– How dare moderators talk about wedge issues?
– In Saturday’s debate Ron Paul said Martin Luther King was one of his heroes (and a libertarian!!?!). But not enough, as some of his supporters claim, to support the holiday.
– We really need to fix immigration system.
– Having lived in Olympia, it’s felt a bit odd hearing the new Congressional district as centered around Olympia as if it, or even North Thurston, was almost 1/10 of the state. Turns out the district lies 2/3 in Pierce County, and might be a problem for Democrats.
– Who would have guessed that anti-choice assholes would be assholes?
Interesting to hear the political discussions among Republicans after church and in cafe’s. According to them, Romney can’t win against Obama, because he’s too much like him. They seem to believe that the country is looking for someone radically different, like Santoram or Ron Paul.
You know, Republicans might have had a chance at making the 2012 election a close race. I say this only because there are a lot of “low information” voters who are still disturbed that the economy hasn’t recovered to the previous highs, and don’t want to sift through the details of why that hasn’t occured or who is at fault.
But the Republican candidates are making it too easy:
Romney, the wealthy wall-street type who loots and then dismantles companies and sends jobs offshore; dodges taxes (if recent reports of offshore banking are confirmed); and has lost a lot more elections recently than he ever won. Any general election will have repeated adds of him claiming that “Corporations are people too, my friend”. Also has the “Mormon problem”, which will make Evangelical Republicans reluctant to support him.
Santoram: His extreme views on gay rights won’t make that much difference (people who object to this won’t vote Republican anyway). But that’s only one of his problems, including his ties to K-street.
Gingrich: Compulsive liar and adulterer, repeated ethics violater, has never held a job other than legislative or as a self-promoter. His recent conversion to Catholicism might cost him more Evangelical votes than it gains him as cover for his previous “indescetions”.
Ron Paul: Racist newsletters, opposition to modern health-care reform, foe of social security and medicare, etc.
Huntsman: Probably the most qualified among them, which is why he hasn’t got a prayer of getting the nomination. Also has the “Mormon problem”.
If your Mexican day-laborer’s children can read this: blame a Democrat.
@1
Yeah, I’ve seen people running to the right as well. But, most of what I’ve been hearing is that a guy that’s really like “them” can’t get elected because of and then insert lame excuse after lame excuse. It’s not because Paul’s a crackpot who in all his year in congress has only passed one bill. It’s not because Santorum lost his own re-election by umpteen % and wants to ban birth control.
Huntsman’s probably the only guy that could beat Obama.
@3 Huntsman can’t beat Obama because no Republican will vote for him.
If Huntsman did somehow did become the GOP nominee (smoke-filled room scenario), the election would effectively be a Democratic primary.
I couldn’t resist. Love – it’s a wonderful thing. Slap a ring on one man and one woman and presto you got Family Values.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1003271
Do you think Newt had any similar ideas?
@4
Well yeah, there’s that.
I noticed all the “I’m a Mormon” billboards on my commute have been replaced by PAWS billboards.
I’ve been hoping that the NAACP does invite Gingrich to speak at it’s convention. Newt wants to explain why it’s better for African Americans to get jobs, not food stamps.
The NAACP could then follow with a professional comedian (Chris Rock comes to mind), to reply in with sarcasm: “Jobs? Why didn’t we think of that! All this time, we never considered jobs! We fought for a hundred years to get equal opportunities in employment, but that was just a mis-print, we really meant food stamps!”
In the meantime, Republicans in the House are threatening to add a clinker to the extension of the unemployment benefits, by denying food stamps or unemployment eligibity to anyone who doesn’t have a high-school diploma or actively pursuing a GED program.
GOP plan: No HS diploma? No unemployment check
Of course, that’s just a continuation of the GOP theme that minorities prefer to receive unemployment benefits than work. It’s a thinly disguised racist attack, everyone who agrees with it understands that they are talking about “African Americans and Mexicans”, not white people (who presumably love to work).
Of course, the employability of those without a high-school degree vs. those who have graduated is rapidly diminishing. As more adults have college degrees, that seems to be the main distinction. Those with a college degree tend to have unemployment in the 6.9 to 9.2 percent range, but without college degrees tend to have more like a 22% unemployment rate – at least among those recently out of school.
Of course, I’ve never quite understood those who don’t have high-school diplomas. It’s probably because both my parents and my sister have college degrees, and I have two college degrees. Getting a high school diploma really doesn’t seem to be that much of a challenge, if you can get around the mind-numbing boredom of most high-school classrooms.
But that doesn’t mean that we should take away unemployment benefits from those that don’t have a high-school diploma. They paid for those benefits by paying in premiums while they were employed, it’s manifestly unfair to deny them the benefits when they really need it. I’m guessing that the guys who dreamed up this one probably worked at an insurance company claims office at one time or another.
Funny how the Republicans get so upset at the idea of taxing the profits of the richest Americans, claiming it’s akin to theft, but think nothing about stripping the poorest of the pittance of benefits for which they have already paid.
As long as they ponied up some cash to make sure that everyone who wanted into a GED program could get in, I’d be for that. People without highschool diploma’s* have a hard time getting jobs and can only get low paid jobs when they do, so we wind up paying for them over and over again. Get them trained so they can get a job that pays their own way and we’ll all be happier.
*There’s, of course, always the statical outlier out there, Natalie Merchant dropped out of high school and seems to be doing OK. Statical outliers prove nothing.
Want a quick reference to Republican warped ideology?
Republicans believe that CEOs should receive multi-million dollar salaries regardless of how well they do their job. But just to encourage them to do a good job, they tie bonuses and stock options to the pay package. Because a Republican CEO can’t be trusted to do his job unless you give him a special bribe to do so.
Republicans also believe that unemployed workers shouldn’t receive food stamps or unemployment checks, because they can’t be trusted to actually get a job unless threatened with homelessness and starvation.
# 10: Like I said, I’m generally in favor of people getting their diplomas or GED’s. It just makes sense, on an individual level.
But I’m also concerned that (a) there would be a long waiting list, and (b) workers without benefits, for whatever reason, means less money to local businesses for rent, food, etc., which would have a domino effect on any recovery, and ultimately frustrate job creation.
Finally, I’m generally concerned about the real value of a HS Diploma and GED certificate. In Japan and Korea, these documents would have real value, indicating a minimal level of competency in math (calculus level & above), science, geography, history, reading and writing skills in the native language, and fluency in English. In short, a bit better than what is expected of our undergraduates after two years of college. Our expectations regarding high school graduates keeps diminishing – and I’m afraid that a requirement such as this one would put downward pressure on them even further.(Example: grade inflation began in ernest in the 1960’s when professers didn’t want to issue lower grades which would make a student lose their draft exemption).
http://slog.thestranger.com/sl.....age-debate
Real “stand-up” guys.
Real fucking assholes…but we already knew THAT.
@12
Which is why I said I’d be OK with it only if they included funding to make sure everyone that needed it could get into programs. You could also phase it in.
The value of a diploma or a GED is that it’s required for you to have one to get into most training programs at community colleges and voc-tecs. There’s a great value in getting these folk into the system and getting them set up to get into job training programs.
# 13: Not enough room? My guess is that it was already sold out (or close to being sold out) before they mobilized their supporters to buy tickets.
When they started getting reports that there were few if any seats available, they realized they weren’t going to be debating in a venue packed with friendly supporters. That’s why they wanted the Bellevue facility – they wanted to get it out of Seattle and into the more conservative suburbs.
They probably also got complaints about the 520 bridge toll, and wanted to make the people from Seattle have their numbers diminished by the cost of transportation, rather than the other way around.
@13 Couldn’t get enough supporters to pay the toll to come over?
I liked these comments.
Dang @15. rhp6033 already covered much of what I noted.
Why I keep my hands close to a weapon whenever a Teabagger gets too close.
There is only one word in the English language that describes such a person. That word is “asshole”.
It isn’t strong enough.
If 20% of the population is TeaBaggers, I’ll be willing to bet that figure somehow also coincides with the rate of serious mental illness amongst the general population. Those fuckers are crazy.
@17
Im thinking the guy is having trouble dealing with the grief of losing his wife more than anything else.
Seeing your spouse die in front of you would make a lot of people nutty – progressive or conservative.
not sure I would pass such a harsh judgement on this guy based upon everything that has happened.
@18 “Im thinking the guy is having trouble dealing with the grief of losing his wife more than anything else.”
Um, no. Hundreds of thousands of people in this country deal with grief every year without turning it into a political hate-fest. This guy’s sickness in the head doesn’t come from the loss of his wife, it comes from being a hater, and that was there all along.
@19
tell me that after your old lady is shot down in front of you…
Im done with you rabbit turd, your a bitter old man with no life other than whats on the internet. Go spend your final days doing something productive, like spending them with the grandkids. Your bitterness and hatred has gotten the best of you….maybe you should step back and examine why that is…
(ignore on)
Roger Rabbit Book Review
One of the things I do on this blog is bring worthy new books to the attention of HA readers.
Robert Frank is the Wall Street Journal’s wealth reporter. He came out with a book in November 2011 titled, “The High-Beta Rich: How The Manic Wealthy Will Takes Us To the Next Boom, Bubble, And Bust.”
http://www.amazon.com/High-Bet.....038;sr=8-1
It’s short (218 pages) and easy to read (I read the whole book last evening and this morning). It gets mostly outstanding reviews on Amazon.
The book offers some entertaining riches-to-rags anecdotes, and the chapter on the high-end repo guys who grab yachts and private jets is priceless — but is mainly interesting for Frank’s two central themes:
1) The growing concentration of income and wealth in fewer hands has made government at all levels more dependent on taxes collected from the rich; and
2) The spending and consumption patterns of the rich are much more volatile than those of the middle class, therefore the trend toward the rich getting more of the nation’s income and paying more of its taxes means much sharper swings in government revenues for the foreseeable future.
One of the arguments for reforming Washington’s heavy reliance on the sales tax is that a state income tax provides a more stable revenue base for funding state government. But Frank’s observations (from data compiled by economists and government revenue agencies, including the IRS and California’s and New York’s state revenue departments) casts doubt on this thesis. In a world of heavy dependence on taxes paid by the rich, who cut back their spending far more than the rest of us in recessions, you’re just substitution one volatile tax for another, which does not get you to more stable funding for public services.
The author also points out that as the rich pay an ever-larger share of the nation’s taxes, they will demand and get more say in the political process over how public funds are spent, who benefits from public expenditures, and on what terms and conditions. (We already see echoes of this in HA comment threads when trolls point out that 40% of Americans pay no federal income taxes — and then use that as an argument for dismantling the social safety net and programs and services benefitting that group.)
Worth a read, and worth thinking about.
One of the points in Frank’s book is that when times are tough, and the rich ratchet back their spending, among the first luxuries to get the axe are the jobs of household servants.
Perhaps the most poignant tale in the entire book is the image of Edra Blixseth, who went from being the wife and business partner of a billionaire to divorce and personal bankruptcy in just two years, contemplating how she’s going to keep up her 30,000-square-foot house and surrounding grounds including private golf course (all of which she got in the divorce settlement) by herself after laying off all 110 of the family’s servants and groundskeepers.
Her personal financial cataclysm came about because banks persuaded the Blixseths to borrow $396 million they didn’t need against property they thought was worth $1.2 billion (but plunged to $100 million in the 2007-2009 crash) so the banks could reap millions in loan origination fees and from reselling the loans. Then, her husband persuaded her to assume the debt as part of the property settlement in their divorce; today he’s still worth about $200 million but she’s dead broke. Edra lost the property, of course; nominally valued at $150 million (or something like that), Larry Ellison bought it for under $50 million.
And then there’s the amusing story about the five-year-old asking his mother why “all those strangers” were on “their” plane after a wealthy family was forced to give up their private jet and had to fly commercial.
@16 Guess they don’t want to take a chance on someone getting in who might disagree with them.
Preaching is a damn good gig. Your audience shows up because they’re afraid of getting sent to eternal damnation if they don’t. Then you tell them what you want them to hear. And remind them that what you’re telling them is God’s holy word and therefore unchallengable. Then you pass the collection plate and get them to pay you for making them listen to your propaganda. And, of course, you reap all kinds of tax exemptions. Beats politician jobs all to hell.
@17
Sounds like you’re overreacting to someone else’s overreacting.
@14
Speaking of going back to school, a friend of mine’s kid just dropped off person reference forms for me to fill out. She’s trying to go back to school to become a midwife.
I just caught a clip of someone from CNN interviewing one of Mitt Romney’s staffers the staffer is rolling out lie, after lie, about Obama and the “reporter” isn’t calling him out on a single one of them.
Do I think this is some sort of right-wing bias on the reporters part? Nope. I think the reporter is a lousy journalist, who doesn’t give a shit about anything other than being on TV and her paycheck, and I think she’s too lazy to do proper prep work for interviews and is too jaded and lazy to argue.
Am I worried about this? Nope. If the Obama folks run a good campaign, all these lies from the Romney camp are going to make great fodder.
@27
If it comes down to Romney vs Obama…geez, talk about two shitty candidates.
America loses no matter which one of them wins.
And we can thank all the party lemmings.
@27
If it comes down to Obama V. Huntsman I’ll probably vote for Huntsman. Huntsman seems to have a good handle on leadership and seems to understand what we’re going to be facing in the next decade or so. And I think a Huntsman presidency would be the death knell for a big chunk of the far right. I’m not anti-Obama, but we’ve seen what 4 more years of Obama will look like and I’d rather give Huntsman a shot.
If it’s Romney V. Obama I’ll vote for Obama. Romney’s too big of a clueless douche nozzle.
Romney’s one of those guys, that came from wealth and privilege, that got every helping hand and break in the book, and never figured out that he’s from wealth and privilege and got every break in the book.
Huntsman’s one of those guys that came from wealth and privilege, that got every helping hand and break in the book, knew he was getting them and used them to his best advantage, and rebelled a little bit, but wasn’t an idiot to take it so far to get written out of his parents will.
I’m fine with people like Huntsman, a couple of my friends are like that. I can’t stand people like Romney.
@28. Really? Who do YOU want to be president? santorum? david duke? Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson as VP? Joseph McCarthy? The trump?
@30
Dr. Benton Quest for prez, dude.
so long as its not some douchebag socialist. :)
@29
I like Huntsman as well. I also think Chris Christie, if he ran, would have walked away with the election.
More like waddled… into defeat..
Enjoy the View…
http://blatherwatch.blogs.com/.....icans.html
more inane garbage from the cheap and lazy one…
@28 “And we can thank all the party lemmings.”
No, we can thank a two-party system that’s thoroughly corrupted by unrestrained corporate money.
@31 You think a cartoon character should be POTUS? That’s just great. As if we didn’t already have enough stupid trolls on this blog. GMRS knows we don’t need another one.
Guns Don’t Kill People Dep’t
An ex-convict who served 14 years for murder killed his son and his wife’s two sisters before turning the gun that ex-convicts aren’t supposed to have on himself.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....nd_courts/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: We all know ex-convicts shouldn’t have guns, but GOP legislators in Wisconsin think anyone should be able to buy a gun without a background check and carry it anywhere without a permit. Why would anyone vote for such dumbasses?
@38 another fine example of heterosexual family values. Where is Rick Scrotum or Tim Tebow when you need them?
Faith, Famiy, Freedom – The Freedom to kill a Family Member while you practice your Faith. American Exceptionalism!
[Deleted — see HA Comment Policy]
It is always Family like when you bind up your kids in tapes and then do the most social thing and post it on Facebook. Heterosexuals having Faith, Freedom and Family fun.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....95678.html
Christie continues to be banded about as a potential Republican candidate only because nobody’s happy with the field so far.
But as this election cycle has shown so far, each of the Republcian candidates looks great (to other Republicans) from a thousand yards away. Once you get up close, and have a chance to really examine their records, they don’t look so good anymore.
One thing we’ve learned over the past few years is that you can’t rely upon the local media to adequately investigate and report on the real credentials of a candidate. Most seem to publish the candidate’s bios with little change, much like they publish a business’s press release. Even the national media got lazy about this, and the end result was George W. Bush being able to portray himself as a “successful businessman” (he wasn’t).
Now the national media is doing a slightly better job, which is why so many Republican campaigns are popping like balloons in a rose garden as soon as they rise to the level where they invite more intense scrutiny.
One other major change: we’ve officially seen the death of Ronald Reagan’s eleventh commandment: “Thou shalt speak no ill of a fellow Republican”. The mud being slung between the Republican candidates, so early in the primary process, hasn’t been seen in quie some time. Of course, having Newt Gingrich in the race probably accounts for more than half of it.