.
Reagan raised income tax rates.
I think the breaking point was the 1994 GOP Revolution and the Contract with America. After that, it has been more or less a dead set sprint to the right.
Reagan raised income tax rates.
I think the breaking point was the 1994 GOP Revolution and the Contract with America. After that, it has been more or less a dead set sprint to the right.
True. I just can't get over the War on Drugs, the "AIDS" is a gay disease and Reaganomics. Shit that still plagues us today.
Norbert Davis on June 2, 2012 at 11:35 am said:
I’m not going to say who told me, but a Hawaiian official who I know told me that Obama’s second cousin might be Clairius Narcisse, a man who was a Haitian zombie. That should disqualify him from being president.
Reagan raised income tax rates.
I think the breaking point was the 1994 GOP Revolution and the Contract with America. After that, it has been more or less a dead set sprint to the right.
(http://i.imgur.com/3XN3h.jpg)
http://www.nature.com/news/south-korea-surrenders-to-creationist-demands-1.10773
I didn't realize creationism was so big in South Korea.
Curt Schilling's embattled 38 Studios has declared bankruptcy, as Rhode Island and federal authorities open an investigation into how the company handled its finances.
WPRI reports the state police, attorney general's office, U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI will investigate 38 Studios, "both the money that came from the state as well as the money that came from Bank Rhode Island." The Providence Journal confirmed the bankruptcy this afternoon.
Beyond the controversial tax-payer backed loan of $75 million to 38 Studios, the Bank Rhode Island reportedly loaned the developer $8.5 million earlier this year against tax credits that haven't materialized.
QuoteCurt Schilling's embattled 38 Studios has declared bankruptcy, as Rhode Island and federal authorities open an investigation into how the company handled its finances.
WPRI reports the state police, attorney general's office, U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI will investigate 38 Studios, "both the money that came from the state as well as the money that came from Bank Rhode Island." The Providence Journal confirmed the bankruptcy this afternoon.
Beyond the controversial tax-payer backed loan of $75 million to 38 Studios, the Bank Rhode Island reportedly loaned the developer $8.5 million earlier this year against tax credits that haven't materialized.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/07/38-studios-declares-bankruptcy-formal-investgation-begins-regar/
For reference:
http://38pitches.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/this-should-be-how-we-implement-legitimate-health-care/
:bow the free market :bow2
Curt Schilling's a true American patriot/hero. :usacry
Hideous $3999.95 Painting of Andrew Breitbart Actually Swiped from Video Game
by Wonkette Jr.
So, you know that painting by David Bugnon of Dead Guy Andrew Breitbart as a Teutonic Knight in Heaven, ready to take on commies, liberal scumbags, and innocent Department of Agriculture employees from beyond the grave? You know, the painting that one actual professional art critic called a “masterpiece of Outsider art, a veritable holocaust-tsunami of bad taste?” The painting that Patriot Depot is selling reproductions of for the bargain price of a mere $3999.95 for a limited-edition 36″ x 48″ giclee on canvas? The painting which The Patriot Update bravely calls, “The Painting Obama Fears?” Yeah, it’s not so much a painting as a Photoshop mashup of a stock photo of Andrew Breitbart and a character from the copyrighted computer game Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, with a pretty sunset-and-clouds background that probably also came from some stock photo website — no doubt somebody will find that soon, too. (NOW WITH UPDATE BELOW!)
(http://wonkette.com/474804/hideous-3999-95-painting-of-andrew-breitbart-is-actually-swiped-from-a-video-game)Quote from: http://wonkette.com/474804/hideous-3999-95-painting-of-andrew-breitbart-is-actually-swiped-from-a-video-gameHideous $3999.95 Painting of Andrew Breitbart Actually Swiped from Video Game
by Wonkette Jr.
So, you know that painting by David Bugnon of Dead Guy Andrew Breitbart as a Teutonic Knight in Heaven, ready to take on commies, liberal scumbags, and innocent Department of Agriculture employees from beyond the grave? You know, the painting that one actual professional art critic called a “masterpiece of Outsider art, a veritable holocaust-tsunami of bad taste?” The painting that Patriot Depot is selling reproductions of for the bargain price of a mere $3999.95 for a limited-edition 36″ x 48″ giclee on canvas? The painting which The Patriot Update bravely calls, “The Painting Obama Fears?” Yeah, it’s not so much a painting as a Photoshop mashup of a stock photo of Andrew Breitbart and a character from the copyrighted computer game Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, with a pretty sunset-and-clouds background that probably also came from some stock photo website — no doubt somebody will find that soon, too. (NOW WITH UPDATE BELOW!)
It’s been a rough day for the Republican National Committee’s Latino outreach website.
On Thursday afternoon, the RNC had to hastily take down the site’s banner, which featured a picture of Asian children, replacing it with an all-caps headline “HISPANIC LATINO STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS.”
But other features of the site aren’t working quite as planned, either. The main page features a straw poll asking visitors whether they’re disappointed with President Obama, a talking point Republicans have been pushing as part of their outreach effort. As of Thursday evening, however, Obama was winning the unscientific survey 55 percent to 45 percent — highly unusual on a partisan website.
In another broken feature, the site’s info page, in English “Who Are We?”, is left entirely blank.
In another broken feature, the site’s info page, in English “Who Are We?”, is left entirely blank.
The Obama administration announced Friday it will stop deporting illegal immigrants who come to the country at a young age.Another cheers to Obama. Though I do have concerns about it being an executive order, but aren't surprised about going that route since modern process demands it. It's a good thing overall.
The politically charged decision comes as Obama faces a tough reelection fight against Republican Mitt Romney, with Hispanic voters in swing states seen as a key bloc.
The change in policy could allow as many as 800,000 immigrants who came to the United States illegally not only to remain in the country without fear of being deported, but to work legally, according to a senior administration official speaking to reporters Friday.
Obama is set to make a statement at 1:15 p.m. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the new policy Friday morning.
This move kind of paints Romney in to a corner doesn't it? I mean Obama is essentially adopting a watered-down DREAM act here. What response does Romney put out that doesn't alienate the Latino base?The question is whether it gets more votes from Hispanics than it loses to blue-collar whites.
I've met a lot of immigrants who were pretty pro-capitalism, which isn't surprising cause they chose to move here. It's all identity politix anyways. The GOP's problem winning over immigrants and minorities always has less to do with individual issues and more to do with people knowing when they're not wanted.Yeah, it is interesting on a theoretical level in regards to how immigrants are generally pro-America, pro-capitalism, etc. And then you have blacks who tend to be socially conservative, increasingly pro-school choice, etc. Yet Republicans struggle to make inroads with them.
I wonder whether this will really hurt the Republican party in the long-run, or whether third-generation latinos with suburban American accents will be considered "white" and we'll just find some other group to blame everything on.
http://www.nature.com/news/south-korea-surrenders-to-creationist-demands-1.10773
I didn't realize creationism was so big in South Korea.
Drudge is claiming it's the same as Rubio's proposal.
Also, that Sheriff Joe is shockingly against it: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/video-sheriff-arpaio-reacts-to-illegal-immigration-change
It won't be this year or 2016. Probably when Texas is considered a swing state will there be a call to action. Then it's time to bring this guy in:
(http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2010/40under40/george_p_bush.jpg)
http://www.nature.com/news/south-korea-surrenders-to-creationist-demands-1.10773
I didn't realize creationism was so big in South Korea.
I'm not too surprised, seems like every single Protestant church here has a sign in hangul as well. And I'm not talking about just in Flushing, it's pretty much all over the island too.
It won't be this year or 2016. Probably when Texas is considered a swing state will there be a call to action. Then it's time to bring this guy in:
(http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2010/40under40/george_p_bush.jpg)
Ben Affleck?
Barry needs to get this shit down and hustle his ass.
Barry needs to get this shit down and hustle his ass.
Problem is that all the major factors deciding the election at this point are completely outside of his control.
Barry needs to get this shit down and hustle his ass.
Problem is that all the major factors deciding the election at this point are completely outside of his control.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg predicts that the Court would be sharply divided over a series of high profile cases due by the end of the month, including the case over the constitutionality of health care reform
Welp, so much for Obamacare:QuoteSupreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg predicts that the Court would be sharply divided over a series of high profile cases due by the end of the month, including the case over the constitutionality of health care reform
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/ginsburg-predicts-sharp-disagreement-ahead-of-supreme-courts-high-profile-cases.php?ref=fpnewsfeed (http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/ginsburg-predicts-sharp-disagreement-ahead-of-supreme-courts-high-profile-cases.php?ref=fpnewsfeed)
Dr. Paul won 10 of 13 delegates elected at today’s state convention in addition to having won 11 of 12 delegates elected at last night’s district conventions, for a weekend total of 21 of 25 contestable delegates, all unbound.21 delegates for Paul, 1 for Romney, 6 uncommitted.
And thus the silver bullet fired and single payer was born.
It looks like Australia will be dragged in to WW3 by the American Government. We all know that China has no problem with Australia apart from our military alliance with the United States. Australia is great friends with China and has been since the early 90's when Paul Keating was our Prime Minister.
If anyone knows anything about regional politics you would know that China does not have many good friends in our part of the world. Behind North Korea, we are their best buds in this area of the world. The phenomenal rise of China has been assisted by its friendship with Australia. China in turn has helped Australia rise to the number 1 ranked OECD nation. We have been great partners.
When the GFC was destroying western economies, Australia and China had little trouble. The GFC actually helped both of us. We both got a bump in our international standing. Australia did so well that our mediocre Treasurer, Wayne Swan was won an award, being named Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year China won the award for him.
We have a strong economy because of the resources boom and Chinas investment in our mining industry. Mining is the big thing at the moment that we offer China. but mining is not the only thing. Like I said, the chinese have been investing heavily in Australia since the early 90's and before. The Chinese have been moving here to live and becoming Australians. The Chinese have have been coming to study here in our Universities for years. The Chinese have been coming here to holiday for years. They love our beaches and nice weather. They love our cities. They love our women/men. They love our casinos. They love our culture. They have been with us as far back as the Gold Rush.
It is in Australias best interest for the Chinese economy to remain strong. The Chinese will continue to come here. Australia is the West in the East. We are everything. We are the most multicultural place on the planet. One but many. No other western nation is lucky enough to be in a geographic position to take advantage of the shift in power and capital from the West to the East like Australia is.
It has always been a disadvantage for Australia to be located in the East for so many reasons. Now it has become an advantage. The East is where all the power is now. The capital has shifted. The only thing left is for China to take control of the Reserve Currency. When China gets the Reserve Currency Status soon, the standard of living and wealth per capita will rise significantly for the Chinese and Australia as its neighbour with alot to offer, will benifit.
Like I said, it looks like the American Government will drag us in to war with China and get many of our people killed for no good reason other than helping them maintain their status as superpower. But I think China will defeat us easily. We are still located in the right part of the world evn if we are conquered. Western Australia wants to become part of asia already. Would it be so bad to be ruled by the Chinese Government? They have gotta be better than boot licking Gillard. Better than Tony Abbott. The major parties are puppets of the US Government. They are simply an extension of the US Government. China is doing a great job at running its country. No nation has risen like China. They are an economic miracle.
People like to use imagery of Mao Zedong or bring up the moochers of Tibet or the a couple other things when China is mentioned. I am not afraid of China. They have done a much better job than the United States has at running their country. China is the future. I think China is a little bit like Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back and Australia is Luke Skywalker. Darth want Luke to join him so they can rule the universe together. I wonder what would have happened if Luke had have taken him up on his offer. We know Darth wasnt such a bad dude deep down. I think that Anakin and Luke Skywalker could have ruled a pretty happy universe at the end of the day once they put The Emperor in his place. Maybe they could have reasoned with The Emperor and convinced him to stand down and it could have been resolved without any trouble.
QuoteI think China is a little bit like Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back and Australia is Luke Skywalker. Darth want Luke to join him so they can rule the universe together. I wonder what would have happened if Luke had have taken him up on his offer. We know Darth wasnt such a bad dude deep down. I think that Anakin and Luke Skywalker could have ruled a pretty happy universe at the end of the day once they put The Emperor in his place. Maybe they could have reasoned with The Emperor and convinced him to stand down and it could have been resolved without any trouble.
President Barack Obama is winning the opening round in the battle over immigration, according to a Bloomberg poll released today, putting Republicans on the defensive with his decision to end the deportations of some illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children,
Sixty-four percent of likely voters surveyed after Obama’s June 15 announcement said they agreed with the policy, while 30 percent said they disagreed. Independents backed the decision by better than a two-to-one margin
Wouldn't read too much into a single poll on a newly announced initiative. The response probably depends a lot on the phrasing of the question, and we haven't had time for theBSspin to mature yet.
I think it's a pretty solid decision that should be easy to defend publicly: it's relatively hard to hate on law-abiding students and soldiers. But if the GOP decides it's worth pushing back on, I'm sure they'll eventually settle on some disingenuous line of attack that will get repeated ad nauseum, and you'd get at least ~40% opposed after that.spoiler (click to show/hide)Maybe pointing out that under-30 immigrant students are more likely to be unemployed and receiving some sort of government support, through public education or poverty relief programs? You know, just a gentle reminder that those brown folks are basically parasites.[close]
I'm pretty sure Madison never referred to a black man as sir
I'm pretty sure Madison never referred to a black man as sir
Multiple sites are saying the SC could reveal their Obamacare verdit sometime Thursday morning. Some of us may wake up with no health insurance :uguu
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Fox and ABC in their fight with the FCC over indecency, saying the commission didn't give the networks fair notice that "fleeting expletives and momentary nudity" could be found indecent.:tauntaun
The Supreme Court has thrown out fines and sanctions against broadcasters who violated the Federal Communications Commission policy regulating curse words and nudity on broadcast television.:usacry
The justices declined on Thursday to issue a broad ruling on the constitutionality of the FCC indecency policy. Instead, the court concluded only that broadcasters could not have known in advance that obscenities uttered during awards show programs and a brief display of nudity on an episode of ABC's NYPD Blue could give rise to sanctions.
The justices said the FCC is free to revise its indecency policy.
Commerce Secretary John Bryson informed the department's employees Thursday that he has given the president a letter of resignation. "I have come to the conclusion that I need to step down to prevent distractions from this critical mission," Bryson said. Bryson had been on a medical leave of absence since June 11, following a seizure that resulted in his involvement in two car accidents.
I'm pretty sure Madison never referred to a black man as sir
Man, I read today that SuperPACs are outspending Obama 3-1, and between that and the Eurozone possibly collapsing I realized we are really only one bad October news cycle away from "President Romney." I feel physically ill. :-X
PD's political spidey sense is awesome; I equate it to what Plouffe would say about Politico/Halperin in 2008: "If Politico and Halperin say we're losing, we're winning."
The debates will swing the tide.Debates won't matter at all.
Meh. The map certainly benefits Obama - Romney basically has one path to 270, which is through Ohio.Romney's best chance scenario is like 280-290 electoral votes. I currently can't see how he can pull this off. That said. The shocking thing are these recent Michigan polls, they can't be right at all. Rasmussen of all people is the only one showing what you'd think is the natural Obama lead.
Debates matter, just not as much as some believe. The final 04 debate is credited with tightening the race based off Kerry's strong performance.
In 08 Obama destroyed McCain three times, of course it had some impactI'd argue it had very little.
I think this year's debates will matter because it'll be such a clear contrast of visions, styles, and personalities:lol
He's a good debaterBy "debater" you mean 90 second answer press conferencer right?
Debates matter, just not as much as some believe. The final 04 debate is credited with tightening the race based off Kerry's strong performance.
You can't make an assertion then follow it with something in the passive voice like that, mang.
Kerry scored big gains, as 42 percent of respondents said they had a more favorable opinion of him after the debate. Bush only increased with 27 percent of those polled.http://articles.cnn.com/2004-10-14/politics/snap.poll_1_kerry-and-bush-instant-polls-final-debate?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS
When asked who would handle domestic issues better, Kerry scored higher in health care (55-41). There was no clear leader on the economy (Kerry 51, Bush 46), education (Kerry 48, Bush 47) or taxes (Bush 50, Kerry 47).
Kerry's biggest win came on the question of who expressed himself better, where 61 percent of respondents chose him over Bush (29 percent).
The president was viewed as more likeable, but Kerry appeared to respondents as having the better understanding of issues (49-37).
But in the end Bush just wanted it more
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then it turns out they were on your side all along
the economic debate between the two is going to be like two junior athletes aiming for varsity. the two are so meh about the subject, but obama has a much better record. Romney is going to get shat on methinks because obama's ads against him have been really effective in ohio
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then it turns out they were on your side all along
Then they come for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then it turns out they were on your side all along
Then they come for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Stop making fun of me, I'm trying to become a pundit ok? I have to learn to speak and think entirely in self-serious clichés.
Schilling also defending himself against charges of hypocrisy from some commentators who say Schilling's outspoken criticism of government handouts and programs goes against his acceptance of hefty state funding to support his game studio. "I’m not sure where my stance and opinion in that we need a smaller government—I’m not sure how that correlates to this," he said. "The program was there for local businesses to use. ... That money was literally coming out of the budget into our company, going right back into the local economy."
When Schilling absurdly insisted that he wasn't looking for taxpayer handouts, he shouldn't have been surprised when those hands turned into fists.
So, today's the day the SC is probably going to (arbitrarily and against about 40-50 years of precedent) find the individual mandate unconstitutional.
u mad? :smug/
If only big government hadn't forced that $75 million loan on him, things might have turned out differently. :'(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqxl9qiFonc
Why is this REAL?
Good thing we've got someone humble and personable like Romney to take Obama's place!(http://i.minus.com/i7JagbG9t8O3H.gif)
Good thing we've got someone humble and personable like Romney to take Obama's place!Uhhh, even better...Gary Johnson.
If you look under 'Manufactured Outrage' in the dictionary it used Fast and Furious as an example.
Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.
This is an election year. The stupidity gets cranked up to 11 every election and this one certainly isn't going to be any different.
More Americans are confident in President Obama’s ability to handle an alien invasion than in Mitt Romney’s, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
In a survey conducted for the National Geographic Channel, 65 percent said they’d pick Obama to deal with an invading alien force over Romney. Obama also took the confidence vote among 68 percent of women surveyed, likely a key voting bloc in this scenario as well as in the November election.
In addition, about 79 percent of those surveyed think the government has kept information about aliens and UFOs a secret from the public. Despite that widespread suspicion, only 36 percent actually think UFOs exist, 17 percent don't, and 48 percent aren't sure.
Mandate upheld.
Fox apparently originally reported it as having been struck down.It was struck down under the Commerce Clause and others, it was later in the opinion that Roberts upheld it as a tax. Fox had someone reading directly from the opinion on the air so they didn't get to the tax part until like a minute later.
CNN as well.
In a dramatic victory for President Barack Obama, the Supreme Court upheld the 2010 health care law Thursday, preserving Obama’s landmark legislative achievement.
The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who held that the law was a valid exercise of Congress’s power to tax.
http://video.foxnews.com/video-live-streaming.html?video_id=1155606218001
holy fuck @ the rants. They have gone insane
Yeah I got an email from CNN saying that the mandate had been struck down and I was honestly surprised.
Then a minute later they sent a correction. w00t
Many of the internal operations of the Court are organized by the seniority of the justices; the Chief Justice is considered the most senior member of the Court, regardless of the length of his or her service. The Associate Justices are then ranked by the length of their service.
During Court sessions, the justices sit according to seniority, with the Chief Justice in the center, and the Associate Justices on alternating sides, with the most senior Associate Justice on the Chief Justice's immediate right, and the most junior Associate Justice seated on the left farthest away from the Chief Justice. Therefore, the current court sits as follows from left to right when looking at the bench from the perspective of a lawyer arguing before the Court: Sotomayor, Breyer, Thomas, Scalia (most senior Associate Justice), Roberts (Chief Justice), Kennedy, Ginsburg, Alito, and Kagan. In the official yearly Court photograph, justices are arranged similarly, with the five most senior members sitting in the front row in the same order as they would sit during Court sessions (Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsburg), and the four most junior justices standing behind them, again in the same order as they would sit during Court sessions (Sotomayor, Breyer, Alito, Kagan).
http://jhameia.tumblr.com/post/26076069185/anedumacation-ladyfabulous
(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6c3o0YJf91qjvxfho2_r1_500.jpg)
Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so
Spencer Hawes @spencerhawes00
Just drove by a bald eagle who appeared to be crying. Coincidence @barackobama?
Spencer Hawes @spencerhawes00
Just drove by a bald eagle who appeared to be crying. Coincidence @barackobama?
Holy shit :rofl
http://twitter.com/spencerhawes00/
Spencer Hawes @spencerhawes00
Just drove by a bald eagle who appeared to be crying. Coincidence @barackobama?
Speaking of crazy conservatives, I had a huge surprise when I went to Philadelphia for my sister's graduation. They had a guest speaker who was talking about the future problems of the world and resources. And then he started talking about women's rights and at the peak of his speech he started shouting that women should be allowed to have contraceptives and abortions without laws restricting them and the crowd cheered. It felt so weird because I completely agree but for once in my life my opinion was the majority. I heard no boo's and saw no angry faces. Then I remembered, "This isn't Texas". This fuckin' state.
That's awesome. I don't know if a speaker like Volcker would ever make it in Texas despite his connections to the Reagan administration. Being a Democrat is enough to get him some boos probably.Speaking of crazy conservatives, I had a huge surprise when I went to Philadelphia for my sister's graduation. They had a guest speaker who was talking about the future problems of the world and resources. And then he started talking about women's rights and at the peak of his speech he started shouting that women should be allowed to have contraceptives and abortions without laws restricting them and the crowd cheered. It felt so weird because I completely agree but for once in my life my opinion was the majority. I heard no boo's and saw no angry faces. Then I remembered, "This isn't Texas". This fuckin' state.
My cousin got her masters in public policy last month. The graduation ceremony was of course optimistic and old school liberal (dedication to public service and stuff), since her class was basically the new generation of aspiring Leslie Knopes.
The commencement speaker was Paul Volcker, who talked about having to fight through the "miasma of money" to get things done, and how they'd have to look at not just the big policy questions but how to get government functioning well at the roots. When my dad saw that Volcker was going to be there he completely geeked out. Only way my brother would have been as excited would be if Batman were speaking.
PS Paul Volcker is tall as shit.
If you don't pay Obama's Homo Islam Tax, you go in front of a Death Panel and you are killed by liberal drug dealers.
@DragonflyJonez
nicca you said you could see Russia from your backyard. RT @SarahPalinUSA: Obama lied to the American people. Again.
Speaking of crazy conservatives, I had a huge surprise when I went to Philadelphia for my sister's graduation. They had a guest speaker who was talking about the future problems of the world and resources. And then he started talking about women's rights and at the peak of his speech he started shouting that women should be allowed to have contraceptives and abortions without laws restricting them and the crowd cheered. It felt so weird because I completely agree but for once in my life my opinion was the majority. I heard no boo's and saw no angry faces. Then I remembered, "This isn't Texas". This fuckin' state.
Speaking of crazy conservatives, I had a huge surprise when I went to Philadelphia for my sister's graduation. They had a guest speaker who was talking about the future problems of the world and resources. And then he started talking about women's rights and at the peak of his speech he started shouting that women should be allowed to have contraceptives and abortions without laws restricting them and the crowd cheered. It felt so weird because I completely agree but for once in my life my opinion was the majority. I heard no boo's and saw no angry faces. Then I remembered, "This isn't Texas". This fuckin' state.
Move to Washington.
Also, PD! Thanks for replying to my conservative buddies on Facebook.
Drudge is heavily pushing the angle that Roberts may be medically unfit to serve
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/he...zure.html?_r=1
2007. Yup
Drudge is heavily pushing the angle that Roberts may be medically unfit to serve
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/he...zure.html?_r=1
2007. Yup
Did you just copy the abbreviated text for the link, including the ellipsis? smh
Gosh, I haven’t seen conservatives this mad at the Supreme Court since Brown v. Board of Education.
It's probably better to just not take any image meme posted by your friends on Facebook too seriously.
I'm not really sure wtf that's on about, because at this point we pretty much already HAVE THAT in terms of insurance companies. In most states you have like 2 or 3 feasible options if you want to buy your own insurance, ie aren't getting it through your employer. And that's a feature, not a bug.
SPECULATION: THIS IS MERELY A GAMING SCENARIO: IF OBAMA THREATENED TO KILL CHELSEA, THEN MIGHT HE THREATEN A JUSTICE OF THE SCOTUS TO SAVE OBAMACARE?
BETTINA VIVIANO CLAIMS THAT IN 2008 OBAMA CRONIES THREATENED TO KILL CHELSEA TO GET THE CLINTONS TO BACK DOWN FROM USING THE BIRTHER ALLEGATIONS AGAINST OBAMA.
IF THIS IS TRUE - REPEAT IF, THEN IT IS EQUALLY POSSIBLE THAT THESE SAME CRONIES MIGHT THREATEN TO KILL ONE OF CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS' CHILDREN IN ORDER TO GET HIM TO VOTE FOR OBAMACARE.
IF THIS IS TRUE - REPEAT IF
Can someone explain this to me? ???The government used to let farmers borrow money against their crops. When Reagan was elected, he stopped the program. Thousands of farmers lost their land and Big Agra was formed.
http://twitter.com/spencerhawes00/
Token conservative white NBA player bringing the heat on Twitter.1h Spencer Hawes @spencerhawes00
Ronald Reagan is spinning in his grave. We might as well be Russia in 1983. #americancommunists
Wonder why he picked 1983. At that point the USSR was led by... Yuri Andropov (yes, I had to look that up). Why not during Stalin's reign? Or even Brezhnev? He probably just picked a random date, but he maybe thinks of the USSR existing solely as Reagan's nemesis.
Die in a fire, John Roberts. But at least have the decency to wait until January to die in a fire.
Seems Jaydubya's not too thrilled about the ruling:QuoteDie in a fire, John Roberts. But at least have the decency to wait until January to die in a fire.
Seems Jaydubya's not too thrilled about the ruling:QuoteDie in a fire, John Roberts. But at least have the decency to wait until January to die in a fire.
Hey douchebag, the outside link thread is somewhere else.
But please don't link to that wretched site.
Former Town Councilor Mike Malzone, the founder of the Merrimack Tea Party, said Thursday in a Facebook post reacting to the Supreme Court ruling on health care, “I hope the (5 supremes) get colon cancer.”
A day after posting the message, Malzone said he stands by what he said. He clarified that he doesn’t want anyone to die, and the cancer reference was more to make a point that he wants them to feel the pain being inflicted on Americans being overburdened by taxes.
“I didn’t wish for anyone to die, but I said I do wish for them to feel our pain,” he said. “No one cares about me, they all make their promises and then go do what they goddamn feel.”
“I didn’t wish for anyone to die, but I said I do wish for them to feel our pain,” he said. “No one cares about me, they all make their promises and then go do what they goddamn feel.”
I thought we were done talking about Teapartiers, but election time is rolling around, and those parasites are crawling back from out of the woodworks, all swollen with Koch money.
I thought we were done talking about Teapartiers, but election time is rolling around, and those parasites are crawling back from out of the woodworks, all swollen with Koch money.
They need to hibernate.Don't think they will. You libruls just took away their medicare or something.
It's tough work pretending that humans are rational agents, and that behavioural economics isn't a thing.Tea Partiers think this?
They need to hibernate.Don't think they will. You libruls just took away their medicare or something.QuoteIt's tough work pretending that humans are rational agents, and that behavioural economics isn't a thing.Tea Partiers think this?
Perhaps just I'm talking out of my arse, but I've always been under the impression that Austrian Economics tends to disregard empirical observations about human behaviour?No, it's okay, I was snarking about Tea Partiers and their good-weather adherence to the facts that are Austrian Economics.
Perhaps just I'm talking out of my arse, but I've always been under the impression that Austrian Economics tends to disregard empirical observations about human behaviour?No, it's okay, I was snarking about Tea Partiers and their good-weather adherence to the facts that are Austrian Economics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MgiQ9KZdqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MgiQ9KZdqg
I actually like that ad, I mean the music and design and stuff are nice. I don't really understand why Romney wants to repeal his own health care plan though ???
I'm still wondering how the hell FLORIDA elected a guy accused of Medicare fraud.
I'm still wondering how the hell FLORIDA elected a guy accused of Medicare fraud.
the debates will be the first time Romney is challenged on his bullshitYou can do better than this.
But there's a certain percentage of the population who you're just not ever going to convince that Obama ISN'T, in fact, a Kenyan Muslin Soshilust Commie Atheist with a radical preacher mentor that wants to get all of their lily white teenage daughters pregnant, indoctrinate them into satanism/socialism/whatever and then force them to get abortions so he can eat the medical waste.It's amazing the contortions you LIBDUHALS go through to ignore the obvious and still yet to be disproven facts.
"Don't you worry about *blank*, you let me worry about *blank*."Which office are you running for again? I don't want to screw up my ballot.
I'm not sure anyone in the duopoly should be bragging after the gutter they dragged themselves into prior to the ruling last week. BUT THIS IS AMERICA! PARTY ON DUDES!
Best part is they missed the overall win that was this session.the debates will be the first time Romney is challenged on his bullshitYou can do better than this.
I figured this was the best thread to post it in but Anderson Cooper finally admits to being gay. I know we're all stunned here so....
I figured this was the best thread to post it in but Anderson Cooper finally admits to being gay. I know we're all stunned here so....
Remember Jonathan Krohn, the barely pubescent boy who became a minor star of the Republican party back in 2009? As I wrote at the time:
This morning, Republican America is all smitten with this 14-year-old kid, Jonathan Krohn, who's written a book and schmoozes the teevee cameras and talks about what's so great about conservatism.
Here's the thing: All kids are conservative. They are naturally conservative—I was, you were, we all were—knowing only their small domestic sphere and protective of only their narrow interests. They like the status quo, they like rigid authority structures, they like the illusion of changelessness that a stable household provides.
The process of becoming an adult liberal is the process of realizing that the world is bigger and weirder and more malleable than you ever imagined, and that there are interests other than one's own to defend.
This kid, smart and curious as he is, will grow into a liberal. I just hope his parents and press agents let him.
Now, three years later, Politico has interviewed the kid and guess what? He's in favor of gay marriage, Barack Obama, and even Obamacare.
Now 17, Krohn — who went on to write a book, “Defining Conservatism,” that was blurbed by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Bill Bennett — still watches that speech from time to time, but it mostly makes him cringe because, well, he’s not a conservative anymore.
“I think it was naive,” Krohn now says of the speech. “It’s a 13-year-old kid saying stuff that he had heard for a long time...One of the first things that changed was that I stopped being a social conservative,” said Krohn. “It just didn’t seem right to me anymore. From there, it branched into other issues, everything from health care to economic issues.… I think I’ve changed a lot, and it’s not because I’ve become a liberal from being a conservative — it’s just that I thought about it more. The issues are so complex, you can’t just go with some ideological mantra for each substantive issue.”
Ta da! He's grown up, learned some things, and left conservatism—at least the perverse strain of American/Republican conservatism that tries to legislate people's private lives for moral reasons, but balks at actually helping them in any material or meaningful way.
That kind of conservatism is strictly for children.
Due to the insanity of the last 4 years of the GOP, there definitely needs to be a "Where are they now?" for flash in the pan GOP personalities.
Next Up: Carrie Prejean, Joe the Plumber, and Tito the Builder
He attended Christian schools until 2007, when his parents began to home-school him.
I'm not sure anyone in the duopoly should be bragging after the gutter they dragged themselves into prior to the ruling last week. BUT THIS IS AMERICA! PARTY ON DUDES!
Best part is they missed the overall win that was this session.the debates will be the first time Romney is challenged on his bullshitYou can do better than this.
Show me one interview since Romney won the nomination where he has been challenged or effectively pushed on anything. His CBS interview comes to mind but even that was softball. So much of his campaign is built on pure dishonesty, and he is shielded from any media that might ask tough questions or challenge the narratives he continues to spin
My point is that he won't be able to do that against the actual candidate in a debate. He'll no longer have some abstract "it" to talk shit about
Each member of the family picks a daily chore from a “chore wheel,” so as to share cleaning tasks evenly. And before anyone departs, everyone poses on the lawn for a portrait for that year’s Romney family Christmas card. The grandchildren coordinate outfits; last summer, the girls wore matching orange and yellow polka-dotted dresses and the boys, blue checkered shirts.
Best Romney article I've seen yet:
Romney Invested in Medical-Waste Firm That Disposed of Aborted Fetuses, Government Documents Show:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/romney-bain-abortion-stericycle-sec (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/romney-bain-abortion-stericycle-sec)
Is it really?
His argument is stupid and the sad result of a man forced to spit on and deny his own legacy due to a lack of personal backbone and a perceived political GOP reality.
CRAWFORD: “But does that mean that the mandate in the state of Massachusetts under your health care law also is a tax? I mean, you raised taxes as governor.”
ROMNEY: “Actually, the chief justice in his opinion made it very clear that at the state level, states have the power to put in place mandates. They don’t need to require them to be called taxes in order for them to be constitutional. And as a result, Massachusetts’ mandate was a mandate, was a penalty, was described that way by the Legislature and by me, and so it stays as it was.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ZpHRxnaYA
(http://www.investors.com/image/TOONFINAL0706_800.jpg.cms)
:usacry
Election quiz
GEE SO SURPRISING. actually, this whole quiz smells of paultard bullshit. obama should NOT be the leftmost candidate by ANY stretch. if it gives full weight to obama when selecting "nationalize the banks" and i'm now almost 100% sure it does, it's a treacherous sack of shit.
Considering that I intend to vote for Jill Stein this fall, I guess I'm not too surprised. Also I have to LOL at how Libertarian-loaded this quiz is.It's got problems, especially with new answers both ways now. I hadn't really noticed because I didn't look at the answers just killing time with it. And it was much better last time around.
Oh man, what a meme. Few people tempt me to slap them, but these fuckers...how does one get into college due to their dad, have their tuition payed by their parents, get their first job due to their dad's connections...also believe they pulled their own boot straps up. I don't even support affirmative action based on race, but there's no question it was initially set up to combat shit like this.I know someone who is the ultimate this and you might have heard of him, maybe other michiganders, let me see if I can find him.
Reminds me of Romney claiming he gave away his entire inheritance, and thus made his millions "on his own"
That's one weird looking dude.
I can't tell if he's 18 or 58.
He's also a cultural warrior to the death type IIRC. No compromise on abortion, gay marriage, etc. (I mean like rape/etc. for abortion type, not even that.)
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-250_162-3409236.html
http://www.dennislennoxdiary.com/
http://twitter.com/dennislennox/
He's also a cultural warrior to the death type IIRC. No compromise on abortion, gay marriage, etc. (I mean like rape/etc. for abortion type, not even that.)
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-250_162-3409236.html
http://www.dennislennoxdiary.com/
http://twitter.com/dennislennox/
What is with his tweeting how many days are left in the year every day? ???
here's the libertarian intelligentsia in action: http://news.yahoo.com/atheist-e-cupp-never-vote-atheist-president-025658535.html
The other part of it — I like that there is a check, OK? That there‘s a person in the office that doesn’t think he’s bigger than the state. I like religion being a check and knowing that my president goes home every night addressing someone above him and not thinking all the power resides right here… Atheists don’t have that.
Quote from: SE CuppThe other part of it — I like that there is a check, OK? That there‘s a person in the office that doesn’t think he’s bigger than the state. I like religion being a check and knowing that my president goes home every night addressing someone above him and not thinking all the power resides right here… Atheists don’t have that.
That's a new one. Religious people make better elected officials because their faith... gives them more deference to the worldly institutions of governance? Zuh?
I always wonder how much people like that feel they're bullshitting vs. how sincere they are. Not just politics, but the Skip Bayless crowd too.
"I am an atheist. I have been an atheist for fifteen years. ... I believe ... that Judeo-Christian values, religious tolerance, an objective press, the benevolence of Christianity, and civility and decency make for a better American democracy."
I'm going to sound like a raging misogynist here but whatever: what's up with this wave of attractive yet stupid soccer mom type conservatives?Spoilered just in case :nsfw:
iirc that's the guy who tried to take on Gary Peters in a classroom. Dude is crazyNah, just followed him out to his car at night.
Quote from: SE CuppThe other part of it — I like that there is a check, OK? That there‘s a person in the office that doesn’t think he’s bigger than the state. I like religion being a check and knowing that my president goes home every night addressing someone above him and not thinking all the power resides right here… Atheists don’t have that.
That's a new one. Religious people make better elected officials because their faith... gives them more deference to the worldly institutions of governance? Zuh?
I always wonder how much people like that feel they're bullshitting vs. how sincere they are. Not just politics, but the Skip Bayless crowd too.
What could go wrong with a devout Christian being President, believing that his decisions were guided from above and thus making him devoid of any self-doubt or second guessing?
Because it's just a mask. They say they are doing god's work when they are only doing the work of special interests.Well, yeah, it's politics.
if Democrats insist that women need Obama to take care of them, then why shouldn't women also feel compelled to consider how their future husbands will take care of them? What's the difference between the feminists' political marriage to Obama and Ann's marriage to Mitt? Both choices are predicated on who will be the better provider.Quote
http://jezebel.com/5903056/misinformed-columnist-says-ann-romney-should-be-a-feminist-role-model-for-marrying-rich
if Democrats insist that women need Obama to take care of them, then why shouldn't women also feel compelled to consider how their future husbands will take care of them? What's the difference between the feminists' political marriage to Obama and Ann's marriage to Mitt? Both choices are predicated on who will be the better provider.
Because it's just a mask. They say they are doing god's work when they are only doing the work of special interests.Well, yeah, it's politics.
Joe the Plumber lays waste to Science. (http://readingisforsnobs.blogspot.com/2012/07/joe-plumber-if-them-thar-scienticians.html)Video from this too since I bumped us to the new page:
Latte sippin science lovers annihilated yet again.
If science is so great, where's my flying car?Yep, Q.E.D.
This came from White House deputy press secretary in response to Buzzfeed's stultifyingly dumb piece suggesting that the Obama campaign was using a font similar to Cuban revolutionary propaganda (you read that right) and calling for the head of the kerning vetter. Jayzuz.
Anyway, here's the WH reaction:
“Your GOP operative should have had the courtesy to stay sober before noon, and BuzzFeed should go back to labeling cat slideshows.”
COLORED PEOPLE
WHY AREN'T YOU WORKING HARDER? Why don't you get a job?
But I'm working three jobs already!
GET ANOTHER ONE
Here's how the partnership will work: The YG Action fund, a super PAC, will scour the country looking for new young Republican House and Senate candidates. (The group is similar to, but independent from, the National Republican Congressional Committee's "Young Guns" program.) The Action fund will support these new GOP candidates and independently bolster their campaigns. Meanwhile, MavPAC will build its own base of young, new donors and fundraising bundlers, whom they plan to connect with the new recruits. The two groups will share data based on the information they gather from new supporters. They plan to spend $5 million this election cycle on the joint project.
For Mandark: http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/07/05/511273/national-review-colonial-times/
I'd much rather have electoral reform than that.You want to have electoral reform? Let's get our dicks out and talk.
I got my machete, just in case a revolution starts.Let me know where to meet you.
Only if you promise to read The Soul of Man under Socialism.I will.
Only if you promise to read The Soul of Man under Socialism.I will.
Grant me the Wiki entry for now. Until I read it all.
Kroptokin and Bakunin are my bros for a bit.
EDIT: lol, didn't notice Kroptokin in this initially
I think PDark has the accuracy here. But it is twisted in a minor aspect.What?
There's no reason that blacks and hispanics should vote for the Democrats except for the hostility the GOP shows. (Unless we of course assume that people of a race are all the same.)
I've shown my love for an old Gdub speech, but I do think that's still important. And I have to question why blacks vote lockstep for Democrats. I've read all the explanations, I don't buy it. You aren't relevant if you're lockstep for a party.
The GOP can win if they get 40% hispanic and it's why they dance around immigration. And why Rubio even exists.
Theoretically, say there is a black revolt and they vote 50/50 Repub on social issues, vouchers, etc. Would the Democrats not come running to offer them more than feeble control over their urban centers? What power bloc would they get from bucking the party and saying don't take us for granted?
What do you lose in a cycle?
Who knows, maybe the next generation of Hispanics will see themselves as white before Hispanic.
You'd be surprised how many self loathing hispanics there are.Who knows, maybe the next generation of Hispanics will see themselves as white before Hispanic.
Haha not happening
Ah, so the hispanic majority that will occur in half a century will be considered "white" in another century. Haha. :lol
Most persons considered White today might not have been considered White at some point in U.S. history. Among those not considered white by some people at some time in American history are the Irish, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Slavs, Greeks, Welsh and many other peoples who were not English. However, legally all these groups were caucasian.[10]
On the 2000 Census form, race and ethnicity are distinct questions. A respondent who checks the "Hispanic or Latino" ethnicity box must also check one or more of the five official race categories. Of the over 35 million Hispanics or Latinos in the 2000 Census, a plurality of 48.6% identified as "White-Hispanic," 48.2% identified as "Hispanic-Hispanic" (most of whom are presumed to be mestizos), and the remaining 3.2% identified as "black-Hispanic."
Ah, so the hispanic majority that will occur in half a century will be considered "white" in another century. Haha. :lolMy wife identifies culturally as pretty white. I doubt my children will have much connection to hispanic culture and will probably be checking "Caucasian" on the forms they fill out. I'm 1/2 hispanic but I'm so far from them culturally that I never check the Latino box on forms.
I absolutely, 110% believe that Romney's NAACP speech today was designed to draw boos from the crowd in order to bolster his support amongst crazy white folk.
In 2008, single women supported Barack Obama by a measurable 70% to 29% margin. There was a 44-point difference between how single women voted compared to married women (more on that in a minute). Published reports in 2008 went as far as to say that if single women hadn’t overwhelmingly supported Obama the way they did, the results of the election would have looked very different.
Four years later … it doesn’t look like much as changed. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that Obama is leading Romney among single women by almost a 2- 1 advantage, 60 percent to 31 percent.
The reason is so simple. It boils down to one word: security. Single women vote for the candidate who will create more government programs for them to rely upon. They don’t have a husband to rely on --- so the government becomes their husband and provider. Not really all that hard to figure out.
http://www.boortz.com/weblogs/nealz-nuze/2012/jul/12/single-women/ (http://www.boortz.com/weblogs/nealz-nuze/2012/jul/12/single-women/)QuoteIn 2008, single women supported Barack Obama by a measurable 70% to 29% margin. There was a 44-point difference between how single women voted compared to married women (more on that in a minute). Published reports in 2008 went as far as to say that if single women hadn’t overwhelmingly supported Obama the way they did, the results of the election would have looked very different.
Four years later … it doesn’t look like much as changed. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that Obama is leading Romney among single women by almost a 2- 1 advantage, 60 percent to 31 percent.
The reason is so simple. It boils down to one word: security. Single women vote for the candidate who will create more government programs for them to rely upon. They don’t have a husband to rely on --- so the government becomes their husband and provider. Not really all that hard to figure out.
Stupid article, isn't it rather single women vote for Democrats because many Republicans want to strip away their rights and legislate their vaginas?
Hmm... perhaps I should volunteer at the Democratic committee and meet some single liberal women!
In 2008, black people supported Barack Obama by a measurable 95% to 4% margin. There was a 51-point difference between how black people voted compared to white people (more on that in a minute). Published reports in 2008 went as far as to say that if black people hadn’t overwhelmingly supported Obama the way they did, the results of the election would have looked very different.
Four years later … it doesn’t look like much as changed. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that Obama is leading Romney among black people by a 46 - 1 advantage, 92 percent to 2 percent.
The reason is so simple. It boils down to one word: bootstraps. Black people vote Democrat because they're lazy and want a handout from the government. Not really all that hard to figure out.
Drudge saying Condi Rice is currently the front runner for VP
pro choice, not married...yea right
I'd really like to see a "both sides do it" equivalency piece on this
"Obama said he had stopped community organizing in order to run for State Senate, but records show he was VOLUNTEERING WEEKLY."
"Why doesn't Obama take responsibility for whoever said he was Kenyan while promoting his book?"
at least, that's what to expect on GAF
I'd really like to see a "both sides do it" equivalency piece on this
"Obama said he had stopped community organizing in order to run for State Senate, but records show he was VOLUNTEERING WEEKLY."
"You can't have an equivalent case because Obama never had to work in the private sector. :smug"spoiler (click to show/hide)Do you put emoticons inside or outside quotes? Where's Van Cruncheon, I need a ruling from the Bore style guide on this.[close]
"Why doesn't Obama take responsibility for whoever said he was Kenyan while promoting his book?"
at least, that's what to expect on GAF
Plagiarist (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=39809581&postcount=4956).
Mitt Romney Demands an Apology from President Obama
posted by PAUL CONSTANT on FRI, JUL 13, 2012 at 3:12 PM
The five Mitt Romney interviews just went live all at once, and the internet is just starting to digest them. Time for a live-Slog!
3:14 PM: Romney has announced that he is only going to release two years' worth of tax returns, saying he has complied with the law. He says, "That's all that's necessary for people to understand something about my finances."
3:15 PM: Sounds like Romney's official line on the Bain deal is that he had no role in Bain Capital after 1999, but he was still a shareholder. This doesn't explain those SEC filings.
3:18 PM: Here's Romney demanding that President Obama apologize for Obama surrogate Stephanie Cutter suggesting that Romney committed a felony:
Asked by Crawford whether he believes Mr. Obama owes him an apology for Cutter's remarks, Romney said, "Absolutely - my goodness!
"What kind of president would have a campaign that says something like that about the nominee of another party?" Romney said. "This is reckless and absurd on his part, and it's something that's beneath his dignity. I hope he recognizes that even fellow Democrats have said that.
"Look - the president needs to talk about the direction he'd take the country, and stop these kinds of ads and attacks that are so disparate from what the American people want to talk about," Romney concluded, adding later that the president "has demeaned the leadership which he should be bringing to this country."
I think it more invokes empty factories and warehousesThat too. So essentially it's a double edged metaphor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud3mMj0AZZk
holy shit :lol
Are democrats running Obama's ad campaign, or did he hire Bush's 2004 folks? That's just brutal
I thought that was just R-money singing off key.I think it more invokes empty factories and warehousesThat too. So essentially it's a double edged metaphor.
Hollow words that echo in empty factories, warehouses, and businesses.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/romneys-free-stuff-speech-is-a-new-low-20120713
I've been doing my best to avoid the 2012 election coverage because it is full of Cheebs-like panic and overanalysis over every stump speech or campaign ad. Yet I saw this and was :o at the egregious speech that Romney gave to the NAACP. For a guy who is losing right now in just about every poll, he seems to be doing his best to push away as many people as possible.
Don't blame me though, I voted for Santorum!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/romneys-free-stuff-speech-is-a-new-low-20120713
I've been doing my best to avoid the 2012 election coverage because it is full of Cheebs-like panic and overanalysis over every stump speech or campaign ad. Yet I saw this and was :o at the egregious speech that Romney gave to the NAACP. For a guy who is losing right now in just about every poll, he seems to be doing his best to push away as many people as possible.
Don't blame me though, I voted for Santorum!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud3mMj0AZZk
holy shit :lol
Are democrats running Obama's ad campaign, or did he hire Bush's 2004 folks? That's just brutal
In a letter released Friday, Randi Shannon informs supporters of her new position as “U.S. Senator in the Republic of the United States of America.” You see, according to Shannon, the U.S. government has been acting unlawfully as the “‘official government,’ which clearly it is not!”
The libertarian-leaning group she joined claims it “re-inhabited” the government on March 30, 2010. The group claims the “United States Corporation” unlawfully formed in 1871 without the American people’s consent. “Since 1871, the abuses of this corporation upon both the international community as well as the American people are inestimable and unconscionable,” the group’s website claims.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney could name his running mate by the end of the week, a top adviser said Monday.
The announcement, if it happens according to the adviser's timetable, would come several weeks before presidential candidates traditionally reveal their picks for the second slot on the ticket. It would also come as Romney's campaign seeks to deflect intensifying criticism from President Obama, other Democrats and some Republicans over Romney's business record and refusal to release years of personal income tax filings.
Giuliani hasn't been a part of the national conversation since late 2007 though
Every movement needs a minority group to scapegoat for nation’s troubles.USSR it was bourgeoisie; Germany,the Jews; in US, its businessmen
So, basically what she's saying there is that raising the tax rate for billionaires is equivalent to the Final Solution.
Guliani and Rice are pro choice, they won't be on the ticket...
Pawlenty or Portman brehs
In 2008, Bain Capital acquired Clear Channel Radio and 850 radio stations for $24 billion, and records show 14 of the company's directors have contributed more than $700,000 to Romney's campaigns. Romney left the firm in 1999, but still rakes in millions from his sizable share of Bain investments and pays 15 percent tax.
Romney's Bain Capital controls the board of directors of Clear Channel. These are people who started giving to Romney in 1994. This is a social and economic network that is deeply involved in Clear Channel and tightly controlled. These are Romney's friends and allies going back to the very beginning of his political career. And now they control Clear Channel Radio, America's largest and most powerful FM and AM radio station corporation. It operates 850 radio stations and reaches 110 million Americans.
Clear Channel syndicates most conservative talk radio shows including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage. And what about all that "free" advertising that Romney gets every day on hundreds of radio stations across the country on these talk shows? What better way to control the message of conservative talk radio than to BUY it? Rush Limbaugh was given a $400 million contract in 2008 when Bain Capital purchased Clear Channel. He broadcasts on over 600 radio stations. Sean Hannity is heard on over 500 stations by 13.5 million listeners. Hannity also received a new and lucrative contract when Bain purchased Clear Channel in 2008.
The concept of “retroactive retirement” is well-established. Ben Affleck retroactively retired from the cast of “Gigli,” thus restoring his bankability as a movie star. As the journalist Matt Yglesias recalled, Michael Jordan retroactively retired from his two seasons playing for the Washington Wizards, and thereby preserved his basketball legacy. The director Julie Taymor retroactively retired as director of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” when it was an infamous Broadway flop; she then retroactively unretired when the show became a hit. (The matter is now in litigation.)
The criticism of Romney is especially unjust because, after all, he has retroactively retired from other jobs besides the one he held at Bain Capital—Governor of Massachusetts, for instance. During his term in office, Romney sponsored a health-care law with an individual mandate. As Romney said when he signed the law, on April 13, 2006, “Today, Massachusetts is leading the way with health insurance for everyone.” Later, when he began running for the Republican nomination for President, he retroactively retired from that position and said, “what works in one state may not be the answer for another.” Romney thus has a record of consistency in his commitment to retroactive retirement. (Ryan Lizza has written about his mastery of the technique.) Retroactive retirement should not be confused with retrofitted retirement, which is currently being considered by Anthony Weiner, the former congressman who left office amid certain Internet unpleasantness.
The principle of retroactive retirement is also different from that of prospective retirement. Prospective retirement was pioneered by the columnist and conservative legend William F. Buckley, when he ran for mayor of New York, in 1965. When asked what he would do if he won, Buckley replied, “Demand a recount.” Buckley’s prospective retirement from the mayoralty is a variation on a sentiment best expressed by Groucho Marx: “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member.”
Then there is introspective retirement (Greta Garbo); consecutive retirement (Brett Favre); hyperactive retirement (Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton); and hypoactive retirement (George W. Bush).
Notwithstanding Gillespie’s clarification, the Romney campaign still appears to be struggling with its explanations of the candidate’s business career. This process is also not a problem. Under the theory of retroactivity, the Romney team can keep coming up with explanations until it finds one that works. This process continues, prospectively.
DWS is definitely an idiot. One of the most incompetent democrats in a position of power I've ever seen. Absolutely useless in most of her interviews.
She isn't as inane as Priebus though.
DWS is definitely an idiot. One of the most incompetent democrats in a position of power I've ever seen. Absolutely useless in most of her interviews.
That's gold, Jerry! Gold!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQk6Eg1tMT8
DWS is definitely an idiot. One of the most incompetent democrats in a position of power I've ever seen. Absolutely useless in most of her interviews.
DWS is definitely an idiot. One of the most incompetent democrats in a position of power I've ever seen. Absolutely useless in most of her interviews.
That's gold, Jerry! Gold!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQk6Eg1tMT8
she looks like my ex in 20 years
"[Romney] has said Obama's a nice fellow, he's just in over his head," the adviser said. "But I think the governor himself believes this latest round of attacks that have impugned his integrity and accused him of being a felon go so far beyond that pale that he's really disappointed. He believes it's time to vet the president. He really hasn't been vetted; McCain didn't do it."
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/how-the-romney-campaign-decided-to-take-the-glovesQuote"[Romney] has said Obama's a nice fellow, he's just in over his head," the adviser said. "But I think the governor himself believes this latest round of attacks that have impugned his integrity and accused him of being a felon go so far beyond that pale that he's really disappointed. He believes it's time to vet the president. He really hasn't been vetted; McCain didn't do it."
really? This is what they have?
Sounds like Syria is getting destroyed right now :-\
http://www.metafilter.com/118022/This-is-what-rape-culture-looks-like
i guess they're called Mounties for a reason?
Good job digging up that original effective oppo research! It will be hilarious if they start banging the JEREMIAH WRIGHT drum once more
Remember: you ARE responsible for things your pastor says, but you AREN'T responsible for things your company does while you are CEO, chairman, president and sole shareholder.
Mitt Romney's Getting Slimy
posted by PAUL CONSTANT on WED, JUL 18, 2012 at 2:31 PM
This BuzzFeed story suggests that Mitt Romney is about to hit President Obama with everything he's got:
In speeches from Des Moines to Dallas, Romney has always been careful to hedge his tough digs at Obama with a civil nod toward the president's moral character: "He's a nice guy," the Republican has often said. "He just has no idea how the private economy works." But Tuesday's speech included no such hedge — and one campaign adviser said there's a reason for that. "[Romney] has said Obama's a nice fellow, he's just in over his head," the adviser said. "But I think the governor himself believes this latest round of attacks that have impugned his integrity and accused him of being a felon go so far beyond that pale that he's really disappointed. He believes it's time to vet the president. He really hasn't been vetted; McCain didn't do it...I mean, this is a guy who admitted to cocaine use, had a sweetheart deal with his house in Chicago, and was associated and worked with Rod Blagojevich to get Valerie Jarrett appointed to the Senate," the adviser said. "The bottom line is there'll be counterattacks."
The thing I'm getting from this story (and others like it) is that Romney's feelings were genuinely hurt by the Bain attacks. Which is remarkable for one reason: It means that Romney didn't see the Bain attacks coming. How do you run a presidential campaign at that level and not see those sorts of attacks coming? If this Huffington Post story is true, Romney "never would have gone forward with his run for president" if he knew that his tax returns would be this much of an issue. This is either a case of tremendous arrogance or tremendous stupidity.
The problem with these anti-Obama attacks, and with going for a Breitbartian "vetting" of the president, is that issues from before he was elected were basically settled on the day he was elected. You don't get a do-over in presidential politics. You don't get to dig up issues that were already considered and rejected by voters, to convince them to go over those same issues again. The best you can hope for is to rile up the conservative base into even more of a froth, and maybe to turn away people from the polls with how disgusting the race is getting. But I'm not even convinced of the Romney campaign's ability to plan that kind of triangulation; I think they're just swinging wild at this point.
What Romney is really doing -- as I've been saying for days -- is trying to placate his rabid base, and also his big donors, who may be zillionaires but are still angry old white male cranks who constantly watch Fox News just like all the other angry old white male cranks in America.
The base and the donors just can't believe that all these timeworn lines of attack are unpersuasive to swing voters -- Valerie Jarrett and Fast and Furious make their blood boil, so surely the rest of the public must feel the same way, right? The public just doesn't know! It's because Obama wasn't vetted! The lie-beral media didn't do its job four years ago!
"Tremendous arrogance or tremendous stupidity."
I like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8v-zcca-Ds
Gotta give McCain dap for calling Bachman out on the senate floor. It's a shame this shit is tolerable when aimed at Muslims and Arabs, whereas similar comments aimed at other groups would trigger a larger outrage/condemnation.
I'm less than a minute into this video, and... Huma Abedin? Who's married to (Jewish) Anthony Weiner?
Rilly?
I'm less than a minute into this video, and... Huma Abedin? Who's married to (Jewish) Anthony Weiner?
Rilly?
I'm less than a minute into this video, and... Huma Abedin? Who's married to (Jewish) Anthony Weiner?
It's a good thing Obamacare expands coverage for mental health services. There are a lot of conservatives who need to get their head checked.
It's a good thing Obamacare expands coverage for mental health services. There are a lot of conservatives who need to get their head checked.Lobotomies for Liberals?
we ALWAYS have one idiot libertopian in the rotation hereabouts. ALWAYS. personally, i preferred the heady days of foc and RONPAUL.
Isn't this bdoughy guy the one who said some racist stuff and then got all huffy when someone called him on it and left? Couldn't we have just gotten siamesedreamer back or something?
Isn't this bdoughy guy the one who said some racist stuff and then got all huffy when someone called him on it and left? Couldn't we have just gotten siamesedreamer back or something?
What a memory, that was two years ago and I only left because I needed a break from the same crap that happened at neogaf when someone thinks different than "the hive." I came back last year and started posting again. If you must know, I had a relapse of my disease (Wegener's granulomatosis) and I took a bit of time off from posting here and limited myself to a place I have been posting for years and knew the people personally.
I normally don't request such things, but this NEEDS to be added to the emoticon list:
(http://fi.somethingawful.com/safs/smilies/9/0/beck.001.gif)
I just read the wikipedia about that and fuck... My condolences, disease sounds really rough.
"To be honest with you, the reason why I initially wanted to attend law school is because I'd watched Legally Blonde and saw Elle Woods," Meyer continues. "She showed me you could go to Harvard and make it sophisticated. Pink is my favorite color, so that's technically my inspiration, everything pink."
Thought this was amusing:
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/07/glenn-reynolds-demonstrates-how-to-avoid-politicizing-a-tragedy
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/23/1112799/-Romney-to-Olympians-You-didn-t-get-here-solely-on-your-own
Romney just can't catch a break.
Just today he was meeting with "self made" businessmen, including government contractors and businessmen who received federal loans.
Romney just can't catch a break.
Just today he was meeting with "self made" businessmen, including government contractors and businessmen who received federal loans.
Yeah, but can you really fault them for that?
Conservatives Complain Beauty Pageants Have Liberal Bias, Create “Miss Conservative” Event
"...and he feels that the special relationship is special"
cant wait for the eventual moment when a republican forgets to keep dancing around the issue and just flat-out says "YOU JUST CANT TRUST BLACK PEOPLE, RIGHT"
yeah, that is a whopper
'English-speaking white people, UNITE against these darkies'. Mitt may have to disavow that advisor.
yeah, that is a whopper
'English-speaking white people, UNITE against these darkies'. Mitt may have to disavow that advisor.
how does one disavow an anonymous advisor?
yeah, that is a whopper
'English-speaking white people, UNITE against these darkies'. Mitt may have to disavow that advisor.
how does one disavow an anonymous advisor?
Anonymously?
“Transparency? There was none with [the Salt Lake Organizing Committee] when he was there,” said Kenneth Bullock, a committee member who represented the Utah League of Cities and Towns. “Their transparency became a black hole. It was nonexistent.”
According to Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul, “Mitt Romney resigned from SLOC in early 2002 to run for governor of Massachusetts and was not involved in the decision-making regarding the final disposition of records.”
The poll — based on an oversample from Tuesday night’s NBC/WSJ survey — shows Obama earning the support of 67 percent of Latino voters nationwide, easily trumping Mitt Romney, who earns the support of just 23 percent.
I've still never had Chick-Fil-A...You're not missing out on much.
yeah, that is a whopper
'English-speaking white people, UNITE against these darkies'. Mitt may have to disavow that advisor.
how does one disavow an anonymous advisor?
Anonymously?
Retroactively.
I've still never had Chick-Fil-A...
The A.D. Morgan Corporation employs 50 people and has annual revenues of about $80 million, according to its website. The company lists more than 130 projects and developments. Impressive, no doubt. But the list is nearly all government projects. [...]
"We're not going to have an opportunity in the private sector, they have a tendency to use lump sum, low bid," Smith said, explaining how government bids work. "So by virtue of what it is that we do, we go to the client base that purchases construction services that way."
As for Ramos, his company's Facebook page describes Value Enterprise Solutions as "providing value added service/education to businesses, local government, federal government, Department of Defense, and industry contract organizations." [...]
In the Air Force for 24 years, Ramos dismissed the role it played in providing him the training and expertise to run his business today.
"It wasn't handed to me," Ramos said. "I worked my butt off. My military experience taught me integrity. But that didn't come from the government."
seriously, though, it seems really facile and almost fetishistic to argue that GUNZ are the problem when the pathology points to a problem that's entirely cultural.
GUNZ, the new DEATH TOTEM
I just fail to see why regular people need access to automatic or semi-automatic weapons. There are only two reasons I can think of: 1) "they're cool and I want them!" and 2) to kill people. 1) isn't a good enough reason to outweigh 2).Uh, take away a semi automatic weapon and you take away a large percentage of guns. All my handguns are semi-automatic. A large percentage of hunting rifles are semi automatic. Go hunting with a bolt action and try to fire fast enough to kill something that's charging you. Yeah, no.
people kill other people. it's not the how that ultimately matters, it's the why.
We won't see any meaningful gun law changes until some high profile right wingers take an early dirtnap. It has to affect them before they would consider doing anything about it.
I like to be watched. :-*
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/26/mitt-romney-london-olympics-gaffe-live
:rofl
Considering the laundry list of problems the country has right now, guns should be at the bottom of priorities. I'd hate to have to see liberal politicians burn through their political capital on a losing battle like gun control. I think gun violence just accentuates those higher priorities such as a lack of mental health care infrastructure, piss poor workers rights that cause people to go postal, bullying and school shootings, etc.
So I was driving to work yesterday and I turned on some crazy right wing talk radio because obviously I love punishing myself before doing my job. I believe it was the Neal Boortz show.....I never heard of him before but he's certainly got the tea party insanity quotient locked down. Anyway, I was about to turn it after getting my fill of nonsense until he started to tee off on the Olympics and I remember thinking to myself "Now how is he going to turn this around and blame everything on those dirty libruls?" Sure enough, Neal found a way. He was complaining why there's so many swimming events such as the backstroke, butterfly, etc. when no one swims like that. There should be one way to swim (obviously whatever that way was the American way) and be done with it and put in more events like NASCAR(!!) and golf. Obviously dem libruls along with the French are influencing the event selection and should be stopped. We shouldn't be letting our kids swim the backstroke - that's the gay way.
............
God damnit. I seriously want to move to Canada.
i backstroke all the time when i swim. it's relaxing. ???
i backstroke all the time when i swim. it's relaxing. ???
We shouldn't be letting our kids swim the backstroke - that's the gay way.
i backstroke all the time when i swim. it's relaxing. ???We shouldn't be letting our kids swim the backstroke - that's the gay way.
.
Even Karl Rove is like "Damn Romney, y u so dumb, breh?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS0qq_wi5Zw
i backstroke all the time when i swim. it's relaxing. ???
What I don't get about that pic is where is supposed to be attacking Obama from? One could think that it's doing so from the left, but then it has that "Making Statism Unpopular" thing on top.
What I don't get about that pic is where is supposed to be attacking Obama from? One could think that it's doing so from the left, but then it has that "Making Statism Unpopular" thing on top.
Libertarian
Worst possible Romney gaffe he could make on his tour? How about: "I'm just not sure Israel is ready for Jesus' return."?
Clinton's liked chicken since the 90s
Clinton's liked chicken since the 90s
... unless of course you count all that pussy he's eating.
Clinton's liked chicken since the 90s
... unless of course you count all that pussy he's eating.
Maybe he should have been eating stuff lower in fat.
I'd be Clinton's wing man. He'd take the ugly friend
I'd be Clinton's wing man. He'd take the ugly friend
And then he'd take the hot one.
The Romney campaign's foreign policy adviser basically said that Romney would give the green light to Israel bombing Iran.
All the usual caveats apply (campaign rhetoric that can be tossed away if he hypothetically wins, conditional on how the situation develops, blah blah blah), but really? BAD IDEA. No new wars Israel, kthx.
so if McCain had won 2008, would we be warring with Iran right now? Would the Arab Spring even have happened if the whole Muslim world is monumentally pissed at America and their anger has a more convenient target then their own leaders?
or is that too far fetched?
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/07/2012730141942976671.html?utm_content=automate&utm_campaign=Trial6&utm_source=NewSocialFlow&utm_term=plustweets&utm_medium=MasterAccount
For Creepy Old Guy.
"According to the sentence that was issued, four of the defendants in this case were sentenced to death," prosecutor general Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei told IRNA.
Two people were sentenced to life and others received jail sentences of up to 25 years, Mohseni-Ejei said. In addition to jail time, some were sentenced to flogging, ordered to pay fines and banned from government jobs.
Romney: Israel’s Superior Economy To Palestinians Result Of ‘Culture,’ ‘Providence’http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/romney-israel-palestine-gdp-culture.php?ref=fpa
Mitt Romney offered up a curious assessment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a fundraiser in Jerusalem on Sunday, suggesting that Palestinian suffering — rather than an obstacle to peace — was actually an encouraging sign of Israel’s greatness.
“I was thinking this morning as I prepared to come into this room of a discussion I had across the country in the United States about my perceptions about differences between countries,” Romney told a group of high-dollar donors at a fundraiser in Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. “As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality.”
As the Associated Press noted, Romney actually got the numbers very wrong: Israel’s GDP per capita was $31,000 in 2011 and Palestinians’ per capita GDP was just $1,500. Romney at no point mentioned that the Palestinian territories have for decades been occupied without sovereign control, where residents face significant restrictions on movement and employment.
“It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” Saeb Erakat, a senior Palestinian Authority official, told the AP.
Romney attributed the gap in success in part to Israel’s “culture.”
“Culture makes all the difference,” Romney said. “And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things.” Among them, he cited “the hand of providence.”
Romney’s campaign noted that the candidate has used variations of his “culture” theory of economics before in speeches unrelated to Israel, attributing his thinking to a book by Harvard history professor David Landes. Nonetheless, Romney’s opening remarks left little ambiguity that he was making a direct comparison between Israel and the Palestinian territories. For context, we’ll provide the full remarks at the bottom.
While American lawmakers, including President Obama have hugged Israel close for decades as part of a longstanding alliance, Romney’s comments appearing to revel in Palestinian poverty were highly unusual. President George W. Bush, for example, described Palestinian economic troubles as a challenge that needed to be overcome en route to statehood rather than a sign of Israel’s moral superiority and pledged aid to that effect. Even as Bush supported economically destructive measures like travel checkpoints, he characterized them as difficult decisions that were necessary for security reasons and acknowledged their impact on Palestinians’ day to day living.
QuoteRomney: Israel’s Superior Economy To Palestinians Result Of ‘Culture,’ ‘Providence’http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/romney-israel-palestine-gdp-culture.php?ref=fpa
Mitt Romney offered up a curious assessment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a fundraiser in Jerusalem on Sunday, suggesting that Palestinian suffering — rather than an obstacle to peace — was actually an encouraging sign of Israel’s greatness.
“I was thinking this morning as I prepared to come into this room of a discussion I had across the country in the United States about my perceptions about differences between countries,” Romney told a group of high-dollar donors at a fundraiser in Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. “As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality.”
As the Associated Press noted, Romney actually got the numbers very wrong: Israel’s GDP per capita was $31,000 in 2011 and Palestinians’ per capita GDP was just $1,500. Romney at no point mentioned that the Palestinian territories have for decades been occupied without sovereign control, where residents face significant restrictions on movement and employment.
“It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” Saeb Erakat, a senior Palestinian Authority official, told the AP.
Romney attributed the gap in success in part to Israel’s “culture.”
“Culture makes all the difference,” Romney said. “And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things.” Among them, he cited “the hand of providence.”
Romney’s campaign noted that the candidate has used variations of his “culture” theory of economics before in speeches unrelated to Israel, attributing his thinking to a book by Harvard history professor David Landes. Nonetheless, Romney’s opening remarks left little ambiguity that he was making a direct comparison between Israel and the Palestinian territories. For context, we’ll provide the full remarks at the bottom.
While American lawmakers, including President Obama have hugged Israel close for decades as part of a longstanding alliance, Romney’s comments appearing to revel in Palestinian poverty were highly unusual. President George W. Bush, for example, described Palestinian economic troubles as a challenge that needed to be overcome en route to statehood rather than a sign of Israel’s moral superiority and pledged aid to that effect. Even as Bush supported economically destructive measures like travel checkpoints, he characterized them as difficult decisions that were necessary for security reasons and acknowledged their impact on Palestinians’ day to day living.
oh boy
If only the Palestinians would pull themselves up by their own boot straps!
Remember, folks, Boogie has a futon in his spare bedroom AND a couch and loveseat in the living room up for auction as of November 7, 2012!
After several questions involving Romney's missteps on the trip, including comments he made in Israel, Romney spokesman Rick Gorka shot back.
"Show some respect," he said after being challenged for not taking questions, according to pool reports.
"We haven't had another chance to ask a question," a New York Times reporter said.
"Kiss my ass," Gorka said back. "This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect."
If this is the Romney we’re going to see during the balance of the campaign Obama is in deep trouble. This Romney is unapologetichttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/romney-frankly-has-been-at-his-best/2012/07/31/gJQAbWrSMX_blog.html?wprss=rss_opinions
(http://i.minus.com/iTXu6dm8N7jSR.png)
(http://i.minus.com/ijKlGds0KsP2q.jpg)
I'm surprised the CFA thing is having the legs it is having.
I wanted to get some CFA and at both of the locations I checked out, there were long lines on a weekday afternoon. Probably the best business decision the CEO ever made.
im so cool i boycotted chick-fil-a years before all these schmos hopped on board
While walking through the safari desert you witness a small child starving to death. A CFA is a few yards away; it is the only restaurant for miles, and you have no food on you. Do you purchase the CFA, therefore financing bigotry, to feed the child? Or let the child starve to keep your purchasing dollars unsullied by hate
I'm surprised the CFA thing is having the legs it is having.
I wanted to get some CFA and at both of the locations I checked out, there were long lines on a weekday afternoon. Probably the best business decision the CEO ever made.
The GAF thread is quite enraged that CFA is doing well. They're used to these types of things ending in the other side giving up, or being shamed to irrelevance. Not gonna happen here.
I sure as hell wouldn't have eaten there yesterday, but I'd have no hesitation of buying food from a local franchise - but there are none around here
That video describes GAF. She had nothing to do with their stance
You find a completely natural and normal event that occurs in all mammals to be not normal?
You find a completely natural and normal event that occurs in all mammals to be not normal?To me natural and normal is that we are all put on this earth to procreate.
You find a completely natural and normal event that occurs in all mammals to be not normal?
Depends on what each person defines as a natural and normal event. I find it to be neither. To me natural and normal is that we are all put on this earth to procreate. We simply share a difference of opinion.
That said I do not find homosexuality to be a normal practice based on my christian upbringing and personal belief and for that I would automatically get labelled a bigot.
You find a completely natural and normal event that occurs in all mammals to be not normal?
Depends on what each person defines as a natural and normal event. I find it to be neither. To me natural and normal is that we are all put on this earth to procreate. We simply share a difference of opinion.
You find a completely natural and normal event that occurs in all mammals to be not normal?
Depends on what each person defines as a natural and normal event. I find it to be neither. To me natural and normal is that we are all put on this earth to procreate. We simply share a difference of opinion.
and of course there are gay animals!
You find a completely natural and normal event that occurs in all mammals to be not normal?
Depends on what each person defines as a natural and normal event. I find it to be neither. To me natural and normal is that we are all put on this earth to procreate. We simply share a difference of opinion.
Well, not every Christian. But man, a giant majority have no clue what freedom of religion means. They think it literally means that Christianity - apparently the only religion or religious view! - has the freedom to do what it wants, not that it merely means that you can practice any religion you choose without fear of being burned on a stake for being an infidel.
That has not been confirmed, pretty hard to discuss as a rumor.
I doubt Romney is dumb enough to run for president with that in his closet. Also he gave McCain's camp 20 years of taxes iirc, so they'd know. If that was true, why not leak the information in the primaries to destroy Romney/save the party?
Anonymous CNN Source Says Harry Reid's Anonymous Romney Tax Source Is a Good Source
I wonder how long they can keep this going?
Chik-Fil-A has had more than a dozen lawsuits against it over employment discrimination. Not just gay people, but a woman who was allegedly fired after getting pregnant so she'd have more time to be a good mom. So, their views definitely filter down into the day to day operation of the chain.
In 2008, John Edwards' camp was ready to expose his affair if he managed to get close to the nomination. I'd imagine Romney has payed 13-15% in taxes over the last couple decades. That's bad, but not nearly as bad as not paying any taxes at all.
At least four people were reported shot Sunday morning at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., according to local media. Witnesses told NBC station WTMJ of Milwaukee that someone opened fire inside the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, 7512 South Howell Ave., south of Milwaukee, along Lake Michigan. Shooting victims were seen covered on the ground outside the temple. The temple's president was among those shot, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.
Two victims were treated at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee. Oak Creek police, the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department and other law enforcement agencies have responded, the Journal-Sentinel reported. Authorities closed roads and set up a staging area near the temple, WTMJ reported.
A witness told officers the shooter was a white male, with a heavy build, bald head and wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, Oak Creek Patch reported.
smh
what in the fuck are you talking about
what in the fuck are you talking about
NO ONE brought up the guy's party and NO ONE brought up Obama.
PD posted a twitter image that describes the perp. That's it.
Really don't know what you're talking about. I didn't post this story in the politics thread, first off. Second, what does a description of the alleged perpetrator have to do with Obama or political parties?
Really don't know what you're talking about. I didn't post this story in the politics thread, first off. Second, what does a description of the alleged perpetrator have to do with Obama or political parties?
What does the description of the alleged perpetrator have to do with anything.
Really don't know what you're talking about. I didn't post this story in the politics thread, first off. Second, what does a description of the alleged perpetrator have to do with Obama or political parties?
What does the description of the alleged perpetrator have to do with anything. Guy was shot dead last I checked. No ongoing manhunt, so the reason for posting the description is?
Well, like, everything. I mean, the guy shot up a Sikh temple. Sikhs tend to be peaceful. Hence, the description of the shooter, because why the hell would anyone want to shoot up a Sikh temple? It's relevant because it leads to a possible motive.
This is like kindergarten critical thinking here.
Did you neglect to watch Scooby Doo when you were young?
The perpetrator having a 9/11 tattoo says almost nothing about modern popular conservatism, but bdoughtys reaction might.
In Kindergarten, I was taught that GREEN LIGHT MEANS GO, RED LIGHT MEANS STOP. I'm pretty sure I also learned from my daily Scooby Doo watchings that IF SOMEONE MURDERS SOMEONE FIND OUT ALL INFORMATION.
why do conservatives tend to be conspiracy theorists? :lol
since he opened the door, can we talk about how rightwing media and their "shari'a law is comin' to YOUR neighborhood" panic propaganda is ginnin' up dem paranoid schizophrenic types right and left
since he opened the door, can we talk about how rightwing media and their "shari'a law is comin' to YOUR neighborhood" panic propaganda is ginnin' up dem paranoid schizophrenic types right and left
I remember back to my college days in a Poli Sci class I took 5-6 years ago where a guy from Homeland Security gave a presentation and mentioned that far right white reactionaries posed a bigger terrorist threat to America than any Muslin. Since that was in the Bush era and pre-recession, I can only imagine how much worse it has gotten since.
I remember back to my college days in a Poli Sci class I took 5-6 years ago where a guy from Homeland Security gave a presentation and mentioned that far right white reactionaries posed a bigger terrorist threat to America than any Muslin. Since that was in the Bush era and pre-recession, I can only imagine how much worse it has gotten since.
waterboard bdouchey
Reince Priebus: Obama has a problem with the American dream. (http://readingisforsnobs.blogspot.com/2012/08/rnc-chair-i-think-this-president-has.html)
It's probably cause he never achieved it. :(
probably because it doesn't exist
Really don't know what you're talking about. I didn't post this story in the politics thread, first off. Second, what does a description of the alleged perpetrator have to do with Obama or political parties?
What does the description of the alleged perpetrator have to do with anything. Guy was shot dead last I checked. No ongoing manhunt, so the reason for posting the description is?
Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has defected to the opposition seeking to overthrow President Bashar Assad, a spokesman for Hijab said Monday, marking one of the most high-profile desertions from the Damascus government.
Syrian state TV said Hijab had been fired, but an official source in Amman told Reuters that the dismissal followed his defection to neighboring Jordan with his family.
Syrian television reported on Monday that Prime Minister Riyad Hijab had been fired. His purported spokesman said he had defected to Jordan.
"I announce today my defection from the killing and terrorist regime and I announce that I have joined the ranks of the freedom and dignity revolution. I announce that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution," Hijab said in a statement read in his name by Mohammad Otari, who identified himself as Hijab's spokesman, on Al Jazeera television.
God, the sharia thing is dumb and infuriating. We're more than a decade on from 9/11 with Muslim law no more part of the legal code than it was before, but that just proves that they're being EVEN MORE SNEAKY than we imagined!
Stupid, unfounded beliefs are annoying, but stupid, unfounded beliefs that scapegoat people (especially folks already getting the short end of the stick, like religious minorities, immigrants, and the poor) are inexcusable.
Why is that gay dude protesting General Mills?
Well, like, everything. I mean, the guy shot up a Sikh temple. Sikhs tend to be peaceful. Hence, the description of the shooter, because why the hell would anyone want to shoot up a Sikh temple?
Anyway, looks like the shooter at the Sikh temple was a Stormfront-style white supremacist. Gosh, and those boys always seemed so nice.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/08/dear-the-media http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/alleged-sikh-temple-shooter-former-member-of-skinhead-band
A lot of reviewers and bloggers have been piling on The Newsroom. Emily Nussbaum just murdered it (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2012/06/25/120625crte_television_nussbaum?currentPage=all) in her New Yorker review.
I think Sorkin's tics have grated on people long enough that there were the makings of a backlash, and hoo boy does it sound like he's indulging in all his worst habits.
Never watched the West Wing seriously myself, but I did like Charlie Wilson's War. There was also relatively little moralizing in that one, and more mischievous sausage-making.
I wish we had trade programs in the school system. Pushing college on everyone isn't the best idea.
Today's athletes just aren't jingoistic enough, what happened to the days when the Olympics were just about how awesome American was?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85w6362CrG0
http://www.joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/08/sen-lindsey-graham-calls-for.html
:wtf
http://www.joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/08/sen-lindsey-graham-calls-for.html
:wtf
http://readingisforsnobs.blogspot.com/2012/08/sen-lindsey-graham-raising-taxes-on.html
"If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests," Schnatter vowed.
Quote"If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests," Schnatter vowed.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/papa-johns-obamacare-will-raise-pizza-prices-131331.html
Who the hell says something like this?
Quote"If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests," Schnatter vowed.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/papa-johns-obamacare-will-raise-pizza-prices-131331.html
Who the hell says something like this?
RICH ASSHOLES
15 cents? For what? I mean, other than a modern, first-world health care system.
Papa Johns pizza sucks anyway.
Papa Johns pizza sucks anyway.
FIGHT ME
I love their pizza
Quote"If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests," Schnatter vowed.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/papa-johns-obamacare-will-raise-pizza-prices-131331.html
Who the hell says something like this?
I'd guess someone that runs a business and is honest about what government-imposed additions to their bottom line always mean: higher prices.
Papa Johns pizza sucks anyway.
FIGHT ME
I love their pizza
::) ::) ::) ::) ::)
Of course you do, it's a large chain so why wouldn't you? I swear, you must have the shittiest local places in the world to be like this.
Quote"If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests," Schnatter vowed.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/papa-johns-obamacare-will-raise-pizza-prices-131331.html
Who the hell says something like this?
I'd guess someone that runs a business and is honest about what government-imposed additions to their bottom line always mean: higher prices.
I actually got a $5 hot-n-ready for Little Caesars today :lol
I actually got a $5 hot-n-ready for Little Caesars today :lol
:fbm
I live in Buttfuck, NC, a small mountain town. We have 3 awesome local pizza places within 5 miles of my house; one is within walking distance. I just think you're not trying :P
Papa Johns pizza sucks anyway.
FIGHT ME
I love their pizza
::) ::) ::) ::) ::)
Of course you do, it's a large chain so why wouldn't you? I swear, you must have the shittiest local places in the world to be like this.
DUDE I live in Michigan. I can't go to many local pizza places because we barely have any. Sure there are some great places downtown, but when I get home late and don't want to order Chinese, I hit up the local Papa Johns.
excuuuse me for not living in New York or Chicago :maf :'(
Papa Johns pizza sucks anyway.
FIGHT ME
I love their pizza
::) ::) ::) ::) ::)
Of course you do, it's a large chain so why wouldn't you? I swear, you must have the shittiest local places in the world to be like this.
DUDE I live in Michigan. I can't go to many local pizza places because we barely have any. Sure there are some great places downtown, but when I get home late and don't want to order Chinese, I hit up the local Papa Johns.
excuuuse me for not living in New York or Chicago :maf :'(
Don't you live in a college town?
I live in Buttfuck, NC, a small mountain town. We have 3 awesome local pizza places within 5 miles of my house; one is within walking distance. I just think you're not trying :P
However, going a bit farther [70 miles versus 15], there's this new chain called Pie Five, which is basically a Subway restaurant that makes pizzas instead of sub sandwiches. It's really great. You pick you crust, you sauces, your meat, and your toppings. Then they throw it on this conveyor and it pops out the other side of an oven in about a minute, all cooked and ready to be eaten. Really decent prices too.
I live in Buttfuck, NC, a small mountain town. We have 3 awesome local pizza places within 5 miles of my house; one is within walking distance. I just think you're not trying :PI live in rural county in Ohio. There are probably 7-8 local pizza places in the county but they are so bad that the local Domino's outclasses them all. To get a pizza better than Domino's I have to travel 30 miles.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/baltimore-insider-blog/bal-obama-campaign-throwing-the-wire-fundraiser-20120723,0,6590364.story
:rofl :rofl
Obama you dunce
Obama is a hypocrite. He's going to pimp his "favorite show" The Wire, and then have the audacity to laugh at the very concept of legalizing marijuana? Really? Obama has far more harsh drug laws than even Bush and he tries to raise a fundraiser for a television show that was very, very anti-war on drugs? I hope David Simon calls him out on his shit.
The Wire was against the war on drugs? Must have missed that, for me it was a show about social problems and it didnt send any clear cut message about what was wrong, it just showed stuff "as is".
Obama has said his favorite character from the show is Omar, the gun-toting, pajama-wearing, stick-up man.
DUDE I live in Michigan. I can't go to many local pizza places because we barely have any. Sure there are some great places downtown, but when I get home late and don't want to order Chinese, I hit up the local Papa Johns.Wait, where do you live in Michigan again?
excuuuse me for not living in New York or Chicago :maf :'(
DUDE I live in Michigan. I can't go to many local pizza places because we barely have any. Sure there are some great places downtown, but when I get home late and don't want to order Chinese, I hit up the local Papa Johns.Wait, where do you live in Michigan again?
excuuuse me for not living in New York or Chicago :maf :'(
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/team-obama-says-they-dont-story-of-man-who-stars-of-131462.html
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/team-obama-says-they-dont-story-of-man-who-stars-of-131462.html
Can someone explain the outrage to me?
Romney is not winning a lot of points in my book. I read the Romenycare comments from him. If he had any testicular fortitude, he would be putting out his tax records to shut Reid up and then go after Obama to release his college records from Columbia.
“This person is an investor in Bain Capital, a Republican also, and somebody who has been dealing with Romney’s company for a long, long time and he has direct knowledge of this,” said Reid aide Jose Parra, referring to Romney’s tax returns.
A group called "Jews and Christians Together," which backed Rick Santorum in the Republican primary, is sending a memo to Republican National Convention delegates urging them not to vote for Mitt Romney at the convention, even if they're bound to him
We’re just saying that Romney has so many liabilities that will be exploited by Obama," Baldwin said in a phone interview. "I don’t have a problems with Mormons personally, but it is a liability issue" among evangelical voters, Baldwin said.
there's also no reason for repugnantly stupid shit like this not to get called out
Romney is not winning a lot of points in my book. I read the Romenycare comments from him. If he had any testicular fortitude, he would be putting out his tax records to shut Reid up and then go after Obama to release his college records from Columbia.
there's also no reason for repugnantly stupid shit like this not to get called out
Unless it's a candidate lying about knowledge of a bunch of racist newsletters he published. :smug
“We are not auditioning for fearless leader,” Grover Norquist told conservatives at the CPAC convention in February. “We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.”http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/mitt-romney-paul-ryan-budget-conservatives-vice-president-health-care.php?ref=fpa
Norquist went on: “Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.”
Agreed, it's a stupid ad. Although I agree with the official Romney team response that if the lady had lived in MA, she would have survived thanks to universal health care :smug
“Our campaign would be — helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon — business or family or taxes or things of that nature,” Romney said, according to excerpts of an upcoming interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd released Friday.
Without having seen it in context, that comes across as fairly whiney and submissive for a republican candidate, especially one with a book out called NO APOLOGIES or something similar. A winner laughs off baseless attacks and sees the impotence in them. How am I supposed to project my deep-seated yearning for a commanding father figure on to this dude now?
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/romney-to-obama-please-stop-attacking-my-business-taxes.php?ref=fpaQuote“Our campaign would be — helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon — business or family or taxes or things of that nature,” Romney said, according to excerpts of an upcoming interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd released Friday.
Romney is picking his VP tomorrow. In Virginia. Lots of talk that it'll be Paul Ryan, but considering it's being announced in Virginia....wouldn't governor Bob McDonnell be the obvious choice?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/10/1118810/-Mitt-Romney-to-announce-GOP-s-2016-front-runner-in-Norfolk-Virginia
If it's Ryan I'm guessing conservatives plan on getting blown out on their own terms - or maybe they feel another economic crash could be the trojan horse required to make this work. Because there's no fucking way any sensible establishment republican could look at Ryan's budget and put him on a national ticket.
get ready to hear "voucher" a million times bros
Romney is picking his VP tomorrow. In Virginia. Lots of talk that it'll be Paul Ryan, but considering it's being announced in Virginia....wouldn't governor Bob McDonnell be the obvious choice?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/10/1118810/-Mitt-Romney-to-announce-GOP-s-2016-front-runner-in-Norfolk-Virginia
If it's Ryan I'm guessing conservatives plan on getting blown out on their own terms - or maybe they feel another economic crash could be the trojan horse required to make this work. Because there's no fucking way any sensible establishment republican could look at Ryan's budget and put him on a national ticket.
get ready to hear "voucher" a million times bros
oh shit, multiple people on NBC are confirming Ryan and the secret service allegedly just showed up at his house :lol
And yet many Republicans who spoke to CNN – all of them granted anonymity to speak freely without angering Romney officials in Boston - wondered why Romney would announce the pick on a weekend when millions of potential voters are likely to be distracted by the Olympics, PGA golf, late season baseball and the box office release of the latest Bourne thriller.
"This is probably just the Romney campaign jerking with the press," said one Republican operative close to one of Romney's potential running mates, referring to the private jet in Wisconsin.
Many rank-and-file Romney staffers contacted by CNN remained clueless about plans for VP rollout, but admitted that it would only take a late night phone call and a few hours to fly Romney's pick into Virginia from Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio or elsewhere early on Saturday morning.
Aides to several Republicans on the vice presidential shortlist said their bosses had not been contacted by Romney as of Friday evening.
"I have made the decision to release 10 years of tax returns. Paul Ryan's. // LOL #gopfail
WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney has chosen Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin to be his running mate and will introduce him on Saturday morning in Norfolk, Va., the campaign said, a selection that shakes up the presidential race and presents a Republican ticket that offers a sharp choice for voters in November.
1) Does this mean Mitt Romney is adopting the Paul Ryan plan?
· Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.
· Romney’s administration will go through the budget line by line and ask two questions: Can we afford it? And, if not, should we borrow money from China to pay for it?
· Mitt Romney will start with the easiest cut of all: Obamacare, a trillion-dollar entitlement we don’t want and can’t afford.
· Mitt Romney also laid out commonsense reforms that will make good on our promises to today’s seniors and save Social Security and Medicare for future generations.
2) Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have different views on some policy areas – like Medicare spending, entitlement reform, labor, etc. – do you think those differences are going to hurt or help?
· Of course they aren’t going to have the same view on every issue. But they both share the view that this election is a choice about two fundamentally different paths for this country. President Obama has taken America down a path of debt and decline. Romney and Ryan believe in a path for America that leads to more jobs, less debt and smaller government. So, while you might find an issue or two where they might not agree, they are in complete agreement on the direction that they want to lead America
I'm proud to have Mr. Ryan on the ticket. However, let it be known that I disagree with him on the only issues which have made him a prominent figure!
I'm skeptical this will actually hurt Romney, but it's still dumb.
I'll probably write a big block of text at some point, if only to clarify for myself, but short version is I think there will be a huge amount of obfuscation and bullshitting about what's in Ryan's plan and what's in Obamacare, and the media won't do a great job cutting through all that to the facts. So people will hear conflicting stories and gravitate to the one that upsets their worldview the least.
I'll probably write a big block of text at some point, if only to clarify for myself, but short version is I think there will be a huge amount of obfuscation and bullshitting about what's in Ryan's plan and what's in Obamacare, and the media won't do a great job cutting through all that to the facts. So people will hear conflicting stories and gravitate to the one that upsets their worldview the least.
Knowing everything I know about Paul Ryan, I view this pick as polarizing. If I were a guy not interested in politics, I'd be more motivated to vote in this election with Ryan on the Republican ticket. Not for Obama, but rather against the Republicans.
I guess, conversely, this must have the opposite effect on Conservatives (make them vote for Romney).
(CNN) -- Officials in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, have operated "a school-to-prison pipeline" that violates the constitutional rights of juveniles by incarcerating them for alleged school disciplinary infractions, some as minor as defiance, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
"Students most affected by this system are African-American children and children with disabilities," the Justice Department said.
The federal agency's civil rights division seeks "meaningful negotiations" in 60 days to end the constitutional violations or else a federal lawsuit would be filed against state, county and local officials in Meridian, according to a Justice Department letter dated Friday to those officials.
The letter also names two Lauderdale County Youth Court judges, Frank Coleman and Veldore Young. State and local officials couldn't be reached immediately for comment Friday.
"The systematic disregard for children's basic constitutional rights by agencies with a duty to protect and serve these children betrays the public trust," Thomas E. Perez, assistant U.S. attorney general, said in a statement. "We hope to resolve the concerns outlined in our findings in a collaborative fashion, but we will not hesitate to take appropriate legal action if necessary."
In 2009, the Lauderdale County Juvenile Detention Facility in Meridian was the target of a federal class-action lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center that alleged children and teens were subjected to "shockingly inhumane" treatment, the center said.
The alleged mistreatment included youngsters being "crammed into small, filthy cells and tormented with the arbitrary use of Mace as a punishment for even the most minor infractions -- such as 'talking too much' or failing to sit in the 'back of their cells,'" the center said in a statement.
In 2010, Lauderdale County officials and the center reached an agreement to reform the jail system and consider alternatives to sending youths to the detention center, said the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group.
"I think this is evidence of a broken system where the most vulnerable population of kids are not receiving their constitutionally guaranteed rights," Jody Owens II, managing attorney for the center's Mississippi office, told CNN.
On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department accused Meridian police of automatically arresting all students referred by the city's public schools and then sending them to the county juvenile justice system, "where existing due process protections are illusory and inadequate," the federal letter says.
The police department command staff and officers characterized their agency as a "taxi service" for the schools and juvenile detention facility, without assessing the circumstances of the alleged charges against students, the Justice Department said.
"The Youth Court places children on probation, and the terms of the probation set by the Youth Court and DYS require children on probation to serve any suspensions from school incarcerated in the juvenile detention center," the Justice Department letter said.
for JayDubya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqO5JnvQSm0
You're nuts; whenever Ryan is faced with someone who isn't tripping over themselves to tell him how smart, courageous, brave and gosh darned SERIOUS he his for his pure awesomeness, rugged good looks and principled stand in wanting to use magic and pig entrails to create a budget, he gets bitchy and defensive about how shit works. Biden gets a bad rap- he's kind of a lunatic, potentially senile, and looked like a putz in his debate with Palin, but that was because HE COULDN'T LAY INTO HER WITHOUT LOOKING LIKE A DICK. Which no one would be impressed with. He will be under absolutely NO such constraints when he faces off with Capt. Vouchers. While I expect Ryan to hit Biden plenty, I also expect Biden to leave a smoldering crater where Ryan was standing because it's really goddamn easy when you start looking at the specifics of what he wants to do.
So Mittens is done for after this Ryan move, right? That's what I understood from Euro press.
On a Facebook page purported to be by Caffall, three of the seven profile pictures are of rifles, three feature dogs and one shows a man in an image much like one distributed Monday night by the city of College Station. The writer indicates he is divorced and has a mother, sister and brother.
The page also includes a quote saying, "We are all capable of redemption, if we are willing to change," plus another he attributes to George Orwell stating, "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
http://www.etruth.com/article/20120813/NEWS01/708139942/0/FRONTPAGE
Looks like the Tea Party is feeling neglected.
http://www.etruth.com/article/20120813/NEWS01/708139942/0/FRONTPAGE
Looks like the Tea Party is feeling neglected.
Thankfully atheists are above such things.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/13/first-on-cnn-atheist-group-targets-presidential-candidates-faith-with-billboards/
Ooops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rMfztUWy7c
Auto bailout cost now at $25 million. In the 20th century there was no bailout cost. Smart move Joe, get em to forget the realities of this century. ;)
http://www.etruth.com/article/20120813/NEWS01/708139942/0/FRONTPAGE
Looks like the Tea Party is feeling neglected.
Thankfully atheists are above such things.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/13/first-on-cnn-atheist-group-targets-presidential-candidates-faith-with-billboards/
Ooops.
I fail to see your point, plus I think atheist groups like that are gigantic jackasses.
bdoughty's just mad that the one aimed at Obama didn't properly display his religion as Kenyan Muslimism.
bdoughty's just mad that the one aimed at Obama didn't properly display his religion as Kenyan Muslimism.
No I just find it amusing that Atheists and Liberals tend to shy away from attacking the Islam faith (there is plenty of good stuff to work with in the Qur'an). Has nothing to with Obama, just that it appears most are afraid they will get stuck on a list with Kurt Westergaard and having to build a safe room in their house.
bdoughty's just mad that the one aimed at Obama didn't properly display his religion as Kenyan Muslimism.
No I just find it amusing that Atheists and Liberals tend to shy away from attacking the Islam faith (there is plenty of good stuff to work with in the Qur'an). Has nothing to with Obama, just that it appears most are afraid they will get stuck on a list with Kurt Westergaard and having to build a safe room in their house.
Probably cuz we aren't dealing with bigotry and hate from teh muslimz.....
From the article you posted:
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/01/atheist-group-targets-muslims-jews-with-myth-billboards-in-arabic-and-hebrew/
i'm surprised you're not freaking out over the guy who walked into Family Research Council and tried to shoot up the place over their standing with chik-fil-a.
what influence do Muslims have? They can barely build their version of a YMCA without dealing with a PR shitstorm.
http://www.etruth.com/article/20120813/NEWS01/708139942/0/FRONTPAGE
Looks like the Tea Party is feeling neglected.
You can google Sharia Law, US, examples and there is plenty to look at.
who the fuck is this clown
what influence do Muslims have? They can barely build their version of a YMCA without dealing with a PR shitstorm.
Yeah, it is that simple and the location has nothing to do with it. Muslims have plenty of influence in the areas that they heavily populate in the US. Look at the legislation in certain states to fight against Sharia law creeping into the judicial system.
You can google Sharia Law, US, examples and there is plenty to look at. Poor Disney had a set of simple dress requirements that one young Muslim must have looked at before signing up for a job as a server. Disney even tried to accommodate her, not good enough, lawsuit for you.
The first hit is this: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/12/26/no-shariah-law-is-not-being-imposed-in-the-us/
Very informative, thanks for the heads up!
who the fuck is this clown
Must have skipped over this. I see the Neogaf posting etiquette in political/religious/homosexual topics for the left makes it way here. If thou does not agree he must be... A fucktard/bigot/racist/etc.
I'll take option #1 :D
Seems like there is a distinction between a gaffe and a mistake. Romney confusing Sikhs with Sheiks was a mistake for instance; I give him the benefit of the doubt there. Likewise, Biden accidentally saying we're in the 20th century...is a mistake.
A gaffe is something like...oh Palin's entire VP performance.
what influence do Muslims have? They can barely build their version of a YMCA without dealing with a PR shitstorm.
Yeah, it is that simple and the location has nothing to do with it. Muslims have plenty of influence in the areas that they heavily populate in the US. Look at the legislation in certain states to fight against Sharia law creeping into the judicial system.
You can google Sharia Law, US, examples and there is plenty to look at. Poor Disney had a set of simple dress requirements that one young Muslim must have looked at before signing up for a job as a server. Disney even tried to accommodate her, not good enough, lawsuit for you.
i'm surprised you're not freaking out over the guy who walked into Family Research Council and tried to shoot up the place over their standing with chik-fil-a.
Are the facts out? Still waiting for more details myself.
what influence do Muslims have? They can barely build their version of a YMCA without dealing with a PR shitstorm.
Yeah, it is that simple and the location has nothing to do with it. Muslims have plenty of influence in the areas that they heavily populate in the US. Look at the legislation in certain states to fight against Sharia law creeping into the judicial system.
You can google Sharia Law, US, examples and there is plenty to look at. Poor Disney had a set of simple dress requirements that one young Muslim must have looked at before signing up for a job as a server. Disney even tried to accommodate her, not good enough, lawsuit for you.
I don't need to google it. I've been aware of the sharia panicmongering from folks like Pam Gellar and Glenn Beck for over a decade now. I remember the freakout about the crescent shape of the logo at a nuclear summit, the crescent shape of the Flight 93 memorial, and Rachel Ray's motherfucking scarf.
Sharia's not a threat to the legal system and legislation against it is only evidence of the political climate in those states. Why do you think sharia's mostly legislated against in heavily Republican southern states rather than the Mid-Atlantic/Midwest states where they're most concentrated?
Hell, everyone who screams about sharia doesn't even understand what it is, as evidenced by the Disney example. Sharia is a system for accommodating nonbelievers under Muslim rule. The case you cited is the exact opposite: delineating how Muslims should be accommodated within a non-Muslim society. FFS dude.
It's truly tragic how Islamic culture has eaten away at our legal institutions. Now law schools are all making courses in sharia a prerequisite, the SEC is filing a suit against Bank of America because the Koran says interest-based lending is haraam, and the Supreme Court is hearing a case to decide whether Sunni or Shia rules should govern the procedures for divorce hearings.
On the upside, I was able to get out of a traffic ticket by citing a fatwa by the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, so it's not all bad!
The first hit is this: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/12/26/no-shariah-law-is-not-being-imposed-in-the-us/
Very informative, thanks for the heads up!
Well if we all went on the first hit, we would all be batting 1.000.
It's truly tragic how Islamic culture has eaten away at our legal institutions. Now law schools are all making courses in sharia a prerequisite, the SEC is filing a suit against Bank of America because the Koran says interest-based lending is haraam, and the Supreme Court is hearing a case to decide whether Sunni or Shia rules should govern the procedures for divorce hearings.
On the upside, I was able to get out of a traffic ticket by citing a fatwa by the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, so it's not all bad!
Not a fan of Christie? Any particular reason?
These are Politicians we're talking about; facts and numbers are not their area of strength.
Seeing him in suits kind of hides it to a degree; you know he's fat, but a nice suit kind of makes anyone look decent. Seeing him without the suit on...oh man. When you see just how large his pants are it's rather jarring. Like seriously, I'm not hating on the guy but he probably has to lose some weight if he wants to be more than a governor.
These are Politicians we're talking about; facts and numbers are not their area of strength.
Edited for accuracy.
These are Politicians we're talking about; facts and numbers are not their area of strength.
Edited for accuracy.
Yeah, people could just say anything. Like, Sharia Law is taking over the country! for example. It's CRAZY.
19 (http://wikiislam.net/wiki/The_Miracle_of_19).
19 (http://wikiislam.net/wiki/The_Miracle_of_19).
Did anybody see Mitten's white board performance? I can't watch it anywhere at work but was it that bad?
Am I the only one who kind of thinks the rape charges might be bullshit? I have no evidence of course, just shooting for the hip as W would say. It just seems convenient that this guy would go on a rape and molesting spree while multiple governments were trying to shitcan him
The problem is that if he goes to Sweden to face the rape charge, will Sweden then cooperate with the US in extraditing him to America where he might be given a life sentence/death penalty.
I mean regardless of how legitimate the rape charges are, it would only make sense for him to seek asylum in this case unless he can be guaranteed that he won't be extradited to the US.
“Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan” is an anagram for “My ultimate Ayn Rand Porn.”
Shamelessly stolen from Balloon Juice. But it's true.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/texas-lgbt-legislator-pansexual-mary-gonzalez-refuses-limited-bisexual-label-article-1.1137021
Man, how depressing. There are people my age running for political office and I'm just sitting around jacking it to porn...
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/soledad-obrien-calls-out-rep-chaffetz-saying
wow :lol
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/soledad-obrien-calls-out-rep-chaffetz-saying
wow :lol
13% on tens of millions per year, and screaming bloody murder on the prospect of bumping that up by a percent or two.
In the meantime, in soviet canuckistan, I pay in the neighborhood of 30% income tax on 85k a year, and somehow our society is not crumbling to dust.
"bu-bu-but you can't raise taxes on JOB CREATORS! Then they won't create jobs!"
America's unemployment rate: 8.3%
Canada's unemployment rate: 7.3%
How full of shit are Republicans? Soo full of shit.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/soledad-obrien-calls-out-rep-chaffetz-saying
wow :lol
something tells me there's a republican version of that type of video, just less articulate. The mere thought makes it impossible for me to enjoy this video
^polls show he'll win too.
^polls show he'll win too.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/soledad-obrien-calls-out-rep-chaffetz-saying
wow :lol
Soledad O'Brien is on fire. That's like the second time in two days that she's called out some Republican stooge on their medicare bullcrap.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-ostroy/soledad-interview-journalism-school_b_1778181.html
Edit: Actually, I guess it's the third. Looks like she had T-Paw on the other day to talk medicare as well.
Haha, wow, check out this assclown Todd Akin. He thinks that all schools should be privitized (poor kids can go work in the fields) (http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/akin-end-school-lunch-program) and that women can't get pregnant from rape (he's talked to some doctors). (http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/todd-akin-legitimate-rape.php?ref=fpa)
:bow compassionate conservatism :bow2
Was Akin's "misspeech" ridiculous? Of course. Is it worse than the misdeeds of his opponent, Claire McCaskill, who rubber-stamps Obama's war on Missouri coal jobs and tripled our deficit? Not by conservative standards, or any real standard of measurement.
Yesterday, my father in law said to me that if Obama wins again that we will see $10 a gallon of gas as punishment by the oil companies. So vote for Romney to avoid being punished by them. :lol :-\Texas is full of these type of people :( :( :(
Yesterday, my father in law said to me that if Obama wins again that we will see $10 a gallon of gas as punishment by the oil companies. So vote for Romney to avoid being punished by them. :lol :-\
start listening to librul talk radio really loud, and when the dudes come by to argue just go "shhhhh! listen" and point to the radio. they'll walk away
NBA Campaign Donors
http://hoopshype.com/campaign.htm
(http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/2056/ar80o.png)
himu-chan, you have some genuine lunatics on your facebook
himu-chan, you have some genuine lunatics on your facebook
Yeah, sorry about going full distinguished mentally-challenged fellow on her.spoiler (click to show/hide)...no I'm not.[close]
How am I wrong? Ryan as VP, super anti-abortion stances, not even basic gay rights acknowledgements, no immigration support...they're going all in. In a normal election this would be suicide. But in an election during a bad economy, two years after local GOP parties took over multiple states in the aftermath of a Census? Mix in the billions of corporate donations and it's clear they're going for all the marbles. They either win in the face of demographic shifts, or lose big.
Is there video of the GOP speaker dropping the N bomb on TV when talking about "urban folks" stealing ballots out of mailboxes at today's party platform meeting?
I think it's a null-entendre.
I think Ryan is a better pick than Palin (because let's be real)
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/tom_head_civil_war.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
We gotta raise taxes because....UN BLACK HELICOPTERS!!! :lol
He vowed to stand in front of the county’s armored vehicle and stare down the U.N. troops if that happens.
(http://i47.tinypic.com/2a79bvs.jpg)
Bain Documents: Romney Offshore Investments Used 'Blockers' To Avoid Taxeshttp://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bain-documents-romney-offshore-investments-blockers-avoid-taxes/story?id=17067015#.UDa0kKCJ6iB
The newly released documents rekindle questions about one of the more technical tax questions that has emerged about Romney's investments – the use of so-called "blocker" entities. The blocker is a paper company that serves as a buffer between the investor and the fund holding the investments, Wilkins explained. That means the investment income can be counted as a dividend and in some cases avoid income tax.
In the financials for the Bain Capital Asia Fund, for instance, the audit describes the establishment of blocker corporations to hold more than $92 million in contributions from the fund.
Some experts have pointed to the blockers to help explain how Romney has been able to amass between $20.7 million and $101.6 million in a tax-free IRA, many times more than the typical amount an IRA can hold. Romney has not responded to questions about his IRA.
well that didn't take longQuoteBain Documents: Romney Offshore Investments Used 'Blockers' To Avoid Taxeshttp://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/bain-documents-romney-offshore-investments-blockers-avoid-taxes/story?id=17067015#.UDa0kKCJ6iB
The newly released documents rekindle questions about one of the more technical tax questions that has emerged about Romney's investments – the use of so-called "blocker" entities. The blocker is a paper company that serves as a buffer between the investor and the fund holding the investments, Wilkins explained. That means the investment income can be counted as a dividend and in some cases avoid income tax.
In the financials for the Bain Capital Asia Fund, for instance, the audit describes the establishment of blocker corporations to hold more than $92 million in contributions from the fund.
Some experts have pointed to the blockers to help explain how Romney has been able to amass between $20.7 million and $101.6 million in a tax-free IRA, many times more than the typical amount an IRA can hold. Romney has not responded to questions about his IRA.
Bain used the same havens to dodge taxes during Romney's tenure
and im damn happy he's staying in
The gold standard has returned to mainstream U.S. politics for the first time in 30 years, with a “gold commission” set to become part of official Republican party policy.
Drafts of the party platform, which it will adopt at a convention in Tampa Bay, Florida, next week, call for an audit of Federal Reserve monetary policy and a commission to look at restoring the link between the dollar and gold.
The move shows how five years of easy monetary policy — and the efforts of congressman Ron Paul — have made the once-fringe idea of returning to gold-as-money a legitimate part of Republican debate.
Marsha Blackburn, a Republican congresswoman from Tennessee and co-chair of the platform committee, said the issues were not adopted merely to placate Paul and the delegates that he picked up during his campaign for the party’s nomination.
“These were adopted because they are things that Republicans agree on,” Blackburn told the Financial Times. “The House recently passed a bill on this, and this is something that we think needs to be done.”
At a campaign stop in his home state of Michigan Friday, Mitt Romney made a joke referencing the continued doubts about President Obama's birth certificate raised by Romney supporters like Donald Trump.
"I love being home, where but the both of us were born," Romney said after introducing his wife, fellow Michigan native Ann. "No one asked to see my birth certificate. They know this is where we were born and raised."
It's good being white. :smug
A wild Ron Paul appears! He uses "LOLbertarianism" against the RNC. It's super effective!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48770752QuoteThe gold standard has returned to mainstream U.S. politics for the first time in 30 years, with a “gold commission” set to become part of official Republican party policy.
Drafts of the party platform, which it will adopt at a convention in Tampa Bay, Florida, next week, call for an audit of Federal Reserve monetary policy and a commission to look at restoring the link between the dollar and gold.
The move shows how five years of easy monetary policy — and the efforts of congressman Ron Paul — have made the once-fringe idea of returning to gold-as-money a legitimate part of Republican debate.
Marsha Blackburn, a Republican congresswoman from Tennessee and co-chair of the platform committee, said the issues were not adopted merely to placate Paul and the delegates that he picked up during his campaign for the party’s nomination.
“These were adopted because they are things that Republicans agree on,” Blackburn told the Financial Times. “The House recently passed a bill on this, and this is something that we think needs to be done.”
Does anyone ever get the feeling that the GOP believes that this is their country and we are all just lucky to live here?
Made In The USA Mug
(SKU OFA0805)
There's really no way to make the conspiracy about President Obama's birth certificate completely go away, so we might as well laugh at it -- and make sure as many people as possible are in on the joke. Get your Obama birth certificate Made in the USA mug today.
$22.50
https://store.barackobama.com/obama-2012-store-home-outdoors/obama-2012-store-kitchen/made-in-the-usa-mug.html?source=socnet_20120825_BO_FB_USA_MUG2_MERCH&utm_medium=fb&utm_source=bo_fb&utm_campaign=socnet_20120825_BO_FB_USA_MUG2_MERCH (https://store.barackobama.com/obama-2012-store-home-outdoors/obama-2012-store-kitchen/made-in-the-usa-mug.html?source=socnet_20120825_BO_FB_USA_MUG2_MERCH&utm_medium=fb&utm_source=bo_fb&utm_campaign=socnet_20120825_BO_FB_USA_MUG2_MERCH)
I know what my tea party buddies are getting for Christmas this year, a nice "Barry Soetero" mug:(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6khrszKWe1qzyj5fo1_400.gif)
https://store.barackobama.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/e/merch_0012_mug.jpgQuoteMade In The USA Mug
(SKU OFA0805)
There's really no way to make the conspiracy about President Obama's birth certificate completely go away, so we might as well laugh at it -- and make sure as many people as possible are in on the joke. Get your Obama birth certificate Made in the USA mug today.
$22.50
https://store.barackobama.com/obama-2012-store-home-outdoors/obama-2012-store-kitchen/made-in-the-usa-mug.html?source=socnet_20120825_BO_FB_USA_MUG2_MERCH&utm_medium=fb&utm_source=bo_fb&utm_campaign=socnet_20120825_BO_FB_USA_MUG2_MERCH (https://store.barackobama.com/obama-2012-store-home-outdoors/obama-2012-store-kitchen/made-in-the-usa-mug.html?source=socnet_20120825_BO_FB_USA_MUG2_MERCH&utm_medium=fb&utm_source=bo_fb&utm_campaign=socnet_20120825_BO_FB_USA_MUG2_MERCH)
Where lol?
Uh ohhhhhhh:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/romney-im-very-proud-of-my-health-care-reform-in-massachusetts/
Does anyone ever get the feeling that the GOP believes that this is their country and we are all just lucky to live here?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJrX30tLXLI
Political observers have noted for a while that Mitt Romney’s claim that President Obama gutted the work requirement in the 1996 welfare reform law is false. But few in the mainstream media have have gone so far as to accuse Republicans of playing the ‘race card.’
But Chris Matthews, the host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” didn’t hold back in a tirade launched against RNC Chairman Reince Priebus Monday morning, accusing the Romney campaign of using race to defeat Obama. Matthews lit into Priebus, citing both the welfare attacks and Romney’s recent birth certificate joke as evidence that the GOP is “playing that little ethnic card there.”
“I have to call you on this, Mr. Chairman,” Matthews said in an appearance with Priebus on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” as he responded to Republicans’ criticism that Obama is running a very negative campaign. “But they’ve both negative. That cheap shot about ‘I don’t have a problem with my birth certificate’ was awful. It is an embarrassment to your party to play that card.”
Matthews continued, turning the attacks up a notch:
“You can play your games and giggle about it but the fact is your side playing that card. When you start talking about work requirements, you know what game you’re playing and everybody knows what game you’re playing. It’s a race card and yeah, if your name’s Romney, yeah you were well born, you went to prep school, yeah, brag about it. This guy has an African name and he’s got to live with it. Look who’s gone further in their life. Who was born on third base? Making fun of the guy’s birth certificate issue when it was never a real issue except for the right wing.”
Priebus pushed back against Matthews remarks. “Congratulations,” he said. “You’re loaded up, you got it out.” Priebus argued that Romney’s birth certificate comment was just “a moment of levity” and “everybody gets it.”
“It just seems funny the first joke he’s ever told in his life is about Obama’s birth certificate,” Matthews responded.
Though few have said explicitly that Romney’s welfare attacks are about race, it was a charge launched at Newt Gingrich, who made “paychecks versus food stamps” a central issue in his primary bid for the nomination.
“Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job,” one of many Romney ads on welfare says. “They just send you your welfare check.”
Last week, President Obama cited the welfare attacks as evidence that Romney was playing dirty. “The contrast, I think it is pretty stark,” Obama said at a press conference. “They can run the campaign they want, but the truth of the matter is that you can’t make stuff up. That’s one thing that you learn as president of the United States: You will be called into account.”
Though Matthews comments stand out, he isn’t the first to note the connotations Romney is hoping to play up with the welfare attacks.
“The presumptive Republican presidential nominee wants voters to conjure images in their minds of freeloading moms sitting on couches watching big screen televisions,” the editorial board of the Des Moines Register wrote earlier this month. “And he wants voters to think the president is helping them do just that … but the idea of anyone ‘sponging off the system’ is apparently something Romney believes voters will rally behind him to oppose. He may be right.”
why is this story getting no media traction?
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/08/prosecutors-us-soldiers-plotted-kill-president-obama/56238/
The prosecutor said the militia group had big plans. It plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah, she said. In Washington state, she added, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state's apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia's goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president.
Last week, Paul Ryan gave an interview in which, defending his position that there should be no excuses for abortion, he referred to rape as a "method of conception."
Wow, right? Talk about a benign euphemism. Rape -- RAPE! -- is now a "method of conception." You know, like love-making, just without the love.
There could be no greater testament to the utter abdication of responsibility by what passes for a "news" media in America in 2012 than that, despite the grotesquerie of this cavalierly callous comment, chances are better than good that this is the first you're hearing of it.
Here, watch it -- and try to figure out why this has gotten NO MAINSTREAM MEDIA play (not even here at the Huffington Post) despite it being, to my mind, a far more offensive remark than Todd Akin's imbecilic blurt of last weekend. What, are we tired of stupid remarks about rape now, so Ryan gets a free pass?
Given the demands for Akin's resignation from a mere Senate race when his musings on "legitimate rape" were publicized, what do you imagine the reaction would be if people were as familiar with VP wannabe Ryan's stunning statement? Might there be a cacophony of outrage? Might there be calls for his resignation from the ticket? Might there be a focus on how fundamentally oblivious these people who would make our laws are to not just women's but humans' rights and dignity? Sure, there might, but then of course people would have to have heard about it.
According to the man who would be the proverbial heartbeat away from the White House, and who in any event would -- given Romney's utter hollowness -- have an inordinate influence on the judicial appointments that will determine how much freedom our children get to live under, RAPE = "METHOD OF CONCEPTION." And yet, unless you're a frequenter of one of a dozen or so lefty blogs -- or my friend on Facebook -- you probably knew nothing about it.
I truly despair for the country my 14-year-old daughter is inheriting. That a remark this intensely revealing of the danger posed by this ticket can go basically unreported is as nauseating to me as the quote itself.
“I lived something similar to that with my own family,” he went on to say. “She chose life and I commend her for that. She knew my views but fortunately for me … she chose the way I thought. Now don't get me wrong. It wasn't rape.”
Smith was then asked if his daughter's unwed pregnancy and rape were similar. “No, no, no. Put yourself in a father's position, yes, I mean it is similar,” he said.
There's probably no such thing as sin... but in terms of relative harm, and thus, which deserves a harsher punishment?
I frankly don't see how anyone could argue that rape is worse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQd7ywLcmUU
you can tell Tagg knows he dun goofed
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/s720x720/207174_10151203366629680_497373034_n.jpg)
There's probably no such thing as sin... but in terms of relative harm, and thus, which deserves a harsher punishment?What makes killing a human wrong?
I frankly don't see how anyone could argue that rape is worse.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Louisiana on Monday as that state and others along the Gulf Coast prepared for Tropical Storm Isaac.http://news.yahoo.com/obama-declares-emergency-louisiana-210503783.html
The White House said Obama informed Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal of the emergency declaration in a phone call. The declaration makes federal support available to save lives, protect public health and safety and preserve property in coastal areas.
Jindal, a Republican, shot back late Monday in a letter to the Obama administration that the declaration fell short of the help he was requesting.
"We appreciate your response to our request and your approval," Jindal wrote. "However, the state's original request for federal assistance .... included a request for reimbursement for all emergency protective measures. The federal declaration of emergency only provides for direct federal assistance."
And if you were able to read back a page...
(http://www.thestranger.com/binary/b7f1/1346108996-mittpaulnyercover.jpeg)
What a cute couple.
If true, then besides being horribly racist, that's not even how you feed animals. They have signs and shit telling you not to do that.
that shit is sickening
also, christie for 2016
that shit is sickening
also, christie for 2016
Ah, I see the GOP's Latino outreach program is proceeding as planned
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2012/08/hbc-90008805
Ah, I see the GOP's Latino outreach program is proceeding as planned
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2012/08/hbc-90008805
Other sites were saying that the USA chants were started by Romney supporters trying to drown out the chants of Ron Paul supporters, who were chanting "point of order" or some such thing. It's hard to tell in the video, but still hilarious either way.
A minor revolt broke out on the floor of the Republican Party's presidential convention Tuesday afternoon and evening. Ron Paul delegates from several states erupted into protest over a controversial change to the party's rules to block future insurgencies mounted by outside candidates like their hero. Paul supporters also freaked out over the convention's refusal to recognize about two dozen Paul delegates and for refusing to treat Paul like a serious candidate for the nomination.
During the roll call of the states, the Paulites were irate, screaming at the podium, as convention secretary Kim Reynolds declined to read out the delegate votes for any candidate other than Romney. "The Republican Party is so afraid of Ron Paul that they won't repeat his name," shouted Jim Ayala, a Nevada delegate and Paul supporter wearing an Oath Keepers t-shirt.
Minutes earlier, the Paulites were enraged when the convention adopted the new set of rules on a voice vote during which the Paul backers out-shouted the other delegates. One Nevada delegate and Paul supporter, Mark Carducci, thrust two middle fingers into the air toward RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), screaming "Fuck you, tyrants!" (That's him in the above picture.)
2012 Republican national convention
Mitt Romney and GOP in Tampa: How Low Will They Go?
23 Numbers to Know About the Conventions
Will a Hurricane Ruin the GOP's Big Bash?
Video: Herman Cain Goes Off
At Anti-Abortion Bash, Todd Akin Is a Hero
Gay Republicans Optimistic in Tampa
See our full coverage of the 2012 Republican National Convention.
The Republican National Committee had altered the convention rules to bind delegates in future elections to vote for the candidate who wins their state's primary or caucus. This change would hurt outsider candidates like Paul, who collected 158 delegates during the Republican primary season. The RNC also refused to recognize Paul's delegates from Maine, and this incensed his many supporters, leading to a nasty yelling match on the convention floor immediately before Mitt Romney's nomination. "Seat them now!" the Paulites yelled.
Roger Leahy, an Iowa delegate and Paul supporter, says he and other Paulites had pleaded with Reynolds to recognize Paul during the roll call, but she would not. "This is the Republican steamroller," Leahy said.
All this led to the unseated Maine Paul delegates storming out of the convention together. And a pack of angry Paul fans all clad in white ballcaps left the Tampa Bay Times Forum. The Romney campaign and the RNC had hoped to avoid this kind of floor flight, large or small, during the convention. But once it was done, the convention proceeded and Romney was nominated, to polite applause.
Following the dust-up, Yelena Vorobyov (pictured below), a 30-year-old Paul delegate from Apple Valley, Minnesota, was eager to vent. Barely taking a breath, she said: "This is just evidence of the manipulation of the Republican Party. They're not even allowing us to bring signs in, but they brought in their own [pro-Romney] signs. We couldn't nominate Ron Paul. The 'no' for not passing the rules was louder than the 'aye' and they ruled in favor of the rules. They're cheating. The Republican National Committee is not transparent and does not have integrity. They stole votes. They stole delegates. They refused to send busses for our delegates. It's a totalitarian process. This is not democracy. It's a really sad day for us. I've worked for Republican candidates since I was 16. We believed the Republican Party had more integrity. Boy, did they prove us wrong."
Man, I really feel for Ron Paul. :( I really think he's cuckoo, and I disagree with more than half of what he says, but he really puts in a lot of work ethic, and unlike Romney, you can tell he genuinely wants to help the American people. Then the GOP shits on him.
If you had the choice of voting for Romney or Paul, who would it be? I just don't know who I'd choose. No, suicide is not an option here.
If you had the choice of voting for Romney or Paul, who would it be? I just don't know who I'd choose. No, suicide is not an option here.
If you had the choice of voting for Romney or Paul, who would it be? I just don't know who I'd choose. No, suicide is not an option here.
WHAT IF A KIDNAPPER BROKE INTO YOUR HOME AND PUT A GUN TO MITT ROMNEY AND RON PAUL'S HEAD AND MADE YOU CHOOSE WHICH YOU LOVED MORE AND THE OTHER WOULD DIE WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
iamapotus
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_barack_obama_president_of_the_united_states/
AhahahaIf you had the choice of voting for Romney or Paul, who would it be? I just don't know who I'd choose. No, suicide is not an option here.
WHAT IF A KIDNAPPER BROKE INTO YOUR HOME AND PUT A GUN TO MITT ROMNEY AND RON PAUL'S HEAD AND MADE YOU CHOOSE WHICH YOU LOVED MORE AND THE OTHER WOULD DIE WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
I bet Obama was visiting gonewildplus
I bet Obama was visiting gonewildplus
Barack Obama has failed us, but it's understandable. A lot of people fail at their first job."
Quote from: T-PawBarack Obama has failed us, but it's understandable. A lot of people fail at their first job."
:smug
Palin's speech was better
As expected the media loved the speech. Nevermind the blatant distortions and uneven delivery. I'll never understand their love for one of the most partisan, ideological members of congress.
If you had the choice of voting for Romney or Paul, who would it be? I just don't know who I'd choose. No, suicide is not an option here.
I bet Mitt Romney has better taste in music than Ryan.
This man might be disingenuous, but he is a genuine douche.
(that's him with Frankie Knuckles, the founding father of house music - Obama even named the Chicago street where house was birthed after him)
Does anyone even remember who the fuck gave the keynotes at the 2008 conventions? I'm blanking.
Yeah, but who was the 2008 RNC keynote? Joe the Plumber?Was it Lindsay Graham?
Wait, I thought Eastwood was a democrat. I guess I assumed he was a dem since he supported same-sex marriage and took other liberal positions on civil issues.
Wait, I thought Eastwood was a democrat. I guess I assumed he was a dem since he supported same-sex marriage and took other liberal positions on civil issues.Clint didn't talk about social issues, so he's probably a business and security Republican.
Clint Eastwood rambling at an empty chair might not have been the greatest thing to put in the final hour of your convention.
(http://i.imgur.com/o6psE.png)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-august-29-2012/rnc-2012---the-road-to-jeb-bush-2016---the-republican-platform
Can't wait for Brietbart.org's expose on Invisible Obama's connections to black nationalist Ralph Ellison
Can't wait for Brietbart.org's expose on Invisible Obama's connections to black nationalist Ralph Ellison
Can't wait for Brietbart.org's expose on Invisible Obama's connections to black nationalist Ralph Ellison
(http://i.imgur.com/ysKZg.jpg)YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS
When your country is in a costly war with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation is facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share isn’t class warfare. It’s patriotism.
Hold your little girl right now, gundam!!!!
i'd smang lady bamz, no doubt
i'd smang lady bamz, no doubt
that woulda been a good dem convention sign
By February 1, 2009, less than two weeks after he was sworn in, the number of jobs had dropped precipitously to 132,837,000. Using that figure, the economy’s added just over 408,000 jobs during Obama’s presidency.
Using a different metric that excludes only public sector jobs — which have taken a significant hit in the last three and a half years, notwithstanding Republican claims that the government’s grown rapidly under Obama — he crossed into positive territory earlier this year.
According to BLS, the private sector employed 110,985,000 people in January 2009. The private sector hit bottom in February 2010 with 106,773,000 employees. By July 2012, that number had grown to 111,317,000.
Welp, time to cull the ol' Facebook.
please post that snopes article before the culling
“Bill Clinton was a different kind of Democrat than Barack Obama,” Ryan told CNN in an interview that will air Wednesday. “Bill Clinton gave us welfare reform. Bill Clinton worked with the Republicans to cut spending. Bill Clinton did not play the kind of political games that President Obama’s playing.”
Republicans apparently love Bill Clinton now:
:bowusing this from now on
TRILL CLINTON THE GOD
Whether you're a democrat or a republican, I think you have to agree that things were pretty damn good during the Clinton years, especially in retrospect.
Whether you're a democrat or a republican, I think you have to agree that things were pretty damn good during the Clinton years, especially in retrospect.
:wtf
90's fashion was mostly fine outside of the early years, and even back then we had flat tops and shit. FLAT TOPS WILL NEVER DIE. Pop music in the 90's was great too until the late 90's.
90's fashion was mostly fine outside of the early years, and even back then we had flat tops and shit. FLAT TOPS WILL NEVER DIE. Pop music in the 90's was great too until the late 90's.
and 90s graphic design?
90's fashion was mostly fine outside of the early years, and even back then we had flat tops and shit. FLAT TOPS WILL NEVER DIE. Pop music in the 90's was great too until the late 90's.
and 90s graphic design?
:bow (http://i.imgur.com/mxLIz.jpg) :bow2
https://twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow/status/243502099160236032
:uguu
That was a good ass speech.
Does anyone have data on the ratings per night of both conventions?
22 million watched the 10pm hour on the commercial broadcast and cable networks last night. In comparison, night one of the RNC a week ago was watched by 20.5 million, mostly on Fox News Channel, which averaged 5.15 million viewers in primetime.
Michelle Obama DOUBLED Romney's twitter trending stats after her speech the other night, go ahead and call it now.
CLINTON: "Their campaign pollster said, 'We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.' Now that is true. I couldn't have said it better myself — I just hope you remember that every time you see the ad."
THE FACTS: Clinton, who famously finger-wagged a denial on national television about his sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky and was subsequently impeached in the House on a perjury charge, has had his own uncomfortable moments over telling the truth. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," Clinton told television viewers. Later, after he was forced to testify to a grand jury, Clinton said his statements were "legally accurate" but also allowed that he "misled people, including even my wife."
lol @ the associated press (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gnP8cMKZ5P9F-7lti5N6lygc6mrg?docId=2eece93ae1cc440893475343fee4ccdc)QuoteCLINTON: "Their campaign pollster said, 'We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.' Now that is true. I couldn't have said it better myself — I just hope you remember that every time you see the ad."
THE FACTS: Clinton, who famously finger-wagged a denial on national television about his sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky and was subsequently impeached in the House on a perjury charge, has had his own uncomfortable moments over telling the truth. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," Clinton told television viewers. Later, after he was forced to testify to a grand jury, Clinton said his statements were "legally accurate" but also allowed that he "misled people, including even my wife."
what THE HELL with that country music bullshit at the end. way to kill my boner obama. you let other people walk out to prince but you have this garbage close you out? wth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKMJgrCGuoo
we need a Ric Flair emote
...he walked out to bruce springsteen. what the fuck is the matter with you
If the allegations against 21-year-old Donte Jamar Sims are true, he made himself a poor representative of two groups — North Carolinians and stoners — when he threatened to assassinate President Obama in a series of Tweets. The account caught the attention of the Secret Service when the message “Ima hit president Obama with that Lee Harvey Oswald swag,” was posted early Monday morning, followed by, "The Secret Service is gonna be defenseless once I aim the Assault Rifle at Barack's Forehead." According to the Smoking Gun, when agents showed up at Sims's home in Charlotte on Wednesday, he admitted that he made the comments because he "hated President Obama," but Tweeting while high on marijuana was also a factor.
Tweeting while high on marijuana was also a factor.
I didn't watch it either, but it seems like most people are meh on it. It certainly doesn't have everyone talking like the Clinton speech did.To be fair it broke the twitter record by generating 52k tweets per minute
How was the speech last night? I missed it.
I've got one guy on my FB list who I've known since kindergarten and played summer league baseball with until we were 18. He comes from a farming family and is very conservative. He typically makes one or two angry posts a day about Obama and the dems. They're typically not terrible, but his friends who comment are awful people. There were a few guys who were going on and on and on about Sandra Fluke and how she's a gigantic slut-whore who wants us to pay for her to have sex. I thought it was parody, but sadly that's how they really feel.
GAF humor is weird.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41864667&postcount=16543
HAHAHAH! OH MAN! That attention to detail is just... WOW I'M DYING OF LAUGHTER. It's the funniest thing ever, guise! Srsly!
GAF humor is weird.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41864667&postcount=16543
HAHAHAH! OH MAN! That attention to detail is just... WOW I'M DYING OF LAUGHTER. It's the funniest thing ever, guise! Srsly!
Without even clicking, I was like "I bet that's Cohen's Israel uber alles friend" and yup, I was right.
edit: doh, only partially right. A new Wingnut has appeared! It used cooked numbers from a right wing source! It's wildly ineffective!
I've got one guy on my FB list who I've known since kindergarten and played summer league baseball with until we were 18. He comes from a farming family and is very conservative. He typically makes one or two angry posts a day about Obama and the dems. They're typically not terrible, but his friends who comment are awful people. There were a few guys who were going on and on and on about Sandra Fluke and how she's a gigantic slut-whore who wants us to pay for her to have sex. I thought it was parody, but sadly that's how they really feel.
This is especially ignorant. Like her monthly premiums shouldn't cover her own insurance? I don't get it. How are they paying for it? Oh that's right cuz Rush said so. Fucking mongloids.
I also shat up Cohen's FB page a bit by engaging with a conservative friend of his. Usually don't do that, but I got to throw out all these budget stats I've wasted time memorizing and see if I could force some sort of comity (nope!). And hey, the mess isn't on my wall. :teehee
Sorry Cohen!
Ya, those edits are terribad.
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma0jv6lY9G1rg0ofno1_1280.gif)
texp and other fellow Stein supporters:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/zlwj8/i_am_jill_stein_green_party_presidential/?limit=500
Well, he's not wrong. It's like when Rosario Dawson goes out with me, we'll never be apart.:lol
According to a Public Policy Polls survey of Ohio voters, 38% of Ohio Republicans say Barack Obama is most responsible for the bin Laden's death, 15% say Romney, and 47% were unsure. The results were similar in North Carolina, where 29% of Republicans said Obama deserves more credit, versus 15% Romney and 56% unsure.
Well, he's not wrong. It's like once Rosario Dawson goes out with me, we'll never be apart.
http://www.indecisionforever.com/blog/2012/09/10/15-of-ohio-republicans-credit-mitt-romney-with-killing-bin-ladenQuoteAccording to a Public Policy Polls survey of Ohio voters, 38% of Ohio Republicans say Barack Obama is most responsible for the bin Laden's death, 15% say Romney, and 47% were unsure. The results were similar in North Carolina, where 29% of Republicans said Obama deserves more credit, versus 15% Romney and 56% unsure.
(http://i.imgur.com/5nAz8.png)
Wait, why would Romney get any credit? That doesn't make any sense!
Also, I haven't been following Iraq too closely, but the vice president is still a fugitive and has now been sentenced, in absentia, to death for allegedly operating a death squad. WTF.
“Old people are getting into fights now in town hall meetings about health care. You don’t fucking deserve it! Everyone else has health care, ‘but we need health care. Canada has health care, everyone else does…’ You think Americans deserve health care? Have you looked at this fucking horrible fat fuck country, slovenly sedentary lazy fat fucks! You don’t even try! Once you get free health care, ‘Oh yeah, fucking Sunday afternoon, buy 4 stuffed crust Cheesy Bread Cheese pizzas, and you’ll get a Meaty Meaty Pork Pie Pork Bacon pizza for free with 12 Cinna-loaves!’ (imitates glutton sounds, stuffing his face) ‘That’s a pretty good deal!’ (more gluttony sounds) ‘You know what else we need is free health care, too! (more gluttony sounds) ‘My diabetes is so bad, I can’t even feel my feet!’ (more gluttony sounds) ‘I have open fissures in my leg muscles so deep you can put your whole finger there!’ (more gluttony sounds) ‘Who’s gonna pay for my amputation!?’ (more glutton sounds) ‘If I was in Amsterdam, they’d pay for my amputations ‘cause they have free health care…’ You know what else they have? BICYCLES! And they use them! (briefly sings circus music / ‘Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite’ theme). You get nothing free. You gotta try on your own a little bit! We live in a country where the face of fitness is Jarod from Subway!! That’s your goal! It used to be like Jack LaLanne or Charles Atlas or some shit, dragging a tugboat with his teeth across the Hudson river, now it’s some guy, that’s still kinda fat. He’s not as fat as he could be fat, or he used to be fat, but he’s still kinda fat. That’s what you should aspire to! You wouldn’t fuck Jarod with the lights on — c’mon! That’s your goal? That’s awful! You can’t give Americans free shit ‘cause ‘free’ is used as such a buzzword for gluttony. Like it’s been used in advertising so much, ‘buy one get one free,’ ‘free with purchase,’ ‘free samples’ at the grocery store…’Oh Black Forest Ham, I never tried Black Forest Ham (more gluttony sounds). Turn your hat backwards so they don’t recognize you when you go back! ‘Vermont cheese, what’s that?’ (more gluttony sounds) They do the same shit with free health care! ‘They said it’s free, let’s get something fucking checked. I got an itch, or a scratch, or a bite or a lump. Let’s get this checked out! Doctor, I got a spot! Check it out for free!’ ‘It’s a fucking coffee stain!! It’s not even on your skin, it’s on your shirt!’ ‘Well let’s get a biopsy of that! That could be precancerous, right?! It’s free — get my money’s worth…’”
Dick Morris is awful :lolHe is, but Power Plays is a fairly good book. It's before he abandoned his sell to anyone political advising for become GOP commentator.
well that ties back to the us's totally fucked food policies which make shit like corn and wheat so cheap.Shhhh, Iowa might hear.
The Republican Party’s rabid attack on collective bargaining rights in 2011, particularly in Ohio and Wisconsin, is taking a political toll in 2012. Turns out that many traditionally Republican voters believe that their fire departments should be able to negotiate for adequate safety equipment or that the police officers who risk their lives on the streets should have a seat at the bargaining table.
An official in Jerusalem said that the prime minister's office sent the White House a message stating that although Netanyahu will spend only two and a half days on U.S. soil, he is interested in meeting Obama and is willing to travel to the U.S. capital specifically for that purpose. The official added that the White House rejected the request and said that at this time Obama's schedule does not allow for a meeting.http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/white-house-declines-netanyahu-request-to-meet-with-obama.premium-1.464328
The White House's response marks a new low in relations between Netanyahu and Obama, underscored by the fact that this is the first time Netanyahu will visit the U.S. as prime minister without meeting the president.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak tried to ease the tension on Tuesday, saying that the differences between the U.S. and Israel should be ironed out "but behind closed doors."
A direct comparison is less misleading, but also less eye-popping.
The standard measure of unemployment (U-3) when Obama took office was 7.9 percent. Now it’s 8.1 percent.
The broader measure of unemployment (U-6) when Obama took office was 14.2 percent. Now it’s 14.7 percent.
Could someone post some stupid answers? I try and read Reddit but it hurts my brain :-\
Could someone post some stupid answers? I try and read Reddit but it hurts my brain :-\
well that ties back to the us's totally fucked food policies which make shit like corn and wheat so cheap.
Trying my hardest not to explode on facebook in relation to this Egypt embassy shit. Given the language being thrown around it sounds like folks want to....attack Libya?Maybe they're confusing the Cairo attacks for the Benghazi ones.
Romney's attack was not only ill-judged and ill-timed, it was actually based on what appears to be a demonstrable falsehood.
The reality barrier has been shattered, time is now without form or structure. Obama's failed presidency rippled back in time, destroying President Bush's legacy and causing the financial crash of 2009 and TARP.
The reality barrier has been shattered, time is now without form or structure. Obama's failed presidency rippled back in time, destroying President Bush's legacy and causing the financial crash of 2009 and TARP.
the problem is that there are now infinite romneys
#manhattanprojects
Who died?
Wired put up a good article.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/vilerat/
(http://i.imgur.com/o3ooQ.jpg)
Hmmmm, where have I seen that facial expression before...I just can't put my finger on it. :smug
Eat shit Romney.
Wired put up a good article.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/vilerat/
Good article, but like every other online news article, the user comments make me sick.
Wired put up a good article.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/vilerat/
Good article, but like every other online news article, the user comments make me sick.
About the only news site with user comments that don't make me feel that way is Talking Points Memo.
Wired put up a good article.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/vilerat/
Good article, but like every other online news article, the user comments make me sick.
About the only news site with user comments that don't make me feel that way is Talking Points Memo.
Wired put up a good article.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/vilerat/
Good article, but like every other online news article, the user comments make me sick.
About the only news site with user comments that don't make me feel that way is Talking Points Memo.
then you get it in the direction of the left so it becomes just as bad
Imagine the Republican response is something like 9/11 happens while Obama is President. :-\
(http://i.imgur.com/o3ooQ.jpg)
Hmmmm, where have I seen that facial expression before...I just can't put my finger on it. :smug
Eat shit Romney.
So how much do you guys think this incident's gonna hurt Romney?
Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ), the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, told reporters Wednesday that a U.S. Embassy statement condemning an anti-Muslim movie -- which was reportedly issued before the attack in Libya that killed four American diplomats -- was akin to blaming a victim for rape.
Here's what Kyl said, as quoted by Roll Call reporter Meredith Shiner:
"It's like the judge telling the woman who got raped, 'You asked for it because of the way you dressed.' OK? That's the same thing. 'Well America, you should be the ones to apologize, you should have known this would happen, you should have done — what I don't know — but it's your fault that it happened.' You know, for a member of our State Department to put out a statement like that, it had to be cleared by somebody. They don't just do that in the spur of the moment."
Quote from: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/jon-kyl-embassy-statement-was-like-telling-rapedSen. Jon Kyl (AZ), the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, told reporters Wednesday that a U.S. Embassy statement condemning an anti-Muslim movie -- which was reportedly issued before the attack in Libya that killed four American diplomats -- was akin to blaming a victim for rape.
Here's what Kyl said, as quoted by Roll Call reporter Meredith Shiner:
"It's like the judge telling the woman who got raped, 'You asked for it because of the way you dressed.' OK? That's the same thing. 'Well America, you should be the ones to apologize, you should have known this would happen, you should have done — what I don't know — but it's your fault that it happened.' You know, for a member of our State Department to put out a statement like that, it had to be cleared by somebody. They don't just do that in the spur of the moment."
:derp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oE_01YOcBY
(http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7718/obamax.png)
Supposedly the movie was made with "$5 Million dollars from 100 wealthy jews" lol. More like 5 Million rubles from a dozen fairly well-off goat farmers.
I heard Mittens is down by five in a Fox News poll today. lolz
Not even Ryan (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/12/1130851/-Ryan-mum-on-Mitt-s-attack) is touching this one with a 10-foot-pole.
Romney's campaign has already said they wouldn't be beholden to "fact checkers" so I'm kind of confused that everyone has the vapors over the continued lying.
I'm really convinced this is Romney's "Lehman moment" - there's no unscrewing this pooch.
Like many Americans of the era, Mormons of the 19th century commonly assumed that Cain's "mark" was black skin,[24] and that Cain's descendants were black and still under Cain's mark.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_and_mark_of_Cain
PD, how much does your family idolize Obama? My mom has photos in frames, photos in cabinets - laminated, in fact. Even Obama family photos sitting inside flower vases.
This is a clear case of incitement. Jones has been flagged for this before,
Sounds like you're bummed you didn't get this one
http://www.wisconsingazette.com/breaking-news/ny-senator-called-political-whore-for-backing-gay-marriage.html
Meanwhile, the administration took the first steps toward a possible military response, moving two Navy destroyers toward the coast of Libya as a precaution, and sending 50 Marines to help secure the U.S. embassy in Tripoli. Though more details are beginning to emerge, officials still haven't confirmed reports that the attack on the Benghazi consulate was planned.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/13/us-germany-usa-consulate-idUSBRE88C0KG20120913
Incident at the German US embassy possibly involving anthrax.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/13/us-germany-usa-consulate-idUSBRE88C0KG20120913
Incident at the German US embassy possibly involving anthrax.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/13/us-germany-usa-consulate-idUSBRE88C0KG20120913
Incident at the German US embassy possibly involving anthrax.
False alarm.
Ohio - O 50 - R 43
Florida - O 49 - R 44
Virginia - O 49- R 44
Holy shit, it's all over for B-rock the Islamic Shock:QuoteOhio - O 50 - R 43
Florida - O 49 - R 44
Virginia - O 49- R 44
cant wait for the truly insane shit theyre gonna pull out to try n sink obama in the next few weeks!
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, an informal advisor to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said on Thursday he and his fellow members of a state board were considering removing President Barack Obama from the Kansas ballot this November.
Kobach is part of the State Objections Board along with Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, all Republicans. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that on Thursday the board agreed consider whether to take Obama off the ballot because they said they lacked sufficient evidence about his birth certificate.
“I don’t think it’s a frivolous objection,” Kobach said, according to the Capital-Journal. “I do think the factual record could be supplemented.”
The board is looking at a complaint filed by Joe Montgomery, of Manhattan, Kan., who claimed the Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen and so is ineligible to be president. The man appears to be part of a group of conspiracy theorists known as “birthers,” who deny Obama’s birth certificate is real.
A sitting President being taken off a state ballot for reasons that didn't even amount to anything the first time around would be the most mind-boggling thing ever.
Does nobody remember the successful impeachment of a sitting president over a blowjob? I mean, sure, the Republicans you've got today are crazy, but they're not setting records.
Let me tell you about Joe Louis...
Does nobody remember the successful impeachment of a sitting president over a blowjob? I mean, sure, the Republicans you've got today are crazy, but they're not setting records.
Let me tell you about Joe Louis...
Rocky Marciano!
How accurate is that Jewish guy, Mandark? I can vouch that the rest of the barbershop in Coming to America is pretty authentic.
White dudes come into the barber shop I frequent all the time. Usually they're military/ROTC and getting low cuts. Last year the whitest white guy came in there decked out in Marine shit and said "hello, could you give me a Julius?" Me and the brothers looked at him like
(http://imageshack.us/a/img826/1242/wtflxy.png)
The barber was like "uh do you mean a Caesar?" and he said "oh that's what it's called. My sergeant told me it was called a Julius..." Everyone busted out laughing
“It’s also important for me — just as it was for the White House, last night by the way — to say that the statements were inappropriate, and in my view a disgraceful statement on the part of our administration to apologize for American values.”
“You know, I think it’s dispiriting sometimes to see some of the awful things people say,” Romney said. “And the idea of using something that some people consider sacred and then parading that out a negative way is simply inappropriate and wrong. And I wish people wouldn’t do it.”
“I think the whole film is a terrible idea,” he said. “I think him making it, promoting it showing it is disrespectful to people of other faiths. I don’t think that should happen. I think people should have the common courtesy and judgment —- the good judgment — not to be — not to offend other peoples’ faiths. It’s a very bad thing, I think, this guy’s doing.”
“If Barack Obama wins this election the Republican Party as we know it is finished, it is dead, it is toast — you can stick a fork in it,” he told TPM Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. “And conservatives, grassroots conservatives, are either going to start a third party or they are going to launch a hostile takeover of the Republican Party.”
“I think if Mitt Romney loses this election that the pro-family leaders in the United States should get together with Rick Perry on Nov. 7 and start planning for 2016,” he said.
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/09/muslim-protests-spread-around-the-globe/100369/
obama with star of david on his eyes made me laugh out loud
So some rightwingers make a video, the middle east is rioting over it, and it's Obama's fault for what now? I can't wrap my head around this.
So some rightwingers make a video, the middle east is rioting over it, and it's Obama's fault for what now? I can't wrap my head around this.
That's nothing, now try to wrap your head around former Bush advisers saying that the attack on our embassy in another country proves that Obama is soft on terror, and that this wouldn't have happened with a Republican in there.Neversometimes forget.
That's nothing, now try to wrap your head around former Bush advisers saying that the attack on our embassy in another country proves that Obama is soft on terror, and that this wouldn't have happened with a Republican in there.Neversometimes forget.
I just realized I forgot 9/11 this year :oI almost forgot but then I went on facebook and saw someone's status that said "never forget." :usacry
That's nothing, now try to wrap your head around former Bush advisers saying that the attack on our embassy in another country proves that Obama is soft on terror, and that this wouldn't have happened with a Republican in there.Neversometimes forget.
To be fair, Johm McCain would have had a few more divisions on the ground in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Finland, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, etc.
Yeah man, you can never trust those damn Finns.
A Wisconsin judge has struck down the state law championed by Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers.
Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas ruled Friday that the law violates both the state and U.S. Constitution and is null and void.
Romney’s foreign policy: An ideology that dare not speak its name
By Jason Horowitz, Published: September 13
The Romney campaign does not dispute that Mitt Romney is a neoconservative, it just refuses to say the word neoconservative.
“His embrace of American values and interests and his call for American leadership abroad throughout this campaign is indicative of a philosophy of peace through strength,” Alex Wong, the campaign’s foreign policy director, said in an interview.
Does he embrace neoconservatism?
“You know,” said Wong, “throughout this campaign Governor Romney has indicated that his view on the world is peace through strength, American leadership, in guaranteeing an American century, that this new century continues to be an American century. And that’s the governing philosophy of Governor Romney on peace through strength.”
So does he consider himself a neoconservative?
“What I’m saying is,” said Wong, “Governor Romney’s embrace of American values and interests and his call for American leadership is a philosophy of peace through strength.”
So then does he dispute the classisfication of neoconservative?
“What I’m saying is,” said Wong, “Governor Romney’s embrace of American values and interests and his call for American leadership…”
So does he feel comfortable being called a neoconservative?
“What I am saying is,” said Wong, “that Governor Romney has used, has said, that his philosophy is peace through strength.”
Does he have a problem with the term neoconservative?
“Governor Romney has indicated that he has a philosophy,” said Wong, “peace through strength.”
So he does have a problem with the term neoconservative.
“Governor Romney,” said Wong, “has throughout this campaign talked about American values and interests and called for American leadership abroad.”
Does he embrace the concepts of neoconservatism, just not the title?
“I think I have given you a lot here,” said Wong. “I have described Governor Romney’s philosophy and the way he’s discussed it and how he makes his decisions.”
Got it. So he does not embrace the word neoconservatism.
“Governor Romney has discussed throughout this campaign a call for American leadership abroad, restoring American leadership, restoring the sinews of American strength, and that’s based on restoring our economic strength number, that’s one, restoring our military strength, that’s two, and restoring the strength of our values. These are the three pillars of American strength abroad. And it is a philosophy of peace through strength.”
The director of the anti-Muslim film blamed for violence and protests in the Middle East this week once directed softcore porn and other low-budget films, according to Gawker.
In 2009 and 2011 casting calls for the film, now known as “Innocence of Muslims” but back then called “Desert Warrior,” the director on the project was listed as Alan Roberts. An IMDB page for an Alan Roberts credits him with directing films including 1972’s “The Sexpert,” 1980’s “The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood” and 1991’s “Karate Cop.”
Bush and Co. killed the word "neoconservative." I'm not sure what they will rebrand it as but they'll find a way.
You guys are being too harsh on Romney, whatever his position today has no bearing on his position in the future so it'd be silly to declare his policy to be this or that.
Democrats say Romney’s plan would cause a $2000 tax hike on the middle class – something Romney disputes and points to a number of studies that say his plan to cut taxes will not increase the deficit, including one by Harvard professor Martin Feldstein.
Feldstein says Romney’s math will work, but he would have to eliminate the home mortgage, charitable, state and local tax deductions for incomes greater than $100,000.
When I pressed Romney on that point, he conceded that he actually hadn’t read the Feldstein report that he and Paul Ryan cite on the campaign trail.
“I haven’t seen his precise study,” he said.
So some rightwingers make a video, the middle east is rioting over it, and it's Obama's fault for what now? I can't wrap my head around this.
That's nothing, now try to wrap your head around former Bush advisers saying that the attack on our embassy in another country proves that Obama is soft on terror, and that this wouldn't have happened with a Republican in there.Neversometimes forget.
I just realized I forgot 9/11 this year :o
So some rightwingers make a video, the middle east is rioting over it, and it's Obama's fault for what now? I can't wrap my head around this.
That's nothing, now try to wrap your head around former Bush advisers saying that the attack on our embassy in another country proves that Obama is soft on terror, and that this wouldn't have happened with a Republican in there.Neversometimes forget.
I just realized I forgot 9/11 this year :o
i did too! SO AWESOME.
Wait a minute, "anti-American domestic opinion"? We thought they just didn't like the movie. The riots are in Egypt, but Jay Carney seems to be in denial.Remember these are the people who despise Ron Paul (even if they claim to agree on everything else) because he "blamed America for 9/11" when he said "you fuck with people, they might fuck with you back."
Reuters reports that Morsi's account of the conversation with Obama is quite different from the White House's, as reported by the Times: "On Thursday, [Morsi] said he asked U.S. President Barack Obama to act against those seeking to harm relations. His cabinet said Washington was not to blame for the film but urged the United States to take legal action against those insulting religion."
Egypt is demanding that Obama violate the American Constitution by prosecuting speech that is protected under the First Amendment. That fact is left out of the Times puff piece, which mentions only that Morsi "brought up" the film and Obama "said he understood the ire felt by Muslims." If Obama had said "no" to Morsi's outrageous demand, surely that would have made it into a Times account designed to convey his firm leadership.
"Scholars say the furor [in Cairo] reflects different traditions when it comes to religious rights and freedoms," the Times piece asserts. "Where Americans prize individual choice, Egyptians put a greater emphasis on the rights of communities, families and religious groups."
That's a laughably anodyne way of describing the distinction between freedom and Islamic supremacism, but one begins to suspect that the administration shares the Times's mindset: We have our values, they have theirs, and surely everyone can find common ground in deploring this awful video.
But even accepting that formulation, Americans are entitled to ask why our government has failed to take a clear stand on behalf of our values and our basic law. Perhaps the thinking is that a meliorative tone will have a meliorative effect. That certainly seems to have been the impulse behind the U.S. Embassy's initial statement, now down the memory hole but quoted here Wednesday, sympathizing with the mob that later stormed the grounds. Although the administration has disavowed that particular statement, every public pronouncement from the White House and State Department, including Carney's today, has been in the same spirit.
To our ear, it sounds pusillanimous rather than prudent. The "Arab street" seems to be hearing it the same way. Reuters reports that in Cairo, "hundreds of protesters gathered in streets near the mission, pelting police with stones and petrol bombs as they were pushed back from the embassy perimeter. . . . Thousands of people joined peaceful protests after Friday prayers in Tahrir and outside mosques in Cairo and other cities, responding to a call by the Muslim Brotherhood, the group that propelled President Mohamed Mursi [same guy, different transliteration] to power." That was the day after Obama supposedly dressed Morsi down.
The Times website reports that "the violently anti-American rallies"--no, no, no, no, no, they're only about the movie!--"expanded on Friday to more than a dozen countries, with demonstrators storming the American Embassy in Tunisia in a deadly clash and protesters in Sudan's capital broadening the targets to include Germany and Britain." In Yemen, they broke into the U.S. Embassy yesterday; in Lebanon they torched a KFC. Apparently there are no Chick-fil-As in that part of the world.
...
Our colleague Anne Jolis phoned Anjem Choudary, who organized the London protest, and he makes quite clear that Carney has it wrong: "In Islam, you could ban it," he tells her, referring to the film. "How come Americans can't? They still proclaim 'freedom of expression'--but if Americans can believe in freedom of expression, which involves harming other people, insulting their prophets, then what's wrong with Muslims having freedom of action, doing what they did in Libya and Egypt?"
The Obama administration's response to the crisis has been not only fatuous but confused. The other day, as ABC News reports, a Telemundo reporter asked the president if he considers Egypt an ally. His reply: "You know, I don't think that we would consider them an ally but we don't consider them an enemy." In fact, since 1989 Egypt (along with Australia, Israel, Japan and South Korea, and later other countries) has been formally classified as a "major non-NATO ally."
The Times describes this as the president's having "signaled his displeasure" with the Egyptian government's lack of support. It sounds to us more like the careless musing of someone who is not a seasoned foreign-policy hand.
Krugman, disingenuous types
I also was honest
Greenwald's not honest, at least not exceptionally. When he talks about something outside of his area of expertise he basically picks a position which gels his intuitions, acts really sure of himself, and on the times where he gets called out for overreaching or getting something wrong, writes half a dozen boldface updates rather than admit fallibility or just shut up and retcon the whole incident. He's got a large, vocally supportive following and a paid gig from doing this. I think the tribal-social aspect of trying to fit in and reinforce the group identities and narratives applies to him as much as it would to a climber like Klein. It's maybe a smaller group, and appealing to libertarians as a fellow-traveler outsider, but it's still very much there.I don't disagree with any of this really, and yes I admit he does play to my biases in some respects, but I think in regards to some...others...he at least has an ideological mission and even if that leads him astray it makes him more "honest" than an Ezra Klein.
So what blogs like that have I been reading? Fuckin' none of them! The last time I was not-depressed enough to want to dive into something, I was reading Arms Control Wonk and Total WonKerr about Iran's (lack of) nukes. I got Trita Parsi's books on US-Iran relations this year, but those cost money and are written in the dry prose that comes with academic standards of honesty and hedging. Basically I'm pretty much done with the idea of the all-purpose public intellectual.This last part is mostly what I was looking for (but former as well). I mean I can scope out everything from MY point of view, but you guys are somewhat reversed from me and I want to know where DO you go to get stuff. And I fumbled trying to say I don't want Klein, Krugman, Kos, some other K, etc. (I used strong words but I stand by it and I really don't think they're writing for anything, as mentioned I think Krugman is writing a political column but trying to play on his long lost economic trade.)
You could check out Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns, and Money. He's certainly more leftist than Dem, but it's hard for me to read long posts of inside-baseball about the tatters of the radical labor movement and not see it as navel-gazing at a certain point. Wish Max Sawicky was still blogging. He woulda been right in this wheelhouse and was a good Takoma Park boy too.
I want to rip into libertarianism so hard right now, and yet I really like your sports analysis, benji, so I can't. :(That's odd because me and Mandark's conversation isn't actually regarding libertarianism or any ideology really. It was mostly just a mild misunderstanding.
I'd say liberal activists are more analogous to movement conservatives than to libertarians, in re their relation to the party. Liberals are the main ideological faction, but have to caucus and contend with a bunch of non-ideological interests. Libertarians in the GOP are an odd fit in some ways. Whereas Ron Paul would say stuff that clearly flummoxed Republican audiences in the debates, Dennis Kucinich just came across as a Democrat turned up to 11, who didn't need to worry about trying to win.I know what you mean by "liberals" (we're a bit bitter about that) but I may have to stop you on the "non-ideological interests" part. (And I have a good feeling you agree on that.)
In that vein, most Democrats who talk about defecting use the language of whether Obama's "really" a liberal (Matt Stoller's like three editorials away from just chanting "Gooble gobble, one of us!"), the way Freepers would talk about who's a real conservative and who's a RINO. So it's just the eternal tug of war between a party's ideological base (or any influential but non-majority faction within the party) and the opportunistic demands of the median voter theorem and fundraising demands.Democrats are just getting on board with Republicans of the last 40 years.
On my less patient days, I have very uncharitable thoughts about Stoller-style nonvoters. It mostly comes from having known several Nader voters, who were all crowing about beating Al Gore until the troops landed in Iraq, at which point it became a torrent of shameless retconning.Don't worry, their single vote didn't matter.
Daniel Davies is also a really great read, with a good writing style who makes contrarian cases for a lot of things and is clever enough to do it well. Back in the day he used to blog at his own site, dsquareddigest, at the Guardian's Comment is Free, at Crooked Timber, and at Aaronovitch Watch (very inside-baseball, covering and mocking the Decent Left, the UK's post-9/11 liberal hawks). Don't know if he's active on any of those these days. Edge of the American West is cool as an American history blog from a liberal perspective with experts on Lincoln and FDR, which suddenly became relevant when it looked like we were about to have another Great Depression.Cheers, I liked Crooked Timber.
There are a ton of environmental, union, education, transit and feminist blogs that cover related issues and keep tabs on local and state level activism and legislation, besides the big federal brouhahas, but you're not going to get a lot of stuff making the case for those causes so much as the nitty gritty of small victories and defeats.There is value there, smallest stage, biggest performance type thing.
What kind of columnists/people/blogs/etc. do you go to?
I can't take Ezra Klein seriously because I remember chatting with him at length about the Game Cube over AIM. I'm glad he is successful though in what he is doing.
I also used to read Bleeding Heart Libertarians but it seemed to go for shock value rather than real value. It tries to position itself as finding the common ground behind leftist and libertarian thought but it would do things like thisI gave those guys a chance but there was always something off about them, I forget when it was, but something about them really just rubbed me the wrong way. It was basically as if they wrote a column saying the problem with Hitler was that he singled people out instead of just doing it willy nilly.
http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2011/11/dear-left-corporatism-is-your-fault/
These days I primarily browse through Calculated Risk, Right Wing Watch, and Nate Silver's 538 NY Times blog.Nate is good but that's not really policy, just horse race stuff which I don't mind.
I can't take Ezra Klein seriously because I remember chatting with him at length about the Game Cube over AIM. I'm glad he is successful though in what he is doing.
If you want some fun factional squabbling, the big fight is between education "reformers" and union supporters, which you can find all over.I can walk out the door basically and find this.
WHY BARACK OBAMA SHOULD RESIGN. Just for the record, this is what it looked like for a man who made a film that made the Obama Administration uncomfortable:
(http://i.imgur.com/b31Ee.png)
Here’s the key bit: “Just after midnight Saturday morning, authorities descended on the Cerritos home of the man believed to be the filmmaker behind the anti-Muslim movie that has sparked protests and rioting in the Muslim world.”
When taking office, the President does not swear to create jobs. He does not swear to “grow the economy.” He does not swear to institute “fairness.” The only oath the President takes is this one:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
By sending — literally — brownshirted enforcers to engage in — literally — a midnight knock at the door of a man for the non-crime of embarrassing the President of the United States and his administration, President Obama violated that oath. You can try to pretty this up (It’s just about possible probation violations! Sure.), or make excuses or draw distinctions, but that’s what’s happened. It is a betrayal of his duties as President, and a disgrace.
He won’t resign, of course. First, the President has the appreciation of free speech that one would expect from a Chicago Machine politician, which is to say, none. Second, he’s not getting any pressure. Indeed, the very press that went crazy over Ari Fleischer’s misrepresented remarks seems far less interested in the actions of an administration that I repeat, literally sent brown-shirted enforcers to launch a midnight knock on a filmmaker’s door.
But Obama’s behavior — and that of his enablers in the press — has laid down a marker for those who are paying attention. By these actions he is, I repeat, unfit to hold office. I hope and expect that the voters will agree in November.
Well, sounds like you're using "honesty" to mean "strongly worded criticism of their party," so... maybe Zell Miller's got a twitter account?
I would love to read places other than Reason and Balko that are exploring how the cops were given insane pensions, and then fuck people up with no consequence and now everyone in the state has to pay for their retirement at age 45.
These days I primarily browse through Calculated Risk, Right Wing Watch, and Nate Silver's 538 NY Times blog.Was he a Nintendo fanboy?
I can't take Ezra Klein seriously because I remember chatting with him at length about the Game Cube over AIM. I'm glad he is successful though in what he is doing.
He has a bachelors in political science, why would you think he's ready for original serious thought?It seemed possible because so many people think he is worth reading. I've mostly ignored him after a few initial reactions where I thought "this guy is a fucking kid." I'm just humble about my opinion of him because I've never bothered to give him much of a chance.
I can't take Ezra Klein seriously because I remember chatting with him at length about the Game Cube over AIM.
I can't take Ezra Klein seriously because I remember chatting with him at length about the Game Cube over AIM.
Didn't you also say that you talked with him about PUA shit too?
Mods, please change thread title to "Q&A with Benjipwns"
Actually seriously change the thread title
Mods, please change thread title to "Q&A with Benjipwns"
Actually seriously change the thread title
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjNIARQGIYA
Iie.
There is no clear correlation between tax cuts for high earners and economic growth, according to a new study by Congress’ nonpartisan policy analyst.
“There is not conclusive evidence, however, to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in the top tax rates and economic growth,” concluded a report by the Congressional Research Service released Friday. “Analysis of such data suggests the reduction in the top tax rates have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth.”
i hope the obama campaign has their sound editors working furiously to make this into a commercial.
"My dad, as you probably, know was the governor of Michigan and was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico ... and, uh, had he been born of, uh, Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot at winning this," Romney said. "But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. ... I mean I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino."
Quote"My dad, as you probably, know was the governor of Michigan and was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico ... and, uh, had he been born of, uh, Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot at winning this," Romney said. "But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. ... I mean I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino."
Putting aside the whole brown-folks-got-it-easy message, I'm amazed at Romney's inability to tell a joke. Actually, it's more like he doesn't get the concept of what a joke is. He combines the inhumanity of Data with the insufferableness of Wesley Crusher.spoiler (click to show/hide)I was gonna use Troi to get in another dig at him, but nobody would accuse the guy of being an empath.[close]
https://twitter.com/MexicanMitt
Mexican Mitt Romneez
@MexicanMitt
El Fake Accounto! I am the Most Mexican Man in The World!© Follow me as I run for Presidente of the United Estates! I AM THE JUAN PERCENT! Ajua!
Also, that video falls into the category of Shit I Won't Post On My Own Facebook Wall Because It Would Immediately Get A Dozen Unironic Likes.
For whatever reason, even in the last few days of the 2008 election, I was much more nervous about the outcome. I just don't find Mitt Romney as credible a candidate as a lunatic, bomb happy disabled tortured war veteran, even saddled with a wide eyed lunatic grifter as his running mate like McCain was.
Fuck you, Mitt. Seriously. So glad to know that my financially responsible wife and I are fucking leaches sucking off the teet of hard working business owners.
It really felt like Romney's last chance [barring the total collapse of the European economy], was to make a huge splash at the GOP convention and start gaining ground on Obama then eventually pass him. Instead, the Democratic convention was huge for Obama and has so far helped him to pull away. Everything since then [Romney's Egypt/Libya gaff, this latest episode] are just icing on the cake.
When I was back in my private equity days, we went to China to buy a factory there. It employed about 20,000 people. And they were almost all young women between the ages of about 18 and 22 or 23. They were saving for potentially becoming married. And they work in these huge factories, they made various small appliances. And as we were walking through this facility, seeing them work, the number of hours they worked per day, the pittance they earned, living in dormitories with little bathrooms at the end of maybe 10 rooms. And the rooms, they had 12 girls per room, three bunk beds on top of each other. You’ve seen, you’ve seen them? And around this factory was a fence, a huge fence with barbed wire and guard towers. And we said gosh, I can’t believe that you, you know, keep these girls in. And they said, no, no, no. This is to keep other people from coming in. Because people want so badly to work in this factory that we have to keep them out.
Romney says his argument wasn't "elegantly stated" but suggests he stands by the jist of his message in the videohttps://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/247879716554551296
He just gave a press conference and doubled down. I can't believe thisQuoteRomney says his argument wasn't "elegantly stated" but suggests he stands by the jist of his message in the videohttps://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/247879716554551296
video of the presser soon
The funniest thing about this? It was leaked to David Corn by...Jimmy Carter's grandson.
video of the presser soon
The funniest thing about this? It was leaked to David Corn by...Jimmy Carter's grandson.
That man has the eyes of a man who knows he will never be President.
That man has the eyes of a man who knows he will never be President.
(http://i.imgur.com/UB2Hv.png)
"I've made a huge mistake"
what's that fox football gif from PD?
well the next installment I personally think is very important.https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer
Quotewell the next installment I personally think is very important.https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer
more bombs at 6AM.
Remember when Brietbart.com was hyping their Obama vetting series which would destroy Obama's campaign? Then they released a dud that had already seen. Whoops
On the drive to Benghazi, Bubaker sensed that Stark was both shocked and wary. At any rate, as much as Bubaker might have wanted to know more about why America was dropping bombs on Libya, Stark would not tell him. And so Bubaker put on some 80s music and changed the subject to something other than war. The first song that came on was Diana Ross and Lionel Richie singing “Endless Love.” “You know what,” said Bubaker. “This song reminds me of my second marriage.” They talked the rest of the way, says Bubaker, “and we didn’t mention anything of any military action.” He drove the “American pilot” back to the hotel and instructed the militia to surround the place. Even in Libya they understood the fickle nature of American public opinion. “I told them, ‘We have an American pilot here. If he gets caught or killed it’s the end of the mission. Make sure he is safe and sound.’” Bubaker then called his friend, the former staffer in the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, now removed to Washington, D.C.
It took a few hours for someone to come and fetch Stark. As he waited with Bubaker inside the hotel, word spread of this French pilot who had saved their lives. When they’d arrived at the hotel a man had handed Tyler Stark a rose, which the American found both strange and touching. Now women from across the city came with flowers to the front of the hotel. When Stark entered a room full of people they stood up and gave him a round of applause. “I’m not sure what I was expecting in Libya,” he says, “but I was not expecting a round of applause.”
Bubaker found doctors to treat Stark’s leg and one of the doctors had Skype on his iPod. Stark tried to call his base, but he couldn’t remember the country code for Britain, so he called the most useful phone number he could remember, his parents’.
At some point Bubaker turned to him and asked, “Do you know why you are in Libya?”
“I just have my orders,” said Stark.
“He didn’t know why he’d been sent,” says Bubaker. “So I showed him some video. Of kids being killed.”
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A3CqzWHCAAEB0pV.jpg)
yup
Like I said over at GAF, they left off part of the Olympic Peninsula on Washington state in that picture.
Q: Does Mitt Romney's work at Bain Capital make you more or less likely to vote for him, or does it not make a difference?
More likely: 21
Less likely: 38
No difference: 39
Q: Do you think the Republicans are intentionally stalling efforts to jump-start the economy to insure that Barack Obama is not re-elected, or not?
They are: 47
They are not: 41
Not sure: 11
Q: Do you think the economy would be in better shape now if John McCain had been elected President in 2008, or not?
It would be in better shape: 38
It would not: 51
Not sure: 11
Mitt Romney was his May 17 Florida fundraiser — the subject of now-ubiquitous leaked video — how he could "duplicate" the 1980 hostage crisis scenario, credited with defeating Jimmy Carter.
In response, the presidential candidate said: "I mean, if something of that nature presents itself I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity."
The gift that keeps on giving.QuoteMitt Romney was his May 17 Florida fundraiser the subject of now-ubiquitous leaked video how he could "duplicate" the 1980 hostage crisis scenario, credited with defeating Jimmy Carter.
In response, the presidential candidate said: "I mean, if something of that nature presents itself I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity."
So what's left to be released?
The gift that keeps on giving.QuoteMitt Romney was his May 17 Florida fundraiser — the subject of now-ubiquitous leaked video — how he could "duplicate" the 1980 hostage crisis scenario, credited with defeating Jimmy Carter.
In response, the presidential candidate said: "I mean, if something of that nature presents itself I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity."
So what's left to be released?
If Romney's tax returns got leaked somehow and they showed that there were years where he didn't pay any income tax, that would be the most amazing thing ever.
Romney said "there are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what" and then proceeded to call them lazy entitled slackers who don't pay taxes. The way he worded it wasn't a slam on the poor, it was a slam on people who vote Democrat. I'm surprised no one went there with it.
What I've found amusing is that there's a large, completely bubble dwelling portion of the Republican power structure that thinks this is a winning argument. Your Erick Ericksons, average Corner poster, and apparently Mary Matalin... I thought she was smarter but living in DC for 20 years will do that to you I guess.
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Mitt Romney's running mate is calling the Republican presidential nominee "obviously inarticulate" when he remarked that nearly half of Americans believe they are victims and entitled to a range of government support.
Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan made the comment in an interview aired Tuesday by KRNV-TV in Reno, Nev.
Romney has defended his remarks, but he has also called them "not elegantly stated."
Asked what he thought of Romney's remarks, Ryan told the Nevada station: "He was obviously inarticulate in making this point." Ryan went on to say the point the Republicans are making is that, under the Obama economy, government dependency is up and economic stagnation is up.
Asked if he thought Romney regrets the remarks, Ryan says he thinks Romney would have said it differently, adding, "that's for sure."
What I've found amusing is that there's a large, completely bubble dwelling portion of the Republican power structure that thinks this is a winning argument. Your Erick Ericksons, average Corner poster, and apparently Mary Matalin... I thought she was smarter but living in DC for 20 years will do that to you I guess.
There is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder and high-ranking officials at the Justice Department knew that guns were allowed to “walk” during an ATF operation known as Fast and Furious, according to a report released on Wednesday afternoon by the department’s internal watchdog.
Following a 19-month investigation, the Inspector General found that the decision not to take action against low-level “straw purchasers” was made by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office. Their decision, according to the report, “was primarily the result of tactical and strategic decisions by the agents and prosecutors, rather than because of any legal limitation on their ability to do so.” Dennis Burke, the head of the U.S. Attorney’s office at the time, resigned from his position in August 2011.
So your girlfriend drives a Prius
watching Fox News interview Priebus
but Priebus ain't got bank accounts in Mauritius
my tax accountants' work's not done
until my tax rate's none
At this point, I've stopped worrying about this election and started looking forward to 2016. I think after Romney gets creamed, it's VERY likely there's a GOP civil war and the values voters siphon off to form their own splinter party. If they run a candidate to 15% in 2016 then HELLO PRESIDENT CLINTON (again). And by a 3rd party spoiler candidate, no less! *masturbates furiously*
That could be a lot of projection, but it's interesting. I'd love to get Mandark's opinion on the alleged thoughts of his king (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/09/gregory_declares_bibi_king_of_the_jews.php)
That could be a lot of projection, but it's interesting. I'd love to get Mandark's opinion on the alleged thoughts of his king (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/09/gregory_declares_bibi_king_of_the_jews.php)
Wtf? I'm pretty sure none of the ZOG meetings ended with Bibi being declared supreme leader. This isn't like when black people got together and elected Tyler Perry as the Alpha Swarth.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/fox-and-friends-on-romney-cold-open/1418062/
It was a nice bluff by Reid. Vastly preferable to reflexively caving and hand wringing as per the usual for Democrats.
If Romney had taken all his deductions, he wd have paid closer to 9% tax in 2011. He paid extra VOLUNTARILY just for optics.https://twitter.com/froomkin/status/249205362404782080
"Frankly, if I had paid more than are legally due, I don't think I'd be qualified to become president," he said. "I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires."http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-david-muir-interview-mitt-romney/story?id=16881787&page=2#.UFzGHK6J6iC
QuoteIf Romney had taken all his deductions, he wd have paid closer to 9% tax in 2011. He paid extra VOLUNTARILY just for optics.https://twitter.com/froomkin/status/249205362404782080Quote"Frankly, if I had paid more than are legally due, I don't think I'd be qualified to become president," he said. "I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires."http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-david-muir-interview-mitt-romney/story?id=16881787&page=2#.UFzGHK6J6iC
:rofl
Employers are going to have to offer somekind of healthcare package for all employees although I think you have to be over a certain size.
I think some businesses could be hurt but not the doomsday that some people are predicting.
My parents consider themselves "Reagan Republicans" if that tells you anything.
Jon Stewart gets owned every time he tries to seriously debate someone
His ideas are sound but he wont go far enough. It's like he limits his ether so he can still play it like he's just the silly joke man.
Jon Stewart gets owned every time he tries to seriously debate someone
The Jan 1st tax situation is that the Bush tax cuts expire and the sequestration cuts go into effect. Which means everyone's income taxes go up, and large defense cuts will lead to many defense contractors/employees losing jobs. I'd imagine the Bush tax cuts will be renewed to a degree, so I wouldn't worry about that. I also believe the defense cuts will be overturned given the special interests involved.
Jon Stewart gets owned every time he tries to seriously debate someone
The insiders have gotten a good whiff of Romney and he smells like loserville. Time to cut losses.
Also too, yet another early Christmas (Ramadan?) present:
https://twitter.com/samsteinhp/status/250021093539201024
Also too, yet another early Christmas (Ramadan?) present:
https://twitter.com/samsteinhp/status/250021093539201024
I personally think Obama will win no matter what at this point, barring something like an actual Whitey tape being released, or unless he tries to bring back the afro.
Also too, yet another early Christmas (Ramadan?) present:
https://twitter.com/samsteinhp/status/250021093539201024
In the immortal words of Winston Wolff, let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet.
I personally think Obama will win no matter what at this point, barring something like an actual Whitey tape being released, or unless he tries to bring back the afro. Obviously, the Senate still hangs in the balance, but is looking more favorable to be retained post-Akin/47%. The House is the real prize. Can the dems get it? Fuck if I know. I know the polls SHOULD tighten up a bit between now and election day. I say should, but Mitt Romney is the gift that keeps on giving. He has to debate the President 3 times, and ye olde Zombie Eyed Granny Starver has to debate Uncle Joe once.
I want a landslide. I want to demoralize these fuckers. I want their spirits broken, their eyes downcast and their daughters sold into sex-slavery. I want Goldwater-esque gnashing of teeth after this election. Then I want them to freak the fuck out EVEN MORE when Obama tries to do something after the election so the the non-absolutely batshitfuckinginsane portion of the country (2/3 or whatever) can see what we're dealing with and send these fucktards to a time out until they learn how to sit at the dinner table without shitting their pants that a black dude is sitting at the head of the table and GUESS WHAT, he's parcelling out the dinner in a fair manner. No little Mitch, you don't get to have your pudding before you eat your meat. No little Boehner, you don't get to stick your dick in the mashed potatoes without a spanking. Tough shit, come back when you're willing to be a normal person.
I mean, it won't happen but it's nice to dream, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI6BJPF-KA4
This man is running for president of the United States
In the immortal words of Winston Wolff, let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet.
I personally think Obama will win no matter what at this point, barring something like an actual Whitey tape being released, or unless he tries to bring back the afro. Obviously, the Senate still hangs in the balance, but is looking more favorable to be retained post-Akin/47%. The House is the real prize. Can the dems get it? Fuck if I know. I know the polls SHOULD tighten up a bit between now and election day. I say should, but Mitt Romney is the gift that keeps on giving. He has to debate the President 3 times, and ye olde Zombie Eyed Granny Starver has to debate Uncle Joe once.
I want a landslide. I want to demoralize these fuckers. I want their spirits broken, their eyes downcast and their daughters sold into sex-slavery. I want Goldwater-esque gnashing of teeth after this election. Then I want them to freak the fuck out EVEN MORE when Obama tries to do something after the election so the the non-absolutely batshitfuckinginsane portion of the country (2/3 or whatever) can see what we're dealing with and send these fucktards to a time out until they learn how to sit at the dinner table without shitting their pants that a black dude is sitting at the head of the table and GUESS WHAT, he's parcelling out the dinner in a fair manner. No little Mitch, you don't get to have your pudding before you eat your meat. No little Boehner, you don't get to stick your dick in the mashed potatoes without a spanking. Tough shit, come back when you're willing to be a normal person.
I mean, it won't happen but it's nice to dream, right?
That video is so absurd. You can totally hide being black.
Oh and I love the paintings in the background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1JAZwOSA1sThat video is so absurd. You can totally hide being black.
Oh and I love the paintings in the background.
DOMINATING THE NEW CYCLE
Without having Clintonian levels of charisma, I don't see how he could have better responded to the question without adopting a less odious position (or at least lying about his position).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI6BJPF-KA4
This man is running for president of the United States
You know, for a man who has essentially done nothing else in the past eight years but running for President, he REALLY sucks at it.
"When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly, there's no - and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem. So it's very dangerous."
thank you, based internet
http://lucilleandmitt.tumblr.com/
he should watch the end of Goldfinger again
BOSTON—Saying it was time to get back to basics and “start fresh,” top-level sources at Romney 2012 headquarters announced plans to reboot and reenergize the campaign for the 72nd consecutive week Monday. “We’re looking forward to wiping the slate clean, getting back out there among voters, and showing Americans who Mitt really is and how his policies will work for them,” said communications director Gail Gitcho, stating that the campaign had hit the “reset button” and citizens could look forward to getting to know “the real Mitt” over the next several days, a statement she has made every week since May 2011. “It’s important that we pivot back to Gov. Romney’s central message of economic opportunity for all Americans and just let Mitt be Mitt. I think voters will really like what they hear.” At press time, Romney staffers are already prepping for next week’s campaign reboot after remarks the Republican candidate just uttered at a voter rally in Pueblo, CO.
Despite all the noise created by all those media-commissioned skewed polls that appear to have President Obama leading, Mitt Romney is actually winning the presidential race as of today.
...
Polling data and analysis of voting patterns indicates that Romney is going to win most of the key swing states including the five surveyed by Purple Strategies just a few days ago. The last QStarNews analysis and projection of the electoral college covered in this column predicts Romney winning 301 electoral votes, 31 more than needed for election as president.
Don't like the poll results? "Correct" them until you do:
http://www.unskewedpolls.com/QuoteDespite all the noise created by all those media-commissioned skewed polls that appear to have President Obama leading, Mitt Romney is actually winning the presidential race as of today.
...
Polling data and analysis of voting patterns indicates that Romney is going to win most of the key swing states including the five surveyed by Purple Strategies just a few days ago. The last QStarNews analysis and projection of the electoral college covered in this column predicts Romney winning 301 electoral votes, 31 more than needed for election as president.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwkSBqaRyeE
:rofl :rofl :rofl
look at Ryan's reaction, holy crap. Can't wait to see them walk this back
The latest numbers are 105,669 Democratic ballot requests, 18,542 Republican ones.That's 10% of of the total votes cast in 2008. Romney will be down at least 8% before votes are even counted on election night
NORTH CAROLINA reports as of Tuesday morning 66,664 ballot requests with the following party breakdown:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/25/1136382/-Dems-romp-in-Iowa-early-ballot-requests-lag-in-North-Carolina
Party Reg
Dem 27.9%
Rep 51.0%
None/Oth 21.1%
Gallup with Obama up +6 nationally today.
More broadly, attempts by armed civilians to stop shooting rampages are rare -- and successful ones even rarer. There were two school shootings in the late 1990s, in Mississippi and Pennsylvania, in which bystanders with guns ultimately subdued the teen perpetrators, but in both cases it was after the shooting had subsided. Other cases led to tragic results. In 2005, as a rampage unfolded inside a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington, a civilian named Brendan McKown confronted the assailant with a licensed handgun he was carrying. The assailant pumped several bullets into McKown and wounded six people before eventually surrendering to police after a hostage standoff. (A comatose McKown eventually recovered after weeks in the hospital.) In Tyler, Texas, that same year, a civilian named Mark Wilson fired his licensed handgun at a man on a rampage at the county courthouse. Wilson--who was a firearms instructor--was shot dead by the body-armored assailant, who wielded an AK-47. (None of these cases were included in our mass shootings data set because fewer than four victims died in each.)
Appeals to heroism on this subject abound. So does misleading information. Gun rights die-hards frequently credit the end of a rampage in 2002 at the Appalachian School of Law in Virginia to armed "students" who intervened--while failing to disclose that those students were also current and former law enforcement officers, and that the killer, according to police investigators, was out of ammo by the time they got to him.
Gallup with Obama up +6 nationally today.
As if anyone would trust the left leaning Gallup Organization. The super accurate polls at romneychartz.com has Romney winning by 27%.
Romney's surpassed mere flip-flopping. At this point he's basically Schrodinger's Candidate.
He's rebooting so often you'd think his campaign manager was Dan Didio!
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/26/14115083-romney-massachusetts-health-care-law-is-proof-of-empathy?lite
Today's Forecast is: Romneycare is OKAY.
To be fair, in 2008 polls showed Obama solidly in the lead, and McCain got more votes.
If you don't count the rampant voter fraud, natch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTxJUanlxo
:rofl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CSVSwSaypg
https://twitter.com/rsmccain/statuses/250836704473251840
:smug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTxJUanlxo
:rofl
Unless Barry Goldwater's grandson has a secret tape of Obama at a Black Panther rally saying "I'm never gonna get 47% of these honkies to vote for me, I was born in Kenya and I'm a Muslim!" I think this thing is pretty much over.
Polls getting so bad for Mitt Romney this morning I saw a guy scraping a Romney bumper sticker off his car. It was Paul Ryan. #GOP2012
In January 2009, the United States had 133,561,000 total non-farm payrolls. The revised BLS figures put him into positive territory by July 2012, when the number is now deemed to have been 133,631,000.
The Reason-Rupe September 2012 poll includes our favorite ideological questions to differentiate libertarians from liberals and conservatives. Using three questions, we can define libertarians as respondents who believe “the less government the better,” who prefer the “free market” to handle problems, and who want government to “favor no particular set of values.” These fiscally conservative, socially liberal voters represent 20% of the public in the Reason-Rupe poll, in line with previous estimates.
Among these likely libertarian voters, the presidential horserace currently stands:
Romney 77%
Obama 20%
Other 3%
Romney’s share of the libertarian vote represents a high water mark for Republican presidential candidates in recent elections.
Have you ever read any Locke on WEED?/
There have been a number of posts at LGM recently about the third-party option for disaffected liberals. Loomis, djw and Lemieux have all posted about it.
And you know, I think Loomis (who's the leftest writer on the site) has a point. Most of the progressives who plan on not voting for Obama* are privileged white dudes, and that has a lot to do with the way they frame the issue of voting. They're secure enough from the worst effects of a Republican government that they can afford to vote symbolically.
I think the same effect was pretty prevalent during a lot of the administration's legislative sausage-making. People with white collar jobs and good healthcare plans saying they should have gone for single-payer come hell or high water, people with job security saying unemployment insurance wasn't worth a temporary extension of the Bush cuts, etc. Liberals on the Stoller/Taibbi/Greenwald axis, for the most part, are not organizing because they feel directly threatened, but because they are committed to a certain political philosophy, and are generally leading secure enough lives that they can afford politics as a passtime.
That's not to dis middle-class political amateurs; that's basically my tribe. But I think it really behooves liberals such as myself to remember that the fights are really not about us, they are about the actual effects government can have on people's lives. If you're gonna vote to make yourself feel better by associating yourself with a person or group you admire, that's your call. But you don't get to lecture other people about their vote, and you don't get to claim to be some sort of pure True Liberal while turning your back on those less fortunate than yourself.
*Exceptions for people who are in safe states and trying to get the third party of their choice to the 5% threshold or whatever. We're talking about people like Matt Stoller who argue that the two parties are indistinguishable and that costing Obama the election wouldn't be a bad thing.
Himuro: That rather misses the point of what I said and the parallel discussion over at LGM and Crooked Timber.
The problem with that SA quote is that the poor brown folks being killed in the tribal regions of Pakistan are fucked regardless of who wins. By throwing the election to Romney, you're not trading reproductive rights, gay rights, health insurance and economic relief for the poor in order to win a more humane foreign policy. You're giving those away for nothing.
I remember a friend-of-a-friend on FB saying last year he wasn't going to vote for Obama because he didn't want those drone strikes to be "in his name." To him it's about exculpating himself, while knowing full well that it won't actually stop or even slow any of the crimes he's allegedly protesting. And by doing that, he's saying that his own feeling of superiority or innocence is worth more to him than the tangible benefits (relative to Romney, duh) that would come from a second Obama term.
Now if Romney was a Paul-style libertarian who was going to gut the gut the welfare state while retrenching America's global military presence, you might have an interesting dilemma. That's pretty clearly not the case, though.
Agreed, Mandark. Too many people fail to realize how coalitions work in other democracies as well and that our parties are just large coalitions. I have this argument everytime I hear somebody start talking about the need of a new party to fit their own personal ideologies. They just don't get that in the end they'll end up in bed with the same group of people anyways most likely.
Mandark, most of my issue with Erik's article stem from the hostility. I'm more open to discuss things if there is no name calling about.
And a similar article - but much more articulate and less hostile - I came across today showed up. I highly suggest it.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175598/tomgram%3A_rebecca_solnit%2C_we_could_be_heroes/#more
Shut the fuck up about race, white people.
Himu, do you feel that the debates should include someone representing the Stormfront viewpoint and that American democracy is being stifled because of this?
Himu, do you feel that the debates should include someone representing the Stormfront viewpoint and that American democracy is being stifled because of this?
No, don't be ridiculous. You're equating hate speech to equal representation under presidential debates? That's just silly.
Being called a stooge and rube for Obama and the DNC is small beer after half a dozen years of being called a stooge and a rube for Saddam and Osama.
I didn't say it was a fruitless endeavor. The beauty of grassroots movements is that they do hold sway. They can influence a party and election. What Mandark said much better than I is that it comes down to the fact that your views are just not popular. Reconciling that is more important than giving a mic to people just for the sake of being fair or some other notion. It has to do with really making your voice heard and doing enough stomping and real political groundwork to be noticed and start a movement. But most people prefer to resort to finger wagging and saying that the system is stacked against them.Agreed, Mandark. Too many people fail to realize how coalitions work in other democracies as well and that our parties are just large coalitions. I have this argument everytime I hear somebody start talking about the need of a new party to fit their own personal ideologies. They just don't get that in the end they'll end up in bed with the same group of people anyways most likely.
In my case at least, it's mostly just the frustration that a giant amount of my views - which are mostly standard progressive views, nothing out of the ordinary in any way - don't even have much representation. Just because a third party would likely fall in bed with the corporations doesn't really mean you've won the argument. It also doesn't mean that that electoral reform is a fruitless endeavor, or the fact that our two parties are stripping people's voices - Stein and Johnson aren't allowed to participate in the debates at all. Even if what you say is true, it doesn't mean nothing should be done or that people shouldn't raise a stink about it.
I'm not sure if my views are really that unpopular. When you lack the representation, of course it's not going to seem popular, because most people don't even know about it. Then again, I'm all for scaling down the military funding, pumping more into the sciences, education, and nasa. I know a lot of people are for more a more powerful military, as defensive measures, so maybe you're right.You might catch people who agree with it in theory but as I said, they don't care enough. They don't understand how these things might affect them and in their bubble they have no reason to learn. It's not a uniquely American thing. Most people the world over just don't give a rat's ass about politics. They'll say "oh yeah that's a great idea" just like when you ask them about the deficit. But when it comes to the nitty gritty details of slashing this or raising that tax you're going to run into opposition guaranteed.
I'm not sure if my views are really that unpopular. When you lack the representation, of course it's not going to seem popular, because most people don't even know about it. Then again, I'm all for scaling down the military funding, pumping more into the sciences, education, and nasa. I know a lot of people are for more a more powerful military, as defensive measures, so maybe you're right.You might catch people who agree with it in theory but as I said, they don't care enough. They don't understand how these things might affect them and in their bubble they have no reason to learn. It's not a uniquely American thing. Most people the world over just don't give a rat's ass about politics. They'll say "oh yeah that's a great idea" just like when you ask them about the deficit. But when it comes to the nitty gritty details of slashing this or raising that tax you're going to run into opposition guaranteed.
Jobs aren't real tangible benefits?I'm not sure if my views are really that unpopular. When you lack the representation, of course it's not going to seem popular, because most people don't even know about it. Then again, I'm all for scaling down the military funding, pumping more into the sciences, education, and nasa. I know a lot of people are for more a more powerful military, as defensive measures, so maybe you're right.You might catch people who agree with it in theory but as I said, they don't care enough. They don't understand how these things might affect them and in their bubble they have no reason to learn. It's not a uniquely American thing. Most people the world over just don't give a rat's ass about politics. They'll say "oh yeah that's a great idea" just like when you ask them about the deficit. But when it comes to the nitty gritty details of slashing this or raising that tax you're going to run into opposition guaranteed.
Honestly, I think voting is like going to college. Most people only do it because they feel pressured into it rather than because they think will get any real, tangible benefit from it.
So you voted for Bush then, COG. FUCKING FANTASTIC!
Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild, the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. They have a big picnic with cupcakes and gumdrops and pudding pops, stopping only to cast their votes by throwing Magic Wishing Rocks into the Well of Laughter, Comity, and Good Intentions. Afterward they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar.
You don’t live there.
Grow the fuck up.
Jobs aren't real tangible benefits?I'm not sure if my views are really that unpopular. When you lack the representation, of course it's not going to seem popular, because most people don't even know about it. Then again, I'm all for scaling down the military funding, pumping more into the sciences, education, and nasa. I know a lot of people are for more a more powerful military, as defensive measures, so maybe you're right.You might catch people who agree with it in theory but as I said, they don't care enough. They don't understand how these things might affect them and in their bubble they have no reason to learn. It's not a uniquely American thing. Most people the world over just don't give a rat's ass about politics. They'll say "oh yeah that's a great idea" just like when you ask them about the deficit. But when it comes to the nitty gritty details of slashing this or raising that tax you're going to run into opposition guaranteed.
Honestly, I think voting is like going to college. Most people only do it because they feel pressured into it rather than because they think will get any real, tangible benefit from it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5cAwTEEGNE
...
Many more correspondents disagreed with the notion of dealbreakers. They insisted that it's irrational to have them in a two-party system, where the proper way to vote is to choose the least bad option.
Although that isn't my theory of voting, it is a perfectly defensible one. My problem is that I just don't believe very many Democrats actually hold it. As I noted at the beginning of my piece, "Tell certain liberals and progressives that you can't bring yourself to vote for a candidate who opposes gay rights, or who doesn't believe in Darwinian evolution, and they'll nod along. Say that you'd never vote for a politician caught using the 'n'-word, even if you agreed with him on more policy issues than his opponent, and the vast majority of left-leaning Americans would understand."
...
Neither the left-of-center coalition nor the social circles of its various members include many Pakistani families from North Warzistan. Saying the deaths of innocent children there is wrong and regrettable, but not a dealbreaker, is a much more comfortable thing to do on a typical left-leaning blog than saying you'd vote for a president despite the fact that he uses vile anti-Mexican slurs.
In a two party system it has always been the lesser of two evils and in a hundred years at least in America it will always be a lesser of two evils choice. Two party systems mean big tent parties which broad positions. When people draw their line in the sands, it tends to say more about their maturity level when it comes to American politics.
In full disclosure I didn't vote for John Kerry in 2004 exactly because I made one of those draw a line in the sand declarations. My only real saving excuse at the time being in the state I was in at that time, Kerry was going to win it no matter what. If it was close I would have voted for him despite not really being a fan of him.
CNN's latest poll shows Bams and Willard in a statistical tie. In other news, CNN is still pathetic and useless.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A4Oap-FCEAAO_55.jpg:large)
Mitt Romney swings by Chipotle for a photo op
wait, why are they upset...? She's not allowed to campaign/raise money now? Or is this a "grrrr my work commute will be fucked up by Michelle's motorcade" attack
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A4Oap-FCEAAO_55.jpg:large)
Mitt Romney swings by Chipotle for a photo op
lesbian hand holding cropped out
Hearing Seattle conservatards get all bent outta shape over Michelle coming here to raise money- so obnoxious. I like how they rail against her raising funds the old fashioned way- but no one wants to talk about shadow donations from individuals that want to bend the country to their will.
wait, why are they upset...? She's not allowed to campaign/raise money now? Or is this a "grrrr my work commute will be fucked up by Michelle's motorcade" attack
:drudge JEREMIAH WRIGHT :drudge
:drudge JEREMIAH WRIGHT :drudge
Is this a confirmed Jeremiah Wright sighting, or just that conditions are right for a Jeremiah Wright to form?
Edit: LOL, wait so the video's been on Youtube since 2007, but now it's an EXCLUSIVE OBAMA SHOCKER, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING? :lol
But the Associated Press covered the speech (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politics/2007-06-05-2605804428_x.htm). Brian Williams mentioned (http://newsbusters.org/node/13244) it that night on his NBC News broadcast. Maureen Dowd referred to it the next day in her New York Times column (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/opinion/06dowd.html).
At least as discouraging, for Republicans, however, is that Romney’s favorite Obama quote — “You didn’t build that” — isn’t even a net drag for the president. After hearing his comments, voters reacted positively by a 36-32 margin overall, and independents and “up for grabs” voters actually approved of them by slightly higher margins.
Romney bet big on attacks built around the snippet, devoting not only millions of dollars in ads but an entire day of the Republican convention to the theme. Its failure to turn the polls may point to larger problems with the GOP strategy of using Obama’s own words against him. A focus group of undecided voters conducted by former Haley Barbour’s firm found that they were resistant to judging Obama by his quotes in comparison to Romney, often because they assumed they were taken out of context.
Just thought I'd leave this here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE
the point is it got crossfire canceled
http://www.wnd.com/files/Focusletter.pdf
how did I miss this in 2008 :lol
I don't hate on Stewart! I think he's funny, I just also think he pretty much sucks when he tries to play serious
romney is kicking obamas ass MY GOD
the moderation is quite bad.
It's a really shitty performance by Obama. He's just reciting stuff at this point. And he's stumbling over words. Weird.
"y-y-y-your minute is up, uguu~!."/
Romney's lengthy explanation of his healthcare plan explained absolutely nothing at all.
Romney just mentioned Reagan. Drink!
has obama had even 1 point so far? romney runnin dis show
Romney just mentioned Reagan. Drink!
Obama went Abraham Lincoln, YOUR MOVE ROMNEY.
Vague asshole versus rambling pussy. Which one do you like better?
It was getting ridiculous. I really thought Lehrer was going to keep everyone in check. Even Romney recognized how ineffectual he was and almost terminated him on the spot (I.E. OUT OF HABIT LOL).
Romney killed it.
I knew Obama sucked at debates but wow, this is bad. We're looking at President Romney if this keeps up.
Romney killed it.
I knew Obama sucked at debates but wow, this is bad. We're looking at President Romney if this keeps up.
FUCKING LOL
someone hasn't been following the math and swing state polling
Romney killed it.
I knew Obama sucked at debates but wow, this is bad. We're looking at President Romney if this keeps up.
FUCKING LOL
someone hasn't been following the math and swing state polling
To be fair, that was pre-debates. Romney could still be a threat unfortunately and in order for your idea to work, those poll numbers are going to have to turn into actual votes which isn't really guaranteed to happen.
Not really, he had no details and was just stroking himself with vague statements everytime he talked. Romney's performance in the debate will be judged over the next week as we see all the holes pointed out.
Vague asshole versus rambling pussy. Which one do you like better?
I want my two hours back. :-\
Gonna jump straight into spin and/or fact chex! :hyper
PD in full effect on gaf, it's lovely :lol
@BuzzFeedAndrew
CNN poll 67% of voters say Romney won only 22% say Obama won.
So this is what BrandNew looks like in political threads.
Brand New, Obama is not new to craven politics, so please stop defending him. Romney, while having more holes in his debate than me at the end of a friday night, took advantage of Obama and had his way with him.
Brand New, Obama is not new to craven politics, so please stop defending him. Romney, while having more holes in his debate than me at the end of a friday night, took advantage of Obama and had his way with him.
What do you mean by you have holes in you at the end of a friday night? ???
Remember those stories about aides trying to get Obama to shorten his answers during prep debates? Well, clearly he didn't listen. At all.
Remember those stories about aides trying to get Obama to shorten his answers during prep debates? Well, clearly he didn't listen. At all.
You finally saw Street Fight, right? Remember the part where the adviser is prepping Booker for the debate and telling him not to get bogged down in explanations, but to just hit his talking point and move on? Then he says "I still think I should give a little explanation, get the real facts out there, but still keep it short..." and after he leaves the adviser rolls her eyes and says something like "he's going to blow it."
Haven't watched the debate, but that was always sort of Obama's MO.
Um, after actually watching the whole debate, I'm gonna have to disagree with much of the blogosphere. After seeing Chris Matthews' meltdown, I thought Obama was gonna be shitting his pants every five minutes. But he came off as competent at the very least, with only a few missed opportunities (rebutting the $700 billion medicare cut thing).
This certainly didn't take long:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV5m1NxffEs
http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/404175
I'm going to say something controversial here," Gore began. "Obama arrived in Denver at 2 pm today, just a few hours before the debate started. Romney did his debate prep in Denver.
"When you go to five thousand feet, and you only have a few hours to adjust, I don't know," Gore said, as other panelists in the post-debate discussion chimed in.
QuoteI'm going to say something controversial here," Gore began. "Obama arrived in Denver at 2 pm today, just a few hours before the debate started. Romney did his debate prep in Denver.
"When you go to five thousand feet, and you only have a few hours to adjust, I don't know," Gore said, as other panelists in the post-debate discussion chimed in.
:spin Current TV
Yo Mitt Romney, Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letters F & U! #debates #SupportBigBird
QuoteI'm going to say something controversial here," Gore began. "Obama arrived in Denver at 2 pm today, just a few hours before the debate started. Romney did his debate prep in Denver.
"When you go to five thousand feet, and you only have a few hours to adjust, I don't know," Gore said, as other panelists in the post-debate discussion chimed in.
:spin Current TV
:spin Current TV
:spin Current TV
As wacky as that sounds, there are people that really think that the elevation messes with you. I've only really only vacationed in the mountains once, but one time I went to Breckenridge (a ski resort town about an hour and a half out of Denver), and I was really confused by some of the things going on. For one, there were oxygen bars that otherwise healthy people would go to to get hooked up to oxygen tanks because, apparently, some people don't react well to less oxygen in the higher altitudes. Also, there were a few cautions that one alcoholic drink would hit you about as hard as three would at sea level.
Personally, it all seemed like malarkey to me. But, I'm no expert on the matter.
No. A quick Google search shows that it's an often-repeated claim. However, its validity -- as expected since I myself drank and didn't anecdotally notice anything amiss -- seems in doubt.Oh, the alcohol thing. Yeah, that's probably BS. But altitude sickness is a very real thing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/health/02real.html?_r=0
Oh, the alcohol thing. Yeah, that's probably BS. But altitude sickness is a very real thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jebDlVAcpGo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jebDlVAcpGo
funny, the real obama didn't show up either
August was revised up from 96,000 to 142,000 and July was revised up to 181,000.
This also came from the BLS report:QuoteAugust was revised up from 96,000 to 142,000 and July was revised up to 181,000.
(http://i.imgur.com/hZVmo.png)
Right on cue, republicans are now arguing the "real" unemployment rate is actually 14% (U6 number).
when I see those tweets about "Chicago style" I always think they mean University of Chicago and I get all ???
Analysts like this were, however, right in a way. Romney did come across as the more confident and aggressive candidate, and Obama did come across as "wonky" and "lacking punch." Just visually and dramatically, Romney met the spectacle on its terms better than Obama did, much the way John F. Kennedy did in his celebrated debate with Richard Nixon. In that legendary meeting, radio viewers thought Nixon won, but TV viewers, blown away by Kennedy's smile and tan, thought was a landslide for the Democrat.
Journalists who cite that Nixon-Kennedy debate always forget that the lesson of that night is that the new broadcast media technology made superficiality and nonsense more important – that thanks to the press, it was now possible to get someone elected to the most powerful office on earth because he had a superior tan. Reporters love this story because it reminds everyone that the medium they work in has the power to overcome substance and decide elections all by itself. What's amazing is that they don't have the good sense to be ashamed of this.
I watched Miami Vice on Netflix instead of the debate. I'm glad I made the right decision.
MIAMI VICE IS ON NETFLIX??!?!?!?!
A nation without borders is no nation at all. After decades of misguided policies America has now become a free-for-all. Our leaders betrayed the middle class which is forced to compete with welfare-receiving illegal immigrants who will work for almost anything, just because the standards in their home countries are even lower.
One of the most strident anti-Obama people I know (she told my friends and I to "vote for McCain because I don't want Obama taking all my money for the government") is a public school bus driver. Shows no signs of awareness that there's any conflict.
Then again, there are a couple people who I'm pretty sure are flabbergasted that I, as a Jew, can support Obama and his abandonment of Israel.
From my FB feed:QuoteA nation without borders is no nation at all. After decades of misguided policies America has now become a free-for-all. Our leaders betrayed the middle class which is forced to compete with welfare-receiving illegal immigrants who will work for almost anything, just because the standards in their home countries are even lower.
From my FB feed:QuoteA nation without borders is no nation at all. After decades of misguided policies America has now become a free-for-all. Our leaders betrayed the middle class which is forced to compete with welfare-receiving illegal immigrants who will work for almost anything, just because the standards in their home countries are even lower.
GR: If only there were some way for workers to regain some bargaining leverage...
One of the most strident anti-Obama people I know (she told my friends and I to "vote for McCain because I don't want Obama taking all my money for the government") is a public school bus driver. Shows no signs of awareness that there's any conflict.
That church could lose their tax-exempt status for shit like that.
Also, it's really painful to read those FB comments from a purely grammatical standpoint.
It's going to be very difficult coming to terms with the upcoming Obama loss.
What is going on with these polls saying Romney is beating Obama now?
What is going on with these polls saying Romney is beating Obama now?
Part of it is that Romney has, in fact, gotten a bounce from last week's debate. The rest of it is that somehow magically there are now more Republicans responding as a percentage of the polls than there were last week. ::)
What is going on with these polls saying Romney is beating Obama now?
Biden will embarrass himself just watchWhat is going on with these polls saying Romney is beating Obama now?
Part of it is that Romney has, in fact, gotten a bounce from last week's debate. The rest of it is that somehow magically there are now more Republicans responding as a percentage of the polls than there were last week. ::)
Eh that's due to party ID being a fluctuating factor, unlike race, ethnicity, etc. Independent voters tend to stay from party to party depending on who is up/down, and after the debate they moved to Romney.
If Obama loses it's solely his fault for not giving a shit about the debate
I'll be more worried if things are the same/worse closer to the election. As it is now, I still think Obama can win pretty easily, but he as to at least bring a fucking B game, not that shit he pulled at the debate.
Romney has the same advisers bush had.
Romney competent, lol
Good lord the polling looks horrible for Obama. What a fuckup
My mom is losing her shit. She has been in Chris Matthews-mode for the last 2 days.Really? When Obama is doing really well I can afford to pretend that I'm above the president. Now that things have tightened significantly I have an Obama magnet on my car. Your mom is doing things backwards.
"I'm not even wearing my Obama button anymore. Romney is gonna win." It's hilarious.
Obama is gonna win. I'm 80% sure of it :) And even if he doesn't, at least it won't be Bush again. I wanted him gone so bad that it hurt. Romney at least is competent and that's a decent consolation.
The October 16 debate is gonna be fairly close to where I live, is it possible to get tickets you guys know?
All of the tickets allocated to Hofstra University from the Commission on Presidential Debates will be distributed to current students in the days before the debate, as recommended by the CPD and consistent with past practices of debate hosts, including Hofstra in 2008.
@mpoindc : NBC/WSJ/Marist — VA: Romney 48, Obama 47 || FL: Obama 48, Romney 47 || OH**: Obama 51, Romney 45 (LVs, 10/7-9, MoE +/- 3.1%) 1 minute ago more »
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to a 4-1/2 year low last week, suggesting that hiring may be picking up after stalling since the spring.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that new jobless claims dropped a seasonally-adjusted 30,000 to 339,000, the lowest since February 2008. The four-week moving average, considered a more accurate gauge of labor market conditions, slid 11,500 to 364,000.
I don't have high hopes for the VP debate for Biden. Ryan is a sociopath and an asshole who won't hesitate to go for the jugular. Biden might get a nice hit here and there but he'll have plenty of "hanging out at the Home Depot" moments as well.
The Zombie-Eyed Granny-Starver Takes on the One Man Who Relishes This Mess: Your 2012 VP Debate Preview
By Charles P. Pierce at 9:07AM
One of the oddest reactions to the president's feather-in-the-gales-of-pure-bullshit performance last week is the notion among a number of very smart liberal humans that he doesn't want to be president anymore and, way out on the fringe, the corollary that his debate demeanor was the rhetorical equivalent of Eddie Cicotte of the Chicago White Sox hitting the first Cincinnati batter he faced in the 1919 World Series. I'm not good enough at trans-area-code psychology to agree with this conclusion, although I do admit that the president should be a little more juiced than this about the prospect of deflating Willard Romney just for the sheer fun of it, since Romney is so obviously a bag of hot air that they should string him up and float him through Manhattan this Thanksgiving.
However, you know who really likes his job, and would like very much to keep it because he likes it so much?
Joe Biden, that's who.
Joe Biden is not riven with self-doubt. Joe Biden is not exhausted by the hurly-burly of politics. Joe Biden is not burdened by the weight of events and laid low by the constant battle against know-nothing obstructionism. Joe Biden is not going to take the stage tonight and find himself wishing he were anywhere else. I mean, god be good to him, as my gran' used to say, but Joe Biden actually likes all these silly performance pieces in which we insist he be engaged in order to stay vice-president. He revels in them. He would do ten of them a day, if he could. When I consider Joe Biden, and I look at the enthusiasm with which he throws himself into the various cataracts and torrents of hogwash that constitute our politics these days, I find myself looking at him the way I look at people who sky-dive or drive in demolition derbies. I have no idea why they do what they do, and I have absolutely no intention of doing it myself, ever, but, goddamn, do those people look like they're having fun.
So tonight, when Biden takes the stage to debate Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from the state of Wisconsin, it is very unlikely that the debate will hinge on whether either man really wants to be there. Biden eats these kinds of things on toast, and Ryan is as ambitious as Satan. What the debate will test, however, is whether or not the zombie-eyed granny-starver can summon up — or, more accurately, reconstruct — the persona that was built for him through the years by dozens of credulous Beltway hacks who looked at a youthful Republican who wore shoes and didn't talk about how Jesus road to work on a diplodocus, who instead immersed himself in pie charts and flow sheets and, in doing so, had created for everyone a believable simulcrum of a Smart Person. Then, of course, he published a couple of "budgets" that, judging by the general reaction to them, were written in bubonic bacilli. That was the first whack at the image. Then the president called him out face-to-face, and Ryan has yet to stop meeping about that. Hell, no less than N. Leroy Gingrich, definer of civilization's rules and leader (perhaps) of the civilizing forces, referred to Ryan's entire economic oeuvre as "thinly-veiled social Darwinism," which it plainly is, although Gingrich later had to walk that one back, alas.
Once Romney put him on the ticket, all that great video came out with Ryan's talking to various gatherings of aging Ayn Rand fanbois. He gave a speech at the Republican National Convention that shattered the weight-for-age record for individual prevarication. Suddenly, people started talking about what had been plain from the beginning of his rise to national prominence — that Paul Ryan is as much of an unlettered extremist on economics as Louie Gohmert is on terror babies, or Paul Broun is on how the world came to be created. Conservatism's mansion has many rooms, and almost all of them are padded.
(Not that there aren't members of the Beltway media still dazzled by the blue-eyed Deerslayer from Janesville. "I like the strategy of bow hunting and it takes a lot of preparation, and I do take it seriously because I am much more successful if I do things properly and prepare the right way," he told CNN recently while on the campaign trail in Memphis. Is he planning to shoot an apple off Biden's head? It is plainly time for Dana Bash to take a couple of weeks off.)
There is no mistaking what Paul Ryan is seeking to create in this country, and it doesn't matter how much happy-clappy middle-class opportunity gilding he puts on it. He believes that the general government — which, I have to keep reminding him, is ultimately a manifestation of the political commonwealth — has no role in alleviating poverty, very little role in alleviating disease, and is designed primarily to create and sustain a political and social oligarchy. His devotion is nearly theological. He opposes Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid on principle. He believes them to have been always illegitimate exercises of government's power because, ostensibly, he read that somewhere in the Constitution, but actually, because they thwart his attempts to hand all the nation's power, and certainly all of its wealth, over to the "makers," and the hell with the "takers." He learned this, of course, in his pursuit of his bachelor's degree from Miami of Ohio, which was paid for on my dime, through Social Security survivor's benefits and, as always, you're welcome, Ace.
I think that Joe Biden, who is not laboring under any delusions about what's at stake here, likely will point a lot of this out tonight. (I'll send him a buffalo nickel if he asks Ryan whether Ryan felt he was a "taker" when he was cashing all those government checks after his father kicked.) Ryan will assume his sad-eyed pose as the lonely embattled truth-teller, and he will hope that the country buys it one more time. He's a much smaller bag of hot air than his running mate, drifting down the boulevard with his guide-wires held by dozens of easily impressed media types. He doesn't even react well to needles. Not at all. Joe Biden is not afraid of needles, and Joe Biden wants to stay vice-president for awhile. I'll never understand that, but people take their fun where they can find it and needling Paul Ryan can be rare good craic. I do not think Joe Biden will be so overwhelmed by the gravity of the occasion that he denies himself that kind of fun.
But I think that Mitt Romney is a moderate — like Nelson Rockefeller, who as governor of New York poured money into the state university system that educated me. Romney is an affable, successful businessman whose skills seem well-suited to this particular moment of economic crisis.
Hence I want to use my vote to make a statement about my unhappiness with the Democratic Party and the direction it has taken. The biggest issue for me is the Obama administration’s continuation of endless war, war, war. I denounced the Iraq incursion before it even happened.
Quote from: http://economywatch.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/11/14365317-jobless-claims-drop-to-lowest-level-since-2008?liteThe number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to a 4-1/2 year low last week, suggesting that hiring may be picking up after stalling since the spring.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that new jobless claims dropped a seasonally-adjusted 30,000 to 339,000, the lowest since February 2008. The four-week moving average, considered a more accurate gauge of labor market conditions, slid 11,500 to 364,000.
Quote from: http://economywatch.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/11/14365317-jobless-claims-drop-to-lowest-level-since-2008?liteThe number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to a 4-1/2 year low last week, suggesting that hiring may be picking up after stalling since the spring.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that new jobless claims dropped a seasonally-adjusted 30,000 to 339,000, the lowest since February 2008. The four-week moving average, considered a more accurate gauge of labor market conditions, slid 11,500 to 364,000.
Dunno how reputable this site is, but allegedly a large state did not include their jobless claims in the report
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-11/data-massaging-continues-initial-claims-tumble-339k-lowest-2008-far-below-lowest-exp
This one is for Mandark, his favorite political pundit:
SPECIFICS?
"ummm...."
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.
Hello 9 1 1? There s an old man beating a child on my tv
cbs says 50-31 biden
cbs says 50-31 biden
Someone on TPM mentioned that CNN was 65-35 for Biden
cbs says 50-31 biden
Whoa.
Personally, I'd call it a draw. Biden was fired up, passionate, and aggressive.....and almost ruthless. Ryan respectfully countered all of Biden's blows and didn't seem unnerved at all. I'd give a TINY, TINY advantage to Biden.
countered Biden's blows with what, exactly? Give me one example where Ryan said ANYTHING where you sat there and thought "hmm that makes sense, Biden is wrong here"exactly. every time the mod went for specifics, ryan dodged. every time he hammered obama, biden called him a liar and then dismantled his b.s. ryan didnt have SHIT worthwhile to sayl
cbs says 50-31 biden
Whoa.
Personally, I'd call it a draw. Biden was fired up, passionate, and aggressive.....and almost ruthless. Ryan respectfully countered all of Biden's blows and didn't seem unnerved at all. I'd give a TINY, TINY advantage to Biden.
countered Biden's blows with what, exactly? Give me one example where Ryan said ANYTHING where you sat there and thought "hmm that makes sense, Biden is wrong here"
cbs says 50-31 biden
Whoa.
Personally, I'd call it a draw. Biden was fired up, passionate, and aggressive.....and almost ruthless. Ryan respectfully countered all of Biden's blows and didn't seem unnerved at all. I'd give a TINY, TINY advantage to Biden.
countered Biden's blows with what, exactly? Give me one example where Ryan said ANYTHING where you sat there and thought "hmm that makes sense, Biden is wrong here"
I don't mean countered as "rebuffed" or "rebuked". Whenever Biden dug into Ryan, Ryan responded with measured composure as if whatever he was saying contradicted Biden. Ryan never appeared intimidated by Biden's fiery remarks (and I was watching Ryan's demeanor whenever Biden went into attack mode). It was almost as if he was saying, "I'm going to let you get heated, wait until you're finished, and respectfully disagree." He obviously isn't going to talk over Biden so he just waited for him to finish.
Romeny never said a single thing I agreed with, and he handily beat Obama despite it.
where's my planet eject button
The Commerce Department issued its final ruling Wednesday in a long-simmering trade dispute with China, imposing tariffs taxes on American consumers and solar-installation companies ranging from about 24 to nearly 36 percent on most solar panels imported from the country China, in order to protect domestic producers from foreign competition
where's my planet eject button
Who do you think won the presidential debate last week?
They both lose. Romney for not giving the American people any idea exactly what his policies are going to be, and Obama for not calling him out on it more aggressively.
They both lose. Romney for not giving the American people any idea exactly what his policies are going to be, and Obama for not calling him out on it more aggressively.
A debate is about style more so than substance (which neither candidate offered, to be honest). You're judging this the wrong way. It's about delivery, not what is being delivered. If Obama aggressively rebuked Romney's claims with a follow-up (and several reiterations) of his own, he would have won.
They both lose. Romney for not giving the American people any idea exactly what his policies are going to be, and Obama for not calling him out on it more aggressively.
A debate is about style more so than substance (which neither candidate offered, to be honest). You're judging this the wrong way. It's about delivery, not what is being delivered. If Obama aggressively rebuked Romney's claims with a follow-up (and several reiterations) of his own, he would have won.
ooook thanks for the explanation. ::)
on substantial stuff...Me. they must be over there like (http://www.the-coli.com/images/smilies/what.png)(http://www.the-coli.com/images/smilies/ehh.png) they really are thinking of invading us arent they?
Biden pretty much contradicted the State Department's official line on Libya, and Ryan seemingly said Romney supports privatizing Social Security.
Moderation was solid but did anyone else roll their eyes at her framing Iran as the definitive threat to US security
I thought she did a really good job up until the last couple of questions where it veered into creampuff territory. First of all, I don't give a shit how your religion has affected you. I would prefer you keep it fucking private. And the "what makes you better than anyone else" thing was just fucking dumb.
Still, about a bazillion times better than fucking Lehrer.
I thought she did a really good job up until the last couple of questions where it veered into creampuff territory. First of all, I don't give a shit how your religion has affected you. I would prefer you keep it fucking private. And the "what makes you better than anyone else" thing was just fucking dumb.
Still, about a bazillion times better than fucking Lehrer.
on the radio this morning, this douche was saying, "Depending on who you ask, Ryan won easily." No shit, Sherlock.
I thought she did a really good job up until the last couple of questions where it veered into creampuff territory. First of all, I don't give a shit how your religion has affected you. I would prefer you keep it fucking private. And the "what makes you better than anyone else" thing was just fucking dumb.
Still, about a bazillion times better than fucking Lehrer.
on the radio this morning, this douche was saying, "Depending on who you ask, Ryan won easily." No shit, Sherlock.
"Depending on who you ask, America is controlled by lizard people who are using gang stalking to make you annoyed all the time."
Joe for Prez!
I actually liked his laughing and such, was hilarious.
Debates are just getting more and more ferocious. By 2016 we'll have mics dropping.
I know most serious people out there already think Ryan is sort of a dumb asshole, but I do hope last night's debate puts to bed one and for all (it won't of course) the notion of Ryan as the SERIOUS POLICY WONK/GUBMINT MATH SUPERSTAR. I mean those were sort of simple questions to answer if there were actually answers to them.
I can see that. I suspect Ryan's reputation as being a numbers might lead people to believe that he can make this fantasy scenario actually work. Kind of like how people would assume someone in a doctor's coat in a hospital is a real doctor, and not just there to steal pills.(http://i.minus.com/ib0ftqy535EBBH.gif)
I know most serious people out there already think Ryan is sort of a dumb asshole, but I do hope last night's debate puts to bed one and for all (it won't of course) the notion of Ryan as the SERIOUS POLICY WONK/GUBMINT MATH SUPERSTAR. I mean those were sort of simple questions to answer if there were actually answers to them.
I can see that. I suspect Ryan's reputation as being a numbers might lead people to believe that he can make this fantasy scenario actually work. Kind of like how people would assume someone in a doctor's coat in a hospital is a real doctor, and not just there to steal pills.(http://i.minus.com/ib0ftqy535EBBH.gif)
Everyone I've talked to about it today all said something along the same thing: Ryan has creepy fucking eyes, and his anecdotes for each point were lame as hell. At the same time Biden's smiles creeped them out too.
I can see that. I suspect Ryan's reputation as being a numbers guy might lead people to believe that he can make this fantasy scenario actually work. Kind of like how people would assume someone in a doctor's coat in a hospital is a real doctor, and not just there to steal pills.
I know most serious people out there already think Ryan is sort of a dumb asshole, but I do hope last night's debate puts to bed one and for all (it won't of course) the notion of Ryan as the SERIOUS POLICY WONK/GUBMINT MATH SUPERSTAR. I mean those were sort of simple questions to answer if there were actually answers to them.
I really don't think so. A casual conversation with a coworker seemed to indicate that he was surprised that it was as close as it was -- what with Biden's reputation of being a gaffe machine and Ryan's reputation as a real numbers guy -- but as it turned out, Ryan only managed to narrowly win.
(http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/Lb/esq-paul-ryan-daughter-101212-xlg.jpg)
(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbtjfpdddC1ruwc07o1_400.gif)
(http://i.huffpost.com/gen/813496/thumbs/o-HAIRCUT-570.jpg)
PPP is tweeting (https://mobile.twitter.com/ppppolls/tweets) some of the first reassuring polling news for Obama in about a week, Ohio 51-46, matching where Obama was before the first debate. Also 20% of registered voters in Ohio have voted, and the vast majority went to Obama.
I think I'm just going to vote for Sherrod Brown. Won't bother voting for President. There's no real juicy races/issues in Ohio this year.
Issue 1 Constitutional convention Would create a convention to revise, alter or amend the state constitution.
Issue 2 Redistricting Would create a citizen commission to draw legislative and congressional district maps.
I think I'm just going to vote for Sherrod Brown. Won't bother voting for President. There's no real juicy races/issues in Ohio this year.
Issue 1 Constitutional convention Would create a convention to revise, alter or amend the state constitution.
Issue 2 Redistricting Would create a citizen commission to draw legislative and congressional district maps.
Vote for what you think is right and live with the consequences like the rest of us. It's all we're asked to do.Can't. GOP gonna GOP and decided they know better about what choices I should be allowed to have.
Brown is quite a liberal, probably the idealogical opposite of you on most issues. Any reason for voting for him, besides his manly voice?
I imagine they were fairly explicit about their expectations for him and what he would be getting in return. You support this list of major agenda items, and in return you get some seniority and the national party's support in the general election/noninterference in the event of a primary challenge.He probably did think the party's support mattered after beating Toomey. Just didn't realize it had been six years. (Although IIRC, big chunks of the GOP were backing Toomey to get another shot and defeat him in the primary. At least the Tea Party types and such.)
Well, I've always said that there's no better way to spread the love of Christ than with some good old-fashioned gay-bashing.
Of the six studies, two are blog posts by the conservative American Enterprise Institute; one is a report by the Republican-friendly Heritage Foundation; one is a paper by Princeton professor and former George W. Bush adviser Harvey Rosen; the fifth and sixth are a paper and Wall Street Journal op-ed by Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, an adviser to the Romney campaign.
WASHINGTON — Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats.
Sarah Palin's leadership political action committee "spent more than $774,000 during the year's third quarter after taking in more than $843,500 -- the bulk of it from donors who contributed $200 or less," Politico reports.
I'm starting to get increasingly nervous. Obama needs to smoke Romney tomorrow or this thing could be fucked.
I'm starting to get increasingly nervous. Obama needs to smoke Romney tomorrow or this thing could be fucked.All this "OBAMA IS GOING AGGRO" stuff is dumb in the next two debates. The town halls aren't made for going after each other, is he going to blunder into a Kerry's out of nowhere rambling about lumber futures by trying to go after Romney personally? Then you get foreign policy when we know the administration doesn't want to talk about Libya and Romney wants any chance to chip away at any Osama grandstanding.
If Missouri is the "show me state" and they elect Todd Akin, what exactly are they showing the rest of us? That they shouldn't get to vote anymore?They did elect a dead guy. Although that's a positive in my opinion.
Why is the Heritage foundation still credible? Didn't they also say that the Bush tax cuts would have eliminated the deficit by 2010?Why is anyone who makes ten year budget/economic predictions credible? :teehee
Joe Biden in 2016Wasn't there an article in the wake of his debate performance where some dope was arguing he was now the frontrunner? :lol
I hope she runs of course. It would certainly save us from having to settle for Andrew CuomoWhat, you don't like Deval Patrick?!? Or Kristen Gillibrand? Joe Manchin?
I'm starting to get increasingly nervous. Obama needs to smoke Romney tomorrow or this thing could be fucked.
Really? Polls have been pretty good for Obama the past few days.
A town hall-style debate on foreign policy is probably a bad time to come out all 'badass' and cocky. It's probably more important to look like you are empathetic to the people's concerns while stressing all the successes you have had over the past 4 years.
If anything, Obama should be passive-aggressive and attempt to convince people that Romney is going to significantly worsen our relations with China and Iran. Moderates are weary of unneeded further escalations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDch-PTtKEs
the return of the magenta yenta
The Supreme Court just declined to hear Ohio's challenge of the early voting ruling that will open voting to all citizens for three days before Election Day. No way Romney wins Ohio now, and its hard to see him winnig the election without it
OFA just might blow the doors off conventional wisdom/likely voter models. Can't wait to see some exit polls on Latino and black voting
The idea of a President Romney basically has me fearing Mandatory Homo Re-education Camps, Roe vs. Wade overturned, Obamacare repealed:lol
war with Iran, and deficits spiraling out of control (because for all their tough talk, as soon as their boy's back in the office, the deficit suddenly ceases to be an issue). Plus everyone's taxes go upYou get these either way! Yaaaay democracy!
I can't really bring myself to read political blogs anymore, I'm so fucked in the head right now. The idea of a President Romney basically has me fearing Mandatory Homo Re-education Camps, Roe vs. Wade overturned, Obamacare repealed, war with Iran, and deficits spiraling out of control (because for all their tough talk, as soon as their boy's back in the office, the deficit suddenly ceases to be an issue). Plus everyone's taxes go up (oops sorry math is hard), except for people making $250,000 a year or more somehow. SAVE ME FROM THIS NIGHTMARE.
I dont know anything about Romney, but this place is gonna be so funny in November. :lol Cant wait.
Why do you assume that HCR is going to create a 'functional health care system'? All it appears to do is draw more people into the current one we have had (with costs continuing to raise faster than inflation).
Granted, it's an improvement in access, especially for the yoofs and some of the working poor. But I wouldn't call it functional.
Quotewar with Iran, and deficits spiraling out of control (because for all their tough talk, as soon as their boy's back in the office, the deficit suddenly ceases to be an issue). Plus everyone's taxes go upYou get these either way! Yaaaay democracy!
all 21 members of America’s largest reality television family are scheduled to make campaign appearances for the embattled Missouri senate candidate.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar received national attention from their TLC reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” which chronicles their life raising nine girls and ten boys – all of whom have names beginning with the letter “J.” The Duggars, who share Akin’s pro-life views, are hoping to bring their wholesome family charm to Akin’s campaign, which is trying to close the gap between the congressman and Sen. Claire McCaskill.
The Supreme Court just declined to hear Ohio's challenge of the early voting ruling that will open voting to all citizens for three days before Election Day. No way Romney wins Ohio now, and its hard to see him winnig the election without it
OFA just might blow the doors off conventional wisdom/likely voter models. Can't wait to see some exit polls on Latino and black voting
Quoteall 21 members of America’s largest reality television family are scheduled to make campaign appearances for the embattled Missouri senate candidate.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar received national attention from their TLC reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” which chronicles their life raising nine girls and ten boys – all of whom have names beginning with the letter “J.” The Duggars, who share Akin’s pro-life views, are hoping to bring their wholesome family charm to Akin’s campaign, which is trying to close the gap between the congressman and Sen. Claire McCaskill.
the fragile budget I had constructed that had me going back to school full time next semester appears to be fucked all to hell.
The Supreme Court just declined to hear Ohio's challenge of the early voting ruling that will open voting to all citizens for three days before Election Day. No way Romney wins Ohio now, and its hard to see him winnig the election without it
OFA just might blow the doors off conventional wisdom/likely voter models. Can't wait to see some exit polls on Latino and black voting
http://www.270towin.com/2012_election_predictions.php?mapid=JmJ
It's possible for Romney to win, just veeeeeery hard. I don't see Obama winning Ohio but losing Iowa, for instance. Who the fuck knows at this point. I'm severely gloomy about pretty much fucking everything today because my car won't start, it's not the battery and the fragile budget I had constructed that had me going back to school full time next semester appears to be fucked all to hell.
Quoteall 21 members of America’s largest reality television family are scheduled to make campaign appearances for the embattled Missouri senate candidate.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar received national attention from their TLC reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” which chronicles their life raising nine girls and ten boys – all of whom have names beginning with the letter “J.” The Duggars, who share Akin’s pro-life views, are hoping to bring their wholesome family charm to Akin’s campaign, which is trying to close the gap between the congressman and Sen. Claire McCaskill.
We definitely have a budget problem in this country, and we need something to fix it.
As radical as everyone claims Ryan's budget(s) to be, they still didn't balance the budget til 2040. Romney's had a 57 point plan, a 9 point plan, a 5 point plan, a 120 point plan... If anything, that shows there is a multitude of things that can be tweaked or reformed to help turn things around.
Quote from: My conservative friendWe definitely have a budget problem in this country, and we need something to fix it.
As radical as everyone claims Ryan's budget(s) to be, they still didn't balance the budget til 2040. Romney's had a 57 point plan, a 9 point plan, a 5 point plan, a 120 point plan... If anything, that shows there is a multitude of things that can be tweaked or reformed to help turn things around.
I'm dying. That's too funny.
Also, anything that happened before 2009 took place in the Republican Expanded Universe, and shouldn't be considered canon.Reagan defeated the Soviet Union.
Reagan defeated the Soviet Union.
Check...and MATE.
You can attribute it to Reagan, I'll attribute it to Rocky defeating Ivan Drago.Dolph Lundgren is a conservative, it was an inside job. QED. DEAL WITH IT.
Also, anything that happened before 2009 took place in the Republican Expanded Universe, and shouldn't be considered canon.Reagandefeatedoutspent the Soviet Union.
Check...and MATE.
FixedAnother failure of Keynesian economics.
Also, anything that happened before 2009 took place in the Republican Expanded Universe, and shouldn't be considered canon.Reagan defeated the Soviet Union.
Check...and MATE.
It's an opportunity to dissuade them from Paul Ryan's big government expansion, 2040 is irrelevant, it increases spending over the next ten years. Since it's not Ryan signing off on budgets, and Congress doesn't have to tie itself to anything, it'll surely increase by more than that. (Especially since Romney has done away with half of it or more.)
It's bad enough the ticket has a big spending Massachusetts Liberal who created ObamaCare, supported abortion and is against full gun rights on top, but they also have the TARP-supporting, Medicare Part D supporting, budget busting, entitlement ignoring Paul Ryan on the bottom of the ticket.
You can attribute it to Reagan, I'll attribute it to Rocky defeating Ivan Drago.On an entirely unrelated endeavor, I just came across some shocking facts.
The Supreme Court just declined to hear Ohio's challenge of the early voting ruling that will open voting to all citizens for three days before Election Day. No way Romney wins Ohio now, and its hard to see him winnig the election without it
OFA just might blow the doors off conventional wisdom/likely voter models. Can't wait to see some exit polls on Latino and black voting
http://www.270towin.com/2012_election_predictions.php?mapid=JmJ
It's possible for Romney to win, just veeeeeery hard. I don't see Obama winning Ohio but losing Iowa, for instance. Who the fuck knows at this point. I'm severely gloomy about pretty much fucking everything today because my car won't start, it's not the battery and the fragile budget I had constructed that had me going back to school full time next semester appears to be fucked all to hell.
True...but at the same time Iowa has had early voting for awhile now and Obama is up big time already. I don't think Romney can win there due to that; Obama would eek out a 270-268 victory
Democratic Reagan
FDR? You mean the Republican Teddy Roosevelt? :smug
They're both losing in my eyes. If only Obama could tag team Biden in.
lol someone on gaf:
"romney is so winning"
Obama is coming off weak and flaccid
"You wouldn't take such a sketchy deal!"(http://i.minus.com/ij1L0mwcRxEWI.gif)
Boom.
"If you're going to have women in the workforce..."
My wife busted up so hard."If you're going to have women in the workforce..."
That made me LOL
If Romney were smart, he'd fire back with that Obama, with the knowledge of Bush's policies, has only increased and embraced them, particularly if we're talking about legal surveying and spying of citizens.
If Romney were smart, he'd fire back with that Obama, with the knowledge of Bush's policies, has only increased and embraced them, particularly if we're talking about legal surveying and spying of citizens.
But of course he won't. :teehee
If Romney were smart, he'd fire back with that Obama, with the knowledge of Bush's policies, has only increased and embraced them, particularly if we're talking about legal surveying and spying of citizens.
But of course he won't. :teehee
If Romney were smart, he'd fire back with that Obama, with the knowledge of Bush's policies, has only increased and embraced them, particularly if we're talking about legal surveying and spying of citizens.
But of course he won't. :teehee
Yeah, he should run on a civil liberties platform cause that's super popular!
Stop reading Friedersdorf.
They've started showing the two-minute timer behind the current speaker. :lol
If Romney were smart, he'd fire back with that Obama, with the knowledge of Bush's policies, has only increased and embraced them, particularly if we're talking about legal surveying and spying of citizens.
What are you referring to?
How did he segue into that?
I mean what was the impetus? I stepped out of the room and that shit happened.How did he segue into that?
Not well.
The main policy that infringe on American liberties is NDAA.
Despite bringing up spying in his Bush rebuttal, the democrats haven't even tried to get rid of the Patriot Act and under Obama's administration, more citizens have been spied on that Bush's. (http://news.yahoo.com/u-government-accused-spying-citizens-intercepting-trillions-emails-015047339.html)
That was an easy one for Romney. And he fucked it up. :lol
Immigration is another issue Romney just fucked up.
More undocumented immigrants have been deported from the US under Obama than Bush!
It's funny how quick Romney is to side with lies than facts, even if they'd help him.
I'm not watching, what zinger did I miss?
I'm not watching, what zinger did I miss?
Immigration is another issue Romney just fucked up.
More undocumented immigrants have been deported from the US under Obama than Bush!
It's funny how quick Romney is to side with lies than facts, even if they'd help him.
You're a dumbass. If he attacks Obama from the left on immigration, it would make his base freak the hell out.
Yep, nobody cares about Fast and Furious anymore.I liked the last movie :maf
Yep, nobody cares about Fast and Furious anymore.I liked the last movie :maf
Candy is going to get slammed by Fox News.
CNN undecided voters HATE it when the candidates don't listen to the moderator
How dumb do you think gun company executives think people like Drew are?spoiler (click to show/hide)Real dumb[close]
As a Canadian, I find American politicians name dropping God so strange.
It's no knockout blow, but this was a damn fine performance by Obama. Well done, sir. :american
I find it strange that the CNN undeciders aren't particularly in love with Obama attacking Romney on the 47% comment. They don't HATE it, but the ticker noticeably went down when he brought it up
The moderators for the past two debates have been fantastic.
The moderators for the past two debates have been fantastic.
The moderators for the past two debates have been fantastic.
Candy Crowley did her best, but the candidates (and much more so Romney) still pushed her around a bit.
By the middle of the debate, it was clear Romney was on the same level as Obama and not fit to lead.
By the middle of the debate, it was clear Romney was on the same level as Obama and not fit to lead.
::)
This guy on CNN is saying that women will be turned off to Obama because he looked and sounded "angry". :lolWomen are delicate flowers.
This guy on CNN is saying that women will be turned off to Obama because he looked and sounded "angry". :lol
b...but Obama is cheating!
I think it benefits CNN to give Romney the edge (like for the first debate) because it's a more interesting narrative.
(http://i.minus.com/iFUqseo6UlQKs.gif)
:teehee
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=43290814&postcount=4656
:rofl
LMAO, anyone watching CNN?
What is this sorcery?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=43291800&postcount=4842
:rofl
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=43291800&postcount=4842
:rofl
CBS
Obama 37
Romney 30
Tie 33
(http://i.imgur.com/P7415.jpg)
http://bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com/
:rofl
The sad thing is, if that had been the performance he gave in the first debate, this shit would be over
Barring something weird, it should be over now but Obama bled for a few weeks needlessly. Harumph.
The sad thing is, if that had been the performance he gave in the first debate, this shit would be over
Barring something weird, it should be over now but Obama bled for a few weeks needlessly. Harumph.
Well, I think a lot of Dems were getting a bit too giddy during the post-convention phase when everything was coming up Milhouse.
for those who may have missed the definitive moment of the debate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-sp0b33fbs
Good lord, undecided voters are dense.
Mitt Romney raised eyebrows during the presidential debate Tuesday night when he claimed that as governor of Massachusetts, he had been so dismayed at the lack of female cabinet candidates that he sent women's groups out to find them.
"I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks?' and they brought us whole binders full of women," he said.
In fact, Romney did not direct women's groups to bring him female candidates, Boston Pheonix reporter David Bernstein points out. A non-partisan collaboration of women’s groups called Massachusetts Government Appointments Project (MassGAP) was responsible for the effort in 2002, when the group's leaders realized that women held only 30 percent of the top appointed positions in the state.
Romney boasted that during his term as governor, Massachusetts had more women in senior leadership positions than any other state in America. "Now one of the reasons I was able to get so many good women to be part of that team was because of our recruiting effort," he said.
This statement, too, is misleading. While 42 percent of Romney’s appointments during his first 2-1/2 years as governor were women, the number of women in high-level appointed positions actually declined 27.6 percent during his full tenure as governor, according to a 2007 MassGAP study.
First of all, according to MassGAP and MWPC, Romney did appoint 14 women out of his first 33 senior-level appointments, which is a reasonably impressive 42 percent. However, as I have reported before, those were almost all to head departments and agencies that he didn't care about -- and in some cases, that he quite specifically wanted to not really do anything. None of the senior positions Romney cared about -- budget, business development, etc. -- went to women.
Secondly, a UMass-Boston study found that the percentage of senior-level appointed positions held by women actually declined throughout the Romney administration, from 30.0% prior to his taking office, to 29.7% in July 2004, to 27.6% near the end of his term in November 2006. (It then began rapidly rising when Deval Patrick took office.)
Third, note that in Romney's story as he tells it, this man who had led and consulted for businesses for 25 years didn't know any qualified women, or know where to find any qualified women. So what does that say?
http://www.theonion.com/articles/first-question-from-debate-audience-somehow-comes,29947/
“I thank God that no souls perished today in this infernal blaze,” said local pastor Cyrus T. Jebediah, speaking to a coughing Soledad O’Brien as authorities assessed the damage to the building. “Everyone in Hempstead helped quell the flames. The women in their fancy gingham gowns and bonnets, the rowdy Rachom boys—why, even crazy Jasper Pike, his bottle of corn whiskey still in one hand. Made me proud to be a Hempsteadian, I’ll swear to that.”
http://www.theonion.com/articles/first-question-from-debate-audience-somehow-comes,29947/
I liked this one too:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/debate-cut-short-as-lantern-fire-burns-down-ol-tow,29949/Quote“I thank God that no souls perished today in this infernal blaze,” said local pastor Cyrus T. Jebediah, speaking to a coughing Soledad O’Brien as authorities assessed the damage to the building. “Everyone in Hempstead helped quell the flames. The women in their fancy gingham gowns and bonnets, the rowdy Rachom boys—why, even crazy Jasper Pike, his bottle of corn whiskey still in one hand. Made me proud to be a Hempsteadian, I’ll swear to that.”
I know that "binders full of women" is the quote getting the play, but there were two other real clunkers in that exchange; the first being, "if you're going to have women in the workplace..." like it's some hardship we need to work around, the second being the idea that you need to be flexible with women so they can get home to take care of their kids and cook dinner. (wtf)
The latter misstep in particularly struck me as insanely misogynist.
I know that "binders full of women" is the quote getting the play, but there were two other real clunkers in that exchange; the first being, "if you're going to have women in the workplace..." like it's some hardship we need to work around, the second being the idea that you need to be flexible with women so they can get home to take care of their kids and cook dinner. (wtf)
The latter misstep in particularly struck me as insanely misogynist.
Who else is going to take care of them?
lesbian mom #2, the stay-at-home one. duh
lesbian mom #2, the stay-at-home one. duh
Oh, right right. I just wanted to make sure that you weren't suggesting that -- should my wife inexplicably abandon her duties and start working long hours -- I would actually take on some of these duties.
I know that "binders full of women" is the quote getting the play, but there were two other real clunkers in that exchange; the first being, "if you're going to have women in the workplace..." like it's some hardship we need to work around, the second being the idea that you need to be flexible with women so they can get home to take care of their kids and cook dinner. (wtf)
The latter misstep in particularly struck me as insanely misogynist.
Later, he seemed to suggest that single moms were the primary source of gun violence in America.
I know that "binders full of women" is the quote getting the play, but there were two other real clunkers in that exchange; the first being, "if you're going to have women in the workplace..." like it's some hardship we need to work around, the second being the idea that you need to be flexible with women so they can get home to take care of their kids and cook dinner. (wtf)
The latter misstep in particularly struck me as insanely misogynist.
What really bothered me was Mitt's assumption that all women have children. Because you know, if you don't have a kid you're a total failure.Later, he seemed to suggest that single moms were the primary source of gun violence in America.
That totally killed me. Gun violence is due to a lack of a mother or a father in a kid's life. All you have to do is get married and it all goes away.
There is a cycle of violence that occurs in some families, but to suggest that marriage can solve gun violence completely by itself is absolutely ridiculous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UrOmhH2PeI
There are probably millions of people doing the same thing on the internet today.
Later, he seemed to suggest that single moms were the primary source of gun violence in America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UrOmhH2PeI
There are probably millions of people doing the same thing on the internet today.
OH HAI GUYZ WHAT'S UP
http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/contests/president-12-latinos
If only Romney had been born a Latino, he'd be leading with them right now!
MS. CROWLEY: Mr. President, let me get — let me get the governor in on this.
And Governor, let’s — before we get into a vast array of who said what — what study says what, if it shouldn’t add up, if somehow when you get in there, there isn’t enough tax revenue coming in, if somehow the numbers don’t add up, would you be willing to look again at a 20 percent —
MR. ROMNEY: Well, of course they add up. I was — I was someone who ran businesses for 25 years and balanced the budget. I ran the Olympics and balanced the budget. I ran the — the state of Massachusetts as a governor, to the extent any governor does, and balanced the budget all four years.
OH HAI GUYZ WHAT'S UP
http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/contests/president-12-latinos
If only Romney had been born a Latino, he'd be leading with them right now!
DEM BOOBZ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVIrNxba0ls
If only Romney had been born a Latino, he'd be leading with them right now!
Crowley specifically said last night that Obama was right that he called it an act of terror, and Romney was right in saying the administration focused on the video for two weeks. I don't see why conservatives are acting like Crowley said Romney was right about everything lol, she didn't say that.
this just infuriates me. obama clearly murders romney last night and yet the narrative the media pushes is "oh, yeah, tie."
romney murders obama a week or so ago? "OBAMA HAS LOST THE ELECTION WITH ONE DEBATE"
this just infuriates me. obama clearly murders romney last night and yet the narrative the media pushes is "oh, yeah, tie."
romney murders obama a week or so ago? "OBAMA HAS LOST THE ELECTION WITH ONE DEBATE"
Republicans never admit defeat, though. Even if Obama wins the popular vote 90-10 they'd still claim they didn't lose.
Republicans never admit defeat, though. Even if Obama wins the popular vote 90-10 they'd still claim they didn't lose.
They'd claim that they weren't Conservative enough.
A "true conservative" might as well be a unicorn, considering the near-mythical status it's achieved.
A "true conservative" might as well be a unicorn, considering the near-mythical status it's achieved.
Well, there was this guy:
(http://americandigest.org/ronald_reagan_riding_a_velociraptor_by_sharpwriter-d55rsh7.jpg)
Stein also said she and Honkala were not released until about 30 minutes after the Obama-Romney debate, when they were told “their car” was waiting for them.
“It was actually a Secret Service car, apparently, that was waiting for us,” Stein said. “We were not allowed to make a phone call, there was no phone that was working. We didn’t have ours — we had given our phones to our assistants — so it was quite a bit of work to be able to borrow a phone from someone in a gas station.”
Republicans never admit defeat, though. Even if Obama wins the popular vote 90-10 they'd still claim they didn't lose.
They'd claim that they weren't Conservative enough.
Yep! I've actually heard that from my conservative friends in the past. Especially about Bush not being "a true conservative."
Republicans never admit defeat, though. Even if Obama wins the popular vote 90-10 they'd still claim they didn't lose.
They'd claim that they weren't Conservative enough.
Yep! I've actually heard that from my conservative friends in the past. Especially about Bush not being "a true conservative."
There's always been this weird contradiction with Republicans where they use the above excuse as to why they lost, but yet most of them all realize, it's also the reason why they HAD to go with Romney.
I'd support ending affirmative action based on ethnicity; it's discrimination for people who happen to be the wrong color (mainly Asians).
I support affirmative action based on income. There are plenty of white kids in broken down towns who deserve just as much of a chance as a black or Hispanic kid in Compton.
"Well, you want to jump out of your seat and rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him."http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/10/17/extra_bonus_quote_of_the_day.html
-- Tagg Romney, in an interview on WPTF-AM, when asked how it felt to hear President Obama call his father a liar during last night's debate.
Quote"Well, you want to jump out of your seat and rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him."http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/10/17/extra_bonus_quote_of_the_day.html
-- Tagg Romney, in an interview on WPTF-AM, when asked how it felt to hear President Obama call his father a liar during last night's debate.
:rofl
(http://tinyurl.com/bv88l7v)
What will they have in the waiting room of dentist offices now? :'(
What will they have in the waiting room of dentist offices now? :'(
Tablets with a security device so you can't steal them. When brick & mortar electronics stores finally fall, people will have to go to the dentist every time they want to try out a new tablet.
Who knows, maybe the dentists will even start selling tablets?
Pretty sure we're fucked
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gallup-romney-opens-up-7-point-lead?ref=fpb
(http://i.imgur.com/bBKwU.jpg)
Pretty sure we're fucked
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gallup-romney-opens-up-7-point-lead?ref=fpb
Pretty sure we're fucked
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gallup-romney-opens-up-7-point-lead?ref=fpb
Obama went up 1 in LVs despite gaining in RVs and approval. THeir LV screen is fucked and is out of sync with every other polling firm.
(http://i.imgur.com/bBKwU.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/bBKwU.jpg)If you find me raped and chopped up, it was Josh Romney
(http://i.imgur.com/igqsn.gif)Holy Fuck. :lol
(http://i.imgur.com/igqsn.gif)
NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Romney 52, Obama 45 (LV); Romney 48, Obama 47 (RV)http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/18/1146287/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Polling-Wrap-The-waiting-game-begins-as-Democrats-hope-for-post-debate-mojo
NATIONAL (IBD/TIPP Tracking): Obama 46, Romney 46
NATIONAL (Ipsos/Reuters Tracking): Obama 47, Romney 44 (LV); Obama 47, Romney 39 (RV)
NATIONAL (PPP Tracking): Obama 48, Romney 48
NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Romney 49, Obama 47
COLORADO (PPP): Obama 50, Romney 47
CONNECTICUT (PPP for League of Conservation Voters): Obama 53, Romney 44
CONNECTICUT (Univ. of Connecticut): Obama 51, Romney 37
IOWA (NBC News/Marist): Obama 51, Romney 43 (LV); Obama 50, Romney 43 (RV)
MICHIGAN (Denno Research): Obama 44, Romney 41
MICHIGAN (EPIC-MRA): Obama 52, Romney 46
MINNESOTA (SurveyUSA): Obama 50, Romney 40
NORTH CAROLINA (Rasmussen): Romney 52, Obama 46
OHIO (Rasmussen): Obama 49, Romney 48
PENNSYLVANIA (Susquehanna Research for the PA Republican Party): Romney 49, Obama 45
VIRGINIA (PPP for the League of Conservation Voters): Obama 49, Romney 48
WASHINGTON (Univ. of Washington): Obama 52, Romney 41
WISCONSIN (NBC News/Marist): Obama 51, Romney 45 (LV); Obama 50, Romney 44 (RV)
Sorry, I will be occupying the same ledge as Andrew Sullivan until more polling numbers improve
Where do you guys go for your polling fix? TPM has started to suck
The best of American conservatives would smugly make the point that conservatives, unlike hypocritical liberals, respect the rules of a game:rofl
christ this country is hopeless, the only thing you can do now is know you're not going to get who you want and prepare for the eventual fallout
On January 1, 2013, we will all awake to a different, substantially more liberal country. The Bush tax cuts will have disappeared, restoring Clinton-era tax rates and flooding government coffers with revenue to fund its current operations for years to come. The military will be facing dire budget cuts that shake the military-industrial complex to its core.
....All this can come to pass because, while Obama has spent the last two years surrendering short-term policy concessions, he has been quietly hoarding a fortune in the equivalent of a political trust fund that comes due on the first of the year. At that point, he will reside in a political world he finds at most mildly uncomfortable and the Republicans consider a hellish dystopia. Then he’ll be ready to make a deal.
Couldn't Mitt stop that when he becomes president?
How soon until the Romney campaign rallies start getting really nasty? McCain eventually called out someone for being a knob, but I don't see Mitt doing the same.
How soon until the Romney campaign rallies start getting really nasty? McCain eventually called out someone for being a knob, but I don't see Mitt doing the same.
How soon until the Romney campaign rallies start getting really nasty? McCain eventually called out someone for being a knob, but I don't see Mitt doing the same.
I doubt Mitt would want to embarass his own son like that
Sorry, I will be occupying the same ledge as Andrew Sullivan until more polling numbers improve
Where do you guys go for your polling fix? TPM has started to suck
NEW YORK, N.Y. - The conservative scholar behind a high-grossing film that condemns President Barack Obama has resigned as head of an evangelical college.http://news.yahoo.com/conservative-obama-filmmaker-resigns-evangelical-college-over-relationship-175207758.html
The King's College in New York announced Dinesh D'Souza's resignation Thursday. Its board had been meeting about the school president and his relationship with a woman who is not his wife.
The evangelical magazine WORLD reported that the long-married D'Souza was also engaged to the woman. WORLD reported that he brought the woman to a Christian values event last month and introduced her as his fiancee. D'Souza filed for divorce in California a few days after the conference.
D'Souza has denied any wrongdoing. He said he and his wife separated two years ago. He could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.
D'Souza directed the anti-Obama documentary "2016: Obama's America'.'
NC: Romney +1 to 2
FL: Obama +1 to Romney +2
VA: Even to Romney +2
CO: Obama 1 to 5
IA: Romney +1 to Obama +7
NH: Obama +2 to 5
NV: Obama +3 to 7
WI: Obama +3 to 7
OH: Obama +4 to 7
MI: Obama +7 to 8
PA: Obama +7 to 9
Sorry, I will be occupying the same ledge as Andrew Sullivan until more polling numbers improve
Where do you guys go for your polling fix? TPM has started to suck
I just go to Silver's NYT blog, glance at the big blue change of winning percentage in the right column of the screen and go on with my day. The only thing that'd be better is if I could pin a tile for it to my start screen in Windows, maybe I'll try making an app.
Can I get a link to that PD?
WASHINGTON — The United States and Iran have agreed for the first time to one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, according to Obama administration officials, setting the stage for what could be a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/world/iran-said-ready-to-talk-to-us-about-nuclear-program.html?_r=3&hp&
QuoteWASHINGTON — The United States and Iran have agreed for the first time to one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, according to Obama administration officials, setting the stage for what could be a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/world/iran-said-ready-to-talk-to-us-about-nuclear-program.html?_r=3&hp&
surprise!
“Talking points” prepared by the CIA on Sept. 15, the same day that Rice taped three television appearances, support her description of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate as a reaction to Arab anger about an anti-Muslim video prepared in the United States. According to the CIA account, “The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. Consulate and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations.”
Imma gonna rant here, so get your tl;dr gifs ready.
This whole faux-outrage over the Benghazi attack perfectly encapsulates why I gave up on the Republican party. After 9/11, it would have been easy for Democrats to jump atop the rubble and condemn Bush for allowing such a terrible attack on American. For not knowing that something this big was coming, for not putting more effort on fighting terrorism in his first 9 months, for not doing MORE. But they didn't. In part, obviously, because they didn't feel like committing political suicide, but also because I think they respected the President's right to respond to this crisis, with both words and actions. They let the President be the President.
Fast-forward to 2012 and you have the Republican candidate for President harping on the current president in the zero hour. It's been followed up by a conga line of outrage and consternation that Obama didn't use the right verbiage or that maybe he actually sympathizes with the killers and doesn't want this latest incident to turn the public eye on the campaign to slaughter Americans abroad [no one's said this, of course, but does anyone doubt the implication is there?]. Fox News and Tea Party doesn't respect the President and they don't respect his right as the duly-elected leader of this nation of respond to incidents like this. That's hardly anything new, as this has been their modus operandi for 5 years. They have the nerve, after two years of publicly-declared obstructionism, to pin the problems of the nation, the slow speed of the recovery, on the President and his party, who "just aren't willing to cooperate."
It's not enough to disagree with the President, it's not enough enough to dislike him. They hate him, hate him all the way down to his guts. He's a terrorist-sympathizer, an unworthy foreigner, a disgusting Communist, who doesn't understand what's so great about America and is doing his hardest to push through bills that will tear this country apart for his own amusement. He's not just wrong, he's EVIL. Mitt Romney's first day will included repealing every single piece of major legislation that Obama passed over 4 years in office. They want him gone yesterday, they want every shred of his existence expunged from history as soon as possible. They want everything he did to be either swept away or poisoned. And it makes me sick. I'm tired of hearing this on TV, I'm tired of my family spouting these lines they heard from Rush, Hannity, and whatever blubbering gob of flesh the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch are pushing in their faces and their ears in as many venues as possible every second of every day.
In a better world, responsible mainstream media would point this out for what it is: a barely-concealed propaganda campaign to use whatever line of attack, whatever outright lie or misconception of the truth to undermine the President and make you, too, hate his guts just as much as they do. It's painful to watch this actually WORK, especially when a quick search on Google shreds these lines to bits with ease. But they won't do that, because the popularity and power of Fox News and right-wing media has forced an absurd "fair and balanced" approached to every story. You can't call out lies and hypocrisy from one individual, it's got to be a problem with both sides. Every story has to be couched in illogical mealy-mouthed PR-speak. "Some say this, but other say that." And it makes me sick. I hear it every single day, those little lies that dig under the skin of some members of my family and propagate the hate against the President. It does no good to bring up those easily found facts, because then I just become the Democratic mouth piece who doesn't understand what's wrong with the President and why he ought to go away as quickly as possible. It doesn't work, it never will, and it makes me sick.
I hate the Republican party, the Tea Party, Fox News and right-wing radio for what they've reduced members of my family to. And I won't vote for a Republican in a national election until it finally stops. But it won't stop, and thinking that quietly weathering the 2012 storm, will finally put an end to this madness is foolish. It won't stop, it'll only be that much more shrill the next time. Think 2012 is bad? Just wait until 2014 if the Democrats win in Congress or the Presidency. I want it to go away, I desperately want a return to at least some manner of decorum, at the very least, but I don't really believe it will. So having said that, I'm stocking up on Pepto Bismol, because it looks like I'm going to be feeling sick for quite a while.
Imma gonna rant here, so get your tl;dr gifs ready.(http://i41.tinypic.com/308ulvt.gif)
This whole faux-outrage over the Benghazi attack perfectly encapsulates why I gave up on the Republican party. After 9/11, it would have been easy for Democrats to jump atop the rubble and condemn Bush for allowing such a terrible attack on American. For not knowing that something this big was coming, for not putting more effort on fighting terrorism in his first 9 months, for not doing MORE. But they didn't. In part, obviously, because they didn't feel like committing political suicide, but also because I think they respected the President's right to respond to this crisis, with both words and actions. They let the President be the President.
Fast-forward to 2012 and you have the Republican candidate for President harping on the current president in the zero hour. It's been followed up by a conga line of outrage and consternation that Obama didn't use the right verbiage or that maybe he actually sympathizes with the killers and doesn't want this latest incident to turn the public eye on the campaign to slaughter Americans abroad [no one's said this, of course, but does anyone doubt the implication is there?]. Fox News and Tea Party doesn't respect the President and they don't respect his right as the duly-elected leader of this nation of respond to incidents like this. That's hardly anything new, as this has been their modus operandi for 5 years. They have the nerve, after two years of publicly-declared obstructionism, to pin the problems of the nation, the slow speed of the recovery, on the President and his party, who "just aren't willing to cooperate."
It's not enough to disagree with the President, it's not enough enough to dislike him. They hate him, hate him all the way down to his guts. He's a terrorist-sympathizer, an unworthy foreigner, a disgusting Communist, who doesn't understand what's so great about America and is doing his hardest to push through bills that will tear this country apart for his own amusement. He's not just wrong, he's EVIL. Mitt Romney's first day will included repealing every single piece of major legislation that Obama passed over 4 years in office. They want him gone yesterday, they want every shred of his existence expunged from history as soon as possible. They want everything he did to be either swept away or poisoned. And it makes me sick. I'm tired of hearing this on TV, I'm tired of my family spouting these lines they heard from Rush, Hannity, and whatever blubbering gob of flesh the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch are pushing in their faces and their ears in as many venues as possible every second of every day.
In a better world, responsible mainstream media would point this out for what it is: a barely-concealed propaganda campaign to use whatever line of attack, whatever outright lie or misconception of the truth to undermine the President and make you, too, hate his guts just as much as they do. It's painful to watch this actually WORK, especially when a quick search on Google shreds these lines to bits with ease. But they won't do that, because the popularity and power of Fox News and right-wing media has forced an absurd "fair and balanced" approached to every story. You can't call out lies and hypocrisy from one individual, it's got to be a problem with both sides. Every story has to be couched in illogical mealy-mouthed PR-speak. "Some say this, but other say that." And it makes me sick. I hear it every single day, those little lies that dig under the skin of some members of my family and propagate the hate against the President. It does no good to bring up those easily found facts, because then I just become the Democratic mouth piece who doesn't understand what's wrong with the President and why he ought to go away as quickly as possible. It doesn't work, it never will, and it makes me sick.
I hate the Republican party, the Tea Party, Fox News and right-wing radio for what they've reduced members of my family to. And I won't vote for a Republican in a national election until it finally stops. But it won't stop, and thinking that quietly weathering the 2012 storm, will finally put an end to this madness is foolish. It won't stop, it'll only be that much more shrill the next time. Think 2012 is bad? Just wait until 2014 if the Democrats win in Congress or the Presidency. I want it to go away, I desperately want a return to at least some manner of decorum, at the very least, but I don't really believe it will. So having said that, I'm stocking up on Pepto Bismol, because it looks like I'm going to be feeling sick for quite a while.
communist claptrap
I think you've being naive if you think both sides don't use personal attacks.
communist claptrapBut when I saw them call John Kerry a coward, traitor, etc. it was made pretty clear to me that these fucks don't give a damn about ANYONE that isn't 1) on their team 2)supports what they support. Obama never called McCain any of those things, and Democrats in general wouldn't stoop to such scumbag tactics.
“That’s what’s so noble about our heroes. Now I’m running against a woman who — I mean, my God, that’s all she talks about,” said Walsh, in video posted by Think Progress. “Our true heroes, it’s the last thing in the world they talk about. Our true heroes, the men and women who served us, it’s the last thing in the world they talk about. That’s why we are so indebted and in awe of what they have done.”
True, but you'd have to be willfully ignorant to say that "both sides" spread misinformation equally as much and in the same way.
Aside from the odd apocryphal Lincoln quote, my liberal FB friends don't copy/paste the sort of BS chain emails that my conservative ones spam my feed with and that keep Snopes.com so busy. Which makes the phenomenon that much weirder.
I guess this is the page where we pretend liberals didn't go apeshit over Bush. Hey guys, remember how we were going to attack Iran imminently, and Bush would declare martial law to cancel the 2006 (and 2008) elections? Trutherism, or the more tame "Bush knew and did nothing to justify war" arguments?
Dunno what you guys were doing in the aughts but I was knee deep in the Randy Rhodes and antiwar.com trenches
Not saying things aren't worse now, just saying liberals had plenty of crazy shit for 8 years
Well, what are the UN stormtroopers going to come take away if you don't have any guns?
Well, what are the UN stormtroopers going to come take away if you don't have any guns?
...white women?
I guess this is the page where we pretend liberals didn't go apeshit over Bush. Hey guys, remember how we were going to attack Iran imminently, and Bush would declare martial law to cancel the 2006 (and 2008) elections? Trutherism, or the more tame "Bush knew and did nothing to justify war" arguments?
Dunno what you guys were doing in the aughts but I was knee deep in the Randy Rhodes and antiwar.com trenches
Not saying things aren't worse now, just saying liberals had plenty of crazy shit for 8 years
There's a complete difference between that stuff (which all happened WELL AFTER the bullshit Iraq war) and what the GOP did re: Benghazi. That's complete and total false equivalence. Show me the Democrat saying Bush was incompetent and a pussy on 9/12, because that's what we're talking about here. You can't equate some crazy ass leftist activists calling Bush Hitler in 2006 to the GOP nominee attempting to exploit a terrorist attack like that. You're either being willfully obtuse or (more likely) trolling the shit out of me.
I guess this is the page where we pretend liberals didn't go apeshit over Bush. Hey guys, remember how we were going to attack Iran imminently, and Bush would declare martial law to cancel the 2006 (and 2008) elections? Trutherism, or the more tame "Bush knew and did nothing to justify war" arguments?
Dunno what you guys were doing in the aughts but I was knee deep in the Randy Rhodes and antiwar.com trenches
Not saying things aren't worse now, just saying liberals had plenty of crazy shit for 8 years
I guess this is the page where we pretend liberals didn't go apeshit over Bush. Hey guys, remember how we were going to attack Iran imminently, and Bush would declare martial law to cancel the 2006 (and 2008) elections? Trutherism, or the more tame "Bush knew and did nothing to justify war" arguments?
Dunno what you guys were doing in the aughts but I was knee deep in the Randy Rhodes and antiwar.com trenches
Not saying things aren't worse now, just saying liberals had plenty of crazy shit for 8 years
There's a complete difference between that stuff (which all happened WELL AFTER the bullshit Iraq war) and what the GOP did re: Benghazi. That's complete and total false equivalence. Show me the Democrat saying Bush was incompetent and a pussy on 9/12, because that's what we're talking about here. You can't equate some crazy ass leftist activists calling Bush Hitler in 2006 to the GOP nominee attempting to exploit a terrorist attack like that. You're either being willfully obtuse or (more likely) trolling the shit out of me.
I was making a general point on the idea that insane conspiracy theories/crazy emails/etc are predominantly exclusive to one group. There's no question the Libya shit has been disgusting, not just from the fringe folks (which is to be expected) but from mainstream republicans as well.
I guess this is the page where we pretend liberals didn't go apeshit over Bush. Hey guys, remember how we were going to attack Iran imminently, and Bush would declare martial law to cancel the 2006 (and 2008) elections? Trutherism, or the more tame "Bush knew and did nothing to justify war" arguments?
Dunno what you guys were doing in the aughts but I was knee deep in the Randy Rhodes and antiwar.com trenches
Not saying things aren't worse now, just saying liberals had plenty of crazy shit for 8 years
There's a complete difference between that stuff (which all happened WELL AFTER the bullshit Iraq war) and what the GOP did re: Benghazi. That's complete and total false equivalence. Show me the Democrat saying Bush was incompetent and a pussy on 9/12, because that's what we're talking about here. You can't equate some crazy ass leftist activists calling Bush Hitler in 2006 to the GOP nominee attempting to exploit a terrorist attack like that. You're either being willfully obtuse or (more likely) trolling the shit out of me.
I was making a general point on the idea that insane conspiracy theories/crazy emails/etc are predominantly exclusive to one group. There's no question the Libya shit has been disgusting, not just from the fringe folks (which is to be expected) but from mainstream republicans as well.
Dunno what you guys were doing in the aughts but I was knee deep in the Randy Rhodes and antiwar.com trenches
And seriously, PD. You gonna argue that liberals have adopted the chain email/FB copypasta as a tool for spreading ideas/FUD to anywhere near the degree that conservatives have? Rilly?
I guess this is the page where we pretend liberals didn't go apeshit over Bush. Hey guys, remember how we were going to attack Iran imminently, and Bush would declare martial law to cancel the 2006 (and 2008) elections? Trutherism, or the more tame "Bush knew and did nothing to justify war" arguments?
Dunno what you guys were doing in the aughts but I was knee deep in the Randy Rhodes and antiwar.com trenches
Not saying things aren't worse now, just saying liberals had plenty of crazy shit for 8 years
Out of interest, how would you describe the median of Bush criticism (at the time)?
It's funny how Michael Moore, THE poster child of anti-Bush movement, to my knowledge has yet to make similar films about Obama.
PD: How bout you tell me what the median criticism was, cause you seem to be implying that trutherism was basically standard issue.
You want a serious discussion or you just want internet thrust-and-parry? Cause I'm down for either but I gotta know what to spec for.
Well, what are the UN stormtroopers going to come take away if you don't have any guns?
...white women?
True, that's why I keep a several safely stored in my underground binder for emergencies.
...Super Size Me? I thought that was about McDonald's?
You want a serious discussion or you just want internet thrust-and-parry? Cause I'm down for either but I gotta know what to spec for.
Serious discussion. Real talk. I don't think I'm out of bounds here. It's true Clinton and Obama faced a shit ton of FUD from a rather well oiled outrage machine. My only point is that Bush dealt with a lot of nonsense from the left as well. And I readily admit that we didn't see mainstream elected democrats participate in shit like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeR5kwqGb98) - ie giving credence to the most gutter shit for votes.
Discussion of any contentious topic on the internet - political, technical or whatever - is going to involve a lot of shit from all sides (+ linkbaiting pundits in between) that is fucking crazy and/or just fucking stupid (intellectually lazy). That is the assumed baseline, any non-pointless discussion has to be about value-added craziness/stupidity on top of that.
You want a serious discussion or you just want internet thrust-and-parry? Cause I'm down for either but I gotta know what to spec for.
Serious discussion. Real talk. I don't think I'm out of bounds here. It's true Clinton and Obama faced a shit ton of FUD from a rather well oiled outrage machine. My only point is that Bush dealt with a lot of nonsense from the left as well. And I readily admit that we didn't see mainstream elected democrats participate in shit like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeR5kwqGb98) - ie giving credence to the most gutter shit for votes.
Looks like the last debate is tomorrow. This one should be the most interesting because Romney has to kill it just to be competitive in the final stretch. So he can be either total shitballs insane as he claws for a couple more points to try to turn Ohio around or he will try to tone it down versus his last debate's performance.
Obama has a team that watches fox news 24/7(or they sub-contract the work out to The Daily Show's team). They know everything he's gonna say.Looks like the last debate is tomorrow. This one should be the most interesting because Romney has to kill it just to be competitive in the final stretch. So he can be either total shitballs insane as he claws for a couple more points to try to turn Ohio around or he will try to tone it down versus his last debate's performance.
I wouldn't go that far. If a handful of swing states go the wrong way Romney can still put this one away.
Obama has a team that watches fox news 24/7(or they sub-contract the work out to The Daily Show's team). They know everything he's gonna say.Looks like the last debate is tomorrow. This one should be the most interesting because Romney has to kill it just to be competitive in the final stretch. So he can be either total shitballs insane as he claws for a couple more points to try to turn Ohio around or he will try to tone it down versus his last debate's performance.
I wouldn't go that far. If a handful of swing states go the wrong way Romney can still put this one away.
Then again, McCain had god tier levels of FP experience over Obama and it didn't change anything.
Obama has a team that watches fox news 24/7(or they sub-contract the work out to The Daily Show's team). They know everything he's gonna say.Looks like the last debate is tomorrow. This one should be the most interesting because Romney has to kill it just to be competitive in the final stretch. So he can be either total shitballs insane as he claws for a couple more points to try to turn Ohio around or he will try to tone it down versus his last debate's performance.
I wouldn't go that far. If a handful of swing states go the wrong way Romney can still put this one away.
Then again, McCain had god tier levels of FP experience over Obama and it didn't change anything.
I'm not saying Obama won't win the debate, I'm saying Romney doesn't have to kill it to win, or even be competitive. He is already competitive.
Alcohol and politics sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.Alcohol, politics and work. He should slip in a few religious references during the debate as well.
former Mossad head Efraim Halevy
flashback to 2000
Although the claim was, if you talk to them, you legitimize them But by not talking to them, you don't de-legitimate them.
But to understand it is not to justify
oh, i expect there to be all sorts of vote count shenanigans and suppression efforts on a scale that will make 2000 pale. romney's wealthy benefactors clearly see a greater good (israel, neoconservative nation building, the general ideology of the rich that presumes anything good for them must be good for the little people) that necessitates a suspension of any/all immediate ethical credos. after all, obama is a CRIMINAL that MUST be stopped at any cost, for america...
It's IA, not IO.
Obama only needs NV and OH to win, and those are his strongest swing states. He doesn't even need CO or VA or even IA unless he starts losing WI or NH. I don't think he will lose WI but even if he loses NH it doesn't matter if he has OH+NV.
oh, i expect there to be all sorts of vote count shenanigans and suppression efforts on a scale that will make 2000 pale. romney's wealthy benefactors clearly see a greater good (israel, neoconservative nation building, the general ideology of the rich that presumes anything good for them must be good for the little people) that necessitates a suspension of any/all immediate ethical credos. after all, obama is a CRIMINAL that MUST be stopped at any cost, for america...
The voting machine conspiracies belong in same category as the Trump birther garbage.
http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/20/why_the_foreign_policy_debate_is_already_ruined
the fuck? Two-thirds of the debate is going to be dedicated to the Middle East? ffs....
http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/20/why_the_foreign_policy_debate_is_already_ruined
the fuck? Two-thirds of the debate is going to be dedicated to the Middle East? ffs....
"We can't kill our way out of this mess." - A Republican
Romney seems quite...reserved. I think Obama may be too aggressive but still, it's weird
Mitt: No military involvement in Syria
Mitt: No military involvement in Syria
"but we need a leadership role"
Whatever that means.
Not watching this, but I predict the general Romney line will be: Obama's doing horrible, things are falling apart, we need to do something different, and no don't worry I'm not going to invade anyone that would be crazy.
Romney would do the same thing, but he would do it harder.
Not watching this, but I predict the general Romney line will be: Obama's doing horrible, things are falling apart, we need to do something different, and no don't worry I'm not going to invade anyone that would be crazy.
http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/20/why_the_foreign_policy_debate_is_already_ruinedThe United States is obsessed.
the fuck? Two-thirds of the debate is going to be dedicated to the Middle East? ffs....
Romney would do the same thing, but he would do it better.
Romney's stupid CNN lines are flatlining.
Bob Sheiffer just referred to the Soviet Union in the present tense
Bob Sheiffer just referred to the Soviet Union in the present tense
Mitt Romney's idea of cultural alignment with Israel is baptizing Ann Frank
Romney is making a rousing case for Obama’s policy.
That was the best line of the night (Obama countering Mitt's Naval size bit)
"America does not dictate to other nations, it's frees them from dictators!"
lol
"America does not dictate to other nations, it's frees them from dictators!"
lol
I know hey, do people actually believe that?
What is this what if horse shit? Fuck you Sheiffer, and thank you for Romney shutting him down. That was some horse shit.
And everyone knows our shit is underwater now
What is this what if horse shit? Fuck you Sheiffer, and thank you for Romney shutting him down. That was some horse shit.
And everyone knows our shit is underwater now
Ya, Romney did right for that question.
Sheiffer just gave Romney the meatspin and Romney took some A2M
Mitt’s so punch drunk at the moment he apparently thinks he’s signed on as President Obama’s State Department spokesman. Who’s he arguing against with Pakistan?
so, uh, romney now supports the withdrawal in 2014? since fucking when?
christ this is an embarrassment of a campaign
Every time Obama goes into story time Romney gives a give-me-a-break roll-eyes.
Every time Obama goes into story time Romney gives a give-me-a-break roll-eyes.
To be fair, I did, too. :)
Oh my God, Mitt is seriously morphing into the State Department spokesman. :lol
Oh my God, Mitt is seriously morphing into the State Department spokesman. :lol
Hey, a drone question, thank God.
Now Himuro can shut the fuck up.
Hey, a drone question, thank God.
Now Himuro can shut the fuck up.
Except Mitt has Obama's back on that subject. :rofl
IF ONLY THE TWO PARTY DUOPOLY LET JILL STEIN IN HERE AMERICANS COULD HAVE A REAL CHOICE!
No one will look it up. :usacry
romney laying the SMACK DOWN on OBAMA
romney laying the SMACK DOWN on OBAMA
romney laying the SMACK DOWN on OBAMA
hey fucking ass douche, tell me how. tell me how romney smacked down obama there. facts, stats, past statements. go.
I can't wait to see what the polls say. I thought this was a horrible debate overall. Schieffer let them talk about jobs, the economy, education, and other crap in a debate about foreign policy. But will anyone care?
romney laying the SMACK DOWN on OBAMA
hey fucking ass douche, tell me how. tell me how romney smacked down obama there. facts, stats, past statements. go.
hey maybe you should THINK for once and use your BRAIN instead of subscribing to this hipster hive mind who supports OBAMA jsut because he's DEMOCRATIC.
I can't wait to see what the polls say. I thought this was a horrible debate overall. Schieffer let them talk about jobs, the economy, education, and other crap in a debate about foreign policy. But will anyone care?
That's a good thing I think for most people.
romney laying the SMACK DOWN on OBAMA
romney laying the SMACK DOWN on OBAMA
Hey guys, remember how much more effective this was in the first debate when all the board's liberals were already freaking out? This time only BN is biting.
How many Romneys are there? Will we get a Romney-Romney ticket in a few years?
This is kind of where I'm at.
http://www.270towin.com/2012_election_predictions.php?mapid=NQO
Although every day something else happens that freaks me the fuck out. Today, it's TPM moving PA to a swing state. I looked at the polls and can't really figure out why, though.
Republicans are the party of peace now I guess, watching CNN.
I saw nothing from the debate. Honest assessment, my Bore bros?
According to the CBS News instapoll Romney won debate one 46 to 22.
According to the same poll, President Obama won this one 53 to 23.
(http://i.imgur.com/sk1v7.jpg)Beautiful. :lol
:lol
All the polling so far shows a decisive Obama win, like an inversion of debate one. Personally I thought the real slaughter was the second debate and that this one was far less interesting for both candidates, but what do I know. hopefully the win can give Obama just enough of a push to close this thing.
Romney's solution to the Iran situation:
Have the UN arrest and try Ahmadinejad for war crimes. (http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/foreign-policy-debate-obama-romney-boca-raton-third-debate.php?ref=fpblg)
:lol
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/22/foreign-policy-presidential-debate
Hmmmm
but I believe in the power of reason, ideas and - especially - persuasion
I was tuning in and out of the debate, but I'm guessing my suspicion that the Euro crisis wasn't mentioned at all, save for Mitt's jabs at Greece? I mean sure Middle East posturing and giving Bibi a televised reach-around are important, but maybe a few words about a colossal multi-year crisis that threatens the stability of an entire block of our closest allies would be good for you know, a foreign policy debate?
About half the debate was the Middle East and a little about a China. The other half was domestic issues.
:lolAbout half the debate was the Middle East and a little about a China. The other half was domestic issues.
Romney was only being fair: to Barack Hussein Obama, American policy IS foreign policy. :shh
I was tuning in and out of the debate, but I'm guessing my suspicion that the Euro crisis wasn't mentioned at all, save for Mitt's jabs at Greece? I mean sure Middle East posturing and giving Bibi a televised reach-around are important, but maybe a few words about a colossal multi-year crisis that threatens the stability of an entire block of our closest allies would be good for you know, a foreign policy debate?
What data you need specifically?
Trump is dropping a "bombshell" tomorrow. Twitter suggests it'll be on Michelle allegedly filing for divorce in 2000; a fringe anti-Obama book earlier this year had the same charge
Trump is dropping a "bombshell" tomorrow. Twitter suggests it'll be on Michelle allegedly filing for divorce in 2000; a fringe anti-Obama book earlier this year had the same charge
here's the link (http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1287) to tonight's presidential debate. You guys didn't forget, did you? :smug
What data you need specifically?
I think I remember an awesome graph from about 1980 onward showing income for top earners vs. median middle class income? Something like that.
Basically, someone is asserting that "all economic indicators" lead one to the assumption that trickle down economics does, in fact, work for everybody.
It's honestly probably a waste of my time but I'd like to see the figures anyway and my google fu has sucked :P
Cumulative percent change in income before tax starting in 1980:spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://www.econdataus.com/inccha05.jpg)[close]
Cumulative percent change in income after taxes starting in 1979:spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://troglopundit.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/change-in-average-income.jpg) (http://troglopundit.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/a-couple-of-interesting-charts/)[close]
Cumulative percent change in the share of national income since 1979:spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://civilizedconversation.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/change-in-us-income-shares-by-quintile-since-1979.jpg) (http://civilizedconversation.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/more-on-growing-income-inequality/)[close]
Bar graphs comparing percent change in income for ~30 years after 1979 with the ~30 years before 1979:spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/change-in-real-family-income-by-quintile-and-top-5-percent-1979-2009.png?4c9b33) (http://inequality.org/income-inequality/)
(http://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/change-in-real-family-income-by-quintile-and-top-5-percent-1947-1979.png?4c9b33) (http://inequality.org/income-inequality/)[close]
Click most pictures pictures for links to blog posts etc.
Years later, Mandark remains the one indispensable googler
Years later, Mandark remains the one indispensable googler
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/mourdock-god-work-rape-leads-pregnancy-17549526#.UIdhGIZrip2
Well then.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/mourdock-god-work-rape-leads-pregnancy-17549526#.UIdhGIZrip2
Well then.
for fellow Cohen friends on facebook...what the FUCK @ that guy commenting on his EU post :-\
i'm done, don't want to cause a scene
Trump is dropping a "bombshell" tomorrow. Twitter suggests it'll be on Michelle allegedly filing for divorce in 2000; a fringe anti-Obama book earlier this year had the same charge
[img]http://i.imgur.com/M0T2c.jpg[img]"When you get to college your grandad is going to be a mere footnote in your history 101 book."
Obama meeting Mitt Romney's grandson. :-[
(http://i.imgur.com/M0T2c.jpg)
Obama bowing to Mitt Romney's grandson. :piss
I've heard that lowering yourself to a kid's eye level makes them feel good or something. Too bad most children are assholes and don't deserve me hurting my back to talk to them
Donald Trump :rofl
Maybe Mandark or PD can answer this, but what is it about Rasmussen's statistical modeling that skews it's results towards the 'pubs? I could look it up elsewhere, but this is the more interesting option.
PD plays eleventy dimensional chess. Tread carefully.
Rasmussen basically plays a shell game every election (except in 2010 like PD noted) where he oversamples Republicans, then a couple weeks closer to the election somehow magically his results start to get more in line with the average. This way he can always say after the fact, "Hey, were ended up in the margin of error for the final result!"I figured this was the case. I'm also guessing he is somehow aligned with the right?
I've liked Rocky Anderson for a number of years. I voted for Obama today, though. The only 3rd party candidate on the NC ballot was Gary Johnson and I don't vote for Libertarians, plus there's still the off chance my vote may matter. Romney probably wins the state, though.
reality check: most people dont vote for third party candidates because most people do not want third party candidates to represent them
Himu, how long you been closely following politics on the national level? Real talk.
Bring monetary policy under democratic control by prohibiting private banks from creating money, thus restoring government's Constitutional authority.
reality check: most people dont vote for third party candidates because most people do not want third party candidates to represent themThis is the truth. Third parties usually have something going against them that excludes a great majority of people. Even Ron paul knows this, and ran as a Republican candidate, and even then he garners just a fraction of his own party's vote.
I don't agree with everything on the Green Party platform.
:wtfQuote from: Jill Stein's issues pageBring monetary policy under democratic control by prohibiting private banks from creating money, thus restoring government's Constitutional authority.
Does this mean getting rid of fractional reserve banking? Dafuq?
I don't agree with everything on the Green Party platform.
So you're just voting for the lesser of 4 evils?
I agree with more on the green platform than the democratic party platform, unfortunately. :-\
I just think that having more than two viewpoints is an important asset of electoral politics,
important note for himu about politics: the real way to create change is to build a coalition that gains enough power to pressure one of the parties to begin advocating your policies and (hopefully) eventually pass legislation. making a small group that claims to have all the solutions IF ONLY [insert unrealistic scenario here] has never EVER worked. also voting for what you most believe as opposed to what will most realistically come to pass is L-O-L college-kid-level shit:bow
important note for himu about politics: the real way to create change is to build a coalition that gains enough power to pressure one of the parties to begin advocating your policies and (hopefully) eventually pass legislation. making a small group that claims to have all the solutions IF ONLY [insert unrealistic scenario here] has never EVER worked. also voting for what you most believe as opposed to what will most realistically come to pass is L-O-L college-kid-level shitThe truth right here. I might vote for Jill Stein but if someone asks me who I support I'll say Obama (and I donate to his campaign) because who cares that I support a third party candidate? It doesn't matter to anyone but me. But if I lived in a swing state or anywhere else that wasn't so far out of reach for him, I wouldn't be throwing my vote away on a third party candidate.
important note for himu about politics: the real way to create change is to build a coalition that gains enough power to pressure one of the parties to begin advocating your policies and (hopefully) eventually pass legislation. making a small group that claims to have all the solutions IF ONLY [insert unrealistic scenario here] has never EVER worked. also voting for what you most believe as opposed to what will most realistically come to pass is L-O-L college-kid-level shit
Erhm, he's not preaching to the choir, he's slapping down your argument for greater third party access to the system.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Linking welfare payments to school absences is intended to “take a bite out of generational poverty” through education, according to a state agency.http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/09/new_michigan_policy_linking_we.html
Starting Monday, parents applying for some welfare benefits through the state Human Services Department will have to prove their children are regularly attending class.
The move is being cheered by school districts, though some advocates say truancy affects families of all incomes and the policy unfairly focuses those who are struggling.
But Human Services Department spokesman Dave Akerly said the goal is to make sure children are getting the education they need.
“We’re trying to take a bite out of generational poverty, and one way to do that is get kids to stay in class and finish school,” he said.
The policy goes into effect on Monday, and affects new applicants others as they work through an annual review. The state has about 60,000 cases, and the average family in the program receives about $468 a month, he said.
Parents must provide a form completed by their schools indicating children are complying with the attendance policy. The state also has a plan for parents who are homeschooling their children.
Akerly said there are provisions for special circumstances, such as an extended sickness.
The state also has plans to embed social workers in some high-need districts “to help families and catch little problems before they turn into big problems,” he said.
Gov. Rick Snyder called for the change in March as part of his special message on public safety, delivered in Flint, one of four cities to get special assistance.
Grand Rapids educators called the new policy “one more tool in our toolbox to help children get the education they need.”
District spokesman John Helmholdt said 21 percent of the district’s students are considered chronically absent.
RELATED: Educators say linking welfare to school attendance could be effective tool against truancy
But advocates for people in need said the policy might be hurt some families without helping solve the overall problems with school attendance.
Judy Putnam, spokeswoman for the Michigan League of Human Services, said there is no doubt that children need to be in school. But she said it’s hard to tell what percentage of chronically absent students come from homes receiving cash assistance.
Obama's coming to my town tomorrow. My mom got tickets....but I can't really bring myself to get excited enough to even go :-\#firstworldproblems
I just found out I can vote for Roseanne Barr for president in CA. Since Obama's gonna win the state handily, maybe I should take a chance on the Peace and Love candidate.
Himu: Wasn't trying to be mean. Just saying you're new to the game and when you start to care and be vocal about this shit there are gonna be growing pains.
Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!
Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!
Dude. Drops are so much better now. I got two legendaries in one play session earlier today, and am drowning in quality rings and amulets. 1.0.5 is like finally giving everyone 40 acres and a mule. REPARATIONS, BITCHES.
Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!
Dude. Drops are so much better now. I got two legendaries in one play session earlier today, and am drowning in quality rings and amulets. 1.0.5 is like finally giving everyone 40 acres and a mule. REPARATIONS, BITCHES.
I SPENT TWO HOURS AND DIDN'T GET ANYTHING
On the topic of 3rd parties, I think a lot of people (not necessarily directed at you, Himumu) will say they're a 3rd partier so that a) they can be different or b) they can throw their hands up at the whole thing and say "well I didn't vote for either of these assholes".
Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!
Dude. Drops are so much better now. I got two legendaries in one play session earlier today, and am drowning in quality rings and amulets. 1.0.5 is like finally giving everyone 40 acres and a mule. REPARATIONS, BITCHES.
I SPENT TWO HOURS AND DIDN'T GET ANYTHING
What's your MF bro? :smug I've got about 230ish on my gear, 45 from paragon levels and have Monster Power set at 1.
Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!
Dude. Drops are so much better now. I got two legendaries in one play session earlier today, and am drowning in quality rings and amulets. 1.0.5 is like finally giving everyone 40 acres and a mule. REPARATIONS, BITCHES.
More and more polls keep saying the same thing about Ohio- Obama and Romney are tied for people who haven't voted yet, but Obama is crushing Romney by about 25-30 points among people who've already voted. If this keeps up I'm feeling way better about shit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1C453KwDzY
(http://imageshack.us/a/img692/3148/whew.png)
When does Conan get the Presidential candidates on his show?
:smug
When does Conan get the Presidential candidates on his show?
:smug
Jill Stein isn't doing much. Well, she might be in jail occasionally but other than that.
More and more polls keep saying the same thing about Ohio- Obama and Romney are tied for people who haven't voted yet, but Obama is crushing Romney by about 25-30 points among people who've already voted. If this keeps up I'm feeling way better about shit.
Cincinnati Enquirer: "A new Ohio program intended to make voting easier could keep the presidential election in doubt until late November if the national outcome hinges on the state's 18 electoral votes."
"Under Secretary of State Jon Husted's initiative to send absentee ballot applications to nearly 7 million registered voters across Ohio, more than 800,000 people so far have asked for but not yet completed an absentee ballot for the Nov. 6 election. Anyone who does not return an absentee ballot, deciding instead to vote at the polls, will be required to cast a provisional ballot. That's so officials may verify that they did not vote absentee and also show up at the polls."
"By state law, provisional ballots may not be counted until at least Nov. 17. That means if Ohio's electoral votes would be decisive in the race between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the state could keep the nation in suspense for several weeks after the election."
Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!
That moment when you find out your entire family is voting for a different presidential candidate than you. :-\
QuoteCincinnati Enquirer: "A new Ohio program intended to make voting easier could keep the presidential election in doubt until late November if the national outcome hinges on the state's 18 electoral votes."
"Under Secretary of State Jon Husted's initiative to send absentee ballot applications to nearly 7 million registered voters across Ohio, more than 800,000 people so far have asked for but not yet completed an absentee ballot for the Nov. 6 election. Anyone who does not return an absentee ballot, deciding instead to vote at the polls, will be required to cast a provisional ballot. That's so officials may verify that they did not vote absentee and also show up at the polls."
"By state law, provisional ballots may not be counted until at least Nov. 17. That means if Ohio's electoral votes would be decisive in the race between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the state could keep the nation in suspense for several weeks after the election."
I know what scenario I am rooting for.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/i-mean-if-i-lose-to-mitt-romney-ill-probably-kill,30092/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=standard-post:headline:default
Sounds about right.
(http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/full/677444377.jpg?key=1000666&Expires=1351191992&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIYVGSUJFNRFZBBTA&Signature=WrQOvZ6mG7Ih29tDhW00cheSLOunhtQYgxOEb2IE534Ka6ePEvOtHe78F5l4~xFVikSb8fGJMqqRPdOfgXx5jXUz4qHaJjXgHMGszH5aRO0LcRyRxNwqdumIqcr-kdcVvDd~nKjaZYegcH2~Ly1wYgxyVjDPndxxkrwIGh3WE4M_)
(http://imageshack.us/a/img521/7718/obamax.png)
Bams up quite a bit in Wisconsin, holds a steady lead in Iowa as well according to PPP.
Oh, and also according to them, NC is TIED now.
(http://imageshack.us/a/img521/7718/obamax.png)
Bams up quite a bit in Wisconsin, holds a steady lead in Iowa as well according to PPP.
Oh, and also according to them, NC is TIED now.
(http://imageshack.us/a/img521/7718/obamax.png)
ppp leans democratic... they're kind of the yin to rasmussen's yang. I would discount NC going to Obama this cycle, probably not going to happen. The other stuff is good news, though.
the Ohio provisional ballot stuff is pretty annoying. Hopefully the amount of people asking for a provisional ballet is negligible.
So one of my pro-choice, uber feminist co-workers says she's worried that Romney may reverse Roe v. Wade if he becomes president, but is thinking about voting for him anyway cause she thinks he'll be better with the economy on account of him being a businessman.
We all got our priorities, I guess.
So one of my pro-choice, uber feminist co-workers says she's worried that Romney may reverse Roe v. Wade if he becomes president, but is thinking about voting for him anyway cause she thinks he'll be better with the economy on account of him being a businessman.
We all got our priorities, I guess.
adklglkasdghsdiohgosuidhohdlkjklsdjklghlkahjhudfhjkvnjniuohbrwuibgabugibkabg
FUCK THIS GAY EARTH, I'M OUT
When the economy improves she'll be able to afford a move to Saudi Arabia where they'll have a far more progressive women's rights movement (in comparison to America) after the presidency of Mitt Romney!
When the economy improves she'll be able to afford a move to Saudi Arabia where they'll have a far more progressive women's rights movement (in comparison to America) after the presidency of Mitt Romney!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obama-and-the-road-ahead-the-rolling-stone-interview-20121025?print=true
Rolling Stone: Have you ever read Ayn Rand?
Obama: Sure.
RS: What do you think Paul Ryan's obsession with her work would mean if he were vice president?
O: Well, you'd have to ask Paul Ryan what that means to him. Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we'd pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we're only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which we're considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity – that that's a pretty narrow vision.
It's not one that, I think, describes what's best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a "you're on your own" society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party.
Current TV, the ratings-challenged cable network started by former Vice President Al Gore, has put itself up for sale, the New York Post reports
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A6KIMaLCAAA4ye8.jpg)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46iwLIF1Fo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46iwLIF1Fo
Better than the actual debate. :lol
What the fuck happened to Conan? Why is he so orange?
He made a promise to fans last week during the Night of Too Many Stars telethon to don dreads in return for donations to autism research. So it was a win-win deal.
Obama has been ahead in EV at every point during the election - but it's possible all those votes are wrong. In the same direction. Forever.
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-far-left-turns-to-nate-silver-for-wisdom-on-the-polls?cid=db_articles
Nate Silver is a man of very small stature, a thin and effeminate man with a soft-sounding voice that sounds almost exactly like the “Mr. New Castrati” voice used by Rush Limbaugh on his program. In fact, Silver could easily be the poster child for the New Castrati in both image and sound.
Oh God, scroll down and read Chambers' reply to the beating he's taking in FB comments.
Dean Chambers successfully predicted he'd eat 83% of the Halloween candy in that giant bowl on his hall stand before the first trick-or-treater knocked on the door.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46iwLIF1Fo
One really encouraging thing from the past couple of weeks has been Elizabeth Warren pretty much (hopefully) locking up her election. It's just really weird and borderline offensive to have a Republican himbo in Teddy's seat.Maybe it'll be a good thing that Brown beat Martha Coakley if the end result is Warren being in the Senate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46iwLIF1Fo
*not available in your country*
Fuck you, youtube.
(http://i.imgur.com/HwjR0.png)
I really hope that Obama doesn't win the electoral college but not the popular vote, because that would basically be the worst possible outcome. :-\
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will soon take on a new role as the sponsor of at least two nationwide health insurance plans to be operated under contract with the federal government and offered to consumers in every state.
....
The national plans will compete directly with other private insurers and may have some significant advantages, including a federal seal of approval. Premiums and benefits for the multistate insurance plans will be negotiated by the United States Office of Personnel Management, the agency that arranges health benefits for federal employees.
...
Robert E. Moffit, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said he worried that “the nationwide health plans, operating under terms and conditions set by the federal government, will become the robust public option that liberals always wanted.”
While I've been annoyed by Romney's dash to the center late in the election season, I do sincerely hope that the GOP moves away from the extreme right in the coming years. Any positive change in the GOP will be delayed or prevented by a pv/ec that re-elects Obama. Nobody should be hoping for this.I really hope that Obama doesn't win the electoral college but not the popular vote, because that would basically be the worst possible outcome. :-\
Bill Maher was cheering for this last night, and GAF is full of posters who want the same thing. People are going to get mad no matter what if Obama wins, but it'll be worse if if loves the PV but wins because of the EV. I don't want to see that, period.
One really encouraging thing from the past couple of weeks has been Elizabeth Warren pretty much (hopefully) locking up her election. It's just really weird and borderline offensive to have a Republican himbo in Teddy's seat.Oh my fucking god dude I live where she's running. There's an ad for the incumbent literally every break on TV here and I can't browse the web for five minutes without seeing his face. Cannot wait to vote that guy out. NOT MY SENATOR :maf
From XBL:
Which candidate is more truthful about his policies?
Male:
Barack Obama - 42.4%
Mitt Romney - 52.3%
Not sure - 5.3%
Female:
Barack Obama - 61.6%
Mitt Romney - 35.5%
Not sure - 2.9%
:-\
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/health/us-to-sponsor-health-insurance-plans-nationwide.htmlQuoteWASHINGTON — The Obama administration will soon take on a new role as the sponsor of at least two nationwide health insurance plans to be operated under contract with the federal government and offered to consumers in every state.
....
The national plans will compete directly with other private insurers and may have some significant advantages, including a federal seal of approval. Premiums and benefits for the multistate insurance plans will be negotiated by the United States Office of Personnel Management, the agency that arranges health benefits for federal employees.
...
Robert E. Moffit, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said he worried that “the nationwide health plans, operating under terms and conditions set by the federal government, will become the robust public option that liberals always wanted.”
waaaahhh?! This seems kind of too good to be true. Can someone smarter than me explain why this actually is not as awesome as it sounds? (this question excludes all Libertarian explanations)
yeah can someone explain this health care thing for me? is this being viewed as a good thing or bad thing?
The Congressional Budget Office (analysis; blog summary) estimates that Reid's "manager's amendment" (text, brief summary) would add $2 billion in budget savings to the $130 billion it earlier projected over a 10-year period. (This estimate does not take into account the cost of other amendments added to the bill.) CBO says the manager's amendment's effect on average premiums should be "quite similar" to what it calculated earlier—i.e., virtually no impact on employer-provided health insurance and an increase in the cost of nongroup policies that's more than offset by new government subsidies for the majority of purchasers. The White House is pleased.http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/prescriptions/2009/12/sixty.html
In a recent YouGov poll, I asked participants about their views on abortion policy and what position they thought Obama, Romney, the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party took on abortion. Only about 60% of respondents knew that Obama and the Democrats supported more pro-choice policies than Romney and Republicans. Given that the parties have had clear and long-standing positions on this issue, it's astonishing that 40% of Americans don't know this basic fact (other surveys find even higher levels of ignorance).
Ezra Klein @ezraklein
A subtext of journalistic resentment of Silver is that if punditry is based in numbers, journalists who don't know numbers are less valuable
Now the Beltway media has joined the anti Nate Silver game
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/10/nate-silver-romney-clearly-could-still-win-147618.html
:lol
"Nate Silver says this is a 73.6 percent chance that the president is going to win? Nobody in that campaign thinks they have a 73 percent chance — they think they have a 50.1 percent chance of winning. And you talk to the Romney people, it's the same thing," Scarborough said. "Both sides understand that it is close, and it could go either way.
So no one thinks Nate Silver is likely being bashed because his formula is the only one that shows Barack winning the popular vote as of right now? I mean Real Clear Politics, Gallup, and Rassmussen all have Mitt ahead, doesn't that seem a bit unusual?
If Obama wins there are gonna be a lot of people saying "bubububu national polls! horse race!" Chalk this up as another case of the media not actually doing any reporting
of course, there will plenty of voter fraud charges too. Just watch
If Obama wins there are gonna be a lot of people saying "bubububu national polls! horse race!" Chalk this up as another case of the media not actually doing any reporting
of course, there will plenty of voter fraud charges too. Just watch
Wonder what will be this cycle's ACORN and New Black Panther party.
If Obama wins there are gonna be a lot of people saying "bubububu national polls! horse race!" Chalk this up as another case of the media not actually doing any reporting
of course, there will plenty of voter fraud charges too. Just watch
Wonder what will be this cycle's ACORN and New Black Panther party.
I'm guessing "black churches." What's wrong with just a plain-old "church"?
It's worth noting that Sam Wang of the Princeton Election Consortium has Obama's chances around 92-97%, and he was more accurate than Silver in 2008 and 2010; he also called 2004 correctly.
We're just seeing a lot of journalists who don't understand how stats work. And I think it backs up my point that we'll never see the media focus on aggregates because their stability kills the "breaking news" hook most television news channels rely on.
If Obama wins there are gonna be a lot of people saying "bubububu national polls! horse race!" Chalk this up as another case of the media not actually doing any reporting
of course, there will plenty of voter fraud charges too. Just watch
Wonder what will be this cycle's ACORN and New Black Panther party.
I'm guessing "black churches." What's wrong with just a plain-old "church"?
What about Tejas?
The Department of State said as of Monday morning, nearly 1.4 million people had cast absentee ballots and more than 500,000 people cast ballots in person during the early voting period that began Saturday.
The vote is nearly evenly split by party, with 784,444 ballots cast by Democrats and 774,304 ballots cast by Republicans. More than 307,000 ballots have been cast by voters who don't belong to either major party.
The total represents nearly 16 percent of Florida's 11.9 million voters.
Party Early Vote %http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/29/1152251/-Today-in-early-voting-FL-IA-NV-NC-and-PA?showAll=yes
DEM 251,110 49%
REP 177,958 35%
IND 84,121 16%
TOTAL 513,189
2. Of the 12.4 million total arrests last year, drug arrests (1,531,251) represented about one out of every eight arrests, or 12.34% of the total.
3. Of the 1.53 million drug arrests last year, 87.5% (1.34 million) were for possession and only 12.5% (191,000) were for the sale or manufacturing of drugs.
4. Nearly half of all drug arrests (49.5% or 758,000 arrests) were for possessing or selling weed, which grows naturally in almost all U.S. states. That means that police arrested somebody last year every 42 seconds for weed charges, and most of those arrests (87.5%) were for possessing weed.
You edit that? Cause the original blog post keeps referring to marijuana as "weeds," plural, which I find inexplicably funny.
You edit that? Cause the original blog post keeps referring to marijuana as "weeds," plural, which I find inexplicably funny.
He'll have to eat those words
One would think that Gallup, Pew, Rasmussen, every sufficiently wealthy news organization and anyone else interested in conducting a poll would be familiar with the basics of the American electoral system. Why they all insist on continuing to waste precious ink on national polls, then, is completely mystifying.
Gallup's latest poll of registered voters reports that former Gov. Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are tied nationally, 48 to 48 percent. Gallup's latest poll of likely voters, based on a complex set of assumptions about voter turnout, has Romney leading Obama by 5 percentage points, 51 to 46.
These figures are based on a national sample, so they theoretically include voters from Ohio, Florida and Virginia. They also include voters from Wyoming, California, Alabama, Delaware and about 40 other states whose voters could not possibly be any less relevant to the outcome on Nov. 6.
At this stage in the election, like any sufficiently close election, the fate of the candidates rests with fewer than a half-dozen states. The continuing snapshots of national polls are useful for pollsters and academics, who are interested in things like expected vote share or the probability of victory in the national popular vote. Most stakeholders care only about the likelihood of victory in the Electoral College, and a national poll is not very useful at this point.
This is why most prognosticators consider Obama to have a far higher chance of victory than the national polls would suggest. The Signal has Obama at a 65 percent chance of victory, while Nate Silver gives him a 75 percent chance against Romney. A small, demented chorus of observers has recently dinged Silver for this conclusion, citing various gut feelings to the contrary.
Any way you slice it, Obama is leading in states that account for well over 270 electoral votes. As we've said a million times before, Obama needs only Ohio, Florida or Virginia to prevent Romney from reaching 270 electoral votes in most scenarios. Romney needs all three.
Romney maintains a slight lead in aggregations of many polls. HuffPost's Pollster listed six new polls on Monday, and Obama led in only one. Romney led in three of these, and two were are tied. Pollster, which has a very transparent method of aggregation, combines all recent polls and has Romney up 47.4 to 47.2. RealClearPolitics, which aggregates polls with a completely opaque method, has Romney up 47.6 to 46.7.
Nate Silver
@fivethirtyeight
CAN'T BELIEVE METOROLOGISTS USED MATH AND SCIENCE TO PREDICT THIS STORM. THEY MUST BE MAGIC WIZARDS.
5:24 PM - 29 Oct 12
Yeah, well one time the news said there was a 75% chance of rain, and it didn't even rain!60% chance of survival? Fuck you doc, I'll see what Ann Coulter says about that.
Bush’s FEMA Director During Katrina Criticizes Obama For Responding To Sandy Too Quicklyhttp://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/10/30/1110901/bush-fema-director-katrina-hits-obama-sandy/
“One thing he’s gonna be asked is, why did he jump on [the hurricane] so quickly and go back to D.C. so quickly when in…Benghazi, he went to Las Vegas?” Brown says. “Why was this so quick?… At some point, somebody’s going to ask that question…. This is like the inverse of Benghazi.”
The campaign announced they would load supplies into a campaign bus for delivery in Virginia, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania – all swing states impacted by the storm.
I heard Chris Christie's response to Fox and Friends this afternoon on NPR. That was loads of awesome.
To be fair, they'd be killing him for prioritizing the campaign if he weren't doing all this.
to be fair I think that source is false. he mentioned delivering goods to new jersey.
but of course it'll be using his campaign buses and cars. it's exactly what the red cross advises AGAINST
Prices tend to trend down every year in the fall. Some years more than others.
Read this: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4453
Bloomberg declined Obama's request to tour NY's damage
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/83082.html?hp=f1
Really puts Christie's decision in an even better light
My fellow Stalinists, get your masturbation hats ready:
OH
Obama 50 (Early vote: 60)
Romney 45 (Early vote: 34)
Brown 51
Mandel 42
VA
Obama 49
Romney 47
Kaine 50
Allen 46
FL
Obama 48 (Early vote: 50)
Romney 47 (Early vote: 44)
Nelson 52
Mack 39
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/us/politics/ohio-working-class-may-be-key-to-obama-re-election.html?pagewanted=all
But once we all met Mitt Romney for three 90-minute debates, we got to know him — and to like him. He was not the monster Obama depicted, but a reasonable person for whom we could vote.
Reasonable voters saw that the voice of hope and optimism and positivism was Romney while the president was only a nitpicking, quarrelsome, negative figure. The contrast does not work in Obama’s favor.
After it's all over, when your insurance rates go down, then you'll vote for me in 2016."
-- Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by The Hill, chatting by phone with a Republican voter.
Vice President Joe Biden had a raucous visit to a restaurant in Sarasota, Fla., Wednesday when he was met by a group of enthusiastic older women and ended up on the phone with the Republican brother of one, according to a White House pool report.http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/biden-visits-with-groupies-at-florida-restaurant
After placing an order, the group of older women entered the restaurant and began taking pictures of the vice president.
From the pool report:
One of the women called him “gorgeous.” “Would you tell my wife that,” VP responded.
Poses with arms around a pair of women for a picture, not rushing the moment at all.
“I loved what you did to Paul Ryan,” one woman said. “You were great today. We love you,” said another.
One then says of the picture: “I’ve got to send this to my Republican brother.” The VP than invited her to get him on the phone.
The woman called her brother and passed the phone to Biden, who apparently had a short but serious conversation with the man about the health care law that included a reference to a 2016 run for president, which Biden said was said in jest.
“Look, I’m not trying to talk you into voting for me, I just wanted to say hi to you. And after its all over when your insurance rates go down, then you’ll vote for me in 2016. I’ll talk to you later.”
Race called, pack it in libtards:
http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/264935-here-comes-the-landslide
:bow 350 EVs for Romney and control of the Senate :bow2
As supporters lined up to greet the candidate, a young volunteer in a Romney/Ryan T-shirt stood near the tables, his hands cupped around his mouth, shouting, "You need a donation to get in line!"
Empty-handed supporters pled for entrance, with one woman asking, "What if we dropped off our donations up front?"
The volunteer gestured toward a pile of groceries conveniently stacked near the candidate. "Just grab something," he said.
Two teenage boys retrieved a jar of peanut butter each, and got in line. When it was their turn, they handed their "donations" to Romney. He took them, smiled, and offered an earnest "Thank you."
(http://i.imgur.com/MpsF0.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/MpsF0.png)
Unskewed, that's Romney +3, +2, +2, +2, tie, tie, tie.
ROMENTUM IS REAL
:bow Dick Morris :bow2
Yeah guys, trust him. He's ran a business.
Today, all major polling aggregators forecast that Democrats will keep a majority of the Senate no matter who wins the presidency. And that’s badly damaged the GOP’s hope of making sweeping policy changes.
Interesting to look at the polling leading up to the 2004 election.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/bush_vs_kerry_sbys.html
Florida - RCP Avg: Bush +.5 Result: Bush +5
Ohio - RCP Avg: Bush +2.1 Result: Bush +2
Penns - RCP Avg: Kerry +.9 Result: Kerry +2
Wisc - RCP Avg: Bush +.9 Result: Kerry +1
Iowa - RCP Avg: Bush +.3 Result: Bush +1
I think the takeaway from this is that if Romney really were in 'striking distance' his polling aggregate would need to be much closer than it is.
Energetic in body but indolent in mind, Barack Obama in his frenetic campaigning for a second term is promising to replicate his first term, although simply apologizing would be appropriate. His long campaign’s bilious tone — scurrilities about Mitt Romney as a monster of, at best, callous indifference; adolescent japes about “Romnesia” — is discordant coming from someone who has favorably compared his achievements to those of “any president” since Lincoln, with the “possible” exceptions of Lincoln, LBJ and FDR. Obama’s oceanic self-esteem — no deficit there — may explain why he seems to smolder with resentment that he must actually ask for a second term.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/blacks-should-vote-republican-ad-ohio.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
LMAO
It's always amusing when someone uses the "stop being so negative and mean-spirited!" line of attack against Obama and the Democrats.
It's always amusing when someone uses the "stop being so negative and mean-spirited!" line of attack against Obama and the Democrats.
My father in law said this to me the other day. He said Romney would work with dems whereas Obama said too many nasty things to the gop. I said I hadn't heard dems call the gop a muslim terrorist sympathizer that wasn't born in this country. He smiled and changed the subject.
The results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie.
However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is sliced—lower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that Senate Republicans applied pressure to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) in September, successfully persuading it to withdraw a report finding that lowering marginal tax rates for the wealthiest Americans had no effect on economic growth or job creation.
Obvious news is obvious.Quote from: Congressional Research Service reportThe results of the analysis suggest that changes over the past 65 years in the top marginal tax rate and the top capital gains tax rate do not appear correlated with economic growth. The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment, and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie.
However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. As measured by IRS data, the share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top 0.1% fell from over 50% in 1945 to about 25% in 2009. Tax policy could have a relation to how the economic pie is sliced—lower top tax rates may be associated with greater income disparities.
I am shocked!Quote from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/01/congressional-research-service_n_2059156.htmlThe New York Times reported on Thursday that Senate Republicans applied pressure to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) in September, successfully persuading it to withdraw a report finding that lowering marginal tax rates for the wealthiest Americans had no effect on economic growth or job creation.
Double shocked!
The U.S. economy added an estimated 171,000 jobs in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly employment report released Friday — exceeding analysts expectations, and sparing President Obama from lackluster economic news days before the election
Quote from: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/economy-adds-171000-jobs-in-october.phpThe U.S. economy added an estimated 171,000 jobs in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly employment report released Friday — exceeding analysts expectations, and sparing President Obama from lackluster economic news days before the election
Can't see the video. Summary, plz.
Can't see the video. Summary, plz.
Can't see the video. Summary, plz.
https://twitter.com/fivethirtynate
:lol
Chris Stevens had Obama's REAL birth certificate! :omg
http://www.dickmorris.com/in-the-last-few-hours-sudden-danger-signs-in-polling/
Even Dick Morris has given up on Romney and it's all Sandy's fault. :'(
@ppppolls: Our final Washington poll finds the state is likely to approve gay marriage- 52% support it, 42% are opposed:rock
http://www.dickmorris.com/in-the-last-few-hours-sudden-danger-signs-in-polling/
Even Dick Morris has given up on Romney and it's all Sandy's fault. :'(
Perhaps he sees this as a chance to save some face, but then again there's literally nothing that could happen to change an election from a 400 EV landslide to a slim win for the opponent - outside of Obama being caught diddling kids. Morris literally predicted Romney could get 400 EVs just a few days ago, but I'd imagine if republicans (and the Beltway) make this the narrative than it will stick. Remember, even mainstream commentators have argued Romney still had TEH MOMENTUM until the storm ruined it
Quote@ppppolls: Our final Washington poll finds the state is likely to approve gay marriage- 52% support it, 42% are opposed:rock
Iran has suspended the enrichment of uranium stockpiles to the 20% purity needed to bring it a short step from building a nuclear device, news services in the region have reported.(rest at link) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/04/iran-suspend-uranium-enrichment
Mohammad Hossein Asfari, a member of parliament responsible for foreign policy and national security, was quoted as saying that the move was a "goodwill" gesture, aimed at softening Iran's position before a new round of scheduled talks with the United States after this week's presidential elections.
Asfari said he hoped sanctions would be lifted in return for Iran's actions, otherwise it would resume the programme, according to a website belonging to the Al Arabiya news channel. Talks aimed at halting Iran's enrichment programme have made little progress, leading to the west tightening sanctions and increasing the prospect of military action by Israel.
The Islamic republic's economy has plummeted in the grip of punitive economic measures and Tehran indicated earlier this month that it would be willing to negotiate. However, the offer to suspend enrichment required so many concessions that it was dismissed by the United States.
Why don't we just offer to help Iran with building/planning on Thorium plants? Wouldn't that immediately bring this whole debacle either to a close or to it's logical end?
Why don't we just offer to help Iran with building/planning on Thorium plants? Wouldn't that immediately bring this whole debacle either to a close or to it's logical end?
Iran won't get access to Thorium until the expansion.
why don't we just send our SCVs straight into their base to be hit with neural parasite? geez
Quote@ppppolls: Our final Washington poll finds the state is likely to approve gay marriage- 52% support it, 42% are opposed:rock
More like:
:hump
Iran would already have nukes if they had used MAF's old engineer rush build.
But Christie does need to go one step further and reassure his party -- and not just his party -- that he hasn't turned coat.
[...]
Yes, Christie has forcefully avoided politicking post-Sandy -- as he noted when asked about his praise for Obama.
And he was right to do so.
But true bipartisanship includes the need to make clear his belief that the incumbent's vigorous response to the disaster would have been more than matched by Mitt Romney had he been president.
Others are blunter. A conservative operative deeply involved with the web of outside groups spending heavily on Romney’s behalf expressed frustration recently at the failure of the flood of money being spent to move the dial.
“You keep throwing money at the problem and it just doesn't resolve,” he said a few weeks ago of the ongoing efforts to damage the president of the United States with expensive ad campaigns.
After the storm, the same operative remarked, “Obama is just the luckiest man that ever lived.”
After the storm, the same operative remarked, “Obama is just the luckiest man that ever lived.”
Quote
After the storm, the same operative remarked, “Obama is just the luckiest man that ever lived.”
Ya, because a devastating hurricane always results in a boost for the sitting President's popularity.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/dont-blame-mitt-romneyQuoteOthers are blunter. A conservative operative deeply involved with the web of outside groups spending heavily on Romney’s behalf expressed frustration recently at the failure of the flood of money being spent to move the dial.
“You keep throwing money at the problem and it just doesn't resolve,” he said a few weeks ago of the ongoing efforts to damage the president of the United States with expensive ad campaigns.
After the storm, the same operative remarked, “Obama is just the luckiest man that ever lived.”
au revoir America :usacry
Quote
After the storm, the same operative remarked, “Obama is just the luckiest man that ever lived.”
Ya, because a devastating hurricane always results in a boost for the sitting President's popularity.
The right is beyond bitter that Obama isn't getting hammered over Sandy like Bush got hammered over Katrina.
Yeah the descriptions had absolutely no detail. Luckily I read up on them a week ago and had my choices written down.
I cant wait till this thing is over. My accounting professor thinks he is Jon Stewart and will not shut up. Heaven forbid Romney wins, we'll never hear the end of it. He's also the worst teacher I have ever had in my life. Go figure.
(http://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr02/2012/11/4/10/enhanced-buzz-wide-14200-1352042064-2.jpg)
A few days ago Morris claimed the storm was indeed helping Obama's numbers, and just might win him the election. Mere days later he releases a complete retcon of his previous statement. It's pretty obvious he got some angry responses from his followers :lol
seems to prove that he'll always have a prominent role during elections. His job isn't to accurately predict elections, it's to tell the far right what they want to hear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6AMArKqMPg
:usacry
A few days ago Morris claimed the storm was indeed helping Obama's numbers, and just might win him the election. Mere days later he releases a complete retcon of his previous statement. It's pretty obvious he got some angry responses from his followers :lol
seems to prove that he'll always have a prominent role during elections. His job isn't to accurately predict elections, it's to tell the far right what they want to hear.
I read a piece by Krugman other day, where he was saying that it's entirely possible that some of these guys like Karl Rove are more interested in profiting off the culture war than actually winning it. He also linked to this article on right-wing hucksterism that made for a good read.
http://www.thebaffler.com/past/the_long_con
What's with the USA chants?
(http://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr02/2012/11/4/10/enhanced-buzz-wide-14200-1352042064-2.jpg)
What's with the USA chants?
A few days ago Morris claimed the storm was indeed helping Obama's numbers, and just might win him the election. Mere days later he releases a complete retcon of his previous statement. It's pretty obvious he got some angry responses from his followers :lol
seems to prove that he'll always have a prominent role during elections. His job isn't to accurately predict elections, it's to tell the far right what they want to hear.
I read a piece by Krugman other day, where he was saying that it's entirely possible that some of these guys like Karl Rove are more interested in profiting off the culture war than actually winning it. He also linked to this article on right-wing hucksterism that made for a good read.
http://www.thebaffler.com/past/the_long_con
Seems like most of the cute girls I know are Republican, Libertarian, or don't give a fuck about politics. The politically active dems I know tend to be frumpy :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6AMArKqMPg
:usacry
Seems like most of the cute girls I know are Republican, Libertarian, or don't give a fuck about politics. The politically active dems I know tend to be frumpy :(
*Insert any footage of SE Cupp here*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6AMArKqMPg
:usacry
I'd say this was out of Idiocracy, but President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho's administration was more receptive towards people trying to save the environment.
The story in question:I have to be honest, I found that kind of funny.
http://americablog.com/2012/11/romney-staff-refusing-to-let-frostbitten-children-leave-pa-rally.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Americablog+%28AMERICAblog+News%29
It amuses me that Nate Silver gets so much hate for his 85% prediction, but Sam Wang is predicting a 99% chance (http://election.princeton.edu/) of Barry winning.
If I hear anybody say it was because Romney wasn't conservative enough I'm going to go nuts. We're not losing 95% of African-Americans and two-thirds of Hispanics and voters under 30 because we're not being hard-ass enough."
-- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC),
if final polls from The Economist/YouGov are correct, President Obama will win 303 electoral votes.
The final Reuters/Ipsos polls suggest Obama will win 294 electoral votes.
The final Public Policy Polling surveys point to an Obama landslide of 332 electoral votes
I may align with Jill Stein on issues, but running around getting arrested doesn't strike me as behavior id want from someone who wants to lead an entire country down paths you potentially don't get to come back from. Honestly I just hate polarized individuals thinking its totally an ok way to be. It's a horrible, lazy way to be.Agreed. The whole arrest debacle with her turned me off. It reminded me of the dramatic antics of tea partiers and libertarians. I'd like my Presidential candidate to stay composed and display rational actions.
It amuses me that Nate Silver gets so much hate for his 85% prediction, but Sam Wang is predicting a 99% chance (http://election.princeton.edu/) of Barry winning.
Probably cause no one knows who Sam Wang is.
Quoteif final polls from The Economist/YouGov are correct, President Obama will win 303 electoral votes.
The final Reuters/Ipsos polls suggest Obama will win 294 electoral votes.
The final Public Policy Polling surveys point to an Obama landslide of 332 electoral votes
PPP could be made to look pretty foolish in a few days.
I'd rather be Obama going into the final day than Romney but it wouldn't utterly shock me if Romney won.
What odds are we giving that if Obama wins the Republicans will try and impeach him for Benghazi before January? I'm saying 5-4.
The thing about voting for third parties is that most people I know who do vote for a third party don't do shit politically the rest of the time. They just get mad every few years and vote Green, complain, and that's it. Simply voting isn't really doing anything.
It's a stereotype but a lot of people who vote third party come off in that hipster manner
What odds are we giving that if Obama wins the Republicans will try and impeach him for Benghazi before January? I'm saying 5-4.
QuoteIt's a stereotype but a lot of people who vote third party come off in that hipster manner
I think you're being a little too quick to catergorize third party voters in such a simple way. I completely understand those that voted for Nadar in 2000 as opposed to Al Gore. Nadar is actually a genuine reformer with a remarkable career and Gore was just another rich kid, bore, corporate shill.
I understand people that would vote third party this year also. Obama is probably the furthest right the Democrats have ever elected and Mitt Romney has no real libertarian cred to speak of.
It's too bad the Republicans are gonna be butthurt about Sandy for the next 50 years, when the polls, momentum, and reality never gave Romney much of a chance even BEFORE Obama did the same thing he's been doing for the past four years (responding to things competently and presidentially)
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/nov-4-did-hurricane-sandy-blow-romney-off-course/
Like Mr. Clinton, President Obama restored FEMA’s professionalism, effectiveness, and reputation. But would Mitt Romney destroy the agency again? Yes, he would. As everyone now knows — despite the Romney campaign’s efforts to Etch A Sketch the issue away — during the primary Mr. Romney used language almost identical to Mr. Allbaugh’s, declaring that disaster relief should be turned back to the states and to the private sector.
QuoteIt's a stereotype but a lot of people who vote third party come off in that hipster manner
I think you're being a little too quick to catergorize third party voters in such a simple way. I completely understand those that voted for Nadar in 2000 as opposed to Al Gore. Nadar is actually a genuine reformer with a remarkable career and Gore was just another rich kid, bore, corporate shill.
I understand people that would vote third party this year also. Obama is probably the furthest right the Democrats have ever elected and Mitt Romney has no real libertarian cred to speak of.
Your vote should never be based on whether they 'have a chance'. It should be based on whether you agree/respect them and agree/respect the party they represent. People that peddle that 'wasting your vote' nonsense are just party zombies.Not necessarily. If it's a close election and you know it's not going to matter AND (especially this one too) you live in a swing state, not voting for you ideal candidate is just fine. There is very real risk sometimes. For example, I live in Texas so I might throw my vote to Jill Stein or whoever. But if I lived in Ohio I would suck it up and play the logical game of voting for the person that fits closest to my ideals. It's the game of essentially voting against the other guy. For some that's a very real priority that doesn't necessarily make them a party zombie.
The real problem with third parties is even if there were a 'golden child' that could have a legitimate chance, the two parties would do all they could to undermine/usurp their position/power once they reached office. There would be little reward for them to actually legitimize this third option. Maybe I'm just being too cynical ...
So, as other have observed, it would have to come from the bottom up .. rather than the top down. Good luck with that.
Romney has also never, EVER, not once, not even during his best day of polling after the first debate, been ahead in EVs. And Obama's positive momentum - slow, but steady - returned about a week later. This is not a tossup, or too close to call - this is a remarkably stable election where Obama never dipped below the critical threshold once.
QuoteIt's a stereotype but a lot of people who vote third party come off in that hipster manner
I think you're being a little too quick to catergorize third party voters in such a simple way. I completely understand those that voted for Nadar in 2000 as opposed to Al Gore. Nadar is actually a genuine reformer with a remarkable career and Gore was just another rich kid, bore, corporate shill.
I understand people that would vote third party this year also. Obama is probably the furthest right the Democrats have ever elected and Mitt Romney has no real libertarian cred to speak of.
I'm more just talking shit. In the sense that you run into your wacky friend who votes third party or people in the internet. Of course there are dedicated members who belong to third parties who want to change America. Hell politically I'm more in line with Noam Chomsky than regular democrats. That being said I'm also not crazy. I fully understand that normal regular people don't vote for Noam Chomsky's or Rush Limbaugh's. And the problem third parties have is both a structural one because of the nature of our political system and often a basic failing simply on rhetoric where the argument is sometimes over simplified to voting for somebody utterly inexperienced just because that's better than the establishment alternatives.
But if I lived in Ohio I would suck it up and play the logical game of voting for the person that fits closest to my ideals. It's the game of essentially voting against the other guy. For some that's a very real priority that doesn't necessarily make them a party zombie.
I get what you're saying. But there are also thousands of people that are having the same conflict. It does add up. This is akin to saying "everyone throws their trash out. My gum wrapper out the car window isn't going to make a difference." It probably won't but it's part of a collectively larger problem where if enough people say "ah fuck it, it doesn't matter" it actually starts to. It's the same concept as voting for your candidate to maintain your principles. Different side of the same coin.But if I lived in Ohio I would suck it up and play the logical game of voting for the person that fits closest to my ideals. It's the game of essentially voting against the other guy. For some that's a very real priority that doesn't necessarily make them a party zombie.
This isn't a school levy issue where 7000 votes are cast. This is a statewide result where 6 million votes are cast (in the case of Ohio). Even in it's closest year (2004) there was still a spread of 110,000 votes between the two candidates. There is almost no scenario where your vote is crucial in the grand scheme of things.
I feel like the "it's soooo close" narrative is purely the media wanting to keep its viewer ratings up. :lol
The thing about voting for third parties is that most people I know who do vote for a third party don't do shit politically the rest of the time. They just get mad every few years and vote Green, complain, and that's it. Simply voting isn't really doing anything.
I feel like the "it's soooo close" narrative is purely the media wanting to keep its viewer ratings up. :lol
Of course it is. Gotta keep viewers watching and both campaigns pumping out those ad dollars.
Romney has also never, EVER, not once, not even during his best day of polling after the first debate, been ahead in EVs. And Obama's positive momentum - slow, but steady - returned about a week later. This is not a tossup, or too close to call - this is a remarkably stable election where Obama never dipped below the critical threshold once.
Browsing the conservative blogs today, they all seem to think Romney's got this thing locked down. .
Actor and outspoken liberal John Cusack is developing a movie about conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, Cusack's production company said Friday.
The working title is "Rush," Cusack's New Crime Productions confirmed, offering no other details.
Hollywood director Betty Thomas, who's set to work on the film, said the production company is putting finishing touches on a script that will star the actor. Production is set for next year, Thomas said.
(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/h656sFg3RwW5TwVNLK1G7w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/theticket/155486090.jpg)
There's a sad metaphor to be made here ...
People that peddle that 'wasting your vote' nonsense are just party zombies.
I think you're being a little too quick to catergorize third party voters in such a simple way.
Yes yes yes, the "I'm disappointed" gambit, to remind us all we're arguing on the internet.
But you pivot straight from "only mouthbreathing sheeple say that!" to "hey now, let's respect the nuance of their opinion and not generalize." You seriously don't see this? Like, really?
Also, movement on social issues involves a bunch of interaction between the different levels and branches of government. Jim Crow was local and state, and eventually overridden by federal authority, but only when the other two branches were willing to enforce a years-old SCOTUS ruling. Lots of women's rights came through the courts, integrating the military was an executive order, abortion is currently constrained by Roe v Wade, accommodations for the disabled are made locally in order to comply with federal standards, etc. There are issues where you don't see major movement, but that's what you'd expect in a democracy on an issue where opposing sides have roughly equal support in both sheer numbers and motivation, regardless of institutional or party structure
It seems like you are just expanding on what I said. Change with social issues bubbles up from the bottom in a numerous amount of ways, but rarely (if ever) comes from the top down. By the time a national party fully embraces changes something it is already politically expedient to do so.
Final Reuters/Ipsos state polls: Virginia (O 48, R 46); Ohio (O 50, R 46); Florida (0 47, R 48); Colorado (O 48, R 47)
I wish Mika had her own show, I'd watch it. :-[She's adorable. :-[
Come On, Feel the Buzz
Alex Pareene
from The Baffler No. 21
To read more great writing from our past issues, click here.
8
Last June, Joe Williams, a reporter for the political newspaper and web news site Politico, said on Martin Bashir’s MSNBC talk show that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appeared comfortable only around white people. Conservative websites trawled through Williams’s Twitter feed and found other comments betraying a lack of respect for former Governor Romney, and Williams was quickly and rather publicly fired. Here’s how Politico’s founding editors Jim VandeHei and John Harris explained Williams’s cashiering in a company memo:
Politico journalists have a clear and inflexible responsibility to cover politics fairly and free of partisan bias. This expectation extends to all of the public platforms in which we and our reporting and analysis appears, including cable TV and social media platforms like Twitter. Regrettably, an unacceptable number of Joe Williams’s public statements on cable and Twitter have called into question his commitment to this responsibility. His comment about Governor Romney earlier today on MSNBC fell short of our standards for fairness and judgment in an especially unfortunate way. Joe has acknowledged that his appearance reflected a poor choice of words. This appearance came in the context of other remarks on Twitter that, cumulatively, require us to make clear that our standards are serious, and so are the consequences for disregarding them.
Unless, that is, Politico managers themselves disregard them. In August, Politico reporter David Catanese defended GOP Rep. Todd Akin’s bizarre lecture on where babies come from. Akin, running for U.S. Senate from Missouri, revealed that he believed a common conservative myth: that in the event of “legitimate rape,” the female body somehow prevents pregnancy from taking place, thus negating the need for a rape exemption from a prospective abortion ban.
Catanese tweeted that the negative response to Akin’s comments was overblown, because “we all know what he was trying to say.” He continued digging, suggesting that Akin might have a point about this legitimate rape thing. After all, Catanese wrote, some unknown number of “reported” rapes are surely fake (though it’s not “PC” to admit as much), and it is certainly possible (not that he had checked out “the science”) that actual rapes are unlikely to lead to pregnancy. “The left is often 1st to shut down debate as ‘off limits’ when it deems so,” he finally tweeted. “Aren’t these moments supposed to open up a larger debate?” Catanese was reprimanded and taken off the Akin beat, but he kept his job.
The difference between these two episodes speaks volumes about D.C.-based access journalism and the highly toxic, incestuous variant of it that Politico has perfected. Or to put things a bit more baldly: in all likelihood, David Catanese and Joe Williams suffered divergent professional fates because the leaders of Politico are more concerned about losing access to the Romney campaign than they are about losing access to victims of rape.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOHCzF1SWWg
From within my liberal bubble, I ask thee: what is the Right's obsession with Benghazi? I mean, I get that it is REALLY unfortunate that four Americans died, and that the information on the ground was very confusing for the first 48 hours. But ... where's the scandal? Seriously, I don't get it. So I'm asking: what is the scandal the Right thinks happened/will be uncovered/will take Obama down?
Yup, both Hannity and Beck literally told the SEAL's father that Obama watched his son die.
I wish Mika had her own show, I'd watch it. :-[
Also, according to the final simulations on 538, Florida has turned a very light blue :hyper
Simon Jackman and Drew Linzer, a couple other poli-quant geeks, were tweeting about how hard FL was to call.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpGd74DrBM
Welp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpGd74DrBM
Welp.
I'd take Mormons over evangelicals any day of the week.
Is it possible this whole thing is playing out before our eyes and we’re not really noticing because we’re too busy looking at data on paper instead of what’s in front of us? Maybe that’s the real distortion of the polls this year: They left us discounting the world around us.
i went to a Baptist prom once, instead of dancing there was a slideshownewsfeed
Don't know what tonight will bring. Empircially almost all signs look good for Obama, we'll see, but...
Wow, so weird that the right actually seem to truly believe in a coming Romney landslide. Not just putting up a front, not bluffing, not false bluster, not unity of message - they've truly constructed their own reality based on this based on almost nothing. Peggy Noonan:QuoteIs it possible this whole thing is playing out before our eyes and we’re not really noticing because we’re too busy looking at data on paper instead of what’s in front of us? Maybe that’s the real distortion of the polls this year: They left us discounting the world around us.
how, what, huh ???
His supporters laughing at climate change while Sandy was tearing shit up over here.
i went to a Baptist prom once, instead of dancing there was a slideshow, and the afterparty involved some kids prank calling the cops like 12 year old brats which ended the night
their parents also wouldn't let their 16 year old son have Halo, the poor son of a bitch
He pandered to the hard right long after primary season ended, and for what?
Wow, so weird that the right actually seem to truly believe in a coming Romney landslide. Not just putting up a front, not bluffing, not false bluster, not unity of message - they've truly constructed their own reality based on this based on almost nothing. Peggy Noonan:
Was it a slideshow of people dancing?
ha ha holy god
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/332579/crush-them-michael-walsh#
Tiesto wants a strong defense? Shocking.
What interests me the most tonight:
1) Brown v Mandel
2) Brown v Warren
3) Mia Love wins?
4) Bachmann loses?
5) Willard vs Barry O
back from voting (and halo 4), couldn't bring myself to vote for Mitt, even though i'd rather see him in than Obama. also, Mandel all day > Brown
Love is a district that has been Democratic for awhile. I think they cut the most liberal section in half however (my old hood) and now it leans slightly Republican.What interests me the most tonight:
1) Brown v Mandel
2) Brown v Warren
3) Mia Love wins?
4) Bachmann loses?
5) Willard vs Barry O
1 Brown wins
2 Warren wins
3 ...I'm guessing she wins just by party id? Haven't followed the race too much
4 She wins, sadly
5 Obama wins with either 290 or 303 evs and around 51% of the popular vote
I'm honestly not sure if you're trolling or just that fucking dumb
Are we changing the thread title tomorrow or when Romney is sworn in?
anything I've missed so far?
BLACK PEOPLE ARE SCARY
BLACK PEOPLE ARE SCARY
I'm honestly not sure if you're trolling or just that fucking dumb
and i'm not sure if you're really like this all the time or if it's just on the internet. being a miserable asshole, that is. what the fuck is your problem? and by that i mean explain why you think i'm "that fucking dumb"
a vote for Obama is like backing up the Titanic after it hit an iceberg to hit the same iceberg again. a vote for Romney is like hitting an iceberg and steering it into another one.
Tiesto wants a strong defense? Shocking.
Sarcastic post or no? For those that don't know, I'm in the industry.
Democrat Kim Coonan, who has held the 6th District seat with the Bay County commission since 2002, on Tuesday is facing Republican Joe Davis, the 4th District's second-year representative. MLive.com reports the candidates offered differing accounts of the fight after Coonan took down Davis campaign signs.
Davis claims he was beaten to the ground outside Our Lady of The Visitation Parish after approaching Coonan, who threatened him.
Coonan denies he threatened anyone, and says he was defending himself. Coonan said Davis charged him, striking him before a "shoving match" ensued.
you have me mixed up, guns are like my favorite hobby, for you it'd be akin to them banning big black dildos because hey, who really needs that? feel me now?
Elizabeth Waren's election party is at my wife's hotel.
people diablosing already on gaf
PD in top form as per usual
If Obama wins, I will be disappointed at the lost opportunity of getting some revenue out of my spare bedroom, though. :'(
Obama is posting at Reddit instead of governing. (http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/12r7yb/reddit_this_is_important/) :usacry
NRO says FL looking bad for Mitt :teehee
"slightly more for Obama than four years ago."
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/332804/not-so-much-sunshine-henry-olsen
Muslchuriam Candidate.We could have used this two weeks ago :maf
http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/President/2012/
(http://i.imgur.com/g5jQX.jpg?1)
Can someone 'splain this to me?
How is South Carolina a republican win, or even considered a lead, with those percentages?
Muslchuriam Candidate.We could have used this two weeks ago :maf
because it's....south carolinaSo... huh? Even though it's historically likely that a republican will win there,it's still inaccurate graphically, isn't it?
longer version: the precincts that reported in were lean obama, but when all is said and down, SC is nigh 100% likely for romney. it's easy to call it for him
because it's....south carolinaSo... huh? Even though it's historically likely that a republican will win there,it's still inaccurate graphically, isn't it?
longer version: the precincts that reported in were lean obama, but when all is said and down, SC is nigh 100% likely for romney. it's easy to call it for him
I know it's still close, but is Florida looking surprisingly good so far?
Linda McMahon spent $200mil to lose two senate races in a row :rofl
good to see Lieberman's old seat going to an actual democrat
MI for Barry O called right away - that bodes well for OH no?
MI for Barry O called right away - that bodes well for OH no?
No, MI is more like Pennsylvania.
Elise Foley @elisefoley
Exit poll: 74% of Colorado Latino vote goes to Obama: http://bit.ly/Rfzw96
issue wise MI and OH are similar
QuoteElise Foley @elisefoley
Exit poll: 74% of Colorado Latino vote goes to Obama: http://bit.ly/Rfzw96
Romney may be fucked
Allen West needs to lose- that'd cap off Elizabeth winning nicely
Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) defeated Linda McMahon in Connecticut's election for U.S. Senate, projects the Associated Press.
Murphy was narrowly favored to win in the preceding days against McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO. She spent $42.6 million on the race, according to her recent campaign finance report.
President Barack Obama made a direct appeal for Murphy in a television ad released Friday. McMahon, buoyed by her lavish self-funding, flooded the state in television ads.
McMahon's own campaign material had urged voters to vote for her and Obama, despite the fact that she endorsed Mitt Romney for president and donated $150,000 to his campaign.
Murphy will replace retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who was first elected as a Democrat before leaving the party in 2006. However, Lieberman had continued to caucus with the party.
Murphy was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2006 and served in the Connecticut legislature beforehand.
nah its over. WI and NH have been called for obama.
Elizabeth Warren projected to win. :bow Oklahoma Pride :bow2
Florida seems like it'll be a recount
NH for Obama!hate this fucking shit state
Florida seems like it'll be a recount
NH for Obama!hate this fucking shit state
NH for Obama!hate this fucking shit state
i have a brain for one and aren't a sheep
I live in Florida and despite early voting its likely the state will tip over to the Republican side this year anyway unfortunately.
So I doubt this will arise although it doesn't really matter. Republicans in the state will do whatever it takes to limit early in person voting or make the hassle to do it more in the future.
Here are the early voting totals in my county which is a pretty important Bellwether county for the state and the nation to a degree. Since 1960 its voted for the eventual winner in every election except for the 92 Clinton win.
http://www.voterfocus.com/hosting/hillsborough/ew_pages/Whats%20New/English/Early%20Voting%20Totals/2012%20General%20Election/Monday-%20October%2029,%202012.pdf
McCaskill drop kicked Akin.
Are the dems going to get the senate?
Three Florida Supreme Court justices easily won a retention bid Tuesday despite an unprecedented push by the Republican Party of Florida to oust them after several rulings the party disliked.
Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince each led about 67 percent to 33 percent with about 66 percent of the precincts reporting.
The Republican Party's executive committee had unanimously voted to oppose the three, warning they are "liberal" and "too extreme." It marks the first time a Florida political party has taken a position in a retention race.
"The very foundation of Florida's independent judicial system was threatened in this election. I am grateful that Florida voters once again demonstrated their faith in our fair and impartial judicial system," Lewis said in a statement Tuesday.
The justices' supporters, including some prominent Republicans, say the GOP is endangering judicial independence and that the three have done nothing that deserves removal.
"Floridians care deeply about ensuring that we have a fair and impartial judiciary untainted by partisan politics," Quince said in a statement.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who has been critical of the high court, would have appointed replacements from candidates recommended by a nominating panel, also appointed by the governor.
Emails and phone calls sent to the Republican Party of Florida and Americans for Prosperity, an organization that opposed the justices, were not immediately returned Tuesday night.
Where was it that Judge lost his retention bid because his name was hispanic?QuoteThree Florida Supreme Court justices easily won a retention bid Tuesday despite an unprecedented push by the Republican Party of Florida to oust them after several rulings the party disliked.
Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince each led about 67 percent to 33 percent with about 66 percent of the precincts reporting.
The Republican Party's executive committee had unanimously voted to oppose the three, warning they are "liberal" and "too extreme." It marks the first time a Florida political party has taken a position in a retention race.
"The very foundation of Florida's independent judicial system was threatened in this election. I am grateful that Florida voters once again demonstrated their faith in our fair and impartial judicial system," Lewis said in a statement Tuesday.
The justices' supporters, including some prominent Republicans, say the GOP is endangering judicial independence and that the three have done nothing that deserves removal.
"Floridians care deeply about ensuring that we have a fair and impartial judiciary untainted by partisan politics," Quince said in a statement.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who has been critical of the high court, would have appointed replacements from candidates recommended by a nominating panel, also appointed by the governor.
Emails and phone calls sent to the Republican Party of Florida and Americans for Prosperity, an organization that opposed the justices, were not immediately returned Tuesday night.
This is completely a local florida thing but it just goes to show exactly how these guys operate. In Florida there was a political attempt to remove a couple of supreme court justices because of the tea party types. Thankfully they failed.
Obama maintaining his OH lead, catching up in VA as predicted. If he can win FL too this will be an epic embarrassment for the GOP and a real punch in the testicles from hipsanics, who apparently turned out in droves to vote for not-the-gop.
Hopefully one of the lessons the GOP takes from this is to weed out the rapey candidates in the primaries."Look guys, we're going to have to get rid of old, white, Christian, pro-life candidates"
Fox prolapsing.
CNN STILL HOLDING ON TO THE HORSE RACE
not nearly as close as assholes thought it;d be
Hide your guns Drew, hide your guns
We have the senate
donald trump lmao
msnbc is horrible right now, they have that bitch Rachel Maddow and that black guy with the big mouth that used to be a pastor or a prize fighter manager or whateverthefuck
msnbc is horrible right now, they have that bitch Rachel Maddow and that black guy with the big mouth that used to be a pastor or a prize fighter manager or whateverthefuck
It is official: The United States of America has become a welfare state with more non-producers than producers.
As a business person I want to hire more employees, however governmental policy that may be heading my way will prevent me from doing so.
Oh shit gay marriage might actually win here in MD.
I don't wanna jinx it, but... :hyper
Oh shit gay marriage might actually win here in MD.
I don't wanna jinx it, but... :hyper
WA is looking shitty- im hoping its just too early but they arent showing return percentages on the news site- fuckin old religious rich people fuck em- fuck em and their fucks. I blame our last dem gov for mckenna prolly winning- why'd she have to be so shitty until that last bit at the end where she wasnt?
Tammy Baldwin has been declared the winner in Wisconsin.
Bizarro, msnbc commenting on the foxnews broadcast.
Rachel Maddow reporting that Karl Rove is trying to fight against Fox News projection live on Fox News is possibly the greatest thing ever.
Elizabeth Warren projected winner in MA senate raceVoting for her is the main reason I went out to the polls since MA is always Dem as fuck president wise. :hyper
:drudge
:bow :bow :bow
I can't wait to pay $8 for a loaf of bread in about 6 months......
Same sex marriage passes in Maine!!!!!
well, fuck.
(https://untappd.s3.amazonaws.com/photo/2012_11_07/ce5ac427cb29756eb7d8d341df5f7840_320x320.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Owl0Z.gif)
Hey, who wants to get really high and get gay married with me?
AP called Nevada and Colorado for Obama.
nyt finally calls it. now any chance he might still catch up in the popular vote so we don't have to listen to people kvetching about it for the next four years?
nyt finally calls it. now any chance he might still catch up in the popular vote so we don't have to listen to people kvetching about it for the next four years?
You're right, that will stop kvetching about this election for the next for years!
haven't seen fox news' response yet...how has that been?
Pot is legal in Washington and Colorado.
No concession yet?
No concession yet?
Sounds like in the next hour. Maybe.
Pot is legal in Washington and Colorado.
Pot is legal in Washington and Colorado.
:bow Obama's America :bow2
romney seems to want to wait while for VA and FL for some reason
Pot is legal in Washington and Colorado.
Pot is legal in Washington and Colorado.
Not once Obama sends the DoJ in
according to multiple sources: romney never even wrote a concession speech, that's why it's take so fucking long for him to concede :rofl
dude actually believed "unskewed polls"
:rofl
BROS Graves is tied with Bachman at 50% right now. omg come on, win this
BROS Graves is tied with Bachman at 50% right now. omg come on, win this
trump.jpg
Obama has to wait for Mitt to concede before he can do his speech right?
@daveweigel
Allen West is now down by nearly 1000 votes.
Quote@daveweigel
Allen West is now down by nearly 1000 votes.
please please please
Wow, that was a really short concession speech.
ALLEN WEST LOST
YES
ALLEN WEST LOST
YES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRvAAYjmqkEspoiler (click to show/hide)Darth Vader is the Constitution and traditional marriage. :smug[close]
uhhhhhhhh
oh man
i need a hummer NOW
uhhhhhhhh
oh man
i need a hummer NOW
thinking about your probably hairy definitely dirty unwashed liberal college pitchfag crotch just make me dry heave
usually im pretty happy that i dont have conservatives fucking up my facebook feed, but tonight i really wish i had some bitter tears to drink up. all i got was a couple of "tomorrow is another day" posts. WHERE IS THE AGONY
Nate Silver is gonna get some pussy tonightspoiler (click to show/hide)actually not really[close]
I just got a chub
usually im pretty happy that i dont have conservatives fucking up my facebook feed, but tonight i really wish i had some bitter tears to drink up. all i got was a couple of "tomorrow is another day" posts. WHERE IS THE AGONY
all i got was a couple of "tomorrow is another day" posts. WHERE IS THE AGONY
sasha obama....hng
The city close to where I live rejected a public school renewal. Fucking old people.
but the popular vote IS all that should matter
So every state except Florida has been called by now? SMH Florida.
that'd be awkward if he just totally pooped his pants right now
So every state except Florida has been called by now? SMH Florida.
Are you sure you're not a liberal? First saying Obama is the best president since Reagan in that other thread, and now this. ???
Today we all did our parts as Americans, remembering that voting is a treasured responsibility of freedom, paid for in the blood of soldiers that fight for us everyday. No matter what the outcome of the national race, I am proud of North Carolina standing for American ideals. I pray that our president will take a look at policies that will save our country and truly work to end the divisiveness that tears us apart. I am proud of my fellow Americans for making their voices heard, whether or not I agree with them... that is the American way. God Bless the United States of America.
Obama dropped the motherfuckin' mic after that one, damn. Mad lyrics of fire
'Obama could have ended that shit with "Let's hunt some orc!" and I would have flipped over the laptop and ran out the door.' - my pal burts on twitter :lol:lol
I'm surprised at you, Drew, questioning the wisdom of the Founding Fathers like that.
Fox is exploding lmao
Fox is exploding lmao
What's going on over there now?
Why is Chris Matthews so mad?
John Cole of balloon-juice said that his commanding officer from the Army who he's known and been good friends with for more than twenty years de-friended him from FB cause of Obama's win.spoiler (click to show/hide)That's awesome lol.[close]
So remember this hit piece (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/331192/nate-silver-s-flawed-model-josh-jordan) on Nate Silver from the National Review, saying that he was tilting his model towards Obama?
The author of that, Josh Jordan, predicted (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/332472/romney-wins-tuesday-josh-jordan) a Romney victory by 2 points, with wins in CO, NH, WI, IA, FL, OH, and VA.
If you want to see the online record of someone having the ground give way beneath them, check out his twitter. (https://twitter.com/numbersmuncher) It's delicious.
Swing state polls didn't move as much as national polls,but clearly it changed dynamic. Will never know if Romney was on winning path or not
You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. Reducing our deficit. Reforming our tax code. Fixing our immigration system. Freeing ourselves from foreign oil. We’ve got more work to do.
Obama won by dividing America. I hope his supporters know they're on their own now. The self-reliant half is DONE with them.
This is truly #war. If you're not up for it, you're the enemy not the foe. Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.
I guess now we'll experience what the Jews did when you turn your back to God. Book of Judges.
Time to kick Chris Christie and Colin Powell out. Good riddance traitors.
Did my duty, held my nose, voted for Romney-It wasn't enough. #GOP establishment is Hell-bent to run RINO candidates. We need CHANGE
Plz pray for all of us conservative students who have 2 go back 2 our liberal campus' today! We're about 2be put through the ringer.
(http://i.imgur.com/ou0nE.jpg)
I saw Mitt's concession speach and it was a nice gesture.
It's funny reading all the comments by casuals that the Republican party is in decline/bordering on obsolesence, yet in 2 more years they are going to be panicking when they make significant gains at the mid-term.
Yes, the auto bailout mattered in Ohio. Sure, Hurricane Sandy helped the president. And, yes, the economy was the No. 1 issue. But make no mistake: What happened last night was a demographic time bomb that had been ticking and that blew up in GOP faces. As the Obama campaign had assumed more than a year ago, the white portion of the electorate dropped to 72%, and the president won just 39% of that vote. But he carried a whopping 93% of black voters (representing 13% of the electorate), 71% of Latinos (representing 10%), and also 73% of Asians (3%). What’s more, despite all the predictions that youth turnout would be down, voters 18-29 made up 19% of last night’s voting population -- up from 18% four years ago -- and President Obama took 60% from that group. The trend also played out in the key battleground states: The president won about 70% of the Latino vote in Colorado and Nevada, and he won 60% of it in Florida (a high number given the state’s large GOP-leaning Cuban-American population). On Monday, we wrote that demography could determine destiny. And that’s exactly what happened. While the campaign’s turnout operation deserves all the credit for getting these voters to the polls, the most significant event of this presidential contest might very well have been the 2010 census.
Obama’s demographic edge creates this dilemma for the Republican Party: It can no longer rely on white voters to win national elections anymore, especially in presidential cycles. Indeed, according to the exit poll, 89% of all votes Mitt Romney won last night came from whites (compared with 56% for Obama). So the Republicans are maximizing their share with white voters; they just aren’t getting the rest. And come 2016, the white portion of the electorate will probably drop another couple of points to 70%. Politico’s Martin puts it this way: “Battling a wheezing economy and a deeply motivated opposition, Obama still managed to retain much of his 2008 map because of the GOP’s deficiencies with the voters who are changing the political face of once conservative-leaning Virginia, Florida, Colorado and Nevada. Republicans face a crisis: the country is growing less white and their coalition has become more white in recent years. In 2004, George W. Bush won [about 40 percent] of Hispanics. Four years later, John McCain, the author of an immigration reform bill, took 31 percent of Hispanics. And this year, Romney captured only 27 percent of Hispanics.”
I don't deny that the party has long-term problems, but short-term they should have no problems continuing on the same track and still competing nationally. Just like GWB's demographics were specifically his, Obama's are also his own. Every new cycle it shakes out a little different depending on the issues/candidates of that year.
If Democrats make the mistake of nominating Biden in 2016, they are easily susceptible to a Republican populist du jour taking states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida.
Stoney, don't pin this on me but there IS a politically ambitious female Senator from NY... it's just her name isn't Clinton. My girlfriend Kirsten :shh
For those of you who missed this bit of comedy last night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQLV7nqD3CA
Watching blondie from fox news walk back to some area to talk to 2 guys to confirm Ohio was in the bag for Obama was some delicious TV. Because hearing it from them wasn't enough. She had to ask them to their face.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQLV7nqD3CA:smug
In approximately 25 years the whites will be a minority. It is interesting that both conservatives and liberals believe that a country that is essentially Mexico/Africa will somehow not actually be Mexico/Africa. An interesting experiment, that I will be watching from a safe distance.
He noted Tuesday night to HuffPost that his turnaround is the biggest on record in the history of House. No other candidate had lost by 18 points in one year, only to turn around and win the next cycle by 25 -- a 43-point swing.
QuoteIn approximately 25 years the whites will be a minority. It is interesting that both conservatives and liberals believe that a country that is essentially Mexico/Africa will somehow not actually be Mexico/Africa. An interesting experiment, that I will be watching from a safe distance.
:drake
I’ve got egg on my face. I predicted a Romney landslide and, instead, we ended up with an Obama squeaker.
The key reason for my bum prediction is that I mistakenly believed that the 2008 surge in black, Latino, and young voter turnout would recede in 2012 to “normal” levels. Didn’t happen. These high levels of minority and young voter participation are here to stay. And, with them, a permanent reshaping of our nation’s politics.
But the more proximate cause of my error was that I did not take full account of the impact of hurricane Sandy and of Governor Chris Christie’s bipartisan march through New Jersey arm in arm with President Obama. Not to mention Christe's fawning promotion of Obama's presidential leadership.
It made all the difference.
If Romney couldn’t manage this trick against Obama in the current economy, no Republican could.
There are some salty motherfuckers out there right now, and it's interesting how much of it is swinging into blatant racism, rather than just dog whistles.In large parts of the south it was always about racism. It's just their anger has reached the point where they don't care about trying to hide it anymore.
There are some salty motherfuckers out there right now, and it's interesting how much of it is swinging into blatant racism, rather than just dog whistles.
There are some salty motherfuckers out there right now, and it's interesting how much of it is swinging into blatant racism, rather than just dog whistles.
And LOL at anyone Republicans saying "we were simply too nice, next time we'll really bring it!"
What are they going to do, accuse Obama of being compicit in 9/11? Bring firehoses to polling stations?
I think it's hilarious that they are busy throwing their best 2016 candidate under the bus to cover their own asses.
In local politics, nice to see Tim Bishop defeat Randy Altschuler by a 52-48% margin (their last race was extremely close and didn't get resolved for a few months). Seriously, everything I wanted to happen, politically, actually happened. Spent all last nite schooling all the repubs complaining about how all their hard working dollars are going to welfare queens :P
There are some salty motherfuckers out there right now, and it's interesting how much of it is swinging into blatant racism, rather than just dog whistles.
More so than the angry people, I find myself taken aback by the melodramatic ones that seem to be sad that -- by electing Barack Obama over Mitt Romney -- America is officially on an irrevocable downward trajectory. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've got a one year old son. I don't like the thought of him having to chip in personally $100 millions dollars to pay down our debt to the Chinese and thus having to work in a labor camp in Beijing.
There are some salty motherfuckers out there right now, and it's interesting how much of it is swinging into blatant racism, rather than just dog whistles.
And LOL at anyone Republicans saying "we were simply too nice, next time we'll really bring it!"
What are they going to do, accuse Obama of being compicit in 9/11? Bring firehoses to polling stations?
Next time they'll find a candidate that will call out 49% of Americans as being worthless, filthy moochers.
There are some salty motherfuckers out there right now, and it's interesting how much of it is swinging into blatant racism, rather than just dog whistles.
And LOL at anyone Republicans saying "we were simply too nice, next time we'll really bring it!"
What are they going to do, accuse Obama of being compicit in 9/11? Bring firehoses to polling stations?
Next time they'll find a candidate that will call out 49% of Americans as being worthless, filthy moochers.
By the time the next election rolls around, Obummer's America will probably be comprised of 60% moochers. :violin
A glance at the exit polls showed that Obama won the foreign policy question pretty handily. Only five percent of respondents thought that foreign policy was the most critical issue in this campaign — but of those five percent, voters went for Obama over Romney by 56% to 33%. Voters were also more likely to trust Barack Obama in an international crisis (57%-42%) than Mitt Romney (50%-46%).
I think the best news to come out of yesterday is the fact that the gay rights train is going full steam ahead. It's pretty much unstoppable now.
Everyone is tongue-bathing Nate Silver today, but all the aggregators/tea leaf readers had this election right. RCP has been doing it for longer and have also been just as reliable. The only people that had it wrong (wildly so) are the party cheerleaders and pundits.
I think the best news to come out of yesterday is the fact that the gay rights train is going full steam ahead. It's pretty much unstoppable now.
It's been pretty clear where the country was going on this in the future, but conservatives were still able to say that gay marriage had never won a public vote in any state and it was true. Gay marriage advocates were oh-fer. Now that's finally broken, and the big question in the decade or two ahead is whether this becomes a red-blue (or south-everywhere else) divide, or whether something happens on the national level through either Congress or SCOTUS to make it truly national.
To be fair, Silver seems to have gotten the state margins better (and called Florida right) than RCP, and if we bring up the longer track record then we gotta mention that RCP circa 2000 (http://web.archive.org/web/20001212163700/realclearpolitics.com/Polls/polls-Electoral_11_06_EC.html) was basically the Unskewed Polls of its day.
One of my military friends on facebook is talking about how soon we will all be dependent on the government for a paycheck, and all his military buddies are agreeing.
thatsthejoke.jpgOne of my military friends on facebook is talking about how soon we will all be dependent on the government for a paycheck, and all his military buddies are agreeing.
They should feel right at home then since they already get paychecks from the government.
A Romney adviser partly blames last night’s defeat on a weak message. “Turnout was the big problem, since we didn’t get all of McCain’s voters to the polls, but we really should have been talking more about Benghazi and Obamacare,” an adviser says, speaking on the condition on anonymity. “Those are major issues and Romney rarely mentioned them in the final days.”
My mom didn't like Bush politically but liked that he was a strong Christian, and loved his Texan charm which reminded her of our southern family members; she was rather indifferent about McCain.
It will soon be illegal to oppose same-sex marriage, even for Christians. The media will become even more brazen in covering up for the president and shaming those who don’t agree. Our debt will mount, and our credit rating will fall. In a couple hundred years, America’s heavily censored school textbooks will record conservatism as a freak aberration. It will get a couple pages between the chapters on FDR and Barack Obama.
Obama's America:QuoteIt will soon be illegal to oppose same-sex marriage, even for Christians. The media will become even more brazen in covering up for the president and shaming those who don’t agree. Our debt will mount, and our credit rating will fall. In a couple hundred years, America’s heavily censored school textbooks will record conservatism as a freak aberration. It will get a couple pages between the chapters on FDR and Barack Obama.
:drool :drool :drool
Obama's America:QuoteIt will soon be illegal to oppose same-sex marriage, even for Christians. The media will become even more brazen in covering up for the president and shaming those who don’t agree. Our debt will mount, and our credit rating will fall. In a couple hundred years, America’s heavily censored school textbooks will record conservatism as a freak aberration. It will get a couple pages between the chapters on FDR and Barack Obama.
:drool :drool :drool
The liburl media will make Reagan seem like a monster. :'(
Obama's America:QuoteIt will soon be illegal to oppose same-sex marriage, even for Christians. The media will become even more brazen in covering up for the president and shaming those who don’t agree. Our debt will mount, and our credit rating will fall. In a couple hundred years, America’s heavily censored school textbooks will record conservatism as a freak aberration. It will get a couple pages between the chapters on FDR and Barack Obama.
:drool :drool :drool
Voters were more ideologically polarized than in 2008 or 2004. The share of moderates dipped slightly to 41 percent, while 25 percent called themselves liberal, the highest share saying so in recent surveys of voters as they leave their polling places. Thirty-five percent called themselves conservative, about the same as the previous two presidential contests.
I thought this was pretty interesting how it seems like moderates are becoming liberals. I know I used to be a pretty staunch moderate, even back when I was in a liberal arts college hanging out with a bunch of Bush-hating eco-hippies, but I now consider myself to be pretty liberal. But this is probably more to do with how the goal posts seem to have been shifted right on what constitutes a liberal/conservative (done by both parties) more than anything.
I am slightly interested to see if Republicans remold their image or adjust their approach. I agree that it won't happen for the midterm elections, but I do feel their relationship with media outlets has started to hurt them. Fox News and conservative radio need to make money. Conservative media outlet interests and the way they go about it won't always align with actually winning a presidential election. Shock is better for tv ratings than it is for poll results. It might be time for the GOP and its candidates to be the voice of the GOP instead of just the guest that day on Fox News.
BIG GAY MIST:lol
Is that a soft drink?
I am slightly interested to see if Republicans remold their image or adjust their approach. I agree that it won't happen for the midterm elections, but I do feel their relationship with media outlets has started to hurt them. Fox News and conservative radio need to make money. Conservative media outlet interests and the way they go about it won't always align with actually winning a presidential election. Shock is better for tv ratings than it is for poll results. It might be time for the GOP and its candidates to be the voice of the GOP instead of just the guest that day on Fox News.
Don't think its gonna happen. It takes an utter collapse with a party for that to happen and the Republicans aren't there yet. They'll weather the slow decline until it gets really really really bad. They still think its the messaging, and getting the proper candidate to espouse it.
In other words they haven't hit their Michael Dukakis low point yet.spoiler (click to show/hide)I liked Michael Dukakis :'([close]
Alan Grayson won his seat back!! :rock
we're talking about angry-ass old white dudes who think the world owes them everything; dont see them changing any time soon
1. PPP (D)
1. Daily Kos/SEIU/PPP
3. YouGov
4. Ipsos/Reuters
5. Purple Strategies
6. NBC/WSJ
6. CBS/NYT
6. YouGov/Economist
9. UPI/CVOTER
10. IBD/TIPP
11. Angus-Reid
12. ABC/WP
13. Pew Research
13. Hartford Courant/UConn
15. CNN/ORC
15. Monmouth/SurveyUSA
15. Politico/GWU/Battleground
15. FOX News
15. Washington Times/JZ Analytics
15. Newsmax/JZ Analytics
15. American Research Group
15. Gravis Marketing
23. Democracy Corps (D)
24. Rasmussen
24. Gallup
26. NPR
27. National Journal
28. AP/GfK
we're talking about angry-ass old white dudes who think the world owes them everything; dont see them changing any time soon
I would change that to "who erroneously think they single-handedly earned everything they've gotten/will ever get."
Why do people keep suggesting a circle? Make it a star comprised of smaller stars. 51 of them.
I dont know anything about Romney, but this place is gonna be so funny in November. :lol Cant wait.
Time to tell any Democrats you know to fuck off and die
As if Bush won both his elections with blow-outs
For those of you who missed this bit of comedy last night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQLV7nqD3CA
http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2012/11/the-end-of-liberty-in-america-only.html (http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2012/11/the-end-of-liberty-in-america-only.html)
The subtitle is the best:QuoteTime to tell any Democrats you know to fuck off and die
However, for me, I'm choosing another rather unique path; a personal boycott, if you will. Starting early this morning, I am going to un-friend every single individual on Facebook who voted for Obama, or I even suspect may have Democrat leanings. I will do the same in person. All family and friends, even close family and friends, who I know to be Democrats are hereby dead to me. I vow never to speak to them again for the rest of my life, or have any communications with them. They are in short, the enemies of liberty. They deserve nothing less than hatred and utter contempt
ayo duns when do we get a second thread? 500 pages..
(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md58k8yGDM1rkd8gso1_500.jpg)
http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/
ayo duns when do we get a second thread? 500 pages..
http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2012/11/the-end-of-liberty-in-america-only.html (http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2012/11/the-end-of-liberty-in-america-only.html)
The subtitle is the best:QuoteTime to tell any Democrats you know to fuck off and dieQuoteHowever, for me, I'm choosing another rather unique path; a personal boycott, if you will. Starting early this morning, I am going to un-friend every single individual on Facebook who voted for Obama, or I even suspect may have Democrat leanings. I will do the same in person. All family and friends, even close family and friends, who I know to be Democrats are hereby dead to me. I vow never to speak to them again for the rest of my life, or have any communications with them. They are in short, the enemies of liberty. They deserve nothing less than hatred and utter contempt
His former friends sound like they're really missing out.
http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2012/11/the-end-of-liberty-in-america-only.html (http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2012/11/the-end-of-liberty-in-america-only.html)
The subtitle is the best:QuoteTime to tell any Democrats you know to fuck off and die
I offer my opinion...I don't CARE if you like it or not. ***Thank you for all the VIEWS you Ron Paul loving douchebags!!! The views, unlike YOU, will REMAIN on my channel forever. Ha. Ha. Ha.*** Thanks a bunch, Paulqaeda.
Now America has only two choices.
One choice is for the Republican House to investigate Benghazi, struggling to expose the truth about Barack Obama's high crimes and misdemeanors, both in his culpable negligence during the attack on our consulate, and in his repeated lies afterward to try to conceal his malfeasance.
You will, of course, support the Beloved Leader in his stonewalling, his refusal to supply documents. You will treat all his lies as if they were not lies; you will ignore the story as much as possible, calling it "old news."
Above all, you will attack the Republican Congressmen as you attacked Kenneth Starr, making them pay such a high price for trying to do your job and uncover the truth that they may well give up. You know, the way you all fell in line to attack Romney for criticizing the administration's response to the attacks on our embassy and consulate.
On the other hand, inside the military, the CIA, and the State Department, there are a lot of angry public servants who now understand that the Beloved Leader does not care about them, that he will abandon them to our enemies, that he will not protect them from terrorists if it isn't politically useful to him.
These disillusioned, angry people will make sure that the evidence is given to the Republicans in the House, and the genuine reporters at Fox News, and the real journalists scattered here and there across the country, and the bloggers on the internet who are unafraid of the truth.
Oh, you'll sneer at or vilify them all, when they do your job and tell the truth about the Beloved Leader.
Still, it's possible that we will be able to impeach this lying incompetent president that is getting a second term only because of your cooperation with his lies. It's possible that we can undo the damage you have done.
But far more likely is the other alternative -- that, faced with your monolithic groupthink, your insistent flacking for the Beloved Leader, your dishonesty that is equal to his dishonesty, your emulation of Pravda, the Republicans in Congress will give up, Fox News will drop the story, it will all go away, and the Beloved Leader will continue in power.
Then, when his appeasement of our enemies results in a nuclear explosion in Tel Aviv ...
When more and more Al-Qaeda-style attacks kill more Jews and more Americans around the world ...
When Obama's incompetent and anti-scientific economic policies have the consequences that such policies always have, and the American economy collapses under the weight of debts and entitlements ...
When Obama's crushing policies result in American healthcare sinking to the low level of service, the endless waiting lists, the needless death and suffering in the name of "fairness" that already afflict Europeans and Canadians ...
When the burden of ever-steeper taxes moves capital and industry and innovation to other countries ...
Will you step forward and take responsibility, and say, "We should have known; in fact we did know, but we did not tell you"?
Will you accept accountability for your lies and omissions in support of the Beloved Leader, for your slanders of the opponents of the Beloved Leader, for your having put your ideology and group loyalty above any notion of truth and honor?
http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2012/11/the-end-of-liberty-in-america-only.html (http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2012/11/the-end-of-liberty-in-america-only.html)
The subtitle is the best:QuoteTime to tell any Democrats you know to fuck off and dieQuoteHowever, for me, I'm choosing another rather unique path; a personal boycott, if you will. Starting early this morning, I am going to un-friend every single individual on Facebook who voted for Obama, or I even suspect may have Democrat leanings. I will do the same in person. All family and friends, even close family and friends, who I know to be Democrats are hereby dead to me. I vow never to speak to them again for the rest of my life, or have any communications with them. They are in short, the enemies of liberty. They deserve nothing less than hatred and utter contempt
His former friends sound like they're really missing out.
Seems a tad extreme.
Granted, I've cut of ties with my previous right wing roommates, but that was for practical reasons, not personal.
Then, when his appeasement of our enemies results in a nuclear explosion in Tel Aviv ...
ayo duns when do we get a second thread? 500 pages..
(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md58k8yGDM1rkd8gso1_500.jpg)
http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/
Yeah that's what I was assuming the writer was intending, but as it's written, an explosion in Tel Aviv would be an explosion within Iran, so that seems off.
On predicting the election results I believed that turnout would be more even and it would result in Mitt Romney getting 275 electoral votes to Obama getting 263. I was off by four states (Colorado, Florida, Ohio, and Virginia) that are worth 69 electoral votes, which is the difference between the 263 I projected and the 332 electoral votes that President Obama won.
So Unskewed polls were the actual skewed polls? Sounds about right. It's really a shame no one will lose any credibility over this.
So Unskewed polls were the actual skewed polls? Sounds about right. It's really a shame no one will lose any credibility over this.
All the polls are skewed. They just make educated guesses on what the turnout will look like and go from there. Those that predicted a 2010-like turnout were off and those that used the 2008 model were right.
Damn, dunno what happened to it. It was a mad white woman.
The thing I keep hearing from my conservative friends is how Romney is this magic turnaround artist, who can make anything work, but then when I ask why he couldn't make a campaign work after 8 years, it's all "that's different".
Polling outfits do not calibrate their party ID and go from there, they ask the people they're surveying what their party ID is and then report the answer. they were consistently getting between D +6 and D +8 and whatdoyaknow!
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/266283107014025216 (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/266283107014025216)
I also think most of my conservative friends have no idea what private equity even is.
Quote from: Barry Egan link=topic=28125.msg1580427#msg1580427Polling outfits do not calibrate their party ID and go from there, they ask the people they're surveying what their party ID is and then report the answer. they were consistently getting between D +6 and D +8 and whatdoyaknow!
I suppose you are right, but if a polling outfit got a result of +5 R in Michigan, would they just run the results? No, they would likely throw that out and try again. There is a baseline (of expectation) they are running on based on past history.
Quote from: Barry Egan link=topic=28125.msg1580427#msg1580427Polling outfits do not calibrate their party ID and go from there, they ask the people they're surveying what their party ID is and then report the answer. they were consistently getting between D +6 and D +8 and whatdoyaknow!
I suppose you are right, but if a polling outfit got a result of +5 R in Michigan, would they just run the results? No, they would likely throw that out and try again. There is a baseline (of expectation) they are running on based on past history.
I'm not an expert on survey science, but I'm pretty sure that "throwing out" a poll because it gives you an unexpected result is bad science and bad ethics. You'd publish and include the caveat that you think there's a good chance you botched it somehow.
And in any case, the baseline expectation was being set by other polls. When the vast majority of your polls are showing something and it largely conforms to the results of different pollsters, unless there's something in the data that shows a statistical bias (certain gender/ethnicity/locality being significantly over- or undersampled compared to its actual representation), the unbiased thing is to conclude that the polls are probably approaching the truth. Chambers et al were using their own intuition, then going back and bending the data towards that, rather than vice versa.
Intelligent design: unskewed biology!
Global warming denial: unskewed climatology!
Expansionary austerity: unskewed macroeconomics!
Fox News: unskewed journalism!
Anti-vaccination: unskewed epidemiology!
Civil War revisionism: unskewed historiography!
Paul Ryan's budget: unskewed arithmetic!
Finally, America will be straightened out!
Obama let you guys carry guns in national parks and you still act like he's taking your guns away? ::)
Obama let you guys carry guns in national parks and you still act like he's taking your guns away? ::)
my post had nothing to do with Obama, and yet you're acting like I'm claiming that he's trying to take MAH GUNZ away?
Obama let you guys carry guns in national parks and you still act like he's taking your guns away? ::)
my post had nothing to do with Obama, and yet you're acting like I'm claiming that he's trying to take MAH GUNZ away?
Yeah, it's not like Obama's name was in the headline, lead sentence, or url of the link.
"Just days ago as he campaigned for re-election," he concluded, "Barack Obama told his supporters that voting is the 'best revenge.' I guess now we know what he was talking about. The revenge he seeks is against American gun owners and their Second Amendment rights."
I get what you're saying and it woulda been reasonable for Republicans to expect a 2010 turnout and Democrats to expect a 2008 turnout if there were a small amount of data available leading up to the election. But there was a ton of data and I think it's pretty clear now that aggregated poll results leading up to an election is a lot more predictive
That UN treaty doesn't have anything to do with domestic firearm possession in the first place, assuming it's even agreed to.
Anti-gun treaty proponents continue to mislead the public, claiming the treaty would have no impact on American gun owners. That's a bald-faced lie. For example, the most recent draft treaty includes export/import controls that would require officials in an importing country to collect information on the 'end user' of a firearm, keep the information for 20 years, and provide the information to the country from which the gun was exported. In other words, if you bought a Beretta shotgun, you would be an 'end user' and the U.S. government would have to keep a record of you and notify the Italian government about your purchase. That is gun registration. If the U.S. refuses to implement this data collection on law-abiding American gun owners, other nations might be required to ban the export of firearms to the U.S.
And it's not like the article didn't also have this:
So, yeah.
that's from the institute of legislative action
Bobby McDonald "learned the hard way that every vote counts," the Kentucky Enquirer reports.
McDonald "finished in a dead heat Tuesday with Olivia Ballou for the sixth and final seat on the Walton City Council. Each candidate captured 669 votes, but one ballot McDonald is sure would have gone his way was never cast. His wife, Katie, who works nights... didn't make it to the polls yesterday.
Said McDonald: "If she had just been able to get in to vote, we wouldn't be going through any of this. You never think it will come down to one vote, but I'm here to tell you that it does."
lunacidal
Rene G. @rcg99:lol
Wow. Romney's staffers' credit cards were cancelled after his concession speech and couldn't be used to pay cab fare for ride home.
Dean Chambers finally shows his face:
http://www.examiner.com/article/do-you-still-think-the-polls-were-skewed?cid=db_articlesQuoteOn predicting the election results I believed that turnout would be more even and it would result in Mitt Romney getting 275 electoral votes to Obama getting 263. I was off by four states (Colorado, Florida, Ohio, and Virginia) that are worth 69 electoral votes, which is the difference between the 263 I projected and the 332 electoral votes that President Obama won.
I was only off by four states, guys! Conveniently forgetting that he had Romney winning by 350 EVs until the day before the election, when he suddenly and for no apparently reason changed his prediction to a less wrong one, based on, you know, "it just feels right".
Karl Rove told Fox News' Megyn Kelly on Thursday that President Obama won re-election "by suppressing the vote" with negative campaign ads that "turned off" potential voters.
To me, the most telling incident of the campaign season was a poll that found that among young Americans, socialism enjoys a higher favorability rating than free enterprise. How can this possibly be, given the catastrophic failure of socialism, and the corresponding success of free enterprise, throughout history? The answer is that conservatives have entirely lost control over the culture. The educational system, the entertainment industry, the news media and every cultural institution that comes to mind are all dedicated to turning out liberals. To an appalling degree, they have succeeded. Historical illiteracy is just one consequence. Unless conservatives somehow succeed in regaining parity or better in the culture, the drift toward statism will inevitably continue, even if Republicans win the occasional election.
QuoteRene G. @rcg99:lol
Wow. Romney's staffers' credit cards were cancelled after his concession speech and couldn't be used to pay cab fare for ride home.
what a dick
Fox News now has a live countdown to the "fiscal cliff." :lol
Wouldn't surprise me. Benghazi was an election "issue," so there's not really any point in talking about it now.
Not sure if this should go in this thread or random talk but it's election related.
I found out that my sisters Italian teacher decided to talk about politics and specifically made not of his support for Romney, his disdain for Obama and had a lengthy discussion about Obamacare and how it shouldn't cover Abortions because that's wrong. My mom wants to let it go but I'm going to talk with my father about it. I think that's highly inappropriate, although I do think teens should be more informed about politics in a non-bias format.
Fox News now has a live countdown to the "fiscal cliff." :lol
You're thinking about Teheran? Because Tel-Aviv sure is in Israel...
You're thinking about Teheran? Because Tel-Aviv sure is in Israel...
:duh
My bad, that's what I was confusing it with.
You're thinking about Teheran? Because Tel-Aviv sure is in Israel...
:duh
My bad, that's what I was confusing it with.
Unskewed geography :'(
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/11/08/americans_actually_voted_for_a_democratic_house.html
The total votes cast for Democratic House candidates exceed the votes cast for Republican candidates by about half a million right now, but Republicans will have a few dozen more seats.
Gerrymandering's probably a big factor, cause the GOP won all those state legislatures in 2010 in time for redistricting. But part of it might be that the Dems managed to field credible candidates in more districts than the Republicans. In the Senate races it seemed like the GOP was having a hard time recruiting people to run and that might have been true in the House too.
Still, hard to see that disparity having nothing to do with the way districts were drawn. I'd love to see the vote total/seat total split broken down by states that had Dem legislatures in 2010 and those that had GOP legislatures.
Adviser: Romney "shellshocked" by loss
Mitt Romney's campaign got its first hint something was wrong on the afternoon of Election Day, when state campaign workers on the ground began reporting huge turnout in areas favorable to President Obama: northeastern Ohio, northern Virginia, central Florida and Miami-Dade.
Then came the early exit polls that also were favorable to the president.
But it wasn't until the polls closed that concern turned into alarm. They expected North Carolina to be called early. It wasn't. They expected Pennsylvania to be up in the air all night; it went early for the President.
After Ohio went for Mr. Obama, it was over, but senior advisers say no one could process it.
"We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory," said one senior adviser. "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."
They just couldn't believe they had been so wrong. And maybe they weren't: There was Karl Rove on Fox saying Ohio wasn't settled, so campaign aides decided to wait. They didn't want to have to withdraw their concession, like Al Gore did in 2000, and they thought maybe the suburbs of Columbus and Cincinnati, which hadn't been reported, could make a difference.
But then came Colorado for the president and Florida also was looking tougher than anyone had imagined.
"We just felt, 'where's our path?'" said a senior adviser. "There wasn't one."
Romney then said what they knew: it was over.
His personal assistant, Garrett Jackson, called his counterpart on Mr. Obama's staff, Marvin Nicholson. "Is your boss available?" Jackson asked.
Romney was stoic as he talked to the president, an aide said, but his wife Ann cried. Running mate Paul Ryan seemed genuinely shocked, the adviser said. Ryan's wife Janna also was shaken and cried softly.
"There's nothing worse than when you think you're going to win, and you don't," said another adviser. "It was like a sucker punch."
Their emotion was visible on their faces when they walked on stage after Romney finished his remarks, which Romney had hastily composed, knowing he had to say something.
Both wives looked stricken, and Ryan himself seemed grim. They all were thrust on that stage without understanding what had just happened.
"He was shellshocked," one adviser said of Romney.
Romney and his campaign had gone into the evening confident they had a good path to victory, for emotional and intellectual reasons. The huge and enthusiastic crowds in swing state after swing state in recent weeks - not only for Romney but also for Paul Ryan - bolstered what they believed intellectually: that Obama would not get the kind of turnout he had in 2008.
They thought intensity and enthusiasm were on their side this time - poll after poll showed Republicans were more motivated to vote than Democrats - and that would translate into votes for Romney.
As a result, they believed the public/media polls were skewed - they thought those polls oversampled Democrats and didn't reflect Republican enthusiasm. They based their own internal polls on turnout levels more favorable to Romney. That was a grave miscalculation, as they would see on election night.
Those assumptions drove their campaign strategy: their internal polling showed them leading in key states, so they decided to make a play for a broad victory: go to places like Pennsylvania while also playing it safe in the last two weeks.
Those assessments were wrong.
They made three key miscalculations, in part because this race bucked historical trends:
1. They misread turnout. They expected it to be between 2004 and 2008 levels, with a plus-2 or plus-3 Democratic electorate, instead of plus-7 as it was in 2008. Their assumptions were wrong on both sides: The president's base turned out and Romney's did not. More African-Americans voted in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida than in 2008. And fewer Republicans did: Romney got just over 2 million fewer votes than John McCain.
2. Independents. State polls showed Romney winning big among independents. Historically, any candidate polling that well among independents wins. But as it turned out, many of those independents were former Republicans who now self-identify as independents. The state polls weren't oversampling Democrats and undersampling Republicans - there just weren't as many Republicans this time because they were calling themselves independents.
3. Undecided voters. The perception is they always break for the challenger, since people know the incumbent and would have decided already if they were backing him. Romney was counting on that trend to continue. Instead, exit polls show Mr. Obama won among people who made up their minds on Election Day and in the few days before the election. So maybe Romney, after running for six years, was in the same position as the incumbent.
The campaign before the election had expressed confidence in its calculations, and insisted the Obama campaign, with its own confidence and a completely different analysis, was wrong. In the end, it the other way around.
"They were right," a Romney campaign senior adviser said of the Obama campaign's assessments. "And if they were right, we lose."
Damn, dunno what happened to it. It was a mad white woman.
The thing I keep hearing from my conservative friends is how Romney is this magic turnaround artist, who can make anything work, but then when I ask why he couldn't make a campaign work after 8 years, it's all "that's different".
So ... you're saying politics are not the same as running a business? And here I thought we all lived in America, Inc.
Damn, dunno what happened to it. It was a mad white woman.
The thing I keep hearing from my conservative friends is how Romney is this magic turnaround artist, who can make anything work, but then when I ask why he couldn't make a campaign work after 8 years, it's all "that's different".
So ... you're saying politics are not the same as running a business? And here I thought we all lived in America, Inc.
GWB was also praised for his Harvard MBA at first. Look how that turned out. Although Bush had a shitty track record in the private sector as well.
QuoteAdviser: Romney "shellshocked" by loss
Mitt Romney's campaign got its first hint something was wrong on the afternoon of Election Day, when state campaign workers on the ground began reporting huge turnout in areas favorable to President Obama: northeastern Ohio, northern Virginia, central Florida and Miami-Dade.
Then came the early exit polls that also were favorable to the president.
But it wasn't until the polls closed that concern turned into alarm. They expected North Carolina to be called early. It wasn't. They expected Pennsylvania to be up in the air all night; it went early for the President.
After Ohio went for Mr. Obama, it was over, but senior advisers say no one could process it.
"We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory," said one senior adviser. "I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."
They just couldn't believe they had been so wrong. And maybe they weren't: There was Karl Rove on Fox saying Ohio wasn't settled, so campaign aides decided to wait. They didn't want to have to withdraw their concession, like Al Gore did in 2000, and they thought maybe the suburbs of Columbus and Cincinnati, which hadn't been reported, could make a difference.
But then came Colorado for the president and Florida also was looking tougher than anyone had imagined.
"We just felt, 'where's our path?'" said a senior adviser. "There wasn't one."
Romney then said what they knew: it was over.
His personal assistant, Garrett Jackson, called his counterpart on Mr. Obama's staff, Marvin Nicholson. "Is your boss available?" Jackson asked.
Romney was stoic as he talked to the president, an aide said, but his wife Ann cried. Running mate Paul Ryan seemed genuinely shocked, the adviser said. Ryan's wife Janna also was shaken and cried softly.
"There's nothing worse than when you think you're going to win, and you don't," said another adviser. "It was like a sucker punch."
Their emotion was visible on their faces when they walked on stage after Romney finished his remarks, which Romney had hastily composed, knowing he had to say something.
Both wives looked stricken, and Ryan himself seemed grim. They all were thrust on that stage without understanding what had just happened.
"He was shellshocked," one adviser said of Romney.
Romney and his campaign had gone into the evening confident they had a good path to victory, for emotional and intellectual reasons. The huge and enthusiastic crowds in swing state after swing state in recent weeks - not only for Romney but also for Paul Ryan - bolstered what they believed intellectually: that Obama would not get the kind of turnout he had in 2008.
They thought intensity and enthusiasm were on their side this time - poll after poll showed Republicans were more motivated to vote than Democrats - and that would translate into votes for Romney.
As a result, they believed the public/media polls were skewed - they thought those polls oversampled Democrats and didn't reflect Republican enthusiasm. They based their own internal polls on turnout levels more favorable to Romney. That was a grave miscalculation, as they would see on election night.
Those assumptions drove their campaign strategy: their internal polling showed them leading in key states, so they decided to make a play for a broad victory: go to places like Pennsylvania while also playing it safe in the last two weeks.
Those assessments were wrong.
They made three key miscalculations, in part because this race bucked historical trends:
1. They misread turnout. They expected it to be between 2004 and 2008 levels, with a plus-2 or plus-3 Democratic electorate, instead of plus-7 as it was in 2008. Their assumptions were wrong on both sides: The president's base turned out and Romney's did not. More African-Americans voted in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida than in 2008. And fewer Republicans did: Romney got just over 2 million fewer votes than John McCain.
2. Independents. State polls showed Romney winning big among independents. Historically, any candidate polling that well among independents wins. But as it turned out, many of those independents were former Republicans who now self-identify as independents. The state polls weren't oversampling Democrats and undersampling Republicans - there just weren't as many Republicans this time because they were calling themselves independents.
3. Undecided voters. The perception is they always break for the challenger, since people know the incumbent and would have decided already if they were backing him. Romney was counting on that trend to continue. Instead, exit polls show Mr. Obama won among people who made up their minds on Election Day and in the few days before the election. So maybe Romney, after running for six years, was in the same position as the incumbent.
The campaign before the election had expressed confidence in its calculations, and insisted the Obama campaign, with its own confidence and a completely different analysis, was wrong. In the end, it the other way around.
"They were right," a Romney campaign senior adviser said of the Obama campaign's assessments. "And if they were right, we lose."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57547239/adviser-romney-shellshocked-by-loss/?pageNum=2&tag=page
Chris Christie Called Obama To Congratulate Him, Offered Mitt Romney Condolences Over Emailhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/christ-christie-obama_n_2095210.html
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) told reporters Thursday he reached out to President Barack Obama with a personal phone call to congratulate him on his reelection. Mitt Romney, the man Christie had campaigned with and raised money for, got a conciliatory email, the governor said.
“We didn’t have a political strategy discussion," Christie said of his Wednesday phone chat with Obama, Bloomberg reports. "I said, 'Congratulations on your win last night, Mr. President,' and he said, 'Thank you.'"
Asked if he'd given Romney the same treatment, Christie said that he hadn't.
“No; we exchanged e-mails last night,” Christie said, according to Bloomberg. “We haven’t spoken on the phone yet.”
I think this is all bullshit, they knew what was going to happen. Unless they are really hitting the Kool Aid hard
Christie is so fucked in the near future. Tea baggers will NEVER forgive his apostasy.
Btw, Romney had no concession speech planned, so it wouldn't be surprising at all if he and his campaign were deep inside the bubble as well.
I can't wait for the inevitable tell-all stories about the Romney campaign. I still think that the campaign was very tightly controlled from the top donors who wound up causing a lot of problems down the road (NAACP speech, picking Ryan as VP) and cost him the election.
2 Latino candidates for prez in 2016, bank on it.
I can't wait for the inevitable tell-all stories about the Romney campaign. I still think that the campaign was very tightly controlled from the top donors who wound up causing a lot of problems down the road (NAACP speech, picking Ryan as VP) and cost him the election.
The thing is there was a time where it made good political sense (and awful moral sense) for the Republican party to be this really racist xenophobic party. Especially when they were trying to switch over southerners to the Republican brand in the 70's, 80's, 90's.
They won that war. And now its time to drop that stuff and chart a different course but they are trapped by the monster they created. They don't know anything different at the moment to combat the changing demographics of America. I fully expect their short term solution will be to just nominate Rubio in 2016 and try to conquer and divide minorities on that basis rather than actually fundamentally change who they are.
Gerrymandering's probably a big factor, cause the GOP won all those state legislatures in 2010 in time for redistricting. But part of it might be that the Dems managed to field credible candidates in more districts than the Republicans. In the Senate races it seemed like the GOP was having a hard time recruiting people to run and that might have been true in the House too.
there just weren't as many Republicans this time because they were calling themselves independents.
I can't wait for the inevitable tell-all stories about the Romney campaign. I still think that the campaign was very tightly controlled from the top donors who wound up causing a lot of problems down the road (NAACP speech, picking Ryan as VP) and cost him the election.
The thing is there was a time where it made good political sense (and awful moral sense) for the Republican party to be this really racist xenophobic party. Especially when they were trying to switch over southerners to the Republican brand in the 70's, 80's, 90's.
They won that war. And now its time to drop that stuff and chart a different course but they are trapped by the monster they created. They don't know anything different at the moment to combat the changing demographics of America. I fully expect their short term solution will be to just nominate Rubio in 2016 and try to conquer and divide minorities on that basis rather than actually fundamentally change who they are.
Yeah but they're going to have to do it anyway. The fantasy that the Republicans are going to shrink to nothing is a masturbatory fantasy. They're a major political party, they will adapt. I think they probably will coast on white resentment until Texas turns uncomfortably purple though. That could be a while though.
Or not. I'll never vote for a Republican anyway unless by some freak occurrence they start being more liberal than Democrats. So whether they wither away into nothing or create a new long lasting majority by successfully bringing the Hispanic vote in means nothing to me.
This past election I found it pretty humorous how obsessed with work this country is. Not quality of life, or improving our health outcomes, or new ways to encourage kindness ... but work. We need more work .. we need those shitty jobs that our grandfathers used to work to come back to America. We cheer when a company "reshores" into depressed areas of America because they are starving for 10 dollar/hr jobs. I wonder if that will ever change ... or is it too ingrained into our cultural psyches?
I also wonder if we will ever have a national conversation on how (since the mid-70's) technology/efficiency has destroyed jobs. These aren't jobs we 'lost to overseas' .. these are jobs that just don't exist. Just look at this last recent dip:
http://www.aei-ideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/gdpemp.jpg
Our GDP is 2.2 percent higher than the start of the recession .. but with almost 4 million less jobs. I don't see how that is going to change in the near future. Especially as technology and efficiency marches on.
You don't need to work to make money in a capitalist economy.
(http://www.aei-ideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/gdpemp.jpg)
Our GDP is 2.2 percent higher than the start of the recession .. but with almost 4 million less jobs. I don't see how that is going to change in the near future. Especially as technology and efficiency marches on.
If you're in a capitalist economy it makes sense. You need to work to make money, and if there aren't enough jobs to match willing potential workers, then you've got a lot of people in dire straits. Even if employment's already decent, more jobs (or more job openings) means competition among firms and rising wages.
The alternative is socialism, and I'd be genuinely surprised if that's what you wanted.
I don't think technology is causing structural unemployment. We had very, very low unemployment in the late 90's and low unemployment in the mid-00's before the seams came off the financial system. It's not like the crash happened because a bunch of occupations suddenly became obsolete. Also, GDP recovered ahead of employment in the Great Depression as well (stats from that era are a bit fuzzier but IIRC it's a sharp enough contrast that it doesn't really matter in this case).
I was discussing this in regards to Herman Cain with someone when they wondered why black people wouldn't vote for Cain. I told them that's probably because Black people vote democrat, and not based on skin color. The same thinking applies to Rubio (although I think Rubio would be much better on immigration than the current GOP as a whole), they see appeal based only on race.2 Latino candidates for prez in 2016, bank on it.
Rubio will most likely be the GOP candidate, because that's how they think they can win the latino vote.
A spokesman for the Senate Intelligence Committee tells Politico that Acting CIA Director Mike Morell will testify on the Benghazi attack next week instead of David Petraeus, who resigned on Friday, admitting to an extramarital affair.
BREAKING NEWS: FBI investigating Petraeus biographer Paula Broadwell for trying to access his emailuh oh
from MSNBCQuoteBREAKING NEWS: FBI investigating Petraeus biographer Paula Broadwell for trying to access his emailuh oh
lol @ Drudge's front page, which seems to have scooped who he had an affair with first. Drudge outed her with some Jay-Z esque subtlety.
Not sure if this should go in this thread or random talk but it's election related.
I found out that my sisters Italian teacher decided to talk about politics and specifically made not of his support for Romney, his disdain for Obama and had a lengthy discussion about Obamacare and how it shouldn't cover Abortions because that's wrong. My mom wants to let it go but I'm going to talk with my father about it. I think that's highly inappropriate, although I do think teens should be more informed about politics in a non-bias format.
SE Cupp trolling/annihilating Andrew Sullivan
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/andrew-sullivan-and-s-e-cupp-clash-over-gay-marriage-mormonism-on-real-time/
:fbm
2 Latino candidates for prez in 2016, bank on it.
this is why i didn't want Obama to win:
http://centerfiresystems.com/AKAGUN-AMD.aspx
this rifle was $430 bucks a week ago, i've been holding off on buying one and now i'm going to pay for it, in 2008 ammo and gun prices went up due to the tards in the gun community hysterically buying shit and they never went back down and now it's happening again, and i'd bet everything it'll never go down again either. fucking hick Cabela card carrying ass crack hanging out of their shit tier jeans Bubba's need to shoot themselves in the foot and bleed out all over their fall camo truck seat covers en masse...
(http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg10/lg/NY_NYP.jpg)
:lol
We will never be rid of these fuckers, will we?
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/09/another-bush-to-run-in-texas/
Not that it makes any difference at this point, but Florida was finally called a few minutes ago for Obama, who won by 74,000 votes.
"We're simply not going to just walk away from the race until we see that the numbers add up," West campaign manager Tim Edson said.
Not that it makes any difference at this point, but Florida was finally called a few minutes ago for Obama, who won by 74,000 votes.
This is narrow enough for a recount isn't it? Or is that only if requested by a campaign?
We will never be rid of these fuckers, will we?
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/09/another-bush-to-run-in-texas/
Half Mexican, speaks fluent Spanish, military service. He'll be here to stay
Betting on the wrong horse: The night Benjamin Netanyahu will not soon forgetrest of article: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=44205785&postcount=12052
The astonishment that seized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his advisers on Wednesday morning, as President Barack Obama crossed the threshold of 270 electoral votes needed to return him to the White House, was as absolute as it was authentic. Netanyahu was utterly convinced that the presidency was in the pocket of the candidate of his choice, his old buddy Mitt Romney. In private conversations, he ridiculed anyone who advised him not to rule out a scenario in which the other candidate was the winner.
What made Netanyahu and his political adviser, the American-born Ron Dermer, ignore the various polling analyses - such as Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog for The New York Times - that were published every day in the American media, and that almost universally predicted an Obama victory?
That question has a two-word answer: Arthur Finkelstein. Until the end, the legendary strategic adviser and polling expert - who is working with Netanyahu and his running mate in the upcoming election in January, Yisrael Beiteinu's Avigdor Lieberman - hammered it into their heads that Mitt Romney would be the next president of the United States. Finkelstein predicted a 4 percent win for Romney in the popular vote (he lost by approximately 2 percent) and victories in all the swing states (Romney lost all but one).
(http://i.minus.com/ibwT4xiIpXSdgf.gif)
Did someone already say in this thread that they would hate fuck Cupp?
I think I'm in that boat as well. :-\
but would you hatefuck orson scott card? http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2012-11-08-1.html
You have to attack Fox News and sneer at them and accuse them of bias, don't you -- because they're actually doing the job you merely pretend to do. They shame you by their genuinely balanced coverage, so you have to lie and accuse them of being what you are: ideological hacks, providing propaganda in order to advance a cause, while hiding the unhelpful truth.
Paula Broadwell, the biographer who had an affair with CIA Director David Petraeus, sent threatening emails to the State Department's liaison to the military's Joint Special Operations Command, a senior military official told the Associated Press. The emails from Broadwell to the official, Jill Kelley of Tampa, Fla., triggered the FBI investigation that led to the discovery of the affair.
We will never be rid of these fuckers, will we?
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/09/another-bush-to-run-in-texas/
so peter king trying to insinuate the petreaus affair "just doesn't add up," questioning obama's handling of the situation.
good fucking christ, ALREADY
this is why i didn't want Obama to win:
http://centerfiresystems.com/AKAGUN-AMD.aspx
this rifle was $430 bucks a week ago, i've been holding off on buying one and now i'm going to pay for it, in 2008 ammo and gun prices went up due to the tards in the gun community hysterically buying shit and they never went back down and now it's happening again, and i'd bet everything it'll never go down again either. fucking hick Cabela card carrying ass crack hanging out of their shit tier jeans Bubba's need to shoot themselves in the foot and bleed out all over their fall camo truck seat covers en masse...
http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2012-11-08-1.html
i'm certain the author of beloved children's book "Ender's War" has some insightful words about the election and media coverage of the president.
but really it's all amazingQuoteNow America has only two choices.
One choice is for the Republican House to investigate Benghazi, struggling to expose the truth about Barack Obama's high crimes and misdemeanors, both in his culpable negligence during the attack on our consulate, and in his repeated lies afterward to try to conceal his malfeasance.
You will, of course, support the Beloved Leader in his stonewalling, his refusal to supply documents. You will treat all his lies as if they were not lies; you will ignore the story as much as possible, calling it "old news."
Above all, you will attack the Republican Congressmen as you attacked Kenneth Starr, making them pay such a high price for trying to do your job and uncover the truth that they may well give up. You know, the way you all fell in line to attack Romney for criticizing the administration's response to the attacks on our embassy and consulate.
On the other hand, inside the military, the CIA, and the State Department, there are a lot of angry public servants who now understand that the Beloved Leader does not care about them, that he will abandon them to our enemies, that he will not protect them from terrorists if it isn't politically useful to him.
These disillusioned, angry people will make sure that the evidence is given to the Republicans in the House, and the genuine reporters at Fox News, and the real journalists scattered here and there across the country, and the bloggers on the internet who are unafraid of the truth.
Oh, you'll sneer at or vilify them all, when they do your job and tell the truth about the Beloved Leader.
Still, it's possible that we will be able to impeach this lying incompetent president that is getting a second term only because of your cooperation with his lies. It's possible that we can undo the damage you have done.
But far more likely is the other alternative -- that, faced with your monolithic groupthink, your insistent flacking for the Beloved Leader, your dishonesty that is equal to his dishonesty, your emulation of Pravda, the Republicans in Congress will give up, Fox News will drop the story, it will all go away, and the Beloved Leader will continue in power.
Then, when his appeasement of our enemies results in a nuclear explosion in Tel Aviv ...
When more and more Al-Qaeda-style attacks kill more Jews and more Americans around the world ...
When Obama's incompetent and anti-scientific economic policies have the consequences that such policies always have, and the American economy collapses under the weight of debts and entitlements ...
When Obama's crushing policies result in American healthcare sinking to the low level of service, the endless waiting lists, the needless death and suffering in the name of "fairness" that already afflict Europeans and Canadians ...
When the burden of ever-steeper taxes moves capital and industry and innovation to other countries ...
Will you step forward and take responsibility, and say, "We should have known; in fact we did know, but we did not tell you"?
Will you accept accountability for your lies and omissions in support of the Beloved Leader, for your slanders of the opponents of the Beloved Leader, for your having put your ideology and group loyalty above any notion of truth and honor?
ABC's Denver affiliate accidentally ran a fake cover of Paula Broadwell's biography of General David Petraeus in a story on the burgeoning sex scandal, Americablog reports.
The book's real title is All In. The doctored book cover read, All Up In My Snatch
Hmm why not, curious. Seems like the best thing to do alongside allowing everyone to purchase into the program, to ensure older/poorer patients aren't being ignored
Yea....gonna need Mandark to hold a press conference on this ASAP
Mitt Romney told his top donors Wednesday that his loss to President Obama was a disappointing result that neither he or his top aides had expected, but said he believed his team ran a “superb” campaign with “no drama,” and attributed his rival’s victory to “the gifts” the administration had given to blacks, Hispanics and young voters during Obama’s first term.http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-election-campaign-donors-20121114,0,5622330.story
Nate Silver Goes to Hollywood?http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/11/14/quote_of_the_day.html
A "high-level talent agency" tells the Hollywood Reporter that Nate Silver "is attracting strong interest from the industry. This person believes Silver could try his hand at everything from box-office analysis to a correspondent gig on a television news program, not to mention radio shows and public speaking."
Silver confirms he "has been approached with offers from TV producers, is pondering a follow-up to his best-selling book The Signal and the Noise (which hit No. 2 on Amazon post-election) and has been courted by Los Angeles-based talent agencies."
I will not be at all surprised when Aaron Sorkin comes out with his screenplay about Nate Silver to close out his "numbers geek invades alpha-male territory" trilogy.
"In some parts of rural Maine, there were dozens, dozens of black people who came in and voted on Election Day," he said. "Everybody has a right to vote, but nobody in (these) towns knows anyone who's black. How did that happen? I don't know. We're going to find out."
When Carrigan pressed Webster on where it happened, Webster provided no specifics or proof of his claims, but said the party would investigate further.
"I'm not talking about 15 or 20. I'm talking hundreds," he said Wednesday. "I'm not politically correct and maybe I shouldn't have said these voters were black, but anyone who suggests I have a bias toward any race or group, frankly, that's sleazy."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhQ31b_dbnM
"bubububu marijuana!"
Wasn't Al Capone referred to as the "mayor of Chicago"?
Therefore Obama = Al Capone.
Thought that was pretty self explanatory.
HAY GUYZ WTF IS GOING ON IN ISRAEL AND GA-
Oh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_legislative_election,_2013
Was forced to watch faux news all weekend. Fiscal cliff, taxes going up on everyone, bengazi, fiscal cliff merry go round.
The only guy that speaks at any sort of depth is, in my mind, Eminem.
Kristina Collins, a chiropractor in McLean, Va., said she and her husband planned to closely monitor the business income from their joint practice to avoid crossing the income threshold for higher taxes outlined by President Obama on earnings above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
Ms. Collins said she felt torn by being near the cutoff line and disappointed that federal tax policy was providing a disincentive to keep expanding a business she founded in 1998.
“If we’re really close and it’s near the end-year, maybe we’ll just close down for a while and go on vacation,” she said.
Now, The New York Times has reported that Murdoch's tweet prompted Christie to call Murdoch on November 3 to personally explain that "amid the devastation, New Jersey needed friends no matter their political party." But Murdoch rebuffed Christie's explanation for why he had praised Obama and, according to the Times, bluntly told Christie that he "risked looking like a spoiler unless he publicly reaffirmed his support for Romney." Following the call, Christie reiterated his support for Romney the following day.
How can small business owners be this stupid...QuoteKristina Collins, a chiropractor in McLean, Va., said she and her husband planned to closely monitor the business income from their joint practice to avoid crossing the income threshold for higher taxes outlined by President Obama on earnings above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
Ms. Collins said she felt torn by being near the cutoff line and disappointed that federal tax policy was providing a disincentive to keep expanding a business she founded in 1998.
“If we’re really close and it’s near the end-year, maybe we’ll just close down for a while and go on vacation,” she said.
http://readingisforsnobs.blogspot.com/2012/11/your-job-creators-ladies-and-gentlemen.html
Take that, ObaMAO. :smug
I also told some conservative friends that Israel is merely a regional problem and not really the epic world shaking problem they imagine it to be.
You can imagine how that went over :lol
Dean Chambers is back!
http://www.barackofraudo.com/ (http://www.barackofraudo.com/)
:smug
Dean Chambers is back!
http://www.barackofraudo.com/ (http://www.barackofraudo.com/)
:smug
Barack O'Fraudo, our first Irish president. :american
So sad that a person can have the right opinion on defense issues and then spoil it by being bat shit insane on everything else.
So sad that a person can have the right opinion on defense issues and then spoil it by being bat shit insane on everything else.
Sometimes a broken clock is right twice a day.
Some days, I have to pinch myself to remember that Andrew Breitbart is still dead
Romney resurfaces after losing his bid for the most powerful office in the world:spoiler (click to show/hide)(http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr03/2012/11/20/7/enhanced-buzz-11206-1353414122-3.jpg)[close]
December 21st, people keep saying. We’ll have a deal by December 21st… Here’s how it could work: The top-income tax cuts expire, as Obama wants. Those cuts only raise about $80 billion in 2013, so they’re a ‘down payment’ on reform. And their cost is that the Democrats identify roughly $80 billion in spending cuts that can be passed into law now — so Republicans also get a ‘down payment’ on the bigger deal. And all this happens in the context of a framework for a larger deal, which includes the promise of tax reform in 2013.”
and lets not forget that getting rid of the Bush tax cuts is not a one year effect - it'll reduce the deficit by what, 800b over ten years?
Deficit reduction of $160 billion in a single year (~$2 trillion for the typical 10-year forecasts, assuming 5% nominal GDP growth) would not be piddly shit.
Deficit reduction of $160 billion in a single year (~$2 trillion for the typical 10-year forecasts, assuming 5% nominal GDP growth) would not be piddly shit.
Especially by the standards of a lame duck Congressional session.
As the economy adjusts to a lower path for budget deficits, real GDP is projected to begin growing again in late 2013. The pace of economic expansion will average 4.3 percent from 2014 through 2017, CBO projects, although the economy will continue to operate below its potential level (when output reflects a high rate of use of labor and capital) until 2018.
If you believe GDP growth will remain tepid and the another recession is on the horizon...why would you raise taxes on the middle class?
If you believe GDP growth will remain tepid and the another recession is on the horizon...why would you raise taxes on the middle class?
Unless you believe deficit reduction is an important moral goal for its own sake, then the whole point of closing the gap is the benefits to the country in economic growth and stability. Because we're still in an economy with a lot of slack and at the zero lower bound for monetary policy, sharply reducing the deficit this year would probably be counterproductive for those goals.
Don't worry, all the deficit fear-mongering will go away once a Republican is back in the White House.
Walter F. Mondale has quietly decided on a strategic shift that blunts the issue of the Federal budget deficit and focuses on broader social and foreign policy themes.
The key aim of the shift, his advisers say, is to bolster Mr. Mondale’s prospects among traditional Democrats and trade unionists leaning toward President Reagan, as well as among independent voters and young professionals who found the deficit issue difficult to grasp in a time of relative economic prosperity.
…
Another adviser said the lack of positive movement in the polls for Mr. Mondale in August and September, as he repeatedly discussed the deficit, had privately convinced some of his key aides that using the Federal debt as a major campaign issue was a political gamble that was not paying off.
…
A political adviser put it more bluntly. ”The deficit is not the premier issue it was,” he said.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry promised Wednesday he would cut the federal budget deficit before it becomes a "fiscal cancer" that undermines the U.S. economy.
Kerry said he would raise taxes on the richest Americans, restrain spending, crack down on tax loopholes for companies that move jobs overseas and eliminate corporate welfare to cut the deficit -- now expected to run about $480 billion this year -- in half in four years.
Kerry said a growing federal debt will result in higher interest rates that will "dry up investment" and scare off overseas investors. President Bush's tax cuts, coupled with increased government spending, will result in a $6 trillion gap between spending and revenue over 10 years, he added.
"He made a clear choice: To pass the bucks to the privileged while passing the buck to our children," said Kerry, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee. "Because of this president's decisions, a child born today will inherit at $20,000 debt -- a 'birth tax' that he or she had no part in creating."
Rolling back a few more brackets to 1999 levels is not 'aggressively pursuing' austerity. It's correcting bad policy. Policies which the Democrats bemoaned as ruinous up until 2010.
If liberals (Krugman) are going to herp and derp that the economy was fantastic in the 50's despite the 90 percent tax brackets on the upper class, they can't sit there and claim financial disaster because we are returning some brackets back to one of the most prosperous times in our country.
You only need to look at the last 4 years on how deficit fearmongering has neutered or dramatically changed the scope and shape of legislation. From ARRA, to the failed energy bill, to Obamacare to the rise of the Tea Party. That dynamic doesn't go away if you meekly chip away at deficit control. If another crisis occurs, government will still have it's hands ties (politically speaking) to do the best for it's people.
This does seem like a nice excuse to segue into talking about a recent Van Cruncheon FB post...
I need to know whether Drinky is that aggressive during Thanksgiving dinner
You only need to look at the last 4 years on how deficit fearmongering has neutered or dramatically changed the scope and shape of legislation. From ARRA, to the failed energy bill, to Obamacare to the rise of the Tea Party. That dynamic doesn't go away if you meekly chip away at deficit control. If another crisis occurs, government will still have it's hands ties (politically speaking) to do the best for it's people.
So we need to dramatically change policy right now to avoid less dramatic changes in policy in the future? OK
Call me when Treasury yields are > 0
My point was that in today's global economy and huge trade deficits, the effect of the consumer's dollar on local economies ain't what it used to be.Imports are ~15% of US GDP, lower than the rate of many industrialized countries pre-globalization. Changes in domestic demand primarily affect domestic business and there aren't really any empirical or theoretical evidence to think that's changed in the last few decades.
If you are so concerned about aggregate demand, why wouldn't you favor a centralized government to have more revenues to act accordingly?
My point was that in today's global economy and huge trade deficits, the effect of the consumer's dollar on local economies ain't what it used to be.
If you are so concerned about aggregate demand, why wouldn't you favor a centralized government to have more revenues to act accordingly?
Drug policing in Baltimore, then, had itself reached a kind of perverse mechanized perfection. The department was following the theories then in vogue, perfected in New York, that emphasized zero tolerance of even minor crimes and strict enforcement of low-level drug possession and dealing. In Central Booking, new arrestees were fitted with a bar code so they could be speedily scanned, processed, and then warehoused. “Like self-checkout at Safeway,” says Frederick Bealefeld, who retired this summer after five years as police commissioner. In the city’s most dystopian year, 2005, Baltimore arrested 108,000 people, out of a total population of 660,000 men, women, and children. The drug war had become an open trawl through the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
This month’s issue of GQ features an interview with Florida Senator Marco Rubio in which he talks about his favorite rap songs. When the interview went live online last week, many people took note of Mr. Rubio’s rap knowledge, but Politicker couldn’t help but notice he appeared to mistakenly describe hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa as a member of the rap group Public Enemy. However, after reading the print version of the issue it is clear that the discrepancy was caused by an edit made by the magazine and not any rap errors made by Mr. Rubio.
In the online version of the interview, writer Michael Hainey is quoted as simply asking Mr. Rubio, “Your autobiography also has to be the first time a politician has cited a love of Afrika Bambaataa. Did you have a favorite Afrika Bambaataa song?” Mr. Rubio is quoted as answering by discussing Public Enemy, a group that did not include Mr. Bambaataa.
“All the normal ones. People forget how dominant Public Enemy became in the mid 80s. No one talks about how transformative they were,” Mr. Rubio said.
When the article appeared online last week, we reached out to Mr. Rubio’s spokesman Alex Conant who said the apparent mistake was caused by the magazine’s editing.
“Yeah, the transcript in print edition edits the conversation for space. In the Q portion in the full interview, there was actually a decent back and forth about rap before he asked the second question about a favorite album,” said Mr. Conant.
Indeed, in the print version of the interview that is now available on newsstands, Mr. Hainey’s full question includes the note that Mr. Bambaataa was sampled in Public Enemy’s song “Fight The Power,” which led to Mr. Rubio’s response.
Mr. Rubio mentioned Mr. Bambaataa in his memoir when he described how he became enamored with “a new kind of music, rap” in his youth.
“My white friends liked hard rock acts–Van Halen, Osbourne and others,” Mr. Rubio wrote. “I didn’t care for that kind of music anymore, and they didn’t care for my preferences, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash.”
conservative magazine defending latino's knowledge of hip hop
we live in weird times my friends
http://politicker.com/2012/11/how-gq-misrepresented-marco-rubios-rap-iq/QuoteThis month’s issue of GQ features an interview with Florida Senator Marco Rubio in which he talks about his favorite rap songs. When the interview went live online last week, many people took note of Mr. Rubio’s rap knowledge, but Politicker couldn’t help but notice he appeared to mistakenly describe hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa as a member of the rap group Public Enemy. However, after reading the print version of the issue it is clear that the discrepancy was caused by an edit made by the magazine and not any rap errors made by Mr. Rubio.
In the online version of the interview, writer Michael Hainey is quoted as simply asking Mr. Rubio, “Your autobiography also has to be the first time a politician has cited a love of Afrika Bambaataa. Did you have a favorite Afrika Bambaataa song?” Mr. Rubio is quoted as answering by discussing Public Enemy, a group that did not include Mr. Bambaataa.
“All the normal ones. People forget how dominant Public Enemy became in the mid 80s. No one talks about how transformative they were,” Mr. Rubio said.
When the article appeared online last week, we reached out to Mr. Rubio’s spokesman Alex Conant who said the apparent mistake was caused by the magazine’s editing.
“Yeah, the transcript in print edition edits the conversation for space. In the Q portion in the full interview, there was actually a decent back and forth about rap before he asked the second question about a favorite album,” said Mr. Conant.
Indeed, in the print version of the interview that is now available on newsstands, Mr. Hainey’s full question includes the note that Mr. Bambaataa was sampled in Public Enemy’s song “Fight The Power,” which led to Mr. Rubio’s response.
Mr. Rubio mentioned Mr. Bambaataa in his memoir when he described how he became enamored with “a new kind of music, rap” in his youth.
“My white friends liked hard rock acts–Van Halen, Osbourne and others,” Mr. Rubio wrote. “I didn’t care for that kind of music anymore, and they didn’t care for my preferences, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash.”
conservative magazine defending latino's knowledge of hip hop
we live in weird times my friends
http://politicker.com/2012/11/how-gq-misrepresented-marco-rubios-rap-iq/QuoteThis month’s issue of GQ features an interview with Florida Senator Marco Rubio in which he talks about his favorite rap songs. When the interview went live online last week, many people took note of Mr. Rubio’s rap knowledge, but Politicker couldn’t help but notice he appeared to mistakenly describe hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa as a member of the rap group Public Enemy. However, after reading the print version of the issue it is clear that the discrepancy was caused by an edit made by the magazine and not any rap errors made by Mr. Rubio.
In the online version of the interview, writer Michael Hainey is quoted as simply asking Mr. Rubio, “Your autobiography also has to be the first time a politician has cited a love of Afrika Bambaataa. Did you have a favorite Afrika Bambaataa song?” Mr. Rubio is quoted as answering by discussing Public Enemy, a group that did not include Mr. Bambaataa.
“All the normal ones. People forget how dominant Public Enemy became in the mid 80s. No one talks about how transformative they were,” Mr. Rubio said.
When the article appeared online last week, we reached out to Mr. Rubio’s spokesman Alex Conant who said the apparent mistake was caused by the magazine’s editing.
“Yeah, the transcript in print edition edits the conversation for space. In the Q portion in the full interview, there was actually a decent back and forth about rap before he asked the second question about a favorite album,” said Mr. Conant.
Indeed, in the print version of the interview that is now available on newsstands, Mr. Hainey’s full question includes the note that Mr. Bambaataa was sampled in Public Enemy’s song “Fight The Power,” which led to Mr. Rubio’s response.
Mr. Rubio mentioned Mr. Bambaataa in his memoir when he described how he became enamored with “a new kind of music, rap” in his youth.
“My white friends liked hard rock acts–Van Halen, Osbourne and others,” Mr. Rubio wrote. “I didn’t care for that kind of music anymore, and they didn’t care for my preferences, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash.”
Latino politician claims to have plenty of "white friends" to deflect claims of racism.
The mortgage deduction needs to be done away with, but very slowly.
I don't think they want to remove it, but cap it. Which is fine at a certain rate.
MIKE ALLEN: This president is not going to extend [Bush tax cuts], he knows that he loses his leverage that way.http://readingisforsnobs.blogspot.com/2012/11/grover-norquist-thinks-congressional.html
NORQUIST: Well, the Republicans also have other leverage. Continuing resolutions on spending and the debt ceiling increase. They can give him debt ceiling increases once a month. They can have him on a rather short leash, you know, here’s your allowance, come back next month.
ALLEN: Okay, wait. You’re proposing that the debt ceiling be increased month by month?
NORQUIST: Monthly if he’s good. Weekly if he’s not.
Crashing the economy and America's credit rating would be a small price to pay so long as they could pin it all on the Democrats, or at least use it as leverage in making sure the top 1% get more tax cuts.
Democrats generally don't like to talk about this out loud, but if they got exactly what they're demanding -- if, in other words, the House today passed the Senate bill preserving tax breaks on income up to $250,000 -- they'd suddenly find themselves in an unexpected and slightly awkward position.
Yes, they'd get nearly $1 trillion in new revenue over the next decade, without seeking a penny from the middle class, but Democrats (a) would still be short of Obama's goal of $1.6 trillion in new revenue and with no avenues to get there; (b) would still have the sequester to fight over; (c) would have none of the stimulative measures in place they'd like to get from the fiscal talks; (d) would still have a debt-ceiling crisis on the horizon; and (e) would have lost their leverage, having already won the tax fight.
Just that economic policy isn't always a straightforward morality tale.
The New Republic obtained the final internal polling numbers from Mitt Romney's presidential campaign for six key states, along with additional breakdowns of the data, which were prepared by the campaign's chief pollster, Neil Newhouse.
"The first thing you notice is that New Hampshire and Colorado are pretty far off the mark. In New Hampshire, the final internal polling average has Romney up 3.5 points, whereas he lost by 5.6. In Colorado, the final internal polling average has Romney up 2.5 points; he lost by 5.4... The Iowa number is also questionable, showing the race tied even though Romney ended up losing by almost 6 points."
"Together, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Iowa go most of the way toward explaining why the Romney campaign believed it was so well-positioned. When combined with North Carolina, Florida, and Virginia--the trio of states the Romney campaign assumed were largely in the bag--Romney would bank 267 electoral votes, only three shy of the magic number."
What exactly is the end game for the Benghazi "scandal?" We've gone so far away from the handful of legitimate issues/questions and so deep down this rabbit hole of what was said and how it was said, that I just don't see how it's possible for the Republicans to ultimately gain anything at all. I guess they hope that if it gets talked about enough people will eventually start to believe that it's a thing? Maybe, I guess. But their current laser-like focus on a single thing [the Islam video] and narrowing the whole "scandal" to one person [Susan Rice] has made it laughably easy for anyone to shoot it down with even the most simple and basic of logic and facts. More than anything else, aren't people just getting tired of hearing about it?
Huh. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we got to January 1st without a deal in place.Yup. The stakes aren't as high in the short term as people would like to think. Although I suspect the markets will react badly and suddenly lawmakers will scramble since the DOW seems to be the only economic barometer anyone cares about (even though it sucks for this).
I can't even stomach any of these fiscal cliff stories. It's just like the NFL contract negotiations, you know they are going to reach a deal, but they have to put on this distinguished mentally-challenged show until they reach the final hour. So they can feel like they are doing 'important work' and suck up as much prime time television as possible in the process.
People hoping their side tanks the economy just so they can say 'I told you so'.
In an interview in his Capitol Hill office, Mr. McConnell said if the White House agrees to changes such as higher Medicare premiums for the wealthy, an increase in the Medicare eligibility age and a slowing of cost-of-living increases for programs like Social Security, Republicans would agree to include more tax revenue in the deal, though not from higher tax rates. [...]http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/mitch-mcconnell-makes-an-offer/2012/11/30/e5274030-3b31-11e2-9258-ac7c78d5c680_blog.html
Wait, WTF does reducing spending or raising revenue have to do with the fiscal cliff anyway? I thought it was just that the Bush tax cuts were about to expire in an environment where it's procyclical. Goddammit, now I'll have to go read up on what the fiscal cliff actually is.
SAN DIEGO — The man who planned to be president wakes up each morning now without a plan.http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-detached-romney-tends-wounds-in-seclusion-after-failed-white-house-bid/2012/12/01/4305079a-38a9-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_story.html
Mitt Romney looks out the windows of his beach house here in La Jolla, a moneyed and pristine enclave of San Diego, at noisy construction workers fixing up his next-door neighbor’s home, sending out regular updates on the renovation. He devours news from 2,600 miles away in Washington about the “fiscal cliff” negotiations, shaking his head and wondering what if.
Those stories that are supposed to make me feel sympathy for the man invariably just make me think of him as the over-privileged rich guy with no connection to regular people he came off as.
It's amusing that Mitt Romney is basically unemployed right now.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/12/03/1270541/corporate-profits-wages-record/
(http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/corporateprofitsvswages1.png)
Blue line is wages as a percent of GDP (right axis) and red line is corporate profits as a percent of GDP (left axis).
Apparently life under the Obama administration hasn't been the dystopic nightmare for business that we've been told it is. Also, with the exception of the financial crisis, we've seen sustained high profits for the last decade. In a model ECON201 economy that behaves nice, we're not meant to see that; investors should see the high profits as a signal for where to put their money and create competition and shave off the profit margins. What gives?
corporations and businesses investing in smaller, more productive workers
Rights For The Disabled, Citing Impact On Home-Schoolers
December 4, 2012, 2:20 PM 2336The Senate Tuesday fell short of the two-thirds vote required to ratify a United Nations treaty aimed at securing rights for disabled people around the world, when the vast majority of Republican senators voted against the treaty. The final vote was 61-38 vote. All the nay votes were Republican.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities essentially makes the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act a non-binding international standard. It requires no change to U.S. law.
Originally signed by then-President George W. Bush in 2006 and re-signed by President Barack Obama in 2009 shortly after he took office, the treaty has been championed by former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), the one-time GOP presidential nominee who suffered a disability while serving in the Army in World War II. Dole was on the Senate floor Tuesday ahead of the ratification vote, in a wheelchair, accompanied by his wife, former Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC).
Longtime Republicans like Sens. John McCain (AZ), Dick Lugar (IN) and John Barrasso (WY) voted for the treaty. But that didn’t stop the party’s more conservative members from warning that it would violate U.S. sovereignty and dictate to parents with home-schooled children.
“I do oppose the CRPD because I think it does impinge upon our sovereignty,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK). “Unelected bureaucratic bodies would implement the treaty and pass so-called recommendations that would be forced upon the United Nations and the U.S. … This would especially affect those parents who home-school their children. … The unelected foreign bureaucrats, not parents, would decide what is in the best interests of the disabled child, even in the home.” :hurr
Inhofe was joined by Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (SC), Mike Lee (UT), Marco Rubio (FL) and most of the party’s leadership in quashing the treaty. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), who is up for re-election in 2014, voted against it.
“I and many of my constituents who home-school or send their children to religious schools,” said Lee, “have justifiable doubt that a foreign body based in Geneva, Switzerland, should be deciding what is best for a child at home in Utah.” :hurr
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), a proponent of the treaty, was flummoxed by the opposition.
“I’ve heard some of my Republican colleagues talk many times about making the rest of the world more like America,” he said. “I hate to think that now, when we have an opportunity to do that, they will retreat from the core conviction and oppose a treaty modeled on the United States example which has no recourse in American courts and no effect on American law.”
The conservative Republicans warned that the international community is a scary place.
“I have been an advocate of human rights around the world,” Inhofe said. “However, I do not support the cumbersome regulations and potentially overzealous international organizations with anti-American biases that infringe upon American society.” :hurr
Wife and I just realized we'll be in DC during Obama's Inauguration. That's going to be awesome.
Wife and I just realized we'll be in DC during Obama's Inauguration. That's going to be awesome.
Sounds like a traffic nightmare, tbh.
Wife and I just realized we'll be in DC during Obama's Inauguration. That's going to be awesome.
Sounds like a traffic nightmare, tbh.
The UN can barely even work up the courage to politely ask Bashar al Assad if he wouldn't mind not murdering his own people so much, but I'll just bet they're chomping at the bit to storm into America with their mighty UN armies to take all our guns and smother all our downs babies.Just the Christian ones.
The UN can barely even work up the courage to politely ask Bashar al Assad if he wouldn't mind not murdering his own people so much, but I'll just bet they're chomping at the bit to storm into America with their mighty UN armies to take all our guns and smother all our downs babies.Just the Christian ones.
Bob Dole personally came to congress in a wheelchair to get this passed. UN/globalist conspiracy theories have always existed on the right but this is just another example of things being worse now. Although I will say that I'd imagine that most of the people who voted against this aren't true believers; Rand Paul certainly is though. It was probably out of fear of their base, and being primary'd by some idiot who would accuse them of ceding US independence to the UN.
Let's also stop the insanity by suspending the right to vote of any American who is on welfare. Once they get off welfare and are self-sustaining, they get their right to vote restored. No American on welfare should have the right to vote for tax increases on those Americans who are working and paying taxes to support them. That's insane."
Is there any Republican that said the vote was pointless and the UN is pointless? I would respect that stance instead of hiding behind some other wierd explanation that is meant to appease the email forwarding, born-again wing.
It's amazing how the constitution is all sacred and shit until poor people get to vote.
Ted Nugent:QuoteLet's also stop the insanity by suspending the right to vote of any American who is on welfare. Once they get off welfare and are self-sustaining, they get their right to vote restored. No American on welfare should have the right to vote for tax increases on those Americans who are working and paying taxes to support them. That's insane."
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/358/607/fe8.gif
Woooo
Quote from: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/12/republicans-un-treaty-disabled.php?ref=fpblgRights For The Disabled, Citing Impact On Home-Schoolers
December 4, 2012, 2:20 PM 2336The Senate Tuesday fell short of the two-thirds vote required to ratify a United Nations treaty aimed at securing rights for disabled people around the world, when the vast majority of Republican senators voted against the treaty. The final vote was 61-38 vote. All the nay votes were Republican.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities essentially makes the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act a non-binding international standard. It requires no change to U.S. law.
Originally signed by then-President George W. Bush in 2006 and re-signed by President Barack Obama in 2009 shortly after he took office, the treaty has been championed by former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), the one-time GOP presidential nominee who suffered a disability while serving in the Army in World War II. Dole was on the Senate floor Tuesday ahead of the ratification vote, in a wheelchair, accompanied by his wife, former Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC).
Longtime Republicans like Sens. John McCain (AZ), Dick Lugar (IN) and John Barrasso (WY) voted for the treaty. But that didn’t stop the party’s more conservative members from warning that it would violate U.S. sovereignty and dictate to parents with home-schooled children.
“I do oppose the CRPD because I think it does impinge upon our sovereignty,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK). “Unelected bureaucratic bodies would implement the treaty and pass so-called recommendations that would be forced upon the United Nations and the U.S. … This would especially affect those parents who home-school their children. … The unelected foreign bureaucrats, not parents, would decide what is in the best interests of the disabled child, even in the home.” :hurr
Inhofe was joined by Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (SC), Mike Lee (UT), Marco Rubio (FL) and most of the party’s leadership in quashing the treaty. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), who is up for re-election in 2014, voted against it.
“I and many of my constituents who home-school or send their children to religious schools,” said Lee, “have justifiable doubt that a foreign body based in Geneva, Switzerland, should be deciding what is best for a child at home in Utah.” :hurr
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), a proponent of the treaty, was flummoxed by the opposition.
“I’ve heard some of my Republican colleagues talk many times about making the rest of the world more like America,” he said. “I hate to think that now, when we have an opportunity to do that, they will retreat from the core conviction and oppose a treaty modeled on the United States example which has no recourse in American courts and no effect on American law.”
The conservative Republicans warned that the international community is a scary place.
“I have been an advocate of human rights around the world,” Inhofe said. “However, I do not support the cumbersome regulations and potentially overzealous international organizations with anti-American biases that infringe upon American society.” :hurr
I can't understand why Ted Nugent is listened to at all by the right. He's a tough talking, hypocritical idiot. You would think his history of draft dodging and hunting violations would bring an end to any legitimacy but alas the persona he's crafted for himself still takes center stage. Gun nuts and military families should hate him.
Nope. But now I'll have to check it out.I can't understand why Ted Nugent is listened to at all by the right. He's a tough talking, hypocritical idiot. You would think his history of draft dodging and hunting violations would bring an end to any legitimacy but alas the persona he's crafted for himself still takes center stage. Gun nuts and military families should hate him.
Have you seen the episode of...I think it's No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain? They go to Ted's favorite BBQ place and they sit down and have actually a pretty great discussion. One super leftie and one super rightie...Bourdain actually convinced Nugent that some of his opinions were bullshit
Love Bourdain.
I can't understand why Ted Nugent is listened to at all by the right. He's a tough talking, hypocritical idiot. You would think his history of draft dodging and hunting violations would bring an end to any legitimacy but alas the persona he's crafted for himself still takes center stage. Gun nuts and military families should hate him.
The U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, for those who've forgotten, is a human rights treaty negotiated by the George H.W. Bush administration, which has been ratified by 126 nations, including China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
I see that the way we will get the Hispanics and the other groups, the Asians, as part of the Republican Coalition is to get them first part of the great American Coalition. Make them think of themselves, not make but, persuade them to think of themselves primarily as Americans. Restore the overarching, all-encompassing concept of an American identity, which we used to have, which we knew how to bring about and which in the last 20 or 30 years very largely as a result of the democrats wanting to emphasize ethnicity rather than American-ness.http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/334562/coming-coalition-peter-robinson
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/12/republicans-not-handling-election-results-well.html
49% of Republican poll respondents say that ACORN helped steal the election for Obama.spoiler (click to show/hide)ACORN hasn't existed for years.[close]
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/12/republicans-not-handling-election-results-well.html
49% of Republican poll respondents say that ACORN helped steal the election for Obama.spoiler (click to show/hide)ACORN hasn't existed for years.[close]
There was about 3 days of handwringing about how the Republican party was going to broaden their base before they said "fuck that, it's because we're not conservative enough"QuoteI see that the way we will get the Hispanics and the other groups, the Asians, as part of the Republican Coalition is to get them first part of the great American Coalition. Make them think of themselves, not make but, persuade them to think of themselves primarily as Americans. Restore the overarching, all-encompassing concept of an American identity, which we used to have, which we knew how to bring about and which in the last 20 or 30 years very largely as a result of the democrats wanting to emphasize ethnicity rather than American-ness.http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/334562/coming-coalition-peter-robinson
Notice you never hear anyone lamenting the fact that Italian Americans have their own pride and culture, or why Irish Americans have their own holiday, or why non-Polish people can't say Polack. Cultural pride is perfectly fine for white people but is divisive and reverse-racist when blacks or Hispanics partake.
They don't get it, and I'm not sure they ever will.
"fuck that, it's because we're not conservative enough"
"We have to increase our appeal with minorities by making them understand how right we are! We just haven't done a good enough job of making them understand."
"We have to increase our appeal with minorities by making them understand how right we are! We just haven't done a good enough job of making them understand."
"add some 808s and salsa music and we'll be halfway there!"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323713104578132940084607864.html (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323713104578132940084607864.html)
Clinton administration vets are very well represented through the Democratic party, and Democrats haven't nominated an "insurgent" since maybe Carter. Obama was the keynote speaker at the previous convention.
Clinton administration vets are very well represented through the Democratic party, and Democrats haven't nominated an "insurgent" since maybe Carter. Obama was the keynote speaker at the previous convention.
I'd argue Obama was indeed an insurgent candidate in the sense that he wasn't The establishment choice. I'd also say Dukakis was an out of bounds choice too; Gephart and Gore were DLC centrist dems at the time.
In defense of conservatives, all the planks in their platform which might have become electoral losers are also things they believe in and want to see acted on. If I were in the same position of having to figure out which liberal goals to jettison entirely from the Democratic agenda, the most comforting thought--and the first thing I'd try to convince myself of--would be that we just needed to tweak the message a bit. Especially after a relatively close loss with a candidate who thrilled nobody in the primaries.There you go getting all rational. The question is however, what can the Republican base give up? I mean gun control is an important issue for a lot of Dems, but they've all but abandoned because it hurts everything else. The Republicans on the other hand have simply increased the importance of every single issue (especially in primaries) to the point where it's who agrees with the base the hardest. And everytime they suffer a setback they simply redouble their efforts. So what do you think it will be?
So it's easy for us to say that the GOP would be better served by ditching the reactionary sexual politics, nativism, and devotion to the rich. But if you're actually freaked out by gay people/immigrants/wealth redistribution? Giving up on an important priority for a better shot at making progress on others is painful work (remember when the Obama administration had to do some of this lots of liberals convinced themselves that single payer healthcare and 1936 tax rates were there if only they'd try). Likewise, David Frum can act real brave and buck his party on domestic issues because he was only ever in it for the perpetual warfare.
The GOP, on balance, is crazy and wrong. But we shouldn't be surprised when they act like they believe in what they believe in.
I keep telling my friends they don't need to waste time watching Fox News to see intothe mind of a conservative, a quick glance at Drudge headlines once a day does the trick. they still won't listen. :'(
There you go getting all rational. The question is however, what can the Republican base give up? I mean gun control is an important issue for a lot of Dems, but they've all but abandoned because it hurts everything else. The Republicans on the other hand have simply increased the importance of every single issue (especially in primaries) to the point where it's who agrees with the base the hardest. And everytime they suffer a setback they simply redouble their efforts. So what do you think it will be?
Washington state drops the gay marriage bomb tonight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJu6MA_wF7o
:bow
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/07/the-fiscal-cliff-deal-comes-clearer-a-37-top-tax-rate-and-a-higher-medicare-eligibility-age/
Klein's post on this.
Avoiding the fiscal "cliff" is not worth a higher Medicare eligibility age. Go over that shit.
Also, why the fuck is anyone bothering to negotiate over the debt ceiling instead of taking the 14th Amendment route? This is the same bullshit that had me wanting a primary challenger to Obama 1-2 years ago.
Mandark, kindly go drown yourself in a vat of horse-semen, you pretentious little twat.
In the past, the senior vote hasn't seemed very winnable for Democrats
Meanwhile, I'm taking the back seat, examining, learning, researching, and reading
Crist is running for governor in 2014. I wonder if Obama/dems promised to clear the primary field for him in exchange for his 2012 endorsement. He worked pretty hard to get Obama re-elected, and it sure as hell wasn't just out of the kindness of his heart.
PS Rick Ungar's a guy who produced a bunch of Marvel cartoons in the 90's.
Look PD, if you're not even gonna read the posts...
On the other hand, it's entirely possible that the Democrats from 2009-2010 would have been better off with random PoliGAF members designing their overall strategy compared to what they actually did.
Obama hitting Romney on Bain ~= Bush hitting Kerry on Vietnam.
I think the Obama people don't believe they have the authority under the 14th amendment, and even if they DID the resultant chaos from them going over Congress' head would destabilize shit to the extent that a shutdown would be preferable.This is pretty much all that needs to be said on the 14th amendment option. No one wants to see the largest cornerstone of the world economy be decided on by the supreme court.
So any predictions how this is going to pan out form The Bore's best and brightest? Will a crappy comprise be met that everyone hates? Will we plummet over the cliff?
On the other hand, it's entirely possible that the Democrats from 2009-2010 would have been better off with random PoliGAF members designing their overall strategy compared to what they actually did.
2009-2010 did more than anything to convince me that the median armchair LBJ is no more insightful than the median armchair Belichick. I mean, fucking Prole was saying stuff like "Single payer was on the table". Mass hysteria.
The irony of gold buyers is that while yellowish metal has a reputation as a conservative investment, it's basically the most purely speculative investment you can make. There's no way I can think of that you can even conceptualize what the fundamentals of gold are or are supposed to be.
The fundamentals are to not die an agonizing death when the ancient ones awake from their long slumber and demand tribute from every human being in the form of that which gives them sustenance
Not a bad appointment. But in shittier appointment news, Susan Rice withdraws her name from SoS possibilities.
Fuck John McCain, dude needs to croak already.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/christian-radio-host-god-didnt-stop-ct-shooting-because-we-took-prayer-out-of-the-classroom/
The main reason that the manufacturing/GDP ratio has declined in the U.S. and around the world is that productivity gains for durable goods have significantly lowered the price of those goods relative to: a) the prices of services, and b) national incomes. In other words, the declining manufacturing/GDP ratio reflects declining prices for manufactured goods globally, which is a sign of economic progress, not regress. The standard of living around the world today, along with global wealth, income and prosperity, are all much, much higher today with manufacturing representing 16% of total world output (including the U.S.) compared to 1970, when it was almost twice as high at 26%. And for that progress, we should celebrate, not complain about the “decline of manufacturing.”
http://www.mediaite.com/online/christian-radio-host-god-didnt-stop-ct-shooting-because-we-took-prayer-out-of-the-classroom/
Oh this fiscal cliff stuff is sure high drama .. will they come to a conclusion?!!?The biggest non-story of the year (after the inevitable re-election of Obama of course).
::)
You could put a bar on that graph with Obama's name on it that looks a bit similar. He's been daring the House GOP to pass a bill that locks in the Bush rates for the lower brackets ("let's pass what we all agree on, the pen's on my desk to sign that" etc) and then negotiate the rest of the stuff separately.
Which the GOP obviously doesn't want to do, because their best chance of keeping the lower rates on the wealthy are to tie them to lower rates for everyone else. So Boehner's trying to flip that by proposing a bill that does what Obama asks, except it raises the threshold for the top bracket to $1M rather than $250k. "You said you wanted to tax millionaires, so this should be okay, right?" I think they know it's not going anywhere, but half these negotiations are convincing the public and/or the media that it's the other side that's unwilling to strike a deal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6ZsXrzF8Cc
Narrated by Ed Asner
If the GOP passes the lower tax rates exactly as Obama wants, with the only difference being the 1 million rate, couldn't the bill then go to the Senate and get morphed completely into the Senate version through reconciliation?
Reconciliation in the FY 2013 BudgetSo the House may have already agreed to allow reconciliation?
The budget includes reconciliation instructions for the following six House committees, directing them to find additional program savings that would total $261 billion in deficit reduction over 10 years: Agriculture; Energy and Commerce; Financial Services; Judiciary; Oversight and Government Reform; and Ways and Means.
I think it's a moot point, because the main advantage of reconciliation is cutting down debate time in the Senate, and the Senate's not going to kill anything that Obama and Boehner agree with.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post's editorial board opposes Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense because he wants to cut military spending too much and is soft on Iran.
I wonder who will be Speaker next term.
"The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass," Boehner said in a statement. "Now it is up to the president to work with Senator (Harry) Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff."
The problem with the right's position is that the general populace is ready to blame them, not Obama. So if a deal isn't struck they just look like assholes (which they are).
I think there will be enough republicans to pass the tax cut next year. Remember there will be 201 democrats in the House next year, meaningBoehnerCantor and Obama will only need 17 republicans to pass the tax cut.
The funniest thing is that Boehner managed to get Obama to put Social Security on the table...and republicans still refused the deal. Newt Gingrich would have had so much fun with Obama in the 90s
Aaron Sorkin liked to do a lot of cocaine. A LOT.
At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?"
"You get nothing," the president said. "I get that for free."
Bu-bu-bu what about that episode of the West Wing when all the Democrats hide out in the VP's office and trick the Speaker into thinking they all left town so that he calls the vote and then it's all "AHA! We're all here, SUCKA!"
Is the fiscal cliff still a "debt crisis" in the popular consciousness?
Hassett, with an oddly cheerful, Oh-What-My-Country-Has-Done-Now mien, predicted economic doom under Obama, the most likely scenario being another Great Depression, which would make 2008 look like a joyride.
That prompted a tall, extremely tanned blonde named Kay, from Old Greenwich, Connecticut, to ask Hassett, the co-author of the 1999 book Dow 36,000, “So what do we do with our money?”
Then Hassett pivoted to the liberal media. “I actually think that Goebbels was more critical of Hitler than the New York Times is of Obama,” said Hassett, tucking into a piece of strudel. “I was in the middle of the fight against the propaganda, and I have stories like you wouldn’t believe. These people are so evil. They’re basically Fascists. It’s unbelievable.”
After dinner was a program called the “Light Side of the Right Side.” A frenetic, tightly wound man named James Lileks, a National Review columnist from Minnesota, warmed up the crowd with one-liners: “If we can put a man on the moon, we can put 50 million Democrats up there as well!”
Jonah Goldberg attempted a note of optimism, garnering hearty applause when he said conservative ideas were “still salable because, A, they’re correct. Two plus two is four. You have to believe that we’re going to be proven right by reality.”
In response, the moderator recounted the litany of dreary statistics from Reed and Rasmussen earlier that day. “So therefore we should give up and burn our passports and stay on this boat forever?” said Goldberg with real exasperation.
The crowd erupted in cheers.
. “So therefore we should give up and burn our passports and stay on this boat forever?” said Goldberg with real exasperation.
The crowd erupted in cheers.
“I was just a baby when we were relocated and I don’t remember much. Everybody has that black hole at the beginning of their life. That time you can’t remember. Your first step. Your first taste of table food. My real memories begin in our assigned living area in Compound 14.”
Just a generation ago, this place was called America. Now, after the worldwide implementation of a UN-led program called Agenda 21, it’s simply known as “the Republic.” There is no president. No Congress. No Supreme Court. No freedom.
There are only the Authorities.
Citizens have two primary goals in the new Republic: to create clean energy and to create new human life. Those who cannot do either are of no use to society. This bleak and barren existence is all that eighteen-year-old Emmeline has ever known. She dutifully walks her energy board daily and accepts all male pairings assigned to her by the Authorities. Like most citizens, she keeps her head down and her eyes closed.
Until the day they come for her mother.
“You save what you think you’re going to lose.”
Woken up to the harsh reality of her life and her family’s future inside the Republic, Emmeline begins to search for the truth. Why are all citizens confined to ubiquitous concrete living spaces? Why are Compounds guarded by Gatekeepers who track all movements? Why are food, water and energy rationed so strictly? And, most important, why are babies taken from their mothers at birth? As Emmeline begins to understand the true objectives of Agenda 21 she realizes that she is up against far more than she ever thought. With the Authorities closing in, and nowhere to run, Emmeline embarks on an audacious plan to save her family and expose the Republic—but is she already too late?
“We kept animals on the farm,” she said.
Imagine that! Keeping animals! At every Social Update Meeting they remind us that animals are sacred and belong to the Earth, not to people. Animals are protected. We have to recite, in unison, the Pledge of Animals.
I pledge allegiance to the Earth and to the sacred rights of the Earth and to the Animals of the Earth.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/agenda-21-tea-party_n_1965893.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/agenda-21-tea-party_n_1965893.html)
This is the first time I've even heard of agenda 21. The Tea Party falls further into irrelevance.
Someone make a list of all the various UN conspiracies to usurp ourbodily fluidssovereignty. There's the Law of the Sea, the small arms trade treaty, climate (of course), Millennium Development Goals, Agenda 21, and now disabled rights. Am I missing anything?
Kentucky native Danny Hafley has sparked controversy after he erected a statue of President Barack Obama near his house depicting the nation’s first black president eating watermelon. When asked to defend his artistic choices, Hafley replied that the 44th President of the United States “might get hungry standing out here.”http://www.mediaite.com/online/kentucky-man-defends-racially-inflammatory-statue-of-obama-eating-watermelon-he-might-get-hungry/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/agenda-21-tea-party_n_1965893.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/agenda-21-tea-party_n_1965893.html)
This is the first time I've even heard of agenda 21. The Tea Party falls further into irrelevance.Someone make a list of all the various UN conspiracies to usurp ourbodily fluidssovereignty. There's the Law of the Sea, the small arms trade treaty, climate (of course), Millennium Development Goals, Agenda 21, and now disabled rights. Am I missing anything?
Look at me, I'm like a hipster for rightwing paranoia. Lemme tell you all about the next big thing they're going to be irrationally afraid of...spoiler (click to show/hide)black people still[close]
As you may have heard, part of the fiscal cliff pileup is that in the absence of a new farm bill we're facing a "dairy cliff" in which the farm subsidy scheme will revert to a 1949 law establishing a minimum price for dairy products and likely leading to a near-doubling of milk prices. As an American with limited tolerance for lactose, I wasn't so concerned about this. But Erik Loomis offers some remarks from Herbert Hoover that casts the whole affair in a more nefarious light.
From the June 1922 edition of Dairy World:
In its broad aspects, the proper feeding of children revolves around a public recognition of the interdependence of the human animal upon his cattle. The white race cannot survive without dairy products.
Dinesh D'Souza warned us.
Progressives may be a lot less religious than conservatives, but these days they have reason to think that Providence– or Gaia — has taken on a bluish hue.
From the solid re-election of President Obama, to a host of demographic and social trends, the progressives seem poised to achieve what Ruy Texeira predicted a decade ago: an “emerging Democratic majority”.
Virtually all the groups that backed Obama — singles, millennials, Hispanics, Asians — are all growing bigger while many of the core Republican groups, such as evangelicals and intact families, appear in secular decline.
And then, the Republicans, ham handed themselves, are virtually voiceless (outside of the Murdoch empire) in the mainstream national media.
Whatever the issue that comes up — from Hurricane Sandy to the Newtown shootings or the “fiscal cliffs” — the Republicans, congenitally inept to start with, end up being portrayed as even more oafish.
Not surprising then that progressive boosters feel the wind of inexorability to their backs. Red states, and cities, suggests Richard Florida are simply immature versions of blue state ones; progress means density, urbanity, apartment living and the decline of suburbs. Republicans, he argues, are “at odds with the very logic of urbanism and economic development.”
Yet I am not sure all trends are irredeemingly progressive. For one thing, there’s this little matter of economics. What Florida and the urban boosters often predict means something less progressive than feudalist. The Holy Places of urbanism such as NewYork, San Francisco, Washington DC also suffer some of the worst income inequality, and poverty, of any places in the country.
The now triumphant urban gentry have their townhouses and high-rise lofts, but the service workers who do their dirty work have to log their way by bus or car from the vast American banlieues, either in peripheral parts of the city (think of Brooklyn’s impoverished fringes) or the poorer close-in suburbs. This progressive economy works from the well-placed academics, the trustfunders and hedge funders, but produces little opportunity for a better life for the vast majority of the middle and working class.
Bikers Turn Out to Protect Newtown Mourners from Left-Wing Westboro Cult
Phelps remained prominent in state and local politics, working for years as a major organizer for the state's Democratic Party. (He still calls himself a Democrat, refusing to change just because his party has.) In 1988, Phelps housed campaign workers for Al Gore's first presidential run; in 1989, his eldest son, Fred Jr., hosted a fundraiser for Gore's Senate campaign at his home.
I just realized something. There are a lot of people, some of whom hold elected office, who believe that raising the debt ceiling is exactly like requesting a credit line increase when you've maxed out a credit card.You just realized this? Years and years of bad analogies about the world's largest economies debt being the same as a single household didn't drill this into your head?
Holy shit, it all makes sense now.
Rick Santelli is nearly rabid dog crazy. Has cable news changed in the last few years?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZB4taSEoA
So in their minds, the Republican House members opposing an increase in the debt ceiling are like the responsible parents of a college student who refuse to bail their child out after said child maxes out his/her first credit card. Because there comes a time when someone has to say enough is enough, after all.
"If I can't balance my check book every month, why can't the government?""First I have to get new brakes, and now I have to go to war with Germany? Hopefully I get some overtime this week."
So in their minds, the Republican House members opposing an increase in the debt ceiling are like the responsible parents of a college student who refuse to bail their child out after said child maxes out his/her first credit card. Because there comes a time when someone has to say enough is enough, after all.
See, you've got it! Just put a few folksy sayings in there and you're well on your way.
"If I can't balance my check book every month, why can't the government?""First I have to get new brakes, and now I have to go to war with Germany? Hopefully I get some overtime this week."
Obama officially reaches 51% as the final election results continue to come in
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AjYj9mXElO_QdHpla01oWE1jOFZRbnhJZkZpVFNKeVE&f=true&noheader=true&gid=19
Obama officially reaches 51% as the final election results continue to come in
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AjYj9mXElO_QdHpla01oWE1jOFZRbnhJZkZpVFNKeVE&f=true&noheader=true&gid=19
Interesting that most of the states that went for Romney saw an overall reduction in popular vote in 2012 vs. 2008. Does this mean people were overall less enthusiastic for Romney than John McCain? Is it maybe that in a lot of red states that the population may be stagnating or shrinking?
I tried again. When he said "race card" I thought he was saying "racecar."
"The Democrats have used Obama's ethnicity as a racecar, and they use this racecar like a credit card, and this credit card is way past its limit!"
:dizzy
So, apparently we're close to getting a deal done because the Republican know that they have zero leverage and have finally admitted it.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/breaking-house-wont-vote-on-fiscal-cliff-deal?ref=fpa
Going over the cliff regardless- House has no plans to vote on anything passed by the Senate tonight, which means at midnight the Bush tax cuts come off the book and anything negotiated at that point is a pound of cure rather than an ounce of prevention, so to speak.
The big problem is that this deal involves talking and working with Democrats instead of trying to shove their Fox News by way of chain e-mail list of demands down their throats. So they just want to show that they're willing to stand up for the little guy (ie, the Koch brothers) and not buy into the Socialist-Terrorist-Fascist-Communist line. That and like what ToxicAdam says, trying to embarrass Boehner so he can step down and be replaced by Cantor. Yes, I believe the House Republicans would be willing to throw the country under the bus to embarrass someone they don't like. They've been doing it for over four years.
— Tax rates will permanently rise to Clinton-era levels for families with income above $450,000 and individuals above $400,000. All income below the threshold will permanently be taxed at Bush-era rates.
— The tax on capital gains and dividends will be permanently set at 20 percent for those with income above the $450,000/$400,000 threshold. It will remain at 15 percent for everyone else. (Clinton-era rates were 20 percent for capital gains and taxed dividends as ordinary income, with a top rate of 39.6 percent.)
— The estate tax will be set at 40 percent for those at the $450,000/$400,000 threshold, with a $5 million exemption. That threshold will be indexed to inflation, as a concession to Republicans and some Democrats in rural areas like Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.).
— The sequester will be delayed for two months. Half of the delay will be offset by discretionary cuts, split between defense and non-defense. The other half will be offset by revenue raised by the voluntary transfer of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs, which would tax retirement savings when they’re moved over.
— Federal unemployment insurance will be extended for another year, benefiting those unemployed for longer than 26 weeks. This $30 billion provision won’t be offset.
So are we off the cliff or what?
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/breaking-house-wont-vote-on-fiscal-cliff-deal?ref=fpa
Going over the cliff regardless- House has no plans to vote on anything passed by the Senate tonight, which means at midnight the Bush tax cuts come off the book and anything negotiated at that point is a pound of cure rather than an ounce of prevention, so to speak.
It's cuz Nobama hurt their feelings. :'( :'( :'(
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/12/31/16270289-obama-a-deal-is-in-sight-but-its-not-done
jesus, how does drudge get away with the absolute BULLSHIT LIES he's spewing at the top of his page?
I honestly thought there would have to be a day or two of markets tanking and the Chamber of Commerce screaming at the house GOP to get it passed.
:lol @ Boehner voting for it and Cantor against, though. DRAMA.
It was only a few days before the nation would go over the fiscal cliff, no bipartisan agreement was in sight, and Reid had just publicly accused Boehner of running a “dictatorship” in the House and caring more about holding onto his gavel than striking a deal.
“Go f— yourself,” Boehner sniped as he pointed his finger at Reid, according to multiple sources present.
Reid, a bit startled, replied: “What are you talking about?”
Boehner repeated: “Go f— yourself.”
The harsh exchange just a few steps from the Oval Office — which Boehner later bragged about to fellow Republicans — was only one episode in nearly two months of high-stakes negotiations laced with distrust, miscommunication, false starts and yelling matches as Washington struggled to ward off $500 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts.
By early December, with talks barely moving, Obama was using his bully pulpit to win the public opinion fight, holding campaign-style events in key states and aggravating Republicans. Privately, he began calling moderate Republican senators he kept on a list in an effort aimed at raising pressure on their leaders.
Republicans began to fret about losing the P.R. fight. In a closed-door meeting, some GOP House lawmakers suggested that each member kick in $5,000 to hire a big Madison Avenue advertising firm to craft a communications strategy for them. But Boehner and other party leaders quickly shot down the idea.
In a phone call Dec. 21, Boehner told Obama that his game plan all along was to pass the bill setting the $1 million threshold, send it to the Senate to drop it down to $500,000 or so, and ship it back to the House for approval.
Obama, perplexed by the secret strategy, asked Boehner if he had shared it with Reid or House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), suggesting that they might have helped him. Boehner said he had not.
I can't even stomach any of these fiscal cliff stories. It's just like the NFL contract negotiations, you know they are going to reach a deal, but they have to put on this distinguished mentally-challenged show until they reach the final hour. So they can feel like they are doing 'important work' and suck up as much prime time television as possible in the process.
Huh. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we got to January 1st without a deal in place.
Like 2 hours ago? Look at the front page.
Christie is fisting the house republicans right now. They're in big trouble.
Evidently, Andrew Sullivan is moving his blog behind a $20/yr paywall. Strange for a person that doesn't really provide much original content (aside from his own opinion).
Rumors swirling that Boehner may resign tonight at the GOP caucus meeting
The Republicans did some great soul searching these past few months.
Evidently, Andrew Sullivan is moving his blog behind a $20/yr paywall. Strange for a person that doesn't really provide much original content (aside from his own opinion).
honestly, good riddance at this point
his histrionics have been really unbearable recently
Rumors swirling that Boehner may resign tonight at the GOP caucus meeting
Rumors swirling that Boehner may resign tonight at the GOP caucus meeting
Did those rumors have any semblance of credibility, or was it just random liberal hopes and dreams?
The Republicans did some great soul searching these past few months.
They searched and searched, but they didn't find anything.
The Republicans did some great soul searching these past few months.
They searched and searched, but they didn't find anything.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) — who was recently removed from key committees and supported Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for speaker — sat on the House floor during the speaker vote brandishing an iPad. A message was displayed on the screen ticking off members of the House Republican Conference he hoped would oppose the sitting speaker. The title of the document: “You would be fired if this goes out.”
Among the Republicans on the list were Reps. Steve King (Iowa), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Scott Garrett (N.J.), Steve Fincher (Tenn.) and Scott Desjarlais (Tenn.). All of them ultimately supported Boehner.
In the end, nine Republicans abandoned the Ohio Republican’s bid for a second term as speaker, and cast votes for people as varied as a former member of Congress who lost his reelection bid in November [Allen West] and a 1990s-era U.S. comptroller general who appears on cable television.
Hooray, 120 bucks less a month due to this payroll tax increase. :punchI know that feel, bro.
Hooray, 120 bucks less a month due to this payroll tax increase. :punch
Hooray, 120 bucks less a month due to this payroll tax increase. :punch
I'm fine with it. Gotta pay for shit, yo.
More like multi-billionHooray, 120 bucks less a month due to this payroll tax increase. :punch
I'm fine with it. Gotta pay for shit, yo.
What, like Michelle Obama's multimillion lavish vacations? Fuck that, this is bullshit!
Hooray, 120 bucks less a month due to this payroll tax increase. :punch
I'm fine with it. Gotta pay for shit, yo.
Hooray, 120 bucks less a month due to this payroll tax increase. :punchI know that feel, bro.
I don't really care though. I wasn't a big fan of the tax cut anyways. Seemed to do very little as far as economic stimulus.
It's just the 2% of your Social Security deduction added back. You don't want to short yourself. It was a bad "tax cut" to begin with.
“Angela, I need to know, are you committed to being my porn star?
“I do not want to hear ‘no’ or ‘we’ll see about that.’ I want my fantasies to be with you. God has authorized you and you only as my partner for intimacy and that is what I want.”
:roflQuote“Angela, I need to know, are you committed to being my porn star?
“I do not want to hear ‘no’ or ‘we’ll see about that.’ I want my fantasies to be with you. God has authorized you and you only as my partner for intimacy and that is what I want.”
- Allen West
(http://i.imgur.com/KxVjt.jpg)
:usacry
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) on Monday mocked the 67 House Republicans who voted against disaster relief funds for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
“It’s the same 67 over and over again,” he noted on The Stephanie Miller Show. “It’s the bath salts caucus, the people that would rather eat your face than cut taxes on the rich.”
Think of the debt limit as your monthly credit card limit. You can't go over it on your credit card and the United States government can't spend more than what its credit limit is or its debt limit. Now, Ali Velshi at CNN says that has no relation to spending.
So never owned a gun in my life, but became a member of the NRA today. I'm not very politically active but some times it's important to get involved when your rights are being infringed upon. That's my two cents.
“After seeing yet another deranged gorilla just burst into a public place and start killing people, I decided I need to make sure something like that never happens to me,” said 34-year-old Atlanta resident Nick Keller, shortly after purchasing a 350-pound mountain gorilla from his local gorilla store. “It just gives me peace of mind knowing that if I’m ever in that situation, I won’t have to just watch helplessly as my torso is ripped in half and my face is chewed off. I’ll be able to use my gorilla to defend myself.”
“Law enforcement and animal control can only get there so quickly,” Keller added. “And you never know when you’ll need to use a gorilla to save your life.”
Former Senator Jim DeMint, the new president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, has decried Obamacare as “a cancer” that is “is fundamentally inconsistent with liberty.” During the Senate Obamacare fight, DeMint famously declared “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”
But a new report from DeMint’s own organization suggests that, far from being incompatible with freedom, countries with health care systems with as much or significantly more government control over healthcare are the freest countries in the world.
The report in question is Heritage’s Economic Freedom Index, released annually since 1997. The report defines the concept of “economic freedom” in misleading right-wing terms, but even by those standards, it appears that universal health care systems far more expansive than Obamacare aren’t “fundamentally inconsistent with liberty.” In fact, the ten “freest” economies in 2013 by Heritage’s lights range from mandating individuals save a certain amount of money for health care to almost the entire health care system, including hospitals, being owned and operated by the government:
The countries they listed were:
1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Switzerland
6. Canada
7. Chile
8. Mauritius
9. Denmark
The U.S. under Obama's oppressive socialist regime comes in at a fairly distant no. 10. If only Obama would learn more from one of the paragons of right wing governments, like Canada.
get a 3.5% raise
take home $10 less
THANKS OBAMA
Look at those non-working black people. 'Retired' is just an easy excuse.
(http://i.imgur.com/bdgZa.jpg)What the fuck is this. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.
Obama's America is also a place where normal people make a second salary on investment income.
Obama's America is also a place where normal people make a second salary on investment income.
A single mom making $35,000 a year in investment income. :lol
Most single moms don't make $35,000 a year in total!
Why does the retired couple look so depressed when their tax isn't changing?
Why does the retired couple look so depressed when their tax isn't changing?
You see how much their pulling down? 180k a year. How are they supposed to afford basic cable and a weekly dinner at Cracker Barrel on that paltry sum?!
Why does the retired couple look so depressed when their tax isn't changing?
You see how much their pulling down? 180k a year. How are they supposed to afford basic cable and a weekly dinner at Cracker Barrel on that paltry sum?!
Where I live, a family making 180k a year isn't anything that exorbitant.
It's like saying someone's not really rich cause all their money got spent on a huge house, new cars, private school for the kids, a housekeeping staff, etc.
Why does the retired couple look so depressed when their tax isn't changing?
You see how much their pulling down? 180k a year. How are they supposed to afford basic cable and a weekly dinner at Cracker Barrel on that paltry sum?!
Where I live, a family making 180k a year isn't anything that exorbitant.
Living in New York is a choice you make that costs money, not an exogenous parameter which affects your real income. It's like saying someone's not really rich cause all their money got spent on a huge house, new cars, private school for the kids, a housekeeping staff, etc.
180k is still comfy living in NY, or LI at least. Even if it isn't rich per se
P.S. my condo was well over $200,000
They're secret prostitutes.
I don't understand how english majors live in manhatten (some of my friends)
I don't understand how english majors live in manhatten (some of my friends)
I don't understand how english majors live in manhatten (some of my friends)
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
11. Nominate an ATF director.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
my god, there are way too many gun morons on gaf
And yet, not a single gun was taken from anyone. :usa
The Day After Inauguration
I'm sick of the debate, I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when the government is knocking at my door with their tanks and drones following them ready to throw me into a FEMA rape camp.
And yet, not a single gun was taken from anyone. :usa
The Day After Inauguration
I'm sick of the debate, I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when the government is knocking at my door with their tanks and drones following them ready to throw me into a FEMA rape camp.
A New Glenn Beck Thriller
We need to add that to the Bore book club.The Day After Inauguration
I'm sick of the debate, I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when the government is knocking at my door with their tanks and drones following them ready to throw me into a FEMA rape camp.
A New Glenn Beck Thriller
hilariously enough, Agenda 21 is the Kindle Deal of the Day
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/poll-obamas-hiding-something-86349.html (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/poll-obamas-hiding-something-86349.html)
34% of Americans are dumb.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/poll-obamas-hiding-something-86349.html (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/poll-obamas-hiding-something-86349.html)
34% of Americans are dumb.
Higher levels of education and awareness of current events, however, are linked to a reduction in belief in such theories, the study reported.
You mean you can't just take a headline and create you own version of the story absent of facts?
Finally someone willing to say what's really going on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKxN1j3mgRc
Kippy Joseph @kippyjoseph:rofl
Breaking news: Lupe Fiasco booted off @StartUpRockOn inaugural party after repeating same Words I Never Said (anti-Obama) verse for 30min
lupefiascostore.com @lupefiascostore
So Lupe just performed the first verse of Words I never Said for 30 minutes straight..
QuoteKippy Joseph @kippyjoseph:rofl
Breaking news: Lupe Fiasco booted off @StartUpRockOn inaugural party after repeating same Words I Never Said (anti-Obama) verse for 30min
lupefiascostore.com @lupefiascostore
So Lupe just performed the first verse of Words I never Said for 30 minutes straight..
trying so hard