Rachael does CPAC:
(And there are nearly fifty more media clips from the past week in politics at Hominid Views.)
Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!
Darryl you surely know how to pick ’em. Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann and now Rachel Maddow. Rachel must have felt at home, since she always has a kind word to say about conservatives.
Let’s see… She stupidly used “Schoolhouse Rock” to tell the world John Boehner was wrong… “There is no Preamble to the US Constitution” Then later oopsie… “I was wrong.”
Let’s see… she forgot to add the Democratic allegations to her Franken/Coleman voter coverage in 2008. She tried to blame them on Republicans even though the AP covered the story correctly told the story.
Let’s see… Jon Stewart takes her to task on her bashing of GWBush around the Haitian Disaster. Now you know that means she really went gutter on her show for Stewart to attack Rachel.
Let’s see… Maddow asserts false quotes to Rush Limbaugh only to later to have to eat her panties because she was wrong wrong wrong. She claimed Rush said this… “You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray. We miss you, James. Godspeed.” It never happened. How did those panties taste Rachel.
Oh there are so many more…
Didn’t Odumba tell America he was willing to listen to Republicans on health care? Well Odumba lied again… He and his cronies are not listening…
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is expected to publish his healthcare plan as early as Sunday or Monday, combining features of the two Democratic bills passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, congressional aides and healthcare advocates said on Friday.”
So much for reaching out…
So much for being “transparent”…
So much for putting partisan politics aside…
So much for wanting the “best for Americans”…
One last thing…
Tiger Woods was way more sincere than “we ylb clueless arschloch’s” and Dumb Bunny’s hero John Deadwards.
does anybody even listen to that carpet munching partisan hack?
@2 – we don’t care if Obama lies to scum bags, I actually appreciate it when he does. I wish he would do more of it. Hope your balls itch for the next three years.
Hey PuddyNutz, how do you feel about Mr. Max being a bigot, you don’t suppose he calls black people the “N” word behind your back, do you?
Hilarious! I like the Tea Party book put out by the Tea Partiers that has all the racist, kooked-out signs that they complain to the emmessemm are NOT “representative” of their movement.
Note to the reality challenged: THEY ARE..
4 – Homophobic coward alert!
3 – Forgot Bill Clinton ya dumb moron! Who’s keeping score.. Clinton’s doing fine right now. Woods is odds on favorite to do ok because a lot of money is riding on him making a comeback. Edwards will most probably languish in retirement.
Oh and what a “family man” Tiger is these days! Wife? No where to be seen!
2 – Moron alert. The bill is only a blueprint for discussion as is any White House issued legislation. What happened to your “Congress makes the laws” rant about that socialist TARP? More discussions to come on the 25th. Note to the king moron (Stupes) of these threads: Republicans have to actually WANT to reform the broken health care system in this country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....id=topnews
1 – Rachel on her worst day is way better than any overpaid right wing propagandist on your beloved Faux News.
PuddyNutz, in all you infinite wisdom, why don’t you tell everyone here how we pay off the $11 Trillion National Debt, of which your buddy GWB contributed $6.5 Trillion towards, without raising taxes….surely you must have an answer, after all you probably have posted thousands of more meaningful comments on this Blog showing your aptitude to answer such a question.
I’ll give Stupes’ answer:
1) Most important. CUT TAXES.. One penny a year per person is acceptable but even that’s too high. But hey what can you do? The “gub’mint” is a necessary evil. Without it, what would right wingers complain about. Right wing life without complaining is not life.
2) Increase defense spending.. Too many swarthy people out there who look cross-eyed at us through a Faux News camera. They need to be taken out so Stupes can sleep on top of his bed instead of under it hiding from the terraists. Plus the explosions look good on Faux News.
3) Almost as important as 1 – Eliminate Social Security and Medicare. As Flush Limpblows said ROOSEVELT IS DEAD, his policies live on but Stupes and his fellow sycophants are doing something about that!
According to the right wing idiots who come here that’ll balance the budget just fine..
And I’m sure the Tea baggers will chime in: and KEEP YOUR GRUBBY SOCIALIST, LIBERAL-SPENDING HANDS OFF MY SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE!
Here is the result of the Obamunists relentless attack on the Tea Partiers the past several weeks–
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-Har-
Let’s reflect back a year ago or so.
The KLOWNS were sooooooo excited about trashing Republicans. They get total control of the Bus (House/Senate/Presidency) and what do they do?
Get distracted screaming at those they defeated…careening the bus they so coveted back and forth from one ditch to another. Failing to effectively governing by using the bully pulpit for good things. Instead using it to bash those who disagree.
Admit it KLOWNS.
You blew it…and this is why.
Angry Atheist Progressives had their chance.
Ker-Pow!
Ker-Poof!
Too Damn Funny!
The more the Democrats foolishly attack a philosophical movement (Tea Party) with no head to demonize, the worse it gets for y’all.
Seriously, you really don’t get it????
Stop reading HuffPo, NY Times and daily Kos for a month or 2 and open your eyes!
YLB spews–
As our resident Chronically Unemployed, never looking for a job Village Idiot with waaaaaaaay too much time on your hands and no ambition from decades of pot-smoking and anger–
Yeah, keep your hands off!
I just got my SS history.
Over $350,000 paid in over the past 40 years.
At 5% interest, I should have about $1.5 Million in my account.
It will be close to $2.5 Million when I start drawing out at 62.
Where did the balance of my acccount go???
I love this part of the Seattle Times article on Lee’s hero…the pot-dealing Mayor Pro-Tem of Olympia–
Cuz he’s always stoned
@10 – you will have to keep reporting the results of Rasmussen Reports for the next 3 years.
HARAHAHAHFAHAHFHAHFHHFF
FUCK YOU!
I’m still waiting for that coward PuddyNutz for answers to a few of my questions. Looks like he might still be under his bed hiding.
Oh? Call in to the Flush Limpblows show and tell HIM that.
At 62, 65, 70 or never, I have NO ISSUE with when you want to start drawing. And IDIOT, Social Security is NOT a savings program.
It’s Insurance!
Moron…
15 – Today is his holier than thou day..
A program he touts as “insurance” for the risks posed by the hereafter.
I’ll answer my own question for PuddyNutz.
I’ve never met someone who dislikes gay people that did like black people, maybe except for a black person themselves.
As a discrete individual I have had the ability to view discrimination from various angels. And it doesn’t matter if I talk about Family, Friends, Co-workers or the general public. Typically, if I ran into someone who detests gay people, they were the same people that didn’t have any problem speaking of the “N” word.
So PuddyNutz, continue to condone gay bashing and you will continue to perpetuate the hate towards your own race.
If there could be a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy for Black people, believe me there would be.
KKKlown,
I ran the numbers, and even if you made more than the cap each and every year for 40 years your contributions (including employer’s also) does not get to “over $350,000 paid in”.
As to “where did it go?” Rest assured, it went for a good purpose.
I note you do not ask the same question about the taxes you paid that went toward our bloated defense establishment. I wonder how many trillions that amounts to over four decades.
Easy to “demonize”.. Just look at the signs they wave.
FROM THE FREAKING BOOK THEY PUBLISHED!
Another place to look?
See… More of the same old corrupt right wing players are deeply involved…
Brilliant analysis. Read the whole thing:
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....47278.html
@19 He made similarly outlandish claims a year ago but with significantly different numbers. People like our KLOWN usually make shit up because reality sucks for them. I mean, really, is there anybody here who doesn’t believe that the KLOWN has a super-sucky reality going for him?
The Ideology Of Insanity
A lawyer for accused U. of Alabama shooter Amy Bishop says his client is insane and doesn’t remember the shooting.
“Roy W. Miller … told The Associated Press … his client has severe mental problems that appear to be paranoid schizophrenia.”
Some of our wingnut friends here at HA flouted news reports making scanty allusions to Bishop’s alleged “far-left” politics.
Regardless of what Bishop’s political leanings are, her mental illness has more to do with this tragedy than any ideology.
On the other than, Joseph Stack was clearly motivated by the anti-government ideology that characterizes the right when he flew a single-engine plane into a Texas building housing IRS offices. That was simply pure, viseceral hatred of pyaing taxes.
It’s the mental illness they all share. But they sure want the “gub’mint” to increase the defense budget year in and year out so they can watch the fireworks on Faux News when Republicans rule the nest.
Just don’t EVER EVER hand them the bill. That’s what their idiot sons and daughters are for..
When they kick the bucket – it’s “See ya sonny! See ya apple of my eye! – Just vote Republican and kick the can down the road to your kids! Worked for me!”
Almost every day, the comment threads of this blog are stained by the rotting-teeth drivel of numbskulls like Klown and “Lost” who daily take out their frustrations with the failures of their own lives on government workers.
Even the idiotic editorialists of the local fishwrapper have joined in the meme that public servants should have their pay and benefits cut because — well, because they’re public servants.
One thing you don’t see is these people getting into the long lines stretching around the block to apply for these cushy, high-paying, government jobs.
Why? Because the work is too hard, the hours are too long, the pay is too low, and the workers are unappreciated. And, also, maybe because they aren’t smart enough, and because working for government is dangerous.
Every day, tax collectors, inspectors and enforcement agents, snowplow operators, and clerk-typists risk their lives performing vital services without which society couldn’t function and commerce would come to a halt.
Picture an IRS clerk sitting at her desk checking the addition of some dolt who owns a chain of burger joints but can’t add two single-digit numbers and get the same result twice in a row. Suddenly a spinning airplane propellor bursts through the window and saws her desk, and her, in two. How many private sector workers have to put up with that?
What’s more, government work has gotten harder, not easier, over the years. During my government career, which thank God is now over, I was in only one building that was bombed by anti-government terrorists, my family needed round-the-clock police protection for only a few weeks, and I received only a few hundred threats. In those days, all the nuts wanted to do was kill you.
Today, what passes for “media” is full of hate talk against government workers, threats and attacks against public servants are a daily occurrence, and they not only want to blow up your building and kill you, they also want to renege on the government’s contractual obligation to pay your pension benefits.
They figure since private employers have successfully used Bush’s bankruptcy “reforms” to renege on their pension obligations, government workers shouldn’t get theirs, either.
Never mind that government workers pay for their pensions themselves through pay withholding into pension funds. Never mind that government workers gave up much higher pay available elsewhere in reliance on the reasonable expectation that pensions the government is contractually and statutorily obligated to fulfill would actually be paid.
All of that means nothing to the howling mob outside the window. If, they scream, they got rooked out of their pensions, then government workers should get rooked out of theirs, too. Anything less than full equality is unfair.
These people remind me of an incident from my own youth. When I was a wee little bunny, I got hurt playing with one of my brothers, and had to go to the veterinarian to get stitched up. Soon as I returned home to the burrow, I smacked my brother with a hammer so he had to go to the vet, too. Justice, my 3-year-old mind thought, demands that misery be equal.
Fortunately, I eventually grew up and became a judge with the smarts to use the reasoning ability the Great Mother Rabbit Spirit gave me to solve real-world problems.
Unfortunately, the howling mob outside the window is still stuck on three, and always will be.
Re 5
Do you care if he lies to those you don’t consider ‘scumbags?’
I’m going to paraphrase, because listening to that Cesar Chavez knock off without principles frankly makes me ill, so I won’t google Obama lies.
‘Universal health care will not include a mandate to purchase insurance if I’m elected president.” Ring any bells?
‘I’ll have all the troops out of Iraq in one year.’ Well, that will be a welcome relief to the troops in Iraq that are being sent to Afganistan instead!
“I won’t raise taxes on anyone but the wealthy.” Bloody liar.
See, liars lie. That’s what they do. Sociopaths like Obama can’t help lying and manipulating any more than they can help breathing. Today he lies to people with whom you disagree, but he has and will lie to you as well, chump.
Re 24
Yes, I’m a rabid failure who owes no money to anyone and has an income not reliant on a job or a government handout (insufficient to live on as yet, but it’s only been a year,) and an actual plan as to how my future. Sorry you’re career offered you so little gratification, but don’t project your frustrations on others.
Now to specifics-
You traded lower pay for more than a pension, Bunny. You traded it for a job from which you couldn’t be fired for incompetence, stupidity or outright indifference to your job. Many public servants are hard working dedicated people. Many would have been quickly fired years ago in the private sector.
Yes, we’ve heard about the police protection once for 2 weeks during your career. I’m sorry for the stress it caused you and your family but it’s hardly statistically significant that an attorney ticked some unstable fool off. Nor does it reflect the career of the vast majority of civil servants.
Certainly you see long lines to apply for positions at the Post Office and any government vacancy. The pay is decent, benefits great, and despite your complaints the only way a privately invested pension can be taken is by dimunition of the asset itself. Money I put in can only be taken out by me. Matching funds may have been withdrawn. If done so legally, too bad. If illegaly attorneys can handle that.
People don’t hate government, Rabbit, despite your inflammatory verbiage. They hate indifferent and incompetent fools taking their money to do a job poorly or not at all.
19. Proud To Be An Ass spews:
I added my Medicare…and my 2008 & 2009 contributions. I have been at the Max since 1973. No limit on the Medicare (2.9%).
“Good Purpose”??
Is that a new Obamunist term meaning “black hole”??
In other words a dark-skinned guy… Great.. Excuse me while I go into the next room and vomit..
A large segment of our population now believes constitutions, contracts, and IOUs are inconveniences to be dishonored at will.
These people are saying, in effect, “Don’t trust me. My word is no good.” Well, okay, here’s what it’s going to be like to live in that kind of society:
http://images.art.com/images/-.....87743.jpeg
Gee if anyone listens to you morons one would think Barack is arranging a merger of sorts with North Korea or at the very least Cuba..
Uhh… Don’t see that happening..
Keep fantasizing though. It keeps the two brain cells half way firing.. and the rest of us laughing at you.
Re 28
No YLB. Just because you see the color of a persons’ skin first doesn’t mean I do. I despise Obama policies for the same reason I despise those of Chavez. Incidentally these are the same reasons the prattlings of many white ‘thinkers’ on the left annoy. They are childish, ill considered and lead to the dimunition of this country. Obama may not like America, but I do and want the best for it.
I know the rascism card is the first defense for those on the left, primarily because they have no other and want to distract attention from that deficit. But do try not to reveal your pre-occupation with Obamas’ ethnicity so nakedly.
In reviewing my last post I notice an error in syntax. I despise Chavez and other Marxists on general ethical and moral principles. I specifically dislike Obama as someone out to damage this country.
Thought I’d save you guys the trouble of pointing out an inadvertency.
@25 What has Obama lied about? He undertook everything he said would, and whatever didn’t get done was due to Republican obstructionism.
Re 29
On this we can agree.
Your mortgage underwater because you paid too much for your house? Too bad. Keep making the payments and eventually it’ll come back.
Took out too much credit card debt? Suck it up, pay it back and you’ll feel better at the end for keeping your word.
I agree, Rabbit. The value of ethical obligations has gone downhill at bobsled pace this past 3 or 4 decades.
I don’t see how the solution to Republican obstruction is electing more Republicans.
@24: No matter how much money the government prints, everybody thinks it is “theirs”. I find this fascinating.
“I added my Medicare…and my 2008 & 2009 contributions. I have been at the Max since 1973. No limit on the Medicare (2.9%)’
So your initial claim was a deliberate lie? A slight deception? Just a little harmless fudging? An error?
Pick one, gasbag.
@34 Who put gullible undereducated people into homes they couldn’t afford?
An unregulated financial industry.
Who bombarded gullible undereducated people with credit card solicitations and sucked them into debts they couldn’t repay with usurious interest rates and sneaky tricks buried in 2-point type?
An unregulated financial industry.
It seems to me the solution to these problems is more education and more regulation.
Re 33,
So, when Democrats stand on thier principles and refuse to participate in what they believe bad for the country they are honest actors. When Republicans do they are obstructionist?
Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Republicans weren’t allowed a seat at the table with the health care monstrosity. If you don’t like the current form, blame your homeys. If Obama signs it that will be breaking a promise. Some of us call this lying.
Any half-wit could have told Obama about the logistical difficulties in pulling out of Iraq in a year. He cared more about the votes than his honor and promised voters foolish enough to vote for him the year.
Guantanomo is a national disgrace, but the same conditions apply as to Iraq pullout, and he lied about closing this as well.
Your president is a liar. He’s manipulative and plausible, which makes him a good liar. But he’s still dishonest.
@29: “A large segment of our population now believes constitutions, contracts, and IOUs are inconveniences to be dishonored at will.”
This happens routinely in business. For some reason it has little, if any, moral stigma.
@34 I have zero sympathy for the banks that didn’t get repaid, lost. They put themselves in this position by preying on the weakest among us. The very smart MBA guys who knew exactly what they were doing, not their witless victims, should “suck up.”
@34 The downhill slide of ethics in this country began when the MBAs decided there was more profit in loaning money to everyone and writing off a third of the loans than there was in screening loan applicants and lending only to those who were reasonable prospects for repayment.
You’re right, ethics has gone out the window in this country, but you’re completely wrong about whose fault that is.
The responsibility for that rests squarely with the business community, especially bankers.
Don’t ever expect people of “lost’s” ilk to accept any responsibility for their bad choices.
Of course, it’s ridiculous to talk about American business and “ethics” in the same sentence.
If you want to find ethical behavior in American society, you’ll have to look somewhere else for it, because you won’t find any in the business community.
“Republicans weren’t allowed a seat at the table with the health care monstrosity…”
That claim is simply not true.
There are two reasons why we have so many lawyers in this country.
First, the business community can afford to pay for them.
Second, the business community is dishonest enough to keep them busy.
Where’d you get the idea that Chavez was a Marxist?
If anything he was a Catholic.
I just did a search on Chavez and Marxism. What the first thing that comes up?
Some idiot from Free Republic.
Look fool – Chavez grew up in a car. Going from place to place as the son of a migrant farm worker. Did he run away to the cities to work factory jobs? No he stood his ground and fought for what he believed in. All his life.
More courage and conviction than you could ever dream of.
Look at the big law firms. What do all those high-priced corporate lawyers actually do? Sue each other’s companies, that’s what. These guys aren’t writing wills for home care workers. They represent big corporations who spend all their time stealing from each other.
Re Rabbit
You’ll get no argument from me. Banks who underwrote poor risks ought to suffer the consequences of their choices.
But you seem to want it both ways. The last mortgage I had was pretty explicit about what my payments were, when they were due, how they might change etcetera.
I had a friend, a carpenter who was buying a house a couple years ago. He was told that he could be approved for a note that would have eaten up 70% of his income just on the mortgage. He laughed at the mortgage broker, walked out and found an honest broker.
Personal responsibility does exist, whether you like it or not.
Re 43
I do everyday, as do you and most other people. The difference is that for me a bad choice is an opportunity to learn and do better next time. You’d like to take that from people by taking the consequences of choice away.
You’re a rabbit. You should do what I’m going to on a beautiful sunny day. Go outside and enjoy it.
@45 Well, if they were, all you’d get from them is (a) don’t let injured patients sue lousy doctors and hospitals, and (b) don’t regulate the health insurance industry. So what’s there to talk about?
I think we should take the Nixon approach: Quit screwing around with peace talks and bomb the shit out of them.
“If you don’t like the current form, blame your homeys.”
I do. But there can be no disputing the fact that the Democrats consistently watered down the bill and made compromises in order to broaden the political appeal to moderates and your own particular brand of “homeys”, i.e., the political extremists who now call themselves “Republicans”. Senator Backus, that commie, took single payer off the table BEFORE his committee even began to consider the bill and initiate the kabuki with Snowe and Collins.
But as any good pol will tell you, it’s about getting the votes.
So do you move to the middle or ‘go down fighting’? This is an old question.
@47 “Look fool – Chavez grew up in a car.”
Don’t you understand? Chavez’s poverty was his fault. He made bad choices by being born into a migrant family and growing up in a car. A moral person would have chosen the grower’s family to be born into.
@51 Well, we saw what our side’s efforts to compromise got us, didn’t we? Why do our electeds even bother? When are they going to understand that when Newt Gingrich told Republicans they were going to “war” against Democrats, he meant exactly what he said?
” … this is a civil war, … only one side will prevail …. This war has to be fought with the … savagery that is only true of civil wars. While we are lucky in this country that our civil wars are fought at the ballot box, not on the battlefields, nonetheless it is a civil war.” — Newt Gingrich, quoted by David Brock in Blinded by the Right, at p. 51.
“’ … Gingrich does have ideas,’ John Taylor wrote in Esquire. ‘Gingrich essentially is a proponent of social Darwinism, which initially took hold in the late nineteenth century …. Like Gingrich, the Victorian social Darwinists … actually celebrated the unfairness of life.’
“Newt also introduced a new style of Republicanism, based on confronting and demonizing the liberal culture that supported the big government idea. Newt understood that conservatism thrives only when it has an enemy …. No longer would the Democrats simply be opposed; they would be destroyed. … Newt’s overarching strategy was to portray the differences between the two parties as … moral, not political, laying the rhetorical groundwork for an offensive …. He used … outrageously stigmatizing language, long a hallmark of right-wing political organizing, to caricature the opposition as … evil. ‘People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz,’ Gingrich declared. ‘I see evil around me every day.’ Newt called Democrats ‘sick,’ ‘grotesque,’ ‘loony,’ ‘stupid,’ ‘corrupt,’ ‘anti-family,’ and ‘traitors.’ … Taylor concluded, ‘Gingrich offers up a history of American values in a scheme so hysterically partisan, so transparently dishonest, so willfully stupid, that it’s impossible to believe even Newt himself would expect anyone to take it seriously.’” — Id., pp. 65-67
Of course, the reason Newt can take himself seriously is because we’ve become a nation of gullible fools.
@49 “You’ll get no argument from me. Banks who underwrote poor risks ought to suffer the consequences of their choices.”
You’ll get a trainload of argument from me, because you subscribe to a misguided ideology that argues banks should be allowed to do it, and government shouldn’t stop them.
The same Republican government that deregulated the banks allowed them to get so big their failure would bring down the entire economy and plunge the world into depression.
So taxpayers had to bail them out.
You guys have spent the last 30 years railing against the “welfare state.” The problem is, you also spent those years creating history’s biggest and most expensive welfare state.
In case you’ve forgotten, Republican ideology not only gave us the banking crash of 2008, but also the savings & loan crash of the 1980s. How many times does an idea have to fail before people stop believing it?
and the Depression of the 1930’s when finally people, broke and poor thought, uh, yeah let’s try something different!
Lost @ 39
So, when Democrats stand on thier principles and refuse to participate in what they believe bad for the country they are honest actors. When Republicans do they are obstructionist?
No. When Republicans vote against a health care reform bill that consists of nearly everything they’d proposed for health care reform back in 1994, then they’re being obstructionists.
When Republicans tell us that health care reform cannot cut Medicare, then turn around and craft a budget that both kills Medicare and Social Security yet fails to reign in the deficit (unless you psssst make certain unrealistic assumptions about revenue growth), then they’re being obstructionists.
And when Republicans stand on the floor of Congress or give speeches to the Republican base denouncing the ARRA on one hand yet send letters back to their constituents in which they take credit for the dollars that the ARRA pumped into their districts and the jobs thereby created, Republicans are being hypocritical obstructionists.
I have no idea why you, a right-wing nut of the highest order, would spend so much time claiming that President Obama is a liar. That crown belongs to Republicans, by a very long country mile. You need to do some serious house cleaning on your side of the aisle long before you can start legitimately moaning about anything on the other side of the aisle.
‘Course, that would require you to figure out that there is a distinct difference between the fantasy world that exists in your head and the real world in which the rest of us have to live.
Wow, you folks really should get outside and get some sun.
@ 58
Wow, you folks really should get outside and get some sun.
Some of us do have laptops, you know.
Want To Solve The Deficit Problem?
Hey righties! You guys have railed about “Obama’s deficits” quite a lot lately.
Let’s skip over the fact you guys borrowed a trillion dollars from China to give tax breaks to billionaires, which makes you blazing hypocrites of cosmic magnitude, and go right to the solution.
To find a solution, let’s go to an authority even you can trust: Reagan-era CBO chief Rudolph Penner. Here’s what he says:
“What would a responsible budget look like if politicians refused to raise taxes?”
“You have to do some very, very dramatic things. We reduced … Social Security to the level of benefits that could be financed by the payroll tax structure and moved the full retirement age by five years. … On health … the only way … is to put Medicare and Medicaid on a fixed budget. That would require vouchers based on income … we’re talking about something very severe.
“We squeezed defense so they couldn’t invest in new weapon systems but could retain their personnel …. You could have minor foreign interventions but nothing on the scale of Iraq and Iran. … These are the draconian changes on the spending side if you keep taxes where they are.
“A lot of Republicans … are calling for even more tax cuts.
“The thought of actually cutting the tax burden is really quite implausible.
“What would a reformed budget look like if politicians decided to keep spending stable and make all the reforms on the tax side.”
“The tax increases are quite extraordinary. … We increased all rates proportionally … until the top rate rose to 50 percent … around 2020. At that point we introduce a VAT … growing to 8 percent by 2040. … For Social Security, we had to increase payroll taxes to almost 15 percent. Then we needed a surtax on top of all that.
“The other approach is to radically reform the tax system, getting rid of all tax expenditures [such as tax exclusions for employer health care and pension contributions] …. It’s really, really remarkable how much money you get back from tax expenditures …. We could actually lower rates over time with that solution ….
“You’ve argued that Obama’s budget doesn’t scare us enough about the debt.
A lot of people argue … there’s a conflict between a short term and a long run. But you can’t deal with the long run until the recession is closer to being over. You don’t want to hit incomes today ….
“I would focus assistance on safety net programs like food stamps. … I wouldn’t mind short-term stimulus.
There’s this idea of a payroll tax holiday for businesses that employ more people. I think that will be a lot of wasted money — subsidies for people they will be employed anyway.”
http://business.theatlantic.co.....system.php
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The bottom line is this. Cutting entitlements alone won’t get the job done. If you’re still talking about tax cuts, you’re not serious about deficits. If you’re not willing to eliminate weapons procurement and forgo fighting wars, you’re not serious about deficits. So how about it, righties? Are you serious, or all hat and no cattle?
I could live with eliminating the mortgage deduction and taxing employer health benefits, since I don’t have a mortgage and pay for my own health insurance.
I could also live with an 8% VAT, since the only things I buy are food, heat and electricity, and stocks. I’ll sell my Boeing stock if the government quits buying weapons, though.
And I can accept raising the Social Security age to 72, since I’m already retired and would be grandfathered into the old benefit schedule. I made a good moral choice by being born when I was; if you’re still working, that’s your fault.
But hey. I’m willing to cut you rightwing warmongers some slack. I’m for setting aside an unpopulated island, putting you on it, giving you clubs, and letting you kill each other. Slowly.
Ha ha! Just kidding! Wingnut joke.
Republicans want to institutionalize hereditary inequality.
Unless you were born into a rich family, why would you vote for that? Why would any worker vote Republican? It makes no sense.
@60 What it boils down to is our economy can no longer afford the lifestyles of those who take the most from it.
Here’s how it makes sense. If a wingnut cannot in any way shape or form become rich he or she can do the next best thing:
Fantasize about it.
In other words, demand that government treat him the way a rich person would want to be treated (like royalty, exempt from taxes) while at the same time PROJECTING his resentment onto government that he or she IN REALITY is not rich and probably never can be.
I’ve long been suspicious that even rich wingnuts resent government for not being richer than they are. If they’re millionaire, multi-millionaire or even billionaire, it matters not.
@58: Come on over and do my yard work. I’ll go outside and watch you. :)
@59
That doesn’t count. Put down the computer, ride a bike, pull some weeds, yell at teenagers to pull up their pants and stay off your lawn…
@67
Hire the neighborhood loser kid and pay him well, that way when he goes on a shooting spree he’ll have good thoughts about you and wont send any rounds though your front windows.
63. Roger Rabbit spews:
“Republicans want to institutionalize hereditary inequality.”
And they would do it by eliminating the only “income” taxes they pay – capital gains, dividend and estate taxes. Generation after generation of the idle rich lounging by the pool, clipping coupons, paying no taxes, all while hating the nation that made their vast wealth possible and instilling the most vile hatred in their flying monkey lackeys like Lost and the Klynical KLOWN.
@26 Losthismind spews:
“People don’t hate government, Rabbit, despite your inflammatory verbiage. They hate indifferent and incompetent fools taking their money to do a job poorly or not at all.”
Fucking hypocrite. Where’s the flying monkey hate when your right-wing masters take your damned money? You’re just a stupid fool.
@68: Nope. I want you. I want to see you pull yourself up by your bootstraps…a living demonstration of republican civic virtue guided by the unerring hand of righteous self-interest, self effacing probity, and far reaching vision. Christian virtue can be tossed in for no added cost.
Why would I want to hire the neighborhood ‘loser kid’ when I could have you… an apparently grown up loser.
“They (the people) hate indifferent and incompetent fools taking their money to do a job poorly or not at all.”
Is this where we all yell, “Heckuva’ job, Brownie!” or “we will be greeted as liberators”? Altogether now!
I am reminded of the classic biting wit found in the comic strips of Scott Adams’ “Dilbert”, a body of comedic genius little appreciated by wingnut “free market” acolytes.
@71
I’m a lefty, atheist and my boots don’t have any straps on them…
@71
I guess I shouldn’t have expected someone that calls them self “proud to be an ass” to have a sense of humor.
@73: If that’s the case, I’d give you a raise, and if you’re a lefty atheist, I’d enjoy the company. Free beer, too.
Anything to not have to do the yard work.
@75
Now you’re talking.
Wow,
Posts 5-8 are absolute gibberish. Puddy will have to trust Proud Goatist for translations.
the liberal media whines about cia waterboarding, but no complaint about the mossad, traveling on western passports, assasinates a member of hamas. and we give israel 5 billion a year in aide. somethings off in this equation.
@78
Wonder what I could have turned up if I spend more than five seconds searching.
@78,79
Far as I’m concerned the world is better off w/o Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
and btw, when are you morons going to realize the mossad killed kennedy.
@80
Far as I’m concerned the world is better off w/o Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
so, then, we all get to make our own decisions as to who we can “off”?
@78, 81: When will you admit that your so-called ‘jew conspiracy’ is just a front group for the Klingons? Consider:
1. How else explain the ‘magic bullet’ without considering alien planning & execution?
2. Only the Klingons could have destroyed the WTC.
3. The Queen of England is the Antichrist. Just ask Lyndon LaRouch. No human could possibly be that devious. She’s a Klingon.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg (…’berg’ more jew conspiracy..it’s everywhere).
Take care. Keep you tin foil hat tuned…..
@77: Pudwhacker–no need. Now you clowns are asserting that defaulting on the debt is no big deal.
http://capitalgainsandgames.co.....fault-debt
And Bruce Bartlett is indeed an anomaly….a principled conservative.
@82
Well you’re still alive, so I guess not.
@82
Just stating a personal opinion.
No we don’t get to “off” whomever we want.
@26 You’re an idiot who thinks a government job is a handout.
@85: Good one. You show promise.
@82
No we don’t get to “off” whomever we want.
i totally agree. so, if we give 5 billion a year in foreign aide, for example, we should require that the country adhere to our human rights standards. eg, their spy agencies cant use hit squads to assasinate.
@83
hey proud ass, just curious. you think there have ever been conspiracies in world history?
@90: Jay Gould and Jim Fisk? That one failed as I recall. Other than that, not much really.
Wait, wait. What about the Tri-Lateral Commission? That one run by the jews, tew?
The application of Occam’s razor to all conspiracy theories pretty much crumbles them to dust….except for the Klingon’s of course.
@91
did you ever read “the rise and fall of the third reich”, by william schirer? usually recognized as the definitive work on that subject. he writes about hitler killing 150 poles, dressing them in german uniforms, and presenting the dead “german soldiers” to the german people as the pretext to start ww2. do you believe that conspiracy happended?
A plan is a conspiracy. Depends on who is viewing the plan as to whether it is labeled a conspiracy.
Would it be fair to say that the allies ‘conspired’ to defeat the third reich, or is that just some crazy, easily debunked theory?
@26 “You traded lower pay for more than a pension, Bunny. You traded it for a job from which you couldn’t be fired for incompetence, stupidity or outright indifference to your job.”
I wasn’t civil service. I was an “exempt” employee.
“Many public servants are hard working dedicated people.”
And competent, too.
“Many would have been quickly fired years ago in the private sector.”
Private employers fire people for all sorts of reasons, some illegitimate, so that’s not much of a standard to judge by.
“it’s hardly statistically significant that an attorney ticked some unstable fool off”
Are you making excuses for unstable fools?
But you’re right about one thing — unstable fools get ticked off at judges. For example, in 1974, Yakima County Superior Court Judge James Lawless was killed by a bomb sent to his chambers by a criminal he sentenced to prison.
Here’s what a Republican U.S. Senator said about people who murder judges:
“I don’t know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that’s been on the news and I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in – engage in violence.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/5/92027/09203
Well, that’s the Republican mentality for you.
“Nor does it reflect the career of the vast majority of civil servants.”
I’ve forgotten how many times I was in buildings that were evacuated because of bomb threats. Several times. And since they evacuated everyone, I would say, yes it does reflect the careers of everyone I worked with.
“Certainly you see long lines to apply for positions at the Post Office and any government vacancy.”
I see. The only respectable government work is delivering mail. The rest are overpaid loafers.
When I was a judge, one of the more enjoyable types of cases I dealt with was fining contractors who installed wiring without an electrical permit or electrician’s license. 500 bucks for first offense. Repeat offenders were even more fun because the fine doubles with the second offense. I remember one guy who cut a wire in the way of a wall cutout and bridged the gap by routing an aluminum wire around the cutout which was connecting to copper wires on both ends. The inspector who testified in that trial explained that will start a fire almost every time. And then there was the well driller who hooked up a pump by stringing extension cords together that lay on the grounds in puddles of water from melting snow. I fined him $1500 because it was his third offense. His defense was that he was innocent because he left it unplugged and it was actually the homeowner who plugged it in.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think all contractors are jackasses. Only some of them are.
“The only way a privately invested pension can be taken is by dimunition of the asset itself. Money I put in can only be taken out by me. Matching funds may have been withdrawn. If done so legally, too bad. If illegaly attorneys can handle that.”
I’m sure you’re an expert at nailing 2x4s together. I do not doubt your handiness with a circular saw. You probably know all about installing drywall. And I feel confident you’ve never futzed around with electrical wiring more than your permits and licenses allow you to. But you don’t know shit about how pensions work in the real world.
In the private sector, corporations routinely underfund their pensions. Then the Busheviks changed the bankruptcy laws so they could welsh on their pension promises to their employees. Just ask the retired United Airlines pilots who get 30 cents on the dollar from the government-run Pension Guaranty agency. Of course, people like you are against government-anything, so if you had your way they’d be getting nothing. Now, this might be understandable if United went out of business. But they didn’t. After Chapter 11 swept away their union contracts and pension obligations, they were back in business the next day. In fact, they didn’t even cancel any flights because of their bankruptcy. Some people might consider that an abuse of the principles behind our bankruptcy laws.
Public pensions work differently. The legislature, like many corporations, underfunded Washington’s pension system by skipping the employer contributions. Politicians prefer to spend money making constituents, not employees, happy and they counted on investment returns to make up for their perfidy. It didn’t work out that way.
Your argument is “tough cookie.” But my pension benefit is enshrined in state law and is a function of a statutorily-prescribed calculation formula, not whether there’s money in the pension fund. The law makes the state responsible for ensuring the money is there. For example, if investments go bad, the state has to make the fund good. And the state can’t file chapter 11.
But let’s get back to your basic philosophy about pensions. We live in an age when reneging on pensions has become almost universal in the private sector, and people like you assert that government retirees should be conned out of their pensions, too. That’s quite a program you’re offering us, pardner. What do you think the chances are that I’ll vote for you, your twisted philosophy, and your dishonest party? For that matter, do you think I would hire a contractor with your attitude, or buy a house from you? You’ve just proved you can’t be trusted any farther than a rabbit can spit.
“People don’t hate government, Rabbit”
Sure they do.
http://www.truthdig.com/images.....ty_350.jpg
http://www.star-telegram.com/p.....78866.html
“They hate indifferent and incompetent fools taking their money to do a job poorly or not at all.”
And maybe this kind of hate talk makes it easier for crazy people to blow up government buildings and kill government workers, because it encourages them to think they have an approving audience cheering them on.
I’d never heard of “Free Republic” until I stumbled across it while researching a water law problem. I came across a FR comment posted by a guy in eastern Washington who said he’d kill any state Ecology Department inspector who came on his property. This really isn’t unusual; those of us who work in government get this sort of thing all the time. I never worked for the IRS, but it must be even worse for them.
Suspicion of government is healthy to a point. After all, most of the really bad things in this world are perpetrated by governments, or what passes for “government” in the world’s hell-holes. Although, if you go back in history a few hundred years, the Church has a heavy hand in evildoing, too.
But where rightwing arguments fall apart is that you guys have proved to be anything but champions of individual liberty and restrained governmental power. The last Republican president who didn’t violate the individual constitutional rights of American citizens was Eisenhower. It was rightwing freaks, not liberal manic-depressives, who murdered people with Arabic names after 9/11. It’s you guys who wiretap political opponents, torture people, and write legal memos justifying detentions without trial. When a U.S. administration gets out of control, and we lawyers have to deal with it, it’s not liberals who are causing the problem. The behavior of rightwingers blows to hell their phony pretensions about limited government and individual freedom.
@70 “You’re just a stupid fool.”
That’s my take on “Lost,” too. He’s typical of the provincials who know how to work with tools, build things, and fix lawnmowers. They never read any literature or philosophy. They think art is useless. Their idea of culture is a NASCAR race.
All of this is fine to a point. It’s great that America is a free country and people can choose how to spend their time.
The problem arises when people assume knowledge of things beyond their competence. I wouldn’t hire a congressional health care policy adviser to remodel my kitchen. But I wouldn’t hire a remodeler to advise my congressman on pension policy, either.
Get my drift?
I don’t have anything against the NASCAR crowd. I find it strange they think this
http://www.chicagonow.com/blog.....tcrash.jpg
is a good use of our nation’s economic resources but food stamps for unemployed people isn’t.
But it doesn’t have to be either-or. America is rich enough to support the NASCAR culture and the unfortunates among us.
My problem is with the mentality that says, “I get my way, and you don’t get yours.” And then threaten civil war over it. And make their point by waving guns in our faces as a form of political protest.
That’s not the American spirit, that’s a kindergarten.
@71 Most of the Republicans I’ve met pulled themselves up by their fathers’ bootstraps.
@84 The righties want to default on the public debts they racked up under Reagan and the Bushes? I wouldn’t lend my money to those guys.
@92 For your information, serious students of history are more likely to consider Joachim Fest’s “Hitler” as the definitive work on “that subject.”
Shirer is okay, he was a journalist living in Berlin at the time, but Fest was a German who understood the German people and culture in a way that no foreigner ever could.
37. Proud To Be An Ass spews:
Neither–Here is what I said–
Look at your SS History.
It shows both SS and Medicare.
The point is, I will never, ever get back what I paid in. I 62, I would get about $1800/mo.
That will be perhaps 1-1/2% return on my accumulated principal (assuming avg. 5% return)–I did much better than 5% myself during that time.
PLUS, I WILL NEVER GET BACK MY PRINCIPAL!
All it is is yet another tax shift…from our generation, to the older generation AND other assorted thefts by politicians of both parties.
@77 – I didn’t expected a mud slinger like you to be able to answer anything intellectually. I wonder what the bible says about an idiot like you – keep reading it, seems like you haven’t learned anything from it, but bigotry and nonsense.
And before you reply to this comment, first try to answer my original questions.
@6…so your saying Rachel Madcow doesnt chow box?
“He’s typical of the provincials who know how to work with tools, build things, and fix lawnmowers. They never read any literature or philosophy. They think art is useless. Their idea of culture is a NASCAR race.”
Think what you like about me, Rabbit. I don’t honestly care if you think I’m a fool, or stupid, or lacking in culture or that I’m poorly read.
The mistake elitists like you make is assuming this about everyone with whom you disagree. It’s easy, but lazy and in the end wrong. I know and respect a number of people with whose political philosophy I have no agreement. I understand the motivation of lefist thought, the greatest good for the greatest number. You however are so lost in angry and bitter partisan rancor that you can’t see good in the other side or bad in yours.
Best of luck with that, but luck is what you’ll need. Have a nice weekend.
“He’s typical of the provincials who know how to work with tools, build things, and fix lawnmowers. They never read any literature or philosophy. They think art is useless. Their idea of culture is a NASCAR race.”
Think what you like about me, Rabbit. I don’t honestly care if you think I’m a fool, or stupid, or lacking in culture or that I’m poorly read.
The mistake elitists like you make is assuming this about everyone with whom you disagree. It’s easy, but lazy and in the end wrong. I know and respect a number of people with whose political philosophy I have no agreement. I understand the motivation of lefist thought, the greatest good for the greatest number. You however are so lost in angry and bitter partisan rancor that you can’t see good in the other side or bad in yours.
Best of luck with that, but luck is what you’ll need. Have a nice weekend.
@103 – Hey Mr. Max let’s let PuddyNutz in on the secret, that there are a lot of racists out there, especially your kind and other so called conservative. I bet my experience isn’t to unique, but let us tell PuddyNutz how we know people like Family, Friends, Co-workers, and in my case people people I know from a National Religious Organization, to say the least. That these people toss the “N” word out there like it is the word “the”. You know these bigots, people like yourself.
Typically, my findings are that 7 time out of 10 that these people are right wing conservative Republicans or Independents.
So to all my black liberal friends, let me say Sorry for the actions of others.
But to PuddyNutz, I say sucker.
Tell him Max.
@106……oh poor gman, you sure are in a grumpy mood…whats the matter? come up empty while bear hunting on capital hill?
Now, since you are asking for a secret, I will let you in on one. Not only do I have 2 beautiful kids that we made the old fashioned way(you know, the dick in vagina method – well, maybe you dont know..), we also have an adopted child from Kenya…hhmmm, kinda hard to hating on black folk dont ya think? You fail.
See, dont paint your own self-hatred and self-loathing on others. I dont give a damn about you or how many man-holes you stick your shitty dick into.
You and your bent are the real bigots: you hate christians, conservatives, and anybody else that doesnt see the world as you do. You want to talk to a racist? Fine, then start up a conversation with YLB or Goebbels Rabbit.
oh and here is another point: Yes, Rachel Madcow is pussy eating, batshit crazy whack-a-mole leftist partisan political pundit(not to mention ugly as hell), but I do have ONE thing in common with her: I eat pussy too – every damned chance I get.
the most racist people i know are jewish. they are involved in all kinds of charity work, for two reasons. one, to make it look like they care, and two, to constantly try to divert resources from the middle class to non productive people. but in their private lives, they hate the goyim. and wouldnt you if people were trying to kill you for 5000 years.
Hmmm. Proud Leftist is Christian. I don’t hate him. Rhp is a devout Christian. Has claimed that God spoke to him and warned him to stay on the straight and narrow.. Don’t hate him. Steve is a Christian. Don’t hate him. Roger Rabbit has claimed he believes in God and is personally opposed to abortion. Don’t hate him. I’m atheist myself but the atheists I admire are not ignorant of religion and even acknowledge the positive role it often plays.
Conservatives?? Shit, I’d pray to the Christian God if it meant a conservative would come here to debate their ideas instead of repeating right wing bullshit from hate talk radio, whacked out websites and Murdoch publications.
Now STUPID people who hurt others and praise and are sycophantic towards those who do way more harm than good? I have some issues with them.
Well a healthy heterosexual male does often practice cunnilingus. I’m glad to hear you’re ok in that dept. But it seems you must hate yourself for it because every time you disparage Rachel, you mention her cunnilingus practice.
Sorry Max YOU FAIL. You call me racist, you don’t back it up with even one citation and you’re homophobic as well – you’ve spewed hate like “carpet munching c*nt” and characterized Seattlites (like Stupes’ sons who attend UW) as “limp-wristed”.
You hate like there’s no tomorrow. You’re a creep Max.
@107 – I see you couldn’t say to PuddyNutz that none of what I said wasn’t true, you could only attack me. And you sound a little grumpy yourself, maybe because the truth hurts a little bit for you to know that you’re in a boat full of bigots.
@109
Hmmm. Proud Leftist is Christian. I don’t hate him. Rhp is a devout Christian. Has claimed that God spoke to him and warned him to stay on the straight and narrow.. Don’t hate him. Steve is a Christian. Don’t hate him.
words mean nothing, its your deeds. i know how jews operate. my friends sister has a tax free card from her temple. she goes to the wholsale clubs, buys in bulk with no tax and then resells at the temple to avoid taxes. but i’m sure she says she like christians, even though she doesnt feel like she should contribute to their society.
@110….reading comprehension is not your friend.
*sarcasm on
your right gman, I am a racist with an adopted african-american child(rolls eyes)
*sarcasm off
@112 – yeah reading comprehension is not your friend either. I called you a bigot, not a racist. Where did I call YOU a racist. But be proud of yourself, because a racist and Bigot, are two peas in a pod. I’m sure your Kenyan son will be proud to know that as he grows up. You know you see it every day or almost every day of the racism and bigotry that exists.
@113
gman, most liberals, and i assume you fall in this category, either dont believe in god and/or dont believe religion should play a part in our public life, so….what then is the reason racism is bad? no god, someone a racist, they die, end of story. who said racism is bad?
@113…daughter, not son.
you can believe what you want dude, I really dont give a crap.