Sarah Palin

[Belegon]

Before we tackle the tax thing, a couple other points.

One, it is the responsibility of a mayor or governor to get all the money for their constituents that they can. Palin did this successfully. She's not totally incompetent. But that doesn't mean she deserves to be VP either.

Two, I agree that Huckabee is a fruitcake. But at least he has a sense of humor.

Okay, the TPC. First, while they say that Obama's plan would raise taxes and increase the deficit, they also claim it would be much better than McCain's, resulting in 1.5 Trillion less added to the deficit with Obama than with McCain.

Real Facts: The Center projects that his plan would raise taxes by $627 billion over 10 years.

HELLO???? We are in DEBT!!!! The worst in our history. WHY is raising revenue a BAD thing????

Of course, the first thing we should do is cut out some unnecessary costs... like, I don't know, maybe a war that no one except John McCain still feels is justified. And oh, by the way... if we are really there to help the sovereign nation of Iraq... shouldn't we be listening when they tell us they want us to leave?

Even that idiot currently in the White House gets it. Everybody gets it except McCain.

Withdrawal from Iraq is the single biggest cost-cutting effort we could possibly make. Ten billion a month.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Personally, I think that we would have less debt and less excuse to steal more money from taxpayers, if our governors and mayors stopped feeling entitled to taxpayers' money from DC. Just a start.

States that take in more money than they contribute are being leeches and need to stop it.

That would be a better solution than a massive tax hike.

 

[Pure]

note to sev

as to states taking in more money...

look, sarah's sucking at the teat isn't the issue for me, so much as her bogus presentatioin: "i dress a moose, adore jesus, love my country, and don't need no handouts."

i'd point out that the US mainlaind citizens' "contribution" to alaska, NOT unlike the lower latitude Canadians' contribution to those in the far north, is rooted largely in self interest: there are huge reserves of resources. by international law, if you populate and maintain an area, that's prima facie evidence it's yours.

 

[Pure]

nice list of lies

of gov palin, as well as 'myths' that are being circulated or left unchallenged in mainstream press.

http://mediamattersaction.org/palin_myths/#5

example: mccain said sarah sold the Alaska gov't jet airplane on ebay-- for a profit. it was actually sold at a half million dollar loss to a wealthy private businessman.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

of gov palin, as well as 'myths' that are being circulated or left unchallenged in mainstream press.

http://mediamattersaction.org/palin_myths/#5

example: mccain said sarah sold the Alaska gov't jet airplane on ebay-- for a profit. it was actually sold at a half million dollar loss to a wealthy private businessman.

Define "loss." Does that mean, like, selling your three-year-old used car for less than what you paid for it?

I thought so.

 

[Pure]

silly rox,

you define "profit," as used by mccain in saying she sold the plane at a profit.

AND given that taxpayers funded the plane, your definition must be such as NOT to make mccain's claim true by definition. IOW, getting a dollar for the plane must not count as profit merely because she *personally* paid nothing for it.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

"The Center projects that his plan would raise taxes by $627 billion over 10 years."

HELLO???? We are in DEBT!!!! The worst in our history. WHY is raising revenue a BAD thing????

This is why "facts" and fine policy points and discussions are bunk in politics at this level. You look at deficit spending and say we need to increase taxes so that revenues meet the level of spending that Congress would like to undertake. I look at it and say:

- First, that level of desired spending is effectively infinite;
- Second, higher taxes reduce economic growth and without that all problems are worse not better;
- Third, that the higher revenue projected from higher taxes is a mirage because it's based on static analysis which assumes that people who have lots of ways to avoid the increase won't use them;
- Fourth that none of this touches on the really big problems, which are the off-the-books, absurdly huge, unsustainable liabilities represented by the false promises of middle class entitlement programs - social security and Medicare.

Then, after I've said those things, we spend the rest of the day quibbling about the details and in the end it's all irrelevent anyway, because the sausage-making process of legislation being passed, the mood of the public when that's being done and other dynamics will all combine to swamp these fine details anyway. It comes down to this: If the laundry list I present above resonates with a person and this stuff is important to him, he probably won't want Dems in control of the whole shootin' match because they will raise taxes more than Rebubs; and if it doesn't resonate and is less important, maybe he will.

 

[colddiesel]

Accountants language.

The plane was sold for half a million dollars less than was paid for it.
However, it was sold for more than the depreciated value in the audited accounts.

Any accountant would recognise the difference between the depreciated value and the sale price as the amount of the profit/loss.

In this case it was a profit

 

[Pure]

reply to cold diesel and rox,

cold diesel said

The plane was sold for half a million dollars less than was paid for it.
However, it was sold for more than the depreciated value in the audited accounts.

Any accountant would recognise the difference between the depreciated value and the sale price as the amount of the profit/loss.

In this case it was a profit

i fear you're merely following roxanne, here. do you know those are the facts?

the first point to underscore is that she did NOT sell the plane on ebay, as she said in her speech.


one website gave the following info:

After going unsold for months, the jet was put into the hands of Turbo North Aviation, an Anchorage aircraft broker, which put an asking price of $2.45 million on the nearly $2.7 million jet. It sold to Alaska businessman Larry Reynolds for $2.1 million ($31,290 of which went to Turbo Aviation).

one source of info is this article: http://www.adn.com/politics/story/46200.html

to which i'd add that the plane was purchased in 2005.

on the surface your "facts" are implausible, since they simply postulate that the "obtained price" IS the depreciated value.

the implausibility is that you ask us to believe the aircraft broker's asking price did NOT take proper acct of the approx one years depreciation. you ask us to believe that his 9% discount is insufficient and the final 22% discount reflected proper depreciated value.

the whole issue is a waste of time: the lady has a reaganesque flair for style and lies over substance. selling off the corrupt old gov's plane is a bit like GWB having Saddam's statue pulled down.

HOWEVER, i would add that if mccain, colddiesel and rox are correct, then we'd have to ask, IS selling the govt plane to a prominent republican businessman at a loss, such a fine thing for Alaska? here is a record of the buyer's wife kicking in a thousand bucks to a Republican campaign.

https://webapp.state.ak.us/apoc/contributions.jsp?name=JANCE+REYNOLDS&pagesize=20

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Now who's making things up?

CD's analytical framework is the correct one. Before long neutral sources will report the numbers to insert into that equation.

 

[Pure]

i love these vids

[dupe]...

 

[Pure]

i love these vids

palin addressing her church

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1vPYbRB7k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k84m2orSOaM


even more, i revel in the thought of our alleged atheists, rox and amicus, cheering this lady on, for her stirring moral vision. it is so *awesome* when alleged libertarians are in love with theocrats!!

 

[sr71plt]

even more, i revel in the thought of our alleged atheists, rox and amicus, cheering this lady on, for her stirring moral vision. it is so *awesome* when alleged libertarians are in love with theocrats!!

Yes, I find that quite amusing as well.

 

[Guest]

palin addressing her church

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1vPYbRB7k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k84m2orSOaM


even more, i revel in the thought of our alleged atheists, rox and amicus, cheering this lady on, for her stirring moral vision. it is so *awesome* when alleged libertarians are in love with theocrats!!

Another Huffington blog post I like - by Alec Baldwin, of all people.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alec-baldwin/john-mccain-is-not-george_b_124464.html

John McCain Is Not George Bush, Sarah Palin Is

I thought McCain was the next Bush. I said so, like countless others, on this blog. More war. More debt while keeping taxes low and mocking the Democrats who want to pay down that debt. No vision regarding the energy issue. Or education. Or health care. More fear. Less solutions. No call for sacrifice where it really counts in terms of America's consumption. More favored treatment for American corporations. More foxes called to guard the henhouse in terms of our government's regulatory stewardship. And on and on. The Bush Nightmare, chapter three.

But McCain is not Bush. No matter what you think of McCain, you can't pin that on him. Now Palin? Palin is Bush. What helped propel Bush into the White House was not only some effective electoral nullification. It was his lack of a record in public office. The governorship of Texas is one of the more ceremonial of all the governorships in this country. The state legislature calls the shots. Bush came into power with less foreign policy experience than Barack Obama has now. And was "elected" to two terms. Bush had no foreign policy record to examine. He had only his father's rich friends and their stranglehold on the Republican National Committee to call upon. It proved to be more than enough.

Bush was elected and, of course, allowed a cast of neocon savages to take over from there. We knew next to nothing about Bush and even less about how Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Ashcroft, Gonzalez, Paddington, Bolton, et al would manage the world post 9/11.

We know nothing about Sarah Palin. Nothing. Which is not anywhere near enough information to elevate her to the position whereby she would succeed McCain if he died in office or suffered a catastrophic illness. At 72 years of age and in questionable health, McCain's fitness to coach a high school football team would be in doubt, let alone the grueling reality of the presidency of this country.

John McCain is, statistically, more likely to die or suffer some catastrophic illness during his first term than any other man that has sought the office. Who would succeed him? George Bush would succeed him. Someone with no record. No experience. Only question marks. Everywhere. Forget about the fact that Palin looks a lot like a really attractive TV star I know. Underneath all the Tina, she's George.

PS: My apologies to the cast and crews of My Name Is Earl and Scrubs. In my frustration with NBC's reprehensible promotion of 30 Rock, I took an unfortunate swipe at both of those shows and that was not cool.

But, for Earl's creator, Greg Garcia, who referred to me as a "psychotic", I have only one question. Why are you Scientologists always rendering these medical opinions you aren't qualified to give?

 

[colddiesel]

A depreciated argument

cold diesel said

The plane was sold for half a million dollars less than was paid for it.
However, it was sold for more than the depreciated value in the audited accounts.

Any accountant would recognise the difference between the depreciated value and the sale price as the amount of the profit/loss.

In this case it was a profit

i fear you're merely following roxanne, here. do you know those are the facts?

the first point to underscore is that she did NOT sell the plane on ebay, as she said in her speech.


one website gave the following info:

After going unsold for months, the jet was put into the hands of Turbo North Aviation, an Anchorage aircraft broker, which put an asking price of $2.45 million on the nearly $2.7 million jet. It sold to Alaska businessman Larry Reynolds for $2.1 million ($31,290 of which went to Turbo Aviation).

one source of info is this article: http://www.adn.com/politics/story/46200.html

to which i'd add that the plane was purchased in 2005.

on the surface your "facts" are implausible, since they simply postulate that the "obtained price" IS the depreciated value.

the implausibility is that you ask us to believe the aircraft broker's asking price did NOT take proper acct of the approx one years depreciation. you ask us to believe that his 9% discount is insufficient and the final 22% discount reflected proper depreciated value.

the whole issue is a waste of time: the lady has a reaganesque flair for style and lies over substance. selling off the corrupt old gov's plane is a bit like GWB having Saddam's statue pulled down.

HOWEVER, i would add that if mccain, colddiesel and rox are correct, then we'd have to ask, IS selling the govt plane to a prominent republican businessman at a loss, such a fine thing for Alaska? here is a record of the buyer's wife kicking in a thousand bucks to a Republican campaign.

https://webapp.state.ak.us/apoc/contributions.jsp?name=JANCE+REYNOLDS&pagesize=20

Pure. I 've just made a note not to offer you a job as a junior accountant, - but maybe as a spin doctor!

Alec Baldwin however has a very valid point

 

[redpaint]

I haven't taken the time to read all the post in this thread. So what I am about to post I hope has not already been posted and talked to death. I recived this in an email the other day. didn't really pay it no never mind. YA'll know how this go around in emails with a long list of names to people it has been sent too. Just a few minutes aog I seen that it was a headline on Snopes.com and they clame that it is a real person that started this Email. You can make of it what you want, but if this is true, then I may have to change my mind about her.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/kilkenny.asp





The Anne Kilkenny Email:


ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative." During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later; to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal; loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council

became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects; which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance; but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork."

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT


"Hockey mom": true for a few years
"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since
"NRA supporter": absolutely true
Social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
Pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation.
"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
Political maverick: not at all
Gutsy: absolutely!
Open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
Has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
"A Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
Fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th centurystandards.
Pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents.
Pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.
Pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS

I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall; they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s


Anne Kilkenny

August 31, 2008

 

[SlickTony]

I was going to vote for whichever Democrat was left standing, so this hasn't influenced my voting decision. But this was an interesting read anyway.

 

[sr71plt]

I haven't taken the time to read all the post in this thread. So what I am about to post I hope has not already been posted and talked to death. I recived this in an email the other day. didn't really pay it no never mind.

It has been posted already--and the right way. By URL rather than copyright-violating reposting of the text.

It's a pretty damning letter, but probably will only convince those already convinced.

 

[rydia57]

I know this is silly but did you notice if you rearrange the letters in Palin, they spell "plain"? yeah silly, but neat!

 

[Guest]

I know this is silly but did you notice if you rearrange the letters in Palin, they spell "plain"? yeah silly, but neat!

I saw that movie - "Sarah, Plain and Tall"

It must be the glasses.

Brings out that sexy librarian fetish.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

I saw that movie - "Sarah, Plain and Tall"

It must be the glasses.

Brings out that sexy librarian fetish.

She's playing you ALL for fools, Dems and Pubs alike!

The next possible Vice Prez of this country of ours will actually be Gilligan's Island ingenue Dawn Wells in secret identity!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/w_cowart/dawn_wells.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1398/542389855_811a187e7b.jpg

Hmmmmm...

 

[Pure]

snopes says it's genuine and it reads well. lots of facts. her 'conservatism' is of a piece with GWB's. lower taxes in some ways, borrow a lot, and spend rather a lot: increase size of gov't.

it's been a winning formula since ronald reagan. it's a variant of the 'bankrupt the gov't', drown the baby approach, i believe, conceived by norquist.

 

[Belegon]

This is why "facts" and fine policy points and discussions are bunk in politics at this level. You look at deficit spending and say we need to increase taxes so that revenues meet the level of spending that Congress would like to undertake. I look at it and say:

- First, that level of desired spending is effectively infinite;
- Second, higher taxes reduce economic growth and without that all problems are worse not better;
- Third, that the higher revenue projected from higher taxes is a mirage because it's based on static analysis which assumes that people who have lots of ways to avoid the increase won't use them;
- Fourth that none of this touches on the really big problems, which are the off-the-books, absurdly huge, unsustainable liabilities represented by the false promises of middle class entitlement programs - social security and Medicare.

Then, after I've said those things, we spend the rest of the day quibbling about the details and in the end it's all irrelevent anyway, because the sausage-making process of legislation being passed, the mood of the public when that's being done and other dynamics will all combine to swamp these fine details anyway. It comes down to this: If the laundry list I present above resonates with a person and this stuff is important to him, he probably won't want Dems in control of the whole shootin' match because they will raise taxes more than Rebubs; and if it doesn't resonate and is less important, maybe he will.

You are making FAR more assumptions than I am...

 

[Belegon]

I saw that movie - "Sarah, Plain and Tall"

It must be the glasses.

Brings out that sexy librarian fetish.

Problem:

Librarians are apparently her enemies.

 

[Guest]

Problem:

Librarians are apparently her enemies.

Just the ones who stock those dirty books!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbhnRuJBHLs