U.S. politics isolation tank

[intothewoods]

Heh heh. That reminds me of Stephen Colbert the other night. I'm not outing Barney Frank when I say that he is openly a flaming Democrat. And he's gay too.

 

[WriterDom]

I would have liked to seen a democrat take out Barney just because he was up to his neck in the housing shit.

I go to a gay eye doctor so I imagine I'd vote for a gay politician. Most people here wouldn't vote for a gay anything or an atheist. Not sure about how the locals would feel about a Jew. Jesus is the only Jew most of these people know.

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Well, yeah, the country is just not that far left for true progressives to get what they want. That's how they took back the house to begin with. With Jesus loving, abortion hating, anti gay marriage gun carrying blue dogs. It's looking more and more like 60 to 80 democrat seats evaporating so I don't know if they'll be enough blue dogs left to even be a factor. And I'm not sure how the survivors will be welcomed. Voting with republicans when they are in the minority is just quaint and charming. Voting with a majority of republicans isn't going to sit well with the democratic faithful.

Now I could be wrong but when Barney is taking out loans things aren't looking too well for democrats.

Well, it's debatable what the views of the average American are (they seem to range, and often, when polled, are more liberal on particular issues than they think of themselves overall), but definitely, the country is just not far left enough for me.

Yet.

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Oh yes, Obama is SOOOOOO liberal...so radical in his "redistribution of wealth."

Right.

 

[WriterDom]

Anyone going to the liberal tea party this weekend? The WSJ said getting the left wing to protest is about like getting dogs to bark. While getting conservatives to protest is more like getting cats to bark. Paraphrasing here.

Try not to break anything and please clean up after yourselves. No one likes a Litterbug.

 

[midwestyankee]

Anyone going to the liberal tea party this weekend? The WSJ said getting the left wing to protest is about like getting dogs to bark. While getting conservatives to protest is more like getting cats to bark. Paraphrasing here.

Try not to break anything and please clean up after yourselves. No one likes a Litterbug.

The only thing the WSJ prints these days that's close to reliably accurate is the stock prices.

 

[WriterDom]

The only thing the WSJ prints these days that's close to reliably accurate is the stock prices.

And you would shut them down along with Fox News TV and conservative talk radio, no? Or just two out of the three?

 

[midwestyankee]

And you would shut them down along with Fox News TV and conservative talk radio, no? Or just two out of the three?

What is this? You think I'm a communist because I don't believe in Saint Reagan? Jeebus, man, get a fucking grip. They're a business and they have a right to be wrong just like any newspaper. If they're wrong enough, eventually their customers will look elsewhere and they'll go out of business.

I believe you folks on the quaint side of the aisle like to call that the Sacred Free Market.

 

[intothewoods]

Anyone going to the liberal tea party this weekend? The WSJ said getting the left wing to protest is about like getting dogs to bark. While getting conservatives to protest is more like getting cats to bark. Paraphrasing here.

Try not to break anything and please clean up after yourselves. No one likes a Litterbug.

Lol, it's going to be a comedy show.

 

[Homburg]

This may be a repeat...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/39880604#39880604

Dunno if this has been posted, but Keith Olbermann's piece "If the Tea Party wins, America loses," is great stuff.

 

[midwestyankee]

Who watched the Daily Show last night? What's your take on how the Prez did?

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Krugman.

"The resurgent Republicans have learned nothing from the economic crisis, except that doing everything they can to undermine Mr. Obama is a winning political strategy. Tax cuts and deregulation are still the alpha and omega of their economic vision.

And if they take one or both houses of Congress, complete policy paralysis — which will mean, among other things, a cutoff of desperately needed aid to the unemployed and a freeze on further help for state and local governments — is a given. The only question is whether we’ll have political chaos as well, with Republicans’ shutting down the government at some point over the next two years. And the odds are that we will."

Oh joy!

 

[WriterDom]

Krugman.

"The resurgent Republicans have learned nothing from the economic crisis, except that doing everything they can to undermine Mr. Obama is a winning political strategy. Tax cuts and deregulation are still the alpha and omega of their economic vision.

And if they take one or both houses of Congress, complete policy paralysis — which will mean, among other things, a cutoff of desperately needed aid to the unemployed and a freeze on further help for state and local governments — is a given. The only question is whether we’ll have political chaos as well, with Republicans’ shutting down the government at some point over the next two years. And the odds are that we will."

Oh joy!

After six years of this congress, complete policy paralysis sounds like a winner.

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so."

Ronald Reagan

We're going to party like it's 1994!

Actually they said no parties. Unlike 1996.

 

[Netzach]

After six years of this congress, complete policy paralysis sounds like a winner.

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so."

Ronald Reagan

We're going to party like it's 1994!

Actually they said no parties. Unlike 1996.

Um, fuck this and the horse it rode in on. I don't give a flying fuck about the federal deficit when I can't find a job and feed myself - and neither does anyone else who has a brain. People wringing their hands are either economists, bankers, or social security funded whiners. The second their money runs out they'll be more worried about consumer index and unemployment and less worried about "the debt to our grandchildren" grandstanding. Those people care about the national debt, but not whether these grandchildren actually have any dry land to stand on.

I graduated school in 1996 and found a job in a DAY. And it didn't involve a hair net.

While you play football in your mind and cheer the gridlock, people like BiBunny have to deal with the fallout - it's great to see that social safety net fail and it's great to bitch about stimulus road signs when you're not the one with a degree looking for work.

 

[midwestyankee]

Let's talk reality, shall we? Every day I hear the Right whining that President Obama has created an environment that is hostile to business. Bullshit:

Profits have surged 62 percent from the start of 2009 to mid-2010, according to the Commerce Department. That is faster than any other year and a half in the Fabulous ’50s, the Go-Go ’60s or the booms under Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Under another president, especially a Republican president, the data on corporate profits would be envied. George W. Bush, who dedicated a good deal of his presidency to tax cuts aimed at boosting business profits, probably would have loved such results. It took Bush nearly four years to post the gains that Obama has managed in less than half the time.​

Source: Wall Street Politico

 

[WriterDom]

Let's talk reality, shall we? Every day I hear the Right whining that President Obama has created an environment that is hostile to business. Bullshit:

Profits have surged 62 percent from the start of 2009 to mid-2010, according to the Commerce Department. That is faster than any other year and a half in the Fabulous ’50s, the Go-Go ’60s or the booms under Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Under another president, especially a Republican president, the data on corporate profits would be envied. George W. Bush, who dedicated a good deal of his presidency to tax cuts aimed at boosting business profits, probably would have loved such results. It took Bush nearly four years to post the gains that Obama has managed in less than half the time.​

Source: Wall Street Politico

Meaningless drivel. Are we talking profits from one year to the next? That's like saying a football team who goes 1-11 and then the next year they go 3-9, that victories tripled! Well, yeah, but you still suck.

Come back when you lower and not raise unemployment and we'll talk.

 

[Netzach]

Meaningless drivel. Are we talking profits from one year to the next? That's like saying a football team who goes 1-11 and then the next year they go 3-9, that victories tripled! Well, yeah, but you still suck.

Come back when you lower and not raise unemployment and we'll talk.

How do we do that?

I'm being serious. You laugh at the notion of a works progress or CCC type endeavor, and obviously handing money over to corporate interests seems to work really well because they've done so well with it. Obviously the tax breaks you get for being huge are offset by this stifling climate of regulation. Ha ha.

 

[midwestyankee]

Meaningless drivel. Are we talking profits from one year to the next? That's like saying a football team who goes 1-11 and then the next year they go 3-9, that victories tripled! Well, yeah, but you still suck.

Come back when you lower and not raise unemployment and we'll talk.

Then, since this is just drivel, the various businesses ought not to care if these useless profits are taxed at the rate of 100%. WD, if Obama cured world hunger I'm sure you'd bitch that he was responsible for increasing the world population.

Come back when you have an idea that doesn't include a no or a don't.

 

[WriterDom]

Then, since this is just drivel, the various businesses ought not to care if these useless profits are taxed at the rate of 100%. WD, if Obama cured world hunger I'm sure you'd bitch that he was responsible for increasing the world population.

Come back when you have an idea that doesn't include a no or a don't.

Cutting the corporate tax rate would be a good place to start.

Do cut the corporate tax rate. Happy now?

 

[midwestyankee]

Cutting the corporate tax rate would be a good place to start.

Do cut the corporate tax rate. Happy now?

Which part of Sacred Defense will you cut to offset the loss of revenue? Because we all know from listening to every Republican in the land that the deficit is Problem Number 1 in this country.

I'd be fine with cutting the nominal tax rate so long as we also eliminate all subsidies to business so that corporations would, in fact, pay the corporate tax rate.

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Which part of Sacred Defense will you cut to offset the loss of revenue? Because we all know from listening to every Republican in the land that the deficit is Problem Number 1 in this country.

I'd be fine with cutting the nominal tax rate so long as we also eliminate all subsidies to business so that corporations would, in fact, pay the corporate tax rate.

WHAT WE NEED TO BALANCE THE BUDGET IS TO GET RID OF ALL THIS FUCKING (corporate) WELFARE!!!!!

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

10 percent unemployment
-------+
last flopping salmon-deaths of rural white evangelicals
-------+
obscene amounts of money (much of it stealth)
-------=
Election 2010

 

[midwestyankee]

Two great lines from The Economist:

The middle class doesn't like to get welfare checks, so instead it gets tax credits and deductions for doing things middle-class people generally do anyway. It's six one way, half-a-dozen the other. Regulatory policy is even more indirect, but regulation often amounts to little more than welfare checks for some interest groups and taxes for others.​

and

Our minds have been warped by relentless marketing designed to engender false consciousness of stark political brand contrasts. It's as if Crest is telling us that Colgate leads to socialism and Colgate is telling us that Crest leads to plutocracy and all of us believe half of it.​

Source

 

[midwestyankee]

WHAT WE NEED TO BALANCE THE BUDGET IS TO GET RID OF ALL THIS FUCKING (corporate) WELFARE!!!!!

I wonder how many people realize that we could raise just about as much money by eliminating the home-mortgage interest tax deduction as we could be re-upping the Bush tax cut on income over $250K.

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

I wonder how many people realize that we could raise just about as much money by eliminating the home-mortgage interest tax deduction as we could be re-upping the Bush tax cut on income over $250K.

Cue the Canadians on Lit...