Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

[Kepler]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

99 Days to Go.

Good news here for Romney and here for Obama.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

In an interview Dick Cheney said that Sarah Palin wasn't qualified to be President. How is that so when Barack Obama is President?

The GOP astonishes me.

"That one, I don't think was well handled,” Cheney told ABC of the 2008 veep pick. "I like Governor Palin,” he said. “I've met her. I know her. She - attractive candidate. But based on her background, she'd only been governor for, what, two years. I don't think she passed that test...of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_new...takes-cheney-says-palin-vp-pick-was-a-mistake

 

[Sloe Gin]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

I can't work because I get debilitating headaches just about every day that send me to bed where I curl up in a fetal position and hope it goes away. The rehab expert from the State of Maine said she wouldn't be able to place me in a job and an employment expert testified at my hearing that there was no way I could hold down any type of employment. Aside from being unable to work, there's the minor inconvenience of the tumor that still resides in my brain and would be more than enough to scare away any potential employers. The judge in my case is a staunch conservative who was appointed by Bush and is on the list of "non-paying" judges because he only approves 43% of the Social Security cases that come before him - as opposed to the other five judges in the Portland office who have a record of approving 85% of the cases they hear. But no, I'm sure you know better than all of them. You have vastly more knowledge of my case based on the hours we have spent together, the fact that you've read my file, seen my MRI and other medical records, know my work and educational history and just plain know more than the head of the State of Maine Rehabilitation Services and a federal judge. I can't imagine what I was thinking.

Coming out of retirement for this.

you might as well just off yourself then. Clearly your life has no purpose other then whining on a college hockey message board about how unfair the government is and how you deserve so much more. You are a pathetic human being. You contribute nothing to society. Even if your "tumor" was gone and you didn't weigh as much as a dump truck, you would just still sit there and ***** about the government not giving you more of my money. You wouldn't get a job. You wouldn't contribute. So at this point, there's not much left for you to do. Just off yourself already.

Back to hiding. Anyone that votes for Obama hates America and freedom. *k you all.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

Well, that was...something.

 

[unofan]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

I understand there's going to be a seminar about the myth of media bias, chaired by Brian Ross.

And co-chaired by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck...

 

[Kepler]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

In an interview Dick Cheney said that Sarah Palin wasn't qualified to be President. How is that so when Barack Obama is President?

The GOP astonishes me.

There's a great book on Fox that researches, through statements and memos of the principals, exactly how the network works as a propaganda arm of the GOP (in other words, not simply as a biased ideological source or as a entertainment provider responding to audience demands, but literally as a de facto organ of a political party -- a first in the TV age). In it, it's documented that Palin has run afoul of the RNC power elite in general and Roger Ailes specifically. She's now on the outs in their Politburo game. Hence the steady drizzle of negative statements being made about her now by RNC personnel like Cheney.

She's gone from "Kid with a future" through "Useful idiot" to "Dangerous liability." The RNC has a real problem in where to stick her at the convention -- they'd love to ignore her completely, but there are still too many herpa-derps for whom she'll always be Evita.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

There's a great book on Fox that researches, through statements and memos of the principals, exactly how the network works as a propaganda arm of the GOP (in other words, not simply as a biased ideological source or as a entertainment provider responding to audience demands, but literally as a de facto organ of a political party -- a first in the TV age). In it, it's documented that Palin ran afoul of the RNC power elite in general and Roger Ailes specifically. She's now on the outs in their Politburo game. Hence the steady drizzle of negative statements being made about her now by RNC personnel like Cheney.

So, flip-flop again? Remember, Palin had/has EXECUTIVE experience. She was a Governor at the time. We heard that speel OVER and OVER again.

You've got to give them credit. They killed Kerry with Flip-Flops in '08 and now their entire campaign is based on them.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

So, flip-flop again? Remember, Palin had/has EXECUTIVE experience. She was a Governor at the time. We heard that speel OVER and OVER again.

As disgusting as the Martyr of the North was...

we're always going to get that crap during a campaign. Sister Sarah is uniquely inept, but she was hardly uniquely re-marketed.

 

[Rover]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

Since we're in a dead time in the campaign until the conventions start, I was amused by the regurgitated storylines the lazy media is kicking up from the last umpteenth elections.

Story #1. Party xxxx has used its power to change voting laws in swing state yyyy that could decide the election!!!

Story #2. Candidate xxxx has the potential to make inroads into voting subgroup yyyy this year like never before!!!

Story #3. Reliably red/blue state xxxx could be a surprise swing state in the November election!!!!!!!!!

No wonder most newspapers are going out of business and journalists get paid minimum wage.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

For every election I've paid attention to (since '80), these have been go-to summer storylines:

+ This is the year Jews will start going Republican

+ This is the year blacks will start going Republican

+ This is the year poor whites will start going Democratic

+ This is the year the youth vote will matter

+ This is the year the gender gap will radically change politics

+ This is the year (voter fraud / vote suppression) will steal the election

 

[Rover]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

DOH. I forgot the biggest one:

WE COULD BE IN FOR AN ELECTORAL TIE!!!!! OMG!!!

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

Great essay by Charles Murray, "Why Capitalism Has an Image Problem"

Historically, the merits of free enterprise and the obligations of success were intertwined in the national catechism. McGuffey's Readers, the books on which generations of American children were raised, have plenty of stories treating initiative, hard work and entrepreneurialism as virtues, but just as many stories praising the virtues of self-restraint, personal integrity and concern for those who depend on you. The freedom to act and a stern moral obligation to act in certain ways were seen as two sides of the same American coin. Little of that has survived.

To accept the concept of virtue requires that you believe some ways of behaving are right and others are wrong always and everywhere. That openly judgmental stand is no longer acceptable in America's schools nor in many American homes. Correspondingly, we have watched the deterioration of the sense of stewardship that once was so widespread among the most successful Americans and the near disappearance of the sense of seemliness that led successful capitalists to be obedient to unenforceable standards of propriety. [emphasis added]

OK, Charles, the cultural breakdown in morality: "there no longer are absolute standards of right and wrong" is your depiction of the problem. So how do we solve it?

in today's political climate, updating the case for capitalism requires a restatement of old truths in ways that Americans from across the political spectrum can accept. Here is my best effort:

The U.S. was created to foster human flourishing. The means to that end was the exercise of liberty in the pursuit of happiness. Capitalism is the economic expression of liberty. The pursuit of happiness, with happiness defined in the classic sense of justified and lasting satisfaction with life as a whole, depends on economic liberty every bit as much as it depends on other kinds of freedom.

"Lasting and justified satisfaction with life as a whole" is produced by a relatively small set of important achievements that we can rightly attribute to our own actions. ....[or] "earned success." Earned success can arise from a successful marriage, children raised well, a valued place as a member of a community, or devotion to a faith. Earned success also arises from achievement in the economic realm, which is where capitalism comes in.

Earning a living for yourself and your family through your own efforts is the most elemental form of earned success. Successfully starting a business, no matter how small, is an act of creating something out of nothing that carries satisfactions far beyond those of the money it brings in. Finding work that not only pays the bills but that you enjoy is a crucially important resource for earned success.

Making a living, starting a business and finding work that you enjoy all depend on freedom to act in the economic realm. What government can do to help is establish the rule of law so that informed and voluntary trades can take place. More formally, government can vigorously enforce laws against the use of force, fraud and criminal collusion, and use tort law to hold people liable for harm they cause others.

Everything else the government does inherently restricts economic freedom to act in pursuit of earned success. ....: Every intervention that erects barriers to starting a business, makes it expensive to hire or fire employees, restricts entry into vocations, prescribes work conditions and facilities, or confiscates profits interferes with economic liberty and usually makes it more difficult for both employers and employees to earn success. ....

People with a wide range of political views can also acknowledge that these interventions do the most harm to individuals and small enterprises. Huge banks can, albeit at great expense, cope with the Dodd-Frank law's absurd regulatory burdens; many small banks cannot. Huge corporations can cope with the myriad rules issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and their state-level counterparts. The same rules can crush small businesses and individuals trying to start small businesses.

Finally, people with a wide range of political views can acknowledge that what has happened incrementally over the past half-century has led to a labyrinthine regulatory system, irrational liability law and a corrupt tax code. Sweeping simplifications and rationalizations of all these systems are possible in ways that even moderate Democrats could accept in a less polarized political environment.

To put it another way, it should be possible to revive a national consensus affirming that capitalism embraces the best and most essential things about American life; that freeing capitalism to do what it does best won't just create national wealth and reduce poverty, but expand the ability of Americans to achieve earned success—to pursue happiness.

Reviving that consensus also requires us to return to the vocabulary of virtue when we talk about capitalism. Personal integrity, a sense of seemliness and concern for those who depend on us are not "values" that are no better or worse than other values. Historically, they have been deeply embedded in the American version of capitalism. If it is necessary to remind the middle class and working class that the rich are not their enemies, it is equally necessary to remind the most successful among us that their obligations are not to be measured in terms of their tax bills. Their principled stewardship can nurture and restore our heritage of liberty. Their indifference to that heritage can destroy it.[emphases added]

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

Seems to imply that the newer generations are the problem. Fact is it's the Baby Boomers that are the problem.

 

[Rover]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

Ummmm...where was all the job growth that unfettered capitalism is supposed to bring during the regulation cutting Bush administration?

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

Ummmm...where was all the job growth that unfettered capitalism is supposed to bring during the regulation cutting Bush administration?

The Job Growth was in the CEO salary explosion. There was an article in the local Sunday paper this weekend that said that CEO's in Minnesota averaged a 26% increase in compensation in Minnesota last year. Average Joe got a ~3% increase.

That's Baby Boomer Capitalism at its finest.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

Ummmm...where was all the job growth that unfettered capitalism is supposed to bring during the regulation cutting Bush administration?

Yeah, I understand your excessive use of hyperbole, but we haven't had unfettered capitalism in this country since before most of our grandparents were born.

 

[Rover]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

I am amused by how conservatives (Fishy for example, Old PO'd too) want to pretend the time from 2001-2009 never happened. Fortunately for those of us with good memories, we saw a practical application of when the country is governed by conservative economic policy. So lets recap:

#1) Tax cuts for the rich spurs the economy. Result: Bush admin lowest economic growth since like Hoover.

#2) Cutting regulation increases job growth. Result: I don't seem to recall too much job growth in the first decade of this century.

But, we're supposed to do this all over again with Mittens? I'll pass.

BTW - I noticed Bill Clinton will be given a prime time speaking spot at the convention. Will George W Bush do the same? After all, who better to explain Romney's economic platform than the former Prez!

 

[walrus]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

And co-chaired by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck...

Yeah they are almost ABC news

 

[bronconick]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

Given the state of the media today, I'm amused by the need to call it tilted one way or the other when it can be more easily explained away by stupidity and the need to be first with whatever information they've found, accurate or not, in a failing effort to keep themselves relevant. The half dozen bombs that exploded on the mall in Washington on 9/11 after Al Gore won Florida in 2000 at 8:40pm wasn't a dead giveaway? Nah. Easier to claim a mass conspiracy.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Elections 2012 -- Kull Wahad!!!

Given the state of the media today, I'm amused by the need to call it tilted one way or the other when it can be more easily explained away by stupidity and the need to be first with whatever information they've found, accurate or not, in a failing effort to keep themselves relevant. The half dozen bombs that exploded on the mall in Washington on 9/11 after Al Gore won Florida in 2000 at 8:40pm wasn't a dead giveaway? Nah. Easier to claim a mass conspiracy.

Who used the words "mass" or "conspiracy"? Hillary used the words "vast right wing conspiracy," of course. Why is it so hard to grasp the concept that liberals, for the most part, are in charge and do the reporting for the MSM? In poll after poll, 70% of them say they vote Democratic, why is that news? And why is it denied? And why is it assumed that doesn't impact the coverage?