1. Thanks to everyone who followed along with my live-tweeting of Tuesday night’s WSLCB meeting for establishing rules in the upcoming legal marijuana market. It’s fascinating to watch this process unfold and it gives me greater appreciation for the job that the WSLCB is doing.
Today, my dim-witted Congressman, Dave Reichert, made the following comments about our state’s new law:
“I think it was a bad decision,” Reichert said. “I think it’s going to crumble here in the state of Washington.
“I’ll be very clear: I am not going to assist the federal government in any way in finding a solution to the conflict between the state and federal law — I can’t do it.”
This is about as profoundly irresponsible as you can imagine. The state that Dave Reichert represents voted by a comfortable margin to set up a legal market for marijuana. But instead of working with his fellow Washington representatives to stand up for his voters, he’s just going to sit with his thumb up his ass and watch it “crumble”.
Personally, I don’t think it will crumble. There will be problems, in particular with how new businesses do their banking, but the fact that people would much rather buy marijuana in regulated stores will eventually bring us to a stable system. But the important point here is that these are problems that Congress has the ability to fix. So Dave Reichert’s position is: I could do something about it, but I’d rather watch it crumble and let criminal gangs continue to run the market. He really does fit in with his fellow House GOP buffoons.
2. I’m delighted to witness Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s evolution on understanding medical marijuana. Despite all the noise about people abusing medical marijuana programs to get recreational weed, people who’ve followed this issue have always known about the remarkable stories like this one, where the staunchly anti-pot parents of a 5-year-old in Colorado eventually discovered that medical marijuana was able to stop her seizures after no other medicines worked. And that appears to be one of the centerpieces of Gupta’s special on CNN Sunday night. I’m looking forward to seeing it.
3. I haven’t written much about the NSA spying scandal. There are a lot of parts and angles to it, and many professional journalists are doing a wonderful job covering it.
But if there’s one particular aspect of this story that I find fascinating, it’s the reactions that people have had to NSA’s spying overseas in friendly countries. For many who are old enough to remember the Cold War, the reaction is mostly a shrug. But for younger folks (particularly those close in age to Snowden), there’s far more outrage and concern.
Two things have really made a big difference in this shift. The end of the Cold War is one. We no longer face a military threat on the scale of the Soviet Union. America’s supremacy in the world isn’t challenged by anyone. And global terrorist networks kill fewer Americans than toddlers with guns. The fact that we’re spying on Germans, Brits, and Australians in response to this threat looks absurd, especially if you’re too young to even remember the Berlin Wall coming down.
Second, the internet age has greatly changed the perceptions that we have about borders, and about how different we are from those across the globe. This is one of the most monumental cultural shifts the world has gone through. A generation ago, few people in this country had any social contact with people across the globe. Today, we regularly converse and interact in real time with people all over the world.
Much of the existing law that currently governs what NSA is allowed to do makes distinctions between domestic and foreign surveillance targets. But in a world where America can wield power in largely unchallenged ways, it makes little sense to most young people why the privacy of their friends in foreign lands is worth less than theirs. And these revelations are a big part of why the rationale for the NSA’s activities is starting to crumble.
“And global terrorist networks kill fewer Americans than toddlers with guns.
The premise of this article is that toddlers with guns killed more people (11) than terrorists (4) this year. But if you count the nearly 2,977 people directly killed by the 9/11 attacks, assuming toddlers with guns continue to kill an average of 11 people per year, it would take toddlers 270 years to kill as many people as terrorists killed in one day in 2001. So, to the extent the article seeks to pooh-pooh the terrorist threat by asserting toddlers with guns kill more people than terrorists, that’s true only by cherry-picking an arbitrarily-selected short time period, and is very far from being true in big-picture terms.
But the real issue is whether the terrorist threat is essentially over, so that we can say with straight faces that toddlers with guns are now a greater danger to American lives and limbs than terrorists. I’m not convinced. Al Qaeda has been pummeled, but not eliminated, and apparently is still enough of a threat to prompt this week’s embassy evacuations and shutdowns. And AQ isn’t the only terrorist show in town. Let’s not forget our very own homegrown terrorists: Abortion clinic bombers and assassins, government-haters who blow up or fly planes into public buildings, and rightwing militias playing wargames (and arming kids with military assault weapons).
There’s still plenty of terrorists and would-be terrorists to go around.
Two things have become clear in recent weeks:
1. The U.S. government is systematically spying on its own citizens, in ways that probably violate our constitutional rights, and has been doing so and lying to us about it for a long time.
2. The U.S. government is relentlessly hunting down the people who exposed the extent and reach of the U.S. government’s surveillance of law-abiding U.S. citizens residing in the U.S., and is determined to throw the book at them. See, e.g., the bringing of espionage charges against whistleblowers like Manning and Snowden.
Politicians can justify all this in their own minds as necessary to protect the U.S. from further terrorist attacks. The problem with this thinking is that it doesn’t make what’s illegal legal, or what’s unconstitutional constitutional. Rather, it is a thought process that says, in effect, constitutional rights are arbitrarily and secretly expendable.
How much did I-502 pass by in the 8th Congressional District, by the way? I thought that was the one measure where East and West pretty much agreed last year.
The NSA Spying is becoming an election issue, in Germany! Of course Chancellor Merkel would be the one responsible now, but her government is trying to shift the blame to the Social Democrats, since they were in power, with the Green Party as coalition partner when 9/11 happened. Normally, mudslinging is not as bad, probably because of coalition government and Mixed Member Proportional Representation. In this case, the Social Democrats jumped on the NSA scandal, so the CDU hit back crying hypocracy, and the Social Democrats accused the Christian Democrats of politicizing 9/11.
http://www.spiegel.de/internat.....15506.html
Also, Die Lienke, aka The Left party, is also piling on the SPD, and that is bad. The Left Party, was formed from the remnants of the East German Communist Party.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_(Germany)
From the start of 2007 through the end of 2012, total U.S. private sector employment increased by more than one million jobs, about 1%. Over the same period, the oil and natural gas industry increased by more than 162,000 jobs, a 40% increase.
…
Support involves performing supporting activities for oil and natural gas operations, including exploration, excavation, well surveying, casing work, and well construction. Support is the largest oil and gas industry category, and employed more than 286,000 people by the end of 2012, up more than 102,000 jobs from 2007. (BLS considers support to be for the above activities, and does not include jobs created in other industries such as manufacturing, housing, retail, education, and food services.)
http://www.eia.gov/todayinener.....m?id=12451
Maintaining a completed Keystone project falls under the Support category.
Remember that when assholes like Roger Rabbit and Barack Obama try to tell you that only 50 permanent jobs will result from that pipeline.
@3
Results for I-502 in the 8th CD:
Approve: 188004
Reject: 145449
Details here. It lost in the 3rd and 4th, won everywhere else.
You are correct, Sheriff Hairspray is not representing his district on this issue.
FBI Ties Chicago Representatives to Zimbabwe Lobbying
Two Democratic lawmakers from Illinois worked to help lift economic sanctions against Zimbabwe after being targeted by an illegal $3.4 million lobbying scheme, according to FBI testimony unsealed in federal court.
Reps. Danny K. Davis and Bobby L. Rush, both of the Chicago area, were identified by Chicago media as “U.S. Representative A” and “U.S. Representative B” in the case, given that they were the only Illinois Democrats to have sponsored a failed 2010 resolution to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe cited in court documents.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/f.....os=htmbtxt
Class acts, those Illinois members of the Democrat Party. I’m sure MSNBC will be all over this one.
Obama’s foreign policy in a tailspin
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08.....a-mideast/
Two very big words missing from this piece:
Hillary Clinton.
@6
I can’t tell….are you dumb enough to believe the specious conclusions you draw from the tenuously related arrays of factoids you string together, or is this just more cynical and dishonest shilling for your favorite right-wing talking point of the day?
You never fail to disappoint….one more chapter in the ongoing saga of right-wing ‘thought’…”Stupid, or lying?”
With, of course, the cheapshot flourish at the end, which is your trademark.
Keep it up, Dr. Bob, we’re all laughing at you.
@ 10
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Take it up with them.
Bet very few of those 162,000 jobs are part-time. Nearly certain that a small minority of those jobs are minimum wage.
Pretty sure none of those workers are asking “Would you like fries with that?”.
Deal with it.
Ahhhh, Bob.
“Drill, baby drill!” becomes “Shill, baby shill!”
Keep it up – we love your schtick – you can’t know what a parody you’ve become.
In other news, it’s now dropped below freezing above 80 degrees north latitude:
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plo.....T_2013.png
Those looking for more evidence of Arctic ice regression due to AGW won’t find it this year.
@ 12
Solyndra
A123
GreenTech
You were saying, about shilling, Lib Sci?
It might be a little premature to tag Terry McAuliffe with the label Manchurian Candidate.
One of GreenTech’s investors works for a Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei Technologies, investigated by the House intelligence committee over alleged ties to Chinese intelligence services, according to documents obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley from the Dept. of Homeland Security.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics.....038;page=2
But not by much.
Seems it’s Anniversary Week at HA.
Today is an anniversary of a day during which it was not a good thing to be hanging out in Nagasaki, Japan.
Eating a slice at Sbarro’s in Jerusalem on August 9, 2001, wasn’t such a good idea, either.
http://www.kerenmalki.org/Sbarro_Massacre.htm
Notable and quotable:
Sbarro terrorist ‘not sorry’
Ahlam Tamimi, the terrorist who was sentenced to 16 life terms in jail for her involvement in the terrorist attack on the Sbarro Pizzeria in Jerusalem in August 2001 said “I’m not sorry for what I did. We’ll become free from the occupation and then I will be free from prison.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articl.....91,00.html
Of course, 16 life terms doesn’t mean what it used to mean. She was freed in 2011 – Israel must have wanted that Gilad Shalit dude back something fierce. Anyway, today she lives the life of a hero in Jordan.
@7
Thanks for posting those numbers, I was about to look that up.
@17
No sweat.
Let’s talk about IQ
Is it possible that Jason Richwine, former Heritage Foundation “scholar”, thinks “blacks” are the most inferior ethnic group in terms of IQ because he’s spent too much time here reading Uncle Puddles nonsense?
Uncle Puddles, do you agree or disagree with Richwine and his “research” that on average you and your family have a statistically significant lower IQ, and therefore less intelligence, than Seattle Jew because being of a “black” ethnicity is correlated to low intelligence?
Is the Democratic party the “dummocrat” party because it has so many “blacks” while the Republican party has so few?
Serial RENEGER, Are you more intelligent than Uncle Puddles cuz he’s “black” and you’re not?
@ 7 @ 17
“I, (name of Member), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God” (5 U.S.C. §3331).
http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/memberfaq.aspx
Nothing there about pledging to represent the interests of the constituency.
I understand the point you are making, but if we expect elected representatives to blindly support the will of the voters, should we not have expected all of California’s congressional representatives to support Prop 8? Should California’s governor not have supported it, and should the California AG not have argued it at the Supreme Court level?
If one actually watches the linked video, Reichert gives his reasons for disagreeing with I-502. He might be right or wrong, but it sounds like it’s based on his career background and not his ideology.
Reichert ran on his record – for better or for worse – as a LE officer. That’s what put him into office. If he uses that background to guide him in electing to provide no assistance to implementation of I-502’s provisions, is he being inconsistent with his beliefs or how he ran as a candidate?
This year’s list of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients includes Dr. Sally Ride and the late Senator Daniel Inouye. I wonder if that would be a first, as Senator Inouye was a Medal of Honor recipient. He earned both.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news.....83511.html
This might make the Dave Reichert bashing just a little more difficult to pull off with a straight face:
Reichert breaks ranks with House GOP leaders, backs citizenship for immigrants
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/.....mmigrants/
Ah, but he’s concerned about marijuana-smoking LE officers and young people inhaling carcinogenic substances. Yeah, let’s gut the motherfucker.
@20 Serial RENEGER,
I didn’t see where LSciaDSH asserted that a representative should blindly do anything, but your ability to see things where none actually exists is understood here.
Your point is taken, however.
As bad, stupid, lazy and unrepresentative Sheriff Congressman Reichert is, the idiots who return him to office to neither work for their desires nor work for his own contradictory policies are the real dimwits.
Any chance you’ve ever pulled the lever for Congressman Dimwit?
@20
Any LE officer who doesn’t understand the public safety benefits of having legal and regulated markets for marijuana is not smart enough to serve in Congress. Many of I-502’s most high profile supporters were LE officials at higher levels of the government than Reichert was as King County Sheriff.
And Prop 8 was an attempt discriminate and is now – correctly – being seen as an unconstitutional attempt to do so (meaning that Congressional law-making is irrelevant). With I-502, it’s about regulating commerce. I’m not saying that his position on I-502 isn’t consistent with beliefs. I’m saying that his position on I-502 puts him far out of step with the needs of his constituents, and he’s not fit for the office he holds because of it.
@22 Serial RENEGER,
So, is Congressman Dimwit going to do anything in his rank breaking support for immigration reform?
Or maybe the lazy do nothing dimwit will revert to form and ‘not going to assist the people in any way in finding a solution to the conflict’ between the majority of Americans and the House GOP leaders?
Wanna bet?
Oh, yeah, right. Betting with you serves no purpose because you are Serial RENEGER.
@ 24
Correct me if I am wrong but the Prop 8 case was decided based on the issue of standing and not based upon the facts of the case. It’s been seen as unconstitutional for some time – by its detractors. Supremes have not yet weighed in on the meat of the dispute.
Your point regarding other LE supporters of I-502 taken, but Reichert’s position is not inconsistent with what the voters knew when they voted him into office. Of course, voters aren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree – Chicago voters also re-elected Jesse Jackson Jr. knowing full well how much trouble he was in.
@22 Serial RENEGER
Congressman Dimwit was gutted by one persistent MFing reporter right here for being a lying pandering hypocrite who talks out of both sides of his mouth.
And it’s on tape!
Although actual voting fraud is rare, it does happen.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....28456.html
@ 25
So, is Congressman Dimwit going to do anything in his rank breaking support for immigration reform?
There’s a lot of concern on the right about a discharge petition that Pelosi may be readying, and that Boehner may be giving her tacit encouragement to do it (not that he could prevent it if he wanted to do so). If that materializes, then Reichert has a decision to make. If his name shows up on it, then his actions will have matched his words.
A GOP House freshman has discovered a novel way to root out food stamp fraud: If you don’t look like a starving concentration camp inmate, you’re not eligible for food stamps.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....31770.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I’ll bet this guy also thinks he can predict predisposition to commit crime from skin color.
@ 30
I’ll bet this guy also thinks he can predict predisposition to commit crime from skin color.
I think I can predict predisposition to commit crime in NY:
1. Democrat
2. Politician
Gov. Cuomo got $100,000 from developer, then signed law giving it big tax breaks
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....z2bUWNI6bC
Maybe Cuomo should have waited more than two days between the donation and signing the bill.
GOP Ex-Sen. Scott Brown has a weird brother.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....31960.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: According to Republican reasoning this means Brown is a weird, too.
@26
Well, if he doesn’t keep up with evolving understandings, he should be replaced. His job is a very important one, and he should treat it that way. And I feel the same way about Rick Larsen, who’s also failing to represent WA voters on I-502.
@31 What crime was committed, Dimbulb Bob?
Hey, I’m not saying buying politicians’ votes with campaign donations is pretty. But it’s legal and it’s the system. See e.g. Citizens United. Oh, and might I remind you that Republicans do it, too?
@ 32
You really didn’t want to open the door to a discussion of Barack Obama’s half-siblings, did you?
@32 Sure. Go for it. Today’s a slow news day.
@ 34
A commission on political corruption may get to the bottom of that soon, as they have issued subpoenas to Extell and four other companies who ended up with lucrative tax breaks.
http://hotair.com/archives/201.....-new-york/
Stay tuned.
Oh, and last I heard, bribery isn’t legal. Although within the gerrymandered district that is the rectal lumen encircling your head, I really couldn’t say what law is controlling.
America’s Gaudiest Sheriff (TM) has ordered his cops to sleep with M-16s.
“Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona announced Thursday he will start requiring his deputies to carry AR-15s at all times and expects them to use the weapons to fight crime even when they’re off duty.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....31487.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: We’ll see how long this lasts after his cops demand overtime pay for being on duty 24 hours a day.
@29 Serial RENEGER,
To the extent you’ve set the expectation that Congressman Dimwit’s effort to “build a solution around the 12 million (undocumented residents) that are here,” is that he’ll agree with others who are actually doing something, you may be right.
But a reasonable observer of Congressman Dimwit’s career would think he won’t even hurdle that low bar.
Somebody dropped a dead shark on a NYC subway train. The MTA is not worried about finding who did it, saying that they have better things to do. Supposedly it was a dogfish, anyway.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/st.....id=9198604
It’s very hard to make Ed Schultz appear smart by comparison with anything.
MSNBC found a way:
EXCLUSIVE: Alec Baldwin Set To Host New MSNBC Primetime Show
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ale.....time-show/
The current King County Sheriff is Reichert’s former spokesman, John Urqhardt. Urqhardt endorsed I-502, and the incumbant joined him out of desperation.
Ahhhhh, Family Values at its best from the Family Values Camp.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1421815
Also, Scott Brown came from a family where each of his parents were married and divorced 4 times. Another Family Values moment.
Does Serial dip Shit do any work?
@ 43, 44
Also, Scott Brown came from a family where each of his parents were married and divorced 4 times. Another Family Values moment.
OTOH you supposedly came from a loving family and look at what a fucking psychotic piece of shit you have become.
Scott Brown apparently overcame adversity. You became the one your parents don’t speak of unless necessary.
Work that.
@45. You are funny. At least you know your name. You know nothing about my Family.
Scott Brown should examine his own Family Values, they seem non existent. Both parents married and divorced 4 times! Yeah, let’s all celebrate that, hip hip horay!
During one of his speeches he was ready to prostitute out one of his daughters.
I wonder if Serial does shit like this, you know keeping with them Family Values.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1422215
47)It’s good that they included the discriptor “conservative”, Americans reading it would assume that the Liberal National Party would be a left-wing party. The Federal Liberals already had a candidate pull a Rick Perry, when asked a policy question.
Does anyone else note that cheapshotBob seems to be getting more shrill, more angry, more nasty?
What happened to “You make me think, I make you think”?
Oh, yeah, that was the opening salvo of bullshit from the shill.
Keep up the good work, cheapshot – your ongoing dishevelment and descent into parody is ABSOLUTELY priceless entertainment.
@8
So Serial, where’s the crime? Neither of the two representatives mentioned have been indicted or even charged with anything. The FBI does not even allege that these representatives received any of the $3.4 million dollars, only that they sponsored legislation to remove sanctions. The crime that is alleged is that the lobbyists received money from a foreign government to lobby Congress.
Isn’t it obvious?
50 jobs at close to the minimum wage I’m sure..
@50
Does that surprise you?
Cheapshot’s favorite rhetorical maneuver is to drop a couple of superficially linked factoids and then draw innuendo from the suggested (but usually insubstantial) link.
That and the false equivalence are his stock-in-trade.
Like I’ve said, it seems his rhetorical thrusts just don’t have much vigor, like he’s phoning it in, rather impotently.
Indeed… James Bamford wrote “The Puzzle Palace” way back in ’82 and that book came about because of the Church hearings held in the 70’s.. around ’75.. All of a sudden because of those hearings, Bamford was able to talk to a lot of people who nobody practically knew existed..
So this country went from almost nil knowledge of the NSA’s activities to modest knowledge in the span of less than a decade.
Now with Ed Snowden and Bamford’s subsequent reporting over the years since “The Puzzle Palace” – lots of good stuff..
@49 his actions are right in line with the Teabaggers – nuts, angry, and hateful. Not sure what their beef is, they seem to have things pretty well compared to many. I think it might because they are not rich enough to call themselves rich and that they know the rich get all the breaks in life, and unless you are rich you are destined to be destitute eventually – it’s like hitting your thumb with a hammer and they keep doing it because eventually their thumb is too numb to know that they are hitting their own thumb.
@ 50, 52
Davis’ spokesman Ira Cohen told CQ Roll Call that the congressman has either retained, or will retain, legal counsel in preparation for whatever next steps might need to be taken in connection with the allegations.
You’re right, there’s rarely criminal behavior in Chicago politics.
Rosty? Merely an aberration.
Sale of the US Senate seat formerly held by Obama? Fuckin’ golden, but another aberration. That mention of Jesse Jackson Jr. as willing to come up with $6M in campaign contributions in exchange for being appointed? Why, that dirties the good name of the congressman, namesake son of that Hymietown slur-uttering philandering former Democrat candidate for president.
I’m sure there was no untoward behavior by either congressman and the decision by one of them to seek an attorney has nothing to do with the allegations.
The NSA scandal seems to be ensnaring Germany’s intelligence agencies. Both the BND, the foreign intelligence agency, and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic intelligence agency, are under fire for participating in the program. The former is barred by the German Constitution from spying on German Cotizens.
http://m.spiegel.de/internatio.....referrrer=
The Fderal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or BfV, is also under fire for underestimating the threat of Neo-Nazi groups in general, and a group called the National Socialist Underground. The surviving members of that group are on trial in a Munich Court for a murder spree. The BfV is accused of investigating Far left politicians more than this group.
http://www.dw.de/right-wing-te.....a-16833522
@55
A MASTERPIECE!!
My gawd, I’m in awe of your powers of obfuscation!
Rotenkowski? JJ Jr? Blagojevich?
You’re reaching WAY back! Excellent!
See? Just goading you a little bit and you come up with this amazing paragon of your oeuvre – it has everything – guilt by association, implied but unsubstantiated guilt, race-baiting – you’ve really outdone yourself.
Was it the use of the word “impotently” that prompted you to up your game?
We are still laughing at you, of course.
Here are some of the comments from the Roll Call link that cheapshotBob is referencing…
This on from commenter “ToursLepantoVienna” (google those and you’ll find all sorts of ‘MOOSLUMSSS!! are going to kill us all!!’ type racists – seems to be a Teahaddist meme, and names of famous battles, of course)…
My, cheapshot, you must feel right at home…
Maybe this will help:
Changing Our Corrupt City’s Course
Now based on a study by political scientists from the University of Illinois at Chicago, we have the statistics to confirm our dishonorable and notorious reputation.
Since 1976, Chicago and its suburbs in the federal court system’s Northern District of Illinois lead all other districts in the country with 1,485 federal convictions of corrupt public officials and businessmen. Others have been convicted in lower courts, resigned in disgrace, or gone undetected.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....81856.html
Rosty was not current, granted.
Blagojevich commited his crime in 2008-2009 and was only recently convicted.
JJJ is guilty but not yet sentenced and that certainly is very current.
I could mention his wife, also guilty, now a resigned-in-disgrace former alderwoman.
Lib Sci, when IL circles the drain and wants a bailout, you and your ilk will be whining for it – paid for by someone else, of course.
And I’ll be here to remind you that you find Chicago corruption funny.
…more than 1,800 public officials have gone to federal prison in Illinois between 1973 and 2010, and that that corruption costs the taxpayers more than $500 million a year.
Go ahead and laugh. You’re not a Chicago taxpayer.
This is a piggyback on Goldy’s SLOG post yesterday Lazy, Lazy, Union Workers: Washington 787 Workers to Make Up South Carolina 787 Shortfall
From the PSBJ – (known soshuleest rag?)
More Washington aerospace suppliers become unionized, now nine
@59 Serial RENEGER – renowned prognosticator of the 2013 US Recession and Rmoney/Ryan election victory,
When might that come to pass?
@ 61
When might that come to pass?
Well, their credit rating was just downgraded three notches and they now have the worst rating of any state.
My guess is not so long into the future unless there is some serious economic uptick. Right now there are still investors willing to buy IL debt. At a price.
There you go again – you love that word – “ILK” – it really does encapsulate the us-versus-them, contempt-filled nature of your thinking, doesn’t it, cheapshot?
Of course, you’re doing what you do best with this latest post – you’re responding to specific complaint – that is, that you’ve got nothing but inference and innuendo about the issue at hand – Zimbabwe lobbying – and responding with some damning generalization about corruption in Chicago politics.
Did those years at Brown not teach you anything about legitimate argument and rhetoric? Or, turning it around – where did you learn to lie so well – College Republicans?
@59 Serial RENEGER – renowned prognosticator of the 2013 US Recession and Rmoney/Ryan election victory,
And what? You are to be deemed an expert on the subject because you are Chicago taxpayer?
Way ahead of you asshole. :-D
FlubScout@19
Already covered long ago. Is this another display of 24 hour moonbattic mindless memory malady in a lunatic leftist? Refresh your memory with a call to the unemployed moron. He’ll gladly goto his crazed databaze for you.
In fact, he be searching it now!
5
4
3
2
1
,,,
You can always spot Libtard SCHMUCKO when he has nothing useful to say (which is 95% of the time) when he goes ad hominem on Serial Conservative.
Believe me SCHMUCKO; we who think right LOL with your commentary. SC beat Puddy to the BLS stats. Just like the BLS admitted last month the real unemployment is 14% due to people dropping out of looking for work in the Obummer Economy.
There is one thing about SCHMUCKO. He’s consistently stupid around government facts!
So Lee is upset on Congressman Reichert’s stance. As a sworn law officer elected to Congress what laws apply to his current job? State or Federal?
Nuff said suckas!
@65 Uncle Puddles!
Is the reason you won’t just answer the question because Jason Richwine, former Heritage Foundation “scholar”, is right about the lack of intelligence you ethnicity brings you?
@66
OH BOY, cheapshotBOB – the puddybigot is coming to your rescue!
If only he had something to say, other than weird, weird neologisms.
Puddybigot, is the U-6 unemployment what your trying to talk about? Like this? The broader, higher measure, the one that started going radically upward at the beginning of the Bush Depression, and has been declining for about the past 3 years? That one?
If you Republicans are SOOOOOOO concerned about unemployment, why does the US House keep voting on abortion and Obamacare fantasies, instead of working with Democrats to pass a jobs bill?
Good gawd, these two have nuthin’ – I’m going back to my house projects.
Where are the republican jobs bills?
I though jobs were priority one for republican, not voting uselessly on the Affordable Care act 40,000 times
That’s the slogan for the next couple of election Cycles
“Republicans Did Nothing”
On Monday, Former First Lady of Montana Betty Babcock passed away at the age of 91. Her husband, a Republican, became Governor in 1962 when then Governor Donald Nutter was killed in a plane crash.
She was a legislator herself, and could reach across party lines. She was a delegate to the convention that rewrote Montana’s Constitution, in 1972.
http://m.mtpr.org/?utm_referre.....obile/6624
Plus, Democrats and Republicans can get along in Helena from time to time. Former Governor Schwietzer had a Republican running mate.
The 1972 Constitution is an interesting document. The Right to Bear Arms is more properly defined, for individuals. Article 2, Section 3, under inalienable rights, the right to a clean and healthful environment. This was probably as a result of the movement nationally, and local issues such as Butte and East Helena.
http://courts.mt.gov/content/l.....onstit.pdf
If a person’s employer doesn’t offer benefits or enough pay to cover benefits like food, shelter, healthcare, out of pocket, what should those people do?
Serial “Why can’t you see I’m the victim here?” Conn didn’t address what they should do, he just said nobody better ask him for money.
What is the conservative response?
Wrong again FlubScout… Puddy answered it some time ago. This was already covered and Puddy doesn’t jump to do your bidding. You want Puddy’s response, ask HA’s unemployed moron. HA’s unemployed moron has every PuddyMissive cross-referenced. HA’s unemployed moron will gladly goto it!
Just admit you are a sad sack of HorsesASS excretions with no memory!
What is the conservative response?
And
Nuff Said Sucka
@73 Uncle Puddles,
Do you think I memorize your insane unintelligible rants here because Jason Richwine, former Heritage Foundation “scholar”, is right about the lack of intelligence you ethnicity brings you?
Or maybe you lack the intelligence to understand my question because Jason Richwine, former Heritage Foundation “scholar”, is right about the lack of intelligence you ethnicity brings you?
Oh my the U6 unemployment number sticks in Libtard SCHMUCKOS craw. You seem to get a real rise about “jobs” bills. The latest “jobs” bill offered by DUMMOCRAPTS went against the passed law of the 2011 Budget Control Act. Put together a real jobs bill under the caps agreed to by DUMMOCRAPTS in the Senate in 2011 and it will pass! Instead DUMMOCRAPTS like to break laws or take laws to court, shopping for a libtard judge (think Eric Holder on James Rosen) they hate.
Why do DUMMOCRAPTS pass laws then purposely try to break them?
Oh, my….the puddybigot ALWAYS offers a target-rich environment…
The puddybigot writes this EVERY FUCKING TIME he doesn’t want to engage a question.
Fucking coward.
Once again FlubScout doesn’t understand English… instead when called on his stooooooooooopidity rants on about some crap. For the last time FlubScout… this was previously discussed on HA. Goto and ask HA’s unemployed moron. HA’s unemployed moron has every PuddyMissive cross-referenced every time he gotos the crazed databaze. HA’s unemployed moron will gladly goto it!
See ya! Keep ranting for the I G N O R E D label!
So the conservative response to people who don’t make enough to cover things like food and health care is….(drum roll please)
Serial “Why can’t you see I’m the victim here?” Conn didn’t address what they should do, he just said nobody better ask him for money.
Puddy “I’m either performance art or schizophrenic” also wouldn’t address what they should do, but said that people like him gave to charity and that he was the real victim because he had taxes taken from him.
The puddybigot quotes fellow dingbat Thomas Sowell…
I LOVE THAT!!
Know why?
Because we’ve BLOWN THAT SHIT OUT OF THE WATER a long time ago!! Even better, it was the thread where cheapshotBob absolutely EMBARRASSED himself to the point he couldn’t show up around here for months!
See here, and here, and here, and here for highlights.
It was the thread where this was coined…
I guess we could call your post above…
You make this too easy, puddybigot.
I love watching the puddybigot turn tail and run away….
PuddyFail™
Resignation watch:
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., sent an open letter Friday calling for Filner to resign and seek treatment as a private citizen.
“The latest revelations regarding your behavior toward women recovering from sexual assault — women who desperately need our help — have shaken me to my core,” wrote Boxer, who posted the letter on her website.
The senator noted that she had previously called for Filner to step down because of “the shocking revelations” about the former congressman’s behavior toward women.
“But now I must say this directly to you: Bob, you must resign because you have betrayed the trust of the women you have victimized, the San Diegans you represent and the people you have worked with throughout your decades in public life,” Boxer wrote.
http://www.10news.com/news/chi.....ed-program
Who is the big loser in a Filner resignation? Can’t be Weiner. He’s at 10% right now. I’d say Spitzer.
Or the GOP. Man, it’s been a great few weeks just sitting back and watching the carnage.
More Family Values for the Family Values crowd.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1422906
I wonder if Family Values is responsible for this unfortunate circumstances.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1422840
Things aren’t so perfect in the Family Values world.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1422438
Democrat politician’s effort to make a go of it in the real world working out about as you’d expect:
Fleeing staffers at Cory Booker’s internet start-up say the company ‘is just staying open until after the election so that it doesn’t hurt the founder’s Senate bid’
Eight staffers at Cory Booker’s tech start-up have started looking for new jobs as the company is expected to shutter.
The video aggregation company is said to be losing cash quickly and it is supposedly being kept alive through early November so that it’s closure doesn’t hurt Booker’s chances at winning the New Jersey Senate race.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....z2bWM19mwA
Wow Libtard SCHMUCKO refers to the same thing in four different “heres”.
This was the Salvation Army comparing giving in Sioux City vs San Francisco. Salvation Army claimed the per capita income was way less in Sious City vs San Francisco yet the poorer conservatives gave more.
Oh yeah… Puddy gave HA libtards the study links four times. Too bad another case of 24 hour moonbattic mindless memory malady in a lunatic leftist appears with SCHMUCKO!
Sux to be you. Well SCHMUCKO you could contact HA’s unemployed moron. He masquerades behind a pink haired troll!
The War on Wimens… DUMMOCRAPT style. Just fondle them and say sorry it’s good! Or ask them to wear no panties. Hey it’s good.
Probably no truth to the rumor that Cory Booker has asked fellow NJ Democrat politician Jon Corzine for advice regarding providing financial stability to a company in a mess o’ trouble.
Naw.
Oh look.. From the website that keeps our goto dope for laughs around here alive:
Maryland resident Ed Hunter confronted Hunter directly, telling him John Boehner needs to start “defying” Obama and threatening him with impeachment if he doesn’t “start obeying the laws!” Hunter continued, “Listen, we’re dying out here because you guys are being nice guys!”, adding, “We’re losing the country! I want to see more defiance!”
Ed Hunter is DYING klownservatives, DYING!!
Are you DYING local dopes? If not a klownservative in Maryland seems to need your help. Maybe our goto dope in these threads can recommend “mediaite”…
Wannabe Terrorist or just a Kidder?
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1422438
The government recently determined I’m a Disabled Veteran, and I’m now entitled to free medical care and a monthly check, supported by Puddy’s and Cereal Bob’s taxes. Hey guys, I really appreciate it! I love you both, man!! Thanks.
@89 I like our creeps better than your creeps, which doesn’t say much for your creeps.
@89 The only difference between this news is that if it was a Republican who did it, fellow Republicans wouldn’t speak out against it, like fellow Democrats have.
You got bad apples, we got bad apples. The only difference is you guys polish your bad apples.
Correct link to Post #92
http://www.politico.com/blogs/.....html?hp=r4
@95 “you guys polish your bad apples”
This deserves a Pulitzer Prize.
Excessive use of force by Seattle cops is costing the city millions.
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/.....e-lawsuit/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Why should taxpayers get stuck? Take it from their pay.
The great Uniters strike again.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/.....tml?hp=r15
And the Republican’s who were just complaining that that darn Obama has gone too far are no complaining that the Obama admin might change their ways. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t, so you might as well do it. Plus, fuck the rightwing. They’ve all gone crazy anyway.
If Russia doesn’t have gay or lesbian athletes, it will probably make their team weaker,” Obama added.
hahahahahah
An anti-immigrant rant cost a Wisconsin official his $96,000-a-year job.
http://seattletimes.com/html/n.....ntxml.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Apparently even Gov. Walker has his limits.
I hope this one doesn’t lead Puffy and Serial to burn their RNC Card.
http://www.politico.com/story/.....tml?hp=l19
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/.....z2bWah1uli
Bingo! But Obviously wanting to be with them, would mean that Gay people would have to be put through some exorcism first.
I thought Republicans knew how to run a business. How do you operate at a loss for 10 years and still have money to give away loose change to Politicians? I thought Republicans only supported profitable causes.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi.....hp?ref=fpb
The Truth About Student Loans (Not the B.S. Trolls Post)
Trolls love to bloviate about student loans, posting anecdotal (and usually fictional) stories about people with Ph.D.s in dance culture and $150k of debt who can’t get jobs.
(How many people actually have Ph.D.s in dance culture? And how many of them are unemployed?)
Of course, if you’re worried about student debted, the easiest way to eliminate student debt is by giving a college education to anyone who can make grades (like California did until Republicans wrecked the state), which would do away with student loans altogether. In other words, stingy Republican legislators who starved public universities of funding are responsible for the explosion of student debt, and conservatives — true to form — are blaming students for having to go into debt as a result of skyrocketing tuition rates.
But the more interesting story here is that rightwing anecdotes about students owing $150k are bullshit:
“According to the Federal Reserve, the median student loan balance is $12,800. Seventy-five percent of borrowers owe less than $28,000, 90% owe less than $54,000, and only 3% owe more than $100,000.”
To put this in perspective,
“The median student loan of $12,800 with a 10-year standard payback plan at 3.9% interest … will generate a payment of $128.99 per month. A graduated 10-year repayment plan would create a monthly payment starting at $72.10. Compare that to the average cell phone bill ($71 per month), the average cable bill ($70), the average monthly entertainment budget for single-person households ($137), the average amount spent on restaurant food ($153 per month), and the average amount spent on alcohol ($33 per month).”
Strike one.
“Or think of it this way: The average student loan is smaller than the average new car loan.”
Strike two.
“Or how about this: Statistically, about the same percentage of the population will end up with a net worth above $5 million than will graduate with more than $100,000 of student debt.”
Strike three. The rightwing liars strike out again.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/20.....proportio/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: A college education is still one of the very best investments a diligent and hard-working person can make. Why? Because college gives people critical thinking skills … something virtually all rightwing morons lack.
The Truth About Pensions (Not Wingnut B.S.)
Another rightwing fairytale is that public pension systems are bankrupt (and, therefore, should be dismantled). This, too, is an outrageous lie:
“First, … the main cause of underfunded pensions is — surprise — the financial crisis. … If public pensions had earned the risk-free rate of return available in Treasury bonds from 2007 to 2010, most of the current shortfall would disappear.”
In other words, most public pension systems were (and are) well-managed, and any seeming shortfalls in their ability to meet future pension obligations is due to external factors, i.e. the economic crisis.
“[P]ointing this out is important because pension funds aren’t investing for the next quarter or the next year; they’re typically investing for the next several generations. They have time to wait for below-average returns to be offset by above-average results. … We are coming off one of the worst decades in history for stock and real estate returns. It is intuitive to extrapolate these low returns into the future, but that’s a bad assumption. History shows that booms follow busts — which is what’s happening now, with the S&P 500 up 172% in the last four years.”
Boom. That blows up the wingnut argument, which depends for its “logic” on ignoring economic cycles and focusing only on what happened during the worst economic bust since the Great Depression, which is kinda like saying we’re supposed to disregard that winter will be followed by spring.
“Second, ultra-low interest rates can balloon a pension’s liabilities. Pensions use a discount rate typically linked to bond yields to convert future obligations into present dollars. The lower that rate is, the higher a pension’s liabilities are. And with interest rates at all-time lows, that discount rate is really, really low. But as interest rates rise, the opposite occurs, with pension liabilities falling. This is already happening. As interest rates on 10-year Treasury bonds climb from 1.7% earlier this year to 2.6% today, pension liabilities are declining. … [R]ising bond yields this year have reduced S&P 1500 pension deficits by a combined $150 billion. Pension funding improved from 80% in April to 86% in June. … ‘If rates got back up another 1.50 percentage points, we’d certainly be in a very good spot from a pension funding perspective,’ Mercer’s Jonathan Barry told The Wall Street Journal.”
Blammo. The wingnut argument depends on interest rates staying depressed forever. If interest rates return to normal anytime within our lifetime, their argument falls apart. And it will fall apart, because it was bullshit from the get-go.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/20.....proportio/
BWAAAHAAAAHAAAAAHAAAA!!!!
“Fox Television Studios may produce the GOP-loathed Hillary Clinton miniseries, The New York Times reports. … Fox Television Studios spokesman Leslie Oren told the Times that while no deal is in place, NBC is in early discussions to have Fox studios produce and distribute the film internationally.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....35009.html
Looks like Governor Brown’s Board of Investigators has produced their report on the BART Labor dispute. This time he will seek a 60 day cooling off period.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/art.....720221.php
On Sunday, Brown’s decision to empanel a board of inquiry prevented a strike from beginning last Monday. That panel’s conclusion, released Friday, was that a strike would cause significant harm to the public’s health, safety and welfare.
The National Labor Relations Act has emergency procedures that might allow it to block strikes if those stoppages will endanger a community, according to court records filed by state officials.
The labor dispute previously resulted in a 4 1/2-day strike in early July that snarled traffic on roadways and left commuters facing long lines for buses and ferries.
BART is the nation’s fifth largest rail system, carrying an estimated 400,000 daily riders from the farthest reaches of San Francisco’s densely populated eastern suburbs across the Bay through the city to the International Airport.
In Australia, one party has dropped a candidate, for at least being ignorant, perhaps dumb. She called Islam a country, not a religion. The Candidate was running on the One Nation party. http://www.abc.net.au/news/201.....fe/4878190
One Nation is a party founded in response to government policies that they saw as favoring Immigrants and Indigenous Australians. They border on racism.
Somehow may and will are not equivalences unless of course you are the SENILE Wabbit.