Please join us tonight for an evening of politics and conversation over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.
There are a couple of events today that will fuel our conversation. First, a double-header debate takes place this afternoon between Washington state attorney general candidates Bob Ferguson (D) and Reagan Dunn (R). That debate takes place at 2:00 pm. At 3:30 pm, gubernatorial candidates Jay Inslee (D) and Rob McKenna (R) go at it. The event takes place in Spokane, but you can watch (or stream) the debates on TVW, and KUOW will carry the audio.
Tonight there is a special election for AZ-08, the seat formerly held by Rep. Gabby Giffords (D). The only poll in the election, from Public Policy Polling has Democrat Ron Barber leading Republican Jesse Kelly, 53% to 41%.
Drinking Liberally Seattle meets every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.
Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities, Bellingham, and Vancouver, WA chapters meet, and Thursday night Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets. Next Monday there are meetings of the Olympia, Yakima, and Shelton chapters.
With 228 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and four more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s a chapter near you.
Let’s all boycott this thread, so only Bob is posting in it, just to drive him up the wall.
Obama will likely need 49 Electoral Votes out of these toss-up states to secure re-election-
Arizona (11)
Colorado (9)
Florida (29)
Iowa (6)
Michigan (16)
Missouri (10)
Nevada (6)
New Hampshire (4)
North Carolina (15)
Ohio (18)
Virginia (13)
Wisconsin (10)
Now just ASSUME, for the sake of discussion, that Florida and Ohio go to Romney. How will Obama get the 49??
I can see Wisconsin, Virginia & Michigan being 39 of them.
If you add Colorado, that only makes 48.
Still needs 1 more.
Interesting discussion.
Eric With-Holder will ending up being an albatross around Obama’s neck the next 4+ months with Fast & Furious and the Criminal LEAKS. Watch the focus on incompetence and failure to be forthright becoming huge issues.
Who do you trust?
How can you trust Eric Holder?
Well, that and continuing the Bush Admins practice of avoiding prosecution of financial crimes whenever possible.
@2
Last I saw Obama had 220 electoral votes and 60 leaning his way. Romney had 170 and 40 leaning his way.
@4
Hopefully, Holder wont be coming with Obama in his second term.
DL’ers,
Look out for Agent Willhemina “Dana” Scully-Jack..
Or one of her flunkies anyway. They’ll be (gasp!) asking questions about ME!
I’m so sceeeeeered!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
DL’ers – If you see Puddybud remember to ask him:
Which union is it?
Post the answer here in the threads!
I see that George Zimmerman’s wife was arrested. I’m certain that you trolls will want to donate to free this good woman. You can do so here, Paypal and all major credit cards accepted,
http://www.freeshelliezimmerman.net
I promise that 100% of all donations will go to free Shellie. No, really, I do. I promise.
Here is the latest information provided by the CPA firm Deloitte–
[Excessively copied material deleted — see HA Comment Policy]
‘The debt is not something that is going to go away . . .’
– Bill Eggers
Now multiply the above $4.2 TRILLION by 2/3 and you will get what Obama is responsible for. Remember, Obama PROMISED to Cut the 10 TRILLION Debt in half to $5 TRILLION so Obama is responsible for $11 TRILLION of additional debt.
Actually Obama is responsible for 11/16 of the above items listed that could be provided if Obama did what he PROMISED>>
@10 Fine. There’s a problem. We all agree on that. Now let’s roll up our sleeves, and raise taxes and cut spending — including taxes on the rich and on corporations that aren’t paying any taxes; and military and entitlement spending. Surely the two parties can come together in some middle ground on this crucial issue?
10 – 2 wars not paid for, tax cuts that benefit mostly the rich not paid for, new medicare benefit for seniors not paid for
and a depression courtesy of the laissez faire, come-what-may idiocy of the right wing.
John Lehman was just declared the winner in the Winsconsin Senate recall election, effectively transferring control of the Wisconsin Assembly to the Democrats. The Republicans can contest this result, provided they post the cash necessary for a hand re-count.
Scott Walker seemed to have squeeked by getting recalled himself by playing up to those people who were tired of all the recall politicing. If the Republicans try to drag out the recall process further in a contest of the election for the Wisconsin Senate, wouldn’t they be trying to pay both sides? Of course, consistency and an avoidance of hypocracy has never been high on Republican’s standards.
@ 13
Or, maybe the GOP just waits, since the legislature is out of session until 2013 and with the projected surplus thanks to Walker there won’t be any special sessions, until the 2012 post-redistricting elections, which are expected to flip two of those Dem-held seats back to GOP control.
This is what your ilk spent all of those millions of dollars to achieve.
Worth it, was it?
@9, Wait. What?
Someone named Zimmerman has been accused of lying?
Damn librules! AKORN! Freedumb!
So, if only 53% of DEMOCRATS are opposed to Voter ID laws, does the left really think they’ve got a winning message?
http://www.pottsmerc.com/artic.....2-1-margin
@14 “This is what your ilk spent all of those millions of dollars to achieve. Worth it, was it?”
Yes, it was, and I’ll tell you why. Walker pressurd public workers into giving up $138 million of pay and benefits in the name of balancing the budget. Then Walker repealed Wisconsin’s manufacturing tax, giving rich business owners $117 million of new tax breaks. You can’t put a monetary value on getting rid of a liar, sneak, and phony like him — it’s limitless.
And anyway, what the unions spent was less than one-tenth of what they lost to this lying bully every year. So, yes, you bet it worth it.
hows that workin’ out for ya?
@16 I’m more than willing to talk about the GOP’s racist voter suppression efforts, including their bullshit voter ID laws. (How many people actually try using someone else’s name in polling places?)
I have a sister in Wisconsin. She’s not a minority, but she has a Hispanic surname, because she married a guy who is. Very recently, she described to me how she got jerked around by the voting authorities when she requested an absentee ballot because she was scheduled for surgery the day before the recall election. It was obvious they didn’t want her to vote. Not because she’s ineligible, but because they think she’s Hispanic. Supporting, aiding, and abetting these voting suppression efforts makes you an accessory to racism. And we have no respect for racists around here.
For some Americans, trying to vote is like living in Russia or Zimbabwe, but “union thugs” (yay!) are trying to change that so hard-working and war-fighting Americans can vote in their own country:
“[T]he AFL-CIO labor confederation … launch[ed] a new effort in six battleground states to … battle any legal impediments to voting. The six target states: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Nevada. … [T]here was anecdotal evidence that some voters in Milwaukee were unable to vote [in the recall election].”
http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.c.....ffort?lite
More than 300,000 people have signed petitions asking Florida to repeal its controversial “Stand Your Ground” law.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_n.....d-law?lite
Researchers: Corporate Political Spending A Waste Of Money
“Researchers from Rice University in Texas and Long Island University in New York analyzed end-of-year stock value and return on assets of 943 companies … and lined up those factors against spending on campaign donations, lobbyists and other political giving. … Their findings showed … the more a company shelled out for government affairs and political interests … the worse it performed financially.”
http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.c.....study?lite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: That looks like corporate spending on lobbying and political advertising is a breach of fiduciary responsibility and grounds for shareholder class action lawsuits.
Another Market Failure
“When you rent a car you shouldn’t have to worry if it is safe to drive. But unfortunately, you do. Federal law does not prohibit a rental car company from putting you behind the wheel of a car or truck that’s subject to a safety recall, but has not been fixed. …
“‘You really are at the mercy of the rental car company,’ says David Butler with Consumers Union …. ‘We have seen … incidents where people have rented a car … it hasn’t been fixed and there have been … accidents and … deaths.’ …
“Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) want to change the law. Last year, they introduced the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act (S. 14450) which would prohibit rental car companies from renting or selling cars that are under a safety recall until they are repaired. The bill is named after two sisters … who died … after their Enterprise rental car caught fire. That car had been recalled for a possible engine fire hazard, but had not been repaired.”
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.co.....anger?lite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The article says the mother of those young women asked the rental car companies to pledge to “ground” vehicles under safety recall until they’re fixed, but only Hertz agreed to do that. In other words, you can’t trust the market to solve this problem. So rental car customers won’t be safe unless government steps in with legislation to regulate the industry.
Notice this legislation is being pushed by two Democratic Senators — legislators our friend Puddy refers to as “DUMMOCRATS.” I’d say he’s the “DUMMY” if he rents a car from Enterprise. Me, I’ll go with Hertz, that’s my “market solution” for you.
@18 You think this is the biggest issue facing the world today, don’t you?
@ 20-23
I wonder if Darryl can just put an MSNBC RSS feed somewhere in the thread so we can save RR the effort of providing it for us. I haven’t heard enough stock market exploits from RR today and I think it’s because he’s cutting and pasting the whole MSNBC web site. He did say not long ago
http://horsesass.org/?p=44071#comment-1156987
that he’s been a very busy beaver.
Actually, that would be a pretty good HA handle for RR’s wife, come to think of it.
Hey, asshole, family/spouses/children are off limits.
Moreover, your ‘joke’ wasn’t just crass and tasteless and bullying, it didn’t even make sense. Beavers are rodents, rabbits are lagomorphs.
re 26: You are LYING!!!!! That rabbit has never claimed to be a beaver, busy or otherwise.
The last human being ever to be named the Beaver was my beloved and dearly remembered son: Beaver Cleaver.
@ 26
Had I the time I could probably find dozens of mentions of wives, GF, sisters, and other relatives in derogatory terms. Nice try.
Please do. I don’t think you can, not without an associated quick response like mine at 26.
Just say you’re sorry and move on, or risk looking like an even bigger ass than you do already.
You a condescending twit, the kind most annoying – one that everyone but you realize have absolutely no grounds for condescension.
I once received a birthday card with a cartoon on the front depicting two nerdy white kids and a black guy in 60s-era afro, turtleneck and medallion.
On the inside it said, “Happy Birthday from the Cleavers, Wally, Beaver and Eldridge.”
You’d find a handful and you’d find members of HA telling those people to knock it off.
bub/Serial Conservative remarkably quiet. What odds that he shows some spine and apologizes to Roger?
@29 I refuse to be annoyed by these self-admiring showoffs.
@25 I figured you were anti-literate. You seem like that type.
@25 +$2800, since you asked
rhpee6033, he won bigger than Obummer did in 2008! And the Wisconsin legislature doesn’t meet again until 2013. Pyrrhic senate victory for DUMMOCRAPTS!
More useless swill from the arschloch… Hey arschloch your leader who you won’t call president claimed
So as always you are a lying sack of shit, always farting out the arschloch.
Wait for it… he’ll dip into his crazed databaze for feckless attack #65.
@29 “You a condescending twit, the kind most annoying – one that everyone but you realize have absolutely no grounds for condescension.”
Someone once used “smarmy” to describe Bob and I thought that it fit nicely. I doubt that many would put with this guy’s bullshit in person. At least, not for very damned long. So for his own sake, and probably by lessons he horribly learned, he probably keeps a lid on it until he’s on the internet.
We all saw his orgasmic response to a Walker win in Wisconsin. Bob obviously wins in life not through anything he achieves, but through his adopted team’s victories, be it in politics or sports. When the team loses, Bob crashes. He was probably one of those wingnuts who was nearly suicidal in November 2008. What Bob doesn’t seem to realize is that he’s a loser either way. Maybe if he had more on the ball in life then this political shit wouldn’t be of such life or death importance with him.
Democrats have retained Gabby Gifford’s House seat in Arizona. Ron Barber, Gifford’s former aid (who was also shot), defeated Jesse Kelly 49% – 47%.
“…I refuse to be annoyed by these self-admiring showoffs.”
Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle.
@41 Kiss my cute cottontail. http://tinyurl.com/6q443fk
N.D. Voters Reject Stupid Tax Repeal
“North Dakota voters … rejected a ballot measure that sought … to abolish property taxes… by a vote of 77.5 percent to 22.5 percent[.]”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47790578
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Hey, nobody likes taxes, and I don’t either; but if ND’s property tax is regressive, as repeal supporters claim, they should offer specific proposals to make it more equitable. No tax is perfect so there’s always room for reform.
”We were able to prevent America from going into a Great Depression”
Anybody talk to the FBI about me tonight at DL???
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
@32 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001%
Delusional as ever!
Excellent…
@45 Does this mean you’re not gonna kiss my cute cottontail? I thought we were friends again …
The NRA wants you to believe they’re a law-and-order group, but they don’t want cops to have a new technology that helps trace shell casings to (their?) guns.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47.....ork_times/
The real seven deadly sins
Apathy
Cruelty
Duplicity
Hypocrisy
False Morality
Abuse of Power
Cultivated Ignorance
Jaime Dimon’s on capitol hill. I can’t bare to watch, or read as the case may be, the little shit weasel, but here’s the link.
@49–
Ummmmm, Mr. Plagarist..
I did a Google search on
Apathy
Cruelty
Duplicity
Hypocrisy
False Morality
Abuse of Power
Cultivated Ignorance
And came up with over 7400 hits.
Your drug-addled brain (what’s left of it) ought to give credit where credit is due, instead of trying to somehow delude yourself into believing you are something more than a foul-mouthed cut-and-paste.
@ 50
JPM up 3.3% as of this posting, climbing during Dimon’s testimony.
Somehow I don’t recall the same market reaction when Obama bundler Jon Corzine testified last Fall.
JPM will still earn billions in the quarter despite the loss, and their balance sheet gains increasing strength from its current position as incredibly solid.
Do not neglect to recall that it was JPM to which the Treasury Department turned when it needed to clean up the mess of two large failures in 2008.
Yes, oversight should be, and will be, tightened as a result of what happened.
Don’t make it more than it is. A unit managing $350B lost $2B. That’s less than 1% of capital under management. They’ll make that up in about 45 days.
@49. I got it off face book from a shared link by The Christian Left. Do you give credit that you get your talking points from the republican party memo sheet?
Looking at your posts, you rate 5 out of the seven. You must be proud. Or maybe they struck too close to your soul?
@ 53
I think that very few of us have wholly original thoughts. We filter what we read. There’s just too much out there, generated too quickly, for us to come up with stuff on our own.
Still, if you are going to quote a passage, or a list, as a verbatim cut-and-paste, you shouldn’t give the impression it was your own work.
You know the ship’s gonna sink when the rats are jumping overboard:
http://www.usnews.com/news/blo.....astructure
May they all drown. Couldn’t happen to a more worthy group of people.
Yep, and most everyone in congress will still be sycophants to Wall Street and Dimon will still be a shit weasel.
53. No Time for Fascists spews:
Actually, unlike you dimwit, I actually post my own thoughts & ideas and show quotes when I’m quoting someone else’s.
You on the other hand don’t appear to have an original thought other than foul-mouthed Christian bashing. IQ required==30
Michael @ 56–
Ahhh, but Dimon is OBAMA’s shit weasel.
Right?
Remember Obama salivating all over Diamon right before this mess??
Oh and Obama owns lots of JPM stock.
Remember a month ago or so when Jamie Dimon was Obama’s favorite banker?
http://campaign2012.washington.....ker/596051
@58
So??? Bush had his favorites, Obama has his favorites, Romney probably has his favorites too. It doesn’t change the fact that elections are binary or that Obama and the Democrats are better on issue that I care about than Republicans.
Obama’s was and is still simply the least objectionable option when it comes to voting for president.
I haven’t seen Bub/Serial Conservative apologize to Roger yet for that foul and offensive insult to Mrs. Rabbit yet.
Will bob show some spine, or be the weasel we all expect him to be?
Obama’s was and is still simply the least objectionable option when it comes to voting for president.
Would be a great October ad.
“Yeah, I’m fucking incompetent, totally narcissistic, and I’ve pretty much single-handedly ruined any chance your kids will have it better than you, but I wasn’t born rich like that guy. Vote to re-elect me.”
@61 Nice-sounding speech but totally bullshit. Incompetent? Check out Chimpface — there’s an incompetent for the ages. Ruin your kids’ chances? Look no further than the GOP economy. Narcissistic? That pretty much describes most of our HA trolls. I have my issues with Obama but Republicans are so bad the 2008 election was a no-brainer and this year’s election will be a no-brainer, too.
@ 62
Candidates running for president are Obama and Romney.
I think we just found funding for those @61 ads:
Romney’s campaign got a shot in the arm on Wednesday, in the form of a $10 million donation from casino mogul Sheldon Adelson to a so-called super PAC supporting the former Massachusetts governor.
The gift to the Restore Our Future super PAC from Adelson — who supported Newt Gingrich in the primaries — appears to be the largest single donation toward Romney’s campaign effort so far, The Wall Street Journal said. Read more about Adelson’s donation on WSJ.com.
Rich vs. Poor Dep’t
The ways in which the rich exploit the poor while accruing advantages for themselves are endless. They’re in a privileged class even when buying shoes:
“Inexpensive canvas and rubber-soled shoes of the types commonly sold at stores like Payless and Walmart (WMT) are taxed at a rate that’s at least six times higher than more expensive leather footwear, a tariff that hits the very shoppers who are least … able to afford it.
“Today, the tax rate on canvas and rubber-soled shoes ranges from 48% to 67.5%, while the rate on high-end leather footwear and designer shoes is a mere 8%.
“These regressive import duties disproportionately jack up the price of kid’s shoes, a high frequency, needs-based purchase: Growing children … require new shoes … often.”
http://www.dailyfinance.com/20.....-shoe-tax/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The selfish and greedy leave no stone unturned when it comes to (a) getting more than their fair share of the national income, (b) paying less for stuff than the rest of us, (c) taking the good stuff and leaving us the shoddy stuff, and (d) getting out of paying taxes. And the rich wonder why 99-percenters dislike them?
The Arabs have an interesting custom. They throw shows at people they don’t like. The guy who gets hit with it probably sold it to them in the first place.
The Americans have an interesting custom, too. They shoot people they don’t like. Especially elected officials and hoodie-wearing black teenagers. That’s a quirk of our gun-crazy culture, and if you want to live (pun intended) in this country, you just have to get used to it.
@ 65
Er, tariffs were in place to protect profits of American companies, yes, but also to protect jobs of American workers.
If a tariff goes away, do you think the price of the item will necessarily go down by the same amount?
No, other fees will pop up to take the place of the tariff, and the American companies selling the shoes will experience greater profit, at a loss of revenue to the govenment.
Really, RR. Think before posting. At least occasionally. There are an awful lot of tariffs supported by the Dems. Just not this particular one.
There are an many laws still on the books, and many taxes and fees, which no longer serve the purpose for which they were created. This is just one of them.
@55 “a more worthy group of people”
Democrats have their faults, but they’re far more worthy than Republicans. In fact, this blog owes its existence to the fact that
REPUBLICANS SUCK
Sounds like Rmoney is running away from the ‘Republican’ label just like Dino “Prefers GOP Party party’ Rossi did.
@68 “Really, RR. Think before posting.”
Why should I? You don’t.
@68 (continued) Funny how high taxes gravitate to poor people and low taxes grativate to rich people. There’s a consistency to this. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact rich people can buy politicians and poor people can’t.
@52 What’s this? A troll shilling for more gummint regulation of banks? You could be shot* for that if Wingnut Central finds out!
* They’re just kidding, that’s an Ann Coulter joke, they wouldn’t really do that as Gabby Giffords can attest.
@ 70
I don’t hear what you’re hearing. Perhaps you could link.
And while we’re talking about politicians hedging on their affiliations, remind me if the guy who won Giffords’ seat ever got around to saying he supports Obama, and how many times he was asked before he answered?
It’s been about the only presidential ad for most of my adult life.
Palin won it for Obama in ’08. Nobody wanted that crazy fuckwit anywhere near the White House.
@ 75
And yet we laugh at, rather than shudder at, everything that comes out of Biden’s mouth (notice I did not dispute your final sentence).
Even OBL wanted Biden in the White House. Biden, the guy who op-ed’d that we should split Iraq up into three pieces. The guy who gets a pass for numerous ethnic indiscretions while the ultra-libs here are screaming ‘racist’ at everything that comes out of a conservative’s mouth. I read this week that use of the word ‘cool’ is now racist.
@75 An Eisenhower would walk away with any election today. Today’s GOP candidates make Barry Goldwater look like a statesman. We’ve become a one-party country because the GOP
fell off a cliff.
Having a party like the GOP in a two-party system hurts the other party, too, because it can get away with mediocrities like Clinton and Obama. The Democrats would be a better party if they had to face serious competition instead of the sideshow that is today’s GOP.
The Grand Old Party has become the creepy criminal party.
@ 77
A ‘one-party’ country. You must mean Democrat since your sentence excluded the GOP.
Hmph.
All I can say is get ready for The Pain come November. This is why your ilk takes things like WI and the arguments against Obamacare constitutionality so hard. You fail to consider the possibility that your opinion might not be correct.
Every time you are declarative to the exclusion of any and all alternatives, RR, it further unmasks your stupidity.
Ten Reasons to Oppose Gay Marriage
(To be clear for the conservative readers, this list of reasons is heavily sarcastic)
1. Being gay is not natural. This is the same reason we True Americans also oppose marriage for anybody who dyes their hair, changes their boob size, or shaves any portion of their body.
2. Gay marriage will encourage straight people to be gay, just exactly the way being surrounded by married and unmarried straight people has caused so many gays to become straight.
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4. Marriage is a sacred institution which shouldn’t be changed. Just ignore the facts that women used to be property, blacks used to be unable to marry whites, and divorce used to be illegal.
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. The purpose of marriage is to produce children. In the future we shall require all marriage applicants to sign a legally binding contract that forces them to have children without resorting to adoption or artificial insemination. Gays, infertile people, and the intentionally child-free will all be banned from marriage.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. We should trash the First Amendment to the Constitution and ram our religion down everybody’s throat by force of law. Because God wants people to be fearful and resentful of Him.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children. I forget why we ever legalized divorce in the first place.
10.Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to inter-racial marriage, cars, dual-income households, black presidents, etc.
You can’t argue against such sound logic ;)
From a great shared post by the Christian Left from Facebook (attributed because apparently conservatives cannot stand uncredited data. Then why do they watch fox news that constantly do the “some people are saying…that Obama is secretly a Manchurian candidate.” routine? )
If the republicans win big in November, it’s going to get very bleak in this country. I hope you stay around after your paid to troll job ends to apologize profusely as everything goes to hell.
You fail to consider the possibility that your opinion might not be correct.
Oh, so you also criticize anti abortion fanatics who are convinced their is the only truth, or do you just do that to progressives.
Actually, wind Rabbit up and he will be able to cite the facts and data why his opinions are accurate and better. Republicans cannot, that’s why they cheat, or just deny the facts. (IE. there is NO global climate change and Electronic Voting is completely trustworthy!)
Hey bob, when are you going to apologize to Roger and Mrs. Rabbit for the vulgar and offensive dig you made about Mrs. Rabbit?
Spine? or weasel? (apolgies to weasels everywhere)
same as the argument against national child labor laws..
Just as many children grew up to be stunted and poor due to Lochner era intransigence so many will DIE a premature death due to Roberts court obtuseness.
72. Roger Rabbit spews:
Too bad the facts show 47% of Americans pay zero income tax, huh?
86. smilin’ exhibits one of the Seven deadly Sins: Cultivated Ignorance
What do you think?
@76 Are you suggesting a Biden-Palin equivalency? Oh please. Before becoming vicer president, Biden was a lawyer, 7-term U.S. senator, and chaired the Senate judiciary and foreign relations committees. He talks too much and suffers an occasional affliction of foot-in-mouth disease, which may be a residual effect of the brain aneurysm that nearly killed him, but at least he knows something.
Palin was a small-town sports reporter, a small-town mayor, and then a half-term small-state governor who built a well-deserved reputation as a nitwit with a dysfunctional family. Carp about Biden’s shortcomings all you want, he’s light years ahead of Palin in knowledge, experience, judgment, and other qualities essential in a national leader. There’s no comparison.
@80 “All I can say is get ready for The Pain come November.”
They have a saying in Texas for this kind of braggodocio:
All hat, no cattle.
@82 “If the republicans win big in November, it’s going to get very bleak in this country.”
I’m not too worried. The worst that might happen is they’ll have to send their kids to Mexico to get abortions.
@86 “Too bad the facts show 47% of Americans pay zero income tax, huh?”
Thanks for reminding us! That’s the best proof anyone could have that the rich are hogging all the wealth and income in this country.
And while we’re on this subject, the facts also show 36,000 people with $1 million-plus incomes also pay zero income tax. That makes far less sense than a family with $35,000 of income paying zero income tax.
Ok…
The Rich Aren’t Greedier, They’re Stockier
At least that’s what this article claims:
“The latest report from the Federal Reserve tells us that wealth of the middle class declined by more than a third between 2007 and 2010. The wealth of the top 10%, however, grew by two percent.
“These statistics will no doubt fuel partisan politics by some who argue the rich have gained at the expense of the rest and that the system is rigged for the rich. There is, however, a more simple, economic reason behind the disparity. The wealthy have a greater proportion of their wealth in stocks and less of it in homes.” (Emphasis added.)
This article says the top 1% have only 10% of their wealth tied up in homes and 38% in financial investments including 9% in stocks; by contrast, the middle class’s homes are over half their wealth while financial investments are less than a third and stocks only 1.6%.
It goes on,
“Put another way, the one percent owns more than 60% of the nation’s individually held stocks. When markets go up, they derive most of the benefit. When houses go down, they feel it the least. … [M]ost Americans don’t have much wealth beyond their homes. Those that do have benefited from the recovery [of] financial markets ….”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47802283
Roger Rabbit Commentary: If this article is trying to deny the rich have rigged the system in their favor, that’s bullshit. Even buying shoes, they pay 1/6th the import duties as the rest of us. Here in Washington, they pay 1/6th as much in state/local taxes as the poor, proportionately. The system is rigged in their favor, both in how much of the income they take, and in paying less for almost everything.
But the article is right in pointing out the dichotomy between being house poor or stock rich.
Bingo! The moment you grasp this for the first time, consider that a “Eureka!” moment. I prefer to be stock rich, which means I’d much rather own a big stock portfolio than a big house.
Homes are lousy investments because their value is joined at the hip to local wage rates. (This isn’t true of mansions, which have a different market.) Which means housing can’t rise faster than wages, absent massive in-migration, and wages as you know aren’t rising at all. Consequently, in most places, mid-market houses aren’t, either. Houses also have large carrying costs: Property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utility bills, etc.
Stocks, by contrast, have no geographical restraints, no ownership expenses, and generate income instead of consuming income. They go up with corporate profits, which have gained ascendancy over labor remuneration. Therefore, stocks obviously are a far better investment than houses, so you want to minimize what you invest in your home and maximize your stock investments, if you’re serious about building up your net worth.
Unlike the rest of the middle class (according to that article), I didn’t lose a third of my net worth in the Great Recession; I gained 14% between year-end of 2007 and year-end 2011, which outperforms even the 1%ers (by a factor of 7-to-1). I track this in spreadsheets, so I have accurate figures, and can calculate the actual percentages: Home equity is 47% of my net worth, about average, but stocks are 31% — 39% if you count portfolio cash waiting to be spent on stocks.
So why do that? There seems little doubt my mix of home equity and stocks is unusual by middle class standards. I can’t give a simple answer, because there isn’t one. I don’t like bosses or banks, which isn’t a problem, because I don’t need a job and have no debts. Unlike many retirees, who draw down savings to pay their bills, I have more income than bills and I’m adding to my savings. I have no money worries. It just seems like a good place to be. I don’t give a damn if some dense troll calls this bragging; it isn’t, that’s not my purpose at all, what I’m really doing by posting this stuff is I’m trying to teach people how to live like a rabbit, because we rabbits have a better system than you stupid humans do. I mean, look at your human economy, that speaks for itself …
Democratizing higher education.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47787115
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Conventional universities and student loan lenders — both of which have morphed into cash machines — won’t like this if it takes off.
I really don’t see why we need expensive campus infrastructure anymore. With nearly everything going digital and online, it’s logical to teach classes over the internet. In fact, it’s inevitable. There was a time when only the rich could afford books, because back then books were hand-made, but now everyone has access to books through free libraries and discount booksellers. And even book sales are moving online, and off the printed page onto pocket-sized computer devices. Why not visualize a day when Amazon sells a course in nuclear engineering for 99 cents? And if not that, then maybe $3.99. I have to believe this is coming at some point. Unfortunately, when it does all the professor jobs will have moved to China and India …
Romney wasn’t born rich. Obummer had more of a silver spoon than Romney did!
No-hitters have been sprouting like burrs recently. Matt Cain threw the Giants’ first-ever perfect game tonight, against the Astros, tying Sandy Koufax’s record for most strikeouts in a perfect game with 14 whiffs.
The world’s richest man says the non-rich aren’t working hard enough.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....f=business
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankenfein says bankers who blow billions shouldn’t be asked questions because that’s bad for capitalism.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....f=business
Former Treasury Secretary Robert Reich explains why the rich should pay more taxes:
“For more than 30 years, we’ve been sold a lie that if you give tax cuts to the rich, every one else does better,” he says. “Trickle down economics is bunk, it always was.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....f=business
Factoid: America’s 400 richest people are wealthier than the poorest 150 million.
While you are drinking liberally, I’m buyin cheaply
Maker’s Mark (shipped to my home) $23.05 per fifth TOTAL PRICE
http://www.morewines.com/wsk021.html
Eat your heart out Washington!
Oh. My. God.
puddy’s not even trying anymore – the filter between his reptilian brain and his typing fingers is completely off line at this point.
Owebamma had and has everything paid for, he has deemed himself King
Once again the HA dullard Lib da schmuck doesn’t read. A remedial education is lost on this moron!
Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Detroit, Michigan. George, his father, was chief spokesman for the American Automobile Manufacturers Association when Mitt was born.
You see Lib da schmuck, when you live on left wrong kook sites drinking their kook-aid, you project a fools knowledge. And you perform this task most admirably! It’s not a Psych 101 thing with you… you’re just an IDIOT! Plain and simple.
Now when you look at Obummer, you can see before his choom gang days (his words, remember) his father was Harvard educated and his grandparents were college educated and his grandpapa was a banker.
You remind me of rhpee6033 when he claimed Obummer didn’t have senate control during his presidency. Useless Lib da schmuck words and useless rhpee6033 thoughts placed on a blog.
rhp was probably distracted by the black helicopters over his house
@105
You are either unbelievably stupid, or breathtakingly dishonest. Or both.
About Stanley Ann Dunham:
About Barack Obama, Sr.:
Yup – sounds like an ancestry filled with wealth and privilege. Not.
Sounds like hard-working, intelligent people who made use of opportunities, many of them scholarships and other support for people with regular means, to attend college and graduate school.
You are such an ass puddy, but thanks for the opportunity this morning to learn more about our President’s respectable and interesting family.
@105 Puddy, I didn’t reply to this because I realized you were setting a box trap and dangling bait, but have you actually run actual numbers to show which family was “richer” on the date of each son’s birth?
I don’t see how you’d have access to that information, so it looks like you’re doing this by-guess-and-by-golly — you’re assuming an infant whose daddy was “Harvard-educated” and whose grandpa was a banker was materially better off than one whose daddy was a P.R. flack for the AAMA. I’m not so sure that’s a safe assumption at any time; it certainly wasn’t when it mattered. Obama’s “Harvard-educated” daddy didn’t do Obama much good after he left Obama’s mother and went back to Kenya. But regardless, the assumption you necessarily make is subject to the weakness of all assumptions, namely, that you have to ASS/U/ME the facts on which your argument depends.
But this is all immaterial, anyway, because relative family wealth on date of birth has far less impact on a child’s prospects in life than the family’s economic status during the child’s growing up years. And it seems obvious Mitt wins this “advantages” comparison hands-down. Shortly after birth, Obama became the child of a single mother, while the wealth and success of the Romney family only grew and grew.
So I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here, other than floating a trick question to set up your liberal opponents on this blog for some barb-throwing. If you’re trying to teach them to read fine print, fine, go at it — as a lawyer I know that fine print has been the undoning of many an unsuspecting sheep. That’s about the only value this string of comments has.
In other words, puddy is playing his usual vacuous wordplay games.
Let’s look at Mitt Romney’s background, shall we?
About his father, George Romney:
Mitt’s antecedents…lobbyist, executive, governor, Bloomfield Hills, Cranbrook school…sounds VERY silver-spoony to me.
Puddles, is, once again, shown to be completely full of shit.
This is too easy.
Beware of REITS
In this modern age, 1-percenters don’t get rich by inventing a better mousetrap, or at least making mousetraps more efficiently or selling more of them; they get rich by skimming.
That’s right, that’s what bankers and vulture capitalists and other manipulators do, they look around for something that’s still solvent and skim it, much like the equity-stripping scams that afflicted elderly homeowners a few years ago.
With bankers’ bonuses regulated and hedge funds losing money, the Wall Street sharks are setting their sights on a new target: Real estate investment trusts (known as REITs). The predators are greedy CEOs and the victims are REIT shareholders.
The allure of REITs to ordinary shareholders (such as individuals managing their own retirement accounts) is high dividends. It seems safe: These trusts own rent-generating commercial property — everything from shopping centers to hospitals — and the steady stream of rental income undergirds a steady stream of income to shareholders, with a built-in inflation hedge because as prices rise so do rents. But REITs generate too much cash to not attract sharks, and they’re increasingly being taken over and run by people who have only their own best intersts in mind — which is very bad for shareholders.
The skimming technique involves robot boards giving these CEOs raises and bonuses far in excess of the value they add to the enterprise. For example, a REIT could be growing assets and income at a 2% annual rate, but a friendly or captive board is boosting the CEO’s compensation at twenty times that rate. It’s the tired old story of getting paid for non-performance, or for performance that in a rationale world would get the CEO fired.
My advice is to stay away from REITs altogether, because it’s too hard to sort the good ones from the prey, and even if you find a good one to invest in chances are it’ll soon become prey to these vultures.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/20.....ge-raises/
@110
Our culture is being overrun by sociopaths.
@102 What kind of mickey mouse online liquor store doesn’t sell Jack Daniels No. 7? Why bother going to that website.
@111 It’s overrun by dishonesty, greed, and corruption.
DOJ’s War Against Medical Marijuana
There’s absolutely no question that suppressing medical marijuana is official policy. Stymied in its efforts to harass medical marijuana vendors with prosecutions, DOJ is trying a new tactic: Harassing their landlords by threatening to confiscate the landlords’ property.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47809936
Lance Armstrong could lose all his trophies if it’s proved he was just another win-by-any-means cheater.
Moral: When something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
(See, e.g., Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds.)
@113
Amoral, destructive, I-got-mine-ism – everything and everyone is money to be skimmed, a resource to be exploited and the only value is how much money I can put in my pocket RIGHT NOW.
This is clearly not sustainable, not without an inevitable descent into a dystopian neofeudalism – which is what our right-wing friends seems to be working very hard to attain.
@ 111
That’s tax-paying sociopath to you, bub.
Do you despair, Lib Sci?
@ 115
Moral: When something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
(See, e.g., Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds.)
You forgot Barack Obama.
Highly doubtful, asshole. Rich amoral exploitative pricks rarely pay taxes. That’s for little people, remember?
I absolutely do, because I care. Why do you find this to be a point of derision? I thinks that’s very revealing of who you are.
Rabbit @ 115–
Here is how Lance Armstrong describes his politics–
Mr. Armstrong has described himself as “middle to left”.
He’s pro-choice, “not keen on guns”, against the Iraq war, and for separation of church and state.
Armstrong also believes in cheating to win..a strong Democrat trait.
By standards of his home state of Texas, he would be considered a Democrat.
Roger,
The Schmuck can’t read. I said Mitt was not BORN with a silver spoon. And his father wasn’t a college graduate. His father moved after he took the American Motors job when he was at least 5.
Obummer’s daddy was a college graduate. Obummer went to private schools from 10-18 paid for by grandpa. So you see Lib loves to put useless arguments on this blog. He loses as always!
This is the standard BULLSHIT from Lib da schmuck. He’s a frivolous moron.