HorsesAss.Org

Open Thread 10/10

by — ,

– The Occupy Seattle Calendar of events (H/T Howie on Facebook)

– I don’t know if this says much about the Republicans as it does about the difficulty of comparing polls against each other. Candidates will have a higher name recognition right after a person on the other end of the phone mentions them.

– Whatever the legal status of this arrangement, it is morally wrong. If those who lost their houses in the housing market collapse are getting their just desserts, what do you call what the banksters are getting?

– Nobel Laureate Parking

– I’ve never seen an episode of Glee in my life, so I didn’t understand about 90% of the words in this Lindy West recap, but it was quite funny.

Comments

  1. 1

    ‘O hell yes.

    I dropped in on the Occupy Wall Street crowd down in Zuccotti Park last Thursday. It was like 1968 all over again, except there was no weed wafting on the breeze (another WTF?). The Boomer-owned-and-operated media was complaining about them all week. They were “coddled trust-funders” (an odd accusation made by people whose college enrollment status got them a draft deferment, back when college cost $500 a year). Then there was the persistent nagging over the “lack of an agenda,” as if the US Department of Energy, or the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs was doing a whole lot better.
    This is the funniest part to me: that leaders of a nation incapable of constructing a coherent consensus about reality can accuse its youth of not having a clear program. If the OWS movement stands for anything, it’s a dire protest against the country’s leaders’ lack of a clear program.
    http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/.....thing.html

  2. 2

    More good OWS stuff.

    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com.....esses.html
    On #OccupyWallStreet and the Power of Open Source and Consensual Processes
    I’m fascinated by how many political operatives seem keen to tell the participants in OccupyWallStreet that they are doing lots of things wrong, and really should shape up and follow traditional lines, like issuing demands and seeking to apply pressure in more conventional ways. Given that the movement is getting lots of free and mainly favorable PR and is mushrooming all over the US, there does not seem to be a lot of empirical support for this view.

    The most visible controversy has surrounded “what do these people want?” As we’ve argued, “We are the 99%” more than suffices as a high level answer. It is a VERY powerful message. It says “We don’t need to negotiate. This is our country and we want it back from the top 1% which has been selling us out.” The 1% know damned well what the 99% want, which is a more just society. If you forced any 10 in the top 1% of them to make a list of 10 things they thought the other 99% wanted, I guarantee you’d have no more than 16 real issues among the 100 answers you’d get in total. And I strongly suspect the 99% would agree or at most restate them.

  4. 4

    The Tea Baggers were a Republican rebranding effort that that they lost control of.

    One last link where Alan Grayson takes PJ O’Rourke (why are people still listening to PJ O’Rourke?* He was funny for about 15 minutes a couple of decades ago.) to school.

    http://videocafe.crooksandliar.....pj-orourke

    *The same thing could be said about Bill Maher.

  5. 5

    Have you noticed that Bill O’Reilly is beginning to resemble a blistered piece of chewing gum that someone spit out on a hot sidewalk.

    I think he hit the wall.

  6. 6

    “*The same thing could be said about Bill Maher.”

    Bill Maher in the film Amazon Women and the Avocado Jungle of Death was kind of funny. The line about “Bunny” and red licorice still cracks me up. But since then, and that was a very long time ago, for me he’s been a bore. Wingnuts believe we all love the guy for being a “lefty”. But they’re just projecting their marchstep mindset on us. I’m sure some of us like him, some of us don’t. For me, that’s just more evidence that wingnuts haven’t a fucking clue.

  7. 7

    The Occupy movement, and the Tea Party’s grassroots too, reflects popular frustration with the rigged game that America has become, under which immense rewards are lavished on evil people for obscenely bad behavior.

  8. 8

    @7
    Except that the Tea Party seem to support the wealthy and think it’s a shame that they can’t engage in even more bad behavior.

  12. 12

    What do you think will happen to the American Psyche when a majority of the people stop believing in the myth that they will be millionaires and billionaires?
    I’m imagining the backlash and anger will be very ugly if the disillusion is a sharp event.

    But then again, maybe the people who believe they to, thru luck or hard work, will become one of the 1%, will never give up that fantasy and it will take them dying off before things change.

  13. 13

    That’s an interesting aside, how DO ordinary folk think they will become one of the 1%?
    What are the upward mobility paths to that?
    Why do they think they are on it?

  15. 15

    @13 So the American wingnut dream is to get rich and then no longer have to share in the pain of taxation? After the rich pay taxes, they’re still rich. Apparently, for a wingnut, that’s not good enough. Once rich, they should be entitled to rip up the social contract, pay little to no taxes, and righteously let the rest of the nation know that we can just go fuck ourselves.

  16. 16

    @14: I was riffing off the Shakespeare quote re lawyers.

    However, I’d note that the bankers basically own the regulators and the people who ostensibly tell the regulators what to do.

    Might as well just kill ’em and be done with it.

    BTW, via Digby, answers to your questions above:

    We are the 53%

  17. 17

    Things are getting interesting in Ohio, where GOPers want to run Joe The Plumber as a human sacrifice against whoever wins the Democratic primary pitting Marcy Kaptur against Dennis Kucinich.

  21. 21

    I’m sure some of us like him, some of us don’t. For me, that’s just more evidence that wingnuts haven’t a fucking clue.

    Bill Maher not well liked on HA Stupid Solution Steve? Once again Stupid IS Stupid Solution Steve:

    1) Goldy loved him

    2) Goldy loved him again…

    3) Perfesser Darryl loved him

    4) Perfesser Darryl loved him again…

    5) And da Perfesser Darryl loves him again…

    Oh yeah there are many more Bill Maher entries… you can ask the crazed HA databaze arschloch for more entries. I provided enough from the two “head” honchos!

    Yes, you patented the stupid on HA! rujax copied your pattern.

  22. 22

    Seattle police cracking down on the oldest, most benign forms of protest, even the auto horn harrumph. What’s next?

    http://amanwithaphd.wordpress......n-seattle/

    SEATTLE – Police experimented with a new tactic Friday night as they responded to a weeklong Occupy Seattle demonstration at Westlake Park – ticketing drivers who honked in support of protesters.

  23. 23

    Oh my a lefty Atlanta Newspaper who finally came up for air.

    When Obama accuses Republicans of standing in the way of his nearly $450 billion plan, he ignores the fact that his own party has struggled to unite behind the proposal.

    When the president says Republicans haven’t explained what they oppose in the plan, he skips over the fact that Republicans who control the House actually have done that in detail.

    And when he calls on Congress to “pass this bill now,” he slides past the point that Democrats control the Senate and were never prepared to move immediately, given other priorities. Senators are expected to vote Tuesday on opening debate on the bill, a month after the president unveiled it with a call for its immediate passage.

    How do you know a libtardo is lying…? Their mouth is moving!

  26. 26

    Making it easier for Heterosexuals to kill their spouses. Way to go.

    And this won’t inhibit homos from killing each other? Oh wait… are you saying no laws are needed gman?

  27. 27

    Heterosexuals are violent people.

    “In America, a woman is abused in her home every 15 seconds. Which means there are a lot of criminals–assuming domestic violence is a crime.”

    Chalk it up to Family Values.

  28. 28

    @26 – show me the stories. like show me the money. Puffy you read into things so crazily – how do you make any connection that I would think that laws aren’t needed. But show me one story for every 20 of mine, of current events.

  29. 29

    Zotz
    Surely, when you say, “kill ’em all,” you are not including lawyers within the mix.

  30. 30

    State Sen. Michael Baumgartner (R-6, Spokane), who officially announced last week that he’s taking on two-term US Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), gave some grist to the Democrats—whose election 2012 tactic is to label every Republican candidate a Tea Partier.

    Asked what current national politician he would emulate, Baumgartner told the Pacific Northwest Inlander last week he likes US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

    “It doesn’t mean I agree with him 100 percent on everything.

    Just like he didn’t agree with everything (after the fact) in that silly Republican pledge that he signed.

    This guy’s the second coming of George Nethercutt

  33. 33

    Remember “law and order” Republicans?

    http://gawker.com/5848412/
    Is James O’Keefe a Fugitive?
    As we mentioned earlier, right-wing hitman James O’Keefe was spotted lurking at the Occupy Wall Street protest in Manhattan’s Liberty Plaza today. That might not be good news for O’Keefe, since he’s on probation and requires the permission of a federal magistrate judge to leave his home state of New Jersey. And guess what? To judge by his court file, he never got permission. Oops.

  36. 36

    @29 “Surely, when you say, “kill ‘em all,” you are not including lawyers within the mix.”

    Only lawyers who serve a corporatist master. You’re off the hook.

  37. 37

    DId you guys know that Mitten’s dad done went and got himself brain washed?

    http://fullcomment.nationalpos.....t-problem/
    But electors with long memories may recognize a congenital syndrome: when Mitt’s father, George Romney, the former governor of Michigan, ran for the Republican nomination in 1968, his candidacy was undone by his claims to having been “brainwashed” by American generals into supporting the war in Vietnam, when in fact, by ’68 at least, he was thoroughly (and conveniently) against it.

  38. 38

    To be fair, are the cops ticketing those who honk in support of our troops while crossing under Freedom Bridge near Fort Lewis after 10pm? Or is there a double standard?

  39. 39

    I now believe that I was mistaken in my initial assessment of this movement. I thought it was just a gathering of the same ol’ left-wing motley crew. I was wrong. This is now looking like the real deal.

    If you’re not with the 99%ers, then who or what the fuck are you with? The filthy, stinkin’ rich? Global corporatism? Nazis in drag? I mean, what the fuck? If I get downtown this week as planned, I’m going to mosey on over to the mall and stand with the people.

  40. 40

    @37 Yeah, that was back in the day. I thought he got a bad shake on that. Old Man Romney wasn’t so bad. That was back when being a Republican didn’t mean you had to be a fucking traitor.

  41. 41

    Hmm, I see that the self-loathing black man @21 is trying to communicate something to me. I’d ask to borrow the decoder ring but I’m long past giving a shit what some hate-filled loon has to say about anything.

  42. 42

    @41,

    Your sorry state of stupidity. No wonder you slink away with your tail between your leg.

    Self loathing my ASS! I’m a happy black man! Now run along little doggie!

  44. 44

    Righties Deploy Dirty Tricksters To ‘Occupy’ Protests

    This story was brought to my attention by Mrs. Rabbit.

    Next time you see a news report about disruptive behavior at “Occupy” protests, you should assume the instigators are rightwing agents provocateur trying to discredit the protesters — because that’s what caused the melee at the National Air and Space Museum on Saturday.

    The museum was shut down after security guards pepper-sprayed rowdy demonstrators. We now know those “rowdy demonstrators” were rightwing agents who went there with the intent of creating a disturbance in order to discredit the “Occupy” movement.

    “On Saturday October 8, 2011 video was released on to the internet showing a frenzied group of protesters outside of the National Air and Space Museum dodging a pair of Smithsonian security guards indiscriminately pepper-spraying the crowd. Something inside the Museum, moments before, caused this chaos … The events have since been used by … the media to tarnish the image of the Occupy protests emerging across the nation. …

    “Only today, Monday, are reports starting to hit the major media that there is evidence of the involvement of an editor from the Conservative magazine The American Spectator at the center of what took place this weekend in Washington D.C..

    “When I discovered Saturday afternoon an article published by Patrick Howley on the Spectator’s website entitled ‘Standoff in D.C.’ I immediately began to analyze the evidence …. I found a photograph taken by the reporters from OpEdNews.com that showed Howley alongside another man in a confrontation with a uniformed security officer in the entranceway to the museum moments before the initial use of pepper-spray.”

    The article goes on to say Howley admitted “he was an active participant … rather than an observer” and intended “to discredit the nascent movement;” Howley also boasted “of openly defying the security-guard’s directives, forcing his way into the … closed Museum, being pepper-sprayed as a result and then pursued by the security forces,” and trying “to evade being caught.”

    The author contends Howley was trying to “entice others to engage in unlawful acts as a means of generating a story he could use to discredit the protests, the protesters, and the movement” and that Howley’s employer, The American Spectator, “directly aided him in these acts.”

    http://www.opednews.com/articl.....0-474.html

    DailyKos says some media outlets are picking up the story.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....-LTEs-Work!?via=search

    The righties are so arrogant they even bragged about instigating the incident.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....n-DC-(NEW)?via=search

  46. 46

    The filthy, disjointed dope-smoking, shitting in the streets, screwed in the head morons will be the downfall of the Democrat Party.

  47. 47

    Wait… Nancy Pelosi is only against banking greed when her son “isn’t involved”!

    “Paul Pelosi, Jr., the son of Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House, worked as a mortgage broker and sales manager at a Countrywide office in San Mateo, California,” Morgenson and Rosner wrote in the book. “In 2007, when the company was on the ropes and beginning a mass of layoffs, Pelosi’s name was on the list of those to be cut. According to a former executive with knowledge of the situation, [Countrywide CEO Angelo] Mozilo personally removed Pelosi’s name from the list.”

    …

    Pelosi’s office responded to an inquiry by TheDC by pointing to her record in Congress, instead of addressing her son’s apparent special treatment from the banking industry.

    PuddyCommentary… Typical do as I say or look at my record. Do not look at the Facts!

  48. 48

    The righties are so arrogant they even bragged about instigating the incident.

    So some are using leftist tactics. Interesting…

  49. 49

    Holder in da hot seat… What does he know and when did he know it?

    PuddyCommentary: Notice how how the comparison this is just like “Operation Gunrunner” died a meteoric death? Notice how the pigs on PMSNBC and Roger DOPEY Rabbit hoped it would fly? Well it sank like a lead balloon.

    A recent example of an investigative initiative developed in support of Project Gunrunner (strategy) is the April 2009 Gunrunner Impact Team (GRIT) initiative.

    Even Michael Isikoff is looking at 2009 up till now.

    Sorry Roger DOPEY Rabbit, again you got caught with your “pants” down!

  51. 51

    @49

    Holder in da hot seat…

    I would hope so, he let the banking industry get away with murder.

  52. 52

    @38
    The last time I went south on I-5 the support our troops type stuff had been replaced by rightwing nonsense. I flipped off the guys on the bridge.

    I liked the guys with the flags.

  53. 53

    @23

    Puddy still doesn’t understand a damn thing…

    “Oh my a lefty Atlanta Newspaper who finally came up for air.”

    Did you look at your link at all? The story is an AP wire copy. So where does the story come from? According to Puddy, since he’s thick, the Atlanta Journal Constitution. But Puddy doesn’t read or to be fair, maybe he does but has the retention and comprehension ability of an A D D suffering chunk of coal.

    “By ERICA WERNER

    The Associated Press

    (story, followed by)

    October 10, 2011 06:06 PM EDT

    Copyright 2011, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.” (hey, cut and pasted right from your link, oh self proclaimed master of the interwebs.)

    So when the rabidly conservative (anti-union, anti-tax) Seattle Times re-publishes Krugman, the Seattle Times wrote it and has seen the light? Editorial boards endorse all guest columnists opinions?

  54. 54

    Steve,
    If you get downtown this week and want to go visit the folks at Westlake, let me know. I’ll be happy to accompany you.

  55. 55

    Sad sauce.

    http://www.blueridgenow.com/ar.....1110110528
    Former Washington Gov. Albert Rosellini, a son of Italian immigrants who became the oldest living former governor in America, died Monday. He was 101.

    A Democrat who always wore a rosebud on his lapel, Rosellini served as governor for eight years ending in 1965. His tenure in office was defined by efforts to reform state prisons and modernize mental health institutions while shepherding through the creation of the 520 floating bridge that now bears his name.

  56. 56

    Goldman Chief, Facing Protests, Turns Chicken

    Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein bailed out of a planned lecture at Barnard College after students organized a demonstration.

    Apparently this Master of the Universe is scared of a few students.

    Buck-cluck-bawk! Buck-cluck-bawk! Buck-cluck-bawk!

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/44854917

  57. 57

    Romney Leads In Iowa and New Hampshire Polls

    “With barely three months before the first Republican presidential nominating contests, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the GOP field in both Iowa and New Hampshire, according to new NBC News-Marist polls of these early races.”

    Here are the numbers:

    New Hampshire: Romney 44%, Cain 13%, Paul 13%, Perry 6%, Undecided 11%.

    Iowa: Romney 23%, Cain 20%, Paul 11%, perry 10%, Bachmann 10%, Undecided 16%.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44.....sion_2012/

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: These numbers are horrible for Perry. Cain and Paul are protest candidates, not viable contenders. It’s clear that Romney’s going to be the nominee.

  58. 58

    And Romney will have a hard time explaining to voters what he offers that Obama doesn’t.

    “Newly obtained White House records provide fresh details on how senior Obama administration officials used Mitt Romney’s landmark health care law in Massachusetts as a model for the new federal law, including recruiting some of Romney’s own health care advisers and experts to help craft the act now derided by Republicans as ‘Obamacare.'”

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44.....sion_2012/

  59. 59

    Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein

    Is a big DUMMOCRAPT contributor. But don’t facts deter you from a flaky argument Roger DOPEY Rabbit. Looks like he turned chicken on the children of those he used to support.

  60. 60

    czechsaaz still doesn’t understand a damn thing…

    How many newspapers carried the story czechsaaz? Did you Google it and count? Nope cuz you are a dope! PMSNBC carried it but you had to dig to find it because they buried it in a page with multiple links.

    The AJC was a big time cheerleader for Barack ObamAA+ in 2008. You are still a jockstrap for Barack ObamAA+. How is the smell there buddy?

  62. 62

    Oh and of course czechsaaz has NOTHING to say about the article content. Nope just attack Puddy for delivering real facts. Facts that explode libtardo minds.

  63. 63

    Ahhh yes, more truth on the “Jobs Bill”

    Obama has been touring the country, aiming to put pressure on the GOP to act. But Senate Democrats have indicated they are feeling some heat. Last week, Democratic leaders revised Obama’s bill, scrapping his proposed offsets. Instead of raising taxes on families making more than $250,000 annually, Senate Democrats lifted that figure to $1 million.

    Of course morons like czechsaaz will not comment!

  64. 64

    Oh my more factual information to explode leftist minds.

    White House lawyers who drafted secret Awlaki kill memo were critics of Bush’s war powers

    PuddyCommentary: Hey it’s okay when our guy uses methods we decry in a previous administration. As HA DOPY Rabbit always sez, “We like our crooks better than your crooks”. Glenn Greenwald is sad! :(.

    Can you hear the libtardo head explosions?

  65. 65

    So when will Barack ObamAA+ make the War Criminal Watch Calendar list?

    Did you notice John Yoo was on that Pinko list? Well it looks like Mr Yoo has been vindicated by the actions outlined in #64!

    Wait for it… my stalker will make some inane comment.

  68. 68

    Oh my, Puddy goes into defense mode quickly. Figure out how “syndication” works. Nah, just dodge.

    Funny, the Senate is going to vote on a slightly modified jobs bill this week. But in Puddyworld, the me fact that the bill isn’t 100% unchanged means failure. House. No chance in hell on a vote, since Cantor controls Boehner and Cantor is against any form of jobs bill before December 2012. And again, in Puddyworld, that’s Obama’s failure.

    But I like Puddy for his convictions. When he’s wrong he just gets
    Angrier thinking that shrieking and claiming to be right will change the facts.

  69. 69

    Quick, rhp, call Erectile Bob Dole for some help!

    But let’s digress:

    Oh the “do-nothing” Congress also raised taxes?? As I said above 6 months before Hoover was shown the back door.

    Why would Hoover of Hoover Institute fame do such a thing? After all “yep and nope” Coolidge thought a top rate of 25 percent was a damn fine rate indeed. Well, back in those days it was common sense that if you spent, you raised money to keep pace with the spending..

    Shocking idear to a latter day Bushie who has no compunction about cutting taxes on rich folks and corps and charging 2 wars and new entitlement spending on the credit card – not to mention bankster bailouts.

    LMAO!!! Yeah those cheap labor conservatives back then liked that cheap south of the border labor like they do now but again when their country was in trouble, well dagnabit, they’d settle for a jalopy ridin’ Okie to harvest their fields. Shit the laws of supply and demand still applied and served the bosses just fine in the wage dept. Ever read Grapes of Wrath or In Dubious Battle?

    And were Dems a bit racist and xenophobic then?? Oh pishaw HNMT! Like Spike Lee said, racism is as American as apple pie. Look at any Ken Burns documentary epic for the confirmation.

    134. rhp6033 spews:

    # 130: You still posting here? this thread is two days old. Keep up. Or are you one of those who post on old threads so you can claim that nobody would respond to you? You change posting names every day or so – are you hoping to avoid responsibility for what you say, from one day to the next?

    And you couldn’t whup me under any conceivable circumstances or manner.

    Old threads and new wineskins: I drop in occasionally, Stud, to tell if you and the cesspool still smell. You do and it does.

    Note that the only intelligent commentary in this old thread comes from me and my little sister. She’s wrong or off-point on almost every point, but she at least tries to try.

    You, on the other hand, have less than zero to offer. Which doesn’t prevent you from bleating and beating your little meat in public. You should be ashamed of yourself. You give turgid a bad name.

    Now about YLB’s taxes: Isn’t it droll that progressive Cactus Jack Garner back in 1932 demanded a regressive national sales tax to balance Hoover-Institute Hoover’s Keynesian budget. The GOP budgets of the 1920s, by the way, were small, fair, and balanced. That’s why Coolidge and Mellon topped the rate at 25% and (like big spender GWB) lopped lots of low-wage taxpayers off the federal rolls.

    Oh: That was a 25% top rate on the wartime surcharge surtax that progressive Woodrow Wilson sustained and maintained long after the end of his stupid Democrat war.

    And, to repeat, take a moment to study JFK’s across-the-board tax cuts for rich fat-cat Democrats like JFK.

    Grapes of Wrath? Okies and Steinbeck’s Okies in California were indeed treated like darkies … an endearingly racist word that endearing liberal Eleanor Roosevelt used often. Still, when Steinbeck’s Okies got jobs that illegal aliens used to take in the Imperial Valley, those jobs — as exploitive as they were — were better than the no-jobs the Okies left behind in Oklahoma.

    Read Timothy Egan’s book about the dust bowl (Dead Rabbit claims he read it so it must be good!) or a book about the Tathum family called Rising in the West. The Tathums rode into California in a Joad jalopy, got pushed around by The Bosses, and pretty soon owned sports franchises. Just like the bosses.

    Capitalism is way cool that way.

  70. 70

    @65

    Not going to take the bait. But funny that the right wing and Fox news are perfectly O.K. with killing Alwaki without trial. I suspect you agree with that position so bringing it up is a big red herring.

    But if you feel like doing some research, find 10 Pundits praising the attack on Alwaki and 10 against it on constitutional grounds and see which are traditional left and right.

  71. 71

    @29: Just the bankers (I would include the lawyers (aka “consiglieri”) who work for the bankers).

  72. 72

    69 – Hardy har har HNMT – fairer and more balanced budgets in the 20’s were small comfort to those poor slobs suffering the 25 percent unemployment doldrums by the time Hoover raised taxes to pay for Hoover Dam and other public works spending – 6 months before he was shown the door.

    This piece here explodes many of the supply-sider’s/club for growth myths about JFK’s tax cut – which was passed 3 months after his death by the way..

    http://www.slate.com/articles/.....melot.html

    Heh.. and yeah all those crazy occupiers in umpteen cities had better start for the fields to replace all those undocumented latinos being chased away by the Tancredo krowd. No, don’t settle for a stimulus package job shoring up a crumbling bridge in a red state. Shoot, according to HNMT harvesting the grapes of wrath can make even YOU a crazy kewl filthy rich capitalist pig!

  73. 73

    “She’s wrong or off-point on almost every point, but she at least tries to try.”

    Hey, I resemb…, er, I resent that remark!

  74. 74

    Hey look, it’s Joseph Stiglitz with the OWS’ers.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded

    I’m not completely sold on this whole OWS’er thing, but I am completely sold on no letting people lie about it. Like when the LA Times tried to call 150 protests a handful of protests. That’s a mighty big handful.

  75. 75

    … did help spur economic growth. But they’re wrong to see the tax reduction as a supply-side cut …

    I know Kennedy couldn’t and didn’t pass Kennedy’s tax cut for the rich. It’s a point I made here years ago. Kennedy couldn’t get anything through his do-nothing Democrat Congress. Almost anything. LBJ did the dirty work after November 1963.

    (In the Bay of Pigs book mentioned earlier, JFK wept. As the liberators whom he’d sent to their deaths without air cover were hacked to death in the mud, JFK flopped on his big bed and cried like a little girl. Then he called dad. JPK told him, hell, if you can’t handle the job, give it to Lyndon.)

    Stated and implied nothing about rich JFK’s tax cuts for the rich being supply-side cuts. The analogy I made went back to Coolidge and Mellon, not forward to Reagan and laughing Arthur Laffer.

    Still, if you actually read that Slate history lesson, you’ll learn that demand-side cuts morph into supply-side cuts in a hopeless muddle.

    What finally disproves the canard about JFK’s cuts being wholesome Keynesian walks on the demand side is this, and it’s in the fine print: rich JFK’s tax cuts for the demanding demand-side rich were intended to counter a small short slump in 1960. By the time JFK made his play and by the time LBJ sealed the deal, the slump was about four years past its pull date. It was over for almost half a decade.

    Rich JFK’s cuts for the rich — to end a slump that ended years earlier — were classically counter-cyclical. Just like almost everything from Keynes and drag-me-to-hell Walter Heller.

    Heller asserted that he could fine-tune the economy like a Les Paul Special or a Strad. The problem was that he and Keynes were always looking in the rear-view mirror. Maybe Mac Davis could have done a better demand-side tax cut.

    And it seems that JFK tried to sell his cuts as proto-supply-side. A rising tide, he said, lifts all boats. Meaning all yachts owned by rich Democrats like the Kennedys. But where would that rising tide come from if not trickle down?

  76. 76

    @75

    A writer with style, I can dig that.

    now, you do realize one thing though: all that you wrote is way above YLB’s little head.

  78. 78

    And it seems that JFK tried to sell his cuts as proto-supply-side.

    zzzzZZZZzzzz… He made a case to bidness men in language that would appeal to them.. Like no politician ever did that.

    The tax cut was motivated by Keynesian ideas period. Art Laffer and Jude Wanniski were whiny little children at the time.

    And you conveniently leave out that he originally wanted to spend on public works like that raving socialist Eisenhower did on roads and a space race but JFK couldn’t get that through his “do nothing” Democratic Congress either.

    That tax cut was a fall back. IT’S A LIE that Kennedy was motivated to reward his class.

    Of course simpletons like you and other club for growth types think, “it could work again”, “it always works”! We started hearing that in the LATE SEVENTIES.

    No silly man. That’s not the case..

  79. 79

    Looks like we’re up to 5 OWS’er protests in the state of MO.
    You know the place where Roy Blunt Jr and John Ashcroft are from. The place known as “The buckle of the Bible belt.”

    West Plains MO never struck me as being a leftist kinda town.

  81. 81

    Over on the pudge blog we find this screed:

    “ … [D]oes anyone actually care about what these protestors think, besides themselves? We’ve already established I don’t care about anyone else’s feelings, and I mean that in a very specific way: you are entitled to feel however you like, and it doesn’t — nor do I think it should — affect me one way or the other. So yeah, some lady on the front page of CNN is “87 and mad as hell,” but so what? Why should that have anything to do with me? I am looking for substance, people. If you just want to not feel bad, move to Haiti where everyone else is worse than you are, but people are more equal. But there is no substance. They are mad that other people have bigger houses, and so they want to take them away. That’s all this appears to be, to me, as I roll through Westlake Plaza.”

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s nice that pudge admits he’s insensitive, but it would be more useful if he realized he’s clueless.

  82. 82

    @77

    this really is what you do…..all…day…long…isnt it.

    I wonder if mrs ylb(if there really is one – and I am having my doubts) knows that all you do is surf lefty websites…all….day….long….

    people like you will never go anywhere or do anything….take comfort in knowing that, big guy.

  84. 84

    @82 – LMAO!! What are you doing here?

    You really have been a vacuous asshat..

    all…your…..miserable…life…long..

    take comfort in playing out that pathetic script for as long as this “dead” blog is still going..

    if there really is one – and I am having my doubts

    LMAO!!! You really don’t know shit do you???

  85. 85

    @81
    Pudgy really needs to make up his mind, first he says the protestors have no substance then he says this:

    the leftist protestors want a more activist government that will take more from everyone else and give it to themselves

    Which sounds a lot like substance to me.

  86. 86

    @76 Indeed. A post of his a year or so ago on the Bible Study thread made me weep. As with our friendship, Max, the friendship I’ve enjoyed with the HNMT likely leaves my progressive friends here shaking their heads. But I’ll choose my friends, thank you, and I see something that I like and respect in both of you.

    I forget what HNMT stands for. Hateful Name-Morphing Troll, or something like that. Funny stuff. Sorry, my lefty friends, but I love the guy. I hope we meet someday.

  87. 87

    take more (from the one percent) and give it to themselves (the 99 percent)..

    That 99 percent includes the warrior class of this country deployed in 700+ bases around world and floating in fancy nukular powered carriers and submarines and flying the latest in speedy jets.

    The 99 percent might also include some bondholders (domestic variety only I purport) who floated GWB’s debacle of a misgovernance.

    I’d think the pudgey-types would be in favor of at least that.

    But some spending for the health care of some dark-skinned folks downstream from a Koch brothers make-me-richer operation???

    Naaaah. Not a chance..

  88. 88

    @81 Oh Lord, I wish you hadn’t of brought that imbecile to my attention. Pudge, the second dumbest motherfucker on the entire fucking planet (we all know who is the dumbest motherfucker on the entire planet). I always want to slap that bitch until he comes to his fucking senses. Oh hell, he has no sense. I really want to slap that bitch around for my personal fucking pleasure.

  89. 89

    Steve,

    If I was forced on pain of waterboarding to choose one, it would be leaps and bounds HNMT. Hopelessly misguided when he was a leftist and miserably misguided now. At least he’d make an almost decent attendee of one’s book club.

    I’ll stop at that.

  90. 90

    89 – Well up to the point where the book club expels the sad sack for singing the National Review line for the Pinochet regime.

  91. 91

    @89 I get a kick out of the exchanges between you guys. It somehow reminds me of three feuding Irish brothers I lived with as a foster child. However, when it comes to the self-loather, the goatfucker and the others, I have no respect for them whatsofuckingever.

    I don’t hate the right. How could I when I love my dear Ms. Wingnut with all my heart? I just want to see the extremist right-wing politicians and freaks like the loon sent packing to the backwaters of society from which they came. I want to put an end to their instilling fear in the woman I love.

  92. 92

    Here is a very interesting insight into the United Nations and the money we stick in and what we get back. According to Obama officials, the UN is a great deal?? Huh?
    Hardly. We pay 7 times more than the next biggest contributor and only get back 19 cents on the dollar. Hardly a good deal is it.

    According to the 2010 procurement summary, the U.S. did, in fact, get $1.5 billion in U.N. procurement contracts this year, making it the U.N.’s top source of supply in the world. But when it comes to overall return on investment, the U.S. procurement bounty looks different –and worse. According to U.S. government figures, Washington gave $7.7 billion to the widely varying branches of the U.N. global system last year — meaning that for every dollar the U.S. put in, it got about 19.7 cents worth of procurement back. Compare that, for example, with Britain, which also ranks traditionally just below the U.S. as a U.N. donor nation. According to British government figures, London contributed about $652.8 million to the U.N. system during its 2010-2011 fiscal year (at current exchange rates). Atop that, Britain contributed about $627 million to U.N. peacekeeping in 2010, for a total of about $1.06 billion. But Britain got about $490 million in procurement business in 2010. That’s roughly 46.2 cents on every dollar given to the U.N. — more than double the U.S. return, in Brimmer’s terms.

    Only an Obama fool would tell the world this is a “good deal” for us. Time to cut-off the UN and only pay our “fair share”!
    You all love “fair Share” right? How in the world is this currently fair??

  94. 94

    “I want to put an end to their instilling fear in the woman I love.”

    Max and the HNMT don’t go there. They never have. We disagree about a few things, that’s all. Put us in a room with our differing views and five minutes later we’ll have reached a compromise. What’s to hate?

  95. 95

    91 – I don’t like what the right has done to this country. I don’t like them trading on fear and ignorance to gain followers and votes. Everything that is the worst in this country can be traced to the right.

    Hating is not smart to belabor the obvious a bit. It makes you blind. And when look at the worst of the trolls in these threads with your eyes wide open that’s what you see over and over again: blind ignorance, blind fear, blind hate.

  99. 99

    @93 Perry came on like he was the second coming Reagan or something. It must suck for him to now realize that he was only a one week wonder and that he hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the nomination. That’ll teach him for displaying an ounce of compassion for illegal immigrants.

  100. 100

    @88
    He really is thick. I left a comment over on SP, shouldn’t of bothered. I’m quoting from Pudgy’s post in the first part of the block quote.

    41. “the leftist protestors want a more activist government that will take more from everyone else and give it to themselves.”
    Hmm… Tulsa Oklahoma and West Plains Missouri never seemed like leftist places to me and they have protests going on.

    Posted by MIchaelfromHA at October 11, 2011 11:13 AM
    42. MIchaelfromHA: you didn’t actually present an argument, or even any idea to think about. That you don’t understand other places very well is not interesting.
    Posted by pudge at October 11, 2011 11:55 AM

    This after he smeared “the protestors” with being leftists and all sorts of other crap, when it’s clear by the number of protests going on, the places they’re taking place, and the number of people showing up, that they’re not simply disgruntled members of the left.

  101. 101

    Eric Holder is announcing a foiled Iranian plot to kill a Saudi ambassador.

    There goes the Montana friendo’s Fast & Furious scandal-mongering tempest in a teapot.

    The appropriate action of changing out management in ATF has been done.

  103. 103

    @101

    Holder’s let Wall Street get away with murder and has failed to investigate all sorts of wrong doings by Big Ag. I’d really like to see him go.

  106. 106

    @100 You weren’t banned? And you weren’t called a liar? Pudge must be have his two brain cells working on how to obtain his next donut or something.

  107. 107

    @104 Hey, you’re not the Real Fake Pudge. Go away.

    @105 I’ve had my donut and I’m feeling fine. Came on back, you damned liar, and I’ll ban your sorry ass as I should have done before.

  109. 109

    As far as the Police ticketing drivers who honk in support of the protesters:

    That’s easy enough to fight, if you organize.

    Plan in advance to have a handful of protestors standing by as witnesses (have their names and addresses in advance).

    Have a sympathetic attorney available to represent you – and everyone else – in the later court actions.

    Arrange for a few hundred drivers to drive right up to a police officer, honk their horn, and invite them to give them a ticket.

    Protest the ticket, show up in the commissioner’s office, and assert that it is a violation of your first amendment rights to ticket you for displaying support for the protesters. The commissioner will offer to drop the fine if you pay the court costs, but refuse – demand a trial in superior court.

    The lawyer then demands a jury trial, issues subpoenas for all the police department e-mails related to Occupy Seattle, and subpoenas the officers and the witnesses to trial.

    Multiply by a couple hundred.

    The city will offer to drop all charges pretty quickly – they can’t afford to have their prosecutors and courtrooms taken up for several days by a couple hundred “horn honking cases”. Heck, even if you lose, there’s a substantial likelihood on appeal that the 1st Amendment claim would work.

    In the meantime, the e-mail files should be pretty entertaining reading.

  110. 110

    It’s your own damn fault if your not working. Get up and go find a non-existing job.

    “I worked with a lower income population in the south and many of them believe whole heartily that their suffering on earth is God given and their reward will be in heaven. The wealthy are given earthly things and are not close to God and they will suffer for it. “

    ‎

    “I’m a history teacher, so I read a lot of books on history. The Puritans, specifically the Calvinists, believed that poverty was a sign of moral failure. Conversely, wealth is a sign of spiritual grace. Being charitable encourages and rewards idleness which is a serious sin. This is how you get people who are both fiercely into Christianity and fiercely against helping the poor. There is a historical and theological basis for this strain of thought in America. “

    ‎

    “Conservatives believe that people are born bad (original sin) and can be made better through punishment and reward. The world is a scary place, so the government’s job is to protect you. Really, it’s the only reason government need exist – to prevent people from stealing from you. This explains our insane defense budget and conservatives saying, “Government is the problem.” Anything that’s not security related is outside the government’s mandate and their idea of the social contract.

    Progressives think people are born good and can be made better through nurturance and care. The government facilitates freedom by maintaining the infrastructure that allows you to pursue happiness – education is the best example of this. “

    http://gawker.com/5848488/the-.....rtbreaking

  111. 111

    These “53%-ers” see themselves as the same as the 1% — they’re doing the same thing, working hard, not asking for handouts or luck. Hard work = success, simple as that. If you’re not succeeding, you’re not trying hard enough, simple as that.

  112. 112

    The IMF has revised it’s estimates of global economic growth slightly downward as of yesterday, subtracting half a percent from the totals.

    The current IMF estimate is for 4% economic growth in 2011 and 2012. This might sound like good news. But the problem is that most of that economic growth is in the developing countries, but Europe, North America, and industrialized Asia (Japan, S. Korea, Tiawan) will see only nominal growth for those two years.

    In other words, if we stay on the same path, doing the same thing (i.e., nothing, due to the Republican House), then the results will be the same (i.e., nothing, no growth). Of course, it’s been pretty clear that’s been their strategy all along.

  113. 113

    Hmm…

    http://daviddegraw.org/2011/10.....erty-park/
    As I get to the northeast corner of the Park entrance, a solider in uniform comes directly up to me and extends his fist, I’m nervous for a second, but it quickly becomes clear that he wants to fist bump instead of shake hands – fist bumps are popular at Liberty Park, actually my knuckles are killing me. Anyhow, he says he knows who I am, he tells me he is an Afghanistan veteran and fully supports this movement. I ask him to tell me exactly what it is that brought him here. He says, without hesitation, “I swore an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign AND domestic. I’ve been on the battlefield, 3 tours. It took me a while, but now I know our enemy very well. The global banks are occupying this country, they are attacking us and we must fight back.

  115. 115

    No time @ 111: We are all better off if everyone works hard, exercises temperance in all things, practices honesty, humility, prudence, and thrift. In other words, the Puritan work ethic.

    But it has never been a reliable predictor of success on a large scale. Accident of birth has more to do with a person’s ultimate success than hard work and perseverence.

    Millions work hard all their lives, a small percentage of those become millionaires, a tiny few become billionaires, a larger percentage barely get by, some find themselves economically destroyed by circumstances completely outside of their control. Most of the rest of us are somewhere in the middle, stuggling to work and save enough so as not to spend our old age in poverty.

    The tired old line that “If you’re not succeeding, you’re not trying hard enough”, is used only by Republicans and bankers trying to defend the status quo, as well as con artists, flim-flan men, and sales directors who are trying to get salesmen to sell a bad product on commission.

  116. 116

    @115
    But for me, this explains a lot. Why people support the 1% while they are dirt poor. They believe in that part of the American Dream that all it takes is fierce individualism. Who wants to admit they need help when they have spent all their lives trying to do it on their own. Being a “fierce individual” is their identity and progressives are trying to tell them they are part of the herd, they are not lions, they are zebras.

  117. 117

    I wonder if it’s part of that same trend where bowling leagues were dwindling but bowling individual were growing. Nobody wants to be part of a group, they want to be isolated, and do their own thing.

  118. 118

    Check out this David brooks summary for a good distillation of collective vs individualism.

    The world can be divided in many ways — rich and poor, democratic and authoritarian — but one of the most striking is the divide between the societies with an individualist mentality and the ones with a collectivist mentality.You can create a global continuum with the most individualistic societies — like the United States or Britain — on one end, and the most collectivist societies — like China or Japan — on the other.
    http://cnreviews.com/china_cul.....80818.html

    Also, it’s likely one reason some of the poor hate unions. Unions mean you have to rely on others and be lumped in with others, and that’s kryptonite to the myth of fierce individualism. To be part of a collective, means you are not special.

  119. 119

    yes, YES, YES!..just become a part of the great collective! See how well it worked in 1930’s – 1980’s Russia! We all must emulate that great time human history.

    join the great collective!…..or else.

  121. 121

    Silly man, you are willfully missing my point. Our society has swung so far to the extreme of fierce individualism that it’s hurting our society. Some collectivism is good, is needed, to keep a just and fair society.
    You know….

    We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

    Or does that not matter to you? The framers did not say “We the Individuals….”

  122. 122

    # 118: If speaking to people from Asia, they often point out the amount of cooperation needed by rice farmers to flood their fields at the appropriate times, and to drain them at other times. Since much rice harvesting is done on hillsides (due to the shortage of flat land), farmers have to work as a whole community.

    Terraced rice fields

  123. 123

    @84

    LMAO!!! You really don’t know shit do you???

    yep…its been confirmed..she left your ass..

  124. 124

    @119
    Germany has really strong unions and they’re doing far better than most places right now. That they’re doing better than most has a lot more too it than the unions of course, but it does show that you can have them and do well.

  128. 128

    But I like Puddy for his convictions. When he’s wrong he just gets
    Angrier thinking that shrieking and claiming to be right will change the facts.

    Angrier? Whatamoron this czechsaaz is. Google AP Syndication and what do you get czechsaaz?

    EPIC FAYLE… just like you!

    ROTFLRHMBBAO!

  130. 130

    Look what those damn liberals in the Tri-Cities are planning on doing…

    ‘Occupy Tri-Cities’
    By Tri-City Herald staff
    An “Occupy Tri-Cities” group plans to meet for its first general assembly at 10 a.m. today in John Dam Plaza, across from the Federal Building at 505 Swift Blvd. in Richland, according to its Facebook page, which has 91 fans.

    The Tri-Cities will observe National Occupy Day at 10 a.m. Oct. 15, also at John Dam Plaza. The demonstration will be at noon and continue as long as people stick around, or “at LEAST until Bank of America and Chase close for the day,” according to the group’s Facebook page.
    The Tri-City group also is on Twitter at @occupytricities.
    Similar stories:
    Read more: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/.....z1aWQp5MUf

  131. 131

    129 – There’s left leaning people even in the reddest states.. Every state even.

    If those left-leaning folks are doing the protesting then this is not surprising to me.

    Call me when their right wing leaning neighbors who have been screwed over by this pitiful economy just as much as anyone else comes out to join them in more than just token numbers.

  132. 132

    I hear Wichita KS is a hot bed of leftists these days (not!).

    WICHITA, Kansas — A national movement protesting Wall Street has hit the streets of Wichita.
    Dozens of demonstrators have joined in on the so called “Occupy Wall Street” movement, but they’re calling it “Occupy Wichita.”

    The streets of Wall Street are thousands of miles away from Wichita, but the anger at Wall Street is being felt right here at home.

  133. 133

    @131

    The far right is trying to dismiss this as an action of a handful of folks on the far left. It’s not. There’s no way the far left could get the kind of numbers of people that are showing up or could get the protests as well distributed around the country as they are.

    Looking at the protests I’m seeing a whole lot of the center showing up as well as the left. The right isn’t going to show, but this isn’t a far left thing.

    Most of the interviews with protestors that I’ve read have dismissed any form of partisanship.

  136. 136

    teh prooluturiat dunt no showurz!

    if we cant teh hav sumting, we gunz a tayke it!

    phree stupfh fur evweeone!

  137. 137

    teh kul thang aboot phfee stupsh, is dat itz phfree!

    nobudy haz to pay fur it! cuz its phfree!

  138. 138

    129 – Looking at the map more closely, it’s interesting to see that ND, SD and Nebraska aren’t represented.

    The pins that look like they might be in those states are border towns in neighboring states I think.

    IIRC those states rank 1,2,3 in the lowest unemployment right now.

  139. 139

    It’s insightful how the trolls here ridicule and mock any thought of being part of a community. It seems to terrify them that to be good citizens, they have to give back as well as take and take. If anyone challenges them, they lash out.

  140. 140

    Our media idolizes the individual. The rock star, the rap star, Rambo, Die Hard, Trump, Kobe, Cain. The guy who made it big, did it his way, stood out from the team, fought his way to the top . It doesn’t matter if he’s fictional, or rich because he got rich through the effort of thousands he paid next to nothing or inherited it.
    Our media doesn’t make movies and shows about guys who work all day, play by the rules and make a decent living for their families. Community is boring.

  141. 141

    I don’t think conservatives trust community. They assume everyone is bad so really the only one they can they feel they can trust is themselves. Everyone else is stealing from you. And when someone says that they should support the community, that triggers that feeling they are being stolen from. It’s going to the undeserving.

    Look at the way our trolls describe the 99%ers. They mock, they disparage, they ridicule. They cannot imagine 99%ers want to do anything positive, but instead want to find a way to steal from the working folk.

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