UPDATE:
Eli Sanders at The Stranger notes that “Patty Murray Goes Negative“…
Not surprising, given that the Dino Rossi campaign (and its allies) have been hitting her for some time.
Yeah, but also not surprising considering that going negative is exactly the right strategy in this particular electoral cycle, and that Murray, smart politician that she is, has never shied away from going negative in the past.
Why isn’t Jim McDermott giving back or donating the $5,000 of dirty money he got from Charlie Rangel?
@1 Why are you jerking off to pictures of naked goats?
Police say a fired employee killed “several” co-workers in a workplace shooting in Connecticut this morning. The number of dead isn’t known yet because authorities are still searching for bodies.
But hey, don’t worry! Wingnuts are there for ya, protecting your right to pack heat no matter how stupid or unstable you are!!
http://www.swamppolitics.com/n.....15;454.jpg
@3 Rodent:
But I thought with you being the retired head courthouse janitor you would certainly work pro bono on the legal defense team, yes? All that legal expertise and all. LOL.
@4 Government attorneys don’t work for the defense, idiot! We work for the prosecution. Pro bono? What’s that? I’ll work for free when you do.
Good morning Rabbit,
In principle you’re right, though it causes me deep distress to say it. The founders of this country would never have foreseen assault weapons in private hands, urbanization as it exists today and so on.
Problem is the 2nd Amendment is fairly explicit, court rulings to the contrary notwithstanding, that all citizens have an absolute right to bear arms.
We have a mechanism for addressing changing circumstances and how they affect the Constitution. Until that process is undergone the 2nd stands as it was written. If that right can be weakened without regard to the framework of the Constitution on the perceived needs of the moment, how do you think all the other basic liberties we have (used to have?) will fare?
Goldy,
Yeah, well, if a Murray ad takes a fact or two, twists it out of all recognizable form and makes a lot of unsupported assertions on them it must be true! Right?
You really are a partisan hack devoid of any real substance.
Delbert,
Baghdad Jim act on decent principles rather than whatever he reads in his copy of Das Kapital? (The only book he’s ever actually read.) Don’t be ridiculous!
Iowa GOPers Vote To Restore 13th Amendment
Iowa Republicans joined the “Thirteenther” movement last month when they endorsed a platform plank to “restore” the 13th Amendment.
Here is the 13th Amendment as currently enacted:
“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
“Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
Here is the “lost” 13th Amendment that “Thirteenthers” want to replace it with:
“If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility or honour, or shall, without the consent of Congress accept and retain any present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.”
It got “lost” because not enough states ratified it.
So, what is this really about? Well, two things (three, if you count the implicit repeal of abolition).
First, the “Thirteenthers” believe this amendment would keep lawyers from participating in goverment because they put “Esquire” after their names, and claim “Esquire” is a “title of nobility,” ergo no more lawyers. This isn’t surprising because eliminating lawyers has been the Holy Grail of the unwashed political class since Shakespeare’s time.
Second, the “Thirteenthers” are pissed off by President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. In their view, if the 13th Amendment is “restored,” no future president could accept a Nobel Prize (for anything, not just for peace) because Nobel Prizes are, in their view, foreign titles of nobility. So, if some medical researcher discovers a cancer vaccine and accepts the Nobel Medicine Prize for eliminating cancer, he can’t be president! (He could, however, be King of Sweden.)
For more details about the whackadoodle shenanigans of Iowa Republicans, go to this link:
http://restoretherepublic.com/.....dment.html
I mean, really, can Republicans get any stupider? The answer is yes! Just when you think it’s impossible for Republicans to be any sillier or more idiotic than they already are, they prove you wrong again!
@8 “Problem is the 2nd Amendment is fairly explicit, court rulings to the contrary notwithstanding, that all citizens have an absolute right to bear arms.”
Really?
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
If this gobbledygook is explicit why did it take the Supreme over 200 years to tell us, by a bare 5-4 majority, what they conjecture it possibly means?
Oh, and let’s not complicate the argument further by pointing out there are several different versions of the 2nd Amendment in the original Bill of Rights documents, and no one knows which one was actually adopted …
And one more thing, not even the current conservative Supreme Court says all citizens have an absolute right to bear arms. In fact, they have made it explicit that all citizens do not have a right to bear arms, and the right to bear arms is not absolute. Congress (and state legislators) can, and do, bar felons and certain other citizens from bearing arms; and bar all citizens from bearing certain arms (e.g., bazookas, machineguns, nuclear weapons, etc.).
Lost, every time you venture into legal stuff, your dick is dragging on the ground so low it gets under your work boots and stepped on! Maybe you should stick to your hammers and saws, and leave legal stuff to people who know what they’re talking about, e.g. lawyers.
Lost @ 7:
From Wikipedia (just because it’s the fastest way to get the info):
“McDermott was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was the first member of his family to attend college; he graduated from Wheaton College, Illinois, and then went to medical school, getting an M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago in 1963. After completing an internship from 1963 to 1964 at Buffalo General Hospital in Buffalo, New York, a two-year psychiatry residency at the University of Illinois Research and Educational Hospital (now called University of Illinois Hospital), and fellowship training in child psychiatry from 1966 to 1968 at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, he served in the United States Navy Medical Corps as a psychiatrist in California during the Vietnam War….”
Care to retract your statement that the only book McDermott read was Das Kapital? Care to try another fruitless and unsubstantiated argument to the effect that somehow you are smarter than him?
Re 8
An amazing thing has happened that makes me doubt my sanity. I’ve agreed with Rabbit twice in one day. Oh God, I feel ill.
But you are right. Tenthers, Birthers and all the other fringe loonies distract from the compelling and important work conservatives should be taking on. That is, stopping Obama Reid and Pelosi from completing the dastardly work FDR and Johnson began. The attempt to weaken individual liberties, expand the federal government beyond the most fervid nightmares of the founders and make government the arbiter of all areas of our lives; that attempt.
Liberals are wrong on nearly all areas of public policy. That should be enough for Republicans to go on without going off into the weeds of these odd distractions.
Well, off to wash my mouth out with soap for agreeing with Rabbit and get some work done. Have a nice day.
RHP
Ever heard of the rhetorical device called hyperbole?
I’ve met a LOT of educated idiots with impressive degrees but no actual intelligence or common sense.
If McDermott is the Mensa candidate you portray he should know better than to embrace his blatantly anti American cant.
BTW, you read into the comment a claim that I’m smarter than him. I never actually made that claim. This good old boy hillbilly knows his limitations.
@11 “I’ve agreed with Rabbit twice in one day.”
Of all the lowdown wingnut schemes to discredit me which have surfaced on this blog, this takes the carrot! How can anyone be so slimy? Have you no decency, sir?
Lost, in case you missed it, I voted yesterday to award you the Golden Goat.
lostinseaofblue–
You are kidding, right?
There are billions of guns out there.
If a bad guy wants to get one, he will.
The only chance is if law-abiding citizens have a chance to respond with equal force.
What if someone in that plant had a gun to fight back??
The Leftist Loons want you to believe that with bigger government, they can create a Utopia where bad guys will disappear.
As a lifetime NRA Member, I say bullshit.
Crazy people have always existed.
The ObaMao Recession is pushing average folks to the brink.
Rethink your attitude toward a ‘living” Constitution.
@11 “The attempt to weaken individual liberties, expand the federal government beyond the most fervid nightmares of the founders and make government the arbiter of all areas of our lives; that attempt.”
Last time I checked, detaining American citizens without trial on a president’s say-so and authorizing mass surveillance of law-abiding American citizens without court authorization were Republican programs, not Democratic schemes.
LSIB
While I agree with you, there is nothing in the 2nd that prohibits regulation of arms by either civil or criminal law.
Gun owners and dealers should be responsible for any criminal misuse of a gun. Penalties for use of a weapon in a crime should extend through the chain of ownership, requiring that owners prove they have taken necessary precautions.
To accomplish this, guns should be registered.
lost @ 11–
The ObaMao Regime wants average folks to focus on a few Birthers. I have attended numerous Tea Party events in various cities. I can assure you they are the exception.
The main focus of the Tea Party is smaller government and ending Deficit Spending and elimination of the National Debt.
Giving one ounce of credence to the Leftist Loons efforts to focus on a couple fools is silly. That is what they want you to do.
Focus on a couple fools…and don’t discuss the damage caused by the ObaMao Regime.
Really must get some work done, but this needs said.
Rabbit, I honor the work you did for the citizens of Washington, if it is as you represent it. You seem to have chosen service over financial reward, which is laudable.
Having said that you reveal what seems a common thread in progressive thinkers. You shout about how the workers are engine of industry. They are the heroes the ownership tries to grind into the dust with thier jack-boots.
But at heart you have contempt for those who choose skilled labor as a career with constant derisive comments about such skilled labor.
I’m far from being ashamed of what I do for a living. To the contrary, I possess skills taught me by my father which I value highly. This doesn’t mean I’m stupid or illiterate. I’m fully capable of understanding the well intentioned but ill conceived notions of the left and rejecting them accordingly.
@14 “The only chance is if law-abiding citizens have a chance to respond with equal force.”
Really? Why don’t we just enact laws to protect our lives and property; hire cops, prosecutors, and judges; build jails; and remove the bad guys from society?
We have this thing called “law enforcement,” goatfucker, and it has a better track record of controlling crime than vigilantes do.
I have to admit it was tough choosing between Lost and Cynical yesterday. I gave Lost the edge because he’s better at erudite stupidity.
Lost @ 12:
What you actually said was that he hadn’t read a book other than Das Kapital. Obviously, that was false. If you care to now portray it as “hyperbole”, I’ll settle for that. But do you want your future statements to be considered “hyperbole” also?
And yes, there are educated people who don’t have much common sense. Even a medical degree isn’t a guarantee – Ron Paul (R-Tex) and his son, Ran Paul (Republican candidate for Senate in Kentucky) are two noticable examples.
But at least I would never accuse them of only reading a single book.
What he questioned was the necessity and wisdom of going to war in Iraq. Although he got a lot of heat for it at the time, it seems that with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, he was more correct than his critics.
“BTW, you read into the comment a claim that I’m smarter than him. I never actually made that claim. This good old boy hillbilly knows his limitations.”
Agreed, my statement there was poorly worded, although the implication was there. And as a hillbilly myself (born and raised in the foothills of East Tennessee), I try to recognize my own limitations, as well.
@ 14 Mr C
errrr …..
You tell me what happens, other than on TV? For all the BS, I have rarely heard of a gun being successfully used by a civilian in defense.
This fantasy seems to me to be of a part with the RW belief that Reagan was a war hero or that he defeated the Soviets.
@12 “I’ve met a LOT of educated idiots with impressive degrees but no actual intelligence or common sense.”
Every time you shave in a mirror.
@17 “The main focus of the Tea Party is smaller government and ending Deficit Spending and elimination of the National Debt.”
It must be tough to be a Tea Partier and a Republican at the same time. I don’t see how they manage it. Bush and the Republican Congress expanded government faster than any modern president, increased federal spending three times faster than Clinton, and racked up the biggest additions to the national debt in the history of the universe.
@18 “But at heart you have contempt for those who choose skilled labor as a career with constant derisive comments about such skilled labor.”
I’m an unabashed champion of workers and labor rights, I admit it, and I don’t recall ever putting any adjectives in front of “labor.” That differentiation exists only in your overactive imagination.
What you do for a living has nothing to do with your stupidity. The latter is either a congenital defect or a learned behavior. I’ll leave it to you to explain which.
@14, 22 “What if someone in that plant had a gun to fight back??”
He’d be the first guy shot, if the shooter had an ounce of brains.
Re 14
No attempt to significantly dilute gun rights through Constitutional process will ever succeed. This is precisely why the end run around it by pretending incomprehension of fairly basic English on the part of judges has occured. Instead of putting the issue cleanly before the voting public the tricks of politicians and judges playing games with words, twisting them out of all context, is the answer of those who would challenge our fundamental right to bear arms.
Re 17
Harry Reid would be gone in Nevada had
a mainline candidate been the Republican nominee. All over the country hard working rational conservatives are being sidelined by fringe elements with no chance of electoral success. I’ll freely admit this concerns me, though I understand the frustration and irritation which drives the Tea Party and so on.
Re 15
Rabbit, you must know, if you nominated me for a Golden Goat (whatever that is) that I’ve frequently and vehemently derided the Bush Administrations attacks on civil liberties. It is, however, telling that Obama has several times let stand provisions set to expire. This isn’t a Liberal/Conservative problem. It is an over-reaching government problem.
An update on today’s Connecticut workplace shooting says the perp is among the dead but there’s no word yet on the number of fatalities.
@27 “Harry Reid would be gone in Nevada had
a mainline candidate been the Republican nominee.”
A lot of Democrats would be gone if such a thing as “mainline candidates” still existed in the Republican Party. Half the Democratic office holders in the country today are there because they enjoyed the luxury of running against crazies. P.S., if you get the feeling from reading this that we Democrats can’t stand Democratic politicians either, you’re on the right track.
@17: thanks for the laugh Klynical:
Where was the “tea party” when bush took the largest budget surplus in history and turned it into the largest budget deficit in history?
AWOL!
Where was the “tea party” when Bush created the largest new government agency in history and used it to spy on Americans and to illegally torture people?
AWOL!
Where was the tea party when Bush gave government handouts to the banks without any restrictions?
AWOL
Where was the tea part when Bush decided to start an unnecessary war and invade Iraq and spend over a trillion dollars there (we are just now getting OUT of Iraq)?
AWOL
Now that Obama is trying to clean up the Bush mess and fix the economy – the idiot tea party people want to cut spending in a recession?
Not only are you and the tea party people hypocrites – you are also incredibly stoopid!
@27 re 15: So how far you would go in limiting the powers of the president and Congress to deal with things like enemy attacks, terrorists, and wars? Judges looked the other way when Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. Where the hell did Abe get the power to do that? I mean, really, what says he could do that?
RE 31
The president has explicit power to mobilize the army in case of enemy attack temporarily. Congress has the sole authority to declare war, after which the president can utilize military forces as he or she decides is appropriate.
In my view terrorists are a law enforcement problem. When a foreign power sponsers terrorists and only then does it become a military issue. Frankly Bush wasted a golden opportunity to unite the world in combatting terrrorism as a common threat after 9-11, as it has done before with piracy in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Instead he chose militarism and division.
Lincoln and FDR both behaved poorly and illegally as war time presidents with respect to basic civil rights. If you’re asking me to defend that, you’ll get no takers. If the basic principles which make our society worth fighting for aren’t important enough to be upheld I don’t see the point in the fight.
@27: Lying again I see. You said you were leaving to “work”. Stop lying and get to work, dipshit.
BTW: We now have an individual right to bear arms because we have an ACTIVIST right wing SCOTUS that ignored the “well regulated militia” clause up front in the second.
You are a fucking ignorant fool.
‘5. Roger Rodent farts:
@4 Government attorneys don’t work for the defense, idiot! We work for the prosecution.’
Yes, but that would be true only if you were an attorney, not a retired wannabee that mopped the floors in the Judges chambers. Thanks for the laugh old timer, I can always count on you! :)
Oh yeah, I was wondering if you could recommend a good brand of polish for my hardwood floors? I know you’re an expert in the field and all. Thanks in advance for the help!
According to National Journal/Pew, by significant margins, voters like bacon and are less likely to vote for candidates associated with the Teahadists or Sara Palin, here:
http://congressionalconnection.....es-who.php
RE 33
Being self employed has disadvantages, but one advantage is that I can work on the schedule I set. Thanks for being concerned though.
The well regulated militia refers to states being able to mobilize a body of men to deal with emergencies. This could even include forcibly resisting the federal government. In fact, on one occcasion at least the federal congress was held in the Capitol by an army outside. Ah, the good old days. Wish we could do that to Pelosi and her corrupt buddies now.
At any rate, the militia was a body of men not only entitled but expected to keep arms in their homes to fulfill their duties. Hardly comports with your limited right to bear arms, Zotz.
Additionally, several of the founders, including Jefferson, expected that the threat of another armed revolution (by citizens bearing their own weapons) would keep their fledgling government honest and within Constitutional bounds. Again, the good old days..
@33 Zotz queefs:
‘You are a fucking ignorant fool.’
Methinks that would apply to your ignorant ass, always thinking the police will be there to save you in time of need or thwart a crime. Typical Libtard mentality and a total lack of self reliance. Go ahead and make yourself a “victim” in your little fantasy world utopia of the nanny state. Douche bag. So very typical of the greater Seattle area unfortunately.
Lost @ 32: Saints preserve us! Now I’m in agreement with Lost!
Actually, I’m quite well armed. I’m locked and loaded for wingnuts — just in case you somehow really get out of hand.
Poor wingnut! Your tiny little reptile brain thinks you wingnuts are the only ones armed!?
Lost is a fool, you’re a fucking idiot.
By the way….
Reports from Russia say the wheat harvest there is expected to be down 30% due to drought, a record-breaking heat wave, and uncontrolled wildfires.
Prices are rising on world markets, which may be good news for Eastern Washington wheat farmers. In the U.S. it’s not expected to make a significant impact on prices, because the actual price of the wheat grain is such a small factor in the price of bread. Production, packaging, marketing, distribution, and retail costs take up a almost all of the cost of a loaf of bread.
But worldwide, already impoverished nations will suffer, as the cost of bread will go up proportionately with the cost of wheat.
Bad Russian Wheat Harvest Boosts U.S. Farmers
So listening to an old “Wait, Wait..” podcast this morning I learned that the German name for the dive known as the Cannonball is Arschbombe. That made me think of Puddy, and in a good way. Ass-Bomb is a much better phrase than cannonball.
@41
sounds like the name of a queer nightclub to me…
@42
Or the result of eating nothing but fiber for a week.
@43…..lol, true.
Claims of hyperbole are a convenient and very, very thin out. If you cannot say what you ACTUALLY mean and stand by it then you should not say it.
@45
and that is exactly the response one would expect from a technical writer.
For your fact quiver on Social Security:
Gallup on Social Security “fixes”:
By 2 to 1, Americans think SS taxes should be levied on ALL income (currently ~$106k).
Here: http://www.gallup.com/poll/141.....urity.aspx
CBO estimates that eliminating the cap on income makes SS solvent to at least 2083 or another 75 years.
Here: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/115.....forWeb.pdf
Zotz sez: Suck on this Pete Peterson! [grabs crotch]
Seriously, there is no political or other reason to do anything but eliminate the income cap. And we have until at least 2017 before revenues even begin to lag benefits.
3. Roger Rabbit spews:
The killer was crying “racial discrimination” even though he was caught on tape stealing beer and being brought in to “quit or be fired”.
Seems like he learned from ObaMao.
When cornered….PLAY THE RACE CARD!!
Bad Try.
Pathetic.
This killing is not because of the NRA, it’s because of the race-baiting ObaMao Regime!
@47
social security? oh, you mean that pile of IOU’s that the feds left after they raided and stole the SS money?
“This killing is not because of the NRA, it’s because of the race-baiting ObaMao Regime!”
Enough of the racial fear mongering already.
Re 47
In the spirit of bipartisanship-
For your fact quiver on SS.
The very good reason for the cap is that SS can only be collected up to a certain amount. Therefore in common morality it should only be taxed to the point where the taxpayer can expect to collect. Somehow the left always forgets this.
It’s hardly surprising that a majority of people asked if someone else should pay for their retirement say yes. Which is why we govern by due process and polls, not just one or the other.
No need to thank me. Just trying to be helpful.
Re 45
It’s a fairly common practice to use hyperbole in general conversation or writing. “Beautiful day we’re having!” during an unusually cold June, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean the speaker or writer actually likes cold rainy days in summer. So ask yourself, which is more likely? Mark Twain once said “Imagine a Senator, then imagine an idiot. But I repeat myself.” But I think we all concede that a certain amount of narcissistic power hungry intelligence is necessary to attain national office. How logical is it to really assume that I meant Baghdad Jim had read but one book? Or that this one book would be a complicated, if wrong on every material point, one like Das Kapital?
No, ‘Garfield Returns’ is probably more his style, in retrospect. (See, hyperbole.)
Re 21
RHP,
My quarrel with McDermott has little to do with his stance on Iraq, a stance with which I happened to agree. We never should have gone into Iraq and I’ve frequently written that this is my opinion.
My quarrel isn’t with reformers in general either. The body politic, like any body, needs care and even on occasion surgery. Patriotism often consists of telling your countrymen that they are wrong on a popular issue.
My quarrel is with people like Obama, Pelosi and McDermott that don’t even like the basic body politic. They don’t want to fix it, they want to kill it and allow new growth in the image of their utopian dreams. Europe has much of what they want. So does China. If they are so enamored of this socialist dream, I cordially invite them to move where it currently exists and leave my country alone.
It’s so easy to criticize, or in your case, demonize. What’s your vision, Lost? Details, please. Let’s get down to the nuts and bolts. No cop outs, Lost, like you did with abortion. And seeing as how you’re so loose with tossing out “socialist”, I’m sure you’re good with our tagging you and yours as “fascists”, seeing as how that one actually fits.
@51: You’re inanity is such a target rich environment!
As usual your assumptions are, well, fatally flawed due to the brainwashing you’ve been getting living in that comfy little echo chamber you live in. You’re shit is cliche, glibertarian talking points.
I have the time, so I’m gonna help you, lost:
Social Security is really named Social Security Insurance. It’s insurance with a max pay out. Not uncommon at all. And eminently moral.
Eliminating the cap makes it more fair because it just nudges our grossly unfair tax system a teensy bit so we start paying a little more close to the same percentage of income. If you make less than 106k in personal income (about 75% of us) it doesn’t even effect you.
BTW: You’re welcome.
You’re right, it is easier to tear down than to build.
Nuts and bolts. Steve, you gave me an easy one! We could try, for the first time since FDR, to govern our Constitutional democracy by, well, the Constitution.
First and foremost, we could try saying that those rights and duties given the various branches of government, and only those, will be the limit of their activity.
We could say that, misinterpretations of the elastic clause notwithstanding, the amount I give for the benefit of my lesser off neighbor is entirely mine to decide in any rational ethical or moral code.
We could say that the fundamental right to be let alone by our government in all areas not specifically mentioned in the federal or state Constitutions is sancrosanct. From whether I speak on my cell phone in my car to whether I invest for my retirement or in health insurance are MY business and no-one elses. Just as the results of those choices are my responsibility and no-one elses.
Try reading the Federalist papers, Adams letters to his wife, Jeffersons correspondence and mostly the Declaration of Independence and Constitution and you’ll have a basic idea of how I conceive of my country. Sure, mistakes were made in all of these, but the miracle that is the enlightened form of government we enjoyed prior to progressive influence and far right lunacy is pretty much my ideal.
Zotz,
Percentage of income isn’t a reasonable standard. Bill Gates gets no more and no less advantage from his citizenship than I do. He gets much less than people a great deal poorer than I who are effectively paid for that citizenship. Why then is it fair that he be asked to pay more for it?
As for SS, in a perfect world it would be phased out over a couple of decades and sent to the dustbin of history in which it belongs.
Re 55
BTW, in our admittedly grossly unfair tax system the top 20 percent pay 60% of the burden of federal taxes. This isn’t even in line with their percent of income, as they make about 50% of the income. This is truly grossly unfair to these citizens.
@57: Pathetic.
Zotz,
“Pathetic.”
Yep.
So when you buy a car I assume you ask to pay more for it so that your less well off neigbor can pay less for the same model.
When you bought your house I assume you told the mortgage holder to add 20% to the cost and apply the difference to the single mom down the street in a similar home.
After all, this is the principle of government you’d like us to adopt.
@58: Again with the glibertarian talking points!
Take a look at this and tell me you still believe that bullshit:
http://lanekenworthy.net/2010/.....h-updated/
@60: It’s insurance that insures all of our fellow Americans in their old age will not have to share food with their cat, dipshit.
Re 61
If what you ask is whether I worry about the increasing rich-poor gap, of course I do. I’m aware of no society in history that long endured with that kind of disconnection between those who run things in society and those who work for them.
If what you ask is whether the income tax system is the means of addressing this the answer is an emphatic no.
I’ve said it before. These people aren’t stupid, by and large. They hand their increased taxes right down to me and you in the cost of everything from lumber in the store to the water and electricity at my house.
Take another example. You and I likely agree that Walmart is a basically destructive force economically on communities unlucky enought to have them. They drive small business out of business. They drive down wages. They hurt American industrial production with the insistence on selling cheap Chinese trash mostly. They insist on pricing from suppliers that is nearly ruinous to those suppliers.
Know how to stop them? It isn’t laws. They’ll get around those. It is by refusing to buy there and getting others around you to do the same. I gaurantee the business practices will adjust to the community demand.
Same with business. If your argument is with the compensation packages in the executive suite, don’t buy that companies products. I’m far from being a liberal, but supply and demand aren’t liberal or conservative concepts. They are inescapable economic ones.
@63: Boy, you almost get there, then you default to the glibertarian excuses for the status quo.
Now, young man, think for a minute…
How many of us really have the freedom to choose as you purport?
@2 Answer the question you slimy fuck.
Why isn’t Jim McDermott giving back or donating the $5,000 of dirty money he got from Charlie Rangel?
Just One Question – Courtesy of Joe Huffman:
Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons?
There are three possible answers to this question.
1) “I don’t know.” In which case my response is, “Come back to the debate when you can answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.”
2) “No.” In which case my response is, “Then you should be advocating the repeal of ALL gun control laws and I don’t want to hear a single anti-freedom word from you on this topic again.”
3) “Yes and here is my demonstration.”
@66
Without even trying…(not that I’m in favor of restricting handguns.)
Every family who’s lost a child due to playing with or easy access for a teen suicide would have been safer if restrictions on handguns were in place.
You see, the difference between the NRA and respnosible gun owners is the insistance that NO amount of education is required for ownership. Trigger locks, ballistic fingerprintng, restriction of armor piercing ammunition most rational handgun owners don’t object. But “anti-freedom words” like those keep you nutters in fits.
@1
Beats me, why don’t you ask him? What he does or doesn’t do with his cash doesn’t change the fact that when it comes to reform of wall street Rossi’s got the wrong answer.
@67
Keep trying, doesn’t wash.
@69
Pussy response. No more polite way to describe it.