Missed Dino Rossi at this weekend’s state Republican convention? Then join him June 15, 6:30PM at Bellevue Maggiano’s Restaurant, where he’ll talk about the most pressing question facing our nation: “Is now the time to buy a waterfront home?”
Really. In the middle of a supposedly hotly contested U.S. Senate campaign, Rossi is still giving investment seminars on how to profit off the real estate market collapse at the heart of our current crappy economy. Weird.
UPDATE:
And just take a look at the rest of the brochure with the $11 million homes and the low mortgage rates. No question Rossi is a man of the people. Very wealthy people.
Is the appearance listed on his campaign website? (I don’t feel a deep need to check it.)
I had heard that Clint was the toast of the wingnut convention, Rossi not so much. So maybe Rossi just feels that he needs to keep all his bases covered.
Goldy,
It must be terrible to hate someone so much that you need to find non-issues like this on which to smear him.
I honor and admire you for trying to make a living off of something about which you feel deeply. But there are people out there who have schedules set well in advance of tomorrows lunch.
Two things could have occured to you had you not been so blinded by your irrational hatred for Rossi. First, the irresponsibility of middle class home-buyers and bankers led to the mortgage collapse. Somehow you always leave out the home-buyers from this equation. Second, business people make money by buying when everyone else is selling. This isn’t immoral, it is life. Your petty jealousy of Rossis success just makes you look bad.
“hate” “smear” “blinded” “irrational” “hatred” “petty jealousy”
None of that was in Goldy’s post. You guys project way too much. I thought you should know.
re 4: Lost isn’t against hatred. He’s against what he feels is ‘irrational hatred’.
Give lost a rationale that he understands and all the pettiness and hatred become rational.
Thanks Steve,
Where did you get your degree in psychology again? I always forget.
Oh, now I remember. It was the psych 101 class you keep referring to, not a degree. What was that, about 30 years ago now?
Lucy,
For someone who hates all corporations and all republicans without any distinctions this is perilously close to throwing stones from inside of your glass house.
@6 As you did previously with Goldy @3, you are again making shit up. Got issues with reality much? Oh, wait, you’re another of those faux-libertarian wingnuts. My bad for asking.
Back to the topic, Rossi is a sinking ship. He won’t even get past the primary, much less ever end up in DC as one of our state’s senators. He knows that he needs to keep a thumb in the local real estate pie. Either that or sign up for wingnut welfare.
and speaking of democrat congressmen….
I’m sure goldy will ignore this one just like he ignored(read: hid from) bill maher’s racist rant.
http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=76&sid=331846
too funny.
In goldy’s world, people with nice houses are TEH EVUL.
@ 3, liar in a sea of flaming bullshit
You said:
How is this a non-issue? The banking policies set by the operators and owners of his party created this market, manufacturing the loopholes that created this market, and he continues to personally exploit that knowing this full well. It is necessary, that as a Candidate for the US Senate, he should probably cease doing personal business and concentrate on his campaign instead of exploiting the position to further enrich himself. It is a flagrant violation of all ethics rules, and a glaring conflict of interest.
Then you said:
The second sentence in that paragraph is an outright lie, and you know damn well that it is a lie. The banking crisis was caused by the banks themselves, changing the wording on contracts after they were signed, using straw borrowers to take out loans and pocketing the money, using the FDIC as a personal insurance system against the market itself, knowing that they would always make money on the system as long as they had the derivative flim-flam to fall back on.
Therefore, the hatred of this man is quite rational. He is a seriously evil motherfucker.
Goldman Sachs, Bear Sterns et al openly manipulated the market, selling gigantic blocks of mortgages and small business loans to foreign banks and investors and then shorting the market, with the full knowledge of the loans having been deliberately structured to fail.
It was the largest scam in the history of the US Banking system, with the taxpayers, BY LAW, being held financially responsible for the losses to those institutions while the individuals such as Dino Rossi’s financial backers being allowed to continue to extract and hoard gigantic sums of money for themselves through a thinly disguised embezzlement system they call bonuses.
The derivatives market is a scam, pure and simple. It is artificial, it is completely ephemeral in nature, and is totally created for the purpose of extracting the working mans wealth and concentrating it in the fewest number of hands as possible. It is totally subsidized by the US government, and is a major back door tool for political fundraising through PACs. In other words,
legalized bribery and insider trading by elected members of the US Government, and the regulators whose job should be to police this type of scam and prevent it from occurring while prosecuting those that engage in the fraud.
Dino Rossi, as a US Senator, would continue this scam, would make sure the thieves in the banking system would be protected from the rule of law, and will continue exploiting and expanding this type of thieving business for himself as a Senator.
Create the relevant laws, making sure the closest business allies are shielded from those laws, make sure that laws are passed to permit the scam to continue unabated with no recourse by ordinary citizens to petition the courts for the redress of those grievances. All while using the law to block the legal system from policing the system itself with the laws that do exist.
He is a liar, a sociopath, a thief and a fascist. He belongs in prison, not in a position of authority with the ability to manufacture laws that would protect himself and his friends business interests, no matter what their criminal nature.
Therefore, YOU sir, are a LIAR.
But we already knew that didn’t we.
Weird? If democrats hadn’t destroyed the housing market this wouldn’t be an issue. I don’t see democrats doing a damned thing to help the economy. That’s what’s weird.
The Diddler got a pretty good bounce out of Vancouver and the MSM* doesn’t seem in the mood to point out that the nonsense he’s spewing is nonsense. Could Dino have a challenge on his hands?
*The MSM lets the flat-earthers, the moon-shot deniers, the people that think slavery was a good thing have their say, which they should. But, the don’t grant them parity with the rest of us, which is also as it should be. But then the MSN turns around and gives people like The Diddler, who spews all sorts of nonsense that’s on par with the flat earthers parity with the rest of us. The MSN need to either start giving the flat earthers a seat at the table or they need to stop granting parity to the like of The Didler.
LSIB
By your logic, if Rossi were selling American technology to China, Inc .. that would be OK too?
Like it or not, we do have an all to real class warfare going on. Last time that happened, it ended up wi WWI, the Soviet Revolution, and WW II.
So maybe ones’ choice of a career is material to ones’ aptitude for leadership?
Re 10
Not just Goldys’ but the entire progressive end of the political spectrum.
Communal behavior is needed for a civil society. Every child born should (with the emphasis on should, not will) start from an equal point in the race of life. Liberals and Conservatives mostly agree on this.
Looking from the outside, where progressives seem to make their mistake is in confusing the starting gun with the finish line. No morally justifiable system can ever gaurantee we all finish equal. The legislative and societal requirements to do so would be inherently violent to basic human rights and dignity.
“By your logic, if Rossi were selling American technology to China, Inc .. ”
Oh, you mean like Bill Clinton did.
WOW, the democrats sure picked out a doozy in South Carolina
HAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHHAHA
The banking policies set by the operators and owners of his party created this market, manufacturing the loopholes that created this market,…”
Hey Pal, let’s not forget that all this stuff was mandated by the democratic party.
Dino’s just the gift that keeps on giving. I sure hope he puts his face on a bunch more “make a fortune buying some poor families’ foreclosures” brochures.
Wonder what Clint Didier will say about all of this. He could make some hay by putting Dino on par with the banksters and talking up himself as the friend of the put-upon homeowners.
This should be a fun primary season.
Deathfrogg,
(You’ll pardon me, but what an odd tag.)
Re Rossi,
Rossi wrote federal banking regulations? Who knew? This is a non-issue because his pursuing a livelihood while running for Senate is not ethically, morally or legally questionable.
In fact working people running for Senate and maintaining their livelihood would be better for you. Otherwise the only people running would be the rich you so despise.
All of the other things you wrote about him would, were Rossi not who he is, open you to a libel suit.
Regarding banking,
” and you know damn well that it is a lie” No, I don’t. What I know is that an awful lot of people signed mortgages with whose legal effect they weren’t conversant. Every sentence, every word in that contract is there for a reason and those who can’t be bothered to find this reason out do so at their own peril.
To the extent that a contract is altered after signature it is invalid. Anyone with a copy of the signed original could reinstitute original clauses at worst, and probably sue if they wished. Banks know this, and the number of fraudulent contracts is very small.
Banking regulations were written by democrats and republicans alike. They were decades in the making and did ignore the derivatives market, Credit Default Swaps and a whole host of other things they should have regulated. Blame your friends who follow their names with a ‘d’, too, if you wish to be intellectually honest. Otherwise you’re simply spitting bile to no purpose.
I understand your anger. I understand your passion. But do try to educate yourself so that the passion is directed at rational targets. You make no link whatever to Rossi in all this, except that he profited by it. So did I. So did a lot of people I know, who recognize a sterling opportunity when they see one. You assume you know his legislative agenda, though I’ll bet you’ve never spoken to him, looked up his record in Washington State as a congressman, or looked at his website.
Most of your post is plain vanilla left wing anti corporate hysteria.
SJ at 14
If selling technology legal to sell to the Chinese, sure. I’m honestly not sure I see the drift of this comment.
I don’t like the class warfare incited by left wing hatred of success. I don’t like the class warfare that replaces admiration for hard working Americans who did well with hatred for that hard work and prosperity. I don’t like the Democrat party using peoples’ guilt at their own poor decision making as a weapon against banks and other legitimate business interests.
Yes we have class warfare. The wealthy make a great target, being a small voting block politicians can sacrifice. The wealthy make a great imaginary target for all the failures and foolishness in a less successful persons life. What this doesn’t do is give these people a path forward and upward. It just gives them someone on whom to vent their anger.
And yes, a persons career path is fair game to assess their suitability as a leader. But somehow when we who don’t like Obama did this it was rascist. When we said he has little real world experience in anything, and his legislative career was entirely self serving we were being unpatriotic.
If you don’t like real estate investors and use this as a base to not vote for Rossi, fine. If you use his career and the manufactured hatred from the left for it as a lever against him, not so much.
“If democrats hadn’t destroyed the housing market this wouldn’t be an issue….”
I’m still laughing at that one. That’s the most hilarious thing I’ve heard all week. Obviously, satire is a form of humor which works for you.
@9
Wow, someone stuck a camera in someone’s face face hoping to provoke them and it did! Shocking! They didn’t introduce themselves, got in the congressman’s personal space, and got rebuffed. Wow. Had they set up a meeting with him in his office he would have sat down with them and given them a half hour interview.
Look at the video again. They invaded his person space, they failed to identify themselves and the congressman, pushed them away, they again invaded his personal space and the congressman did simple non-violent things like holding a wrist and putting an arm around a shoulder to stop them. He’s not throwing punches or kicks, there’s no hair take-down.
If you want to know how a congressman stands on the “Obama Agenda” send them an email.
And that camera will work just fine from ten feet away, there’s no need to shove it up his nose.
@10
I doubt it.
He’s just making it a little harder for Rossi to claim to be just like and on the side of The Little Guy.
@9
What puzzles me about that video is this:
Why are two hot-shot kids in their early twenties so eager for the whole planet to see them get schooled and ruled by some old guy? If that had been me with the camera I’d have burned the tape (or SD card or whatever) out of embarrassment.
Those kids have some issues!
Michael,
Usually you’re pretty rational. But this time you’re off base.
The kids doing the interview were polite and non-aggressive. They had no obligation to identify themselves. Maybe they should have made an appointment. He could have told them that, and then said ‘no comment at this time.’ Defending this guy no matter his political affiliation is laughable. FYI, it’s pretty hard to establish personal space when someone grabs your wrist or bear hugs you.
“If you want to know how a congressman stands on the “Obama Agenda” send them an email.”
I’ve sent emails to Murrays office and to Cantwells expressing my dismay with their legislative choices. The response? “Thank you for your support of the Senator in this historic time.” So much for email.
Micheal,
Please note, from the video.
The young men were standing still. They waited until the man approached and asked a question. They didn’t follow him. He stopped and asked for their names, as though he had a right to do so. He could have, as I wrote, walked on with a ‘no comment’ and there would be no video.
As it was he stopped, assaulted the young men and was verbally and physically agressive. He was in their faces, not the other way around. They simply refused to give ground.
And you’re defending this guy? Come on.
As for Rossi, it’s a quandry. I’m not begrudging someone making a living, but everyone knows that a Senatorial campaign is a full-time-plus undertaking. He should have gotten out of this engagement, everyone would have (or should have) understood. It’s like he still can’t make up his mind whether he’s running for office or not.
And Goldy has a point, too. The whole reason why Rossi is a drawing card at these events are because Rossi is perceived to be one of their “buds”. He’s the guy they will look to in order to keep federal income taxes low on high-wage earners, reduce or eliminate the estate tax, and otherwise look out for their interests. If he fails to get the Senate seat and tries (and wins) for governor, they expect him to write a budget which pares atate services to non-existence before rather than increase their taxes in any way, whether as part of comprehensive state tax reform or just an attempt to keep the budget balanced.
@26
I’m not supporting the congressman because of his political affiliation. I suppose I am more comfortable with physical contact than most people.
What I see in that video is someone on a side street getting set up, deliberately having their personal space invaded, and responding in a reasonable manner. Had he thrown a punch or shoved that kid to the ground instead of putting his arm around him I’d be calling for the congressman to step down. He’s pretty close to going over the line, but I’d call this one even.
It’s like drunks in a bar. I don’t indorse beating up someone that gets drunk in a bar and starts insulting you, but at the same time I don’t think it’s reasonable to think that you can get drunk in a bar insult someone and not get beat up.
I really do see this as more embarrassing for the kids that got schooled than anything.
@27
I might be more of an exception to the rule than an adherent to it on this one. I’m perfectly comfortable in that role. ;-)
@29
Should read:
It’s like drunks in a bar. I don’t indorse beating up someone that gets drunk in a bar and starts insulting you, but at the same time I don’t think it’s reasonable to think that you can get drunk in a bar insult someone and not expect to get beat up.
Re 28
Any elected representative of the people is fair game in a lot of ways. I can’t be there at each vote he or she makes. My judgement of their experience, ethical and moral stance and leadership ability and the general assessment of how they might vote on matters important to me are all I have.
To use these, to ask questions about them is not problematic. It is our system at work. When the press or a citizen does so I have no problem with that.
What Goldy is doing is watching every move Rossi makes to find something, anything, to pick him apart on. He has made up his mind, which is fine. He advocates against a candidate, which is fine. (It would be better to advocate for one, but that’s picking nits.) But playing gotcha politics isn’t serving his interests or yours. It isn’t unethical. It is borderline intellectually honest, but that’s true of all political partisans. It isn’t immoral.
It’s just futile and doesn’t help anyone. All the people Goldy wants to vote for Murray will. All the people on this site whom he might convince with rational arguments about Rossi won’t. I guess I just fail to see what he gains from this if it isn ‘t venting his spleen about Rossi.
@32
I would call what the kids in the video were doing “gotcha politics.” That a senatorial candidate isn’t spending their time running for the senate seems relevant to me.
What Goldy isn’t and has never claimed to be is non-partizan. So yeah, the piece is slanted towards making Rossi look bad. Personally, I don’t think Rossi needs any help in that department and I would like to see something else on the site. All Rossi all the time is starting to get a little dull.
LostyASea,
Assigning blame for the housing bubble is easy. Bankers and home owners both played their part. Predatory lending exacerbated the pain.
The problem is the Fed did nothing to quench the contaigon. Instead they fanned the flames and even denied their was a bubble.
Read this and get back to us:
http://www.paecon.net/PAERevie.....aker46.pdf
Personally, I have nothing against rich people except for the fact that most of them did nothing but win the birth lottery. However, when they, as a class, use their wealth and power to feather their nests and bend the rules in their favor….i.e., socialism for the rich, then all bets are off. They have broken the social contract and are essentially outlaws.
This is not to say that there are many folks out there who through dint of hard work or inspiration gather a bit of the boodle. Good for them. But just because they have a way with the gelt does not make them “better” in any sense. It does not make them more “deserving”. And it certainly does not entitle them to “run things” much as they think it does. It entitles them to a few more of the material things in life and, according the the New Testament, eternal damnation. But hey, it’s your ride, steer the fucking car.
Conservatives tend to equate obtaining wealth with moral virtue. This is balony. When it’s origin is not some crime (Balzac) it is often comparable to idiot savant behavior, a specialized social talent that we, as a society, tend to overvalue.
Proud,
As far as the criticism of the Fed in that piece goes I have no serious problems. The concluding paragraph, I should note, is an ideological point of view taken by economists who believe that economic downturns and booms can be controlled by governments. I’m not so sure. My dad was a builder in the late 70s and early 80s who has told me stories about interest rates used to control ‘irrational exhuberance.’ It didn’t work then. As far as regulation goes, requiring a mortgage underwriter to hold the note for a set time (say 2-4 years) is something I’ve thought a good idea for quite a while. I would like to see a link between banks paying a credit rating agency and inflation of asset value though, before saying anything about that. But fundamentally the fault still sits, with a loan, on the lender and the borrower. I know what I can afford, and no banker will tell me otherwise. The banker should know if I’m a good risk, and not be bailed out of bad decisions.
I’m not convinced that letting the poison work out of the system is not in the long term best interests of the country. I’m not convinced that strict lending standards being the rule on most consumer credit wouldn’t be either. In the short term it would make the economy recover much more slowly since cash would be less available. In the long term the savings rates and debt to income ratios would come more into the range of desirable numbers. Won’t happen though, as politicians on both sides want quick results to sell to constituents, so proper regulation and incentivising good policies with banks is extremely unlikely.
As far as your comments on the wealthy I agree in large part. The size of a persons’ bank account tells a great deal about one area of his life and very little about all the others. It makes him or her no better, no more moral or ethical and no more worthy of deference above his or her peers at law.
In tight economic times the wealthy do make a good target for demagogues and they do make a tempting target for taxing agencies though. A focus for all the rage and helplessness is awfully handy. A source for all the governmental money being spent without sufficient tax money coming in is awfully useful.
And property, whether it tells much about the owner of it or not, is still protected to some degree under law and Constitutional principles.
21. lostinaseaofblue spews:
The US and China compete … technology nis a lot more importnat to that competition than air craft carriers and missiles.
I must be more patriotic than you. I feel Americans who claim to be patriots should invest in America.
You need to read some history. The barons of the 1890s nearly destroyed the US and England.
Bullshit. There is a huge difference between wealth and achievement.
The great bulk of welath is inherited. Wealth may also be acquired by less than ethical means .. how do you feel about the wealth now held bhy third generation mafiosas?
Do you REALLY admire Paul Allen or think he won at LOTTO?
Oh .. and not being able to send one’s kids to a decent school or going bankrupt because you can nto afford healthcare, these do not provoke anger?
Bullshit. The concerns about BHO’s experience were certainly said by his dem. opponents. Nor did I hear ANY lib say that criticism of BHO implied racism .. except when some Reps actually did show racism.
Neither I nor Goldy said that. BUT, I do not think a real estate in vestment carear provides much of a credential. especially when the specifics of that carear (as in Rossi’s case) have not shown he can build the sort of capiatal that makes jobs for Americans.
I actually see little difference between Rossi and a person who gives get-rich-lessons on foreclusures.
“It didn’t work then.”
Paul Volcker is widely held in high esteem for crushing inflationary expectations in the early 80’s with his high interest rate policy. Those were the days–short term money going for damn near 20%. Your builder dad may have been hurt by this policy (higher rates = higher financing costs = fewer sales). What you do not seem to acknowledge is this also hurt workers. Unemployment skyrocketed. This is a real economic effect. This is real suffering. This is real foregone output. This is a real effect insofar as the base for future growth is inhibited.
It needn’t have happened that way.
The barbarity of ending inflation by making sure the poor are unemployed and coupon clippers can continue to clip their coupons is simply immoral.
The current deficit hysteria is of the same cloth….it is the poor who must suffer. We must cut benefits, we “can’t afford it”, etc. This is self serving crap pushed by economic elites seeking to maintain their elite status.
Where oh where is the cry from those who have the vast majority of wealth…”Yes, we too, shall share this sacrifice. How can we help?”
Fucking crickets.
Why bother to discuss Rossi? He ain’t gonna win in November. The Dems have this state totally locked-up for the next gazillion years.
@33 When Rossi supplies such a rich vein of incrminating material – it is hard to not pus the anti-rossi mindset.
Remember, this was the guy cited by the PDC for engaging in illegal campaign tactics tha last time he ran. He solicited from his benefactors (the BIAW) before he was an announced candidate.
It was illegal and unethical then – and Rossi is just continuing with the ethical malfeasance.
By the way, if rossi is selling waterfront property does that mean he is against global warming and the sea level rise that will happen – or will he just sell the property as it goes underwater.
Reminds me of that rapidly eroding stretch of beach out on the washington coast – over 100 yars a year just vanish.
Rossi represents the absolute worst in WA State politics.
Greed, mean-spiritedness and sleaze.
This State will probably never recover from putting such an obvious tool of right wing special interests like Rossi into power.
Rossi, albeit flawed, is antidote for..
Murray represents the absolute worst in WA state politics
Political corruption, owned by special interest groups, and lives in a semi conscious state
the nation may never recover from having our inheritance pissed away from the likes of Murry
Well, Bob Etheridge has apologized for taking two smarmy brats out behind the woodshed. It’s a sad day.
No word on if the two “college students” will act like real journalists the next time they decide to ask a congressman a few questions.
40 He couldn’t fuck it up any worse than your beloved libs if he closed both eyes. Besides, not one of those houses have a Raccoon nest.
I mean, righties say crap like this
all the time. If they can say it why can’t we?
Wait a minute, is he running for the Senate or selling real estate? I gave up looking for someone to ask that question in this thread. Maybe someone asked, but it’s late and I am a hardworking leftist parent. Maybe Dino is forgetting that he is not running for a seat in part-time legislature. If he were, selling real estate would be unremarkable. But seems to me, unless you are very unsure of your chances, when you run for the Senate, you send a letter to your old industry pals saying: “Hey, I’m running for the Senate. I’ve got to take a raincheck on this sales meeting. I got a late start and I need to raise money (BTW do you guys have any? C’mon!!!)The people expect their candidate to work full time on the candidacy, so that they think he will work full time in the Senate – for them. I know you guys will understand! Thanks!! Bye”
Oh well, guess not…
Proud,
My dad was a small builder who went under in the early 80s. As a carpenter he had a similar experience to many now. He spent several years paying off business debts working for ridiculous pay. He had 6 kids to feed, house and clothe. He and my mother divorced, in part due to financial stress. There were times they didn’t know where the food was going to come from to feed us, but he never took one dime of help to meet his responsibilities and we always had food and shelter. Part of why I think the way I do now is due to watching his and my mothers struggles. I vowed I’d never let anyone catch me off guard like that. I love and admire my father, enough to learn from his mistakes rather than have him watch me make the same ones.
Unemployment is a risk of the trade. Any carpenter who isn’t squirreling away money while times are good is a fool. It’s a boom and bust business. Unemployment is not a 2 week notice with a severage package affair. It is a Friday afternoon notification that you needn’t come in on Monday.
I lost my management job with a large construction firm just over a year ago. Due to conditions of my employment contract and some fairly unethical behavior on the part of the employer I recieved no unemployment. I have gotten not one dime of assistance from the state or feds, but managed to pay my mortgage and take care of my family without it. Because I planned for emergencies, this past year has been an opportunity to build my own business, something I had wanted to do but didn’t while a steady and decent paycheck was coming in.
I mention all these things only to say that for me this isn’t a college course in economics. It has been lessons learned in real life. It isn’t that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and no feeling for the working classes. I was the working class, and still am. The worst kind of compassion is the kind that takes the need to find solutions to a problem from a man and makes of him a jellyfish, haplessly waiting on someone else to solve his problems.
Damn. Dino Rossi wants to be a United States Senator, yet he is out there whoring himself as a real estate guy, funded by others, undoubtedly. He is not an impressive person. He is not someone I would care to meet. He would be an embarrassment to our state.
Darn. Patty Murray wants to be a United States Senator, yet she is out there whoring herself as a mom in tennis shoes, funded by others, undoubtedly. SHe is not an impressive person. SHe is not someone I would care to meet. SHe would continue to be an embarrassment to our state.
righton,
Except that she’s done a damned good job of representing this state for nearly 18 years. She’s also never shown much by way of only caring for her own personal interests. Can’t say that about your boy, Dino. Dino wants to be both rich and have political power. He is smart enough to recognize that his path to riches is paved only by way of political power. Therefore, he is running for the Senate. Pretty tawdry, if you ask me.
@46 LISB
Great post.
You and I may be rather close on this. I consider myself a Jeffersonian. Tom saw the prime job of the govt to maximize everyone’s opportunity.
Remember where he and his contemporaries were coming from. Their ancestors had fled lands where opportunity was limited by established privilege.
Tom bought this part of the US from the French .. with government money. He funded Lewis and Clark. Later opportunities for Americans were provided by Lincoln’s subsidies to the railroads, government funded irrigation, canals, .. and finally the internet.
Like you, I do not believe in a nanny state. However, what you do not see is that class privilege leads to exactly that ..except those protected by the state are the few wealthy folks, While the American ideal grew here, it was repressed almost everywhere else by the unwillingness of the wealthy to be taxed to support opportunity for the rest.
To make all this worse, the growth of corporate america has limited opportunities for individual entrepreneurship of the sort you describe. My wife;s parents had a children’s clothing store My Dad ran a small town medical practice. neither occupation is feasible any more.
My own priorities are education, health care, infrastructure.
When I look at the current generation of Repubs I see me-me. I do not see support ofr those thnsg that make the kind of opportuniyt you describe possible.
What are your priorities?
s.
SJ
Wow. One of your best posts ever. At a time when government, good government, is so needed, we see those here who are screaming for less government. Nonsense, of course, on stilts. We are a great nation not because we have always let private interests have their way, but because we have strong governmental institutions. Isn’t that what we are trying to establish in places like Afghanistan and Iraq? So, why do Republicans whine so much about government here? They can’t have it both ways. Ah, but they can throw bullshit in all directions, which they most surely do.
“I was the working class, and still am.”
“The worst kind of compassion is the kind that takes the need to find solutions to a problem from a man and makes of him a jellyfish, haplessly waiting on someone else to solve his problems”
I was the welfare class, living on the compassion of the state. I now I golf at country clubs with Republicans. They remind me of jellyfish, haplessly waiting on someone else to fix their golf swings rather than reading Hogan and fixing it themselves. Wait a sec…, WTF? Jellyfish don’t golf. Neither do they wait for someone else to fix their fucking problems.
How dare he try to support his family!
Lets also Join Patty Murray to explain how Cap and trade will not tax anyone earning under $200,000. And after Dinner maybe how they plan to start paying off a 13.6 Trillion dollar defecit.
uh, proud leftist. Patty was a poor teacher; now in the Senate she’s got pensions, salary etc. She has made out handsomeley by her Senate job; don’t pretend she’s not also in this for the money.
Lost: Nice post, but your opinions/views reaaly don’t help the average working guys – they help the rich.
I admire anyone who works every day for a living. I get up at 4:30 AM every weekday and head in to do my job.
Does that make me better than the people who can’t find a job? No.
Does that make me feel good when republicans don’t extend unemployment benefits? No
When there are 10 people going for every available job – should we blame the people who are looking for work? no
Will republican fiscal policies (tight money, high interst rates, no deficit) help create more jobs soon? no
Phil Gramm was the leader of the deregulation (less governmment)crowd – he pushed through the credit-default swaps for banks and opened up the rules for banks – and the banks took advantage of that and plunged our country into the worst recession since the great depression.
Bush took the largest budget surplus in history and turned it into the largest deficit in history – yet republicans supported him all along.
Suddenly deficit spending is BAD when we are in a recession?
Hypocrites.
Like Cheney said, Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter. That is, when a Republican is president.
Re 50 and 51
SJ, basic functions of the federal government as laid down in the Constitution fit your priorities quite nicely. I’m not a constitutional scholar but have read that the state follows the federal document with a few additions, such as education being explicitly mentioned. And while you and I may disagree on the precise role of government in health care I don’t dispute that it has one.
Most will agree that common education of our children, common security on the local level up through the federal and expenditure for those things that would be done haphazardly or not at all privately, like roads or monitoring of utilities, are what the government is supposed to be doing. And if a crisis like an earthquake or an oil spill in the Gulf occurs I think most agree that government running point on emergency management is a desirable thing. Obviously we all agree that our relations with other countries accross the range from friendly to hostile are fully within the scope of the federal government
I don’t know if that answers your questions about priorities, SJ. All of these things, as I’ve written, aren’t so much government powers as government duties. And Proud, yes we need strong government in these Constitutionally mandated areas.
When those mandates are over reached I begin to worry.
I worry on practical grounds. A government busily engaged in activities outside of its scope has that many fewer resources to deal with those duties it must perform. There simply is a limit to what a can be obtained by way of taxation to pay for those resources.
More to the point, I worry about the longer term future of the Constitution and the government it set in motion. Whether this is due to Bush with the collusion of congress pushing through an obscenity like the Patriot Act, or FDR deciding that people have a right to be ‘free from want,’ the effect is the same. It makes the Constitution no more than a beautifully worded boast with no substance behind it. If the Commerce Clause can be interpreted to mean that a man can’t grow corn on his land for his livestock, as it was under FDR, where is the limit to government in interstate traffic? If the Patriot Act means that the federal government can ascertain what books I read or listen to my phone calls without a warrant where is the substance behind the 4th Amendment? And don’t get me started on all the insanities around the Elastic Clause. If we don’t wish to live by the Constitution we should choose one of two options; eradicate it, or amend it. Otherwise every over reach to fit some cause celebre of the left or the right makes of the document an increasingly meaningless boast, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.
Re 50 and 51
SJ, basic functions of the federal government as laid down in the Constitution fit your priorities quite nicely. I’m not a constitutional scholar but have read that the state follows the federal document with a few additions, such as education being explicitly mentioned. And while you and I may disagree on the precise role of government in health care I don’t dispute that it has one.
Most will agree that common education of our children, common security on the local level up through the federal and expenditure for those things that would be done haphazardly or not at all privately, like roads or monitoring of utilities, are what the government is supposed to be doing. And if a crisis like an earthquake or an oil spill in the Gulf occurs I think most agree that government running point on emergency management is a desirable thing. Obviously we all agree that our relations with other countries accross the range from friendly to hostile are fully within the scope of the federal government
I don’t know if that answers your questions about priorities, SJ. All of these things, as I’ve written, aren’t so much government powers as government duties. And Proud, yes we need strong government in these Constitutionally mandated areas.
When those mandates are over reached I begin to worry.
I worry on practical grounds. A government busily engaged in activities outside of its scope has that many fewer resources to deal with those duties it must perform. There simply is a limit to what a can be obtained by way of taxation to pay for those resources.
More to the point, I worry about the longer term future of the Constitution and the government it set in motion. Whether this is due to Bush with the collusion of congress pushing through an obscenity like the Patriot Act, or FDR deciding that people have a right to be ‘free from want,’ the effect is the same. It makes the Constitution no more than a beautifully worded boast with no substance behind it. If the Commerce Clause can be interpreted to mean that a man can’t grow corn on his land for his livestock, as it was under FDR, where is the limit to government in interstate traffic? If the Patriot Act means that the federal government can ascertain what books I read or listen to my phone calls without a warrant where is the substance behind the 4th Amendment? And don’t get me started on all the insanities around the Elastic Clause. If we don’t wish to live by the Constitution we should choose one of two options; eradicate it, or amend it. Otherwise every over reach to fit some cause celebre of the left or the right makes of the document an increasingly meaningless boast, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.
Re 56
Sorry about the double post above.
I understand what you’re saying. I just don’t know that putting out the grass fire in the lawn while neglecting the chimney fire is where we should be going nationally.
By borrowing and printing money we risk the future of your children and mine. We are neither solving the problems of the present by doing so, or doing our duty to the next generation.
As for hypocrites, of course they are. So are Democrat politicians. They all have difficult compromises to make to obtain whatever end they feel is in the best interests of their constituency, at best. At worst they are grifters using Congress as a means to increase their own wealth and power. Either way they won’t come out with hands completely clean.
Steve,
Good on you for coming from a difficult situation and doing well for yourself. Even if you have to play golf with Republicans. I bet you forget to say fore when you know the ball is heading toward a member of the GOP though…
FYI, jellyfish don’t do much of anything but float, feed and excrete. That was kind of my point.
Have a nice day.
Lost @ 46: My grandfather worked through the Great Depression, supporting his family as a capenter. You can imagine how profitable an occupation that was at the time.
All his sons (4 of them) went into construction business in one way or another – my oldest uncle started a concrete business, another uncle a construction supply business, my youngest uncle a contractor himself.
My father was the only one to go to college, on the G.I. Bill, but he still built things of a sort – as an aerospace engineer at first, and later designing nuclear reactor containment vessels. At home he was constantly building and improving: there’s nothing that reminds me of my Dad quite so much as the smell of fresh-cut lumber. Although my Dad was an engineer, he always considered himself a “working stiff”. He never forgot the summer when the only job he could get was digging holes by hand for power poles for the Alabama Power and Light Company, he was the only white guy on the crew.
My father and mother were determined to send me and my sister to college, and they were working hard to save money toward that end. My mother worked also, as a teacher.
But my father had his first heart attack when I was six, and he was only 35. Six years later he had to have a vein transplanted in his leg. But when I was 15 he lost his leg, and when I was 15 he died, at age 45. By then, the savings were gone, being used up to pay for the considerable expenses which weren’t covered by insurance.
So I went to college under my father’s Social Security payments to dependents. It expired at age 21, so I had to push through undergraduate school quickly, graduating in three years instead of four by going to school during the summers. That resource is no longer available, having been cut early in the Reagan years. I can’t feel guilty about using my father’s social security to go to school, because my father was never able to use those benefits despite paying into the system during his working life, and neither did my mother (who died at age 56 from cancer).
My wife grew up in a single-mom household, going to school on Basic Grants. But she’s been working since then, and when we married at age 21 we started supporting her mom, as well. We’ve pretty much had to do it all on our own since then – nobody to give us a hand up or special favors.
But if I hadn’t been able to use my father’s social security to go to undergrad school, or my wife hadn’t been able to use the Basic Grant program, I can’t say where we would be for now.
Maybe Dino’s following in the footsteps of Republican Mark Kirk.
What’s interesting is the date of the publication: March/April 2010. So this probably went to press in Feb at the latest, maybe even Jan.
Look at it this way: every time there’s a real estate transaction, the state gets a real estate excise tax payment. Home sales also drive a lot of taxed purchases, and if homes don’t sell it means property values drop and there’s less income to governments. So be glad Dino is doing his part to keep our government finances strong.
@64
What? A simple, common sense solution, like the seminar had already been in the works for 6 months? But, that ruins all our fun!
It probably has been in the works for several months. But as I said in @ 38 above:
“He should have gotten out of this engagement, everyone would have (or should have) understood.”
By the way, ask a real esate salesman if now is a good time to buy a house. Do it every month for the next ten years. If you want to vary it, ask him/her if it’s a good time to buy a house, a condo, a waterfront home, an investment property, or commercial real estate.
The answer will ALWAYS be:
“YES! Now is a GREAT TIME to buy real estate! Property prices are at the lowest level they will ever be! Interest rates will only be going up, maybe tomorrow, certainly by Friday! Now, do you want to look at some houses, or do you just want to write out an ernest money check now to lock you into a purchase while I fill out the paperwork?”
Now, now dear Goldy, at least try and hide your outright jealously of others that have the means to purchase nicer homes than the dilapitated old dump you live in.
Good luck in your quest to beg for more so-called “donations” on this site. Perhaps you should try groveling on Broadway or something next. How far short are you of that $25K again? Just askin’.
Terrific! I really think this site is providing a great resource. Much Appreciated,. Jessie Walters