U.S. politics isolation tank

[rosco rathbone]

I have a lot of questions about the tea party. I can't remember if I posted this on this board elsewhere, but I heard an interview with some author on NPR who wrote a book on the various tea party groups. Evidently the main unifying theme is really financial policy rather than social. The big beef is with the various bailouts and stimulus. Ok, but I can't think of a prominent tea party candidate who isn't socially conservative. I think if you actually had a party that was focused on minimal government involvement in both fiscal and social matters, you might have a serious contender. Then again, how's that libertarian party doing these days.

Good article: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/may/27/tea-party-jacobins/

 

[sb2009]

this is a Slate article on the Tea Party. http://www.slate.com/id/2263063/

I worked with a woman who was into Tea Party stuff before the presidential election. She was totally in it for the way Things Were Out Of Control in that teenagers were having babies, people were smoking crack and a non-American was running for president.

 

[Lizzie_Borden]

this is a Slate article on the Tea Party. http://www.slate.com/id/2263063/

I worked with a woman who was into Tea Party stuff before the presidential election. She was totally in it for the way Things Were Out Of Control in that teenagers were having babies, people were smoking crack and a non-American was running for president.

I thought you had to be born in the US to be President?

 

[sb2009]

LIzzie - that was a stab at the "birthers" who insist that Obama was born outside the US, so he isn't the real president.

 

[Miss Diva]

Please do! Nice toque, by the way.

Thanks, this is getting interesting. I wonder if Mr Harper is reading.

 

[rekane]

loosely related...

Is anyone going to the "Rally to Restore Sanity"?
I just hate all the rancor and divisive rhetoric - this rally seems to be a rational alternative. One suggested sign was "I may disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler".
This is the first rally I have ever felt compelled to attend.

 

[sb2009]

Is anyone going to the "Rally to Restore Sanity"?
I just hate all the rancor and divisive rhetoric - this rally seems to be a rational alternative. One suggested sign was "I may disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler".
This is the first rally I have ever felt compelled to attend.

Im thinking about going. We should totally have a pervy contingent! "Perves for Sanity!" "BEAT OFF, NOT EACH OTHER" "FUCK, DON'T FIGHT!"

 

[rekane]

Great idea!!
How about a sign that says "Teabag Me"?

 

[sb2009]

Too funny!

 

[MasterPhoenix]

My position is the same as Obama on gay rights. Entitled to civil unions but not calling it marriage. Abortion is not a hot button topic with me. But these are social issues and not fiscal issues in my mind not related to big government.

Marijuana I would tax. But when we have and soon to be in the past tense, democrats who can push through anything in the congress because of shear numbers and a president who would sign the bill, and they don't have the political balls to even address the Marijuana issue, well, that day might never come.

I'm not for or against military spending per say. It it has to be matched with the projected missions and threats around the world. If I were to err it would be on the side of strength rather than weakness. Because humans by nature are a warring people. I'd like to pretend otherwise and sit around the campfire with everyone singing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX6233Nig18. But I'm a realist.

My question is how do you separate the social issues and having the government make laws about what people can/can't do in their personal life and the fiscal expansion of government?

 

[MasterPhoenix]

Is anyone going to the "Rally to Restore Sanity"?
I just hate all the rancor and divisive rhetoric - this rally seems to be a rational alternative. One suggested sign was "I may disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler".
This is the first rally I have ever felt compelled to attend.

I find it interesting that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are getting into this rally thing.

That is really indicative of how politics and entertainment have become completely intertwined.

Somehow, I have a sense there is a huge punchline coming from this...

 

[intothewoods]

Good article: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/may/27/tea-party-jacobins/

That is a good article. I hope the tea parties kind of crash and burn. I suppose it makes sense - I mean what is Christine O'Donnell going to do in government exactly?

 

[sb2009]

I find it interesting that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are getting into this rally thing.

That is really indicative of how politics and entertainment have become completely intertwined.

Somehow, I have a sense there is a huge punchline coming from this...

Well, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are the other side of the coin, right?

 

[WriterDom]

That is a good article. I hope the tea parties kind of crash and burn. I suppose it makes sense - I mean what is Christine O'Donnell going to do in government exactly?

Who knows? I mean our government is working so well as it is. Approval rate of congress is somewhere between genital warts and dial up internet.

 

[WriterDom]

I find it interesting that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are getting into this rally thing.

That is really indicative of how democrats and entertainment have become completely intertwined.

Somehow, I have a sense there is a huge punchline coming from this...

Like what? We can do tea parties too?

 

[JMohegan]

I find it interesting that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are getting into this rally thing.

That is really indicative of how politics and entertainment have become completely intertwined.

Somehow, I have a sense there is a huge punchline coming from this...

It's satire. A spoof of the Beck/Sharpton rallies.

Humor, but humor rooted in a serious critique.

 

[intothewoods]

Well, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are the other side of the coin, right?

The other side of the coin from those two is Keith Olbermann, maybe, on his worst day. Jon Stewart is funny. And Stephen Colbert is an intentional parody of Bill O'Reilly.

 

[chy_girl]

The other side of the coin from those two is Keith Olbermann, maybe, on his worst day. Jon Stewart is funny. And Stephen Colbert is an intentional parody of Bill O'Reilly.

The funny thing about comedians, though, is that for them to really be able and make the material work they have to know it inside and out.

If you're lucky and you watch, every once in awhile you'll see one of them forget that they're supposed to be funny while passionately debating a topic.

 

[ImOnIt]

My question is how do you separate the social issues and having the government make laws about what people can/can't do in their personal life and the fiscal expansion of government?

Fiscal expansion... money expansion.


If you want government action to stay the same, it needs to increase taxes at the same rate as inflation (a few percent each year). If you want the government to be more active, it does require higher taxes. Less active, less money.

 

[rosco rathbone]

That is a good article. I hope the tea parties kind of crash and burn. I suppose it makes sense - I mean what is Christine O'Donnell going to do in government exactly?

The Left-Right Paradigm is Over: It's You Vs Corporations

Where Is Huey Long When You Need Him?

 

[sb2009]

i think of Stewart, etc as the sort of role the Jester/Fool plays in Shakespeare - using humor to say "hey, wtf man?"

 

[midwestyankee]

i think of Stewart, etc as the sort of role the Jester/Fool plays in Shakespeare - using humor to say "hey, wtf man?"

Alas, poor Stewart, I knew him well.

 

[Netzach]

I think it's interesting that locally our gubernatorial election is split between a mainstream republican conservative whackjob, a third party republican-esque libertarian (NON tea, non insane) and a very mainstream DFL center/left in the lead.

TPaw basically emptied the state coffers, dropping us down on the scales of every measurement - "better schools, better place to raise kids better health care and longevity" all of these metrics took a dive when he assraped social services to say he never raised a tax dime. Our unemployment is good but that's just because we're always in the slow and steady economic bracket, insulated from booms and busts on a cushion of white bread wheat and medtronics medical parts. Now - we need money.

The third party guy is like "we need money. Fine, I'm not going to raise taxes, but we have to look at riverboat gambling"

You can imagine how the people who are doing it for Jesus feel about this. I think it's incredibly cool that a person right of me however is pointing out that a state needs to do stuff and doesn't run on pixie wands and happy thoughts.

There's not a single toll road here anywhere, either. Hmmmmm.

 

[sb2009]

so really...is anyone going?

 

[WriterDom]

The third party guy is like "we need money. Fine, I'm not going to raise taxes, but we have to look at riverboat gambling"

You can imagine how the people who are doing it for Jesus feel about this.

Do you have a lottery? I don't see the difference between a lottery and any other form of gambling. We have the lottery in Georgia and it's a double edged sword in my mind. I have no doubts that kids have gone to be hungry because of someone's gambling addiction.

On the flip side, if a kid has a B average and can maintain it, college is free at a state school and the same level of funding applies to private schools along with a book allowance. Of course this is on the backs of people who didn't pay attention in math class at school. I doubt very many people break even on lotteries over their lifetime unless you are the big winner. Your chances of dying in a car accident on the way to get your ticket are greater.

And of course it benefits kids who would have found a way to go to college regardless. I wouldn't call these kids rich by any means, but in a sense it is taking from the poor and giving to the richer.

This is a sore topic for BiBunny because Alabama refuses to do it and thousands of them cross to border to pay into our system. Just like SC did before they finally passed one. With a republican governor no less. We had "give em Hell, Zell" sign ours. If your governor says "no" you are fucked. Like Alabama and Mississippi.

And as far as your state being broke, I heard not long ago, that only one state ran a surplus last year. And that was probably somewhere like Montana.