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Open Thread 9/28

by Carl Ballard — Wednesday, 9/28/11, 7:35 am

– A good primer on how to donate political money to make the most difference.

– HA God correspondent Goldy makes a point over at Slog about the Tacoma teachers’ right to strike even if it isn’t codified in law.

– The most stressful part of my commute is figuring out what to write.

– Cain would probably get a lot of support from Wall Street Republicans if his name was Co.

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Comments

  1. 1

    Politically Incorrect spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 8:24 am

    I was thinking of abstaining on the vote for or against 1183 because I view our state’s liquor store system as a method for the distribution, sale and control of cannabis once we finally legalize it.

    I’m leaning now towards voting for the measure because I think a little threat to the state’s monopoly on liquor sales might be an inspiration for liqour store employees and managers to support cannabis legalization. If threathened with the loss of a state job, these employees might be willing to support legalization of cannabis with the state’s liqour system handling distribution and sale. Heck, a job’s a job, and selling cannabis through the state’s stores can’t be much different than selling liquor in that same environment.

    I haven’t made up my mind definitely, but I’m thinking of voting for 1183 because it might strenghten support for eventual legalization of cannabis.

  2. 2

    Republiboy spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 8:39 am

    Cain is our Negro and if you criticize him, that makes you a racist. Oh, and no posters of Cain with a bone through his nose. That’s racist too — unless it’s Obama.

  3. 3

    Dorky Dorkman spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 8:41 am

    Cannabis can be sold right next to the Johhny Walker Red in Costco. It will be interesting to see if WalMart will sell booze and cannabis.

  4. 4

    Siberian dog spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 10:59 am

    Is it just me, or does Chris Christie look like a fat fucking hog? At least he would get the morbidly obese vote.

  5. 5

    Michael spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 11:11 am

    @4
    I was wondering if people would vote for someone that overweight?

  6. 6

    Michael spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 11:22 am

    But, you know, Obama’s not doing anything about illegal immigration:

    Washington (CNN) — In a huge, seven-day operation covering all 50 states and four U.S. territories, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested 2,901 convicted criminal immigrants as part of the “Cross Check” enforcement operation, ICE officials announced Wednesday.
    ICE officials trumpeted the arrests at a news conference designed to highlight “the Obama administration’s ongoing commitment to prioritizing the removal of criminal aliens and egregious immigration law violators.”
    ICE Director John Morton said all those arrested had prior criminal convictions, including 1,282 who had multiple convictions. More than 1,600 of those arrested had felony convictions including manslaughter, attempted murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, drug trafficking, child abuse, sexual crimes against minors and aggravated assault. Forty-two of them were gang members and 151 were convicted sex offenders, officials said.

  7. 7

    Michael spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 11:57 am

    Interesting article.

    http://www.theatlanticcities.c.....ation/161/
    Converting to bicycle commuting is all the rage in U.S. cities, if the proliferation of blogs devoted to the topic is any indication. But we wanted to know: Just how big have increases in the percentage of bike commuters been in specific cities? Are there regional differences? Cities where bike commuting isn’t catching on at all? We surveyed 55 major U.S. cities to see if we could find the answer. While there are stark differences across individual cities, taken as a group these metros saw an average increase in their percentage of regular bicycle commuters of 70 percent between 2000 and 2009.

  8. 8

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 12:07 pm

    The Day South Carolina Murdered A 14-Year-Old Boy

    This story will make you retch. In 1944, South Carolina electrocuted a 14-year-old black boy for murdering two young white girls. The only evidence he committed the crime was a statement to police that he saw the girls on the day they were killed. Detectives offered him an ice cream cone if he confessed. The boy traded his life away for an ice cream cone.

    “This was South Carolina in 1944, with a black male defendant, two young white female victims, and an all white, male jury. Stinney never stood a chance.”

    http://www.thegrio.com/news/wa.....nocent.php

  9. 9

    ArtFart spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 12:27 pm

    We’re on the email list of a Seattle real estate broker who happens to be active in the arts as well. In his latest missive he points out that it appears the rate of new housing starts in Seattle is fairly high compared to other parts of the country or even elsewhere in Washington State. He attributes this to an increasing trend of people moving closer to where they work and giving up on the live-in-the-‘burbs-and-spend-half-your-life-commuting treadmill.

  10. 10

    YLB diagnosing comment thread trolls afflicted with SEVERE ODS since BEFORE Nov. 2008! spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 12:33 pm

    an increasing trend of people moving closer to where they work and giving up on the live-in-the-’burbs-and-spend-half-your-life-commuting treadmill.

    Such depressing news for a certain moronic asshat troll/zombie.

  11. 11

    YLB diagnosing comment thread trolls afflicted with SEVERE ODS since BEFORE Nov. 2008! spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 12:46 pm

    In this state Democrats hold on to power by taxing like a Republican would.

    Demagogues like Eyman then harvest resentment towards the status quo by cooking up bomb-throwing initiatives which when they succeed only end up fueling more resentment towards a lackluster performing government.

    Government by Eyman initiatives is like a simple carbs/saturated fat diet: hardens the arteries of the political system until the patient gives out with a heart attack.

    Anyone remember how I-695 made useless a previous Republican initiative which tasked car tab taxes towards road building?

    Oh well a hustling bomb-thrower like Eyman is bound to happen when the politicians can’t get their act together.

  12. 12

    Michael spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 1:41 pm

    Feds Foil Remote-Controlled Terror Attack on Washington

    A Massachusetts man was arrested today for allegedly masterminding a plot to hit the nation’s capital with explosive-laden remote-controlled airplanes followed by a ground assault, the Department of Justice said.

    Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26-year-old U.S. citizen and Northeastern University graduate, was nabbed in an elaborate FBI sting after he told undercover officers exactly how he planned to arm “small drone airplanes” with explosives in order to hit the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol building before opening fire on the survivors, federal officials said in a statement.
    http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/.....d=14626433

    Can you really claim you “foiled” a plot when the guy doing the plotting was working for you the whole time?

  13. 13

    Turd for brains ButtPutty's dead goat spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 2:44 pm

    12. Michael spews:

    Feds Foil Remote-Controlled Terror Attack on Washington

    Can you really claim you “foiled” a plot when the guy doing the plotting was working for you the whole time?

    That was ABC’s lede, not a quote from the Government.

  14. 14

    Michael spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 3:06 pm

    @13
    Yeah, I know that.

  15. 15

    Turd for brains ButtPutty's dead goat spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 3:16 pm

    Hair Sample Yields First Complete Genome of an Aboriginal Australian

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=first-aboriginal-genome-sequenced&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_SP_20110928

    Not only an interesting story but a story that could not be told without applying the theory of evolution.

    Meanwhile the far Reich and the Discovery Institute continue to struggle to show how their theory about ‘scientific creationism’ (or whatever they are currently calling it) is so much better.

    (Link would not embed.)

  16. 16

    Everett spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 3:52 pm

    Here is what Obama’s buddy in Iran..the guy who’s ass he kisses regularly, you know who I mean..
    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2.....ian-faith/

    Let’s honor Islam!

  17. 17

    Everett spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 3:58 pm

    Siberian dog@4
    Well they voted for your guy Jerry Nadler and he was pretty fat!
    http://biggovernment.com/jdune.....interview/

    And they voted for Gregoire…and she’s quite unattractive and clownlike-
    http://soundpolitics.com/archives/011001.html

  18. 18

    Everett spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 4:01 pm

    The Quinnipac Poll shows President Obama’s approval ratings are 11 points under water in Ohio and Pennsylvania, critical swing states he won in 2008. Complicating the president’s re-election chances, a majority of voters in both battlegrounds say they don’t want to send Obama back to the White House for a second term, according to a pair of Quinnipiac University polls released Wednesday.

    In Ohio, voters disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president, 53 percent to 42 percent. Independents give the president a lower score: 56 percent disapprove of his job performance while 38 percent approve. He receives majority support from his base (77 percent approve) but 19 percent of Democrats give him a poor job-performance grade. Men disapprove by 58 percent to 39 percent while the disapproval rate among women is much narrower, 49 percent to 45 percent. By a 51 percent to 43 percent margin, Ohio voters say the president does not deserve to be re-elected. Again, he struggles among independents: 53 percent don’t want to give him a second term while 37 percent do.

  19. 19

    Michael spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 4:10 pm

    @18
    The only thing worse than Obama’s approval ratings are the ratings of the Republicans running against him and the Republicans in congress.

  20. 20

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 4:50 pm

    Rick Perry apologized to heartless Republicans today for calling them “heartless.”

  21. 21

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 4:54 pm

    @18 The more interesting poll shows a majority of non-Tea Party Republicans favors raising taxes on the rich.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-50.....03544.html

  22. 22

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 5:00 pm

    shithead @16: “Here is what Obama’s buddy in Iran”

    Last I heard Obama’s Iran policy was the same as Dubya’s.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/i.....;aid=26669

  23. 23

    God spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 5:20 pm

    Carl,

    Minor correction.

    Goldy is Hanavee … the prophet
    I am the entity others call “God”

    I do want to wish all here

    HAPPY NEW YEAR! שנה טובה ומתוקהכתיבה וחתימה טובה

    יי

  24. 24

    Steve spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 5:23 pm

    Shit-fer-brains thinks that the presidency might “shackle” her.

    http://videocafe.crooksandliar.....r#comments

    By “shackled”, I take it that she means it’d be harder to fleece her dumbfuck teabaggers of the rest of their money if she’s sitting in the Oval Office.

  25. 25

    Puddybud, identifies Ekim AKA Turd For Brains, Another Cass Sunstein Malleable Homer Simpson idiot spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 5:26 pm

    Last I heard Obama’s Iran policy was the same as Dubya’s.

    Butt Roger DOPEY Rabbit, I distinctly remember Barack ObamAA+ promising “to fix the failed policies of the disastrous Bush administration”. So I guess when he became preznit (headless lucy term probably dorky dorkman) he found out all those Bush policies he claimed to hate keep America safe.

    Amazing huh?

  26. 26

    YLB chuckling at the new teahadist slogan, "Things go better with Koch!" spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 5:28 pm

    18 – LMAO!!! The “friendo” from Montana has sworn off the bought and paid for tool Rasmussen???

    Miracles never cease.

  27. 27

    Liberal Scientist wonders when Republicans will be done with the charade and finally just start using the Hitler Salute spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 6:25 pm

    Can we all go to a new website and not tell Puddy?

  28. 28

    Puddybud, identifies Ekim AKA Turd For Brains, Another Cass Sunstein Malleable Homer Simpson idiot spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 6:43 pm

    Why don’t you just run away Lib UnScientist? You seem really bothered by facts!

  29. 29

    Dorky Dorkman spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 7:16 pm

    re 28: You wouldn’t know a fact if it bit you on your puddybud.

  30. 30

    Michael spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 8:12 pm

    In Ohio, voters disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president, 53 percent to 42 percent.

    Sure, and if someone called and asked me how I thought Obama was doing I’d be in the disapprove column too. See, there’s two things you have to have. You have to have people not like what the president is doing and you have to have people like what your guys are doing. The only people less popular than the president right now are your guys!

  31. 31

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 11:28 pm

    @25 “he found out all those Bush policies he claimed to hate keep America safe”

    You mean like not bombing Iran? Yeah, that kept some American servicemen and women safe.

  32. 32

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Wednesday, 9/28/11 at 11:29 pm

    There are, however, 4,000+ young Americans who weren’t kept safe by Dumbya’s Iraq policy. What kind of dumbfuck does it take to attack the wrong country by a distance of about 1,000 miles?

  33. 33

    Puddybud, identifies Ekim AKA Turd For Brains, Another Cass Sunstein Malleable Homer Simpson idiot spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 3:39 am

    Dorky AKA headless lucy…

    Apparently HuffPo facts elude you too.

  34. 34

    Puddybud, identifies Ekim AKA Turd For Brains, Another Cass Sunstein Malleable Homer Simpson idiot spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 4:12 am

    You can always detect the libtardo simpletons. They want you leave or they can’t process facts, even when delivered from left wrong sites.

    ROTFLRHMBBAO!

  35. 35

    Puddybud, identifies Ekim AKA Turd For Brains, Another Cass Sunstein Malleable Homer Simpson idiot spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 4:16 am

    Can you imagine if this was the arschloch or the “scientist”?

    Heaven help us if more of their “spawn” populate the earth!

  36. 36

    Puddybud, identifies Ekim AKA Turd For Brains, Another Cass Sunstein Malleable Homer Simpson idiot spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 4:19 am

    Interesting development… “Dimon, a longtime Democrat” As Puddy always said, many of Wall Street are/were DUMMOCRAPT jockstraps. Unfortunately the libtardo simpletons of HA always try to lump people into the wrong camp.

    And we all know why! Looks like I’ll have to hold comment on this one! Could be a great development!

  37. 37

    Liberal Scientist wonders when Republicans will be done with the charade and finally just start using the Hitler Salute spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 5:18 am

    The future of the Republican Party.

    O.M.G.

  38. 38

    Liberal Scientist wonders when Republicans will be done with the charade and finally just start using the Hitler Salute spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 5:29 am

    The NOW of the Republican Party.

    Breathtaking. A former Congressman and Presidential candidate, Tom Tancredo, accuses Rick Perry of secret conspiracy to collude with Pakistani MULLAHS!! to inject Sharia into Texas, or some such paranoid fever dream.

    Perry endorsed and facilitated the adoption in Texas public schools of a pro-Muslim curriculum unit developed by Muslim clerics in Pakistan.

    From the original, in The Daily Caller:

    Islam scholar Robert Spencer, head of Jihad Watch, examined the program and concluded, “The curriculum is a complete whitewash and it’s got the endorsement of Perry. It’s not going to give you any idea why people are waging jihad against the West — it’s only going to make you think that the real problem is ‘Islamophobia.’”

    Who are these nitwits, and how do they manage to not kill themselves before breakfast, with such unvarnished STUPIDITY?

    Yup, this is today’s Republican Party. Pass the popcorn.

  39. 39

    Steve spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 8:41 am

    There is one day left in Rachel Beckwith’s donation campaign. The kid has so far raised more than $1,264,000 to bring much needed clean water to other boys and girls.

    http://mycharitywater.org/p/ca.....038;amt=90

    What a wonderful child she must have been. My defenses usually keep such things as Rachel’s story from reaching deep into my heart. But this kid snuck right in there and I found that there was just no way that I could sit this one out. As I’ve said before, I pray that there’s a heaven if for no other reason than that Rachel might look down and know that her birthday wish came true.

  40. 40

    Rujax! spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 8:49 am

    36. Puddybud, identifies Ekim AKA Turd For Brains, Another Cass Sunstein Malleable Homer Simpson idiot spews:

    Interesting development… “Dimon, a longtime Democrat” As Puddy always said, many of Wall Street are/were DUMMOCRAPT jockstraps. Unfortunately the libtardo simpletons of HA always try to lump people into the wrong camp.

    And we all know why! Looks like I’ll have to hold comment on this one! Could be a great development!
    09/29/2011 at 4:19 am

    puddypussy’s Asberger’s is kicking in early today.

    Having been run out of America’s great cities…(Oklahome City? Poughkeesie?) we’re stuck with the motherfuckers lunacy ALL FUCKING DAY. Aaaaaaaarrrgh.

  41. 41

    Everett spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 8:50 am

    YLB @ 26–
    I prefer looking at the RealClearPolitics poll of polls. Thru averaging polls, I think you get a more accurate read as there are both left- and right-leaning polls.
    But out of total disrespect for you and your lazy-ass, jobless existence, here you go–

    Thursday, September 29, 2011

    The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 22% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20

  42. 42

    Rujax! spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 8:53 am

    http://www.americablog.com/201.....quest.html

    Thursday, September 29, 2011

    A polite request to America from the rest of the world

    By Gilbert Moon on 9/29/2011 08:00:00 AM

    There is a tipping point at which simple becomes simplistic. It arrives when every argument is advanced for the purpose of political gain. It is the point at which the intrinsic merit of the position is secondary to the damage that adopting it can inflict. From there it is a small step to ceasing to care about the merit of the argument so completely that anything, however ridiculous and ill-founded, will do. It is difficult to communicate the bewilderment and dismay felt by observers of the American political scene, for instance, watching participants in one of the World’s truly great democracies speculating paranoically over the President’s birth certificate. But that was as nothing compared to watching the naked partisan wrangling over the debt limits that threatened to tip World markets into the abyss.

    Here’s the thing: the Real World is a big, difficult place. The mind-boggling complexity of the Global Economy is such that apparently common sense measures are capable of producing unintended consequences that devastate the lives of real people around the planet. You may also have noticed that this is a time of almost unprecedented international political instability. Simplistic world views and point-scoring games are a luxury no-one can afford.

    Please, we beg you, elect a grown up.

    Don’t listen to people who suggest that “being clever”, or worse, “Harvard-educated” makes you necessarily untrustworthy; that the fearsome churn of unpredicted global events is somehow better dealt with by folksy pseudo-wisdom than by actual mental acuity and expertise; that God is personally telling them what to do (he isn’t); that shouting loudly and surrendering to prejudice is a better idea than thinking hard about what needs to be done.

    You are scaring us.

    When, as I experienced recently, an apparently otherwise sane man takes days out of his life to try to convince me that publicly-funded healthcare involves reinstituting slavery and may be usefully compared to the Holocaust, I am no longer intrigued at the pathology – I am terrified. To be unable to look past the partisan in such dangerous days is shameful. Please do the right thing.

    It’s from a Brit. It’s great.

  43. 43

    Rujax! spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 9:08 am

    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com.....illes.html

    Thursday, September 29, 2011

    Bill O’Reilly shows off the GOP’s Achilles Heel

    by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)

    But O’Reilly’s excuses are almost beside the point. The newsworthy item from the interview is that the Fox News host not only backtracked from his previous statement, but did not even attempt to defend his position from an ideological basis. He knows that the “job creators shouldn’t pay significant taxes” meme is garbage, and couldn’t stick to it in a mano a mano quasi-debate with Stewart. Instead he agreed in principle with the idea of paying a 50% tax rate, so long as the government could prove it wasn’t wasting his money.

    Now, when it comes to government waste and taxes, this is where a progressive naturally shifts to a discussion of billions, if not trillions, wasted on Halliburton and Wall St.. Which is, to be fair, exactly where Jon Stewart went and an important conversation to have. But the discussion of which Party wastes money and which does not isn’t so fascinating here.

    What is fascinating is that when push comes to shove, conservatives cannot defend their ideological ground with a straight face when forced to have a real conversation, rather than wage talking point battles before a pseudo-objective media. This is their Achilles’ Heel. When cornered, they either look terrible and lose the debate, or are forced to admit that their ideological stance is garbage, leaning back on the “waste in government” canard.

    But that itself is an admission of defeat. At that point, to paraphrase the old joke, we already know what kind of man O’Reilly is and we know he knows what the right thing to do is. Now we’re just haggling over the price.

    Wonder why it’s so easy to make fun of the clownservatives here?

    Ever wonder why puddybitch is such an unremitting, unrelenting, unapologetic dumbshit?

    Ever wonder why Everett, emperor max-minidick (whatever handle he’s hiding behind today) and all the rest of the morons are such easy pickins?

    They’re just fucking wrong…simple. Easy.

  44. 44

    Rujax! spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 9:15 am

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....86953.html

    China Space Station: Tiangong-1 Experimental Module Launched

    BEIJING — China launched an experimental module to lay the groundwork for a future space station on Thursday, underscoring its ambitions to become a major space power over the coming decade.

    The box car-sized Tiangong-1 module was shot into space from the Jiuquan launch center on the edge of the Gobi Desert aboard a Long March 2FT1 rocket.

    It is to move into an orbit 217 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth and conduct surveys of Chinese farmland using special cameras, along with experiments involving growing crystals in zero gravity.

    China then plans to launch an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft to practice remote-controlled docking maneuvers with the module, possibly within the next few weeks. Two more missions, at least one of them manned, are to meet up with it next year for further practice, with astronauts staying for up to one month.

    Let’s cut education funding some more. Fucking waste of money.

    Let’s cut funding for science. Work of the devil. Boondoggle. Can’t afford science and tax cuts to the richest 1% (NOT morons like puddypussy, everett and emperor max-minidick…who are NOT the richest one percent).

    China having stations in space is not a problem. Nope.

  45. 45

    rhp6033 spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 9:25 am

    Pat Robertson, evangelistic Christian TV preacher and former GOP presidential candidate, said last week that it was okay to divorce your spouse if the have alzheimers, “so they can get the care they need”.

    Quiet a few people mocked his idea of “family values” and the “’till death do you part” idea.

    But that misses the point. As our life spans increase, more and more of our older citizens are finding themselves having to care for a spouse (or parent) suffering from alzheimers. This could last for years, even over a decade.

    This can be a very difficult and emotional burden on the caregiver. The victim’s personality often changes, causing gentle, caring people to become angry and aggressive. Paranoia is a common symptom, and the victim will often forget who their spouse is, and also completely forget events and conversations which occured just minutes earlier.

    Eventually, the spouse (or children) find it beyond their ability to care for them, as someone needs to watch them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to make sure they don’t slip out of the door and go walking down the street. CBS correspondent Barry Peterson described the pain of caring for his former KIRO news anchor Jan Chorlton, who suffers from early-onset alzheimers:

    CBS correspondent tells of his wife’s early slide into Alzheimer’s

    So at some point the caregivers, whether they be spouse or children of the alzheimer’s patient, have to make the difficult decision of placing the patient into an assisted-care facility. But that can be very costly, and many seniors are finding that they don’t have insurance to cover it. Medicare and/or SSI (Social Security Disability) will provide some level of care, but some of those benefits do not kick in until the patient and their spouse have exhausted all other other assets, including selling or mortgaging their homes, and liquidating their retirement accounts.

    So the discussion, in church senior’s groups and retirement communities, often moves toward finding a way to pay those bills. And the conclusion is often that the best way to do so is to get a divorce so that the patient’s spouse still retains enough assets (retirement, home) for their old age, and leaving the government to pick up the first or major portion of the patient’s care.

    Under the circumstances, I, like Pat Robertson, am not going to judge people who have to make such a difficult decision. But this is certainly contrary to Ron Paul’s assertions that if the government should have no role in caring for such patients.

    We may criticise some of the right-wing seniors for being hypocritical in relying on the government to care for their disabled spouse, while some of them are so virulently anti-government. But note that in their mind, they see it as the basic peril of the middle-class: “too rich” to qualify for benefits, and “too poor” to pay for medical care on their own. They see manipulations such as divorce or transferring or concealing assets as justified since they have paid into the system most of their lives and received few benefits in return.

    I think the President and the Democrats might be able to make some inroads if they specifically address these people’s needs. We need to re-sell the health care reforms as methods to deal with these people’s needs.

  46. 46

    YLB chuckling at the new teahadist slogan, "Things go better with Koch!" spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 9:46 am

    But out of total respect for Roger Ailes and his fellow travelers machinations to buy what’s left of American democracy here you go–

    Much better! Thanks “friendo” from Montana!

  47. 47

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 10:55 am

    Texas Drought Threatens Extremely Rare Whooping Cranes

    The Texas drought has reduced flows in the Guadalupe River — which waters the winter nesting grounds of the world’s last self-sustaining migratory flock of whooping cranes — by 60%, which has tripled the salinity of the coastal marshes used by the birds. So, environmentalists are suing to restrict water withdrawals from the river by industrial and municipal users, setting up a classic business-versus-environment legal contest.

    Users of the river’s water include the world’s largest concentration of petrochemical and refining complexes, power plants, a steel mill, and cities and towns.

    There are fewer than 600 surviving whooping cranes in the entire world, including those in captivity. The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Guadalupe River is used as a winter range by more than half of those birds.

    This lawsuit, in effect, pits the survival of a rare and magnificent native bird against the economic interests of industries that provide essential commodities and create jobs. It asks the court to answer the question, when there isn’t enough water to go around, which should take precedence, economic interests or protection of an endangered species?

    Well, hey, for me that’s an easy one. Those birds are my buddies! We rabbits are for cranes. But you humans can feel free to wipe out eagles, hawks, falcons, and dogs! They’re nothing but useless predators that kill and eat rabbits and other defenseless little creatures! So here’s a win-win solution: Let’s move the refineries, steel mill, power plants, and cities to the breeding grounds of eagles, hawks, falcons, and dogs. Does that sound like a plan?

    http://www.businessweek.com/ma.....22011.html

  48. 48

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 11:15 am

    Up days on Wall Street are getting to be almost as rare as whooping cranes. The stock market started up strongly up this morning, but at last glance, the Dow was up less than 2 points and Nasdaq was off nearly 50.

    Which brings me to another topic: Debunking popular myths about where jobs come from.

    Politicians, especially Republicans (but lately Obama has been getting into the act too) love to extol small businesses as “job creators.” The reality is they aren’t. Although small businesses comprise the vast majority of U.S. businesses they account for only 20% of employment. And their most salient characteristic is that they don’t grow or add positions:

    “Eighty percent of U.S. small companies that remained in business from 2000 to 2003—the most recent period for which Hurst and Pugsley compiled data—didn’t add a single employee.”

    Further, small employers pay less and are far less likely to offer health or retirement benefits, so the jobs that do exist in these businesses are not “good” jobs. If you want a high-paying job with benefits, apply to big companies.

    http://www.businessweek.com/ma.....82011.html

    Recently we’ve heard a lot of decibels from Republicans about “job-killing” taxes on the rich. That too is a myth. What the economy lacks right now is not capital — the world is awash in idle capital, which is why investment returns are so low — but consumer demand. If you want to boost the economy, adopt policies that stimulate consumer spending. You won’t get that result by undertaxing the rich, as Republicans claim:

    “If politicians are looking to create jobs right away, they’d be better off concentrating their efforts lower down on the income ladder. The poor and middle class are more apt to spend extra money, maybe on groceries or a new refrigerator, helping to spur the economy immediately. The No. 1 reason small business owners say they’re not hiring is poor sales. A Congressional Budget Office report looking at economic multipliers found tax cuts for low- and middle-income families are more than twice as powerful in stimulating immediate demand as tax cuts for the wealthy.”

    http://www.businessweek.com/ma.....22011.html

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Deciding how to allocate water between rare birds and economic uses is a toughie. By contracts, creating jobs is a no-brainer. Pandering to small businesses and the wealthy class is empty-suit demagoguery. If you want jobs, you have to give ordinary consumers the means to spend. To do that, you cut taxes on the working class and raise taxes on the rich. Some people call that “wealth redistribution.” I call is “smart economics.” And if you want to go the route of “wealth redistribution” ideology, then I would argue its “wealth re-redistribution,” because real “wealth redistribution” is the cheap labor policies favored by conservatives that take from workers and give to the wealthy.

  49. 49

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 11:19 am

    @42 Our English friend is making a mistake by thinking it pays to be polite to Republican morons. The only language they understand is a kick in the ass.*

    * Just kidding! I’m being metaphorical. Unlike wingnuts, we liberals do not gleefully advocate physical violence against anyone. We prefer to win arguments with facts and logic. But if that doesn’t work and those motherfuckers want to start a civil war then let it … never mind.

  50. 50

    Rujax! spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 11:35 am

    Tribal Elder @ 49…

    They fucking need their asses kicked.

  51. 51

    rhp6033 spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 1:04 pm

    # 47: That sounds suspiciously like the prequil to “The Pelican Brief”.

  52. 52

    ButtPutty's fetid brain spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 1:32 pm

    Experts issue new warnings in listeria outbreak

    As the death toll from the listeria outbreak climbed, federal health officials issued new warnings Wednesday to consumers to dispose of any cantaloupe they have if they don’t know where it’s from.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed 72 illnesses, including 13 deaths, from listeriosis linked to whole melons grown by Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo. Three other deaths are currently under investigation.

    Meanwhile Rethugs push to eliminate those pesky food safety inspections since they interfere with business.

  53. 53

    ButtPutty's fetid brain spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 1:37 pm

    Hey ButtPutty, I have a nice, tasty Jensen Farms Cantaloupe for you. Got ’em at a discount.

  54. 54

    rhp6033 spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 2:43 pm

    It looks like Clint Didier’s trying to make a comeback. He’s urging the Clallum County Tea Party groups to force the County Commission not to apply for federal grants for local projects. He’s claiming that Washington state agriculture is being hurt by federal intervention. And he claims that new environmental rules would put up to 80% of Washington farmland out of production.

    Didier’s Sequim speech produces sparks

    Silly Clint. Without Washington “intervention” (i.e., investment in water, power, & irrigation) in the 1930’s and 40’s, there would be no agriculture in Eastern Washington. And nobody’s trying to psu 80% of Washington farmland out of production, regardless of Clint’s paranoid fantasies of UN conspiricy theories.

    And does anybody else notice from the picture that Clint is looking a lot like Mussollini?

  55. 55

    another cheap ass progressive spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 6:10 pm

    those two bastions of liberalism, Seattle and San Franfreako, are getting called out as the cities that tip the least.

    the jackasses that scream “tax us more!” are the same ones that cant spare an extra percent or two for tipping.

    why am I not surprised?

    fucking cheapskate progressives.

    http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcp.....1804.story

  56. 56

    Michael spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 6:15 pm

    @54

    Man, you can’t swing a dead, DDT laced, Spotted Owl without hitting a righty spouting Agenda 21 nonsense these days.

    ” Didier also singled out as troubling the county commission’s letter of support for the Cascade Land Conservancy’s grant application and tied it to the U.N. and Agenda 21.

  57. 57

    Puddybud, who read how the arschloch "I live off the net" all day spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 6:52 pm

    Idiot alert:

    Rujax! spews: americablog

    Did it get smelly on the blog again? Nothing useful was said!

  58. 58

    YLB "lmfao" at the innumeracy of right wing dings spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 6:59 pm

    Gee, Seattlelites should step up their tipping..

    My fellow Seattle citizens you tip an average of 18.6 percent..

    To catch up with Federal Way you have to step it up to..

    (drum roll)

    19.2 percent (national average)

    Wow! What a hill to climb there Seattle!

  59. 59

    YLB "lmfao" at the innumeracy of right wing dings spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 7:13 pm

    Right wing dings..

    Wattsamaddawiddyous???

    Can’t you manage MORE than barely 2/3 of a FREAKING POINT MORE than Seattle or San Francisco when tipping your servers??

  60. 60

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 7:30 pm

    @55 It’s easy to be generous when you’re flush with cash you stole from someone else. It’s a little harder when you have to actually work for money.

  61. 61

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 7:31 pm

    I’ve never met a Republican who wasn’t a generous tipper. Spending OPM is soooo easy …

  62. 62

    Roger Rabbit spews:

    Thursday, 9/29/11 at 7:33 pm

    @54 Federal intervention, yeah, let’s take away the cheap irrigation and see how the red-white-and-blue farmers like that! Eastern Washington is a bunch of fucking socialists.

  63. 63

    Puddybud, who read how the arschloch "I live off the net" all day spews:

    Friday, 9/30/11 at 6:13 am

    I’ve never met a Republican who wasn’t a generous tipper. Spending OPM is soooo easy …

    Another whatadipshit comment from Roger DOPEY Rabbit!

    I spend MY money when Mrs Puddy and I go to dinner whatadipshit!

    I see being a DOPE comes to the DOPEY Rabbit easier each day!

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