It is a sad observation that sometimes it takes a comedian to open our eyes to the truth. Last night, Comedy Central’s two resident political comedians, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart weighed in on the latest GOP temper tantrum over Barack Obama rightfully celebrating the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s capture and killing, using that achievement in a campaign ad and correctly pointing out that opponent Mitt Romney might not have gone after bin Laden.
One of Obama’s supposed offenses is “spiking the football”, gloating in an unseemly way about the bin Laden killing. Of course, the GOP would know nothing about such behavior. On The Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert punctures this myth in one dead-on comment:
Presidents don’t spike the football. You do an endzone dance on an aircraft carrier even if you never found the football.
But it was Jon Stewart and his crack research team on The Daily Show who culled enough video to permanently put to rest any claim the GOP has for righteous indignation. Stewart deflates the GOP two prong attack of Obama’s supposed braggadocio and the terrible offense of conjecturing what Romney might have done.
Vodpod videos no longer available. Vodpod videos no longer available.For those not wanting to watch the videos, the points are:
- Bush spiked the football before the game had even started. (Echoed by Colbert.)
- Ed Gillespie was outspoken in condemning the President for conjecturing what Romney would have done. Ed said in 2004 “If Kerry had his polices in place today Saddam would not only be in Baghdad but in Kuwait.”
- A 2004 GOP campaign ad: “How can Kerry protect us when he doesn’t understand the threat?”
- Obama has repeatedly given credit to those who actually did the dangerous work. “We killed Osama bin Laden.”
- At the 2004 GOP convention, George Pataki, an Obama critic, kissed Bush’s ass. “George Bush protected our country.” Mmmm George Bush did? Or did the soldiers? Why didn’t Pataki give proper credit?
- Adding to the pile on, is criticism that Obama dissed Romney in front of a foreign visitor. In 2004 Bush disses Kerry in front of Iraqi Prime Minister.
- And the bottom line truth of the matter: GOP is just pissed they couldn’t run the current Obama ad.
Stewart allows for the possibility that the Obama campaign ad lacks some decorum. Fred Kaplan on Slate makes no such apology.
Two new investigative reports—a book by Peter Bergen, Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad, and an article by Graham Allison in the May 7 issue of Time—thoroughly rebut that notion. [of a no-brainer decision].
Far from the no-brainer that Romney depicts, the secret, high-level discussions leading up to the raid were fraught with intense debate and uncertainty—and Obama’s final decisions, on both whether and how to attack, went against some of his top advisers’ recommendations.
Vice President Joe Biden revealed a few months ago that he had urged Obama not to mount the assault. Bergen and Allison report that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates joined him in the dissent—and they explain why.
In the weeks leading up to the decision, a group of counterterrorism officials, after conducting a “red-team” exercise of what could go wrong in such an attack, estimated that there was only a 40 percent chance Osama Bin Laden was actually in the compound. The CIA put the odds at 60 percent. Bergen quotes Michael Morell, the CIA’s deputy director, as telling the president that “the circumstantial case of Iraq having WMD was actually stronger than the circumstantial case that bin Laden is living in the Abbottabad compound.”
Once Obama decided to attack, an equally weighty debate took place over how to go about it. Gen. James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and widely known at the time as “Obama’s favorite general”), recommended dropping a few dozen 2,000-pound bombs from a B-2 bomber. Others favored going in with missile-carrying drones.
Others, however, advised sending in SEAL Team Six, noting that an aerial attack might kill lots of civilians—perhaps even some in neighboring houses—and, in any case, would preclude certain knowledge that the strike had actually killed Bin Laden. Obama sided with the advocates of the far riskier raid.
Gates, still skeptical of the whole business, had been CIA director Stansfield Turner’s executive assistant back in 1979, when President Carter ordered a raid to rescue American hostages in Iran—then watched the operation go down in flames, along with his presidency, when the Delta Force’s helicopter crashed.
Struck by Gates’ concerns, Obama ordered Adm. William McRaven, the special-operations commander organizing the raid, to throw in two additional helicopters for backup. It was a good thing he did, since one of the assault choppers crashed outside the compound. via Barack Obama’s decision to go after Osama Bin Laden: how the president overruled his advisers in ordering the assassination – Slate Magazine.
Kaplan’s headline puts it succinctly: Barack Obama Killed Osama Bin Laden. Period.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
Rutherford Lawson's Bar & Grill 
Running against Bush. . . again? Yaaaawn.
How’s that budget and employment going?
Parody. Libs are left with unfunny, leftist comedians to carry Obama’s water.
But the best line in this whole steaming pile of shit post is this piece of corn:
OMG. 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
Is there a 5 Pinocchio rating on the 4 scale? Every sentence of a speech begins with “I”
Obama: ‘New York girlfriend’ was composite
Busted for more lies.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/05/obama-ny-girlfriend-was-composite-character-122272.html
Yeah, well I’ll bet she was cardboard too. I”m more convinced every day Obama likes a stiff one in the ying yang.
If you could tax Obama smugness and liberal mendacity, the fiscal crisis would be solved.
Hey Tigre? You know how Rutherford is always criticizing our sources of information?
Take note of the three provided here: Stewart and his “crack” research team 😈 , Colbert, and Slate Magazine. 🙂
26 more to go for a perfect game.
WHY OBAMA LIES
This latest push for Obama killing Osama is simply the pattern of the last three years. Exaggerate truth, deflect, run for cover including predictably here, and move to the next whopper before people have time to digest and reflect.
I’m actually enjoying libs trotting this out now. Because from here on out, there ain’t nothing to brag about. And we haven’t even gotten to the economy yet.
The Stewart piece speaks for itself. Watch it if you’re not too afraid of the truth. 😉
LOL … American Thinker. 🙄
First, the “clinging” comment has always been twisted out of proportion. Obama was saying that when people are unnerved they lean upon the things they are sure of. I believe he was talking about Pennsylvania at the time and he said they were sure of their guns and their religion. If you actually listen to the entire comment, it spoke more of empathy than ridicule.
Regarding “lazy” and “soft” I believe Lasky is referring to comments Obama made about American business. He was saying we are not competing hard enough in foreign markets.
You see, Democrats (Carter and Obama for example) don’t have a problem telling Americans when they have work to do. Unlike GOPhers, they don’t rest on “American exceptionalism” and the assumption we are God’s favored country. 😐
I watched the Stewart piece, and found it unfunny because he is not speaking the truth. He said Bush staged the mission accomplished act before the game had even started. That is either a lie or extreme ignorance. With Stewart’s being a liberal, it could go either way.
Mission Accomplished was staged to commemorate the end of the first phase of the war which was our invading and subduing the Iraqi government. Our daughter’s college roommate was a truck driver and she took supplies into Baghdad as the invasion continued. Her truck was nearly capsized several times and some of her unit died.
Therefore, I regard that “game not even started” line to be a gross insult to the people who invaded Iraq and to the truth.
Of course, the next phase lasted longer and made a mockery of “mission accomplished” in large part because the administration made some serious mistakes they didn’t correct for a year or more. No one knew the future then, and again, the celebration was intended to honor the troops who drove Saddam and his Baath party from power.
Kerry’s behavior and statements showed he DIDN’T understand the threat. He couldn’t even defend himself from Swiftboaters.
Number five, “Bush protected our country…” By Obama’s standards, Bush did protect our country. If he didn’t protect the country, Obama had nothing to do with killing Osama bin Ladin. Recall how Bush helped bring us together in the days following 911. He also preached against attacking our Muslim citizens who had nothing to do with the attacks.
Obama dissed Romney in front of a foreign leader. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Obama crowed about the murder for political gain. He used “I” more times than he should have, and by bragging too soon, he devalued intelligence data SEALS had collected in bin Ladin’s compound. His campaign’s strategy is to set in voters minds a rich opponent who has little clue about how it is like to live in the United States. The campaign wants us to believe, Romney is so self-involved he lacks the courage The One has.
In so doing, Obama uses the deeds of people who risked their lives to complete a mission as props for his campaign.
Criticizing Obama is correct, because he overplayed the spike and made himself look tacky. Romeny’s job is to avoid the meme Obama wants to pin on him, so he would be fool not to capitalize on Obama’s blunder.
I think Carter’s attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran was a gutsy move. Unfortunately, the plan had several flaws and the would be rescuers were unlucky. I think Carter’s approval rating rose a bit afterward in spit of the failure.
You obviously hoped a couple of court jesters would butress your point, but they failed.
“You see, Democrats (Carter and Obama for example) don’t have a problem telling Americans when they have work to do. Unlike GOPhers, they don’t rest on “American exceptionalism” and the assumption we are God’s favored country.”
No. They tell them of their own exceptionalism and what is contained in the goody bag. Like the healthcare bill that was going to fund itself without sacrifice?
Look at all the hilarity — it’s reflected in the non-existent budget. 🙄
Stop the hilarity.
James, like a bad meal, the Stewart thing was done on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. The attempt to draw false parallels is a mind numbing. It sure does show an awful lot of effort though, doesn’t it?
We’ll have to agree to disagree. Kerry’s campaign team has since regretted not aggressively rebutting the swift boat attack. I think they thought America would see it for what it was … slander of the most tasteless kind. Dukakis played rope-a-dope too and it lost him the election. Dem’s have to learn to fight fire with fire. That’s “the Chicago way.” 🙂
P.S. It’s not a matter of two wrongs making a right … it’s a matter of the pot not calling the kettle black.
Yes, the Stewart piece speaks for itself. “If you are afraid of the truth, look here. It is somewhere else.”
How does Obama know our businesses and workers aren’t competing hard enough? The guns and Bibles statement had racial and regionalist overtones. I heard the statement and regarded it as condescending. It was close to “What’s the Matter With Kansas?”
I don’t rest on American Exceptionalism or God’s plan. It is a fact, God or no God. We aren’t the only country to fill that role. Others have before us.
I’ll say this …. this thread and the last one bring me closer to Tex’s melodrama. If 46% of the nation is as blind as you Tigre, then maybe it is time for our country to split and let you guys run things on your own. You can’t even acknowledge indisputable truth when you see it.
But as my next post (coming soon to a theater near you) will testify, you are a typical Republican and largely responsible for our country’s current dysfunction.
I recall Bush was attacked by Kerry for having made the world less safe, and Bush defended his policies.
So that’s now the same as criticizing Obama for trying to take undue credit for authorizing Osama’s killing?
I’d laugh if it didn’t hurt so much.
R, when you’re done talking about Bush, let me know when Romney’s position is that Bin Laden shouldn’t have been killed.
Rutherford’s indisputable truth: Romney would not have killed Bin Laden.
Nope. That’s preposterous.
As I said, keep running with it.
“Look at all the austerity — it’s reflected in the non-existent budget.”
“But as my next post (coming soon to a theater near you) will testify, you are a typical Republican and largely responsible for our country’s current dysfunction.”‘
In the words of Stewart, “Waaaah.”
So I won’t pray at the alter of Obama The Courageous.
How’s the debt crisis?
Yes, Rutherford, we will agree to disagree.
You did prove my point about Kerry with the regrets over swift boaters. I had forgotten about Dukakis. A picture did him in. He posed in front of a tank while wearing a uniform, including a helmet, and he looked like Alfred E. Newman. Ironically, I think he was a veteran. There was a similar picture of Kerry at NASA which didn’t help his chances either.
I forgot the columnist’s name. She wrote after 911 that she and some of her liberal friends felt guilty because they were secretly glad Bush won the election.
Ok, c’mon, fess up. Did you really graduate from law school? Your inability to follow an argument is astounding.
As documented in the video, Bush’s campaign and its surrogates said Kerry would have made Saddam stronger. Pure conjecture which by your standard should be condemned. It’s the parallel of Obama saying that Romney would have kept bin Laden alive. According to you, pure conjecture worthy of condemnation.
Is that any clearer?
OK, let’s try this again. By Romney’s own lips, we should not enter a foreign country to take out an enemy without the permission of that foreign country. That is what he said.
Soooo, if presented with bin Laden in Pakistan, by his own logic, Romney would have either taken a pass, or informed Pakistan of his plans, which knowing that Pakistan is as leaky as the Titanic, would have allowed for bin Laden’s escape.
Now …. another matter entirely … when presented with bin Laden in Pakistan, is it possible that Romney would have flip flopped on his own stated position? Yes. That is indeed possible.
So here you go Tigre, I’ll hand you your defense on a silver platter so you no longer have to exercise those tired brain cells.
Romney is such a flip flopper who will say anything for political gain, that we cannot believe what he said about Osama in 2007 and he would indeed have done exactly what Obama ended up doing. — El Tigre
No. Romeny has said he would’ve taken out Bin Laden.
And for Kerry?
Wow, you’re desperate.
And I’m supposed to believe what Obama says about Romney or what Romney said about Romney?
Alfie’s already laid it out. As I said, I won’t bother doing it again. You can look back.
Now what is it about Bush that makes Obama’s lame claim to heroism valid?
James, it was worse than that. His head was actually popping out of the top of the tank.
But that’s not even what I was referring to. Dukakis did next to nothing to confront the “Willie Horton” ad campaign leveled against him. He was a wet noodle. He handed the election to Bush Sr.
** G U F F A W !!! **
WTH is this pile of dung passing as fact? Have work to do? Obama has personally put a bunch of freeloaders (17 million of them at last count) on the food stamp rolls, for crying out loud. Is that the kind of hard work you speak, Homer?
It’s kind of hard to be exceptional when 47% of the country is dragging the rest of the dead wood along with it.
But you finally broke down and admitted the truth, without meaning to of course. Obama and Carter – just like jelly and peanut butter. Good job, Plouffie!
Sorry Brother “R”, I actually did laugh out loud at the thought of that “CRACK RESEARCH” team of Stewarts. Do you have any idea how desperate your message has become? 😆 I give you credit. You stick your ass out there just begging to be kicked and undoubtedly give off on it.
What would you think if I came here quoting as gospel Rush Limbaugh’s Crack Research team? And Limbaugh is ten times as popular as that superficial fluff on the Comedy Channel.
I guess you’re right about that “hard work” Obama speaks. Since there is now 3,400,000 less jobs than when President Neo took the helm – somebody is obviously has to bust ass to keep our heads above water. 😀
Factory Orders Post Biggest Decline in Three Years
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47262178
When does that recovery Summer Kick in Again? 😀
Romney in 2008 presidential debate explaining his remarks:
”It’s wrong for a person running for the president of the United States to get on TV and say, ‘We’re going to go into your country unilaterally.’ Of course, America always maintains our option to do whatever we think is in the best interests of America. But we don’t go out and say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen of Germany, if ever there was a problem in your country, we didn’t think you were doing the right thing, we reserve the right to come in and get them out.’”
When was Bin Laden taken out again?
What was that indisputable truth again? 🙄
Rutherford, I hate to do this to you, but in 77 seconds, I’m going to have to produce my own video which pretty much disputes and disregards all those bodacious Stewart claims, especially your “Obama has repeatedly given credit to those who actually did the dangerous work. “We killed Osama bin Laden.”
Would you like to renege, grovel, or simply update the post quietly and conveniently? OH, and note the producer. Romney need not bother – Vets have had about enough of the coward’s bullshit too. 😉
One other thing…
A little more President Neo Foodstamp hypocrisy in print. You Libs don’t control the flow of information anymore and truth wins.
Sucks to be you…
http://www.villainouscompany.com/vcblog/archives/2012/05/more_foreign_po.html
I wonder where Veterans for a Safe America get their funding. 🙄
BTW did I tell you Arianna Huffington can eat my shorts?
Tigre, no need to keep commenting. I gave you your all encompassing comment. The bill is in the mail.
Veterans for a STRONG America – is what keeps you safe. You can show your appreciation by donating here. Pass the word to Neo…
https://secure.donationreport.com/donate.html?key=CGIADBLPT7L5
————
America is safe – when America is strong.Veterans for a Strong America is a non-partisan action organization dedicated to educating the public, members of Congress and the Executive Branch about our 5 Step Mission to make America Strong:
We must grow the world’s strongest, most robust economy and cut spending in order to reduce the National Debt
We must strengthen and modernize America’s Military so that no adversary will even contemplate a challenge to our security and safety
We must Implement a common-sense national energy policy that will power America into the 21st century
We must implement responsible intelligence reform that allows to prevent the 9-11′s of the future
We must design a legal framework that allows America’s law enforcement agencies to prosecute terrorism on a global battlefield
Veterans for a Strong America is mobilizing veterans and veterans’ supporters as advocates in the public policy process. We are doing this by partnering supporters with respected economists, military veterans, intelligence community leaders and experienced former law enforcement officials.Veterans for a Strong America is arming Americans with the facts about the state of our national security, equipping Americans with the tools needed to engage elected members of Congress and the President, and motivate Americans by asking them to rally around us with the just nature of our cause – to keep America strong.
Rutherford, let me tell you something I learned at my American Legion post. Real combat veterans might brag about a war, but never combat.
Obama could have just let the anniversery of the death of one stink beard he didn’t want to Mirandize speak for itself. The mission was so small in scale he has politicized the individuals who were putting a lot more then their “legacy” on the line.
You talk about flip flopping on the war on terror while Gitmo remains,thank God, open.
It is dishonest to make a claim that Romney wouldn’t have acted on the intel.
It’s weak. And many people see it that way.
I thought the Mission Accomplished sign ranks up their with the stupidity of General Custard. Too bad it hasn’t been about Bush for many years.
From a leadership or pure political standpoint, I can’t believe Obama couldn’t play the death of Osama in a way that had him coming out smelling like a rose and the nation celebrating. Snarky bumper stickers wasn’t the way to go.
Rutherford this is the last thing I’m gonna say on this.
CONTEXT!!!!!! You’re lying to yourself and its quite sickening. In 2007 the majority of the skill set on the issue of OBL in Pakistan would’ve respected paki son. In 2011whence the intel finally indicated there is NO fucking reason to believe ANY fucking POTUS would NOT HAVE given the order.
You’re better than this aren’t you? Or are you this fucking pathetic??
“Tigre, no need to keep commenting. I gave you your all encompassing comment. The bill is in the mail.”
You win. Very convincing. Obama gets my vote and my admiration. Romney is a complete eunuch.
So, what’s Obama going to do to create jobs for all of us that he rescued?
I agree about that, Rutherford. A campaign ad museum showed the Willie Horton ad was created by the Gore campaign. Bush used it, of course but Gore was sort of like Kodack who I think invented the digital camera while others benefited. Gore didn’t get much help from his campaign’s creation.
There is a difference between Kerry and Romney. Romney’s statement, if taken in context, doesn’t preclude killing bin Ladin.
Kerry had a long anti-war record, and he seemed to believe the terrorist attacks were akin to criminality instead of acts of war. The feckless way he fought the swift boaters can be applied to how he would fight an external military enemy. Kerry’s taking advantage of an early out after he was wounded three times speaks ill of his character.
He might also give up too soon in an international confrontation. I think a hypothetical about Kerry carries more weight than one statement by Romney. This whole national argument is silly. Obama gave the order,and we can only guess what Romney would have done, though I accept his word.
No criticism of you. You are repeating what we hear on the news. However, you do know how silly we are to argue hypotheticals. None of us really knows what the others would have done We know Obama did drugs when he was younger. It would be as productive to speculate on how he would have behaved if he had grown up on a Wyoming ranch.
May Day magick moments presents…
Poolman, why do pretend to be some “moderate” of rational thought? 😆 I feel a measure of guilt because your cranium so bulbous, it’s a target that can’t be missed. Both ends of the boomerang could hit it.
Are your faculties lucid enough to recognize how incredibly void you come across to educated people? And if you think Rutherford supporting your cause is proof of your acumen, he’s using you when convenient, dummy. Wake up.
Why don’t you latch on to one of these granola, peacenik groups where you’re a spectacular fit with your Chatty Cathy pals and stick with them and spare yourself these blistering retorts? I almost feel guilty, but your nature so vile and filthy, your motives so deviant, I can’t help myself. So read on, Rube.
Your more transparently phony than Obama. But at least Obama isn’t entirely stupid. You are. 😐
Your friends are anarchists the OWS plague and morons of Fat Grannies and worse, your heroes are fringe lunatic and dregs of the earth, you’re a vanguard sympathizer of America’s enemies, a devout Jew hater and Nazi slug without the balls, a pathological liar, a duplicitous bitch for sad sacks like Auntie Jean and OWS, a loon, goon, a stooge, and useful idiot light. And sadly I’m afraid you will be that way for the rest of your miserable life. You’re without hope. 😉
I hope you realize the men on that ship that served under Bush were also of the opinion the “mission had been accomplished.” Saddam had been deposed and that the content which unfortunately we let you slugs twist to where it now accepted as fact.
Here, in the interest of fairness – something with a little more zeal and a little more destruction than your spew. Choke on this pussy.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/obamas-broken-deficit-promise/
Here Rutherford. Congratulations. Good work Neo – I believe they do look just like you.
‘Justice for Trayvon’: 15 Whites Beaten By Gangs of Black Thugs… So Far
http://pjmedia.com/blog/justice-for-trayvon-15-whites-beaten-by-gangs-of-black-thugs-so-far/
The older I get, the more I love Michelle Malkin. That ought to twizzle your little pecker, Rutherford.
Make sure you don’t miss the video on ‘Hannity’ tonight where Michelle nails the insufferably inept Juano Williams to the wall for lying about the Tea Party. She calls his bluff, then when he give the pat progressive answer of “Google It”, she calls him a liar. 😈
This is how all you miserable, lying little shits ought to be treated.
Unfortunately, too many Republicans are soft, believing they can reason with you ruthless, pandering pagans. Our women have bigger balls than most of the men.
I earlier wrote that “Mission Accomplished” celebrated the end of major fighting after allies deposed the Iraqi government.
Management failures led to the guerilla war, but that was in the future.
Bush and the troops were celebrating the end of the first phase of a difficult war. They deserved the party, because on that day, they had accomplished their mission.
Many of the folks who mock the celebration supported the “slow bleed” which was intended to let more allied troops and Iraqis die for political advantage. They celebrated the mockery that “Mission Accomplished” had become and didn’t care if our soldiers died..
I also like Michele Malkin. We need more people like her.
Absolutely right James. And I salute you for having the guts to say the absolute truth, a couple of them on on this very blog representative of that fact. Many of these liberals were actively rooting for a daily body count of American military so that they could preach their sanctimony because of their unexplainable hate filled behavior of George Bush. Period. And they still do it to this day – only their approach now different because President Foodstamp in charge and they couldn’t bear to risk his election.
We no longer hear their baloney about war criminals and GITMO and failure and body counts, do we? Like I read tonight, Obama inherited everything from George Bush (except the intelligence network that tracked down Bin Laden). Phony bunch of helpless misfits that wouldn’t make it a week left to their own accord. Mange ridden mutts biting the hand that feeds them. The lowest scum.
And I believe people like Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Dick Durban, Patrick Leahy, and Barack Obama were right there with them.
Like Bill Clinton, these “pious pussies” loathe the military, unless the military is busy keeping their heads from being sawed off. Three weeks after 9/11, when these punks, pukes, and pathetics were sure they were safe, they left their short attendance of church that they ran to like rats looking for assurance in numbers, and once assured, resorted right back to the traitorous, American hating, fascist, cowardly oikophobes they really are. Can you hear me, Poolman?
If there’s justice, someday they’ll either be lined up before a firing squad, have their heads sawed off with a rusty blade like Daniel Pearl, or they can crawl to Mecca and kiss the ass of Hussein.
I think the “Mission Accomplished” was accurate, Tex. The real mission, anyway. They succeeded in getting us into these wars they planned before 9/11 and were able to systematically remove our rights, shifting us into martial law. They got everything they wanted. In that way it was mission accomplished. And the symbolism in the video is great.
If you’ve read the PNAC agenda, this was definitely a success.
JT Ready went berserk, shot 4 people including a two year old and then killed himself this afternoon around 1ish. He was running for sheriff in Pinal county after Babeu quit amid a gay sex scandal.
You might remember JT from the Occupy Phoenix video I posted included him with the camo and weapons.
I tell you, it’s the wild, wild west out here, for sure. 👿
I will say this for Fox …. if it weren’t for Fox there would be no Shepard Smith. The dude is priceless. I truly love him.
Mr and Mrs
bulbous headpoolman will be enjoying our 35 anniversary today, since this time stamp says it’s already the third. Hows that for lunatic fringe? 😛Mmmmm, these top two sound pretty conservative to me. Non-partisan my ass. If I had the patience and energy I’d do the research and probably find them funded by the Koch brothers. 🙂
Congrats Poolman. I suggest a gift of Deep Woods Off for the little lady to keep the “bug drones” at bay. 🙂
Just wait R. Pretty soon Romney will be telling us he not only would have pulled the trigger, but that he actually DID pull the trigger. “Just look at the powder burns on my Mittens Team 6 assault cuff links, for Pete’s sake.” 😉
Alfie it’s a matter of whether or not you choose to believe the narrative we’ve been told. I choose to believe it. Any POTUS given 60-40 odds AGAINST Osama being there would have been within rights not to take the chance. Any POTUS once decided upon acting, would have been within rights to drop a few bombs via drone and not risk American lives. Any POTUS would have been within his rights to not risk a serious breach with Pakistan by not informing them of the mission until after the fact.
Obama made all these decisions. Some, like Admiral Mullen thought the possibility of getting bin Laden was just too good to resist. Others like Bob Gates who had seen Jimmy Carter’s rescue mission go south, were much more reluctant.
So what you are telling me Alfie is that the narrative offered not just by Obama but by several of the folks involved (Mullen, Clinton, Biden, Donelin, Brennan) is a lie and that there was 100% certainty that Osama was there and 100% certainty he could easily be captured or killed. Tell me that you stand by that assertion so I can understand why I am f*cking pathetic.
I thought you said the government can’t create jobs. Make up your mind. You don’t believe in the private sector any more, you commie? 😉
Nope, not entirely true. According to Jake Tapper the original ad coming from Al Gore did not mention Horton’s race. The mug shot of Horton was inserted by a Republican consultant Larry McCarthy (who coincidentally now works for Romney).
GOP political strategist Lee Atwater was credited with coming up with the ad. I’ve read various accounts, some like Tapper, who say he had nothing to do with it and others who said he loved the ad because it would scare the bejesus out of potential Dukakis voters.
Regarding 53 … classic Thor!!!
” The issue did not take for Gore, but the exchange attracted the interest of Jim Pinkerton, the research director for the then flailing Bush campaign. “That’s the first time I paid attention. I thought to myself, this is incredible. It totally fell into our lap.” Slate Magazine.
You’re right about the picture. I was trying to support your point about the weak Democratic campaigns. Like Kodack and the digital camera, Gore invented an effective issue which barely worked for him, partly because he soon dropped out.
Thanks Tex, I hope someday, historians will recognize those disgusting creatures for what they are.
Our daughter’s college room mate joined the Army Reserves to pay for her college education. The Iowa unit had never before been called up for foreign duty. She was yanked from college and found herself driving a truck during the invasion.
Before each mission, the group assembled, and the CIO gave the “you will die” speech. “You will die” if you get lost, if your truck breaks down, if your truck is bombed, if you get separated,…” She said men shot at her truck and men ran from allies and threw explosives at the trucks. Her truck was hit, and several times explosives put it on two wheels.
Our daughters’ friend laughed it off, and said the Iraqis weren’t very good shots. She voted for Kerry because she thought Bush was conducting the war in a pansy ass way. Her college training was interrupted for a couple of years, and she only earned her MA two years ago. The war delayed her plans.
“Mission Accomplished” celebrated people like her.
We know government’s create jobs for employees they hire. They create conditions which foster or retard economic development.
I don’t believe the narrative we’ve been told. Personal experience taught me how they lie a long time ago.
I am up at this time because we just had a strong thunderstorm with lightning so frequent one could have read by it. I report this sort of thing, and I like to record it. It is a repeat of yesterday morning, and I am tired.
R my entire point has been that a speech in 2007 is no indicator of a Romney decision in 2011. ANYONE that thinks it is is PATHETIC.
If you look back at everything I’ve said I’ve NEVER SAID OBAMA was wrong or didn’t make a good call. I am all about your side LYING ITS PATHETIC ASS OFF now based on assumptions that are illogical and PATHETIC.
Are all the dots there for you now. Did I make myself clear.
Bottomline if you subscribe to the Obama decision making narrative….you’re not alone I’m right there,thats how the system works and he made a good call,he’s milking and inconsistent on FP but that call was right on.
If you buy into the narrative that Romney would not have made the call you are pathetic,a liar and kind of an asshole.
Thats GOT to be crystal clear.
In fact after rereading #54 Rutherford I have my answer…you’re an asshole
“You don’t believe in the private sector any more, you commie?”
No to one that is being held captive to a government that does not believe in a “private” sector.
So is it now that Obama can’t do anything? I thought he was to be commended for his big turn around.
But now I’m a believer. We can stop worrying about the debt crisis.
“In fact after rereading #54 Rutherford I have my answer…you’re an asshole.”
It takes a comedian.
I believe the narrative is a lie. If the mission had failed, we never would have heard of it, so why did its outcome put Obama into political jeopardy? I also read that Obama was reluctant to make a decision.
He deserves credit for supporting the operations Bush started and for making the right decision, but Obama wants so badly to burnish his warrior credibility he risked damaging intelligence information found with bin Ladin.
I submit to you, that based on Obama’s earlier statements, bin Ladin would still be alive if Obama had not followed Bush’s guidelines. It really was Bush’s fault for once.
James, everything you have said is completely cogent. Unfortunately it’s a wasted effort. Just like the widely circulated photo of the war room (Hillary caught yawning — Obama trying to stay awake after hours of inactivity), the narrative is a mixture of truth and fiction. That is indisputable.
The problem is that without the claimed heroics premised on the distorted account there is virtually nothing for the Obama campaign to talk about by way of his record domestically or internationally.
Obama is entirely too invested in the false narrative, made a decision to try and exploit it as part of the campaign (hence the timing of the trip to Afghanistan), and could hardly be expected to change the story he finally settled on last year.
In turn, R is too invested in Obama to see the folly or back down, hence the out-of-character tough-guy tone he has adopted. He believes he is helping to carry the message. Since it is not well-received by anyone other than Thor (equally invested), we are now dealing with a temper tantrum.
Too bad since it was a good one for Obama standing alone. Having overplayed the distortions like a moth to flame, we’ll be on to something new next week and its negative effects smugly overlooked by the ones that need no convincing.
Alfie,
He is on his radio show, though I haven’t listened to it in months.
By the way, excellent post on last thread. It was dying so I thought I would tell you that here.
The Rutherford’s of the world will never get it Alfie until it is too late. Though formally educated, Rutherford like so many libs never grew up. Their thinking is childlike with few if any critical thinking skills. They are easily led and easily duped. Until their life completely collapses, they won’t stop to think about what is happening to our country, then these stooges are going to be in some serious trouble for the first time in their lives. Arm yourself, if you haven’t already done so because they will be coming. Starved people are the mob.
I am convinced the reason companies really aren’t hiring is that they understand this is a shell game and will need plenty of cash to simply survive. You watch – as soon as Europe begins to fold and it is already happening, we will follow. Right now, there’s little volume being traded on the NYSE. When you begin to see volume get higher, times draws short. The rubes are in and the funny money becomes just that. Argentina 1934.
The rest of the Left here are the new age, granola crowd – and I don’t take them too seriously. They admire men like this Dan Savage. Completely irrelevant, except they vote.
#64 Tigre,
Excellent synopsis, spot on. It’s times like these when I recognize how weak our opponent.
This is it for Obama. We’ve got Osama, and I guess GM if they really want to play that game. The GM one will be a hoot, because I’ve been holding off on that one, ready to pounce at their idiocy. That will be shooting fish in a barrel.
Problem is, there are millions of them being led to the slaughter. Question is, how many millions of them vote because I am serious when I say we are running out of time?
Tex, it is a concern. A damn frightening one at that. Like you, I expect Obama to try and play the GM angle (Biden doesn’t have a long enough leash to have delivered the bumper sticker so I guess it’s guaranteed). Shooting fish in a barrel is understating it. Any meaningful discussion of the big “decision” (it sure ain’t a success) will have to uncover it as anything but a “success” — at least to anyone hurting and not a member of the UAW.
If self-congratulatory claims of economic success through GM is the second prong, Obama won’t fare any better than he did with the false Bin Laden narrative. I think people are still hurting too much to equate that as a signal that they are next in line for a bailout.
But what the hell do I know. I’m still standing around people waiting for their Obama bucks to arrive in the mail. 🙄
Tex – I think you are wrong about R’s being some kind of dupe, or never grew up – that kind of stuff. He seems very well-read and Plenty Smart. But I really, really do not see some of his POV’s – and I’m sure he feels the same way about me. We both I believe think that is must be something in our backgrounds that give us some kind of irrational thought process, I guess.
I’m sorry, Rutherford; you seem like a top-notch fellow; I really do not get where you are coming from. I really don’t.
Surely there is enough reading material out there and enough history and enough economics that NOBODY could take the fiscally liberal POV. I just do not understand it. None of it makes any sense when you read it and the proof of the pudding is that it has NEVER worked in the real world. If you can enlighten me as to how you came to your current belief system I would be grateful.
BTW, it looks like Fat Grannies is falling to shit. You could have predicted it, I guess…as lori would say, LOL LOL.
Pfesser, we will have to agree to disagree about Rutherford. Perhaps this is where our values differ. Most Ivy League types “well read.” These “well read” types are leading the country and look where that has gotten us. I think you are confusing well read with wisdom. Wisdom is application, reaching logical conclusions, then facilitating its successes. In the event the method fails, you change the method – a new paradigm.
Small example, and I’ll delve later – I’ve got a brunch I’ve got to attend with a bunch of old farts. 😡
Look at the conclusions Rutherford reaches. What has liberal white America really done for blacks? We have spent over $16 trillion dollars during the period of the Great Society, disproportionately black to even the playing field, and poverty has decreased exactly 2% as an aggregate. In addition, three out of four black children are now born out of wedlock, the black family in disarray, mob rule the norm along with helplessness and dependency (consider New Orleans versus the flood James has experience if you want to measure).
And what does Rutherford do? Live, learn, apply, and vote lock step with the race hustlers and white academia who have provided black America about 25% real unemployment, with one of two living at or in poverty, 50% of black teenagers unemployed and armed, and multi-generational welfare. Worse, instead of the gap widening, much of white America has followed their bad example. You know this from personal experience and were smart enough to choose another course.
Now if that isn’t a dupe, following a consistent pattern of failure and continuing on the same path, I don’t know what is.
This is classic. Hat tip to The Eagles:
Tex –
I am looking at a soft tissue exam of the neck on a kid named… I won’t give you the name because of HIPAA, and you don’t need it; let’s say it is something like, Deondre Mohammad Moesha LaTroy.
He is eight. He has a mouth full of gold crowns. There is probably $3000 worth of gold dental work in a kid that is eight years old and almost certainly does not need it medically; all of his teeth are perfect; it’s for vanity.
By the way; he is Medicaid. You and I are paying for his medical care and his parents spent that kind of dough for a mouth full of metal.
Talk about priorities. I see this kind of shit all the time.
Tex, I found your Juan Williams v Hannity v Michelle Malkin clip. First, Hannity is a first class ass. He’s Lou Costello with a political show. He knows full well that Obama and Pelosi are praising/empathizing with the core sentiment of the Occupy movement which is a rejection of a system rigged against the average person. Michelle Malkin also knows full well that there were racist signs at Tea Party gatherings. She like you and yours closes her eyes and goes “lalalalalalalalalalalala” and thinks that makes it go away.
Second, let me tell you about your God because this much I know:
One day God said, “I want to construct a person whose face is so full of hate that when you prick her, she bleeds feces. Mmmmm, ah I see there’s a nice Asian lady over there … I’ll impregnate her with this sh*t bleeding nasty-ass and I’ll have her name the baby Michelle. I can’t wait to see her grow up and parade her vile face all over TV.
OH …. damn… what was I thinking? No legit TV station would ever put the evil witch on. I guess I’ll have to invent a channel who will tolerate her bile. I’ll call it Fox News.”
Let that be your sermon for the day. 👿
BTW just because Juan Williams has manners and Malkin is a shouting shrew doesn’t mean she cleaned his clock.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I hate that woman. If I were in a high rise building and saw her on the sidewalk below, I’d toss Rush Limbaugh out the window in the hopes he landed on her. 👿
“It looks like the fat grannies are falling to shit…LOL.”
“LOL” indeed.
I got along well with some of the survivors of the exodus to the kitchen, but those folks are the progressive movement in microcosm. The well-meaning dupes will destroy us all if they aren’t discredited. I think they will be as the McGovernites were. I believe the Obamaites feel it too. They smell of panic.
Thanks ElTigre. And thank you Pfessor for the update.They don’t get it because people believe what they want to believe.
This is revisionist nonsense. The mission was to liberate Iraq from Saddam. That means two things. 1. Get rid of Saddam. 2. Restore Iraq to a functioning state, preferably a democracy.
The mission was not accomplished, The mission has still not been accomplished.
I’ll tell you what mission was accomplished. Thousands of young American men and women dead and a deficit through the roof.
I love you James, in a manly sort of way, but you’re twisted dude. Just the sight of Malkin causes immediate “shrinkage” if you catch my drift.
Happy Anniversary Poolman. I hope my wife puts up with me for another 23 years, if I live that long. 😉
I like Michele Malkin.
She should have yelled at Juan, because he was repeating a pack of lies he could not document.Had she not behaved like a shrew (a hint of sexism on your part?) Juan would have drowned her out.. Men do that to women.Juan couldn’t even document his charges. He deserved to be chewed out like a common thief of the truth. I wish more conservatives stood up for their beliefs as she did.
She might also have accused OWS of racism. I remember the charge against the Tea Parties because the majority was white. Strangely few care now. Blacks should be proud they were smart enough to avoid OWS.
Michele may be angry over the vile way progressives have treated her.
On other hand, I loved your imagining Rush’s falling on Michele Malkin. The imagry is sick but funny.
Alfie, honestly your lack of logic here confuses the crap out of me. What do we have to go on but what comes out of someone’s mouth? Romney in 2007 made a broad philosophical statement and that means it is fair to assume it would hold in 2011. I would agree with you if his statement pivoted on precise conditions in 2007 but it did not. It was a broad foreign policy philosophy on his part.
Now, the problem with Romney, Alfie, whether or not you want to admit it, is that NOTHING he said in 2007 on ANY topic can be counted on in 2011. The man changes his opinion as often as I change my underwear.
As a MA resident, you “know” Romney better than most here, which is why I’m doubly confused by your unwavering support of him. When it comes to Romney, there is no there there.
“I am up at this time because we just had a strong thunderstorm with lightning so frequent one could have read by it. I report this sort of thing, and I like to record it. It is a repeat of yesterday morning, and I am tired.” – James
James, one time I was driving through Southern Minnesota into South Dakota and went through a huge storm coming from the south. You couldn’t look anywhere without seeing a strike. People were pulling off under bridges but we plowed on to the next rest stop and watched from there.
After it was over, there were bugs all over the ground that had been knocked out of the air, some of the biggest, nastiest suckers I have ever seen. As we drove away you could hear them crunch under our tires like early morning snow.
PNAC’s agenda was accomplished. Bibi said this was very good for Israel, since Saddam was an annoying stumbling block for them. It gave Halliburton and others connected to Cheney and the MIC huge contracts and profits. Iraq’s currency and oil are now in the “right” hands. It also helped grow government by a whopping 70 percent (conservative, my ass) adding the DHS and of, course, passage of the Patriot Act.
A real win for them. So yeah, mission definitely accomplished.
I’ll have to look it up Tigre, but I heard this morning on “progressive radio” that there is an author promoting an economic theory that for America the deficit does NOT matter because we can always print more money. This, to me, on the face of it sounds stupid but I do want to know how he justifies his statement. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name nor the name of his theory so it’ll take some time to find it.
Happy anniversary, Poolman.
I like you in the same “manly way”, Rutherford. I’ve made no secret of my past and how it has shaped me. I do it as a warning. I frustrate people around me.
“When I’m not crazy, I’m just a little unwell.” Matchbox 20. Its good to be me.
I think history disproves this. Carter’s failed rescue mission was not hidden from the press. If I’m not mistaken, the Bay of Pigs fiasco was not hidden from the press at the time. These things come out.
Thanks. For some reason she doesn’t want me arguing on this blog all day since she has a day off. She was reading over my shoulder earlier and just started shaking her head. She’s had some interesting comments to say about some of the posts. 😀
By your logic, Poolman, we shouldn’t have fought in WW11. Millions of soldiers and civilians died in horrible ways. We should have saved all of those lives and learned to speak German and Japanese.
“Mission Accomplished” commemorated our brave soldiers who did the job their leaders asked them to do.
Wow Tigre you’re in full blown assh*le mode today,
You know, the gay community is well known for its snarky sense of humor. As I remarked on my Internet radio show on Tuesday, a lot of YOU guys sound as gay as the day is long. When you combine the snark with the melodrama, it’s a f*cking cross between Richard Simmons and Paul Lynde.
He signed a friggin deal with Karzai. He wasn’t there golfing. With May 1 being the Osama anniversary, why would he go on April 30 or May 2? The timing was smart … the reason for going, completely legit.
P.S. The outcome … another 10+ years in Afghanistan, a disaster!!!
James, I’m certain plenty of soldiers are brave. But the reasons we go to war are not the reasons we are told. The German and Japanese people did not hate us. That kind of hatred and projection of evil on others has to be taught and nurtured. Indoctrination and propaganda is generally more important than munitions.
Take WWII in example. FDR baited the Japanese. He wanted to get us involved and needed them to attack to get the American public behind the effort. He succeeded.
It’s mostly declassified now. Anyone can look up the docs, if they have the desire. More recent conflicts have much more documentation that can easily be researched.
“Unfortunately I don’t remember his name nor the name of his theory so it’ll take some time to find it.”
Let me help you: “Obama.”
(Actually, I am aware of the concept. One of the guys I work with read his recent book which I understand is required reading in some course at the University of Georgia).
Now, if the theory applies, you’ll need to tell the Obama, CBO and Geithner. They seem to believe otherwise yet offer nothing to deal with the crisis.
But I’ll accept the corresponding tax breaks and will be pleased that the class warfare bullshit can come to an end. Just print more!
Tex, this from comment 14. My hat’s off to you my friend.
I’ll say this …. this thread and the last one bring me closer to Tex’s melodrama. If 46% of the nation is as blind as you Tigre, then maybe it is time for our country to split and let you guys run things on your own.
“He signed a friggin deal with Karzai.”
As I said, he could have sent a senior diplomat to do it (as is frequently done). He was there campaigning. Don’t tell me you’re the only one that doesn’t know that (well, there’s Thor too who tried to make a comparison to the Mission Accomplished landing) you found so logical. :roll:).
“R my entire point has been that a speech in 2007 is no indicator of a Romney decision in 2011. ANYONE that thinks it is is PATHETIC.” -A
Really? Then why does Mitt constantly tout his one term as governor, his private sector experience and the 2002 Olympics?
Careful with your rebuttal. You are about to flip-flop on the issue of … flip-flopping.
Let’s ask the GM workers who have jobs that would have gone away if the auto bailout was a success.
Oh wait, I’m sorry, they’re union members so they’re socialist commie slugs.
So true James, so true. 😉
“Let’s ask the GM workers who have jobs that would have gone away if the auto bailout was a success.”
You can ask my brother the GM exec. I’ve already told you his thoughts.
How about the creditors, suppliers, bond holders and tax payers that got fucked?
You’ll be shocked to learn that there are Dem voters that are not Gm employees or members of the UAW.
Well, at least you’ll have all of those employed by JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and Morgan Stanley. Phew!
At least in that interview, Juan was polite and hardly ever raised his voice. Michelle on the other hand was rude and hostile. Malkin created a false argument. The issue wasn’t if “someone” called Obama a monkey. (“Who Juan, who? Name him Juan!!!”). The issue was signage. The one that sticks in my mind was a picture of an African lion and next to Obama’s picture “a lyin’ African”. That was the sign that always stood out for me. Juan’s problem in that interview was that he was not on top of his game.
Frankly I don’t find Juan terribly bright. Malkin, though vile, can articulate her ideas. It wasn’t a fair fight.
LOL, one of my favorite lines is from Talking Heads “Psycho Killer”
“I hate people when they’re not polite.”
It’s hard for me to articulate why the line cracks me up so. I guess I just picture David Byrne blowing rude people away with a shotgun or something. Kind of an overreaction. 🙂
Gitmo will be closed. 2008… and I’m not running for President. 2004 Those are two of many things uttered by your guy. I now think you’re too dishonest to apply your time and space logic there but fwiw I’ll toss them out there.
Yeah I “know” Romney better than you and he represents what I like in a politician. Thoughtful analysis of topics and open mindedness, courage and ability to change.
Let me show you how the honesty application works.
I’ve given O credit where credit is due a number of times precisely when he did indeed think and make a decision that exhibited a departure from previous positions and desires. Such as his acceptance that “Surge” works,Gitmo is unfortunately a good idea right now and that we have pressing interests in the Pacific Rim.See how that works?
All along I’ve been about that the (D) conjecture Romney would not have acted given the opportunity is a fallacy,a wet dream an utter lie.You don’t get me???
You,the (D)’s and and the msnbc crowd are ignorant to the full story (sovereignty,Pakistan dramatic change secondary to Bhutto assassination in Dec of ’07that’s 8 months after Romneys comment and the evolution of drone capabilities and availability and so much more) and cowardly refuse to apply your false logics to your guy as noted in this comments opener.
I got to get back to a long list of things but seriously….I’m right!
My wife refuses to read the comments section for just that reason. She’s only ventured in here recently to inform you guys I was hospitalized. Otherwise, she steers clear. She gets my articles via RSS feed and leaves it at that.
Although, my wife really doesn’t need to come here because I talk about you guys way more than she even wants to hear. It’s like I have this bunch of imaginary friends. LOL. “Tex”, “Rabbit”, “Poolman”, etc. have become household names. Fortunately, it hasn’t gotten to the point where my eight-year-old is asking “How’s El Tigre today?” 🙂
“Don’t tell me you’re the only one that doesn’t know that (well, there’s Thor too who tried to make a comparison to the Mission Accomplished landing) you found so logical” ET
This is so funny. You asked why Obama was in Afghanistan. I replied with the aircraft carrier retort, actually as more of a jab at Obama for touting a mission uncompleted than Bush. You guys completely freak out to the point that now anything Romney said before 2008 is verboten in forming an opinion of his possible presidency. I’ve heard of rose colored glasses. You guys wear glasses made from black holes. Ain’t no light getting through them at all. 🙂
@ 93 are you insane? Highlighting a set of accomplishments is different than discussing a policy position. What you say Romney touts are abilities and accomplishments.
In the spirit of my #99 which I was typing when you entered 93 it is applicable to either candidate.
Those things do come out as you wrote, Rutherford, but the operations you mentioned involved many people. The Bay of Pigs was in the news for weeks or months before it happened. The aborted rescue effort caused too much damage and involved Iranians too.
The spouses didn’t even know about the operation until after it began. I read that there were thirteen other similar secret jobs over the past year. This was a close call. A neighbor tweeted that he could see helicopters and they weren’t making a sound.
I am extrapulating as Obama did about Romney, so you could be right. However, I think that under the circumstances this attempt to kill bin ladin could have remained a secret for longer than most.
Poolman, I’m not too sure that Hitler was a big fan of American Jews. 😐
With all due respect to your bro, please focus on the last word — “exec”. I’m talking about the line workers.
“Fortunately, it hasn’t gotten to the point where my eight-year-old is asking “How’s El Tigre today?”” – R
Good. We wouldn’t want you using that kind of language around your daughter. 😉
“You asked why Obama was in Afghanistan. I replied with the aircraft carrier retort, actually as more of a jab at Obama for touting a mission uncompleted than Bush.”
No you didn’t.
Rutherford, the LEADERS are different from the PEOPLE of any nation. Most of them are psychopaths. We only get that AFTER the fact, unfortunately. We are like sheep led to slaughter.
“With all due respect to your bro, please focus on the last word — “exec”. I’m talking about the line workers. . .”
With no respect at all, what the fuck do you think happens to his job if GM goes under?
OK Alfie, in part to prevent a myocardial infarction on your part, I will give you this. If you are saying that specific conditions in Pakistan informed Romney’s general philosophy at the time and a change in those conditions warrants a change in philosophy, then fine. Frankly, I think you give Romney too much credit for having thought things through. In 2007 he saw an opening to attack Obama and he took it. His words are now coming back to bite him.
And as you know, his words from the 90’s onward have come back to bite him time and time again this year. And that’s among his own people!!!! He doesn’t need Dem’s to disdain him. The GOP is swallowing REAL hard with him as the candidate.
“Gitmo will be closed. 2008… and I’m not running for President. 2004 Those are two of many things uttered by your guy.” – A
And there it is. You are the one that said 2007 was off limits, not us. You are coming dangerously close to being for flip-flopping before you were against it.
You are hilarious sometimes, Rutherford. Imagining David Byrne blowing someone away after he says, “excuse me sir/mam. Could I have a moment?” That’s two good jokes you made today!
I agree, Juan was off his game. He should not have made statements he couldn’t defend. Juan underestimated Michele and should have known she would attack and leave him looking silly.
People get nasty at times. Whoever made a racial connection was wrong. I prefer to play Semisonic’s “Closing Time” and pretend it is a day after the election. I don’t know how Michele Malking reacts to the unprintable sexual and racial insults she gets. Maybe she uses them to fire herself up.
Point taken … all the more reason why he should LOVE Obama! 🙂
But to attack your question a different way, being an exec, I assume he is highly educated and has more job mobility than the average line worker. That MIGHT make him less sensitive to their needs. Then again, it might not. Honestly I’d have to go back and find what you said his opinion of the bailout was. I don’t recall it offhand.
Of course, I am partial to Fillipinos.
Our nephew was born in the Philipines, and my Fillpina pen pal calls my wife and me “aunt” and “uncle.’ She sent me a DVD of a movie made in the Philipines. One of the characters had to get home from school early so his older brother could wear his good shirt to work. It was the family shirt.
R opined:
“I love you James, in a manly sort of way, but you’re twisted dude. Just the sight of Malkin causes immediate “shrinkage” if you catch my drift.”
By God I second that. And what a shame; she’s cute, too. Some of what she says I agree with but mostly she talks to hear her head rattle. Just too damned over the top to take seriously. People like that are what keep conservatives from winning elections because the libs point to them and say, see – conservatives are like that.
I’ll tell you a conservative woman I LOVE: Kathleen Parker. Sensible, not a shrill screamer. Not hard to look at, either.
But for pure sex, I’ll take Michelle. She has an ass like a three-hundred dollar mule. I’d hit that in a heartbeat, unless she wanted to tie me up and have her way first, and that would be OK, too.
Michelle O’B, not Malkin, for God’s sake. Wanted to get that straight. Forgot they had the same names.
“a lot of YOU guys sound as gay as the day is long. When you combine the snark with the melodrama, it’s a f*cking cross between Richard Simmons and Paul Lynde.”
A real man can take it up the butt and not have his masculinity threatened. So there.
LOL PF, ok to be clear, you’d tap Obama’s ass?
I agree with you about Kathleen Parker but God don’t say that in this forum. The hard core conservatives here consider her a wimp and a RINO.
““Unfortunately I don’t remember his name nor the name of his theory so it’ll take some time to find it.””
I guarantee it is Paul Krugman, of the NY Times. He is positive proof that the Nobel prize is a political statement, not a prize for competency.
Incidentally, descendants of Alfred Nobel are petitioning to have the Peace Prize and the Prize for Economics deleted from the agenda from here on, because there is no science behind either.
Touche … or should I say tushy?
Nope … it wasn’t Krugman. That’s a household name among folks who follow politics. This dude is more obscure.
“LOL PF, ok to be clear, you’d tap Obama’s ass?”
Oh God yes. I don’t know if I have enough personal assest available to get past all that rump to the good stuff, but a man can dream, can’t he? I love me that onion booty. A black tech here and I have conversations about it. He is teaching me ebonics and I’m teaching him Hillbillics. The two things we agree on, though, are jazz and booty. LOL. He thinks I have some black blood. Probably so.
“No you didn’t.” – ET
Oh no. Don’t tell me you can peer into people’s souls now too. 😉
Yes I did. Of course I had to wrap it in some Republican’t bashing, and hypocrisy outing, but when I heard he was speaking from Afghanistan on May 1, my first thought was, oh God, his “mission accomplished” moment.
personal assets, not assest
Rutherford, I love Malkin. And it is very simple why. She calls lib’s bluff and acts ugly the way they do. Period. And she is smarter than they are. Unlike Pfesser, I’m fed up enough with the mendacity and the propaganda of her opponents to say “good for her.”
Juano Williams is a moron. He’s an NPR reject, a fool and frankly pretty stupid. He’s on FOX to provide a measure of “balance” but most the time comes across as a buffoon. Juano is not a complete asshole like most Libs, however. But being nice doesn’t change the fact of being wrong.
But I am glad you are finally seeing things my way about splitting up. Let’s be honest. You’re not a bad guy. I wish you well. Unlike most Libs, I never cared to be your enemy, on good days and good behavior even like you :wink:, and grant you a measure of respect for your tolerance of me being a bastard on your very own blog. That makes you pretty unique IMO. You’re like Juano with a little more brain behind the boasts – basically a nice guy that for whatever reason comes to really bad conclusions. But you and I are from different worlds my old friend. We will never see eye to eye about life’s most important questions and decisions.
Eventually, sometime and place, we become real adversaries. It is imminent and unavoidable unless one of us changes. And if I am right, neither of us is going to change.
Diversity and multiculturalism, political correctness if you will, in conjunction with overreaching government are a road to ruin. It’s a 100% certainty. I’m going to let you have that make believe world of utopia you strive to reach. I don’t believe in the sovereignty of man or the ultimate goodness of man like you do. Good luck in finding what it is you seek. Honestly. Unfortunately, unless we do split, I don’t see my children ever finding the same success I’ve experienced with your crowd attached. If there is one word I would apply to your politics, your approach, your mindset, and your conclusions – it is failure.
If by chance you ever change by some personal epiphany or desperation, you’re a good enough guy you would be welcome in my presence and my little world. I like your humor. I like your style. I appreciate your talent as author. I could say the same of Thor.
But there will never be a day I see things your way. Ever.
And I’m guessing you probably understand that.
Michele Malkin is also cute.
“But there will never be a day I see things your way Ever.” My wife and I have said the same and we have been together longer than most people have been alive. Life is never boring.
I’m not laughing at grisly death, but I do have to chuckle that they immediately labeled this dead thug a right-wing militia, only to find out he’s actually tied to OWS. Pulling hamstrings backtracking as a matter of fact.
I’ll assume Poolman and his wife were not in the fray?
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/05/horror-neo-nazi-occupy-phoenix-protester-goes-on-shooting-rampage-5-dead/
R, as a follow up, I think PF and you are both right in reference to Krugman.
I believe what you are referring to is modern monetary theory (“MMT”).
It’s not a completely completely coherent school of economic thought — but one that Krugman espouses (kinda). Surprise, surprise. It is an ultra-Keynesian theory — and of course one that would appeal to liberals because it supports their desire to spend without consequence.
The “Modern Monetary Theory” was coined by Bill Mitchell, an Australian economist.
Much of the initial theorizing was advanced by James K. “Jamie” Galbraith (John Kenneth Galbraith’s son).
Anyway, this might give you a head start:
http://pragcap.com/the-best-financial-blogs
I do recall a popular book, but don;t have the time to locate it right now. I just had a flash of inspiration for the theory I think you were looking for.
“…you’d tap Obama’s ass?”
“Oh God yes.”
I’ve got to stop reading from the bottom of the thread.
Rutherford I too remain unmoved by all the talk that has followed the unfortunate political ad. I’m right where I was when I watched it all go down.
And the fracture that you spoke of recently has begun to cross my mind too. We could be seeing the choosing up now. 😦
~~~
Malkin has taken enough personal shit from the left that she can plant that fierce look across her face anytime she wants to as far as I’m concerned.
(And to clarify my prior comment, I start at the bottom of the thread an read back in time. Terrible habit.)
Tigre … bullseye … it was Modern Monetary Theory. I’ll see if Google can get me an author’s name but to be honest I was only half listening to the radio show so I’m not sure I’d know the author’s name if it hit me in the face, I just know it wasn’t Krugman, even though I don’t dispute he’s a supporter of it.
Not just a bad habit but it must be confusing as hell too. I cracked up at your response to “tap that ass”. LOL
So Muffy here is my chicken/egg question. Which came first, Malkin’s scowl or the sh*t that has been thrown at her? I know I have extreme bias but I find it hard to believe the woman was ever a “sweetie”.
Know that much of MMT is a bullshit, undeveloped theory.
Tigre, that might be true …. yet why am I NOT surprised to hear that coming from you? 😉
Well, there’s more depth to what I said than you give credit to. Of course, I am not surprised by that either.
If you spend some time with it you’ll understand my comment. Even you will see the theory is not a unified one, belongs to many with divergent interests (Krugman being the political train wreck more so than any others), and is more of point for pondering than workable construct.
(now you can tell me that applies to “all” economic theories)
Since it feeds into your Utopianism, I am certain you’ll selectively embrace it though. 😉
Tigre, well this will be just a first insight into my economic ignorance (I’ve never claimed economics to be my strong suit) but why does the US seem to be unique in the aspect of the ability to print our own money on demand? Is this simply and arbitrarily outlawed in other countries? Am I wrong that the US is unique in this aspect? Do other countries print money when they need to?
I’ll take a peek at MMT and the link you supplied when I have a chance but I have no doubt I’ll come away with more questions than answers.
R –
Yes, all countries can print money at will, unless their fiat currency is tied by law to a hard asset such as gold. It doesn’t have to be a 100% tie, either, to be effective.
Our currency was tied to gold until 1971, at which time Nixon abandoned the Bretton Woods agreement. Many countries up until that time tied their currency to the dollar because it was so stable. (sound as a dollar!)
Since 1971 the value of the dollar has dropped 95%. It is 1/20th of its value at that time. Yes, you read that right.
Over and over is has been shown that governments want more and more money over time and the most effective way to get that is to inflate the currency. Think Weimar Germany.
Where do you think all these currencies come from in the exchange, Brother “R”? 😀
Chinese can print their own money. They’re just smart enough to hold it in check – the reason being a strong currency generally makes for a stronger position and to keep inflation in check.
One question. How can a math major like you not understand, and I ask this in all sincerity, what happens when there are more dollars in the system for the same number of goods?
I’m frankly surprised Rutherford you’re not more clued in to economics – the reason being it is probably the purest of all mathematical constructs in the business world. There are exceptions, crude oil and life saving pharmaceuticals being two, but most goods sold hold to a basic supply and demand theory. More dollars in the system means prices increase, leading to inflation.
That’s one thing I have never been able to figure out with you. You’re obviously pretty honest in your personal dealings. You majored in math, no simple feat at any reputable school. I know you understand parabolic and hyperbolic curves, even non linear equations since you took the most difficult math classes offered. So why is it you don’t concern yourself with debt, present value and runaway inflation?
PF’s right.
But I would add, the Euro (and European monetary policy even before the EU) had agreed upon money supply restrictions.
Of course all restrictions are subject to change.
Haha Tex. I had the same questions.
Ahhhh Tex my friend, you make an understandable but incorrect assumption. You assume I majored in my best subject. Long story short, I didn’t. In fact, my major brought my GPA down … way down. 😐
But getting back to the tutorial for a minute … so the greater the supply of something, lacking corresponding demand, the less worth that something is. This then applies to money? The more money printed, the less it’s worth? And prices rise to meet the flood of money available?
Patience gentlemen … this is one area in which I am humble.
P.S. What you say about economics being a pure science seems a bit off to me because it functions upon assumptions and am I not right that Keynes and Hayek would disagree about the validity of those assumptions?
A story about Libs, Brunch and Why I know God has a sense of humor.
I went to a brunch today right next door. My neighborhood is established, older, mostly retirees. One neighbor (the widow I take care of) is leaving. The other – the Lib – lives next door and apparently feels it necessary to give a going away party each time someone leaves the neighborhood.
She is an avowed socialist, no I am not kidding, loves France and hates America. It’s as if I live next to Poolman. She’s highly educated, has lived all over the world, and terribly lonely, though she has five children and a passel of grand kids. Most apparently have little to do with her. She’s from Michigan, bad mouths Oklahoma all the time, hates the weather, yet for some reason won’t move back to Michigan after all these years. Got me. I think she likes to complain and is full of shit, knowing fully well her quality life isn’t going to get any better. But to each their own. I wish she would move. Please God?
The only kid she talks about is the one in Alaska that is the granola eater and shares her politics – he’s a “hiker”, alcoholic and perennial bachelor older than I am. No woman is going to have this POS. But in her eyes, ‘Dave’ can do no wrong. Frankly, the one time I met him he had about as much personality as tree stump. Her other son lives here in Tulsa and is a devout Christian. She has little to do with him but loves his daughter – whose being immersed in French which makes the granddaughter brilliant. 🙄 I’m not kidding.
God has a sense of humor because he put the female equivalent of Poolman with some money and an education living beside me. The previous tenant was one of my best friends in the world and my golf buddy. I think God spite me for my mouth. I literally measure every word around the woman just to keep the peace and have only slipped twice in seven years. Today was time number 2.
Sorry, I have to set this up in my latest rant against why I hold most liberals/socialists in contempt, amongst a vast number of other reasons.
——
The party only lasts about 45 minutes. No one really wants to be there, not because of the neighbor leaving who is a lovely person in dire straights, but because of the one giving the brunch. They lady puts out quite a spread – the second in three months. It’s very nice, obviously hospitality is her thing, but the rest of the neighbors don’t know my socialist like I do. They do now.
Well, we are not 15 minutes into the party and Ms. Socialist can’t leave well enough alone to just talk generalities like grand kids, weather (which leads to inane comments about Climate Change 🙄 ). She goes on some rant about the idiocy of the XL Pipeline, solar panel expense, windmills (why everyone should have one), how her solar garden light come on even when cloudy (slaps head), why France is better than America. About ten minutes later, everyone is leaving, obviously tired of her stupid shit. Tulsa, OK, is not Berkeley, CA. The neighbors aare polite and say thank you. The woman is eaten up with Bush hatred, American hatred, Christian hatred, and Conservative contempt. Did I mention she’s a Muslim sympathizer and blames America for 9/11? And you thought I was teasing about living next to Mrs. Poolman?
We show up as a courtesy for a very nice lady, whom each of will show our appreciation personally before she leaves. I’m closest to the one leaving probably.
The socialist ruins it for everyone because everything is political. And I mean everything. Why do you liberals do this? Why are you so obsessed with politics it dominates your every conversation – it literally is your life, I guess? I used to work with a couple of has-been liberals cut from the same cloth – and nobody liked them.
I mentioned time number 2. Only three people were left. The host, the honorary, and Mr. big mouth. I finally said “Beverly, the XL pipeline is no brainer. You need to turn the NPR junk off and recognize why it a good thing…” I got that far and she screams, “You don’t know that. You don’t know that at all. They won’t be selling a bit of that stuff to the U.S.” 😯
So I try to explain the economics, the practicality, and the science. She’s not going to hear a word of it. I guess she too is under the illusion there is pure “lake” sitting under Nebraska, that could be swam in if we would only leave it alone. When I said there are already 21,000 miles of pipeline over, under, through, on top blah blah blah over the Ogallala Aquifer, her answer was, “They all leak.” (slaps head again).
I said thanks for meal and bailed. Knowing my luck, another Poolman clone will be moving into the widow’s home. I’ll shoot myself.
Simple example. Perhaps too simple.
If you have more dollars in the system “R”, and assuming you hold supply and demand constant, people have more disposable dollars to spend on the same amount of product driving the price curve up. (inflation).
Now that may not sound like a bad thing. But unless your wage increase matches the inflation (the increase in price for the same good), the value of the dollars you hold will purchase less product over time though the amount may remain the same. Try to think of the value not of the monies you hold but what it will purchase.
That’s why it is so hard for me to know if I’m really set for retirement. Let’s say I have a million dollars. We understand the value of that. But what is the value of that million dollars in practicality?
If I only buy one product my entire life and it costs $1000.00, then I can make the purchase the product one thousand times. But if the price increases to $2000.00, I can only purchase the product five hundred times.
Unless my million dollars increases to two million dollars through some investment over it’s life, the money I hold is actually worth less in real value than what I thought I initially held.
Does that make sense?
My explanation above sucked. I’ll do it over later.
What I am trying to do Rutherford is make you understand that if inflation is 10% this year, and your wage increase was only 5%, in reality though you made more money this year than last year, the value of your money will actually purchase less.
And the depreciating effect is not cumulative, but exponential.
The wonder of compound interest something to behold.
You attended quite a party, Tex. I feel as if I was there.
While you were partying, I planted a few more rows of sweet corn. The early crops are emerging as is the field corn. Last fall, I let a patch of fox tail grow until the grass was over knee high. Then I mowed it to the ground. It provided a nice base which allowed me to cross country ski on a half inch of snow–once a quarter inch.
We have a rototiller, but I garden with a spade. I planted most of our garden on the remains of last year’s fox tails, and they have held in so much moisture the black gumbo sticks to the shovel.
We started no til farming in 1998 and on everything in 2000. It saves labor and moisture. Every tillage pass lets a half inch of water evaporate. No till also preserves earthworms.
My wife just returned from the store and put a pizza in the oven. She saves washing by leaving the pizza on its cardboard container. She asked “What was the title of Ray Bradbury’s book? Was it 451?” “Yes.” She wanted to be sure she set the over correctly.
I’m so tired I’m having micro dreams. Now, your party is looking better to you eh!
A week or so ago, Rutherford provided a funny that I didn’t think so funny, with a proviso that you don’t have a sense of humor if…
Well, I can say the same thing about this:
Pfesser, I didn’t miss your medicaid golden teeth moment. I’m trying to think how I can respond. I think perhaps the best way is this…
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯
followed by:
😡 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡
Perhaps one of these days it will click with my opponents that I find a bloated government a really bad idea.
Tex, that is priceless.
I heard a piece on local radio driving to work this morning. The banner went something like, “is it right to favor one minority over another in governmental contracts because that’s what’s happening.”
If you lived in Atlanta you don’t need to know anything more to know what the story is about. Not “a minority” — one minority over another.
Hell, I don’t need to explain it to anyone here either. It’s the multi-layered absurdity and knowledge that most libs wouldn’t fully “get it” that had me laughing.
James, I am certain you’ve told us, but I don’t recall where you are located. Could you remind me?
Thor 112 I never said what was said in 2007 was off limits. You and R are pretty quick to declare a deficiency in the reading comprehension of others. methinks you two are guilty of this on this topic.
@ R
Any cardiac disorder I experience here will be limited to a broken heart secondary to your absolute inanity.I mean that since I’ve “known” you since (irony alert!) 2007.
I’ve stressed time and time again through two threads the truth and the rubber you and Thor are made of has either repeatedly repelled,misconstrued or otherwise outright ignored what I’ve shared.
I’m left to saying bye bye for now and I’ll perhaps do my own post at my lonely virtual abode.
Get that post up Alfie. You ain’t the only one.
El Tigre, I live in the Missouri River valley on the Iowa side of the border midway between Omaha and Nebraska. I can see Nebraska “from my porch.”
James. I pictured much further north. The CC skiing threw me.
Any of you libs ever wonder why much of the free world thinks your rank propagandists? Could it be who favors the same bridge of information, the same network and blogs you adore? Say you keep company with:
Adam Gadahn, American homegrown Al Qaida terrorist, wrote that “MSNBC ‘may be good and neutral a bit’, but he changed his mind when it fired Keith Olbermann. Adam doesn’t like FOX a bit.”
I guess you share a lot more with the American hating Islamists, especially the hatred of Christianity and Judaism, than I knew.
What, the idea is that Elizabeth Warren is a minority because she is a woman? I certainly don’t look at her as a minority. So I had to stare at the joke photo Tex posted for a few seconds before I “got it”.
Alfie makes one very true point. He’s “known” me even before Tex and Rabbit. I think Alfie and Huck have “known” me the longest.
Otherwise, Alfie’s latest comment stumps me. I didn’t think my last comment to him evidenced “rubber” at all. In fact I went out of my way to see if I was getting his point.
Oh well.
Any communists there? How ’bout hockey moms? How ’bout pit bulls? 😉
Rutherford. Have you not been following the Liz Warren claim she was “Native American.” Come to find out, she’s used it on her resume and your Alma mater used it in the name of “diversity” on staff. 😈
Liz is from Oklahoma after all, and her grandfather had ‘high cheek bones.’ Unfortunately, they can find no record of her squaw legitimacy.
😆
BUSTED…
This is the consequence of age. Yesterday I jammed my finger trying to open a stuck window. When I was 20, the finger would hurt for a day or two. I turn 51 this year and I know the damn finger is going to hurt for at least the next two weeks. 😦
LOL Tex, no actually I didn’t know Liz was claiming Native American heritage. Even though I want Warren to win, I do like Scott Brown.
Tex noted:
“And the depreciating effect is not cumulative, but exponential.”
Absolutely critical point. Inflation follows the law of compounding, the same way debt does and as does money in the bank. Let me see if I can do the formula for continuous compounding in this venue:
A = Pe^(rt)
where A = final amount
P = principal (starting amount)
e = magical number 2.718281828….
r = rate of return (or inflation), expressed as a decimal
t = time
As a math major, R, you will immediately recognize the implication. “A” goes as proportional to P (start with twice as much, you end with twice as much, etc) but goes as (rt) exponentially. A tiny rise in rate of inflation is devastating and is exacerbated by time exponentially.
This is the unspeakable evil of politicians who inflate the currency. To quote the Left’s darling, J.M. Keynes:
“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.” continuing, “The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
Certainly not the Sheeple.
I’ve been investing a long time, R. Jeremy Siegel is the only author whom I think has finally gotten the bottom line: there is only one investment vehicle that can withstand inflation over the long haul and that is common stock. Inflation lets the government take a saver’s money as sure as if they stole it at the point of a gun. (they are) Stocks, since they represent actual work by real people, price in inflation along with their appreciation. And they appreciate tax-free until you sell them and then are taxed at <20%. (not if Obama has his way, BTW).
That is, unti
sorry – delete last line. Too much to do, too little time. Getting a little loose there.
PF, you mean there ain’t no free lunch?
(you’ve set it out very well)
“Otherwise, Alfie’s latest comment stumps me.”
Hmm. I understand Alfie perfectly.
Well, you’ve got Thor.
Holy Cow. I just saw that “#Julia” bit on the Obama site. Sums up the liberal mindset so well, consider my gobb smacked.
Favorite comment from a Politico thread:
“Hey, where’s the part where Obama fixes Julia’s broken soul?”
El Tigre, we average about 36 inches of snow a year. It is not uncommon to have continuous snow cover for a couple of weeks, and we had over 80 days of over an inch of snow on the ground during the winter before last.
Last winter, we had only two good snows, but I prepared for the snow drought by letting a patch of fox tails grow to over knee high. Then, I mowed it and created a layer of dead grass. It provided a base sufficient to let me ski on a half inch of snow. Skiing in corn stubble also lets me get by with little snow.
Our farm is flat, when there is enough snow, I can ski anywhere outside our back yard–3/4 to 1 mile in one direction and 1/4 to 1/2 mile the other way.
We used to snow board and toboggan, and our daughter taught me to down hill ski. However my being hit by a pickup and lifting too much forced me to give up everything except cross country skiing.
Climatologically, culturally, and economically, we are more like Nebraska than Iowa.
Rutherford, we have no hokey moms. We have basketball moms.
We do have a few communists. The place is full of pit bulls. Some are my relatives. One of our kid’s teachers wanted a fur coat, so she ran trap lines all winter until she had enough fur for her coat.
We have druggies, especially meth users and sellers.
We have Indians, and mixed blacks (Our area was the headquarters for an Uncle Tom’s Cabin road show–hence the mixture). A few Hispanics and Bohemians live here too. Most people are Scandinavian, including Icelandic, German, British or Irish. The number of blond, blue eyed people here looks like Germany.
One of our friends is part Indian and Danish. She has blue eyes. Elizabeth Warren has blue eyes, which makes her my distant cousin. Like her, I have high cheek bones. I never knew I might also be part Indian. Or maybe she is SAMI and got the cheek bones as I might have done, through Asians who married SAMI people,.
Warren got caught using affirmative action to her advantage. I should have tried that.
I almost rue posting to this one. All of the sudden, I’ve started getting in my email everyone’s responses. I’ve checked “off” the notify me comments, but this responses continue to flood the box.
God has once again impaled me for my nastiness.
Good explanation, Pfesser. Much better than that crap I tried to post while sweating like a dawg yesterday after mowing the lawn. How does 93 degrees and 60% humidity sound in early May? Good grief, what is late July going to be like? 😦
Funny how that magic number 2.71828 pops up again and again and again. Used to make me smile in the ’90s. Now that number terrifies me.
Thor, Thor? Good thing your 401K plan is looking good. Unfortunately, it’s beginning to look like not everyone has shared in your fortune under the stupendous Bambi Hussein economy:
People Not In Labor Force Soar By 522,000, Labor Force Participation Rate Lowest Since 1981. “ In April the number of people not in the labor force rose by a whopping 522,000 from 87,897,000 to 88,419,000. This is the highest on record. The flip side, and the reason why the unemployment dropped to 8.1% is that the labor force participation rate just dipped to a new 30 year low of 64.3%.”
Let’s talk about Osama some more. 😉
Tex –
I don’t know much about e, except that it is named after Euler, and is called Euler’s number (“oiler”). It is an artifact of the fact that we count to ten, instead of six or thirteen; if something else was our base, e would be a different number, so it’s not as magical as one might think.
Rutherford can correct me, but as I remember, the derivative of some constant k, raised to the nth power is always another constant k1 times n. If the base k is e, then that number is one, which lets you use e to calculate things whose rate of change is dependent upon how big they already are – kind of like the snowball that rolls faster the bigger it gets. (They don’t really do that.)
Help me out, R – I’m sure I butchered that pretty badly.
You don’t think the natural log is an important number, Pfesser? 🙂
I consider this one right up there with π and a^2 + b^2 = c^2. But I agree with you that dependent upon Base 10
Don’t go monkeying with this one. We were already dumb enough not to adapt to the metric system long ago while we still had the chance. Now with the global economy, I can never find the right wrench.
A funny story about getting old(er). When I went back to school, I had never had physics or chemistry before and it had been 25 years since I had calculus. I’m ashamed to admit I had either forgotten scientific notation or had never done it much – probably have forgotten that too.
As at least a few of you are aware, higher level mathematics, especially when working with enormously huge number or microscopically small numbers pretty much guarantees you either use scientific notation or you’re lost.
I got accustomed in physics and chemistry to doing everything in scientific notation since the MCAT does not allow calculators and if you are going to get an answer correctly, it’s the only way to quickly estimate.
I was helping my young nephew with simple multiplication some months later while we were keeping him. Some problem like 31 * 30 or something. So I sat down at the table to help him and started explaining
3.1 * 10^1 x 3.0^1 = …..I was so attuned, I couldn’t even revert back to third grade math. 😆 I don’t know about you guys, but the older I get, I become more and more a creature of habit.
My nephew looked at me and started crying, “This is the way Mrs. So and So taught us!!!” My wife looks at me and goes, “There was a time long ago I thought you were ‘kinda’ smart. (followed by an eye roll).”
God love you pointy-headed Mo-Fos. Not having a clue what you’re talking about is why I went to law school. I learned just enough calculus to get a degree in econ. And when I say “just enough,” I mean it.
Tex –
The natural log is extremely cool also. It is a derivation of e, actually. If you take e^n, the natural log of that whole quantity is n, so the natural log undoes what e does, and vice versa (they are inverse functions.)
Not to get too geeky here, but if you are familiar with the rule of 72, you can use e and ln to derive it. (Rule of 72 => interest_rate*doubling time = 72.) It’s actually 69.3, but that is very close to 72, which is divisible by nearly everything (2,3,4,6,8,9,12,18,24,36, etc.) and makes doing the calculations in your head really easy. For ex. If you make 12% interest it takes 6 yrs to double your money; if 18%, 4 yrs, &c.
Don’t get me started on that stuff; I’ll go to work and promptly bore you all to death. There’s truth in the old joke: what to engineers use for birth control?
Their personalities. LOL
Tex,
How much are they asking for that vacant house? 😆
Pretty funny. I just had two weeks of recovery from a fall I took. This is one where I once again proved, “pride comes before a fall”.
This is something I know and have been shown time and again. Some lessons seem to need repeating periodically with some of us more stubborn folk. 😐
I pick my grandkids up from school most days. The school is a couple blocks from home, so I always walk there and back. The kids have a friend that rides his bike and lives down the street. He’s a little bit of a bully, mostly because he has two older brothers that have always picked on him, so he in turn picks on the other kids his age and younger.
He likes to play, “tag, you’re it!” And then takes off on his bike. Well he did that to me and I took off after him down the middle of the street. I was keeping right up with him, running beside his bike, all-the-while he’s saying “shit, shit, shit!”
Then I got prideful. It wasn’t enough that I was pacing him. My 55 years to his 9. Obviously, he was impressed. But I told myself, “I can run faster than this” and immediately kicked in “high gear”.
Well, my left foot did not get the message quick enough and did not plant quick enough to keep me upright. I quickly sensed the uneasy feeling of flight without lift or directional control, and over rough asphalt. Yikes!
It is amazing how much the mind can process in such a short flight. 😆 This is gonna hurt. Is anyone watching? Why am I running in the street? This is stupid. Why was I showing off? This is so stupid.
I used my hands to break my fall. The rough asphalt quickly turned my palms to hamburger and I rolled my left hand over and punctured a blood vessel.
I got up and blood was shooting out of a hole in my left hand and both palms were chewed up and beginning to bleed.
The kid was all “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!!”. I said, “Why? It wasn’t your fault. I did this myself. I shouldn’t have been showing off.”
I recall as I watched it squirt from my hand, I was thinking how easy it would be to just bleed out. I then calmly pinched the severed squirter and walked home and into the kitchen where I washed my wounds and related my freshly relearned lesson in pride.
My wife just shakes her head and gets me some ice and a clean cloth. There was much head-shaking and eye-rolling that day.
Some of us more stubborn ones get to go through several painful lessons in our lifetimes, often relearning stuff we should already know. 😀
“Thor 112 I never said what was said in 2007 was off limits. You and R are pretty quick to declare a deficiency in the reading comprehension of others. methinks you two are guilty of this on this topic.” A
You blasted R as “pathetic” for using Romney’s views in 2007 when he was running for president. Your friends on the right bring up introduction speeches Obama gave in the eighties and no particular dress down was forth coming from you. (Please post evidence to contrary if you did criticize them, as well as when I attacked your comprehension skills.)
IMO R brought up a valid point, you didn’t like how it made Romney look for whatever reason so you made up a bogus justification in order to call him “pathetic”, easily blown up by anyone that has been around here for more than 2 minutes.
I’m sorry if that doesn’t sit well with you.
Tex, check one of those emails and scroll to the bottom to see if you have a “modify subscription options” link. That link should take you to where you can unsubscribe from a comments thread.
Thor you’re tilting at windmills in your own mind dude. Little Don Quixote reference since you’re a literary type.
You blasted R as “pathetic” for using Romney’s views in 2007 when he was running for president.
No no no!!!!! I’ve blasted him because he makes the illogical extrapolation that a wider policy view in 2007 somehow dictates a narrow policy position in 2011+. A policy view btw that was the same of many and on an extended foreign policy spectrum is still a good one.
Seriously wtf is it you and Rutherford don’t get about this????
As for me dressing down my right of center brethren….Holy shit another FakeName Title IX blogger type. I blog under a simple premise. I am responsible for MY content and statements. If somebody makes you feel icky take it up with them. Remember I’m the detached no light within guy.
Perhaps Rutherford will back me though on the fact that I’ve awarded myself a number of ObamaPails on my own blog and really…did you miss where I’ve given O credit for making the call??
I have a pretty credible history in the blogosphere of attacking lies on a bipartisan spectrum. (Limbaugh,Beck,Breitbart& Spencer as well as Obama,Kagan,Sachs etc.)
Thanks Brother “R”. I’ll take a look. But how did I turn it on to begin with? It only started doing that yesterday.
LOL oh you boys crack me up. Not because you’re dabbling in mathematics but because you think I have a clue.
Junior year I took what they call Analysis (basically advanced calculus). I was so lost that on the final exam I answered mathematical proof problems with gobble-dee-gook essays. When the professor told me over the phone that I’d flunked the final and gotten a D in the course, I was tempted to say “No sh*t Sherlock.” Actually, I blew his mind by saying I’d be seeing him 2nd semester. I don’t recall but I think I may have squeaked out a B- 2nd semester by hiring a tutor and applying myself a bit more.
I’d talk more about my love/hate relationship with math and what compelled me to major in it despite my clear lack of aptitude for the advanced stuff, but it would bore the crap out of most of you. Suffice it to say, the only thing that buoyed my GPA in those desperate years was pure lib classes, particularly Spanish where I got consistent A’s and A-‘s.
The only math class I got an A in at college was Game Theory and that’s only because when I signed up for it, it was a pass/fail class but at the last minute the instructor was told he had to issue grades. He basically gave everyone who showed up and did the homework A’s, gave those who showed up and only did some of the homework B’s, and so on.
The funny thing is, some on this blog have accused me of bragging about graduating from Harvard, but I know I don’t brag because I know that my only achievement was placement on the cumulative Dean’s List (achieved by 98% of the students). I missed Cum Laude in General Studies by 1 point and that’s because I screwed around in a music survey class. Had I gotten a B in that class instead of a B- I would have received Harvard’s lowest level of “Honors”.
So … sorry to burst the bubble but I’ve never claimed to be a genius.
Now I’m off to Khan Academy to find some intro economics class. 🙂
P.S. Knowing how one’s words are used against one in this forum, I’m probably going to regret this honesty … but what the hell.
Related story Pfesser, Tigre, “R”, and anyone else interested in mathematical tricks.
My counselor in college was from some back hole in India of about a zillion people. About 5’0″ tall. He had graduated from their most prestigious school with a PHD and was probably about as close to a mathematical genius as I’ve ever met. He used to open every class of Operations Research (his specialty and where I learned SAS and GPSS) with some math trick. Unfortunately, the only one I remember 😳 probably because it was so easy was:
11^2 = 121
111^2 = 12321
1111^2 = 1234321
11111^2 = 123454321
You get the idea.
Anyway, one day he was doing some b.s. on the board that obviously was sailing over all our heads, and he turned around to the class and said in English (he spoke very slowly), “Well if I have two numbers and one is zero, how do I assure every time the end result is zero?”
We sat there numb.
Dr. Raja (He had some unpronounceable name) looked at the class and said, “You boys and girls can’t be this stupid. I must be boring you. I wished I had asked you ‘nincompoops’ this on the test. You mulllltiply…”
The one lasting thing I got out of being a math major was an appreciation for the evolution of our numbers system. Basically our numbers system evolved as a way to answer previously unanswerable questions. Let me explain briefly:
We take 1 and add 1, we get 2. We continue this addition and the various positive numbers develop,
We take 1 and subtract 1. Don’t have an answer for that in the previous set. Need to invent zero.
We take 1 and subtract 2. Don’t have an answer for that in the previous set. We invent “negative numbers”.
We take 1 and divide it by 2. Don’t have an answer for that in the previous set. We invent fractions (or decimals).
We take -1 and ask what is its square root. Don’t have an answer for that in the previous set. We invent “imaginary numbers”, or “i”.
And so on. Mathematics is basically built around problem solving and expanding the universe of math to encompass that problem solving.
Maybe not profound but I always liked that view of math and the numbers system.
And that concludes today’s lecture. 🙂
Ah, hell no Rutherford. Hola.
The fact you even gained entrance to a U. like Harvard indicates you can’t be too incompetent – that is, unless you were a Senator’s son and failed to tell us. 🙂
You’re looking at somebody that took a slacker course called, “Drugs and Alcohol” only because somebody at the fraternity house had all the tests. I didn’t do a damn thing but 15 minutes before class read through the questions and see what the answer was. It was like on a Monday night. 🙂
I have always taken the path of least resistance. Why do you think this blowhard is here wasting the days shooting the baloney with the rest of you blowhards? I’ll bet everyone of us has got a few slacker stories to tell.
Remind me to tell the nightmare story of the “Scratch and Sniff Tests.” It’s a classic – until we all took the final and got our asses smoked when they double blotted the choices. 😆
LOL Poolman, I got a kick out of your running after 9 year old story. Within a week of getting out of the hospital in Feb, I fell into the tub. No … I did not fall in the tub …. I fell into the tub. That bit of klutziness left me with a two inch scratch on my arm which has still not completely faded away.
I’ve been telling my wife to take me out back and shoot me but she just won’t do it.
The only cocktail party bit of math I remember from college is the Klein Bottle. It’s a four dimensional version of the Moebus Strip. A bug crawling on the outside of the Klein bottle can (once he enters the fourth dimension) find himself on the inside of the Klein bottle.
The Klein bottle was also the point in college math where math began to resemble religion and I started becoming a bit skeptical. 😐 The Klein bottle is a fanciful notion but about as realistic as the Virgin Mary.
Alfie, even though I know you read comment 111, I wonder if you REALLY read it. As I said there, I get your point about Mitt’s general policy being influenced by specifics at the time. I essentially raised the white flag. You’re starting to remind me of the Japanese soldiers who never found out WWII was over. 😉
P.S. to Thor … I can vouch for Alfie on one thing. He is one of the more objective bloggers on WordPress.
Was pretty funny, Poolman. I did something similar two years ago without the audience before my mutt Sammy got hit. He was incredibly fast and was chasing me playing hide and seek. I jumped over a rose bush thinking I would find the parking lot, only to find a curb. Tibiofibular ligament damage. Limped around for months too.
Worse, my circuitous route we walked, if I had measured it, I bet I was equidistant from home, either way. That was a mighty long walk on the way back.
Tex, your “drugs and alchohol” story reminds me of one of my several college follies. They had (and probably still have) a course called “The Concept of the Hero in Hellenic Civilization”. The course’s nickname was “Heroes for Zeroes” because everyone took the course pass/fail, did next to no work and still passed.
Guess what genius Lawson did. I took the f*cking course for a grade. The course demonstrated I was at least a gentleman. In that course (and several others) I got a “gentleman’s C”. 😦
Tora Tora Tora Banzai!!!!
OK R I’m done…So much like any good treaty:
Let it be agreed that Pres. Barack Obama ordered the successful raid that took Osama bin Laden out.(a point I’ve stip’d all along)
Let it be agreed that a foreign policy position to respect a nations sovereignty made in April 2007 doth not necessarily dictate that over four years time someone would not have also taken the action of whacking OBL or any other entity.
And hey R there’s a win in this for you too. You see the new SPA with Afghanistan specifically prevents Obama and any other POTUS from now to 2024 from using Afghanistan to launch attacks into places like…..mmmmmm Pakistan for example. But if he does I want you to know I can be counted on to analyze the action in context and judge fairly. really a win/win anyway ya slice it!
Ouch! We do ourselves much pain. I’ve done some stupid stuff.
I told the wife when she was wrapping my hands, “At least I didn’t drill another hole in my chest.”
😆 That was one of my other famous feats of yore. 😆
Here’s a calculator game for poolman.
If 142 Jews fight 154 Arabs on 69 acres of ground….
(input 14215469)
They fight for 5 years
(X 5)
Who wins?
(turn calculator upside down to read)
I guess to be consistent I should have said (press ‘=’ ) after “Who wins?”
Funny and sorta prophetic, PFesser.
I don’t think those drones need Afghanistan, Alfie. This is an all new era of warfare. The rules of engagement and boundaries have been somewhat tweaked beyond what were deemed conventional to the world before this real-time virtual global net was functioning.
Have you guys seen the Krauthammer video pwning Obama on the “Buffet Rule?” Scathing.
Alfie I really appreciate your posts.
~~~
Know what the most widely circulated US coin is?
Penny.
Know how much it costs to make a penny these days?
$.07
😕
LOL … Alfie the more I hear about this ten year continued occupation the more pissed off I get. Now Karzai is spinning that the US “met his demands”. He’s in no position to demand sh*t. He’s a thug.
That was good PF. Unfortunately I had to do upside down flip in my head because on the iPhone, when you turn the calculator upside down the entire screen re-orients. 🙂
Leave it to Lou Costello-Hannity to make Liz Cheney his guest host. Krauthammer is a smart man. Even though the anecdotal evidence supports the idea, I don’t quite get how raising cap-gains tax LOWERS revenue. Is the notion simply that a high cap-gains tax disincents investors from selling stock?
Muffy I hate handling change. I’d be first in line to cheer if they did away with the penny. Even my 8 year old daughter is smart enough to know that something that sells for $9.99 is essentially ten dollars.
“Is the notion simply that a high cap-gains tax disincents investors from selling stock?”
It also disincents purchasing stock, selling a home, or making capital investments of any kind etc. — which in turn reduces taxable income generation for others.
R, to truly raise revenue you need more taxpayers not higher tax rates. That is accomplished through capital investment.
R.I.P. MCA
The best way to understand it, R, is to do the little thought experiment that Arthur Laffer did several years back:
If you have zero taxes, the government gets zero revenue.
If you have 100% taxes, the government gets, well, zero revenue because nobody will work.
So somewhere on that curve between zero and 100%, there is a taxation level that maximizes government revenue. That number has been shown over and over to be around 20-23%. That is any and all taxes.
Yeah. RIP MCA
Not a huge fan but no one is supposed to die in their 40’s,
Damn … another video that can’t be embedded. Makes no sense to me. Copyright? Lawyers …. phooooey.
To see some of their greatest hits videos, here’s a good link: http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/04/remembering-adam-mca-yauch-the-beastie-boys-greatest-hits/
Don’t know how they did it but they got the vids to play embedded where I couldn’t. 😦
I had completely forgotten about the video to Sabotage which is an homage to the Starsky and Hutch type crime dramas of the 70’s. Good stuff.
So, two days in a row these scummy carpet cleaner guys have harassed my 9 month pregnant wife right after I leave. They pull their van right into my driveway like they own the place. Next time they do it my wife is flashing the speed pump.
Is that a pump for breast milk or a fire arm? Either way I think it would scare the sh*t out of them. 🙂
Pfesser, I liked your calculator equation. 😆
Muffy, I was thinking about that the other night. What does it cost to produce a penny? That makes sense.
I figure it’s about equal to their general equation of taking $7.00 of taxes and giving about $1.00 of benefit back. At least they are consistent.
The country is in the best of hands. 😡
You know Rutherford. Though you and I agree on pretty much everything culture (same basic tastes), and disagree pretty much everything politic, when we come to a meeting of the minds like we have on Afghanistan which is both, then perhaps somebody ought to take a good look at the situation at hand.
So…
What in the hell are we doing in that stone age cesspool if we are not killing them? There is no winning that war with a bunch of savages that have no inclination to do anything but kill and beat women. I’m not interesting in building a school, road, or palace for a bunch of rabid ingrates, that frankly don’t deserve our help.
I’d shoot Karzai myself. He’s about two steps past Bin Laden on the ally scale. I would tell that SOB if you’re lucky, we won’t throw you to the Taliban on the way out tomorrow.
Shocking Elizabeth Warren video surfaces. Warren adopts new campaign strategy and campaign commercial (courtesy of Glenn Reynolds):
That makes sense? or That makes cents? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Regarding Afghanistan, it should probably trouble us Tex that we are on the same page on this one. Must mean one of us is wrong. But I’ve got to tell you, every time I hear anything out of that ignorant thug Karzai, I just wish we had carpet bombed the entire country 10 years ago and been done with it.
The problem of course (before Poolman goes there) is that not ONE of the 9/11 hijackers was from Afghanistan. We really should have carpet bombed Saudi Arabia … another bunch of savages but in rich men’s clothes.
Quite frankly, on my bad days, and lately they are many, I wouldn’t mind flying a 21st century Enola Gay over:
Saudi Arabia
Afghanistan
Syria
Iraq
Iran
and drop a nice nuke over each one.
Then we wait fifty or so years for the “dust” to settle and then we do some serious f*cking nation building. 👿
Regarding 212, great song but damn, Cher looks preposterous in that get-up on that horse.
You can’t throw a rock around here without hitting a pizza joint and yet we haven’t found anything that compares to the Northeast yet. We’re trying a different pizzeria tonight. Man I hope we finally hit pay-dirt. I’ve been so disappointed (and this is coming from someone who loves pizza).
Speaking of pizza. Baby daughter is home from college. She will be a senior this year. But only home for two weeks from today! Hooray! I’ve seen the kid lay in bed on her off days until 4:00 PM. Drives me nuts. Daughter demanded pizza tonight. I told the Mrs., you gals have a good time!
So this year, baby daughter is getting an apartment with three of her buds for the summer. Bummer. 😈
There comes a time in every parent’s life, you must kick the eaglets from the nest. I told Momma Eagle, this is the time. And shockingly Momma Eagle, the one that really rules the roost after I flap my wings a bit, consented to Daddy Eagle.
It’s a miracle.
I will tell you from travel experience, Brother “R”. It was my own experience there are three things and three things only that I have found in the Northeast besides the fall color that I can get anywhere else as good or better and much cheaper.
The three exceptions are:
Lobster
Italian food
Pizza
Once again, we agree. Some of the pizza in NYC was to kill for.
Cher?
R, time to dust off that Paul Revere and the Raiders video again?
Damn. She’s gotta be getting her ass kicked over this one.
From what I can tell, she deserves it too.
Tex, I agree with your list. I would add chowder (“chowda”) and popovers. I haven’t had a popover in probably 30 years and haven’t seen them anywhere outside of New England. I remember them being really good.
Oh man. Lobster rolls sold at roadside shacks for $7. Nothing but tail and claws and a little mayo on a plain ole hotdog roll.
My New England can’t-be-beat list is all seafood. And I can’t narrow it down to 3, but I can do 4.
Chowder, linguini & clams, crab, lobster
I would imagine a popover is like a tart, but I don’t remember them.
First time I ever had iced coffee was in New England.
Man….that description of road side lobster has me salivating. Do they still have those stands? I would love to try that one day.
Man, I love the NE seafood fare. That is something lacking out here in AZ with no coast for miles. We have some places that fly the stuff in fresh and that is pretty good, but pricey. There are shrimp farmers in the desert and they have a good product. But crab and lobster must be flown in fresh or frozen.
But we have them beat as far as Mexican food is concerned That was my biggest complaint living on the East coast – no good Mexican food. Even Florida was lacking that when I visited them in winter. Good pizza is easy to find out here, also. We have NY style and Chicago style. There are no shortages of Italian food places out here. And steakhouses. We have them in spades.
Now I’m hungry…
That Julia site is hilerious. Its 50 percent Kim Jong Il, 50 percent corporate training pamphlet for a new hire at a bad chain restaurant.
In one of the cruel twists of fate in my leaving the East coast, our last visit with my father before we moved involved visiting a pizzeria in Stamford, CT. It was the best damn pizza I’d had in years. And just our luck, it would be our last meal with my Dad before we moved. “Why hadn’t we discovered this place earlier?”
BTW, the verdict on tonight’s pizza …. another loser. Too much cheese, nondescript crust, unexceptional sauce. 😦 AND …
Maybe Muffy whom I believe lives not far from me, can answer this. Why in God’s name do they take a friggin round pizza and then cut the slices in squares? What the hell is that about? Is there some sort of triangle phobia? Back east we had what was called Sicilian pizza and that was square to start with so the slices were square or rectangular. But why cut a circular pizza into square slices????
Sadly, the best pizza I’m getting anymore is the one I cook in my oven from Papa Murphy’s. I know people that think the HideAway in Stillwater, OK, is the finest pizza in the world.
I think they need to get out more. 🙂
Linguini and clams – with the white sauce. Exactly. Two different places – one in Brooklyn, the other Portland, ME. Now I’m hungry.
We had a profitable day. An historical architect inspected our historic preservation group’s 1877 building which is on the National Register. We were in the building for six hours and he helped us develop a long-term maintenance plan. His physical inspection was worth every penny of his salary, because he discovered the building has a 1% bow. The upper story is listing to port. Now, we will apply for a grant to pay for a counsultation with another architect.
The woman in charge of local historic preservation said an old Masonic hall which our Town and Country Arts group owns has been altered too extensively to apply for the National Register. This man said he disagrees. A retired farmer who spreads money he earned because he bought Berkshire stock when it was cheap is a benefactor. He offered to pay for a new bell tower to make the building look as it did when it was a school The architect said we shouldn’t do it, since the building is supposed to appear as it did in 1912 when it was no longer used as a school.
Warren Buffet and his staff are hosting their annual stock holders’ meeting. People from all over the world are wandering through Omaha looking for bargains in his locally owned stores.
We had another noisy storm early this morning, so I am still sleep-deprived.
I am so pedestrian, my favorite pizza comes from Pizza Hut.
That math question answered by assuring zero with muitiplictian was probably the only question I could have answered in the class.
My mother used to make popovers. They were delicious.
I’m so fuzzy this morning, I am having micro dreams of “Julia.”
@ the foodies comments: I live in the northeast and can’t eat seafood lol. Good old fashioned Italian inspired pizza is awesome. R is there a Bertuccis near you? Not the best but far superior to the abomination UNO and the Chicago types try to foist on the public.
@ dead rabbit: are the guys like gypsy types? You definitely should lock and load on ’em since often they are either shady biz types or worse casing places to hit.
@ James: Do you have an opinion on Buffet as a corporate neighbor?
@ Muffy : Thank you.
@ the Group: Seriously how !@#%ed up is the Julia campaign? Although I can concede it may prove a success the premise is really really sad if you think of it.
We have a chain of “Chicago style” pizzerias here called Rosatis that make a decent cheese pizza. They cut the round pies in squares, too. I think that’s a Chicago thing. The pasta dishes they serve are just okay, imo.
In Jersey we got our pizza from Dominics, a small local pizza place where they barely spoke English. Always cheese pizza.
Pizza Hut works, in a pinch. Their thin crust style is tasty. I’m not one for a lot of dough or Sicilian style. I’m okay with lots of other ingredients, but the standard is the plain cheese.
As a kid growing up, we often visited Shakey’s Pizza. It was always an adventure, from the player piano to the signage.
I grew up liking sea food so much that when I was a lad my parents would put a can of sardines in my Easter basket. My Dad used to buy me and my brothers smoked white fish from Superior. We used to crowd around it and devour it like a pack of hyenas. I fit right in when I lived in Iceland.
>
A can of sardines in the Easter basket? 😆 😆
Oh, that was funny. Well, we know Jesus liked fish. I’m sure he would have approved.
It’s comments like that Rabbit that make me so much want to make your acquaintance.
That Julia campaign ad is just plain stupid albeit a bit scary as it certainly depicts the concept of a “nanny” government. This guy says it better than I could.
Who the hell is “Julia,” and why am I paying for her whole life?
by David Harsanyi
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=51265
I love dried squid. Squid jerky, I guess best describes it. I can open a package and clear a room of everyone except the cats. My mouth waters just thinking about it. It’s a love I developed at a very young age while living in Hawaii. Oriental food was very big there. It’s where I first had teriyaki and seaweed covered rice balls. Yum.
After school we always went to Tanaka’s grocery in Kahuku and bought dried salted plum seed (cracked seed) and dried squid to eat on the school bus. Back then they were like 10 cents a bag. Now, when I find them, they are around 3 bucks.
I’m one of the few people I know that like anchovies.
For you investor types.
I got a newsletter from my overpriced, overrated broker. Good friend, bad broker. But his newsletter stuff he sends me is pretty good. You want to hear a very scary piece of information? Very scary.
As most of you are aware, Europe is experiencing a banking crisis of its own. Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy are close to mob rule. The one fairly strong (or so we are told) nation in the EU is Germany. Keep that in mind.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is now larger than the entire GDP of Germany. It is currently leveraged (as of April 2012) 36-1. German banks are leveraged 32-1.
In 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed, it was only leveraged 30-1. Gulp.
And right now, the industrialized world has an accumulated debt of $55 Trillion dollars.
Gang, it has been a fun ride. But this fraudulent pyramid of risk, debt and leverage is very close to crashing. Rev. Jeremiah may have been more prophetic than he ever intended when he crowed about the chickens coming home to roost.
Raji, the retorts have already been prepared. The parodies will be plenty. Julia was big mistake. I think intuitively cuts against the American psyche — well at least non-OWS idiots’.
Ah. Bertucci. I remember when it first arrived in Boston circa early to mid 80s. Wood fired. It was unique at the time. Atlanta flooded with them.
So Alfie. No A’s Pier 4 for you? That’s where I remember first having a popover — until they started appearing in the cafes.
Rabbit, that’s funny. I grew up with pickled herring in the fridge. My dad devoured it (true Swede). Yuk! Sushi? Hell ya! I’m like a seal at a good sushi bar.
Well Tex, Obama will at least be able to take credit for this:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47295638
🙄
Yeah Anthonys is a no go for me as is the other institution of Legal Seafood. Ironically my first date with the one that became my wife was at a seafood rest. that absolutely sucked at making anything else.
I thought of at least one Julia moment missing from the pictograph thing.
At age 18 Julia was savagely raped and sodomized by members of one of Mexicos infamous drug cartels while on Spring Break. Her roommate and dear friend was shot & killed during the incident with a gun brought to Mexico under Fast and Furious.
Muffy, a popover is not really like a tart. It’s like a hollow muffin made with an egg batter. It’s similar in texture and taste to a Swedish pancake (if you’ve ever had one). It’s not sweet or bready. I remember them being really, really good and served warm before the meal (in lieu of a basket of bread or other cheap filler).
And for those of you not well-versed in New England fare, the term “scrod” is frequently held out to the ignorant as baby cod fish. Anyone that’s worked in restaurant knows it means “anything other than cod” that doesn’t sound particularly appetizing smothered in a cream or tomato based sauce of some kind to mask the taste.
Damn. I’m getting hungry again.
I thought Anthony’s Pier 4 was about as marginal as it gets. They also made me put on a dinner jacket – guess the polo wouldn’t cut it. 😡
But Legal Seafood – I ate at one in both Boston and Worcester and thought them terrific. Pricey, but terrific.
Tex, I thought the opposite! 😆
But I must admit, my impressions might be distorted. Since I grew up very modestly, going to a “fancy” place like Pier 4 was a big deal. As a kid I thought Anthony’s was only for the well-heeled, so it might have been the placebo effect.
When I got older, Legals came on the scene. I had a lot of friends that waited/bartended there (Kenmore Sq). Not only was it a lucrative place to work, they were able to sneak things from the kitchen. I thought it was overrated. I’ve been back many times since and still hold that impression. Good. Not great.
I just got back from Fulton Street with scallops for dinner. 🙂 The shrimp and scallops are very fresh here. So is the tuna and swordfish when they’re jumping in the Atlantic.
I’m sure Thor and BiC (or is it BiW, I’ve seen it both ways) can testify though that the Copper River Salmon go right to the top of the list from about mid-May to mid-June. I’ve been known to eat it 3 times a week for a month. But they ship it all over so it’s a shared experience.
I don’t know if the roadside stands are still there, Rabbit, but I’m willing to bet that the more permanent structures are. My favoriate was a real beauty of a shack in Island Park (Middleton, RI) right on the water, but it was not a permanent looking establishmeent. Truly a shack. Most likely it went with the wind during a hurricaine at some point.
I try to Google Earth some of the out of the way places I ran across in the area back in the day (late 80s-early 90s), but a lot of them I still can’t get to on the computer.
Legal’s simply has too much competition. I love their rolls though.
I preferred Turner’s when in metro Boston but the last time I was there it was a big disappointment. I always eat Italian in the North End now when visiting. Lobster Fra Diavlo or the Linguini & clams. Yep. Tex, white sauce on clams is the best.
Rutherford I find Chicago pizza too doughy, even the thin crust, but I grew up with the squares. Oddly enough there are about 5 excellent choices for pizza in the hometown I grew up in – Racine, WI. And I mean excellent.
Julia. :-[
Popovers sounds delish!
One more grammatical error and I’m gonna have to stay after school. 😦
Here’s one of them shacks –
341 Park Avenue, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, United States
Address is approximate
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/18830774
Alfie, I don’t have time to read what people wrote after your question, because we are leaving for a graduation party.
Warren Buffet, in my opinion looks after Warren. He portrays himself a man of modest life mode, and he lives that way, in Omaha. However, I think he owns a mansion in California. By his own admission, he was a bad husband and father.
He and his first wife separated in 1977, and she so worried about him that she asked a blond friend, Segrid (?) to look after him. They eventually married. He was with his wife when she died.
People tend to like Buffet, because he is unassuming. A high school friend was a waiter in a restaurant Buffet liked, and he said Buffet was friendly but not a good tipper.
He and his children have been good to Omaha. Buffet helped save the baseball team several years ago, and he bought the Omaha World Herald to keep it local. Rose Blumkin, a Russian immigrant built the Nebraska Furniture Mart into an economic power. She was afraid her children would fight and ruin the company after she died. At close to the age of 100, Buffet bought the store with a handshake and kept the family as managers. Rose created another large store before she died.
I don’t pay a lot of attention, but I haven’t heard any stories of Buffet’s stiffing local businesses. Most people think he is a net asset to the community, and Omahans appreciate the money his stock holders meetings bring.
He and Bill Gates are friends, and they have donated time to advise college students how to succeed in business and investing.
People do resent his partisan politics, mostly after the Buffet tax. His owing $1 billion in back taxes is not lost on them.
One more favorable is the number of people who bought Buffet stock when it was cheap and unproven. As I wrote before, the retired farmer who bought the most stock has spent several million dollars in the county. The town 11 miles south of us, had no restaurant, and the farmer wanted somewhere to hang out. He bought a building, turned it into a restaurant, hired staff, and is selling it to one of the employees.
In his opinion, its what Warren would do.
As I wrote, I think some of the home spun schict is artiface, but Buffet seems to be a fairly good neighbor in Omaha.
Tigre, isn’t that funny?. 😀 I was always on the corporate dole, so money was no obstacle. And I was at Anthony’s with a big group which may have made a difference. But I remember being completely unimpressed with both food and place. Reminded me of a tourist trap. And the staff were first class A-holes.
Plus, I admit. I may have eaten Maine lobster 15 times in my life – that hardly makes me the fine connoisseur. The best lobster I had was in Portland, ME, which I ate three times a day for a weekend. Seems like it was Street & Co that was so good. It was right down there off the wharf and I cut my thumb on the damn claw. 😆 But I was by myself so, short of the poor guy washing the rags, I was the only one that knew about my idiocy. And I mean I bled, looking around hoping nobody was seeing me – it was middle afternoon, so the restaurant was practically empty.
I got a huge lobster at Smith & Wellonsky in NYC. Like 4-5 lbs. They brought it on one of those Fred Flintstone plates. Tasted like rubber. I’m not kidding. Don’t ever get a big lobster, because it is a complete waste of money.
And believe it or not, the best yellow fin tuna I ever had was in your backyard in Atlanta. The best seafood meal I’ve ever had is here in town. Like Poolman, it ain’t local but they fly it in every day and I don’t think it ever sees the freezer. But it will require a second mortgage to take the wife.
Poolman, I found New Jersey notable not just for its pizza but food in general. Good stuff.
Mmmmm, Rabbit I had sardines as a kid too. Not in the Easter basket, but my Mom would mash em up with some mayo and serve them on Ritz crackers.
Hey “R”. I’ve discovered the best way to find the best food is to simply ask some local who has lived there for years. When I was going to NYC and Brooklyn, I was fortunate that my hosts were local.
We seldom went to the named restaurants and the meals were almost always good – a few spectacular. A few of them looked like they were straight out of The Godfather.
One last story about linguini & clams with white sauce. Short of the NE, I have never found it prepared to my liking – except once.
True story. I took my kids once myself on vacation to give the wife a break for three or four days. They were probably 11-12, and we went to St. Louis which is about six hours away by car.
We had gone to see the arch, the Clydesdales and something else and we were spent. There was a Macaroni Grill across the street, which at least in Tulsa, is at best average. But I ordered clams & linguini with white sauce thinking it would probably taste like gravy or something.
But it tasted as good the NYC stuff. Obviously, some cook had relocated.
Macaroni Grill used to serve a Lobster Ravioli that was really good. The last time I was in they revamped their menu and it was gone. I’m certain it wasn’t made locally, but when properly made was quite tasty and reasonably priced.
When I was in Jersey with dad’s parents we often went out to those places requiring a tie and jacket. I always got by with a bolo tie. One of my favorites places was known for crab meat au gratin. Yum.
Now I’ve got to have a seafood fix. King crab is 12.99 at Albertsons. Snow crab is only 6.99 a pound and just as good, but more work.
Hmmm… decisions, decisions.
No wonder we’re overweight. Too much good food and food talk.
Regarding Julia, I’m surprised none of you paranoid schizophrenics have noticed the most glaring, most disturbing, most unconstitutional aspect of the whole thing!!!!
Obama is President for 64 years!!!! 😯
Tex,Tex, Tex. Chicken lobster (1 /14 – 1 /12 lbs max) is it. Never bigger. Get two if you want more meat. Anything over 1 1/2 sucks.
You might be right about Anthony’s. I’m embarrassed to say that I still have an impulse to order “from the left-hand side” of the menu (that’s was the rule). I feel some guilt eating as I do on someone else’s’ dime sometimes now.
You know, typing this makes think about how fucking awesome my parents are. If it weren’t for their sacrifice. . . I’d be an ungrateful lib!
I haven’t been following the “Julia” thing. I guess if it’s a chance to mock Obama, I need to get intimately involved. You can never have too much ammunition. 😀
Speaking of that, have you loons, goons and ladies seen that the United Nations has a special envoy to demand the United States pay Indians for the land we stole or give it back.
Being I’m in prime Indian country, I can tell you no need. With the casinos and smoke shops, they are quickly buying Oklahoma back.
Claudia’s recommendation was excellent as always. She recommends we start with that plot of Midtown Manhattan with the U.N. the first to go. 🙂
As to the foodies comments, I’m surprised none of you have mentioned oysters. Having spent a good bit of my adult life in Florida I was surprised to find out that fresh seafood is not as available as you would think. Between Savannah, GA and Key West, FL there are no ports so most seafood is shipped in except for oysters and shrimp.
When I first went to FL I was introduced to oysters. There was a restaurant called Packwoods where you sat at large tables with slots that buckets of raw or steamed oysters were inserted into the slots. My first experience entailed eating over 60 oysters coated with butter or hot sauce. After spending most of the night “hugging the porcelain” I never ate another one.
In the Keys and the Bahamas the real treat was baby lobsters. There was a legal size and the lobster fisherman were supposed to measure but occasionally they slipped up.
Tigre, is there still a restaurant in Atlanta called Emile’s? They had wonderful lobster but that was a long time ago.
Obama is President for 64 years!!!!
Good one Rutherford 😆
Tex, I don’t know about yellow tail tuna, but yellow tail snapper is to die for but only if it’s fresh.
Raji, I don’t remember Emile’s. It sounds familiar though. As I said though, I didn’t have many opportunities to go out when I lived in Boston. It’s been a long time.
Tex, I told you about Julia and you’re just getting to it now. It really is unbelievable on every level. Unfortunately, it’s the candor of what it represents in the abstract and distortion of every specific that makes it so fascinating. Some articles believe it an Obama trap for Romney of some kind. But It really IS the democratic delusion in cartoon format.
Wow, that was a grammatical trainwreck. Sorry.
LOL that is funny.
I fully admit Julia is a conservative nightmare. Big gov’t with you every step of the way. How one views it, really has to do with one’s opinion of the role of government. Julia is really sort of a litmus test.
I watched Obama’s first official campaign rally today from Columbus, OH. To my shock and amazement he did not abandon “hope and change” the way I thought he would. Hate him all you like folks, there is no doubt he is good at getting a gathering of fans “fired up”. One of the reasons I’ve felt Romney had a chance was ennui on the part of Obama supporters. But if today’s rally is any indication, ole Barry may be able to relight that spark among his supporters.
Which brings me back to Julia. Obama will not be trying to get Romney supporters to vote for him. He will try to hang on to everyone he got in 2008, especially the youth vote. The fact that Julia does not move Tigre or Tex is irrelevant. It’s not meant for them. Everything you see Obama do over the next six months will be aimed at solidifying the base and making sure the indies he got in 2008 don’t abandon him.
Oh, you must be talking about the half empty stadi
Oh, you must be talking about the half empty stadium.
As for Julia or whatever the name of that site is, I predict its taken down by next week. Its just too fucking weird, man. The propaganda is so overt its almost a parody.
Rutherford, Julia will be panned by the youth demographic. They will laugh at it like everyone else is.
Boys, I guess I have been living under a rock; I just saw the “Julia” thing. I am speechless. Utterly speechless. Particularly interesting is that when she “decides to have a baby” there is no husband in the equation. I guess you and I are her husband, since we are supporting her financially – on the Obama plan.
Mark my words; this will be Obama’s “tank” moment.
I can’t believe this feckless bastard would be so careless as to reveal his real agenda. Romney may actually have a shot. We’ll see…
“Obama is President for 64 years!!!!”
Let’s start calling him Papa Doc.
“the United Nations has a special envoy to demand the United States pay Indians for the land we stole or give it back.”
I saw a poll last week that said only 10% of American Indians thought we should get out of Iraq.
…however 95% thought we should get out of America.
I’m suspicious of those numbers, though…
And i response to Elizabeth Warren desparately trying to find proof of an American Indian ancestor, 100%of American Indians desperately hoping she fails. 😆
“The fact that Julia does not move Tigre or Tex is irrelevant.”
Not true. It gives us and all conservatives endless ammunition. And liberals fear nothing more than being laughed at.
Nothing like striking directly at a liberal’s over-sized vanity to get them all wee-wee’d up.
Don’t delude yourself R. Julia hurts with the independents because it embarrasses Obama’s base and validates its critics.
As proof I would direct your attention back to your very out-of whack reaction to the criticism of Obama’s heroic Bin Laden mission — but I know you are blind to it. The problem is that no one else is. 😆
So, you were im passioned by Obama’s Hope & Change speech in Ohio? You don’t say. . .
“Rutherford, Julia will be panned by the youth demographic. They will laugh at it like everyone else is.”
SNL or even the Daily Show might have fun with it. It’s shooting fish in a barrel.
Tex, if R is to be taken seriously, I guess these are only funny to me and you:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/05/the-sunday-funnies.php
If we’re all done w/ dinner and willing to talk politics again while waiting for the check …cool!
I actually think the Obama camp knows exactly what it is doing in the reelection campaign and there are as many pro’s with it as there are cons.
All things considered I think the Julia thing will be a fail. The people who identify with or desire to be “her” probably won’t actually see “her” unless they catch the press & punditry about how stupid and generally pathetic it is. There’s the rub though as that segues into the whole premise of the campaign.
Unfortunately,”Forward or Backwards” will resonate with the masses since the mass of the masses are stupid and limited to sound bite thinking.
Obama’s public stated plans will be sharpened along bite size bits,something many of his supporters called upon him to do after he won the last time especially on ObamaCare. He will defend his record and desires in bite size mode as opposed to the big picture.It is here the Romney campaign and the Congressional races have their best and worst case scenarios bloom.
For example even PolitiFact has called the college concerned Julia moments claims FALSE! Whether the GOP’ers can differentiate and capitalize is to be seen.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/may/04/barack-obama/barack-obamas-life-julia-tool-says-mitt-romney-wou/
Iowahawk does a damn fine job lampooning:
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2012/05/julias-circle-of-life.html
Does anyone want to order dessert?
Alfie, you’d have to have been in an Austin Powers’ 4 year cryogenic state for the Forward/Backward shtick to resonate. Even mass of the masses hasn’t had that privilege — or if they did, they woke up with their retirement accounts depleted and their unemployed adult children sleeping on the couch.
Tiger, Rutherford clearly hasn’t gotten permission to laugh at Julia yet. So, he defends it with the whole “it’s for the kids” thing. Rutherford can be so damn corporate, sometimes. Stuanchly defending some new office policy to increase production or accuracy that breeds nothing but cynicism.
One of my brothers works for a place that uses data incorrectly as a benchmark to give gold star stickers to the employees.
“One of my brothers works for a place that uses data incorrectly as a benchmark to give gold star stickers to the employees.”
If that means motivating without paying more, I say “Brilliant!”
“Does anyone want to order dessert?”
Actually I’m thinking coffee and beignets this morning.
http://www.cafedumonde.com/
That’s some good local fare that you can’t get just anywhere.
Until I know what Chickory is, it’ll be Krispy Kreme’s and Maxwell House!
Regarding Rutherford’s comment on Julia – who can watch that propaganda and be completely OK with the message?
Answer: Many a young voter.
On Thursday I think it was, I watched this young “anarchist” (OWS-er) sit there with a smirk on his face and demand a job when he was challenged on his work ethic. He literally said, “Gimme a job and I’ll work,” with a shrug of his shoulders. I stopped midstream and listened to him for about 5 minutes.
😦
He reminded me of the “If I were the devil” essay that made the rounds of newspapers in the 60’s and since. Paul Harvey turned it into a show once. No links, I’m enjoying the Christmas in the Trenches here.
I looked at the kid, sweet looking young man, and thought – how did we come to this?
…
OK, back to beignets.
Rabbit, to the extent that all campaigning is propaganda, of course Julia is propaganda. So what?
😆 Truly hilarious. Simple solution boys and girls. Pack your bags, we’re all headed for Iraq!
I don’t actually recall saying that. I said I was shocked and amazed. If you had an objective bone in your body, you could admit Obama is good on the stump.
Alfie, the other odd thing about the whole 3.4% interest rate is that the current provision only allows for 3.4 during the undergraduate years. Upon graduation, if I’m not mistaken, the current rate doubles to 6.8 anyway.
So I’m finding the whole student loan interest rate issue to be somewhat manufactured in the first place.
Good for you R seeing through that one
Tigre, unfortunately you don’t seem to notice that, deliberately or not, Iowahawk has lampooned BOTH Dem and GOP stereotypes.
Suffice it to say Julia is a bit corny. But it is the job of the Obama campaign (much as Alfie alludes to) to make his “accomplishments” easily understood and repeatable by his supporters.
The second after ACA was passed, the White House stopped talking about it. Big mistake. The education campaign on ACA should have persisted from then right up until today. It would be fairing better in polling if this had happened.
The reeducation campaign on ACA should have persisted from then right up until today. It would not be fairing any better in polling if this had happened but it would’ve been a good distraction from a number of issues.
In all fairness to Alfie,Alfie says he’s pretty sure he called a large number of the voter population stupid more so than alluding to anything of a set of quality accomplishments.
My closer in #238, too much?
I think iowahawks “lampooning” of Romney was more a dig at the Obama attempts to link him to Ryan ad nauseum and to highlight how silly the points were.
Politics in general is a good distraction from a number of issues.
International News query for the thread:
The Hollande win in France is broadly a positive,negative or null point for:
1.France
2.UK
3.EU
4.Obama
5.Romney
6.Middle East
I say:1= pos,2=BIG NEG,3=null,4 null to pos 5 null to pos 6 potential pos but…
That Julia campaign is no more surreal than anything else this administration (or the last) puts out.
Remember Rumsfeld’s diagram of Osama’s (one of many he said) underground bunkers in Tora Bora? They did not exist. Fantasy is what we generally get fed.
And we keep asking for more. 🙄
It’s manufactured is right. But your man is the one manufacturing.
What’s the big accomplishment when 85% of the college graduates are living with mom and dad to claim you halved the rate while they were in school accumulating the loan, when the next 20 years of the loan (don’t kid yourself – it will take them that long) is and always has been 6.8%?
This is one of many claims Obama praises as great accomplish, when it may be causing more damage than it is worth by misleading these dumb college kids (and a lesser degree their parents) when they think they are getting cheap money, only to find out their getting popped pretty good over the life of the loan.
This is a big money maker for the federal government. 😡
Tigre, that comic is classic. RAMMING SPEED! FORWARD!
So the French elect a socialist and Europe gets a little closer to going to economic hell?
How dumb does a country have to be to only look South and see 23.6% unemployment rate in Spain brought by socialism? Took José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero about seven years to get there. The new guy appears to want to accomplish that task in 70 days. Wants to lower the retirement age from 62 to 60? 😈
I’m going to enjoy watching the French get fucqued by their own stupidity and greed. If I were Germany, I’d be looking to cut the strings while I’ve still got the chance.
I tell many kids to think twice about going to college. The four year degree that every kid is told they must have in order to be a worthwhile human being is one of the biggest scams in American history. The future lies in one or two year specialized degrees and more trade schools. Unfortunately, nobody believes their hundred thousand dollar plus liberal arts degree to be the pinochle of human achievement more then teachers themselves. Thus the great con is indoctrinated from an early age.
More great moments in Liberal Science and History:
“In 2008, James Hansen declared that we were at a tipping point due to ice loss at both poles which was going to decimate life on the planet…Since the same date in 2008, Arctic ice has increased by more than 15%.”
You clowns need to give it up. 😆 And I’ll bet if searched long enough, that insufferable Jon Stewart was on the global warming bandwagon.
“If you had an objective bone in your body, you could admit Obama is good on the stump.”
R, the irony of that is breathtaking.
“Tigre, unfortunately you don’t seem to notice that, deliberately or not, Iowahawk has lampooned BOTH Dem and GOP stereotypes.”
Oh really? Geee, I didn’t notice. Duhhhh.
Do you understand sarcasm, or are you too limited in all of your objectivity? 🙄
We indoctrinate early and often. We’re rat-in-a-maze scientific about it.
I was out to dinner last night. Mexican, as it was cinco de Mayo.
At a table next to us there was a four or five-year-old kid interfacing with a notepad-sized device while the family sat there at dinner.
I think most nine-year-old kids have cell phones. There’s likely a pretty good bond established by the time they are adult. A chance to mold and MANipulate™. How many ads has a nine-year-old see?
Marketing is king. It sells us on everything from politicians to symbols of success, and quite successfully so. But who profits?
This entire American Dream is a marketing success. It got us all involved in consumerism by keeping up with the Joneses. Many did and still do get very rich. But what’s the give?
Live the dream… Get a degree, get in with a major corporation, upgrade to the suburbs, raise a family, retire in style.
Meanwhile, the corporations were bought and sold, manufacturing found cheaper sources of production, investors moved assets out of the reach of America. Other nation’s wealthy are buying our real estate and businesses as the dollar collapses. Down, down, down.
We have a workforce mostly unable to function in a society that no longer holds a slot for their skill-set. Their specialized training often makes them less marketable in the new overcrowded labor camp from which they must work to pay back the cost of that training.
It’s pretty depressing. I want to kick politicians in the ass for selling us that everything has been all honky dory while they sold our livelihoods and futures out from under us. Bailing out bankers and buddies. Jumping on the NWO bandwagon.
I think we ought to institute public stocks again. We need an honest batch of legislators. Time to clean house. Romney ain’t gonna pick up any broom and Obama’s forgotten which end is the working end.
R, I am still chuckling at you inanity. I can only assume you are not familiar with Iowahawk because it is you that doesn’t “get it.” He’s one of my favorites.
You defense of Julia is beyond predictable. Unfortunately, you don’t seem to notice that Rabbit got you dead to rights. Don’t paint yourself into a corner. You’ll be given permission soon. . .
Labor Force Disappears in Obama’s Depression
Check out the dandy graph. If Mitt Romney is, he’ll open the war with this salvo. This is actually stunning how poorly this Sham for President has done after spending well over $5,000,000,000,000.00 we don’t have. 😡
http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2012/05/06/labor-force-disappears-in-obamas-depression/
“I’m going to enjoy watching the French get fucqued”
God that is just priceless. I showed it to my wife, who speaks French pretty well, and she just hooted.
Spotted in reference to Warren: The Fauxcahontas scandal. 😆 Ouch.
Muffy, maybe I’m not getting the context here but there is an element of what the kid is saying that makes perfect sense.
Haven’t we all been through this when we were young: “You can’t have a job because you don’t have any experience.” BUT you can’t get any experience because you can’t get a job.
It’s a lousy catch-22. Many of us get over the hurdle through a lucky break … someone we know or someone who knows someone we know. But on the face of it, especially in my employment struggles of the past five years, I’ve definitely thought on more than one occasion, “give me the damn job and I’ll work my ass off.”
This is funny Poolman because Chris Hayes said yesterday that politics is ALL about politicization. So this accusation of one side against the other of politicizing things is absurd. That is the essence of politics.
Alfie you’re way better mapped into the Sarkozy thing than I am. I couldn’t even venture an opinion on the impact of his loss. But I will hand it to you … you predicted it.
I hope by that you don’t mean that you actively discourage them. If so, you’re doing them a disservice. We live in an information/service economy where high school graduates are at an employment disadvantage. You’re creating an unrealistic expectation when you tell these kids that no degree or an AA will make them competitive in the job market.
Are there SOME kids for which college might not be right? Sure. But they better be damned sure of how they’re gonna get a job if they don’t go to college.
P.S. By “service economy” I don’t mean McDonalds. I mean professional services such as accountants, etc.
You really are pretty stupid and you don’t even seem to work that hard at it anymore. Rabbit doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I didn’t “defend” Julia. I said that Julia wasn’t aimed at you or Rabbit. It was aimed at libs and indies … particularly libs who might be slipping away.
I think it was Alfie who said we’re going to get campaign rhetoric in sound bites. I agree. That’s how the average American absorbs sh*t nowadays in an era of information overload. Julia is soundbite campaigning. And it’s of no worse quality than Carly Fiorina’s downright bizarre wolf/sheep commercial.
Poolman, I don’t know what possessed you to post Rock Lobster (all the food talk earlier?) but the last 90 seconds of that song is some of the greatest rock and roll ever recorded.
Pass the tanning butter!!!
For no good reason, Poolman’s video reminds me of another great hit from long ago. I just love the speed of this track!!! Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone”.
By the way, in the 30 or so years I’ve been singing this song, I thought at the end Debbie was singing “hang up my rendezvous” which I know makes no sense but that is what I was hearing. Only found out tonight she’s singing “hang up and run to me”. 🙂
Just following the themes. I still haven’t gotten my seafood fix. I was actually into finding this Talking Heads tune when I found that other gem.
Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons,
packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway,
a place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
I’m getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstone, lived in the ghetto,
I’ve lived all over this town
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain’t got time for that now
Transmit the message, to the receiver,
hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas,
don’t even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading,
everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime,
I might not ever get home
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
This ain’t no Mudd Club, or C. B. G. B.’s,
I ain’t got time for that now
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, P. A.?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peanut butter,
to last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no
headphones, ain’t got no records to play
Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Can’t write a letter, can’t send a postcard,
I can’t write nothing at all
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
I’d like to hold you, I’d love you kiss you
I ain’t got no time for that now
Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock,
we blended with the crowd
We got computer, we’re tapping phone lines,
I know that ain’t allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives,
or in a suit and a tie
I’ve changed my hairstyle so many times now,
I don’t know what I look like!
You make me shiver, I feel so tender,
we make a pretty good team
Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving,
you ought to get you some sleep
Get you instructions, follow directions,
then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day,
whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are
notebooks? They won’t help me survive.
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace,
the burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness,
don’t want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don’t take no chances,
you better watch what you say.
Once you go there it’s hard to deviate. 😀
“You really are pretty stupid and you don’t even seem to work that hard at it anymore. Rabbit doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I didn’t “defend” Julia. I said that Julia wasn’t aimed at you or Rabbit. It was aimed at libs and indies … particularly libs who might be slipping away.”
Oh you and that reading comprehension thing 😆
That was me and Tex.
Rabbit said you needed “permission” before you could criticize the Julia bit. 😆
Rabbit knows exactky what he’s talking about. You’re proving his point, moron. 🙄
I agree with Rutherford, Julia is speaking to the people who voted for Obama last time. Many of them have become domesticated cattle who are afraid to leave their feed lots.
Many of the programs which help Juiia are important as an economic safety net for people facing unexpected disasters, but most of us should manage without them. Julia is saying iiving in the feed lot is preferable to economic freedom.
Warren Buffet’s stock holders’ meeting was instructive. They support the Buffet bill by a 45% to 43% margin. Those interviewed were clueless about its failing to raise enough money to fix the deficit or other effects the bill might have on the economy. They seemed to think the bill will help us reduce the deficit, and one woman, an executive secretary, assumed all bosses pay lower taxes than she does.
A group of stock holders criticized Buffet for politicizing his company. The spokesman said Buffet risks damaging the brand. Buffet replied that he has a right to speak as a private person, and he criticized people who invest in gold instead of the stock market. He also said the spokesman might be better served by investing in Fox News instead of Berkshire-Hathaway. Buffet still supports Obama.
An author claims conservatives have more rigid minds than liberals. They don’t understand new concepts well. Someone on TOB crowed about a similar “study.” I responded by writing that liberals support the writer’s point. They, not conservatives are the people wedded to old ways of thinking and of failing to recognize the subtlies of political and economic life. “Liberal”, “centrist” and “conservatives” are modes of thinking, not necessarily attached to political beliefs.
Julia and her kind are rigid thinkers, and if they are more numerous than the rest of us, we might consider moving.
The French election also supports my point that “Julia” is really a conservative. A majority of voters wants to resume a way of economic life which has already been tried and failed.
Thousands of British people are considering moving to Uraguay. It has a high standard of living, government policies are mostly conservative, and it has a European ambiance.
re: Buffett bill
I’m willing to pay a little higher taxes if it helps my country. However, not until I see some others willing to do something to help THEIR country, to wit:
Everybody needs to pay SOME taxes. I am damned good and tired of this “you owe me” stuff. Get in the game, even if it’s at a low tax rate, so you understand that the money comes from somewhere.
Cut the size of govt. Severely. I recommend to start that next year’s budget simply be cut 10% across the board. Everybody will howl like a broke-dick dog that THEIR pet shouldn’t be cut, but if I were the POTUS, I would say that everybody is in this together and we all have to help make it right. Tough shit. And that in particular includes the military.
Institute a military draft. The reason the govt gets away with this shit in Afghanistan and Iraq is that it’s not MY boy that is in jeopardy of being sliced up by cavemen and hung from a bridge – it’s some nameless face who couldn’t find a job and went to the military to try to better him/herself.
Begin to close our 700+ bases in 130+countries. If you want us to protect you, either pony up the actual costs or get in an alliance where everybody pays.
Make note that 9months/1day from today we will stop any and all payments for illegitimate birth. If you did the nasty and got preggers last night, you are under the wire. After notice is given, it’s all over. Your mom/dad might want to invest in some frank talk and some condoms.
Sorry for the rant. I just read an OB ultrasound on little Iesha, 17 yrs old and – you guessed it – preggers.
“Julia is speaking to the people who voted for Obama last time. Many of them have become domesticated cattle who are afraid to leave their feed lots.”
Of course it is. And, as amply demonstrated already, ripe for scrutiny, ridicule and parody. The cattle will always gravitate towards the feed trough (if that’s how cattle eat). Indies? I think not so much. The debt crisis has the middle worried. If any of the recent polling means a shit (admittedly it usually doesn’t), Romney is gaining traction with the indies. The Julia bit does’;t help the narrative, particularly since so much of it is absolutely false.
As Alfie said in so many words (here or at his place), if Obama won’t stop lying about his opposition (Julia a perfect example) he will regret the backlash. There’s plenty of good stuff he could hurl at the right without having to risk throwing his credibility down the toilet. It’s not like he’s sitting an electorate that’s satisfied with the status quo. Same with all of the divisiveness b.s. You can’t chant Hope & Change while resorting to dividing and demonizing one social group after another on his record. It a;; sounds like blame-casting and I think the tolerance for that has run its course.
France is a treasure to mankind. French ideas, French beliefs, and French actions form a sort of loadstone for humanity. Because a moral compass needle needs a butt end. Whatever direction France is pointing in—toward Nazi collaboration, Communism, existentialism, Jerry Lewis movies, or President Sarkozy’s personal life—you can go the other way with a clear conscience. ~ P.J. O’Rourke.
** GUFFAW **
Every moral compass needs a butt end. 😆
I’ve already criticized it, maroon. I’ve called it corny.
You want more? Politifact is obviously right. Romney never said he was against extending the 3.4% interest rate on student loans.
Happy now? No permission granted from anyone, comrade.
You joining Pfesser in Belize? 🙄
Not a whole lot to argue about with 317. As everyone knows, I definitely favor PF’s opinion on the draft.
My ass.
The number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4 ….. number 104 topic on the brain of any American right now is “can I get a job” OR “how can I avoid losing the one I’ve got”. Secondary to that concern is “how do I not lose my home.”
No one except you “deep thinkers” gives a flying f*ck about the debt or the deficit. It means NOTHING in the day to day life. Is that dumb short term thinking? Perhaps. But don’t fool yourself. No one cares about the debt.
FWIW, I’ve always thought PJ O’Roarke was one funny mofo.
I don’t know the full context that is comment #323 but for the record the deficit is the #3 issue per Pew. Economy and jobs are 1&2 respectively. I feel they are really interconnected and that indeed the “middle” is worried if by middle we mean middle class center ish of the spectrum. Thats important since that is where 2012 will be won.
re: 317
Everyone should pay thats why folks like me support a flat tax.
Draft? Well only if we apply it like taxes,everyone goes. It would have definite benefits not the least if applied properly decrease the unworthy throngs entering college.
With the possible exception of Korean deployments our foreign bases have NOTHING to do with protecting the “hosts”.
Pauloholics miss that point when they embrace his short sighted and juvenile FP stance. Can FP be done better? Hell yeah! Full speed astern isn’t the best option though.
“I’ve already criticized it, maroon. I’ve called it corny.”
It’s more than corny; it’s asinine.
Let me know what I’ve said about Julia that you disagree with if you care to get to it.
To return to the theme of this post …. The GOP never spikes the football. 🙄
My biggest concern about implementing a draft is we won’t have IMO a comparable quality of candidate. The guys in the military want to be in the military for a variety of reasons.
Now as far as cutting the military budget, I’m with you, Pfesser. We don’t need another carrier – refurbish what we’ve got, if necessary. 10% actually sounds cheap to me. I was thinking more like 25% across the board.
Think about this. Every day, our government takes in a little over $6 billion in “revenue.” And every day, these clods spend a little over $10 billion. Seems to me, we could justify about a 40% cut, and we can start with the politician’s pay, but Obama’s by about 99.9%, since he’s not worth a shit.
A lot of these youngster types I meet anymore would be a major hindrance to quality army. 😯 Half of them can’t make change without the help of an electronic register, then it takes them 30 seconds to count change. I’m pretty sure at least a third can’t find both butt cheeks with two hands.
I’m afraid our technological breakthroughs have made a large pool of helpless, clueless, hopeless dolts – and virtually all libs fall into this category. That’s why I never got caught up much in this survivalist thing. I guarantee you in a pinch, I’m going to be 40 steps ahead of these fools, 25 if I sit on my ass and listen to the radio.
When Giuliani says “You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists”, I need to chuckle. He’s repeating Bush’s mantra verbatim.
From what I know (and much of the world agrees), THEY ARE the terrorists. Doublespeak is the official language of our government.
Giuliani is a terrorist? 😆 Yeah, and Poolman, you’re Bill Gates.
I know this much for a fact. I started going up to New York when that feckless Dinkins was the mayor, and NYC was a cesspool. You couldn’t walk down midtown Manhattan without tripping over whores and homeless, and if you were lucky, you made it two blocks before you were robbed gunpoint. Driving was out, because ever intersection were the squeegee men – thugs armed with squeegees accosting the squeeze on terrified tourists. Brothas roamed the streets trying to incite riots.
42nd street resembled Sodom and Gomorrah, even the dirty needle routine was common on the street.
By 1996, NYC was cleaned up, and as pristine as a concrete jungle is going to get.
Giuliani was an excellent mayor.
Even with a draft, you have many privileged that won’t serve. Cheney had 5 deferments. Others will fake mental disorders. The Nuge treated himself like crap for weeks, eating badly and abusing drugs (he is known to avoid all drugs) and showed up unkempt with shit in his pants to avoid getting selected.
To claim that those volunteering are doing it by choice is somewhat incorrect. It is often the last avenue explored. It also attests to vigorous recruiting practices, even in our public schools, and propaganda campaigns we all pay for.
It isn’t revealed that our forces are now at NATO’s command, as Panetta testified.
I’ll probably regret this…
It isn’t revealed that our forces are now at NATO’s command, as Panetta testified.
What?
Poolman, for a constant critic arbiter of cogent thought (snort), I do believe it was you singing the praises of one Elizabeth Warren here and at Fat Grannies once upon a time. You’ve gone strangely silent recently, I noted.
Here, this article is for world class hypocrites and useful idiots to remind you of your inglorious double standards and woeful life judgment:
Be sure to focus in like a hawk on Ms. Warren…
http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/all-fall-down/
Alfie I assume the Pew poll like most polls is multiple choice. If debt or deficit was not offered as a choice, virtually no one would write it in as an “other”.
I’m sorry, there is no convincing me that the average American even fathoms the trillions we are in the hole. Their concerns are much more parochial.
Pure poetry… 😆 😆
The Obama Doctrine
A “reset” Russia now threatens unilaterally to preempt and take out proposed U.S. anti-missile sites in Eastern Europe (Poland and the Czech Republic should enjoy that, even though it is mere bluster). The Chen case reminds of China’s growing contempt for the indebted U.S. (They did not get the message that a community organizer and Chicago part-time lecturer is a postnational, postracial healer.) The Arab Spring is turning into an Islamist Winter. What the media forgot to tell us about the spike-the-ball presidential trip to Afghanistan is the president’s promise to end Predator drone strikes against al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan—the liberal favorite tool of foreign policy (no prisoners in Guantanamo, no tribunals, no trials, no media videos of the explosions, no reports of the kids and granny blown up along with the suspect, little dollar costs, no U.S. lives endangered, no downside really other than we sometimes are not quite sure whom we blew up below).
You want me to argue about your choice of metaphors (cattle at the trough)? You say Julia is full of lies. I say there are one or two distortions.
Overall it’s a dumbed-down presentation of the differences between Obama and Romney, with the key technique of linking Romney to the Ryan budget proposal, which is fair since Romney said he supports Ryan’s proposal.
Julia is not meant for the masses. I assure you, the Obama campaign ads that end up on TV will be a lot more on the mark than Julia.
P.S. Care to comment on the demon sheep since you’re such an objective critic of the asinine?
Rutherford I don’t know what to tell you but if anyone cares the four page outlay is found here
“Can FP be done better? Hell yeah! Full speed astern isn’t the best option though.”
Tell that to Captain Smith
Tex, you dog. You’ve stumbled upon your “final solution” and you don’t even see it.
Draft all those limp-wristed incompetent libs and they’ll all get killed in the mountains of Afghanistan.
Problem solved. 😉
@339 …Now that’s funny!
Tex, you are right that Giuliani cleaned up NYC and deserves credit. But “brothas roaming the streets trying to incite riots” is just your racist imagination at work again.
Demon sheep?
The cattle belonged to James.
Giuliani is a crook, involved in 9/11 planning and cover-up, and he still supports terrorist groups.
http://www.williamsburgobserver.org/2012/03/13/rudy-giuliani-terrorist/
This one’s for Alfie. Seems he missed the meeting.
Amen to that Poolman. Blasphemy though it may be, there is a sizable contingent of the “volunteer army” that are losers who could not cut it in civilian life. That’s why they “volunteer”.
There are loads of talented folks in this country whose fear of getting their head blown off trumps their patriotism. Draft them, force them to get past the fear, and then reap the benefits of their talent.
Per 317 & 329
I am in favor of a draft myself. 2 years right after High School. In addition to the above reasons listed, I would add I like the notion of a well trained public that could give our government pause before it passes another bill that tromps on our civil rights. Can you imagine in 20 years having several million civilians with military training?
I want to see the IRS abolished in 2013(think that is when their charter is up)? Go to a very simplified tax code and cut government cost by billions. Next HAS to be campaign finance reform and term limits. Congress has to cease to be the place where people go to get wealthy. 2 terms in, cant come back for 2 terms minimum or not at all.
I think we need to reform our military. I like the idea of retiring many of our traditional carriers and moving towards carrier drone fleet. Save lives and money. Pull back from much of the world(not as far as Ron Paul would like) and start to take care of our own first. No one else in the world seems to have a problem taking care of themselves first, we need to do the same.
Thanks for the invite PFesser. Refreshing change.
Rutherford, great blog. Really like your style and what you have going here.
“Overall it’s a dumbed-down presentation of the differences between Obama and Romney, with the key technique of linking Romney to the Ryan budget proposal, which is fair since Romney said he supports Ryan’s proposal.”
I didn’t disagree with that. If you don’t see deeper criticism, try your hand at Google.
I didn’t say soundbites doesn’t comprise the messaging.
I said it was subject to ridicule, and telling of the liberal mindset. I also said something along the lines of it being rejected by the younger voters whose stupidity you are banking on in holding Julia up as a worthwhile endeavor. In fact, you seem to be sating nothing more than “it isn’t a bad move because the one’s its targeting are stupid.”
I’ll post this (originally from Tex) again for you:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/may/04/barack-obama/barack-obamas-life-julia-tool-says-mitt-romney-wou/
If you want to view it favorably, by all means do. It is ripe for mocking — and presented in the perfect format to do it. I think Iowahawk did a damn funny parody — too bad 1/2 of it was wasted on you.
Ouch Poolman …. Sessions caught Panetta in a nasty admission. International approval trumps Congressional approval. Damn!!!
Okay, I watched Demon Sheep ad from California 2010. Is that what you’re referring to? If so, what are you after?
BTW, Demon Sheep was funny — ha ha funny. Are you saying Julia was supposed to be ha ha funny?
Tigre per 346, I think we may agree more than disagree on this. Younger voters, if they dismiss Julia, it will be more a function of style than content. Younger voters, skewing liberal, favor the programs presented in Julia. What they’d ridicule is the cartoon presentation. Older libs probably liked it more.
It matters not. It’s a fringe effort on a campaign web site that most people don’t bother to visit. Let’s look at the content of the TV ads, the rallies and the debates in October. That’s where the masses will get their dose of “lib propaganda”.
Welcome to the blog Nagic. Whether or not the IRS needs to be abolished, I do agree that tax simplification is way overdue. I would favor a flat tax if it did not disproportionately hurt the poor. I still think a progressive tax is better but it could be far simpler than what we’ve got.
Tigre, wow have you missed the point. Demon Sheep was NOT meant to be ha-ha funny. It was meant to be dead serious. So, you admit it’s asinine?
P.S. I actually embedded Demon Sheep earlier in the thread so you didn’t need to go searching for it. Comment 309.
7:31 of my life wasted and a ding to the respect and regard I hold in Rutherford via #348.
The questions on the table was how is the US under NATO command. The answer is…we’re not.
In Afghanistan the US forces are under NATO Command via ISAF and since the US forces were officially rolled into ISAF ISAF command has been headed by an American. I won’t even get into the PRT concept etc.
As for the Sessions questioning it needs to be viewed in the whole context. Full Context is a serious victim of the internet age. Military actions as it pertains to the embed is actually legal and isn’t generated by an international mandate. It is in fact wedded to US foreign policy as granted by US law,international justification actions are not the heresy Sessions paints them. In full context regards Libya the Obama Administration acted in concert with the international community and the War Powers resolution. they failed to back down before the deadline of that act and should have been roundly scorned and scrutinized by Congress.
Any action attempted in/upon Syria isn’t coming from Obama’s bowing to international overlords but applying US interests to a big picture.
Rutherford SHAME ON YOU that I’M defending Obama!!!!!
Obama Pail to Alfie,revoked Progressive card Rutherford.
I have “sung her praises” before. I thought she had smart and simple ideas for reform, but she wasn’t accepted and was basically marginalized by the established controllers of policy.
I haven’t paid much attention to her career since, but gather from the scuttlebutt that there is a current controversy regarding her heritage, whether her bad or ignorance or whatever it is about, I haven’t felt the need to find out. I imagine its a character smear, pretty standard stuff. I think that’s all we got. The tear downs and blame casting takes up our entire day. I think it a waste of grace with hell to pay.
Rutherford. That may be your first stroke of absolute moral clarity. 😉 But what do I do about you? (sticks tongue out)
But I ain’t wrong about the brothas inciting riots – that’s personal experience, old friend. Right at Times Square – a bunch of Louie Calypso types when he was still breathing fire.
The Demon Sheep I pulled back was not the same as the one you embedded.Mine was like 3-4 minutes. A rebuttal? I seem to remember it vaguely — and the guy in the suit with the glowing eyes cracks me up.
I still think it’s funny. I also assume it was mocked and ridiculed all over the place, just like Granny getting thrown from the cliff in her wheelchair. Asinine? If it were trying to influence me, yes. I am laughing too hard and wanting know where I can get a demon sheep suit for next Halloween to be influenced politically.
My comment about younger voters is not that it was in cartoon format (although that helps). It is the lifetime of dependence for a single mother (I guess) that extends well past Obama’s lifetime. You have to be completely “in the bag” not to find it offensive on several levels and that’s why I think it backfires. It goes beyond patronizing. It gives away a message about government dependence that would cause anyone with half of a brain to stop and question. If the objective is to get those “riding on the fence” to see how wonderful Obama is and how bad Romney is it is a FAIL. And that’s who you said it was intended to impact.
I agree with Rabbit. It’ll come down.
Yeah. Out right lying about heritage and background is a character smear. 🙄 Perhaps it’s you are a horrid judge of character, no?
R. I don’t agree at all about the “losers,” darn you. I think you are way off base and way out of the loop of ordinary Americans.
I have a young man visiting my son for the next two weeks. Smart, good kid with no issues except a very poor education, thanks-public-schools-very-much. He is nineteen; he has nothing – mostly the clothes on his back. He has a high school degree but can’t afford college and doubtful could pass with his grades. This boy has no future except the military and he knows it. I looked at him for a long time yesterday and wondered what his future would be. We took him flying; good thing it was not open cockpit; his teeth would have been full of bugs, he was smiling so much. A good, polite, grateful kid looking at a lifetime of menial jobs. No chance to ever have a family.
No, he’s no loser, but he’s certainly lost. The military is his ONLY option to get the training, experience and perhaps money for college that he will need to ever live at more than poverty level.
I’m reading Charles Murray’s new book, “Coming Apart” about this very thing. No offense meant, R, but you really need to get out more. There is something happening in this country – something very, very bad and I don’t think you have a clue.
Um “R”, old buddy.
I know you’re desperate for political friendship when the rest of us are dog piling you. But surely, just surely, you can pick somebody a little more reliable than Poolman to quote, can’t you? 🙂
Have things gotten that rancid?
I agree Pfesser. In an army of hundreds of thousands, the “losers” are quickly discarded.
Many of these blue collar types are first rate kids that didn’t have the same opportunities many of us had.
nagic –
Glad to see you here. I have a liberal POV on some things, but I have to tell you, the Little Miss Prisses at Fat Grannies eventually make you yearn for some adult conversation. I get really impatient with the sophomoric silliness of that Lori person; the others I can deal with OK most of the time. Mostly I believe are good folks, but this completely blind liberal-at-all-costs stuff drives me crazy. The lack of integrity (plagarizing math puzzles from the Internet and not even having the decency to be embarrassed when you get caught red-handed comes to mind) bothers me more than anything. I may just bag it; it’s gotten to be no fun anymore. Poolman goes rarely and James seems to be gone for good. I’m a slow learner I guess. LOL
I voted for Obama because I was terrified at the prospects of Sarah Palin’s being one ill, 72 year-old heartbeat from the presidency, but I am beginning to think I did the wrong thing. I have never seen anybody so dead-set as Obama on taking us to a European-style socialist agenda, and the Fat Granniers (most, anyway) seem to think that is just hunky-dory. Reminds me of the old saying about learning history or repeating it.
My POV is more like Dr. Johnson’s: the prospect of being hanged in a fortnight remarkably focuses the mind. The prospect of Obama being reelected with all constraints gone (can’t run again) has me focused like a bloody laser.
I’m sure Thor and BiC (or is it BiW, I’ve seen it both ways) can testify though that the Copper River Salmon go right to the top of the list from about mid-May to mid-June. – Muffy
Copper River is wonderful restaurant food and their is an allure to knowing your dinner probably passed under the snout of a Grizzly at some point in its life, but my favorite salmon is the smoked stuff you get from little roadside stands along the Oregon and Washington coasts. I also enjoy Dungeness crab.
I will have to read on “Julia”. I was out most of the weekend. My middle daughter came in from WSU for a day, I got within about 50 feet of three Bald Eagles ripping up a white tail and Chelsea FC won the FA Cup.
Now that’s a weekend!
re: Dungeness crabs:
You all probably didn’t hear about the incident in Canada last year.
The day after his wife disappeared in a kayaking accident, an Anchorage man answered his door to find two grim-faced Alaska State Troopers.
“We’re sorry Mr. Wilkens, but we have some information about your wife,” said one trooper.
“Tell me! Did you find her?” Wilkens shouted.
The troopers looked at each other.
One said, “We have some bad news, some good news, and some really great news. Which do you want to hear first?” Fearing the worst, an ashen Mr. Wilkens said, “Give me the bad news first.”
The trooper said, “I’m sorry to tell you, sir, but this morning we found your wife’s body in Kachemak Bay.”
“Oh my God!” exclaimed Wilkens. Swallowing hard, he asked, “What’s the good news?” ; The trooper continued, “When we pulled her up, she had 12 twenty-five pound king crabs and 6 good-size Dungeness crabs clinging to her.”
Stunned, Mr. Wilkens demanded, “If that’s the good news, what’s the great news?”
The trooper said, “We’re going to pull her up again tomorrow.”
Alaska, not Canada.
You can see Canada from Alaska, though…….
I like it Pfesser. Nothing like macabre humor.
Speaking of Dungeness crabs, my friend’s house was on Indianola near Seattle (for all I know, that is Seattle), and you took the ferry back and forth to the mainland. That was pretty cool, though Mike was always bitching about being broke. Well, duh. 🙂 So I would buy his groceries and he would entertain.
I still remember my last trip (1999), we would go by one of the local fish shops and you could purchase a Dungeness for $12.00. Bet it cost more than that now. We would eat them like some high end snack. White trash snacking on Dungeness crab.
Only time I had ever eaten sturgeon too. My friend had been a high end cook once upon a time, and though he was a libertarian lib (too much Seattle by way of White Settlement, TX), he would cut Rosemary out of his garden and grill it on top of this sturgeon. That was good stuff.
Then he would kick back, and smoke his dope, listening to Kinky Friedman. Strange brew of Kinky Friedman, weed and my one and only liberal friend by way of the most segregated part of Texas living in true La La land.
Unfortunately, not too many years after I last visited, Mike had major CVA (stroke) at 48 and was dead five minutes later after telling his wife he couldn’t see out of his left eye – long before the paramedics arrived.
Jim Dougan’s death reminded me much of Mike’s death – too soon and completely unexpected. 😦
We could use HP around here these days.
I wonder if he’s turned Republican? 😆
Yeah, these newcomers would have liked Hippie Prof (Jim Dougan) if he were still around. I give Rutherford and Hippie credit along with my pal Mike – no matter how confused, at least they are likeable.
So few libs are. 😈
So give me the poop on Hippie Professor. Sounds like a really great guy.
And R, just thinking about it a bit: even though most of us give you a pretty large ration of shit, don’t think that we are all unaware of how rare it is for someone to host a blog and tolerate the kind of vehement disagreements with the proprietor that you do. Thanks.
Thanks from me too Rutherford. We plan to stay here unless the government expropriates our farm. Then, we would head for the Canadian border.
You can also see Canada from North Dakota.
And, you can see Russia from Alaska –Big and Little Dionomede (SP) islands
I haven’t read many of the posts, so I might have missed something about the draft. I lived through it, and after what I saw with deferments etc. I will support universal draft the day Obama’s daughters graduate from basic training at Fort Leonard Wood or some other training facility.
We are already facing huge deficits, and the government has plans to reduce the size of our armed forces. Our military is so dependent on technology it doesn’t need to be as large as it once was. What would we do with a generation of soldiers. They might work in a revived WPA program or help improve the lives of disadvantaged people. Maybe they could join the Peace Corp.
Our taking part of a generation out of the economy and sending them back en mass to private life would disrupt our economy.
Poolman, Elizabeth Warren claims to have Indian ancestors because of an old family tradition and because she has high cheek bones. At first she claimed she said she was part Indian to meet people. She may have claimed Indian ancestry to meet a Harvard quota. An Indian organization is not impressed.
She also claimed to be the inspiration of OWS when it was still cool in liberal circles.
I am less charitable about TOB than Pfessor is. I met nice people like them over the years.Some of them would take you into their homes if you needed shelter. But as nice and charitable as they were, they were bigots.
TOB is as bigoted in their way as the people I described. In another context, they would be wearing sheets on Saturday night or breaking Jewish windows.. Some are more tolerant, but the majority are in one way or another not.. Delurkergurl, for example, offered to contribute to our food bank during the flood as Pfessor did. I remember their good deeds.
Lori didn’t bother me because I won the arguments. Pfessor could send her to her room and make her hide under the bed. Then, she refused to read or answer my posts because to do so would sully her hands. I insulted her a few times, and she never knew. She did apologize for calling me a tea bagger after she realized I was defending them without being a member. .
I like carp fish, though they are pretty boney.
I agree with Pfessor about “Coming Apart.”
We say many “losers” and misfits in the service. Most were weeded out during basic training and tech school. I agree the military “saved” many young people.
Welcome, nangic.
I do find it interesting that Julia is assumed to be a single mother. Certainly not explicit in the presentation. Perhaps more of a statement about conservatives assumptions about liberal philosophy.
PF, why when I say a good number of volunteers are folks who can’t make it in civilian life (shorthand … losers) you extrapolate that to everyone?
Let’s take your son’s friend. You don’t find it a damn shame that this society has so little to offer him that he has to risk getting his head blown off just to climb the ladder a little bit? Would I call HIM a loser? No. But he is sure getting into the service for the wrong reasons.
Oh by the way… just to double down cos I’m that kind of guy … I think a good number of cops are criminals with uniforms and badges. Or to put it differently, if they hadn’t become cops, they would be in prison right now. 😐
Not on your life. I miss HP too. He was a friend and an “asset” to the cause. 🙂
PF the best way to get to “know” Hippie Professor is to read his stuff. That’s the way we got to know him.
http://hippieprofessor.wordpress.com/
The Euro is toast. But don’t laugh. In a way, the Europeans are at least attempting to tackle the greatest threat to the free world. In the face of austerity do you really think liberals wouldn’t bloom in Communists here in America? France has gone Vichy after trying. Guys like R and Thor just want to extend and pretend. At least a few French frogs gave it their all. Better then we can say.
“I do find it interesting that Julia is assumed to be a single mother. Certainly not explicit in the presentation. Perhaps more of a statement about conservatives assumptions about liberal philosophy.”
I think its [the husband’s/father’s] absence is conspicuous. “She decided” to have a baby. I also think it was deliberate pandering to lib females and intended to be part of the larger “war on women” message.
I would’ve noticed it if it were Romney’s add. I would’ve drawn the same conclusion (deliberate omission) too.
Hey James good to see you again <–Noah. Nagic must have been the name I used to create this acct originally. Nice place you all have found here. Refreshing change to the closed minded petty bickering over and M & H.
“I think a good number of cops are criminals with uniforms and badges.”
I have a couple of cop friends that say that themselves. None of them started out as “law and order” types. You’d hate what they say about the Zimmerman case. And “yes,” they’re inner city black.
“He was a friend and an “asset” to the cause.”
I prefer to think he made to heaven. 😆
Wow. HP’s site is still up?
So you know, HP was also good at the exchanges here. At least the few I had with him.
Too bad he was always wrong on politics. 😆
He’d have been a fun professor for any student. Of that I’m sure.
I agree with El Tigre. “Julia” caters to the women who rightly or wrongly feel abandoned. The Great Father will watch over them and make it better.
I agree about the cops too.
Hi Noah. I’m also glad to see you again. This site is a breath of fresh air.
Julia does have that real boring look to her. I could totally see telling her how fun it would be to take her on a date with a calculated goal of a post pub BJ and then never talking to her again.
DR, remember, you better bring your wallet. You’ll be paying for her and her contraceptives too.
Romney just announced his V.P. pick … it’s Julia.
Take that you “war on women” types. 😉
This Julia thing is a big fat yawn. I can only assume you guys are worked up about it because Hannity or Limbaugh told you it was important.
Sorry Thor. I heard about it on MSNBC for the first time. The gaggle of weirdos on Morning Joe were even bagging on it. How’s that grab you?
Heard this from a client earlier today:
What happens when a lawyer takes Viagra?
He gets taller.
*rimshot*
How The Gutsiest President Ever Single-Handedly Killed OBL
😆
http://sbynews.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-gutsiest-president-ever-single.html
Tigre, great Viagra joke but I got a bigger laugh out of Thor thinking you’re getting your outrage from Hannity and Limbaugh (and then you counter with MSNBC …. even funnier). How does it feel to be accused of not having an original thought in your brain? 😉
So Nagic is Noah …. welcome again Noah. I vaguely recall your name from my one foray into M&H. Just so you know, I despise that place. I seem to recall your taking some crap from the resident PITA’s there. Not a nice place to visit nor would I want to live there.
R opined:
“Let’s take your son’s friend. You don’t find it a damn shame that this society has so little to offer him that he has to risk getting his head blown off just to climb the ladder a little bit? Would I call HIM a loser? No. But he is sure getting into the service for the wrong reasons.”
and…
“I think a good number of cops are criminals with uniforms and badges. Or to put it differently, if they hadn’t become cops, they would be in prison right now. ”
re: son’s friend. Absolutely, and exactly my point. The question is, why, in this country, is that true? Perhaps the same question could be asked-and answered-in East Germany, Cuba, the old Soviet Union, modern England, North Korea. As the sage said, the problem with capitalism is that it distributes the wealth so unevenly; the problem with socialism is that it distributes the misery perfectly.
re: cops. Funny you should say that. When I was in med school, we did a little research experiment: we administered the MMPI to cops and criminals. Their personality profiles were identical, except the cops were a little brighter – not much, though…
Re: HippieProfessor –
His blog just dies in 2010. No mention of illness, plans to quit, whatever…
So does anyone know what happened to him?
“How does it feel to be accused of not having an original thought in your brain?”
But it seems we get our “thoughts” from the same source. 😯
At least you’re paranoid with good reason. 😆
“So does anyone know what happened to him?”
Heart attack.
PF, he died.
I’m sorry I never got to meet PF; He sounds like a nice person.
Rutherford, to say Noah caught grief is an understatement. The blog tried to vote me off the site, but the grandmothers wrote a thread in Noah’s honor. They and the posters called him a liar, an unfit future father and other terms of endearment. I told him he should be honored to be in such a unique position. Someone wrote that it had happened once before.
Several of us stood up to them, and most of the grannies fled the site like stereotypical whites after the first black moved into the neighborhood. I told them that, and they didn’t like my comment. We controlled the site with only a habitual dissenter making multiple posts each day to uphold the honor of those who had fled.A new post brought them back. Then, they left again with comments like the site was ruined, or we should be flushed down the toilet.
As Pfessor wrote, i got to be on fairly good terms with the survivors and new people. Then, one betrayed me, and they were no longer worth my time.
I didn’t need a talk show host to show Julia for what she is. She and her story are easy to mock.
One of my friends in the service was a child of the Mafia. The family wanted him to attend law school so he could fill a niche in the organization, but he wanted to be on his own. He told us how the organization worked and the retirement plan many would envy.
Back in the eighties, I read about two late teenagers who built a nation wide organization manufactoring and selling crack. An FBI agent said their business plan was similar to a Fortune 500’s.
Al Capone who had some connections with my relatives and who’s brother was sheriff across the river from us was also a businessman.
Does anyone know if business people share similar traits with criminals as some police officers do? I suspect they do. That is not to criticize business people. One would think that similar situations require the same aptitudes and skills for success.
Speaking of criminality, KFAB Omaha just interviewed the author of a book titled “Funding the Enemy” about how we are giving money to the Taliban.
Thanks for the HP update. Sounds like a decent guy.
You fellows see the clip of Anderson Cooper pwning the moveon.org guy? HIlarous. I didn’t think ol’ Anderson had it in him – at least not that way.
I just got wind of Hussein’s campaign motto: FORWARD! Maybe he’s been channeling Captain Smith, too. Damned good analogy – “FORWARD! Ramming speed!”
Re: 393
Yes M & H is a lesson in futility. I believe I am the only person to have a post dedicated to them by the blogs host. I have spent the better part of 2 years looking for a Liberal willing to defend their position with a response that doesn’t include a personal attack on the person asking the question.
After a time it was mostly morbid curiosity that kept me going. I figured eventually I would run into one person that could allow their beliefs to be judged on their merits alone.Sometimes I came close but it always degenerated into them speculating on how I abused my wife and kids, or my employment status…ect.
The blog has this collection of ladies that are the self proclaimed defenders. I have to admit they are quite good at what they do and it took me some time to figure them out. I do miss Tex coming in and handing them their collective asses every now and then. James PFessor and UAW did quite good at standing up to the crap.
While I never got my true debate on the issues in all that time it was very educational. It opened my eyes to how closed minded much of our country is and how unwilling most are to talk about if what they believe in is justified.
I am looking forward to seeing if the same holds true here or not. Seems to be some good back and forth so I am holding out hope.
Nagic/Noah, welcome to the real world and local tavern for the terminally depraved – but not detached. Here, even the liberals sometimes make sense during our food fights. About twice a year, Poolman even gets something right. 🙂
I never did understand why you and James caught grief at Fat Grannies. Something must have happened before I appeared. I can’t think of a handful of times you both weren’t pretty gentlemanly in your retorts, especially James. Even Pfesser, whose more out of my smart ass mold, was pretty moderate in smacking their apple cheeked faces. But at least the sting of Pfesser’s smacks on the occasion he so chose was loudly audible.
But I never did understand what in the world you had done to earn the animosity of that gaggle. Best I could tell, it was simply your persistence in setting the record straight.
Obama’s “Forward” is channeling European Marxists and communists. It dates from the nineteenth century. Either the campaign is ignorant and stupid, or they believe their own propaganda that Americans are ready for the march of history to take us forward into communism.
Noah, personal attacks and name- calling are here at times, but they are done mostly for fun.
“But I never did understand what in the world you had done to earn the animosity of that gaggle.”
He had the temerity to occasionally disagree with them. Nothing more. Same for James and Craig. The difference is that those guys were genuine and sincere 100% of the time, while I, OTOH, occasionally took delight in sneaking up from behind and pulling the girls’ pants down, just for fun. They take their liberal nonsense so seriously, and it’s so easy to refute that it wasn’t that hard to amuse oneself at their expense.
I would personally love to see certain folks magically transported to the rural life in 1930, where nobody makes your living for you; if you don’t work, you don’t eat. A life in the city can disconnect one from the reality of where one’s food and goods come from; hint: they do NOT come from the grocery.
A little dose of reality, like Dr. Johnson’s prospect of being hanged in a fortnight, can remarkably focus the vapid mind.
“Does anyone know if business people share similar traits with criminals as some police officers do?”
Organized crime is a business. The mindset is no different in most ways, only the enforcement mechanisms and willingness to use them.
“Either the campaign is ignorant and stupid, or they believe their own propaganda that Americans are ready for the march of history to take us forward into communism.”
Those are not mutually exclusive.
Much truth in humor.
“How I killed bin Laden and Bush didn’t.” — Yup absolutely true.
Suck
on
it.
“I wonder if Mitt Romney could make that shot. Would he even try for birdie? It’s a legitimate question.” — Damn straight Skippy.
Suck
on
that
too!
😆
Tex, The Gutsiest President Ever is the funniest shit ever. That’s going out to my entire address book.
Noah, I think you’ll find this place pretty hospitable. Tex will only try to destroy your character if you come off too liberal. But you knew that already.
As for me, I don’t usually call people assh*les purely for their political beliefs. More often than not, I do it to return the favor or occasionally out of frustration when I sense the cranium too thick to penetrate.
You’ll find passionate debate here but without the condescension of M&H. I knew I was in deep mud when I visited there, a liberal, and turned out not to be liberal enough for their taste. I didn’t tow the party line sufficiently. A bunch of very angry women who really are a liability to the liberal cause.
He also possessed a penis. A bigger bunch of misandrists could not be found. 😦
This “Forward” = communist thing is beyond ridiculous. Did the campaign make the connection? No they didn’t. Does this mean they’re stupid? No it doesn’t. The campaign doesn’t need to kowtow to a bunch of paranoid schizophrenics. If it weren’t for Fox News and Glenn Beck, “Forward” would mean …. wait for it …. forward. 😐
Damn it! Obama the Great has a right to be made fun of!!
Suck!
On!
It!
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?attachment_id=43712
Obamolini. Italian drink or fascist leader?
FORWARD!!!!
Bwhahahahahahah.
Rutherford
Very true on the Penis notion.
I wonder, do you plan on voting for Obama?
You are correct. We were persistent and usually proved we were right.
At first, we all were polite to each other, though one person warned me it would change after my novelty value wore off. She hoped I’d stay.
Tex, they are bigots who had they been around during my adventure in the Air Force would have joined with the bad guys and tried to kill me.I’m not mad at them. I am stating a fact.
Blogs like that operate under rules of combat similar to real life in my opinion.As in the service, my goal was to eliminate the worst actors. Since there were no rules of suspension of banishment, they would have to take themselves out. I told them they were surigates for men who had tried to get rid of me, but few saw the connection.
I kept a mental dossier on the main characters so I’d understand how to deal with them and to know which sort of insult to retaliate with. I “got” to several if their posts of anger and rage were a sign. My writing Jean must have been in a special class goaded her into bragging about her considerable intellectual accomplishments. I replied that she was slipping into mental disability. I purposely wrote long posts to bug the h…out of some of them. I also wrote complementary things to confuse them.
I left for months at a time and returned with an “I told you so” as I gloated that another of their assumptions had failed. . I also told them I would not read any of their replies, because I would be gone again. The novelty effect after my departure made at least some of them read. Pfessor arrived after one of my absences.
You, Pfessor, Noah, UAW Tradesman, and some others created a synergistic effect disproportionate to our numbers which put us in virtual control of the blog. They had good reason to hate us.
Rutherford, I didn’t need Fox News to tell me what Forward means. I knew it the first time I saw it. Of course, I was a history major.
“He also possessed a penis.” Ha ha Rutherford! You are funny!
Noah, despite my reputation for being “in the tank”, I don’t think Obama has been perfect by any means. His biggest mistake in my estimation was letting others, early in the administration, do his heavy lifting for him (e.g. Pelosi). With that said, I am a liberal. I can’t sign on to many of the Republican strategies. AND I just don’t see sufficient evidence that Romney is the man for the job. We are betting on Romney on the precarious assumption that someone with business experience can run a nation like a company and “turn it around”. Two things to keep in mind:
1. Massachusetts was next to worst in job creation during Romney’s tenure as Governor.
2. For as many Bain Capital success stories (Staples I think?) there are other examples where the success was limited to Bain alone. Companies leveraged up the wazoo, bankrupted and sold like scrap metal. No one is arguing whether that is a legit part of capitalism. I’m not saying Romney did anything “wrong” with that approach. But that’s no model for running a country.
So Noah … after that long answer …. yes, at this point I plan to vote for Obama.
Wow Rutherford, you are really getting outnumbered on this blog. Probably the only liberal blog that attracts this many conservatives.
James, I see you caught the “Forward” image also. The right was quick to pick up on the connection between Forward and Marx. I keep wondering between “Julie” and “Forward” if it wouldn’t behoove Obama to find some new speech writers. Do you think???
“Sorry Thor. I heard about it on MSNBC for the first time. The gaggle of weirdos on Morning Joe were even bagging on it. How’s that grab you?” – ET
Ok, so MSNBC told you it’s important. You still haven’t explained WHY it’s important.
Tigre,
Wasn’t that “gutsiest” President ever funny? I don’t think Rutherford even understands the greatness of that mockery. If he understood anything about golf, he would find that at least somewhat funny – even if it does make fun of President Cloward-Pivin.
Protected by the left bunker…
😆
I think I spelled Piven wrong… 😳
🙄 You don’t need to create jobs when people are already employed, numb nutz.
So using your skilled rationale, Obama by killing jobs and not creating jobs is what?
Twice as qualified?
FIFY
Whom the Gods Destroy, They First Render Obamian.
It’s my good looks! 🙂
Tex, yes I understand golf. The cartoon was funny in a silly sort of way. Very silly.
***GUFFAW***
***GUFFAW***
[that one needed a double down Texist retort]
f campaign speeches are based on sound bites you can rest assured that those bites are bound to come back and bite you in the ass.
Check out the Wisconsin State Seal for use of the word “Forward”. Is there something we don’t know about Wisconsin? 😉
http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Wisconsin/stateSEAL.html
“Ok, so MSNBC told you it’s important. You still haven’t explained WHY it’s important.”
What are you on?
Ragi, maybe we recognize in Rutherford, personal kindred souls. Or maybe he looks in the mirror sings “Too Sexy” because its true.
I agree, Obama needs some new speech writers. Romney is not McCain. His campaigns have a history of hard attacks. Conservatives are also using Twitter and Michele Malkin’s Twitchy to strike back.
I don’t know how successful Romney would be either, but Obama’s record shows he has hurt our economy. . His hirelings are dangerous. For example, they have tried to destroy our rural culture.Once Obamacare takes effect, many people will no longer be able to keep their health insurance carriers, and will eventually be forced into government exchanges. People earning over $42,000 will pay a lot more money. Any Supreme Court nominee would be superior to Obama’s. Obama’s would be leftists who would upset the between liberals and conservatives.
Noah –
I think Rutherford is kind of hard to understand, but I am slowly getting a little of it. He is a very rare breed, IMHO – willing to accept a lot of being ganged-up on but stay true to his beliefs. Me, I’d fire the whole bunch of us and close the damn blog, so while Rutherford-the-lib takes a beating, Rutherford-the-man commands a helluva lot of respect ’round these parts.
Anybody agree? Disagree?
Tex, that damn Gutsiest still has me giggling.
Rutherford
Look at Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain, and others, who are living the Obama dream 10 years down the road, how do you justify voting for 4 more years of the same or in my opinion much much worse. As he wont be campaigning as much as he has for the last 4 years(more than all Presidents since Nixon combined) and he knows he cannot be reelected, I assume we will see the real Liberal side of Obama come out.
Also looking at things like the security act, the bill in now that allows the IRS to take away our passports if you are accused(not proven) of owning 50k or more to the IRS and our permits(guns?), don’t you think Obama is taking us down a path we never should have started in the first place? These things should never been allowed to exist even for a nanosecond, and set us on a path to what I think is his end goal of China style capitalism.
Looking at Obama’s upbringing and training, and the people he has surrounded himself all his life, he seems to me to be on a mission to deconstruct what we have always been to turn us into his vision of what we should be, constitution be damned.
Here’s a few questions for the group:
1. Does Romney represent a viable candidate for POTUS or ABO (Anybody But Obama)?
2. Has the Executive branch of our government lost so much power over the past eight years that it really doesn’t matter who is POTUS because the Legislative branch has the bigger percentage of power?
Job creation is a Romney versus community organizer equation? And you come down on the side of community organizer with Obama’s “job creation” (snicker) record? This is Obama’s first job for Christ’s sake.
Noah, R has to vote for Obama because his over-investment in Obama means R’s identity is on the line.
Rutherford is a unique breed of lib. A credit to an otherwise sorry breed of corrupted thinking.
Willing and able to provide the forum in a tag team brawl, interesting enough to keep you entertained, and thick hided, mule headed enough to tolerate the worst of abuse.
How can you not begrudgingly admire an eccentric, stubborn, hardheaded talking donkey like that?
Mr. Ed Rutherford.
Noah, welcome to the Portal of Edification. Here you will learn of insect drones, Pizzlies and the varying uses of cacti in domestic disputes. My personal favorite has been the exposure to Sami pop videos. Thanks James.
Rutherford, your picture of the awesome economy messiah stuffing cash in his mouth is a close second. Can we see that one again R? Please, please,please. 😉
What gives with Romney saying he “deserves a lot of credit” for saving the auto industry? I know there’s got to be context to that. . .
LOL …. Tex … Obama looks nothing like me. Although that does remind me of a funny exchange between me and my father. Back in 2008 when my Dad was saying he was underwhelmed by Obama, he added “plus he looks like Malcolm X.”
To which I replied “Dad, when you were young, YOU looked like Malcolm X.” 😆
Wow, in the words of Sally Field, “he likes me, he really likes me.” 😐
LOL …. oh damn … Tigre floors me every time. When a soundbite from Obama makes no sense, context be damned. But when Romney says something totally off the wall …. THEN we must examine the context.
To answer your question, oh striped one, I believe Romney said he recommended a bankruptcy procedure for GM etal and to the extent that the Obama bailout involved “a controlled bankruptcy” (is that what it’s called), Obama followed Romney’s recommendation.
You see Romney has to soft shoe his way out of this. He is on record saying to let the auto industry fail. Whether or not you believe in GM’s resurrection, no one wants their one definitive quote on the matter to be “let Detroit fail”. Not a good way to get votes. 😉
If you let out your earflaps, can you fly, too?
1. Does Romney represent a viable candidate for POTUS or ABO (Anybody But Obama)?
Clearly the latter. GOPhers cannot stand Romney. Obviously neither can libs. So he is clearly the ABO choice.
2. Has the Executive branch of our government lost so much power over the past eight years that it really doesn’t matter who is POTUS because the Legislative branch has the bigger percentage of power?
I think Grover Norquist has your answer. At the recent CPAC convention he advised the assembled throng that it doesn’t matter who the POTUS is so long as he signs the legislation that the GOP controlled House and Senate send him.
The power brokers want a puppet who will do their bidding.
LOL regarding 446, I had to stop and think a bit before I got The Flying Nun reference. Bravo!
You know, Rutherford, when you were young, you actually LOOKED like Sister Bertrille.
Or was it Malcolm X………….
“When a soundbite from Obama makes no sense, context be damned. But when Romney says something totally off the wall …. THEN we must examine the context.”
Your inability to detect sarcasm is astonishing. Seriously.
Since you mentioned it, what soundbite(s) are struggling with that I have failed to properly contextualize?
The power brokers
wantalways get a puppet who will do their bidding.FIFY
Hopefully he/she is pretty and can stand up straight and read and speak well. Much easier to sell those. Now if they haven’t crapped their britches in public before, all the better.
Too many to mention.
Noah, clearly from 437 you are singing from the well worn anti-Obama playbook. And that’s fine. I’m very used to hearing these things.
This is the latest meme running through conservative circles. What is funny about it is that it is a tacit admission that conservatives have been drama-queening Obama for the past 3 years creating a radical boogeyman that does not exist. “Ohhhh but you just wait, reelect him and all the horror stories we’ve been telling will come true.” They haven’t come true to date, and they won’t come true down the line.
Truth is Obama is a relatively boring left-of-middle politician much to the chagrin of true progressives everywhere. I would say, and I’m sure you would disagree, if he loses in November it will be because he has lost his base.
Ragi, I like the Forward Wisconsin state motto. Obviously it was a warning of the Wisconsin Progressive movement to come. Ha! The Swastica was an honored religious symbol for generations, and Hitler’s Youth Corps had a song titled “Forward”, I think.Still, the campaign could have thought of a better word.
You’re welcome, thor. Thanks for the complement.
I agree, Romney is mostly anybody but Obama, but it doesn’t mean Romney would be a bad president. He is has had a successful business life and seems to be a good man with values. We would fire Obama if he was a CEO or lower level employee. He has displayed bad judgement and has a problem working others when they disagree. I’m willing to take a chance with him.
I think the executive is usurping power with executive orders and appointments beyond Congressional approval.
“Too many to mention.”
wimp.
This is an answer to an old comment by Rutherford when he wrote surely I didn’t believe Bush helped fly the plane which landed on an air craft carrier for the Mission Accomplished celebration. On Iraq jokes … blog “President Bush told reporters that the pilot actually let him fly the plane for a little bit. In a related story, Dick Cheney said that he once let President Bush run the country for a few minutes.” Conan O’Brien.
“I would say, and I’m sure you would disagree, if he loses in November it will be because he has lost his base.”
Funny how there is nothing new under the sun. The far-righties say that is why McCain lost the last election: he wasn’t far enough right and didn’t “appeal to his base.”
Bullshit. Whom are the righties going to vote for? Obama? And whom are the lefties going to vote for? I’ll tell you: They are going to grouse and then vote for their guy.
The reason McCain lost is that, in his grasping for the far-right’s vote – which he had anyway (see above), he alienated the MILLIONS of independents like me, who are offended by extremists of every stripe. Obama is going to do the same thing, and it may (God I hope, anyway) cost him the election.
Americans are, for the most part, middle of the road. In pandering to the lunatic fringes, these boys are going to give up the very thing they are so desperately grasping at. Kind of poetical, ain’t it?
“What are you on?” – ET
Your ass. So why is the Julia thing so important? You still haven’t explained. Is it because it shows quite clearly that Romney has no plan, other than heading “backward” to the old days when losing 780,000 jobs a month was the best the job creators could do?
“To which I replied “Dad, when you were young, YOU looked like Malcolm X.” – R
Your Dad looked like Denzel Washington? Wow, even if only a quarter of his genes stayed for the party, you’re even sexier than I imagined. 😉
Numbnutz, go back read the comments and follow the links. I’m not going to repeat them.
As for “so important,” this is a political blog and a topic of discussion — as it was on MSNBC. Your attempt to badger is too stupid too indulge further.
We already know you drink Obama’s bath water and willingly accept any of the propaganda his campaign has to offer.
I agree Pfessor, but there is a little more. McCain might have exposed Obama’s past connections including men like Reverend Wright to portray Obama as a potentially dangerous radical who was different from most of us.
Sarah Palin energized the campaign and became a star with power rivaling Obama’s attraction, but the campaign muffled some of her attacks. . Biden and McCain were after thoughts at rallies.
Sarah helped McCaiin lead in some polls before the crash. As the stock market fell, McCain canceled the campaign and dithered. He looked like a confused old man, while Obama exuded cool and youthful vigor. Obama appeared more presidential than McCain, and he appealed to frightened people looking for a life line. I think the pubic perception combined with some independents’ fear that McCain might die and leave us with President Palin combined with issues you mentioned to defeat McCain.
Who ever wins this time, the campaign will be nasty, because I think Obama and Romney both know how to fight.
I’ve highlighted the amazing part of this statement.
He has had to work with folks who disagree from day 1. He has had a Senate minority leader who boldly stated the number 1 priority was to limit Obama to one term. Health care reform, less than it could have been because Obama tried to play too nice with Repubs. Bush tax cuts for the most wealthy still in place because Obama would not play tough with Repubs.
Seriously James, you’ve GOT to be kidding.
I agree and Obama will reach out to them. Watch him. He is NOT going to run as a “radical”. On the contrary he is painting his opponent as radical.
ROTFLMAO! That comment is for the history books. Now if only you were a woman! 🙂
Wimp.
Who ever wins this time, the campaign will be nasty, because I think Obama and Romney both know how to fight.
On that, I agree 100%.
“Check out the Wisconsin State Seal for use of the word “Forward”. Is there something we don’t know about Wisconsin?” – Raji
The Badger uniforms are “red” too. 😉
The Bayview riots of the 1880’s represent a bloody chapter in Wisconsin and U.S. history. State militia killed 5 protesters and wounded several more for having the audacity to publicly demand an eight hour work day. F’ing commies.
Speaking of Wisconsin, the recall-vulnerable Gov. Walker now blames the protesters for Wisconsin’s horrible job numbers since he entered office. It couldn’t have anything to do with his policies (which Romney wholeheartedly supports).
We are being told that OWS has dwindled to nothing, yet, in Mr. Walker’s world, they are so powerful they have brought the economy of Wisconsin to a screeching halt, despite the valiant efforts of he and the job creators.
Right from the mouth of a rightie rising star. Take that OWS deniers. 🙂
“Wimp.”
Lame.
Rutherford, I am not kidding. I do agree that Obama will portray himself as a moderate, different from the right wing radical shape shifter Romney.
Obama is known for his thin skin. As one example of his inability to work well with others who disagree with him, the budget deal was almost done. Bheoner had agreed to a tax hike, but Obama blew the deal when he held out for more. He was either a poor bargainer or he wanted the issue unresolved so he could use it in his campaign.
Democrats, presumably with Obama’s blessing, froze Republicans out of the primary negotiations. At one point, he snarkely said “:I won” when a Republican complained.
To be fair, Obama displayed a Reaganesque disengagement in the most important achievement of his administration–Obamacare. He didn’t even know what was in the bill, so maybe the freeze out was not his doing. His failure to pay attention still speaks badly of his administration skills.
.
“Now if only you were a woman!” – R
I’m sure there are some here who think I am. 🙂
“Numbnutz, go back read the comments and follow the links. I’m not going to repeat them.” – ET
Wimpishly lame. 😉 And yes, I agree, your comments on the Julia matter are hardly worth anyone’s time, even yours.
Meanwhile, I knew Elizabeth Warren was my cousin as soon as I saw her blue eyes and learned her cheek bones were as high as mine.
B Connect with information from Legal Inssurrection, says research shows Elizabeth’s alleged Indian forebear, Sarah Smith Crawford was listed as white in the 1860 census and probably was descended from Swedes, English, Scots, or Germans. Her husband, Elizabeth’s several times great grandfather was apparently a member of the Tennessee Militia who rounded up Cherokee Indians and sent them on the Trail of Tears.
She is definitely my cousin. Besides the high cheek bones and blue eyes, we share awful skeletons. Her ancestors killed Indians, and mine murdered witches.
“right wing radical shape shifter Romney.” – J
Nice. Just don’t tell Alfie.
Let me give you an example on this very blog that is straight out of Fat Grannies lore. This is why liberals do not deserve, nor need to be running this country. Especially if they are this monumentally stupid and dishonest. And Obama the Osama Killer is.
Argue your point by taking some anomaly of a once in a lifetime financial crisis, hardly Bush’s doing and certainly not his doing alone, then characterize not one but two complete terms and make that example the norm. For 63 of the 84 months of that “idiot” Bush Administration, America was at or near full employment. That must be forgotten and ignored, attributed to I guess the Clinton legacy. 🙄
But then ignoring the obvious incongruity, if Bush’s policies are what pushed us over a cliff, why were Bush’s successes were so much larger than the current Pet Rock for President, who can’t manage to even get us under 11% unemployment, spending $4,100,000,000 more a day than he takes in?
That’s not even a passing grade for a Three Axe Handle Helen hack.
Here’s a place colleges could begin cut some of the rot out of the beef.
The Most Persuasive Case for Eliminating Black Studies? Just Read the Dissertations.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/the-most-persuasive-case-for-eliminating-black-studies-just-read-the-dissertations/46346
P.S. – she was fired for this. They should have awarded her a Pulitzer.
“Speaking of Wisconsin, the recall-vulnerable Gov. Walker now blames the protesters for Wisconsin’s horrible job numbers since he entered office. It couldn’t have anything to do with his policies (which Romney wholeheartedly supports).
We are being told that OWS has dwindled to nothing, yet, in Mr. Walker’s world, they are so powerful they have brought the economy of Wisconsin to a screeching halt, despite the valiant efforts of he and the job creator.” -thor
That’s one number you’re referring to (parroting, to be honest), kind of like how you try to promote the booming economy under Obama on a day that the Dow goes above 13,000. Look the next day and pffffft, that limp balloon withers and meanwhile we’re now entering our 3rd Summer of Recovery. Happy days are here again, again.
Putting that aside, what exactly did Walker say about the protestors and what do you mean the OWS “brought the economy of Wisconsin to a screeching halt” – according to Walker.
Who didn’t see this gay marriage thing coming?
President Obama’s stance is “evolving,” eh? Would that be like Romney’s stance on abortion “evolved?”
Number of Americans employed today: 141.87 million. Number of Americans employed January 2009: 142.10 million.
Additional debt accumulated to lose 230,000 jobs over 42 months?
Answer: $5,500,000,000,000.00
Price per person for every man, woman and child losing 230,000 jobs?
Answer: $17,857 of additional federal debt per person.
Wonder what Libs consider failure? 🙄
@474 tell me what?
as for Raji I believe:
1. Does Romney represent a viable candidate for POTUS or ABO (Anybody But Obama)?
2. Has the Executive branch of our government lost so much power over the past eight years that it really doesn’t matter who is POTUS because the Legislative branch has the bigger percentage of power?
In reverse order. Given the bureaucratic might of the Executive branches many tentacles I don’t see how the E has lost any power. Add to that the ability to shape SCOTUS and lower federal judiciary as well as the ability to circumvent the Legislature via international cooperatives…don’t see it.
Romney is a very viable candidate for the REPUBLICAN Party. That’s the rub though. People are under the illusion that the GOP must mean conservative or something of that ilk. Romney is a viable candidate who if he wins will quite possibly reshape the GOP to Eisenhoweresque image. In doing so he could very well cause a permanent schism too but there it is.
Rutherford
I get what you are saying about talking points but the phrase doesn’t hold much water with me. Regardless of what you want to call it, the facts either hold up or they do not. That said…
Obama as a moderate is out of necessity not out of belief. You can judge a man by the company he keeps. The company he has kept all his life suggest a man far left of anyone we have had in decades. In 2007 he was listed as the most Liberal person in congress. I don’t know the statistic on this, but how many Presidents have had all of congress vote down 2 bills they have put forth? Right now he is pulling a Clinton so that his Presidency can have something to say they accomplished. That said….
What he has accomplished scares me and really is the meat of what I asked you to consider. Obama-care is forced commerce by our government on the people with serious legal repercussions for noncompliance. The security act stripped us of our civil rights allowing us to be deported and held without representation. The bill proposed to take away our permits and passports for money owed to the IRS unprecedented. Then there is the bill to put an off switch and control the information on the internet. The list goes on.
China wants to run this way, fine, that is on them. Cuba? Russia? Great, go for it. But not here. Not the U.S. This just doesn’t fly with me. I don’t toss around the word Treason lightly. But Obama is giving me serious pause. Brick by brick he is taking down the foundation of what made us what we are. These laws never should have been put up for a vote let alone put into law. It sets the stage for a very different America than I was born into. I do not see how anyone of any political ideology can even consider the possibility of an Obama Presidency for another 4 years.
“That’s one number you’re referring to (parroting, to be honest), kind of like how you try to promote the booming economy under Obama on a day that the Dow goes above 13,000. Look the next day and pffffft, that limp balloon withers” Muffy
What? You’re making shit up.
Here’s your Walker info.
Noting the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline that declared, “State Job Losses Worst in US,” Gousha asked, “Wasn’t that headline in the state’s biggest newspaper last week, the one that screams ‘job losses,’ isn’t that as about as damaging as anything that can happen to you five weeks before an election?”
Walker responded by blaming last year’s protests against his assault on public employees, public-school teachers, public education and public services. “Those [job loss] numbers reflect early on last year when we saw all the things that were happening around our state Capitol. I think there’s no doubt anyone logically would look at that and say ‘of course that had an impact.’ ”
Then Walker said the June 5 recall election—in which he could be replaced by the voters of Wisconsin—has become the problem.
http://www.wisn.com/politics/upfront/Gov-Walker-appears-on-UpFront-with-Mike-Gousha/-/10057538/12223284/-/ehfsi3/-/index.html
@474 tell me what?
“right wing radical shape shifter Romney.” Or that Romney is a flip-flopper.
“Number of Americans employed today: 141.87 million. Number of Americans employed January 2009: 142.10 million.” – ET
And how many were employed in Feb of 2009, Obama’s first full month in office? How many in Feb of 2001?
“He will have to explain to the American people why his vision for bigger government, more spending, and higher taxes will work over the next four years when it hasn’t worked in the past three and a half years.” – Sen. Rob Portman on President Obama
“And how many were employed in Feb of 2009, Obama’s first full month in office? How many in Feb of 2001?”
I don’t know. Why don’t you tell us then link it to a point? And in rteferring to romney, refer to his policies. Although it seems to make you feel better, Bush-bashing doesn’t help your argument.
Krugman. . . even fucking Krugman. . . points out that there’s been no job growth under Obama because (1) jobs added is not keeping pace with population increase, and (2) the employment figures don’t account for the huge numbers that have dropped out of the market altogether (stopped looking).
Krugman refers to our current state of long-term unemployment as a “depression.”
Thor refers to this as “great news” for Obama.
Regarding 486 … and Rob Portman needs to explain how the GOP agenda of the 8 years before Obama prevented financial catastrophe. 😉
El Tigre, if I know Krugman, he also thinks Obama did not do enough stimulus. In other words, Krugman wants Obama to triple down on all the policies you don’t like. So it’s awfully funny hearing you quote him as authority.
“El Tigre, if I know Krugman, he also thinks Obama did not do enough stimulus. In other words, Krugman wants Obama to triple down on all the policies you don’t like. So it’s awfully funny hearing you quote him as authority.”
You and your damn reading comprehension. 🙄
I hate Krugman more than anyone, hence “even fucking Krugman. . .”
He’s no authority that I would rely on for anything political or economic.
The point is that the real employment situation is so obvious, even Krugman isn’t trying to play like Obama should be crowing. Yet you and Thor continue on and on. . .
Aw, fuck it. You guys keep with the hero worship and cheering about non-existent accomplishment/progress all you want. Nobody with a brain is buying it.
Most honest people acknowledge that the unemployment rate is higher than the advertised 8.1%. But even meager accomplishments are accomplishments nevertheless.
The fact is under Bush we kept losing jobs. Under Obama we’ve gained jobs. The graph is well known by now:
That is progress.
A mathematical trick of a graph is not progress. You can’t simply count “new jobs” without adding in the “lost” jobs.
The fact is, Obama has spent $5.5 trillion dollars and added a net loss of jobs over 42 months now as El Tigre correctly noted.
Last week for instance. Obama progressed to adding a little over 100K jobs, but 355K job seekers fell off the rolls. Your attempt at progress is digging the hole further.
But by all means, Helen. Please continue for another six months with this message.
I can’t wait until the debates this time. 🙂
R, please tell me they withheld you degree in mathematics from Harvard.
Tex already responded for me, but damn if you just can’t seem to help yourself. These are the lies and distortions I was referencing earlier. You’d be well-advised to avoid them — there’s plenty of stuff you guys can say if you want to defeat Romney.
R, please tell me they withheld you degree in mathematics from Harvard.
They didn’t but they might as well have. 🙂
My mother forced me to ask the head of the math department if I could write a thesis. I had already told my mother that my grades made that effort moot. But off I marched. The department head shook his head sadly and said “Son, with your grades, what would be the point?”
Be that as it may … what would be better, the chart I presented above or a chart showing the bars continuing to fall below zero? I might sign on to your skepticism if the method of counting was changed between Bush and Obama but all the bars on the chart are based on the same methodology. If it’s flawed on the Obama side of the chart, then it is flawed on the Bush side of the chart.
Except the Bush chart is ‘completely’ incomplete. You took the worst anomaly in 70 years for a period of six months and posed it as Bush’s record. As I said yesterday, 63 of the 86 months in the U.S., we were at or near full employment in Bush’s two terms after 9/11.
Even more telling, Obama promised to halve the annual deficit, then tripled it. For what? Jobs saved? 😆
Oh come on now, Rutherford. You cannot win. It’s the same mentality as those saying there were no terrorist acts during the Bush administration. The sky is red. Lalalalalalalalalala…
Rutherford
Per my 382 question
I am a straight shooter and their are no ulterior motives or gottcha moments with me. I genuinely want to understand your point of view on this as a Liberal. The justification for a vote for Obama eludes me and I am hoping that given the questions I posed you can enlightened me to your line of thinking in this matter.
Off topic it was my understanding that we had 52 straight months of job creation with Bush.
I have never heard anyone say there no terrorist attacks during the Bush years. Not one time. The biggest terrorist attack in our nations history happened during his Presidency. I think maybe you are talking to the people who believe the Holocaust never happened maybe?
You ever hear the phrase “close but no cigar”? So Bush didn’t have a full presidency of economic ruin. So what? If I run straight A’s and then fail the final exam I get at best a C in the course. The time frame in the graph is the relevant time frame. To Bush I say “close but no cigar.”
Memory doesn’t fail me often…
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jan/08/rudy-giuliani/giuliani-says-there-were-no-domestic-attacks-durin/
“Most honest people acknowledge that the unemployment rate is higher than the advertised 8.1%. But even meager accomplishments are accomplishments nevertheless.”
Fine. The unemployment rate in WI was 5.4 when Scott Walker’s predecessor, Jim Doyle(D), took office in January 2003. It rose under Doyle to 7.5 when Walker took office in January 2011 (peaking to 9.2% in June ’09). It’s now 6.8%, lower than the national average.
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/wisconsin/
And Walker has every right to use that stat in a campaign ad. How that relates to his attempt to crush unions is another matter.
The news out of Wisconsin isn’t anything the (D) crowd should be crowing about.
Was that an unfair question(s) I asked back in 482 Rutherford? Or just uncomfortable.
Noah regarding 482, I find the last paragraph melodrama. So let me focus on parts of the second and third paragraphs:
You can judge a man by the company he keeps.
You can, but I prefer to judge a man by his actions. Progressives expected sweeping change from Obama. They got moderation, compromise and surrender. Obama spent the bulk of his political capital on health care in the first two years and wound up with a solution that disappoints 98% of most leftists. To say this man has been a radical left President just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Right now he is pulling a Clinton so that his Presidency can have something to say they accomplished.
Not entirely sure what you’re getting at here.
Obama-care is forced commerce by our government on the people with serious legal repercussions for noncompliance.
The Massachusetts precedent is forced commerce and no one said a peep about it. Suddenly a lib President wants to go national with it and the sky starts falling. Noah … the mandate was originally A CONSERVATIVE IDEA.
The security act stripped us of our civil rights allowing us to be deported and held without representation.
If you’re referring to the recent law that got passed allowing suspected terrorist Americans to be held without trial … hey I’m not tickled by that either. Nor is any liberal. This is simply Congress (with Obama’s consent) doubling down on Bush policies. By the way, I’m not aware of any “deportation” being part of that law.
The bill proposed to take away our permits and passports for money owed to the IRS unprecedented. Then there is the bill to put an off switch and control the information on the internet
Forgive me if I missed it, but could you post a credible link documenting this gun permit/ passport taking bill, whose bill is it and who supports it? As for the off switch to the Internet, I’ve seen ZERO support of such a thing by the Obama administration and liberals are ABSOLUTELY against any such thing. Once again, please supply a credible link to back this up.
Rutherford the MA precedent you cite is incorrect. The MA healthcare law is based in public health laws not the Commerce clause or any variation thereof. It is actually more akin to the State being able to require immunizations.
re passport thing. Has a 50k trigger but doesn’t require the offender to be charged with a crime,essentially a “bill due” from the IRS could be sufficient.
Senate 1813 by B Boxer (D) CA
As for internet thing it seems it has been around for a while w/ Lieberman being hot for it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20029302-501465.html
for example.
It also must be said that many nations want to empower govt. to control the Net and that is aimed at 1600 Penn regardless the occupant. Some of the shit bureaucrats talk about over their endive salads is indeed crazy,spooky shit.
Not much caring who came up with the idea of forced commerce. As I am not from Romney’s state it did not effect me. I am all for testing out new ideas at the state level. Great way to test something out to see if it works. At the national level, when it is forced upon us, then I have a problem with it, don’t you?
By pulling a Clinton I mean, in Clinton’s second term he moved to the center to get things done. Obama having had 2 bills get voted down unanimously is doing so out of necessity. As for proof he is a far lefty I again point out his 2007 win for most left congressman, even more than Sanders, a self proclaimed socialist.
So while you pointed out that you think a conservative came up with the idea, you did not give credit to those that passed it nor did you say if you are for or against our government taking this unprecedented step and if you condemn or support Obama for the provision and the security act, a bill he said he would veto but then didn’t.
I will find links for the security act where it stated that those held on changes under the security act could be taken out of the country for questioning as well as the bill being considered to allow the IRS to revoke passports and permits. .
I’m not interested in whether it is “based” on the Commerce clause or not. Is it forced commerce? That is the question at hand.
I’m not trying to be difficult but that isn’t the question at hand. The broad realities are the state of MA was by MGL’s permitted to impose the mandate where as should be revealed by SCOTUS Obama was not. I’m sorry for dropping in2 a conversation not aimed at me but the Mass. thing hits home….literally.
btw people did say PEEP and Beep about it and in fact lost a lawsuit over it.
Here is a link on the bill on the IRS and taking our passports.
http://krisannehall.com/index.php/blog/114-senate-bill-1813-power-to-confiscate-your-proof-of-citizenship
Noah, your Krisanne Hall is a crackpot. She neglects to link to the actual legislation for good reason. It proves her to be a crackpot.
From the legislation:
Seriously Delinquent Tax Debt- For purposes of this section, the term ‘seriously delinquent tax debt’ means an outstanding debt under this title for which a notice of lien has been filed in public records pursuant to section 6323 or a notice of levy has been filed pursuant to section 6331
In other words, contrary to Ms. Hall’s suggestion, you can’t go to the airport and suddenly discover your passport was revoked. Or maybe you can, if you haven’t been paying attention to the notice of lien that was issued against you. There are no surprises here. The passport revocation applies to people who are already in very deep trouble with the IRS and know it. My best guess it is to stop tax cheaters from fleeing the country.
You’re inconsistent here. Why are we testing it? To see if it might work at a national level. By all accounts, it works in Massachusetts so why not promulgate it across the country. You just said you’re in favor of the States being incubators for ideas. Well that’s what happened. MA was the incubator and now the idea is being tried out nationwide.
As of the ACA, yes I support it. I think it is a very weak start. I personally favor single payer. But all progress starts with small steps. There is no reason why in the richest nation in the world anyone should be without fundamental health care.
I was disappointed that Obama let the NDAA go through with the imprisonment-without-trial provision in it. On the other hand, I remember arguing in prior threads that the language in the troubling sections was ambiguous at best and was not a slam dunk for the nightmare scenario painted by its opponents.
Rutherford, you know what they say about assumptions. I doubt this will get a response but here we go.
I googled the bill and this is where it came up. Every hear of a little news organization called CNN? Maybe MSNBC? Nightline. All 3 ran a story on this. I wanted something that explained the legislation and I picked her sight at random. I find it odd a random choice is someone you know intimately. That said, I am amazed you would find the IRS being given this ability under any circumstances good news to you. I think it is incredibly shortsighted with a little legal term I like to call president and the potential future implications. But the government always knows whats best for us yes?
“You’re inconsistent here. Why are we testing it”
Sorry for not stating this in a way that made it clear. If one is to consider putting forth a new idea with the intentions of doing it at the federal level, I think it is a good idea to have it tested out at the state level and work out any potential bugs before going for full implementation. Liberals have a tendency to want to go for massive radical change, and try and work out toe bugs as we go along with little consideration for the lives you destroy in the process. I prefer a slow measured approach especially when the changes will effect the lives of millions.
As far as the legislation itself. I again apologize for not being clear and stating it in an obvious way. I Do Not Like The Provision That Forces Commerce On the American People By Their Government. I will from this point on be very blunt, very direct so as to avoid these …misunderstandings? If that is what they are. That said.
Rutherford
1. Are you in favor of our government passing legislation that allows them to detain U.S. citizens without representation?
(A) if 1 = No then Do you have a problem with it even appearing on the books in the first place. If 1 = Yes then disregard. (A)
2. Do you commend or condemn Obama for passing the law mentioned in 1?
3. Are you for or against the provision in Obama care that forces commerce on the American people?
4. Do you commend or condemn Obama for having that provision in the law?
If a direct yes or no is not something you feel comfortable with feel free to pass the questions by.
Why am I trying to get you to be clear? Because it is in my considered opinion that Liberals and those further to the Left like Obama want a China style of Capitalism. ie business and corporations run and controlled by the government. Why do I think that? Could you name for me another time where our government took ownership of financial institutions and cap manufactures?
cap should be car
I’m lazy …. you can find my answers on the current thread.
No worries, 2 years and running. I completely understand.
3 letters in the word yes..2 in no…could take a man 2-3 seconds per answer
Yes and no seldom capture a complete answer. I did my best. You may have misunderstood “current thread” to mean this one. I meant current as in the latest active thread. Go the latest thread … heck I’ll make it easy for you:
https://rutherfordl.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/obama-supports-same-sex-marriage-so-what/#comment-62347
I did not say you were limited to a yes or no, just that you man up and commit to an answer. Sadly you chose the Liberal path.
There was no misunderstanding. I chose to keep things in the context of the argument while you fled to another post. The only misunderstanding here was on my part that you might be different than those I ran into over and M & H. You might take the crap better, but at the end of the day the its the same BS, just better window dressing. I’m disappointed, but not surprised. We can consider the subject closed, final word is yours.
Noah, are you always this defensive and exasperating? I even gave you the link so you can carry on this discussion on the proper f*cking thread to save me having to come back to this dead one repeatedly. If you have any real interest in discussion, click the damn link in comment 520 and you’ll find the answers to your questions.
Let’s get something straight. I don’t have enough history with Fat Grannies to know what kind of abuse you got there. My short visit there told me that it ain’t a fun place to be. If you came here with PTSD from Auntie Jean and her co-horts, get over it. I’m NOT Auntie Jean. And I’ve got a crapload of conservatives here who enjoy uncensored Obama-hate 24/7. You wouldn’t know that because you refuse to skip to the latest thread to read what your new friends have to say.
You don’t have to agree with the bartender to have a good time at the bar. I hope to see you at the latest thread about Obama’s announcement of gay marriage support (where you’ll find the answers to the questions you posed). If you don’t want to participate, that’s your prerogative.