I’ll be joining Lynn of Evergreen Politics and Andrew of Northwest Progressive Institute in a panel discussion on blogging at this evening’s meeting of the 43rd District Democrats. The meeting starts at 7:30pm, University Baptist Church, 4554 12th Ave. NE. The discussion will be moderated by N in Seattle; more details on his blog, Peace Tree Farm.
Afterwards, a bunch of us plan on heading over to the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally, which meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. We’ll be a little late at DL, but all the more thirsty.
All are welcome at both events, so please join me for a fascinating discussion on the growing influence of the progressive blogosphere, followed by some more post-election gloating and an icy-cold pint of Manny’s Pale Ale.
Y’all come visit us!
Roger Rabbit rarely attends Drinking Liberally, and never announces his appearances in advance due to traffic problems caused by the crush of admiring fans, papparazzi, and process servers. Don’t hold your breath to see prr there, though. He’d rather hide behind a computer keyboard when he spits on Vietnam veterans and calls Roger Rabbit a “coward.”
Roger, take your meds.
Sigmund, better you go back to studying the unconscious.
Or maybe Siggie should take enough meds to be unconscious.
Mount Olympus & N – If I took enough meds to be unconscious I’d be just like you two.
N in—
Y’all have fun….you CLOWNS won.
After gloating for awhile….
would you CLOWNS mind discussing exactly who and how you plan on holding WSDOT and your elected officials accountable for all the Anti-912 promises and rhetoric???
I think we all agree there must be clear accountability for ALL GasTax money….the 91/2 cents, Nickel and other GasTax money.
Accountability is not simply taking what WSDOT says and printing it as Gospel….i.e. just because WSDOT sets certain timelines does not mean those are reasonable. Any idiot can say I’ll make my bank deposit sometime this month….and when they do it 2 days before the end of the month, it is not worthy of applause.
I would hope at least one of you CLOWNS could put on a more Cynical hat and question those in power and hold them accountable.
I know…I’m dreaming!!!!
When it’s clear WSDOT cannot deliver what it promised, Y’ALL will just demand higher taxes!
What bus will you LIBERALS be taking?
Mr C –
“…clear accountability…”
Isn’t that what Timmy the Terrible’s I-900 was all about?
@7
Read the fucking plywood signs, Cynical! You know — the ones that say “your highway dollars at work” — the ones you trollfucks are bitching that WSDOT spent too much money on.
Speaking of trollfucks, I wonder if prr will show up at DL to spit on Vietnam veterans and call Roger Rabbit a “coward?”
re 7: Mr. Cynical (the RIGHTARD GLOSSOLALIAC ), you don’t want to account for expenditures or anything else. You want a supposed legal tool of oversight perverted into a tool of OBSTRUCTION. It’s just another trick in your large righty bag of dirty tricks to paralyze state government while simultaneously trying to appear moral.
You’re an ASS!
FISCAL TSUNAMI THREATENS U.S. ECONOMY
Speaking of money, USA Today ran an article about the future collapse of the American economy under the crushing weight of unchecked deficits. Conservatives, moderates, and liberals agree the deficits will have severe consequences for average Americans:
“WASHINGTON (Nov. 15) – The comptroller general of the United States is explaining over eggs how the nation’s finances are going to hell. ‘We face a demographic tsunami’ that ‘will never recede,’ David Walker tells a group of reporters.
…
“To hear Walker, the nation’s top auditor, tell it, the United States can be likened to Rome before the fall of the empire. Its financial condition is ‘worse than advertised,’ he says. It has a ‘broken business model.’ It faces deficits in its budget, its balance of payments, its savings — and its leadership.
“Walker’s not the only one saying it. As Congress and the White House struggle to trim up to $50 billion from the federal budget over five years — just 3% of the $1.6 trillion in deficits projected for that period [note: Republicans want to offset the $50 billion of cuts in programs like food stamps and student financial aid with an additional $70 billion of tax cuts for the rich] — budget experts say the nation soon could face its worst fiscal crisis since at least 1983, when Social Security bordered on bankruptcy.
“Without major spending cuts, tax increases or both, the national debt will grow more than $3 trillion through 2010, to $11.2 trillion …. The interest alone would cost $561 billion in 2010 ….
“From the political left and right, budget watchdogs are warning of fiscal trouble:
“· Douglas Holtz-Eakin, director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, … admits to being ‘terrified’ about the budget deficit in coming decades. …
“· Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, sees a future of unfunded promises, trade imbalances, too few workers and too many retirees … a stock market dive, lost assets and a lower standard of living.
…
“· Stuart Butler of the conservative Heritage Foundation projects a period from now until 2050 in which tax revenue stays stable as a share of the economy but Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security spending soars. To avoid big tax increases, he says the government has to ‘renegotiate’ the social contracts it made with its citizens. [Translation: Fuck you, baby boomer retirees. You’ll have to go without food or medical care so the rich can keep their tax cuts.]
“· … Isabel Sawhill of the centrist Brookings Institution … likens the growing gulf between what the government spends and takes in to a ‘Category 6 fiscal hurricane.’
…
“Inaction could have these consequences, experts say: Higher interest rates. Lower wages. Shrinking pensions. Slower economic growth. A lesser standard of living. Higher taxes in the future for today’s younger generation. Less savings. More consumption. Plunging stock and bond prices. Recession.”
For complete story see http://articles.news.aol.com/b.....2509990003 — and remember which president and party turned budget surpluses into gargantuan deficits.
Rabiit…
I’ll be there- make sure to wear your child killing bunny suit, so I can recognize you.
Reagan proved, involuntarily, that “supply side” economics — i.e., cutting taxes increases federal revenue — doesn’t work. Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman, called it “voodoo economics.” The proof is that Reagan and Bush Sr. raised taxes 5 times, and Clinton had to raise them again. Although painful at the time, their elimination of deficits created 22 million jobs during Clinton’s presidency. All of those hard-won gains, and more, have been thrown away by the Frat Boy Pretending to Be President.
@14
Roger Rabbit never announces his appearances in DL in advance, not only for the reasons stated above, but because RR needs Mrs. R’s permission. Roger Rabbit is not afraid of a sniveling little trollfuck like prr, but Roger Rabbit is scared of Mrs. Rabbit!!!
Mr. Cynical @ 7
With the Federal deficit at an all time high of 4.5 Billion , and likely to increase even higher, the Democrats in Washington State opted for a different approach then the Republicans in Washington DC.
Unlike the tax cut and spend Republicans, we Democrats recognize that if you want essential services, you must pay for them. It truly amazes me that for all their talk of fiscal austerity and government accountability, my Republican friends have literally turned the Federal Treasury into the personnel piggy bank of selected politicians and corporations.
Starting with Tom Coburn’s Bridge to nowhere and ending with the no bid contracts of the Katrina rebuilding effort, my Republican friends seem to think that the rules of budget austerity apply to every citizen except those with political or financial ties to the current administration .
Yes Virginia, money does not grow on trees. And you have to pay the bills, sooner or latter. Either live within your means, or raise your income.
USA TODAY: U.S. PENSION SYSTEM IS ‘BROKEN’
Another article in USA Today talks about the impending meltdown of the U.S. pension system. See http://www.usatoday.com/money/.....usat_x.htm
For years, corporations knowingly underfunded their pension obligations in order to pad their balance sheets. Now, they’re overtly robbing their most vulnerable workers — elderly retirees who are in no position to make good income losses by working harder or longer — and taxpayers by absconding from their pension obligations altogether.
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy doesn’t mean a company is broke. Anyone can file a Chapter 11, even corporations whose assets exceed their liabilities. And, under the corporate-friendly and anti-worker Bush administration, corporations are lining up at bankruptcy courts across the land to use Chapter 11 to welsh on their (a) pension debts, and (b) union contracts. Shame on them.
These pension debts are being dumped on the federally-funded Pension Guaranty Corporation. With unfunded corporate pension debts in the neighborhood of $450 billion, the U.S. is heading toward a savings & loan style debacle, which cost taxpayers $500 billion.
Meanwhile, the Republifucks rewrote bankruptcy laws so ordinary consumers who are ruined by medical debts (a growing phenomenon as companies also shitcan medical benefits for workers) end up in what amounts to financial debtors prison.
When you vote, remember who did this to you.
The Bush legacy:
Ignored terrorism warnings; 2,800+ dead
Iraq fiasco; 2,050+ dead
Katrina fiasco; 1,000+ dead
Job losses
Lower wages
Abuse of workers
Abuse of consumers
Soaring housing and fuel costs
Inflation, high interest rates, and unemployment
Health care meltdown
Pension meltdown
When you vote, remember who did this to you.
Rabbit,
Clearly you suffer from spousal abuse, it’s alright, don’t provoke her, and don’t be afraid to ask for help…
Possibly this may be a portective measure from PTSD
http://changingminds.org/expla.....iangle.htm
@ 8
the number 43, beyotch
PTSD? Does that mean “Puke TrollS get Disemboweled?”
You mean PTSD not PTGD, correct?
So Rabbit, did you get permission to be able to take your balls out of the jar on the refrigerator?
How many homeless blacks from New Orleans will be there? Democrats: racists!!!
Pensions and Retirement
The sooner we all realize the days of the defined benefit pension are over, the better off we’ll all be. The death of defined benefit plans is artibutable to companies promising too much and/or outright greed and shennanigans. It was often common place in the past for employers to fire workers as they neared retirment age: either the employers did not have a fully funded plan or they just were scoundrels. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide.
That’s why it’s absolutely critical for everyone to plan for their own retirements. Participating in a defined contribution plan at work (401k, 403b, etc.)is the best place to start, particularly if the employer does some mathcing of contributions. The funds YOU elect to have witheld from your paycheck for the 401k are always YOUR money. You take them with you when you leave. Over time, you would normally fully vest for any amounts contributed by your employer. Check with HR to see what it is at your workplace.
IRAs are another excellent way for you to look out for yourselves. I prefer doing a Roth IRA myself, as this will grow tax free and eventually be available in my retirement entirely tax free. The traditional IRA gives you a tax break now (if you qualify under the IRC rules) but the withdrawals in retirement from a traditional IRA are generally fully taxable.
We’re going to see more and more companies terminating their defined benefit plans in the future. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation is going to go belly-up with all the terminations. That’s why it’s important to start looking out for yourselves rather than relying on your employer. And don’t count on Social Security: it’s a joke.
Reply to 24
Apparently contracts, promises, and obligations are something that only workers are expected to honor. Does not apply to employers, rich people, or Republicans.
Certainly, the lesson of the last decade (since the GOP came to power in Congress) is that business people have no honor, are dishonest, and not to be trusted. Ordinary Americans have been systematically ripped off by their employers, by Enron, by crooked CEOs, by corporations who lie to their shareholders, and by the Republican-controlled government. A Generation of Thieves.
Maybe it’s time for some old tyme justice. Somebody get a rope. Seriously, the rich class and business community are going to pay a price … there will be a political backlash … when the public gets aroused and angry enough, there will be hell to pay. And Republicans will do the paying.
I’m not following you Rabbit, you need some money to buy a rope?
Aren’t the gov’t handouts enough?
@24 is another example of the superpersonhood enjoyed by corporations.
One can understand how it is that, in some senses, a corporation can and should be treated legally as a “person”. But ever since that 19th century(?) Supreme Court decision that endowed corporations as persons, they have gained powers and rights far in excess of those enjoyed by real, living, human persons.
One such right is that they can’t commit felonies, can’t be imprisoned for their crimes. Sure, some (real) persons beholden to the corporations can be sent up the river for the corporate crimes they participate in, but the corporations get off with just paying a little bit of money. They’ll just replace their jailed employees with others, and go right on with their corporate misbehavior. It makes perfect sense for the corporate bottom line to keep on violating laws, screwing and harming humans, the environment, whatever, and paying the measly little fines they incur.
Not only that, the current malAdministration is doing everything in its corporatist powers to empower their cronies even further, to make it tougher for real persons to stop them, to increase their profits at the expense of those around them.
This is not an indictment of corporations in general — the great majority of them are conscientious participants in thei communities. It’s an indictment of the system whereby the road to corporate “success” lies directly over the bodies and souls of human beings, of real honest-to-god persons.
Mr. Cynical – Make you a deal: you can lecture us about “accountability” as soon as you start doing the same about your D.C. Republican leaders regarding their rampant ethics violations, sky-rocketing deficits and national debt, total mis-management of both the military and economic situation in the 51st state, Iraq, and their inability to level with the nation about what got us into the country in the first place.
The behavior of some corporate guys has been terrible. For example, I have no problem with that guys Koslowski (SP?) getting 25 years in the slammer for his cheating. Nor do I have any sympathy for Key Lay: he needs to have all his assets seized to help make restitution to the employees of Enron and the shareholders.
This behavior, so prevalent in the 90’s really in nothing new. There was a firm called I. Magnin back in the 70’s that ran a pension scam on its workers. I seem to remember some of their top guys getting some heavy jail time.
The Enron fiasco should teach everyone the lesson of diversification. Putting your 401k money entirely into a single companyy’s stock is dangerous, especially with someone like Key Lay preaching how great the stock is.
I suggest we suspend the laws against cruel and unusual punishment for these corporate crooks. (And there are corporate crooks from both parties out there.) The punishment for a guy like Ken Lay should be the seizure of ALL his assets and then force him to work in minimum wage job with no benefits. Of course, we’d insist on his wife remaining with him and have to get by on Ken’s earnings. Just think how miserable his life would be: no money, , no fancy cars and houses, his rich friends will shun him, and his wife would be a royal pain! I’d say that would be better punishment than jail time and REALLY teach a lesson to the potential crooks out there!
I love how you LEFTIST PINHEADED CLOWNS tap dance around the issue of accountability for GasTax’s with all kinds of sideshows like I’m an obstructionist, what about Washington DC etc. etc.
Not one of you LEFTIST PINHEADS can just say, YES, we do need to hold WSDOT, Elected Officials and anti-912 promoters accountable for their “campaign rhetoric”.
Not one of you CLOWNS!!!
Pretty telling, isn’t it!
@29
Try the WSDOT web site. I think they have the information you’re looking for. In fact, they’ve had it posted there for a looooong time … for anyone who bothers to look for it.
Roger Rabbit — 11/15/05 @ 4:41 pm
You’re assuming two intersting things:
1) Mr. C really cares
and
2) he can read.
In other news today, the Washington Times (via Insight magazine) is reporting that GWB “feels betrayed by several of his most senior aides and advisors and has severely restricted access to the Oval Office.” Drudge has the synopsis:
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash4.htm
You can also try Insight (http://www.insightmag.com/) but you’ll need a subscription to the WA Times (IMO a huge waste of money, but certainly someone out there has one).
And this just in:
Congressional budget negotiators have decided to take back $125 million in Sept. 11 aid from New York, which had fought to keep the money to treat sick and injured ground zero workers, lawmakers said Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....sept11_aid
Rog—
Ohhhhhhh, I see.
Accountability means to take WSDOT’s word or their hired guns word on how the money has been spent. I get it!!
In other words, the fox guards the henhouse…and that’s alright with you.
Reply to 34
Isn’t that what you do every time you buy a stock based on the financial statements issued by the company?
DAY 7—-IMPROVED TRAFFIC DUE TO GASTAX INCREASE VIGIL
I am happy to report that since the GasTax proponents got their way defeating I-912 last week that traffic this past weekend actually got worse!!!! I was in Seattle Sunday & Monday and it was gawdawful!!! I saw lots of drivers BY THEMSELVES in their politically correct little cars with their Save the Earth bumperstickers sitting in mortal gridlock on I-5 and the AWV.
I would expect the politically correct CLOWNS to set a much better example than that!!
Some of them had pro-Mass Transit and “I Love Women with Hairy Underarms” bumperstickers too!!
I love seeing the preachers of political correctness hypocritically contributing to the PROBLEM not the SOLUTION!
Goldy –
I think you owe Mr.C a refreshment of his choice….
His cut ‘n’ paste posts of identical messages to various threads must be contributing enormously to your site’s hit stats.
Mr Irrelevant is TOP FIVE on the Goldy “Troll Patrol” Spin of the week.
Mr C-I has a beat and you can dance to it, but only if you are doing the NAZI Duck walk.
Congrats to Mr C-I!
Reply to 34
Isn’t that what you do every time you buy a stock based on the financial statements issued by the company?
Comment by Roger Rabbit— 11/15/05 @ 7:02 pm
Lighten up wabbit. This is the WSDOT we are talking about. The money spent on audits would have been wasted on something else. I say listening to this wabbit youd think we were talking about taking money away from road construction or something. Geeesh.
RUFUS @ ignorant post 39
“Lighten up wabbit. This is the WSDOT we are talking about. The money spent on audits would have been wasted on something else. I say listening to this wabbit youd think we were talking about taking money away from road construction or something. Geeesh.”
Word. That was a great moment in Blog ignorance, and a monumental waste of pixels.
Congrats!
prr @ 14:
Rabiit…
I’ll be there- make sure to wear your child killing bunny suit, so I can recognize you.
I was there at DL, I met Roger Rabbit. No actual bunny suit, but I had no problem meeting him and shaking his hand…
prr on the other hand, a no show. Chickenshit.
Hey prr — I was there — you weren’t — argument’s over.
prr did not get permission from his significant other (ButtPuddy? perhaps)
Rabbit.. When were you there?
I stopped by after work and did not see you, although I did see some homelss people coming up the street when i was leaving….
@44
I was there from 7:45 to 10:15 … didn’t see you … loudly asked for you … buu-uuuck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck
Hey prr — if you need work, call WSDOT to audition to be a lane stripe
@45…
Glad to hear I am making you scream my name out in the middle of the night Rabbit. Sounds like a habit you are accustomed to.
& @ 46.
All set on a career skippy.
Goldy, I enjoyed your talk last night. I was one of the three people under 30 in the room.
@47
Excuses are like assholes, prr — everybody’s got one.
Bu-uck cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck
Bu-uck cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck
Bu-uck cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck
http://www.fotosearch.com/bigc.....234013.jpg
http://www.409industries.com/R.....bitcar.wmv
@53
What do ya expect from Rethug drivers?
prr @ 46
“I stopped by after work and did not see you, although I did see some homelss people coming up the street when i was leaving….”
Let’s see…Roger Rabbit was there from BEFORE the scheduled start of Drinking Liberally, and I stayed until the bar locked its doors.
Hey prr, does your father claim you have veracity problems?
DJ, rabitt & all…
Do you really think I give a shit what lowlife scum such yourselves have to say?
so rant, whatever, te reason rabbit is so upset is that teh accusations are true, rabbit is a coward, & traitor
prr @ 56
“so rant, whatever, te reason rabbit is so upset is that teh accusations are true, rabbit is a coward, & traitor “
Ummmm…clearly, BUI*
Maybe that explains why you didn’t show up. You were shitfaced by 6 pm and stumbled into a gas station thinking it was the bar.
*(blogging under the influence).
@56
“teh accusations are true, rabbit is a coward”
Keep telling yourself that, prr — for everyone else, this argument was settled for all time when I showed up and you didn’t after posting “I’ll be there.”
The whole world now knows you are a chickenshit blowtard.
@56 (continued)
“splutter! bffft!! but I didn’t RUN AWAY from an 8 7/8-lb. bunny … I just didn’t show up, that’s all.”