The GOP goes to the right, way to the right
As the dust settles from Tuesday’s elections, it seems that the republicans have decided their best strategy for the new few years is to run to the right, way to the right. Analysis shows that members of the so-called Tea Party movement won big in delaware and New York.
As the LA Times repoprted, “The conflict between tea party activists and the political establishment has defined the primary season, which began to wrap up Tuesday with contests in seven states and the District of Columbia. Hawaii holds its primary Saturday.”
Case in point: Delaware, where a moderate Republican, considered a shoo-in in November was defeated by the Tea Party candidate. Now Republicans are worried that their nominee won’t be able to appeal to Independents to win in November. It is a debate being played out across the country.
We’ll definitely discuss the topic on the radio this week, but feel free to weigh in here. Do the Tea Party flks help or hurt the Republican Party? For me, I delight in rumors that Palin wants to run in 2012. That would be fitting.
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The Dave Congalton Show 
Fact is that Mike Castle was the most liberal member of the GOP caucus in the House. He voted with Obama’s agenda 95% of the time. It should be a clear warning sign that the Tea Party backed candidate made up over 10 points in 2 weeks once Castle’s record was made public. Whether she wins or not, the GOP will have one less media-appointed “moderate”/RINO in the GOP house caucus. And that is a very good thing.
Furthermore, I am happy with the demise of the “moderate Republican” concept. With the Democrats as insanely wrong on almost every issue these days, RINOs that would “cross the aisle” to work with Democrats must be defeated. RINOs like Collins, Snowe, McCain, Graham and Castle do not help America by signing on to th radical liberal agenda of this administration and congressional leadership. November will be a substantial cleaning of both the house and senate. Finally, the voters will be doing a bit of term limit enforcement by voting many of these bums out.
“Fact is that Mike Castle was the most liberal member of the GOP ….. ” Um, Rich, where do you get that that is a “fact”? I call BS; it can certainly be your opinion, but you want to assert that what you stated is a “fact”, please provide some sort of evidence to back up your assertion. And I really like the way you covered the bases there with this nugget: “Whether she wins or not, …. ” – in other words, you don’t expect Christine O’Donnell to even have a chance of winning the Senate seat; nice cover there. If any conservative expects that Tea Party candidates have a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning general elections in November, can I interest you in some beachfront property in Arizona? I fully expect that come November 3rd of this year, the Democratic Party will not only still be in charge of the Senate, but the House as well.
Get out your fork and knife and prepare to eat your words, Bob. The American Conservative Union has given Mike Castle the lowest rating of all House Republicans. So start eating, Bob.
There you go again putting words in my mouth. I was not talking about her electability; I was talking about getting a fraudulent Republican out of there in Mike Castle. Since you asked, I DO think she can win. Obviously, you skipped the line where I said O’Donnell made up 10 points in 2 weeks on Castle and blew him out of the water. Way to cherry pick my words to try and make a point.
You are insane to think that Democrats are going to control both houses. Even the Democrat campaign committees are conducting triage on their candidates and only backing those that they think will win. That is a far cry from the Howard Dean strategy of money in every state campaign he waged in 2006. But its easy to back everyone when you are not in the majority. Obama’s leadership down the road to soft tyranny has put nearly every democrat in the house and senate in jeopardy. Even Reid is looking at possible defeat. This election will undo everything that occurred in the ’06 midterm.
By the way, how incompetent are democrats that they couldn’t beat a male model in Scott Brown? He ran as the vote to block ObamaCare and WON!… in MASSACHUSETTS and won! … for TED KENNEDY’S seat and WON! Republicans that run against Obama (or against candidates backed by Obama) WIN! That has been the trend going back to last year when New Jersey and Virginia both going GOP.
But your insanity will keep you from seeing this. Denial is a terrible thing to have to deal with, isn’t it, Bob?
Some quick things: first, Sorry about the underlining. I didn’t close my hyperlink out correctly, but the first part under “The American Conservative Union” does work.
Second, why does any Democrat care how far right the Republicans go and whether the Tea party forces them that way. Liberals everywhere should be rejoicing the “extremism” of the right-wingers now, especially with the win of O’Donnell.
But your side is still just a worried, even more so. At a minimum, two things will come out of this election: 1) a referendum on Obama and his policies to this point. “Hope and change” may very well end up being replaced by “oh no you don’t”. 2) We now have clear distinctions between Republicans and Democrats. This goes back to what I said after the 2006 mid-term. Why should anyone vote for a Republican if they are going to act like a Democrat in office? Now we have the Tea Party and their slate of candidates with views diametrically opposed to Obama/Reid/Pelosi. That can only further the debate by providing the voters with clearly different choices for office.
Finally, this is going to be a watershed election. The “establishment” is on the run and exposing the frauds they are every day. Castle was defeated because he fraudulently positioned himself as a “moderate” when he voted to for an impeachment vote on Bush, opposed the Surge in Iraq with Obama, and voted for Cap-n-Tax for Obama. McCain has exposed himself as a fraud by spending $21 million of his wife’s money to defeat J.D. Hayworth, who only spent about $500K. His McCain-Feingold (which was to “get the money out of politics”; Thanks John for nothing) compatriot in Wisconsin, Russ Feingold, is neck and neck with his Republican challenger, Ron Johnson. Take a look at this RealClearPolitics poll tracker. You can see how nearly all of the pols have the Republican candidate either tied or ahead of their challenger. Many still have the Democrat incumbant up by only single digits. It looks bad for Democrats this year and will only get worse for Democrats in 2012 when they have more seats up for grabs in the Senate than Republicans do.
Need more proof that Obama and his cronies are utter failures? Check out the link below.
In the LA Times it was reported that Los Angeles spent $70 million of Obama ‘stimulus’ money to create a grand total of almost EIGHT jobs. Even you all with a California public education should be able to figure out that our beloved president spent $902,000 per job. And it gets worse. The city’s Departments of Transportation and Public Works spent $111 million to save 54 jobs. In other words, they spent $2 million per job. I am happy that recovery.gov found a place in America that actually exists to report the failure on instead of all of the fantasy places where they said jobs were created or saved (still impssble)
And what kind of jobs were saved? Who knows. Probably some poor guy making $35,000 a year. The rest was just plain wasted. It would have been cheaper for the taxpayer if those 54 people were fired and paid $53,000 in unemployment payments.
But this is the kind of thinking that has led Obama to spend more debt dollars in 19 months than all other presidents from Washington to Reagan. Obama and his cronies are NOT economists, and the economists they do have on staff, like Christine Rohmer, have never been outside the university. They do not know how their theories will work when applied in the Real World. The new person nominated for the head of economic advisors, Austin Goolsby, is another academic theortician that has never held a private sector job or was held responsible for the financial and economic decisions he had to make. Hell, Bob, as a small business owner, is more qualified than anyone on the council of economic advisors. And he isn’t all that qualified.
This is the kind of fraud, waste and abuse that the American people will be voting against in November. Hopefully, the Tea Party candidates will keep their word and vote down this wasteful behavior and stop the mortgaging of our nation’s future. Bottom line is that under Bush, yes, there was waste (2005 transportation bill) and there was a lack of foresight to see this mess coming (mortgage collapse), and a some good ideas gone bad (NCLB and Medicare drug plan), but we had 5% unemployment for most of the decade and 4 or 5% growth. Nothing Bush has done or didn’t do has forced Obama to waste $800 billion in failed stimulus, $29 billion to bailout the teacher’s union or the $50 billion in a 2nd stimulus to do the “shovel ready” projects LA wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on.
Rich, trying to blame every problem on the black man in the White House solves nothing and is a sign of either bigotry, scapegoating, or true ignorance.
The moral failures that infect the U.S. from the inside are not the result of one man nor can they be solved by one man. At the core it is not a political problem; it is a spiritual problem. We are a culture that tolerates lying and thievery in our own lives; and place the pursuit of fame and fortune above all else.
Americans need to look in the mirror and take personal responsibility while elevating their compassion for the failings of others. Every violent, hateful thought directed anywhere is one more nail to the cross.
For you to have waited almost a full week to post your bigoted, sanctimonious, race-baiting post in response to my post on what a failure the Obama adminsitration, which includes white, black, hispanic and asian folks, is a clear indication that you really don’t have anything other than your bigotry, sanctimony, and race-baiting to offer. Your blather about “looking in the mirror” after accusing me of racism is a total insult, avoids the real discussion on the failure of the Obama Administration policies, wastes the time of those that read it and me to respond to this tripe, and serves as a complete distraction of what is really important to day as well as the subject of the thread. If you wish to continue to live in denial and wish to delude yourself that all is well, so be it. The millions of Americans out of work, unable to find work, graduating college to join the unemployment rolls because there is no work, would tell you that all is not well. The persistent 9.5% unemployment (a fraudulently low number to be sure) indicates this. The rote response is that it is all Bush’s fault from the other side. Bush didn’t waste $800 billion on a failed stimulus that did NOTHING to improve the economy. Then you have Veep Biden claiming this is the “summer of recovery”. Another fraud. We have academics telling us that the recession ended in June 2009. Why then is the “summer of recovery” NOW? Why did Obama need $29 billion to bailout teacher union pensions? Why did he need yet another jobs bill for “infrastructure, bridges and roads”, a cornerstone of the failed $800 billion stimulus?
You can continue to try and distract everyone from the real issues plaguing America: record debt and deficits, unemployment, job destruction, crushing regulations and requirements from ObamaCare, with race-baiting and slander all you want. But the fact still remains that Obama is failing, his job approval is tanking and even his most stallwart supporters are tired of carrying his water and trying to defend the indefensible.
There is ZERO hate in my words. There is ZERO racism in my words. There is plenty of worry that America is headed down a path of destruction and plenty of pity in my words for all of you too partisan, too selfish and self absorbed and too delusions to see it.
The causes of our woes did not start two years ago. They started with the dismantling of the checks and the balances that made rampant the transgressions of unbridled capitalism in the form of corporate personhood. What this alone has done is allowed the biggest powers in society to lobby politicians and go against individual citizens. As history has shown, the more powerful write the rules. One of the most detrimental outcomes was the outsourcing of American jobs and the health care industry.
But that is one part of the problem.
There is indignation about the salaries and pensions of public employees, while CEOs with their corporate excesses continue to enjoy increasing profits every year as the rest of Americans’ lifestyles plummet.
Funny, isn’t it, these people always have someone to scapegoat. Now it is Obama and his policies (not that he is perfect either).
How much has the war in the Middle East cost since 2001? You criticiaze the proposed “bailout” of the teacher pensions? Is that the same as the “bailout” of money organizations whose main beneficiaries were the top grossing leeches?
There are between 6 and 7 million school teachers in the United States. I do not think 29 billion dollars is too much to help. How much money did the Bush and Obama administrations throw at the banks in comparison? How much funding was approved every quarter as emergencies in the “war on terror?” How much are the top military brass making in retirement? Are you even looking at that? Who do the 350,000 contractors in Iraq work for and who are their contracts with? Do the American people know that they are financing the profits of the military contractors in the Middle East? Why should anyone make profits out of a profession that generates so much misery in the world? How come the teachers have to be held to a differet “moral” standard (yours) when it comes to their livelihood? Do you put no value into the edcuation of our children? I do. I would rather pay a teacher $10,000 a month in pay than one dime to a military contractor. Do you know how much an M-16 costs? About $10,000, and that is one of the cheapest pieces of military hardware in these days. How many M-16s does the military have? I bet that adds up to way more than 29 billion.
Teachers pay into their own pensions. They get nothing for free, unlike what some people like to believe.
I can’t believe the callousness with which our capitalism has been run. The corporations have so much power that the rights of individuals are diminished by the day. We nickel and dime the health care of children, the mentally and physically ill, as well as the people who care for all of them. We nickel and dime the poorest segments of society and the middle class while we continue to lavishly fund the corporate-political-military-industrial complex machine, all of which have their personal and corporate interests at heart, and not the individual citizen. We haggle about giving the disabled a few million here and there while we have no qualms about dishing tens of billions out every few months to keep those in power IN POWER.
The reality is that Americans have been fed lies for the past 3 decades. There was a push to encourage personal and corporate greed at the expense of everyone. We were borrowing like there was no tomorrow on all levels and now the chickens are here to roost. Deregulation was the worst thing that can happen in a capitalist society, and that is what we got starting with Reagan.
We continue to borrow and print money without gold back-up during one of the most expensive wars in American history? Our “leaders” (and I use that term loosely) will not hear of tax hikes because of the fear mongering that is pushed on the American people. Most middle class people’s taxes will not go up, but those of the billionaires and profitable corporations will. The truth is that, over time, the average taxpayer has continued to pay far more than corporations based on their income. But there has been a successful campagin of obfuscation to present a false reality. The herd has acquiesced to corporate tyranny and, as gravy, has sent its sons and daughters to die in foreign lands in a bogus war that only benefits those wealthy anyway.
We have veterans who are returning with medical and mental disabilities. Who do you think is going to pay for all that? Wall Street?
Take the pensions from public servants and your veterans will be out on the streets in larger numbers than you see now? Have you been downtown SLO or Atascadero lately?
We need to invest in people in an ethical way. We have to stop treating people as mere instruments for corporate and state power.
Look, let me be the first to admit that Bush did a LOT of things I didn’t like. However, that man now lives in Crawford, Texas, not the White House. The current occupant campaigned on “hope and change”. That mantra translates to the common man as “I HOPE I can find a job” and “Brother, can you spare some CHANGE”. Obama claimed to be a fireman here to save us from the inferno of Bush policies. Instead he is proving every day to be an arsonist spraying gasoline on an already raging fire. That is what is going on TODAY! Join us in the present where unemployment hovers near 10% and the debt has ballooned to $13 trillion, a 3 trillion increase in 19 months. That is TODAY. Please join us.
Rich, don’t you think it is time YOU take personal responsibility for your unhappiness, fears and insecurities? YOU once spoke in support of George Bush. YOU have spoken in favor of Republican policies. YOU can’t reasonably expect President Obama to personally solve all of YOUR problems, soothe all YOUR fears, heal all your psychological wounds, be YOUR personal scapegoat.
The problems the U.S. is suffering from are rooted in moral failures, not political or economic ones. The political and economic problems are symptoms of greed, fear, jealousy, anger, impatience and selfishness.
If you can’t stand President Obama, who do you suggest he be replaced by? You are eager to criticize and try to trash people’s reputations, but what leader do you wish to see as President Obama’s replacement?
Many economists who do not subscribe to the theory of uncontrolled capitalism have suggested ways to deal with the crisis, but the damage has been accumulating for so many years, it may be difficult to remedy the situation in one or two years. It is going to take a lot longer.
1- Corporations must bring back jobs into the United States. The US is not the only place suffering under corporate tyranny. We just happened to join the ranks of underdeveloped countries who have been hostage to it for many years.
2- Tax corporations, based on their profits in a progressive way, up to 90%. For companies who hire cheap labor abroad, take away all their tax shelters.
3- Close down all the bases all over the world and bring soldiers home and put them through schools in professions that will benefit people at home. We have a society and world that has a shortage of health care professionals and a health profession that is hostage to the pharmaceutical companies. We need to focus on preventive health and curing illnesses. Decrease the defence budget and divert the money to local programs.
4- Stop financing oppressive regimes around the world, starting with Israel and their Arab cronies in the Middle East. The blowback effect harms us economically, politically, and morally. It will probably help in reducing the fuel that drives non-state entities from terrorist acts.
5- Encourage young people to go into professions that improve quality of life (health, environment, art, science) and make it affordable for them to attend higher education.
6- Do away with the private international security businesses since these businesses will lobby for conflict to keep their business going.
7- Do away with the political lobby system because that system increases corruption and favoritism based on economic means versus need or ethics.
Those are just a few.
However, neither Obama, nor any other president that follows him, will be able to do this on their own. The challenge of living in a democracy (like this one) is having the fortitude, the insight, and the necessary ethical base to do what is right for everyone versus what is wanted by one group and to hell with everyone else. Individuals in a democracy are responsible for the actions of their government. People in this democracy cheered Bush and his Neo Cons on in a war that was bogus. People who put Obama in power voted with their emotions and the stupid slogan “anything is better than Bush.” However, Obama is paying more attention to the economy more than Bush ever did. His foreign policy can do better.
Bush said something creepy during one of his speeches at one of the fancy dinner parties of his “party” before the Iraq War when all the blood suckers were lining up to get a piece of the Iraq slaughter; he said he wanted to be known as the “war president” and he told his freak show which was comprised of the richest people in the country:
“This is an impressive crowd: the haves, and the have-mores.”
[crowd laughs]
“Some people call you the elite, I call you my base.”
That was the vision of Bush for America. It was only for him and his cronies. And he succeeded in digging the deeper hole. Funny how people forget so easily. We facilitated the death of millions of children in Iraq with our inhumane sanctions. We started an immoral war on a nation that did us no harm had no infrastructure or ability to defend itself because of those sanctions. We cheered on a war that led to the slaughter of innocent civilians in Lebanon in 2006, a third of whom were children. The victims of those wars have already paid in their lives. But the debt is not completely paid yet and it will take a long time to repay and, guess who is left to pay it.
It is not like we were not warned. So yes get off Obama and stop supporting the people who are divisive and encourage death and destruction and support those who want to do what is good for all of us. We need to build bridges with each other and the rest of the world, but we have to take care of the political cronyism. It harms people renders democracies useless.
I wake up happy every morning because I know that Marilyn has ZERO political clout or power to enact any of her insane ideas she just listed above. Every one of her ideas are desrutive to the very existence of this nation. I’ll commet on just a couple:
1. While I agree that corporations need to bring jobs back to the United States, marilyn provides them ZERO incentive to do so in #2.
2. This insane and completely foolhardy idea would ensure that those business stay out of the United States. You want them to come back to the US? Lower their taxes to a flat 19% and eliminate all of the bureaucratic B.S. that the IRS imposes on business in America. GE filed their taxes in 2008 with a 50,000 page return. Compliance costs alone are staggering and it all gets transfered to the consumer. By flattening their tax rate and simplifying the method of complying with that tax code, this nation would encourage businesses from all corners of the world to relocate to the US. Taxing them up to 90 and 100% of profits will ensure that the US will produce none of the products they buy.
3. Your lack of understanding of why we have our servicemembers stationed around the world is staggering. We have treaty obligations to uphold and commitments to keep which has our troops around the world. As for Iraq and Afghanistan, I’m sure that if this president wanted to, he would have emptied all Soldiers out of Iraq and not started his surge in Afghanistan. Instead he is leaving 50,000 in Iraq, following the Bush drawdown strategy, and doubled the number of troops in Afghanistan.
The rest of your blathering was just another anti-isreal rant from a completely pro-arab supporter. The only real value it had is to illustrate why there will never be peace in the middle east. Marilyn completely omits the thousands of rockets fired from Lebanon into Isreal, certainly an act of war. If mexican drug lords were firing half the number of rockets from Tijuanna into San Diego, you better believe that we would have the US flag flying over Mexico City following a swift and decisive military victory. To the contrary, Isreal, and their innocent children, is just supposed to take it day and day out. What about the Iranian crony states like Syria and Lebanon that make war on Isreal? Why no call on Iran and the others to end funneling weapons to the palestinians? Because Marilyn is squarely in the camp of iranian president, Imadoingjihad, that isreal needs to be wiped of the map to achieve “peace”. That peace will come with price tag of a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv and the murder of millions of innocent Isrealis, but Imadoingjihad and his supporter, Marilyn, also believe that you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
I thought this was going to be short, but Marilyn’s insanity must be refuted every time it winds up in print lest it infect some other poor soul with her brand of dementia.
You sir, richinpaso, are an officer but you certainly are no gentleman. Justifying the killing of innocent people is never an excuse no matter how much you dislike their president or their regime. But you again diverted the discussion to make it about Iran and Hizbollah.
Tell you what. Yes, Hizbollah did kill and kidnap a handful of Israeli soldiers in cross border raids, but if you knew the history of both adversaries you would know that they were doing this back and forth for many years. Israel was planning to attack for months and used that particular incident as a pretext. It is a well-known fact and was emphasized by many including Mearsheimer and Walt, the two scholars who blew the lid open on the Zionist lobby. The Zionist lobby does not have the well-being of the American people on its agenda.
Hizbollah started firing rockets after Lebanon was subjected to full-scale bombardment by land, sea, and air. You made it sound like it was the other way around. Neither party is excused from targeting civilians. But look at the death toll on each side. Most Israeli casualties were soldiers who died INSIDE Lebanon during their invasion, many in hand-to-hand combat. But, as I said, this diverts the discussion. I am surprised that for a supposedly educated officers, basic historical knowledge about the events you bring up are superficial and incorrect. Spare yourself the embarrassment and read some scholarly articles about the Middle East before discussing morality and politics.
Israel made public threats against civilians against the rules of International Law , but you seem to agree with that. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International stated that there was lack of concern for civilian life and infrastructure. 500 villages were destroyed and close to a million people made homeless out of a population of 4 million. That is one quarter of the population.
You are nothing more than a Zionist hack. You are their mouthpiece. Your loyalties are not to this country, but to your partisan beliefs. Your uniform is a front as evident by your constant dogma and propaganda, especially coming from an active officer.
I thought this blog was going to kick a notch higher than the old one. You have personally insulted every single person on this blog who disagreed with you and when called in on it, you became vicious and violent. You can call me insane or demented but that is a reflection on who you are. How shameful for an officer to behave in such a manner.
I am going to do what the others seem to have done: ignore your low class outbursts until they become more civilized.
Where did you get that I was an officer? I never said I was an officer.
And since you seem to be keeping score… I have been insulted by everyone on this blog with whom I disagree. But the insults from the likes of Wiseguy have been to accuse me of being a bigot and a racist and you, ma’am, have called me the same or worse. I do think that you are either woefully ignorant or a complete marxist true believer if you honestly believe the positions you do. You obviously do not understand the most basic of economic principles. You cherry-pick your “facts” regarding the 2006 Isreali-Hezbollah fight, I think, more to convince yourself of the righteousness of the arab position more than anything else. You are a lost soul who can’t see the forest through the trees. Your hatred of anyone who supports isreal and the isrealis themselves is palpable through all of your distortions. Isreal doesn’t seen men, women and children as human bombs into Lebonese cities to murder innocent men, women and children; Hezbollah and Hamas most certainly do. The terrorists north, south and east of Isreal can defend against fighter jets and tanks. Tell me: how do the isrealis defend themselves against a man with a bomb vest on, especially when that person may be a member of the palestinian minority that makes up one in five isrealis?
A couple of quick questions… Where is there “uncontrolled capitalism”? Certainly isn’t America? Where do you propose America gets the money to buy gold when we owe more money than is in print in the entire world? Who repealed Glass-Steigel: Bush or Clinton? Who has added more debt to what America owes: Bush or Obama? Who was it that said that Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac were solvent and those that were investigating Fanny Mae were doing so because the CEO was a black man: Bush or Barney Frank? Who had their house paid for by a housing industry lobbyist: Bush or Chris Dodd? if you were so blind as a partisan, you would see that the only thing Bush did to put us in the mess we’re was to create TARP. Obama has taken a small house fire and thrown a couple hundred gallons of gasoline on it.
Yes, you have done a magnificent job of diverting this blog thread away from the implosion in the Democratic Party behind the failures of this president and his administration. Well done, Marilyn, well done.
Rich: I have been staying away from the blog on purpose for a little while now, since some have suggested that our back and forth seemed to dominate the comments and I really don’t have the need to dominate the discussions, but I absolutely have to respond to your crack : “Who has added more debt to what America owes: Bush or Obama?” You seem to have a “convenient memory” of only remembering what bolsters your viewpoint; to wit: ALL of the military spending on the invasion of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan were “off budget” during all eight years of the Bush Administration, with the budgeting for those being classified as “emergency spending” measures so they would not be included in the budget. President Obama faced the reality where President Bush would not and has included the military spending in the budget. The TARP monies “given” to the banks happened during the last days of the Bush Administration, but under which budget did that money get spent? Same thing for the automaker’s bailout; started under Bush, but spent under Obama. To answer your initial question accurately then, the correct answer would be President Bush “caused” more debt to be added to our national deficit, even if some of it happened after he left office. I am not an apologist for President Obama; he inherited the biggest mess of an economy any other president with the exception of FDR. President Obama has not been the most effective he could be for a couple of reasons, IMO; his advisors that he brought in at the start of his presidency were, for the most part, corporate main line Democrats whose main focus was to “not rock the boat” too much, and he should have included more progressive ideals in his policies. Obama’s second mistake, again just my opinion, is that he spent too much time and energy in trying to reach out to Republicans in order to appear more “mainstream” and centrist, which given my third point was a pointless exercise. My third point is the downright refusal by Senate Republicans to allow any bill with any hint of doing something new or progressive from even getting onto the floor of the Senate. The House has passed many fine bills that would move our country forward and sent them on to the Senate where most of them end up dying due to the Republicans refusal to even have a discussion about the merits of any of the bills. In the 110th session of the Senate, there were some 120 filibusters and for the current 111th session, they are on track to exceed that; the old Republican mantra that “government can’t do anything” is only given credence due to the fact that Republicans won’t allow government to work. Do you care to refute my assertion that Republicans are intent in stopping the Obama Administration? One might ask, why would the Republicans operate in this manner, what is it that they hope to gain by doing so? The answer is politics at its worst; the more voters perceive that government isn’t effective, the more likely that they will elect new Congressmen and Senators, and since the Republicans are the current minority, the more likely that they will gain seats and possibly take control of Congress. If that happens, the disaster that happened during the Bush terms may look like a fond memory. We are still digging out from the mess that was caused by the Republicans back then, putting them in charge again now will really set our country back.
Bob: Good to see you back on the blog. I have also been away for a while, mostly due to work. My business depends on what is happening in Germany, and their economy is starting to turn around, apparently due to cuts in government spending and the trimming of some regulations.
Your exchange with Rich about the deficit and implicitly the recession has inspired me, just as did Marilyn’s comments on “corporate tyranny”. I don’t know whether I will be able to do the inspiration justice soon, but I look forward to addressing what got the US economy, together with the rest of the world economy, into the current mess. This recession has its roots in the financial crisis that started showing symptoms about two years before the stuff really hit the fan in September 2008. The financial crisis, in turn, was caused by the “TA” in TARP, namely the “troubled assets”. But it’s been a long day. I’ll try to get to it before the participants leave this string for the next political exchange on this site.
Bob: it is you that has selective memory. You forget (or are in denial) that the Community Reinvestment Act of 1979 and expanded by Clinton led to the housing bubble bust of the last 3 years. You forget that medicare, medicaid and Social Security take up 60% of the budget while Defense takes up only 19 to 23% depending on the year.
Lets compare wars, shall we? The Global War on Terror, and the military in general, has been very successful. Afghanistan is almost entirely in the hands of people that will not attack the soil of the US. Very few remnants remain of al Qaida and those few have moved on to places like Somalia. We know exactly what the GWOT has cost because Rumsfeld, say what you will, put all of the GWOT spending into supplimentals so everyone can easily add up the cost and not starve the US forces at home of operating and maintenance dollars to execute that mission. We can easily see the tangible results of those monies every time we set foot on an aircraft carrier, cash a servicemember’s check or see military helicopters or jets flying overhead. Iraq (spare us the “illegal war” mantra; we get it, you think it was illegal) brought down Saddam and instituted a government that is at peace with its neighbors. Obama is still executing the SOFA that Bush’s team negotiated prior to his leaving office.
Now let’s look at the War on Poverty… Started in 1965-ish, there is still no exist strategy, no questioning the funding, and the only cuts to the programs have come recently in the form of Obama stealing from medicare to pay for ObamaCare. The War on Poverty is a failure. There are more people on welfare now than before the program began. It takes up half of the federal budget EVERY YEAR. The expenses of the War on Poverty go up and up every year while the only tangible returns on that expense is more and more bureaucrats hired to administer a failed program. It has also gotten larger. The most recent increases have come in the form of ObamaCare, which is making medicine more expensive for everyone, and unemployment insurance, which provides 99 weeks of insurance to the tune of $53,000 a year.
So Defense’s 23% of the budget is somehow responsible for 13 trillion dollars in debt but “entitlement programs” account for 60% of the budget and have cost $11 trillion over 40 years and it has NOTHING to do with the debt? You must be joking or delusional. Which is it?
Please list for us all to debate what these bills that would have “moved things forward” that died in the Senate. I am very curious to see what you consider bills that “move the country forward”. Your bills that do “something new” have resulted in fewer and fewer liberties for you and me.
Marilyn: You contribution of 26 September, 12:11 am has inspired me because it demonstrates a fundamental lack of knowledge about the nature of corporations. This is by no means surprising, since it is possible to go all the way to doctoral degrees in many of the liberal arts without ever learning what a corporation is , how they function and what economic forces are at play in a corporation etc. Of course, it’s then difficult to understand issues involving corporations, such as the recent Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case.
A corporation is a legal construct, often referred to as a “juridical person”, a “legal entity”, etc. A corporation is a tool provided by the legal system for natural persons to organize their common activities. A corporation hs no independent will and can do nothing. Real flesh and blood people act under the mantel of a corporation, be it as shareholders, directors, officers or employees. For example, the largest corporation in the world can’t buy a pencil without an employee in the purchasing department ordering the pencil.
It’s easy to get confused by the legal terminology and think that corporations are treated the same as people. It’s then also easy to vent against corporations because they seem so abstract, but directly or indirectly there are always natural persons behind a corporation. We all remember the rage against BP after the oil spill and the countless demands to seize BP’s assets, etc. Then came the realization that numerous pension funds (I seem to recall that the New Jersey teachers pension fund was one of them), charities, and you name it were invested in BP and that a bankruptcy of BP would have disastrous effects for thousands upon thousands of people.
Corporations have a basis in constitutional law, namely, freedom of association. There are obvious benefits in people working together, and corporations have shown that they are by far the best vehicle for people to organize economic activity, especially on a large scale.
The main aspect of a corporation is limited liability; i.e. the natural persons behind a corporation can shield their other assets by putting at risk only what they have invested in the corporation. This promotes taking entrepreneurial risk and large amounts of capital to be pooled for major projects. Prudent individuals are willing to take a certain risk when starting up a business but are normally not willing to put all of their assets on the line. This is particularly true for the smaller investor, which today is just about anyone in the USA with a retirement plan. No sane person would buy a single share in a business if that meant personal liability. Would you give a software geek $10.00 to start a company if it were a general partnership and your minimal investment could trigger unlimited personal liability if the company failed? Of course not.
A corporation can best be understood as being initially just an empty bag. It is worthless on its own and only gains value when something is put into the bag. The first thing put in the sack is share capital invested by the shareholders. We all remember the phrase “skin in the game” repeated countless times by President Obama during the last election. The share capital is the “skin”. The shareholders can lose it all if the company goes bust. Just ask the shareholders who held stock in old GM.
As the activities of the corporation develop successfully, the sack fills up with assets. Liabilities are also incurred, and the creditors of the corporation have recourse to the assets in order to satisfy the liabilities. The creditors have no access to anything outside the bag; i.e. they cannot claim against the shareholders. In terms of the law, the corporation can “own” assets and enter into obligations, just as a flesh and blood person can. That is why corporations are referred to as “juridical persons”. Assuming that the assets in the bag exceed the liabilities of the corporation, the difference is the shareholders equity. Whether or not the assets actually exceed the liabilities and by how much is, of course, the subject of accounting, and fortunately how accounting works would go well beyond the purpose of t his contribution.
Simply stated, a corporation is a group of people exercising their freedom of association to combine their efforts for a commercial venture while at the same time limiting their risk to what they have invested. Most corporations are very small, and the shareholders are at the same time the directors and the employees. They typically devote all of their efforts to making the business succeed because they have “skin in the game”. As the business grows, the relationships within the corporation become complex, especially as new shareholders invest in the corporation. Again, it would go way beyond the scope of this contribution to discuss the intricacies of corporate governance.
If you keep in mind the two main aspects of a corporation, namely (i) an association of flesh and blood people (ii) with limited liability, you can perhaps start to understand such things as the Citizens United decision which involved a statute that imposed criminal penalties. The key sentence in that decision is probably the statement page 33 of the decision: “If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” Note especially the words “associations of citizens”.
The outrage from the political left against this decision simply fails to recognize that corporations are “associations of citizens”. (Of course, foreign citizens can also be shareholders in a corporation, but the Supreme Court expressly stated that it was not striking the statute that restricts political activities of foreign shareholders, a point President Obama, a purported specialist in Constitutional law, completely got wrong in his last State of the Union speech.) Justice Stevens, on pp. 75 et seq. of his dissent in the United Citizens case, apparently makes the same error when he describes his understanding of the nature of corporations.
Marilyn: Back to your suggestions under points 1 and 2 of your contribution. Your first proposal is nothing other than a demand that corporations to stop their international activities, except for exporting. Bringing back jobs means shutting down foreign plants and throwing people out of work in those countries. Would you also call for foreign companies employing peopole in the USA to bring back the jobs now in the USA to their home countries? How about Mercedes and BMW, Nissan and Toyota shutting down their operations in the USA. Economic integration across borders is one of the main factors for peace in this world. Just look at Europe which, after centuries of slaughtering each other, now has an integrated society that started with economic integration.
Your proposal for taxing corporate profits at a rate of 90% is ludicrous, unless your purpose would be to destroy the economy or have the government take everything over. Firstly, you obviously fail to recognize that after tax corporate profits are the basis for reinvestment in a business. Secondly, nobody in their right mind would invest in a corporation if the profits are confiscated. The State would have almost the entire upside benefit, while the shareholders would have the entire downside risk.
Governments have repeatedly tried to run industrialized economies, and they have failed every time. The U.S.S.R and its client states in Eastern Europe collapsed because they simply went bankrupt. The reason was simple: The decision makers in the industrial units had no “skin in the game”. They were more often appointed due to their ideological purity and willingness to take orders from the political elite than for their business acumen. After East Germany fell, it was almost impossible to find anyone in the old “People’s Own Factories” (Volkseigener Betrieb or VEB) who could read a profit and loss statement, let alone a balance sheet.
It’s so easy in politics to play on ignorance in order to whip up emotion. It is unfortunate that many on the political left who should know better resort to such a disgraceful tactic when they talk about “fat cat CEOs” and “corporate tyranny”.
Oh Chris, get real. Your propaganda and apologetics are horribly stale. Everyone knows that one of the primary incentives for a small business to incorporate is to limit personal liability of the business owners. This is basically a way for people to escape personal responsibility for any problems or atrocities committed under company auspices.
Chris, it is your type of regressive, failed attitudes that have contributed to so much of what the U.S. suffers from today. Selfishness, greed, avoidance of personal responsibility, violence and ethnic and religious bigotry is NOT and NEVER has helped our nation or our world.
WiseGuy, your Marxism is what is stale. The reason why ANY corporate entity exists is to replace personal liability with liability to the corporation. When GM filed for bankruptcy, was Rick Waggoneer told to fork over the shortage? No, of course not. He was not personally liable for the fact that Toyota made a car people wanted, that the unions were taking 60 cents on every dollar in compensation, that the federal government imposed ever more stringent emission standards, safety standards, etc. That is at the heart of Agency Theory. Waggoner’s mission was to mitigate risk to investors and to maximize return on the risked investment.
Your claptrap, if taken to your desired conclusion, would destroy forever the entire free-market system. There would be no manufacturing because there would be no one stupid enough to place themselves in your crosshairs of “personal liability” for your arbitrary standard of your perceived problems and attrocities. All that would be left would be sole-propriators. We would overnight be returned to the days of blacksmiths, cartwrights and livery stable owners. I think, actually, that this would be your desired end-state. Either that or you are self-deluded into thinking that you could destroy something as fundemental as the Agency Theory of business and have there be no 2nd order of affect to our system of commerce.
Then you go into your tired namecalling. Calling Chris “regressive” and having “failed attitudes” are meaningless words. And then to blame Chris for “contributing to so much of what the US suffers from today” is the height of arrogance. Your insults only betray your ignorance of how this economy works and your arrogance, just like Obama arrogantly lectures people who actually make things when he has never produced ONE THING of any tangible substance in his life. What do you do for a living, WiseGuy? I bet you are a bureaucrat, one of a hundred in your office that sponge off of those that produce things.
Dave: This site is recording the time of comment 7 hours in the future. I just replied to Bob’s comment at 21:41 hours on 27 Sept., and the site recorded the entry as being made on 28 Spet. at 4:41 am. These times make it look as if none of us has a life! Perhaps your technical people can fix that.
Chris, I will let the webmaster know. Thanks!
You are absolutely right. I cannot be an expert on everything, including the day-to-day running of a corporation, but I know when a corporation is running amok and the downright thievery and depravity with which those businesses are run, especially during wartime. I guess maybe you have not seen this. Your tax dollars at work courtesy of Armor Group Company in Afghanistan. Yes, let’s give those blood suckers some more tax breaks.
This is a prime example of the fallacy of composition: the failure of one contractor in Afghanistan is a failure of ALL contractors in Afghanistan. So Armor Groupd Company wants their employees to be sexual deviants for promotion. Does that mean that General Dynamics, for instance, has the same requirement or acts as inappropriately? Of course not. But Marilyn engages in the basest of mudslinging and guilt by association to further her personal animosity against ANYONE performing any function related to the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. have bad guys done bad things in Iraq/Afghanistan while receiving federal dollars? Sure have. But are all contractors equally as bad as these knuckleheads? Marilyn would have you believe so.
Marilyn: There are of course plenty example of employees and directors of corporations engaging in unethical and criminal conduct. Employees and directors are people, and there are all types of people. That is why we have laws and consequences for people who break the law. Just ask Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom fame who is currently serving a 25 year sentence.
Your approach is irrational and emotional. You find individual instances of misconduct, such as in the link you provided about the idiot embassy guards (yes, I was aware of the story when it came out around a year ago), and you use that incident (you could have picked many others) to damn corporations in general. Yet you would surely express outrage and scream bigotry and racism if someone were to use the same approach and condemn all Muslims because of the atrocities committed by Al Qaeda and its followers.
Californiawiseguy: Your comments, as usual, are completely devoid of any rational thought. They only prove that you have some serious hostility issues.
Chris, just because YOU aren’t able to understand or appreciate an idea, doesn’t mean it is “devoid of any rational thought.” My statements challenging your horrendous attitudes and violence-promoting ideas are clear and authoritative and have logically undermined all YOUR “know it all” pretense. That leaves you, once again, to resort to vacuous histrionic statements reminiscent of failing and indignant two-bit courtroom lawyers as depicted on Perry Mason and other TV reruns originating from half century ago.
That cornball indignant posturing may work on radio or with some lone whacko juror with an inferiority complex, but it doesn’t fly on a 21st century blog, Chris.
I put my rational thought up against yours on a regular basis on this forum, Chris. And you’ll have to admit, it rarely makes you look good.
Finally, if you can’t accept the simple and obvious fact that one of the attractive features of incorporation of a business is the limitation of criminal and financial liability, then you are either intellectually dishonest, or too ignorant to ever be able to effectively con someone into believing you have any sort of business law expertise of any worth whatsoever.
If you truly are sincere, Chris, may I suggest you Google “incorporation” and bone up on the facts.
californiawiseguy: Glad to see you’ve at least googled something on corporations. But how did you ever get the idea using a corporation protects a person against criminal liability? Of for that matter, liability under tort. Instead of being so angry, you might find that you can learn something from calm discourse, even with a conservative.
Chris, I figured you’d follow that line of response; the typical pro-corporate spin. You are either ignorant or a corporate apologist. Sure, I know that technically, incorporating doesn’t shield someone from “criminal” charges, but in reality incorporating CAN help shield people from criminal prosecution in various ways, the details of which YOU should Google.
Bottom line, incorporation is a way for individuals to shirk total responsibility/liability for actions that they can instigate in any number of covert ways.
Chris, you sound like a complete corporate sell out/lackey with no knowledge of how things work in the real world. But I think you actually do no, but are too intellectually dishonest to admit it.
The very fact that you will not acknowledge that incorporation is a time-tested way of avoiding a degree of personal financial liability is evidence that you’re either a fool or a tool.
Google away!
Sorry Chris, I do not have the time or inclination to give you a complete course in corporate law and the financial and legal advantages of incorporation. You can’t expect this forum to serve as your free personal law school.
What has this got to do with Al-Qaida? We were talking about how to fix the economy. Highlighting the abuses of military contractors is irrelevant to how you feel about Muslims or Al-Qaida. Or is that another prejudiced jab from the “Bash the Muslims” fan club?
Contrary to what you claim, Contractor (military and non-military) indiscretions and unethical business practices are more prevalent than you would like to think. I worked for one for eight months and left with disgust. For any company to engage in long-term abuses like the one I mentioned is proof that the way the system currently works and its laws alone are not enough.
Laws in many instances are designed to favor the wealthy and powerful. And, yes, as a liberal arts student I have much appreciation for the way the world works and for the different ethical dilemmas we all face. And, as a student of the liberal arts, I know that the victors are the ones who write history and the victors provide the conditions and laws that legitimize their control. You MUST know that. That is why there needs to be vigilance when protecting the rights of individuals against corporate hegemony. Our corporations are in bed with the politicians and with the military.
Corporate abuses, of course, take place by individuals. Corporations are meaningless without the people that run them. It is these same people who create the laws or the loopholes that protect their corporations. Had there been an ethical system in place, the abuses at Armor Group would not have continued for a long time, let alone started. Are you saying that hundreds of employees who took part and their silence are not an indication of systemic problems? The whistle blower (individual) leaked video brought the abuses to public view and that is what caused the firing of some employees. But we also know what happens to whistle blowers in this country despite the fact that there are laws that protect such courageous people. Remember Joe Darby, the soldier who broke the Abu Ghraib abuse story, he and his family still live in protective custody in an undisclosed location, almost 7 years after the incident. Yes, we have laws in this country, but look at what happens to those who try to live by their moral principles. Laws are not enough. Laws are not enough to protect people. You need the ability to enforce the laws.
Corporations, depending upon their size and clout, can circumvent the law. Businesses per se are not the problem. The problem is the deregulation and the ability of some businesses to purchase the allegiance of elected officials, as well as their ability to embed themselves in the military and defence culture in its private and public sectors for personal (corporate) benefit. I find that immoral and criminal ways because corporations, being the entities that seek ever-increasing profits at all cost, will seek to create the conditions that favor those profits. That means a company like Xe (Blackwater) can lobby the government through nepotism and other tactics to get the most lucrative contracts, thereby creating many of the conditions (conflicts) that further their existence as a profitable corporation. THAT is the issue.
There are ethical considerations that need to be present in all business transactions, but you may not be a believer in such an approach. That does not mean mine are irrelevant or “emotional” and “irrational” as you put it. I could label yours are heartless, irresponsible, inhuman, unsustainable, and bordering on psychopathic.
When the interests of corporations are in conflict with the interests of individuals or communities, guess who has more clout usually? THAT is another problem.
Look at companies such as Monsato, who are buying the patent to seeds so that farmers cannot use their crop seeds for future crops. They spend their time suing small farmers. They were voted one of the most unethical companies in the world. There are corporations that are promoting water privatization under the guise of efficiency, but the fact is that they are not paying the full cost of public infrastructure, environmental damage, or healthcare for those they hurt.
The problem is not the small businesses but the large and mega corporations who have grown out of control and who have various subsidiaries. I have no problem with Ben Franklin’s Restaurant sandwich shop making money, but what I have a problem with is a company like Monsato telling me that I cannot used my own seeds that I purchased the year before just because Monsato had the clout to push through laws that allow them to deny human beings the right to their own crops under the guise of patent protection. What I have a problem with is large companies denying access to water to indigenous people due to privatization.
According to the United Nations Human Development Programme: “If you live in a slum in Manila, you pay more for your water than people living in London.” Also visit the Coca Cola business practices in India and their effect on indigenous access to water.
Those are the kinds of corporations I am talking about and they control most of what we consume.
It is clear that marilyn has the same problem that our president has: she is an academic, not a person willing to live in the private sector world. She tried it, couldn’t hack it for reasons she describe, and then went back into academia.
Equally so, President Obama has never been in the private sector. He was a “constitutional” law professor. I use the quotes because if he was versed in constitutional law, he wouldn’t have screwed up and left our “creator” from his quotation from the Declaration of Independance, forgot how many states there are (only 50 not 57), not lied about the Citizen’s United SCOTUS ruling when he said they lifted a ban on foreign companies contributing to US elections (which they didn’t and Justice Alito busted him on it), overturned precedent by having the federal government force US citizens to purchase a product based on his whim, that being health insurance, overturned bankruptcy law and precedent, on and on.
There are many similarities between Marilyn and Obama: they both do not respect the United States as it was founded; both speak in racial and racist dialogue while accusing others of doing what they do; both think they know what they are talking about with things they know nothing about, like how and why businesses operate; both are not Christians (marilyn is a self-described muslim; Obama is an atheist); both subscribe to a form of Marxist ideation that holds the mistaken belief that the failed teachings of Marx would finally succeed if done their way; both despise Isreal… Marilyn does so with her words, Obama with his actions; neither believes in the free market even though neither have ever been a member of the free market economy; both have been some sort of community organizer.
Both have ideas dangerous to the continued existence of the United States of America. Only thing is that Obama is able to enact his ideas.
More outright lies and bigotry from “Rich in Paso” , but now he’s reached a new low, having no shame in purposely misrepresenting the economic and religious views of the President of the United States.
Rich, how low will you go in your perverted efforts to spread your despicable and dangerous world view and your continual anti-Muslim rhetoric?
I like all the fiction I read about myself and Obama as well as all the buzzwords that go along with it. I do hope they keep it up. Pulitzer prize material. But wait! Can’t have that; that is ACADEMIA.
I wish I worked in academia. I work more like in the trenches and my back hurts all day.
Must be the same guys who call Muslims “Muslin.” Can’t have educated people in this country. Makes the ignorant feel inadequate.
Let’s ban all post-high school education so the racists can live in their joe-six-pack utopia.
– Maybe they can go see a witch doctor when they get sick. Do they get sick? The way they’re ranting and raving against the Obama health plan, you would think they are the healthiest people on Earth.
– No legal system necessary, a rope and a tree will do
– No architects or engineers need apply. Who needs a house and a sewer system. What do you think they are? Elitist? Obama uses the bathroom, therefore, by association, anyone who uses plumbing is an elitist.
– They know how to run a REAL business as a capitalist enterprise. See those pens on their farms. Cheap labor (good business sense), courtesy of Blacks, Mexicans, Muslins, and Gays. Three bowls of peanuts a day. Hey! They’d be starving if left on their own. They like to work for peanuts cause they’re lazy.
– Health care! They don’t need no stinking health care! What do you think they are? Marxists? They don’t believe in getting sick. Non-academics definitely do not get sick. If you get sick, you must be a smoocher and an elitist.
-Finally: Universities are overrated anyway. Who cares about Plato and Aristotle? Who needs to know about Thucydides and Hannibal (not the A-Team guy or the cannibal guy, the other one, the one our military officers study in, oh wait — ACADEMIA)!
Looks like I struck another nerve with the flamming liberals/anti-american cabal on this blog.
I love it when a plan comes together.
Who has misrepresented something on this blog? It certainly isn’t me.
Has Obama ever stated exactly what he believes? The American people would believe that he hasn’t since 1 in 5 believe him to be a muslim. He also stated that he wasn’t listening to Jerimiah Wright for 20 years, or maybe he was just sleeping, which was why he never heard Wright say his anti-american rants. He purposefully omits the word “creator”, not once but twice, from two speeches involving quotation of the Declaration of Independance. While Obama did say that the evening call to prayer was one of the most beautiful sounds he ever heard, I don’t look to that as anything. I happen to think that it sounds pretty cool myself considering that we heard it every morning noon and night while I was deployed to Ramadi. So, on balance, I don’t believe Obama is a muslim, I don’t think he is a Christian either. Based on his intellectualism, refusal to talk about God, inability to verbalize anything referencing God, I think that he is either an atheist or at least agnostic. No misrepresentation here since Obama has never represented his views. Nothing for me to misrepresent.
As for his economic views, Obama’s actions indicate that he is not a proponent of the free market system. I’m sure that Obama does not follow ANY of the precepts of Adam Smith and if Smith were alive today, he would be a staunch opponent of Obama’s policies. A contemporary of Obama, Jack Welch, can’t stand Obama’s policies and has even stated that he feels Obama is anti-businessa. The opinion that Obama is anti-business, anti-free market and therefore pro-command and control, Soivet-style economy is not my opinion alone.
Rich, what possible GOOD do you imagine you are presenting with all your bigotry and scapegoating and vacuous, uneducated “economics” blathering? Seriously. Other than making YOURSELF feel better at the expense of others. how does drumming up hate and violence and religious intollerance make our world better?
Again I ask: What possible good do you imagine you are doing? What good do you do when you have the arrogance to tell the world that YOU know more about President Obama’s religious beliefs than us? That YOU are the one who decides who is “Christian enough” to say he is a Christian?
And then you also have the nerve to state that if Adam Smith were alive today he would be a “staunch opponent of Obama’s policies”? What total nonsense for you to claim you know exactly what Adam Smith would think if he saw what a mess our world is in today. I say Adam Smith would be seriously re-evaluating his views and exactly what he would conclude is anyone’s guess.
Rich, as far as economics goes, I haven’t seen one thing you’ve written that suggests you have any sort of expertise on the subject. In other words, as usual, you don’t know what you are talking about and simply rewrite trite phrases you’ve picked up from who knows where. Your statements lack any kind of authority. They simply add to the problems our nation suffers from.
Nice to see that you are the same ol’ intellectual coward on this blog that you were on the other blog. You are using all of the five principles of liberal debating techniques here: dodge, dive, duck, dip and dodge, to avoid talking about the fact that JACK WELCH, former CEO of General Electric, thinks Obama and his administration is anti-business. Your and your ilk are the ones that have set the conditions for the economic morass this nation is in. Just as FDR made the Crash of 1929 into what is known as The Great Depression, so too has Obama taken the Crash of 2008 and turned it into the Great Recession. Obama’s policies are what are anti-business, pro-welfare, anti-growth, pro-chaos, anti-small business, and pro-union. Obama wants this nation brought low. This is not me “adding to the problems”; I’m just spelling them out for you.
And what do you say, sir, to Velma Hunt at the CNBC Town Hall meeting last week when she, an Obama supporter who is “tired of defending” Obama’s policies, is asking him if this is her “new reality”, that being double digit unemployment, stagnant and falling wages, taxes increases coming at her from every conceivable angle from Obama, and no markets anywhere for American goods?
Again, Rich, what possible GOOD do you imagine you are doing with your continual hate-filled, divisive, ridiculous tirades? Your anti-American lies, such as “Obama wants this nation brought low” are ridiculous. I don’t know what is worse, you believing what you write, or you knowing you are lying and repeating propaganda aimed at dividing our nation.
Do you actually BELIEVE the things you write? (Your comments about FDR make it crystal clear you have no personal understanding of complex economics, but simply mindlessly repeat “conservative” propaganda aimed at boosting the profits of the richest people in the world, at the great expense of the majority of humanity. Do you have any idea of how much of a tool you come off as?
Again, my words have no more or less impact on the world than your’s do. Are you really going to write that somehow the world is a better place after your blowhard posts? Hardly. You are just a trivial man very full of himself. Even your name is an arrogant assertion at best.
Why don’t you tell us then, how the Great Depression ended? It most certainly wasn’t the New Deal programs, it wasn’t the plethora of alphabet agencies he created, it wasn’t because of his “fireside chats” that kept an out of work America off the streets. So why did the Great Depression end? What “complex economics” have I missed out on? NONE. That’s the only answer that won’t be another liberal fantasy mascarading as “truth”.
Liberals are the best a mythology. FDR ended the Great Depression? HA! What other fairy tales do you believe in? The easter bunny? Santa Claus? Obama is a popular, pro-business uniter? You are so funny, ‘Wise’Guy.
Rich, we’re going to have to disagree on this one. I’m certain MY words do have more positive impact on the world than yours do. I’m not sure how to “prove” it to you, but I think it’s pretty obvious if you think about it honestly. Face it dude, most of your posts have “bummer” written all over them. Not to mention that you are so often sympathetic to the death and destruction mentality/business practices that infect the Republican Party.
Rich, I’m not your enemy. Marilyn is not your enemy. President Obama is not your enemy. Muslims are not your enemy. FDR is not your enemy. None of us inspired you to go to Iraq and take part in killing people in an unnecessary, illegal and immoral war. We don’t condemn you for this. It’s my opinion you are simply a victim of a cruel, uncaring, dishonest cabal that duped you and many others into killing for the personal gain of a few. And its obvious the pain lingers.
It might be hard for you to accept the sad facts. But you need to forgive yourself. But before you can do that you need to look at your role honestly and let go of the ego that tells you and tells the world that you were on some sort of heroic mission. You may have served admirably, and you can be proud of that. Once conscripted it was your job to follow orders that you, brainwashing not withstanding, felt were legal and valid.
I can understand why you are so angry at the government; a government that not long ago lied to you and put you in harms way under false pretenses.
You helped bring a lot of unnecessary war into the world. But that’s the past. You can now use your life to bring peace and healing and understanding.
One other thing: Consider exercising your sense of humor. If you do you might appreciate that WiseGuy is meant to ring with an amusing, ironic tone. Not everything in this world is black or white.
This last post by ‘Wise’Guy is right out of the normal left-wing playbook: first, you attack; second, you deflect in response to successful counter-attack; third, you slander and denigrate to undermine an argument; fourth, deflect while retreating from the argument in an attempt to NOT address the points.
So these “complicated economic reasons” why the Great Depression ended will go unanswered by WiseGuy, who made the allegation that I didn’t understand them but he did.
I cannot “agree to disagree” with President Obama on matters of the economy because his policies have gone miles beyond the destructiveness of the policies of those before him, Republican or Democrat. President Obama is not my “enemy” as you say, but his ideology and mine are diametrically opposed and there is not moving him or I off of them. he may be the president holding all the cards right now. That does not mean that I have to roll over, play dead and just accept his policies as a fait accompli, any more than Democrats rolled over for President Bush. Standing against the Obama Administration policies, voting against those that do, and working to replace those policies with those that those on my side of the issue would be better for the nation is the DUTY of an opposition dedicated to making America better. Isn’t this EXACTLY what Democrats did in 2006 and 2008 as they railed against the supposedly ‘failed policies of the Bush Administration’? Of course it is.
I cannot “agree to disagree” with Marilyn because her viewpoints cheapen the human lives of Muslim women everywhere as she blindly accepts the dictates of those misogynistic precepts of those that hide behind Islam as an excuse to murder their daughters for not being “good Muslims”. She, and you, claim islamophobia or just hatred of ALL MUSLIMS when anyone brings up anything that undermines the certitude that Islam is all good. However, she has never hesitated to highlight each and every instance where Isreal has violated, perceived or real, the human rights of others. I consider myself ‘equal time’ to Marilyn’s bogus arguments.
Also, my words here are by far totally harmless in comparison to the Communist Party of America and their 70 Democrat allies in the US Congress. The couple of thousand communist-socialist-union employees that decended on the Washington Mall Saturday are far more dangerous and destructive than anything I have EVER typed here. The other thing to remember is that my words typed here leave not one piece of refuse that needs to be picked up by a city worker, unlike the tons of propoganda and just plain garbage that the “One Nation” participants strewn about.
Here is an except of who attended the communist rally/litter bug convention in DC last weekend: “These officially-sanctioned groups also included the AFL-CIO and several left-wing labor unions; United for Peace and Justice, founded by veteran Marxist activist Leslie Cagan; Code Pink; the ANSWER Coalition, a front of the Party for Socialism and Liberation; the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC); the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism; Green for All, the group once associated with former White House official Van Jones; Democratic Socialists of America, which helped give Barack Obama his start in Illinois state politics; and the NAACP.”
This is an “anti-tea party” rally? If you are anti-tea party, you are pro-communist? That is what the “One Nation” rally and its supporters are saying.
So my words are more dangerous here than the words of the Legion of Doom that spoke last Saturday? Don’t hardly think so.
Okay, Rich, self-styled “economics expert”, if you insist, please explain to us in your own words, and in all the detail you care to offer, “why the Great Depression ended.”
P.S. Rich, your continual insistence upon stereotyping Muslims is nothing but bigotry. You owe apologies to Marilyn. You should also apologize to all the people you falsely and self-servingly label as “communists.”
Rich, your insistence on trying to pin a label to and castigate thousands of unique and diverse individuals who you don’t know personally is more evidence of your obsessive bigotry and prejudice that harms our community.
Rich, I’m not your enemy. Marilyn is not your enemy. President Obama is not your enemy. None of us lied to you and forced you to go to Iraq and take part in the killing of innocent people. We understand that you were taken advantage of and mislead. We can forgive you. But you need to forgive yourself and then you will find that you have less incentive to come on this forum and elsewhere and wildly attack everyone you feel understands the truth of your personal tragedy.
Rich, you were abused by our government under the Bush Administration. But its time to end the cycle of abuse and I’m certain you have the strength and ability to end it if you can find it in yourself to forgive yourself, forgive those who abused you, and find something positive and productive to do with your life. Even small acts of kindness and helping others in need will help you find humility and healing.
You are home now Rich.
Rich: I apologize for not coming back here and posting the bills that passed in the House of Representatives that then went on to die in the Senate that I feel would have had a positive impact on our society; I did a quick and easy google search and could not easily find the links, so I gave up for awhile thinking I would go back and look into it when I had more time, but Dave has announced that he is discontinuing the blog. I really enjoyed the back and forth we used to engage on Dave’s previous blog, but here on the new blog, there just didn’t seem to be the same atmosphere of allowing the other person to state their case and critique their assertions, fault their evidence if it was weak, and usually stay away from personal attacks. I fully recognize that a few of the left leaning contributors here have been pretty infantile in their responses to you, which is unfortunate. Take care of yourself and your family, thank you for serving in the military, and please try to remember that people like myself that have different opinions than you do care for our country, we want our government to be responsive to the citizens, and we do not “hate America”; “America: Love it when it’s right, and right it when it does wrong.” – Randi Rhodes.
Hey, Bob, I enjoyed our back and forth too. There were even times when you and I agreed. You liked my tax plan and I discovered you were right about how screwed up Bremer was to cite a couple of examples. I know that some were upset about you and I dominating the discussion on the old blog. But you know what? I say to hell with those people. You and I typified a staunch liberal position and a staunch conservative position. I think we provided each other with a very balanced view of two opposing ideologies. I know that you care for our country as much as I do. Anything I said that may have come across as harsh, know that it was never personal. I know you don’t hate America… although there are others on the blog that I can’t make the same claim. I’m sure WiseGuy (so long as he isn’t SM Bill in disguise) is a nice guy in real life… I hope.
I’ll take care of me and my family; you be sure to do the same. And remember: liberalism isn’t a disease, it’s just a condition that can be overcome. (hehehe)