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Steven Senne / AP
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks to an audience during a campaign stop April 1, 2012, in Milwaukee, Wis.
And we’re off: Plenty of evidence that the general-election train has left the station… Biden unloads on Romney… Romney unveils his new stump speech… Rick Santorum = Kansas Jayhawks?... Bill Clinton to raise money with Obama… Dems go on the offensive against the Ryan budget… Yet another sign the Tea Party might be over: House GOPers looking to revive earmarks… And it’s tight in the Brown-Warren race.
*** And we're off: Yes, the Wisconsin GOP primary is still a day away. And, yes, Rick Santorum could always pull off a surprise tomorrow. But it's also hard not to recognize that the general election has already begun. On Friday, Mitt Romney unveiled a new stump speech that focused exclusively on President Obama and not his GOP rivals. Then, on Sunday, Vice President Biden appeared on "Face the Nation," where he unloaded on Romney. Also late last week, a conservative group with ties to the Koch Brothers launched a $3 million-plus TV ad campaign in battleground states, while the pro-Obama Super PAC is now up with its own response. And yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said “the chances are overwhelming that [Romney] will be our nominee. It seems to me we’re in the final phases of wrapping up this nomination.” To be sure, we might see final minor twist or turn in this GOP primary race, but with seven months until Nov. 6, the general-election train appears to have finally left the station.
The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd talks about the ad wars between the American Energy Alliance – a group with ties to the conservative Koch brothers, and Obama's Super PAC, Priorities USA Action.
*** Biden unloads on Romney: As mentioned above, the vice president appeared on CBS’ Sunday show, where he assailed Romney for being out of touch with the middle class and for being naïve on foreign policy. “I can't remember a presidential candidate in the recent past who seems not to understand by what he says what ordinary middle-class people are thinking about and are concerned about,” Biden said. And in response to the GOP criticism of President Obama’s hot-mic moment, he added: “Gov. Romney's answer, I thought, was incredibly revealing. He acts like he thinks the Cold War is still on -- Russia is still our major adversary. I don't know where he has been. I mean, we have disagreements with Russia, but they're united with us on Iran. The only way we're getting one of only two ways we're getting material into Afghanistan to our troops is through Russia. They're working closely with us. They have just said to Europe, if there is an oil shutdown in any way in the Gulf, they'll consider increasing oil supplies to Europe. That's not-- this is not 1956.” Throughout the interview, it was clear Biden’s playing what is a traditional role for a sitting VP: attack dog.
The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd's previews Tuesday's primaries in Wisconsin and Maryland saying, the general election will probably begin this weekend. A Morning Joe panel also joins to talk about how the women vote will affect the race.
*** Romney unveils new stump speech: Meanwhile, as NBC’s Garrett Haake has pointed out, Romney debuted a new stump speech in Wisconsin on Friday that “sounded more like a late-October general election pitch than a primary candidate’s plea.” Said Romney: "Under President Obama, America hasn't been working. The ironic tragedy is that the community organizer who wanted to help those hurt by a plant closing became the President on whose watch more jobs were lost than any other time since the great Depression." More Romney: "And instead of doing everything possible to promote the power of the free enterprise system, to create jobs and get us out of this crisis, Barack Obama has promoted the power of government. And the results have been predictable and dismal." Wisconsin is as good a place as any for Romney to test a general election message. The Romney map has been shrinking -- not growing -- and he can’t afford for Wisconsin to fall off the battleground map the way Michigan already has.
*** Rick Santorum = Kansas Jayhawks? Back to the GOP primary race, Santorum said on “Meet the Press” that he would bow out of the contest if Romney gets his 1,144 delegates. “If Gov. Romney gets that required number, then without a doubt, if he's at that number we'll step aside. But right now he's not there. He's not even close to it.” And while he maintained that Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary isn’t “do or die” for him, but he noted that it could send a signal. “I keep coming back to the fact that when you look at the odds, they're against us. I think David would like to have these odds versus Goliath I think.” On the campaign trail yesterday, he described his challenge this way: “It’s like telling Kansas last night, ‘You’re down by 18 points, but before halftime — give up its over.’ We aren’t even at halftime folks, not even half the delegates have been selected in this race.” Gingrich also invoked Kansas’ comeback: “I’m going to take Kansas as a model,” he said.
*** On the trail: Almost all of the activity, not surprisingly, is in Wisconsin: Santorum holds rallies in Shawano, Appleton and Oshkosh; he bowls in Menasha; and he ends his day in Ripon, which is considered the birthplace of the Republican Party… Romney and Paul Ryan hold campaign events in Green Bay and Milwaukee… Gingrich campaigns in Maryland… And Paul remains off the campaign trail.
*** Bill Clinton to raise money with Obama: In an interview with NBC’s Luke Russert, former President Bill Clinton revealed he will attend three fundraisers with Obama. “We’re going to do these fundraisers. Three, I think, together,” he told Russert. Clinton also said this about his wife, Hillary, and 2016: “She’s told you and everybody else that she thinks she’ll probably never run for office again. But I’ve been there. I know what happens when you go through this decompression, after years of relentless high pressure activity. And I just think she needs to rest up, do some things she cares about and whatever she decides to do, I’ll support.”
*** Dems go on the offensive against Ryan’s budget: The week after House Republicans passed the Paul Ryan budget plan, Democrats are going on the offensive in dual ad campaigns. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is up with radio ads in eight GOP districts -- Jeff Denham (CA-10), Mary Bono Mack (CA-36), Tom Latham (IA-03), Dan Benishek (MI-01), John Kline (MN-02), Joe Heck (NV-03), Quico Canseco (TX-23), Reid Ribble (WI-08) -- that hits them for voting “to essentially end Medicare.” An example: “Did you know Congressman Joe Heck voted twice to essentially end Medicare to give tax breaks to millionaires. Tell Heck to fight for Medicare!” In addition, AFSCME and Americans United for Change are up with TV ads (here, here, here, and here) making the same point. Yesterday on ABC, Ryan contended that his budget would “stop subsidizing the wealthy.” Yet it cuts the top rate from 35% to 25%.
*** Yet another sign that the Tea Party might be over: Reuters: “In a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans [in early March], [GOP Rep. Mike] Rogers recommended reviving a proven legislative sweetener that became politically toxic a year ago. Bring back earmarks, Rogers, who was first elected to Congress in 2002, told his colleagues.” More: “House Speaker John Boehner, who pushed for the earmark ban, is considering forming a committee to study earmarks reforms, according to Rogers. Other sources also said that during the closed meeting, the speaker said he would consider reforms, and other leading Republicans did not shoot down the idea.”
*** Tight in Massachusetts: Finally, a Boston Globe poll over the weekend showed Scott Brown (R) and Elizabeth Warren virtually tied, with Brown at 37% and Warren at 35%, with a whopping 26% undecided.
Countdown to DC, Maryland, Wisconsin primaries: 1 day
Countdown to Election Day: 218 days
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Ryan supports Romney:
Paul Ryan's budget was passed in the House and every Republican voted for the bill. The bill dismantles Medicare as we know it and replaces it with a voucher plan which provides considerably less coverage than what seniors enjoy with today's Medicare. Evidently the GOP/TP has not heard the chant from seniors, "Don't mess with my Medicare". Thus, the GOP/TP Representatives will have to defend their very unpopular vote in the General Election and Democrat candidates running for a House seat will beat on this topic like a drum. Generally seniors tend to vote conservative, but the prospect of losing Medicare coverage for their children will likely give them reason to pause.
The other piece of the Ryan budget that galls middle class Americans is that it gives a $187,000 tax break to the very wealthy. And who picks up the slack with this $87,000 gift? Well, the middle class of course.
So ultra-conservative Ryan endorses Romney, thus tying Romney to this very unpopular budget. Romney accepts the endorsement and accepts the Ryan budget. It's more than accepting the budget, it's owning it.
Listening to Romney attempting to explain his position on anything is like listening to a double-talk artist, which he is. He flip-flops, lies, makes meaningless statements and clearly shows he is not informed. So keep talking Mittens, the more you say the higher your unfavorable ratings. They are now at about 50%. If Romney had the brains of a goose, he would run away from Paul Ryan and the Ryan budget. That endorsement will likely cook his own goose.
Today’s WSJ has a Hillaryous editorial about how lefty liberals are acting like Newt Gingrich in their reaction to the SC’s ClunkerCare oral arguments last week. Angry lefty liberals are basically promising that any justices that vote in a way they dislike will be hauled into their court of public opinion and be trashed for doing so.
Geez, talk about trying to politicize the SC’s Constitutional role in the US government!!!!
Excerpts from the WSJ:
Assailing the Supreme Court
The legal left echoes Newt Gingrich on judicial power.
After last week's Supreme Court argument on ObamaCare, the political left seems to be suffering a nervous breakdown. Only a week ago, the liberal consensus was that the federal mandate to buy insurance couldn't possibly be overturned. Now as panic sets in, the left has taken to mau-mauing the Justices by saying that if they overturn the mandate they'll be acting like political partisans. The High Court's very "legitimacy" will be in question, as one editorial put it—a view repeated across the liberal commentariat.
This criticism is itself political lobbying, as is clear from the fact that it mostly spares Anthony Kennedy, the likeliest swing vote. Liberals still hope Justice Kennedy will uphold all of the law, even as they audition the mauling he'll get if he joins Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas in the ninth level of judicial hell. Chief Justice John Roberts is also being lectured that the case will "define" his career, though in six years he has already established a record as a careful consensus builder on the Court.
Overturn any part of the law, the Justices are being told, and your reputations will be trashed. The invitations from Harvard and other precincts of the liberal establishment will dry up. And, by the way, you'll show you hate sick people—as if the Court's job is to determine health-care policy.
This is the left's echo of Newt Gingrich's threat earlier in the primary season to haul judges before Congress when it dislikes their rulings. Remember the political outrage over that one?
At stake in ObamaCare is whether the High Court will ignore 225 years of constitutional understanding to ratify the federal government's claim that it can force individual Americans to buy an insurance product—to engage in commerce—so it can then regulate all of the health-care market. The activism charge is a political canard intended to obscure these grave issues and intimidate the Court, and the Justices and the public would do well not to take it seriously.
Why on earth would the Today Show provide Sarah Palin the opportunity to 'co-host' their show?
Who ever came up with that 'brilliant' idea needs their head(s) examined. During the campaign Ms. Palin refused to even give an interview to NBC...
Any respect I had for the show has been lowered substantially - I have sent an e-mail letting them know how I feel about tabloid journalism...
The American Legislative Exchange Council (A.L.E.C.) must answer for their "Shoot First" laws.
No wonder we're feeling bad.
The National Rifle Association has the thumb screws on everyone - Congress, the Supreme Court and GOP elected officials. We feel unprotected in the midst of all the corruption; from undisclosed corporate $billions in our elections thanks to Citizen's United; to the spectre of returning to gross health insurance abuses; to GOP elected officials owned by Grover Norquist; to A.L.E.C. voter suppression laws.
Republican Governors fired thousands & thousands of police officers and are getting rid of police unions.
A.L.E.C. Stand Your Ground laws legalize homicide. Twenty-three of our states have A.L.E.C. gun laws that say if you feel threatened - feel free to go ahead and shoot.
Are you OK with the way things are going - getting rid of police while giving everyone carte blanche to kill whoever they want?
The ultimate in privatized security, with the potential for all kinds of nefarious killings.
NRA/ALEC have fashioned & contrived the current lax gun laws in the US to boost their profits while covering themselves from liabilities. With the exception of a rocket launcher, you can buy almost any weapon at a Gun Show without the need for background checks or any waiting period.
Bin Laden is gone and our soldiers are home from Iraq.
But the right wing ever finds NEW ways to create fear, uncertainty and doubt in our hearts. A.L.E.C. gun laws create fear of each other, fear in our neighborhoods & cities, fear for our children out on their own - even when shopping at the corner store, and fears for the future of America.
Are we going to REPEAL fear and potentially hate-mongering laws, that allow predatory Big Corporations to ride herd over ordinary Americans?
Time to put A.L.E.C. on the stand alongside George Zimmerman.
Ron---it takes some "chitspa", as Michele Bachmann would say, to argue that the 1% need MORE tax cuts. Perhaps this is their way of negotiating----they'll give up tax cuts if the Democrats stop trying to raise taxes, leaving us with the status quo of the Bush tax cuts, which allow a guy like Romney to pay a 14% effective rate. Although we haven't seen all of Romney's returns to know if his effective rate ever gets below that.
Let's not forget that they have to keep their pledge to Grover Norquist---apparently more important to them than their oath of office.
Two years after Florida enacted the first A.L.E.C. Stand Your Ground law in 2005, the number of "justifiable homicides" jumped to 100 - up from 34 prior to the law. All 23 states that have adopted Stand Your Ground laws have similar spikes.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/what-happened-trayvon-martin-explained#map
This map shows 23 states with existing stand your ground laws. Also shows states where the laws have been considered this year.
THIS IS FUNNY STUFF!!!!!!!!!
Al Bore's Current TV has fired the planet's biggest pompous A$$, Keith Olbermann!!!!!
He didn't even last a year.
Now that would be FUNNY by itself, but, Al Bore has another joke to play on lefty liberals:
His replacement??
Client number 9, the whoremaster, and the quarter-Governor of NY, Eliot Spitzer!!!!!
You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried!!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the mandate is repealed, then the health insurance companies can sue, claiming since commerce cannot be 'forced' then why should they be forced to pay for deadbeats without insurance?
If this succeeds, and hospitals can turn away those without insurance, that would do more for the 'mandate' than the mandate ever could do.
One of the funniest parts about KeithO being fired is that his emails and complaints are now being made public.
Did you know that he was angry at Current TV because of the "Limo Service" they used. Seems he didn't like the drivers talking to him. What an elitist, condescending, first rate 1%'er A**hole!!!! LOL
But then again, we common sense people already knew that.
He also blamed his LOW ratings on the production staff and light bulbs going out etc...What a friggin' douche. He needs to go work at Wal Mart or somewhere (if he can stand to be around the LITTLE PEOPLE).
This is too much fun. Joe telling the country that Romney is out of touch. Lets see what Obama/Biden team have done for the middle class. 1) A $800 billion "stimulus" that paid off the unions. I guess that helped the middle class, until the money ran out, and it all got added to the debt. 2) ObamaCare, which appears to be unconstitutional 3) $4+ gas prices, that certainly helps the middle class. 4) Stealing money from an already severely underfunded Social Security to fund a measly $40 a month tax break that doesn't even pay for the $4+ gas. 5) Greater than 50% of the people receive a government check - that certainly is not sustainable. 6) Record sustained 8%+ unemployment - that certainly is a plus for the middle class.
It's clear Obama/Biden are certainly way more in in touch with the middle class than Romney.
Ron: Good post! The disconnect between Paul Ryan and reality is a yawning chasm. That Mitt Romney supports this budget, that decimates any social contract that used to be embraced by Americans is evil. Americans know that we are in this together, and are willing, even eager to help those in real need. Ryan's budget clearly shows that HE sees the needy as his rich Corporate masters, giving them carte blanche to further rape the country.
I guess that is how Mittens plans on paying for the garage elevator for his cars in La Jolla.
But, I imagine they all sat in church this weekend eager to figure out how to further bastardize Jesus' message about our duty to each other.
Hallelujah!
I'll rejoice when it happens. The TP has been a dingleberry hanging on for far too long.
Backhouse, the NRA and ALEC and those politicians who bow down to them (Bush family) believe this country really isn't moving forward unless we're more violent as a society.
Evidently neither has the Administration and the Democrats. As was pointed out on Morning Joe, 50%+ of the funding for the ACA's 1.76T has to come from Medicare savings.
Nobody believes this will actually happen but then the ACA would add to the deficit.
When the Palin co-host commercial hit the airwaves yesterday morning, I looked at my wife and said..... I can hear a loud screaming and pounding noise on the other side of Lake Michigan. I was right Chicago's water level rose 2 inches from all the kicking and screaming.
I have to disagree --- Romney isn't a double talk "EXPERT" - he is a rank amateur who can't lie his way out of a paper bag!
He is so obvious he is pathetic.
Yea, good idea Repugs, let's pass the Ryan Bill and we can all go back to the 1930's. No more Social Security, Medicare, Retirement Programs, Pensions or any thing else that helps the poor and middle class survive and have "some" kind of life. Right, do away with all human rights so that only the rich can look forward to a good and healthy life. All these Republican Congressmen are financially comfortable, so why should they care about us, "the have not's"?
Vote all of these selfish Repugs and Tea Party Idiots out of office and re-elect our President and get this Country back on track for all of the people.
Obama in 2012.
Feisty,
Having political guests, pundits and office holders, has been a mainstay for the morning shows for decades but, as far as I know, having a political player as a cohost is a first.
This is an effort to offset the attention that former NBC "Today" co-anchor Katie Couric is setting in for the vacationing Robin Roberts this week on ABC's Good Morning America.
This could be a ratings boost or a longer term viewership loss for NBC as people leave because they do not want another political oriented program. Most viewers of the morning shows watch for the news, current events, information and entertainment.
Pat, agreed. They want to privatize police. We can join ALL the dots...more:
"...a notorious Koch brothers-funded lobby group may have played a leading role in writing and passing" the Florida Stand Your Ground law in 2005.
A.L.E.C. on behalf of global corporations:
Guostwrites conservative legislation that is introduced into state legislatures across the nation, shapes bills and resolutions in almost all areas of American life; education, workers injuries and deaths at work, immigration, worker and consumer rights, air and water quality, energy, taxes and health care.
The future of every American in every state is affected by ALEC's behind-the-scenes influence on corporations and our Congress. "...ALEC has also teamed up with the National Rifle Association to pass "stand your ground" legislation to protect shooters."
http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/what-happened-trayvon-martin-explained#map
Ron, it's hard to believe that even Paul Ryan who cancelled his town halls last year because of the angry constituents would hit the replay button. Even more ridiculous is Mitt Romney hitting the replay button twice by both endorsing the Ryan plan and accepting Ryan's endorsement.
Feisty, I missed that news about Sarah Palin. Well, they will lose me as a viewer for certain. I do not enjoy tabloid-style chatter least of all from a red-meat throwers with my morning coffee.
Backhouse, terrific post. The NRA wants everybody to own a gun and ALEC is happy to oblige them by passing ridiculous laws designed to fix a problem that didn't exist. Whether it is Voter ID laws or Stand Your Ground laws, it is legislation and lawmakers run amok.
LOL
Gotta love Republicans that miss state what happens to Medicare under ACA.
The savings comes from an enriched Medicare plan that wasn't cost effective. So yes, it takes that over priced program and allows you to cover more people without giving up a lot of benefits.
It's still much better than the Republican voucher system that will cost seniors $8000 per year.
joAnna,
Your comment above "50% of all people receive a government check."
It is not the whole story:
http://blog.mises.org/6597/study-more-americans-receive-government-benefits
The author cited included everyone working for any government agency plus all those who receive a educational grant.
Also the blog about Austrian economics is fascinating. Now I know where you are coming from....
Off to work, so I will see your reply later.
California Tom........................no need to debate your silly post, your name says it all!! Liberals.................
Ron,
The trouble with the budget devised by Paul Ryan isn’t just its almost inconceivably cruel priorities, the way it slashes taxes for corporations and the rich while drastically cutting food and medical aid to the needy. Even aside from all that, the Ryan budget purports to reduce the deficit but the alleged deficit reduction depends on the completely unsupported assertion that trillions of dollars in revenue can be found by closing tax loopholes.
In the 100 page explanation of his budget what specific loopholes has Paul Ryan said he would close – none, not one? He has ruled out any move to close the major loophole that benefits the rich.
You are correct NS - it's 48.5% of households that receive government benefits. And that does not include anyone working for a government agency.
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/10/05/nearly-half-of-households-receive-some-government-benefit/
Just who is going to pay for all this?
Dennis/Jody,
I have always thought of the Today Show as being pretty well balanced. I also enjoy the camaraderie amongst their hosts.
Having said that, adding a polorizing person like Palin to the mix is a disaster in the making.
Viewers are likely to tune in tomorrow to watch the train wreck, anything beyond that would be ratings suicide!
Ms. Palin has a captive audience @ Fox - she would be wise not to wonder out of her comfort zone...
Is that so? Too bad you don't point out that the Medicare trustees have reported that Medicare as we know it will be insolvent in 10 years. Too bad you don't point out that Medicare was designed in an era where folks didn't live as long as we do today and where medical technology was less pervasive (and less expensive) than it is today. Too bad you don't point out that 80 million baby boomers are now just beginning to add further strains to this already unsustainable system.
Yes indeed, too bad you don't point out that this massive demographic increase in our Medicare population coupled with rising medical costs are leading inexorably to the financial collapse of Medicare. No, that would be way too honest for disingenuous folks like you, Ron. Much better for you and your leftist buds to play on the fears of folks who say "don't touch my Medicare." That's your hatchet to chop up Republicans, no matter to you that it does nothing to address this inconvenient but incontroverable truth: Medicare as we know it is already dead..
Anyone that contributed to SS / Medicare and is now receiving it paid for the benefits themselves.
Let's see if you can guess which famous economist wrote this in 1996?
The passage below is contained in a economics textbook, Macroeconomics, he penned with Robin Wells, his wife.
So basically he thinks that SS is a Ponzi scheme and that extending unemployment benefits reduces a workers incentive find a job.
Oh you RWNT Paul Krugman. LOL
Another GOP circular firing squad tomorrow, this time in Wisconsin.
Ready.....
Aim.......
God bless 'em everyone. I just wish they were better shots.
When will CBS's Scott Pelley (sp?) make the move to FOX? I made the mistake of watching the first segment on 60 Minutes last night. It was a rehash of a story they did on the decline in the US Space Program and a not very subtle hatchet job on the President.
C'mon Scott, move to FOX where you belong.
Well, kiddies, here's what one party government does for you. Here in Oklahoma both houses of the State Legislature, the Governor and Lt. Governor and EVERY statewide elected office is held by a Republican.
Their latest target is our pitifully underfunded and unappreciated Oklahoma Education Television Authority. Public Television. Under our laws the legislature has to pass a resolution every session authorizing the continuance of OETA for it to exist. It's routine. It's done early and quickly without fuss or much debate.
But not this session. Nope, the legislature has yet to address the continued existence of educational television in Oklahoma and the rumor is they are not going to renew it's charter.
That may seem small compared to the larger problems facing our state and our nation. But it's just an indication of things to come.
This is what one party government means. Totalitarianism. Ignorance. Intolerance. The backward slide into the 19th Century and all it's deregulated horrors. Horrors that a Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, fought to overcome.
What has happened to this country?
What has happened to the Republican party?
Two words: Rush Limbaugh.
Unless we reclaim the public airwaves and put an end to the nonstop propaganda, lies and disinformation being broadcast on the radio and television, we are doomed.
Pity poor Oklahoma, we are the canary in the coalmine. That canary gasping it's last and your state could be next.
See ya in Costa Rica.
Obama/Biden 2012
JoeInAlbany - seriously, name calling, pun names, etc. How old are you? I grew out of that in about the 5th grade. You have a drastically different viewpoint than mine, but I concede you occasionally have a point. Leave this childish name calling out and you may even change people's minds.
From February, 2009, to date, this country is net negative over 600,000 manufacturing jobs.
Altogether, we are still net negative about three million jobs.
The federal debt is up by almost six trillion dollars.
Billions of taxpayer borrowed dollars found their way into the pockets of Obama donors- they got the cash, we got the bills.
Gas, and inflation, are up.
Biden claims he and Obama are "in touch" with the middle class. I suppose he's right. As far as that goes.
After all, when you repeatedly punch somebody in the nose, there is no question that you are, in fact, "in touch" with that person.
Biden further questions Romney's foreign policy credentials. Well, beside the fact that that is an old trope trotted out every four years, let's look at Obama's record, shall we?
He insisted that START be ratified, and told those who raised concerns about its effect on our missile defense system that they had no idea what they were talking about.
He lied about that, by his own, uninteneded, admission, last week. If the treaty had no impact on our missile defense system, what the heck is there to be "flexible" about?
Speaking of flexibility, what ELSE is he planning to ram down our throats? I haven't heard anything to clue me in to anything but more of the same. Does that mean ANOTHER four years of budgets that go down without a single vote in their favor?
North Korea was so overjoyed at Obama's presence in their vicinity that they fired off a rocket. It was somewhat bigger than a Roman Candle, just the sort of thing they are not supposed to be developing. When, exactly, was the last time Obama addressed the issue of the North Korean nuclear program? Does he think if he ignores it, it will go away?
Last week, Obama, finally, put in place sanctions that will hurt Iranian banks. I guess when all else fails, do what you should have done already. Too bad he did not support the protesters when he had the chance.
Speaking of protesters, how about those Egyptians! The Muslim Brotherhood has taken off the mask, and plans to run a candidate- and the government. Gallup shows that, funny thing, the Egyptian people no longer like the USA. I thought the whole wide world worshipped at the feet of the ONE. What do you suppose happened there to change their minds?
Here's my deal, Biden: I'm pretty sure that a businessman who is used to negotiating can do a better job that a guy who walks into a room and just expects everyone to swoon in his presence. We've seen how the Obama tactic works- it doesn't- so, it's time to try a different tactic.
Obama shelved in 2012.
Rewind. John Kerry was painted as an elitist dick by The Rove Machine. Now, here's Romney that embodies every single trait that has this country in deep s$%t.
Not true. Current contributions pay for current retirees. It is a generational transfer of money.
Sounds like you are advocating for individual accounts where the money you contribute is saved, for you, until you retire. Of course if you think the ACA is constitutional you will happily accept a mandate from the government requiring that you open a 401(k) account with a private company.
See post #1.28. It appears that money is nearly gone. Wonder where it went? See post #1.35.
It looks like the corporate media are going to let the Republicans get away with another Big Lie: the doctored audio of the US Solicitor General Verrilli before the Supreme Court. He paused for a few seconds and took a a sip of water. The RNC's bogus ad ran the same clip twice to make it appear the guy was sitting there nervously gulping down water, and stretched out the brief pause to 20 seconds. Bloomberg News exposed the scandal, but the rest of the media are totally indifferent. There was nothing about it on either the ABC or NBC talking head shows Sunday. Things are going to go very badly for this country if politicians are allowed to get away with lies as outrageous as dictators in Third World countries tell to their people in order to remain in power.
Damn! My favorite Muslim Santorum almost beat Muslim Romney for the nomination. There is still hope! And thanks to MSNB's totally bulls**t picture of candidates they don't like (in this case, Romney, above) maybe those Communist Democrats can hope vote up Muslim Santorum!
Of course, those little Democratic Communists are going to be in for quite a surprise if Muslim Santorum wins the nomination, and then wins an election. Because those Chinese Democrats still can't get it through their thick skulls that they didn't come up with financial reform as their first agenda when Obama was in office. No, somehow it turned into healthcare.
Now, don't get me wrong. Communist healthcare is important, and certainly beats praying to Allah and getting your limbs cut off, BUT, my extremist Muslim Romney would set things right financially by firing a whole bunch of people and not paying taxes, and my main man Muslim Santorum would set it right by just having a whole lot of babies killed right after they were born.
So this election is shaping up to be quite the show. Vote up Muslim Santorum! He needs your vote! Remember, show up in your Burqua! (and Dems voting in the primaries, please be kind enough to identify yourselves by making your burquas blue, or pink. Red is no longer the color of commies. Red is reserved for the Muslim Republicans)
Derek,
You are the best! LOL! Shalom!
Dumb FUX -- The TODAY show well-balanced? They have been a proponent of the left's views for many years and came to the fore in 2008. Then they tried to get this latest effort through as news. Today is falsely sensationalizing a story on a "white hispanic" to help cover for our "black white" President's foray into places he should avoid.
Today aired a portion of the 911 clip, where Zimmerman says: "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black."
However, the full call actually has Zimmerman stating: "This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about."
The 911 operator replies: "Okay. And this guy, is he white, black or Hispanic?", to which Zimmerman responds: "He looks black."
Feisty
Where did you ever get the idea that the Today show was balanced. Please tell who the conservative is on that program. As as far as Palin on the Today show, it's called marketing. Biden says that Romney is out of touch with the middle class, well, Biden is out of touch period and I'm afraid you are right behind him.
BTW I still love your logo, it reminds me of Fox News, Fair and Balanced.
Too bad Bill in Fairfax forgets to point out why Medicare is becoming insolvent. Congress refused to raise the tax that pays for it! Healthcare costs have increased exponentially while the tax to pay for care remained unchanged for decades. DUH! Doesn't take a genius to figure that out Mr. Inexorable Bill of Fairfax.
Indeed. But you were making it sound like they were deadbeats. They aren't.
They're merely using benefits they paid for.
Think Bloomberg will get on the case of NBC doctoring the 911 audio in the Trayvon Martin case?
So is Al Sharpton now running NBC?
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/nbc-to-do-internal-investigation-on-zimmerman-segment/2012/03/31/gIQAc4HhnS_blog.html?hpid=z6
Headline should read And we're off.........our rocker
Great post Ron. With Romney being linked to this bad Ryan plan, that the majority of the people hate, should help the Democrats in the fall.
The Today Show must have hired Sarah Palin because Bozo the Clown was unavailable.
Deadbeats? Not a chance. People paid into SS/Medicare at a rate of 15% of their pay (for those self employed) and won't they be unhappy when the money runs out when it's their turn to use those benefits.
I'm off work tomorrow. So, I'll definitely be watching just for the comedy. I may start drinking early and do a shot every time Sarah puts her foot in her mouth.........no wait, I don't want to die from alcohol poisoning!!!
LMAO at the Today Show!!!
Wow, the Narwhal crowd is playing down and dirty this morning. Biden is really losing it. Out of touch with the middle class? That's what he say Romney is? I don't see story after story about Romney's kids and wife + kids jetting all over the world on vacations on the tax payers dime. Don't try to claim Obama pays for their vacations. The 25 secret service body guards on Malia's Mexico trip alone cost a fortune, then the wife and kids to Vegas? That's a great place to take young impressionable girls. The one time I was there I was shocked by the hooker ads and cards on the street corners. But hey, Michelle knows best. Then this poor diminshed old man says Romney is not up on Foreign Affairs? Pleaseeeeee, I guess that means he hasn't set up the right back door deals like Obama has. Give it a rest all of you. The same BS over and over and over is not going to save you fearless leader. It's all over in November when the fat lady will sing free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last!
JoAnnaSmith1:
You know when JoAnna is cornered. She always starts yelling "Look at that shiny object over there!!!!"
I don't get it. Why are 'conservatives' given a free ride? Why is the Paul Ryan 'fix' for Medicare allowed to be called some sort of 'voucher plan'? Sounds so innocent, doesn't it? Nice Republican double-speak.
The Ryan 'voucher plan' is REALLY a mandate to purchase health insurance from the private sector. The Ryan 'fix' REQUIRES people to purchase health insurance to simply receive a benefit - or - be penalized by not receiving a benefit. Ryan is attempting to 'fix' Medicare using the same Republican approach adopted for the Affordable Care Act. The big difference is that the government already has your Medicare money - you have already paid for the benefit. The Republicans simply want to keep the money and not provide the benefit.
Don't let the Right Wing Nut Jobs try to convince you that their mandate to purchase health insurance is any different than the mandate under Obamacare.
I guess you really are fuzzy44, its Sarah Palin on the today show not Joe Biden.
I'm with you all the way on that, Feisty. I'll go even further and say that any respect I had for the Today Show is totally gone.
I sent an email urging the show's hosts to resign in protest.
Why on Earth would they want to give a platform to that useless, self-promoting has-been Palin, who can't walk and chew gum at the same time? Talk about throwing journalistic integrity out the window, this has got to be an all-time low.
I hope their ratings go through the floor. With so many talented young journalists unable to find positions, why would they promote that anti-American bimbo harridan who has never in her life said anything worth listening to? Why? I can't even stomach the sound of her voice, let alone the lunacy that comes out of her mouth.
It's a sad day for an American institution when they sink to pandering to tabloid hacks. Palin is a walking joke.
USA -
Who cares what you think.
NOrm L
I see the Narwhal data influence here. The dems have been claiming the whole mandate was the Republicans idea ever since SCOTUS took them to task. What won't they stoop to in order to blame someone else. Nice try but we all know:
Democrats controlled buth the House and the Senate. Pelose and Reed fought furiously along side Obama to pass this mess of a Socialist power grab when they should have been concentrating on the economic disaster happening. Instead they spent the year throwing money at their campaign contributors and demanding that the American people let them take over the health care system. Did you forget Pelosi's famous quote: "We have to pass the bill to see what is in it." Now she is claiming they "knew what they were doing" when they passed it and that they had "made sure" it was constitutional. Pleassseeee, only your most educated supporters are buying any of this crap. And the latest disgrace is the President weighing in on the Martin/Zimmerman deal just like he did for his old black professor. The President of the United States should be above race baiting for votes. We might as well have elected Jessie Jackson.
Houston -- That ad is pure garbage. Sickening to think those vultures would use an argument still before the highest court in this land for a political ad. OUTRAGEOUS. VILE. DECEPTIVE. DESPICABLE. CONTEMPTUOUS.
All this stupid law does is empower psychos and bullies. It gives you a right to stalk someone, get your a$$ kicked, shoot someone and then cry the victim.
Whether Trayvon Martin did kick Zimmerman's a$$ or not is not the issue and I am not sure why anyone makes it to be. The issue is some loser being able to have a gun (even after being arrested prior to this "incident" aka murder), and being able to play the cops, the prosecutor, the juror, and the executor all in one package. And this stupid law says it's ok.
Florida's law protects the agressors and has no respect for the innocent. It alows a moron like Zimmerman to pick his victim and then shoot him for no apparent reason. Jeb Bush should crawl in his little hole and stay there - same hole his big brother has been hiding in.
The Today Show "balanced"!!!!!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!
Feisty Dumbfux just keeps rattling off the hilarious comedy, doesn't she?
Thats right up there with Sandra Fluke is the NEW Rosa Parks! LOL
Keep em' comin' Feisty!!!! Hahahahahahahahaha!!! Oh! my sides are hurting again!!!
MSNBC's bold line: Dems go up against Ryan's Budget. Really? Failed to say they just shot down Obama's budget that he can't even do right enough to get his cronies to pass. They are just pissed that Ryan comes up with a budget that tries to fix things instead of grabbing more power, spending more money and running us even deeper in debt. Yeah, that a real shame isn't it.
How dare he do the job of a budget that the President and his loons haven't been able to do in three years, even when they were in control of the whole two thirds of the government. Of course in their rush for power they forgot there is a third branch to the government established for the sole purpose of keeping wanna be dictatorships from taking over. It's kind of like the very expensive law suits Holder and co. are running on our dime against the states that want to do the job Obama refuses to do. To top it all off instead of taking care of the interests and welfare of the Amercian citizens he and Holder are spending our tax dollars to keep our laws from being enforced and to fight for an unconsittutional power grab. what a joke except it ain't funny when we are broke and they are doing it with our money.
JoannaSmith1,
Too bad for these people that Bush2 finished of Social Security. He left bunch of worthless IOUs and spent the money on who knows what. Now the Republicans call Social Security an entitlement because those who payed into it their whole lives should have known better.
It's nice to have the luxury of spending someone's money and then calling them a deadbeat for wanting it back when they retire. Now it's everyone else's problem to fix it -especially Obama's but that's his fault because we are not allowed to mention Bush.
Thanks for the link, Backhouse. I'm relieved I don't live in a 'stand your ground' state, but the way things are going it could be on the near horizon everywhere.
Too many Americans have been brainwashed by conservatives into thinking the bogeyman is hiding behind every bush, and duped by the NRA into stockpiling an arsenal to defend themselves from imaginary threats.
Can they not see how they are owned by the NRA? That's freedom?
That's my idea of slavery. It doesn't matter what race we are.
bayllie
ANy of those found not to be self defense? And how is the crime rate in that time? Going up or down?
I am really amazed at the lengths you Libs here will go to shut down free speech. If you don't agree, it seems, that the people's opinion should not have a forum.
At least this time you seem to have it right. If you don't like it change the channel and by all means send an e-mail. That'll scare 'em.
Now, when can we start seeing those SPAM lists of Today show sponsor's to boycott?
bayllie
Wow you sure come up with some real BS one liners. We all know, well those of us with an education, that the Democrats passsed the law allowing the government to take the money out of the Social Security fund and "borrow" it for other programs LOOOOOONGGGG before Bush ever came to the White house. Since then they have added many more gimmies in the program that were not there in the original program. Social security sure as heck was not set up to support people who were disabled because of drugs and/or alcohol. So stop the BS that the Narwahl room says to tell people Bush did everything but shoot Lincoln.
I have to admit, when I read that Palin was guest hosting The Today Show, I thought it was an April Fool's Day bit.
THEN I find out that Katie Couric is guest hosting GMA. NBC puts up Palin to compete?
The whole world has just gone nuts.
I guess the ratings are pretty bad- Obama cheer leading must not be a great business model.
I wonder what happens if Today wins the Nielsen race. Do they make Palin.a permanent fixture?
The mind boggles. . .
This from the guy that just came up with the notion that RNC/DNC ads kind of might be slightly slanted.
Yeah Houston, lets see another ad with a Paul Ryan look alike pushing grandma over the cliff.
@Shaking my head-2479300 -- Richard Nixon supported an insurance mandate. Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich supported an insurance mandate and tried to spin it as 'personal responsibility'. Paul Ryan has proposed an insurance mandate as a 'fix' for Medicare and the RWNJ House overwhelmingly approved. Good to see that you oppose 'market based' government proposals - part of the Republican brand.
----------------------------
Separate issue - Why is a Left Wing Nut Job, like Keith Olbermann, any different than a Right Wing Nut Job. Olbermann and Limbaugh are cut from the same bolt of cloth. A cheap, empty suit is still just a cheap, empty suit.
Dont_carry_it_all
Yes, but the media doesn't dare call it that for fear of being accused of liberal bias. BTW: The audio of the 911 call in the Trayvon Martin case DOES appear to have been deceptively edited to misleadingly exaggerate the evidence of a racial motive in Zimmerman's shooting. And NBC is conducting an internal investigation.
So now that JoAnna claims there's some equivalence here, when is the Republican Party going to launch an internal investigation of who doctored the audio of the Supreme Court hearings in the their political ad? And why isn't the media running articles about the scandal?
The Romney/Ryan budget = Pink Slime Economics
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/opinion/krugman-pink-slime-economics.html?_r=1
Poor WCA: he still doesn't get how the free market works. Which is sad, since he claims to support it.
Let me make this simple for you:
Today Show is certainly entitled to have a mental midget like Palin as guest host. We are equally free to let them know how we feel about it.
The Today Show does not own the airwaves, the public does.
Got it?
No Joe,
[I wonder what happens if Today wins the Nielsen race. Do they make Palin.a permanent fixture?]
Perhaps they are considering her as a replacement for
Matt when his contract is up in a few short months.
I think FOX is a better fit for her but whatever it takes
to keep her out of any public office ever again.
I'm amazed- shaking my head- doesn't get a headache from all the noise from the loose marbles colliding. White Collar-I want conservatives to have free speech as long as money doesn't equal speech (another snappy 5-4 decision by the Supremes) and as long as Rush can fit that foot in his pie hole.
Gov. Scott Walker must go-not because he is the worst because he is the first.
To show how awful the Ryan "Pathway to Prosperity" is, religious leaders have released statements calling it an "immoral disaster"; a Catholic bishop in Ryan's district called it a "cruel budget plan". Considering the GOP sells itself as having the higher moral ground, are the strong family values crowd, the ones who value life, it seems they really have no moral human ground, family values applies only to their own families while willingly disregarding the poor and hungry as irrelevant and they value "life" until a person is born. When religious leaders find the direction of the GOP, the heartlessness disturbing, it says something more powerfully than anything a democrat can argue.
JoAnnaSmith1
Um, that ad was supposed to be humorous. It wasn't purported to be a video of Ryan actually pushing someone's granny over a cliff. I think most people who saw it understood that. Most people who heard the bogus RNC ad didn't understand that the solicitor general wasn't hemming and hawing and gulping water for 20 seconds because the ad was intended to mislead. The Republican strategy for regaining the White House is based on the hope that the American public will swallow Republican lies. If voters aren't as gullible as Republicans hope, they will lose.
Sharpton heading up the investigation? Maybe with help from Eddy?
You're really upset up this Virilli total meltdown in front of the Supreme Court. The man was positively wretched in his presentation. That's all anyone has to do is play his incoherent "arguments" to the court, and the liberal justices prompting him when he got totally lost and confused, to show the man was not even prepared to answer even the most basic questions.
So keep your witch hunt going Houston. More focus and attention on Virilli's awful performance can only "help" your cause.
Donald Trump on the Paul Ryan budget: Republican shave a plan, but it’s not a choice that the Republicans are going to win. People are going to take the choice that’s best for them even if it’s not best for the country. I think it’s a very dangerous plan for Mitt Romney. He’s going to be saddled with a plan that’s very tough to live with.
Shaking my head-2479300
No, only an idiot like Zimmerman would run around with a gun starting trouble and then play the victim. I guess you are ok with someone shooting you for no reason and then saying you started it.
I don't give a crap about the crime rate in this case. Apparently, if you follow the logic of this flawed law, murdering anyone and getting away with it by claiming self defense lowers the arrest rate because the person is dead. That dead person cannot be arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced. So yes, that WOULD make the crime rate go down but who gives a crap about the fact that we still live in a country that is supposed respect the Constitution - no, in your La La land you want someone like Zimmerman to be the Constitution.
Again, other than the fact that Martin happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time, what gave Zimmerman the right to HARASS ANYONE?
If the judge didn't change this psycho's felony to a misdemeanor when he assaulted a police officer in 2005, this idiot would not have had a gun (or at least legally).
CR-RESISTING OFFICER WITH VIOLENCE
BATTERY ON LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
2005-MM-010436-A-O
ZIMMERMAN, GEORGE MICHAEL
10/05/1983
This is the person YOU are excusing followed the kid AFTER the police told him not to. This kid (someone's son) cried for help before he was shot like a dog. Yet, Zimmerman had no problem lying that it was him crying for help which we now know (but are not surprised) that Zimmerman was full of $hit.
Keep excusing this low life until one like him gets someone you know or is related to you.
People are still debating fictitious scenarios and fake 'evidence' for the Zimmerman - Martin issue?
Here is the REAL question - Why can a drunk driver be charged with second degree murder while a shooter is not even held for questioning?
RWNJ demonize the 'morning after pill' but lionize 'stand your ground'? Let's compromise - how about if abortions are done with guns? Would that be acceptable to a 'true conservative'?
Sure, pushing grandma over the cliff is real funny stuff. A real knee slapper.
And you have the gall to talk about "moral equivalency".
Shaking my Head,
Stop shaking your head and you won't be so dizzy.
WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT ZIMMERMAN ON THE ELECTION THREADS?
Freakin' unbelievable. Read the Koran. He's innocent if he killed someone if he was Muslim and they weren't. If they were both Muslim, see your tribal elder. And if both were infidels, it doesn't matter.
Get some perspective, Muslim Republicans!
Oh, sorry, forgot to include the Commies. In which case, Zimmerman will probably be executed for just drawing attention to this whole mess. Its easier that way. Unless he has friends in high places. Then its a pass.
You people making mountains out of molehills!
bayllie. it is not supposed to aid the agressor, it is to allow citizens to defend themselves against an agressor. so far no one knows for sure who was the agressor in this case. except the lefties and sharpton who seem to know. i dont know how they know, perhaps devine intervention. if in fact zimmerman was the agressor he will be found guilty. if not he wont. that is how our legal system works. it doesnt bow to the mobs rule. plus please stop showing these 2 people in old photos the bias is very visible.
JoAnnaSmith1
It must not have been much of a meltdown if the Republican Party had to doctor an audio to make it appear to falsely make it appear as such. But JoAnna, like most Republicans seems to believe that the truth doesn't matter; only what they can fool the public into believing is important.
BTW: JoAnna is squirming out of answering my question about when the RNC is going to investigate the doctoring of the Verrilli audio. She knows that they won't do it, and if they did investigate the incident, they'd give the fraudster responsible for it a medal and a bonus.
@Derek-381097 -- Republicans prefer to talk about ANYTHING besides their candidates for President. The RWNJ will not attack Biden - simply because the comparison to their own inevitable leader is too uncomfortable.
If all you got is nuthin' - then that is what the RWNJ will argue about ...
So Dennis do you agree with this statement? Do you agree that the Ryan plan would be good for the country? Do you agree that to pay off some of the 15T debt we're passing to our kids we may have to take less and think of others? Or, do you just keep demagoguing "Republicans want to end Medicare as we know it". The ACA will end Medicare as we know it. Demographics will end Medicare as we know it. And the countries that lend us money will end Medicare as we know it.
Still waiting for the Democratic plan that will Keep Medicare as we know it, because "Taxing the rich like me a little more" (Barack Obama) ain't going to cut it.
This is what the GOP is missing right now, an alternative solution. They hate the stimulis, but haven't put forth what they would have done to get the economy moving if it were to collapse again. They hate the auto bailout, but haven't answered what would have happened given the lack of private funds available. They hate Obamacare, but haven't said how they would fix the industry. They hate "illegals" but haven't outlined a plan for fixing immigration. We haven't heard jack about Afghanistan or China. We haven't heard jack about Wall St, except that they hate Dodd-Frank.
We get it, guys, we know what you don't like, now can we hear what you do like? I mean, other than more tax cuts, war, and de-regulation. Those have kind of been done to death, you know.
What does the GOP have to offer me, a young female???
JoAnnaSmith1
Whether or not it was funny, everyone who saw the ad knew it wasn't intended to be taken seriously. The fraudulent ad with the doctored Verrilli audio was intended to be taken as a recording of what actually transpired in the Supreme Court. There IS no equivalency between what may have been a bad joke in a Democratic ad and the outright fraud in the Republican ad purporting to show Verrilli acting in a way he did not act.
Derek-381097
Simple: JoAnnaSmith desperately needed a diversion.
yeShaking my head-2479300
yes, and let's concentrate on the fact that the last 3 out of 4 presidents who robbed the Social Security were Republicans. The only president who was a Democrat left the country with the smallest debt, balanced budget, no wars, low LOW unemplyment, and a smaller government.
So sorry if I don't have the same good things to say about the Republicans who left the country with high unemplyment, wars, large government, large debt, and large deficits. One of them, even managed to leave with a financial meltdown going on.
the trust fund would today hold approximately $1.5 trillion - the amount looted during the past 10 years. Despite his promises not to, President Bush had raided the trust fund since he took office.
Bush had used the money to pay for tax cuts, the war in Iraq, and many other programs.
So even if the Democrats passed the the law allowing the President to spend the SS money, it is the president who decided how to spend it. So take your big education, and shove it because you must be learning from the TX textbooks, and TX education (which is lower than low).
Alan,
Actually Alan I do not because the Ryan plan calls for closing enough loopholes to yield an extra $700 billion in revenue every year. There are not enough loopholes to generate that much income with his proposed tax rates. He also projects the unemployment rate to fall below 3% which our country has not scene in over 40 years.
His assumptions are so full of holes to consider his budget to be fraudulent.
Hey, I know that I've been giving the Repubican Party of Muslims some grief, but let's not be too hasty to forget its the Chinese Communist Dems who decided to spend their first two years fixing health care instead of passing any laws that matter to prevent the banking meltdown from happening again. Its an agenda only Mao could love.
@Sarah: The answer to your question is a pair of slippers and a nice life indoors unless you leave with your father or husband, and with your body covered in a pretty blanket.
Romney will NEVER win the argument that he is more in touch with the middle class than Obama. If this is his new campaign speech, then he might as well get back to planning his next mansion and car elevators, because he will have alot of time on his hands after November.
....and btw, Zimmerman identified HIMSELF as White in the police report when asked his ethncity, NOT Hispanic, NOT White Hispanic, but WHITE. It's in the police report and can be verified. He considers himself white. So, no the "media" is not making this a "white" issue. In fact the media has provided more accurate depiction by clarifying that he is White Hispanic. So for those who in their ignorance & bias are pointing fingers at the media, The Martins, black community, etc... need to educate themselves and point the finger at Zimmerman himself. His disdain for blacks is obvious. He clearly aligns with his father's influence, sees and indentifies himself as white and was raised as such. His own words. It's in the report, black & white (pun intended). No need to make it up.
Will the results of the Wisconsin primaries finally allow the country to meet the REAL Mitt Romney?
Mr. Inevitable is going to need to actually explain what he would do as President. Must be a scary thought for the RWNJ. Maybe it is time for one, final Republican debate between Mitt Romney and Mitt Romney.
Just think - the Republicans are getting two candidates - in one person - for the price of ten.
It was a meltdown Houston. Virilli was a total mess. You can be sure that Virilli will be relieved of his duties at an appropriate time.
Now you keep after that "doctored" audio story. You'll get your "Detective Houston" badge in the mail any day now, just to make it official.
Derek,
Well, it would cut down on bad hair day stress.
JAS,
Again, since you hate Obamacare, are you for single payer? If not, how do you suggest we fix healthcare? Can you point us to a solution put forth by the GOP candidates?
mrwood3
apparently it does otherwise Zimmerman would have been arrested. He wasn't because the police couldn't, didn't ant to or just didn't care. Why was he sent home with the gun that was involved in the shooting? He was automatically labeled as the victim. Why wasn't Zimmerman's background checked by Martin's was.
Again, the police told this loser not to pursue Martin. He disregarded that order. He became the aggressor at that point and guess what, he was protected by the law.
Dennis -- Nice post. And let's not fool ourselves. The Paul Ryan plan will find those cuts by eliminating loopholes for the poor and middle classes while ignoring the upper quintile.
I'm all for cleaning up the ENTIRE tax code by eliminating ALL loopholes and lowering the rates to an average effective rate keeping rates progressive. That will be an EPIC battle as the upper quintile OWN our legislators.
@Paris: As a white hispanic, your logic is more flawed than a Muslim Republican or Commie Democrat.
So, if a person's skin is white, and they say they are white, but one of their parents has a national heritage descending from Spain, they are only paying attention to one side of the family?
I'm not saying that's racist. But I am saying that is one ignorant call. I don't entirely blame you, though, and I do partially blame the idiot journalists who, to this day, can't get it throug their skull that Hispanic IS NOT A RACE. No its not. No its not.
No its not. Get it through the skull.
Why the idiot forms ask you if you are black, white, OR 'Hispanic' is because those forms were designed by STONE F**KING COLD IDIOTS who had a political agenda to follow. They wanted to come up with a racial name for someone who was part white, and part some indigenous culture that existed when Spain raided the Americas. Its just as racist to call Obama 'half black.' What is true is that he has a mixed parentage and frankly, I call him whatever he calls himself.
But you know, WE THE STUPID have to pigeon hole everything. At the forefront of the morons are the journalists who have to use a limited number of words to fill a story. And they perpetuate the stupid.
When people can separate their actual citizenship, from their national heritage, and then from their genetic lineage, while it may take more time, it will be a lot less dumb.
Now, back to your Muslim Republicans versus your Communist Democrats. Go!
Nerm_L
No, because even Mitt Romney does not know who Mitt Romney is
Sarah,
an aspirin between your knees
The election this year will focus on whether we can afford 4
more years of Obama.
Here are the Deficit figures for the last 5 Presidents - with a
link to the official government source to verify;
Reagan (1981-1988) = $1.339 Trillion over 8 years, or $167 Billion per year.
Bush 1 (1989-1992) = $933 Billion over 4 years, or $233 Billion per year.
Clinton (1993-2000) = $320 Billion over 8 years, or $40 Billion per year.
Bush 2 (2001-2008) = $2.006 Trillion over 8 years, or $251 Billion per year.
Obama (2009-2012p) = $5.333 Trillion (Proj) over first 4 years, or $1,333 Billion per year. That's $4.6 Trillion more than Bush spent in his first 4 years.
If Obama is reelected, he projects another $5 Trillion of Deficits in the next 4 years, or over $10 Trillion which our children and grandchildren will have as a 'millstone' around their necks for their entire lives. Running up huge debts is a great way to 'pander for votes', but somebody will have to pay it back (our children) - with interest.
Here's the official government link - See Table 1.3; http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals
PS – Let's also look at the 'JOBS' picture under Obama;
The total average number of people employed in 2008 (Bush's last year, including losses at the
end of 2008) = 136,790,000.
The total average number of people employed in 2011 (Obama's 3rd year) = 131,359,000 – that's a LOSS under Obama of 5,431,000 net jobs. Here's the Link to official Bureau of Labor Statistics site on
employment to verify - Compare jobs for 2011 vs 2008;
ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb1.txt
Where as Obama's statement that we can keep Medicare as it is if we "simply tax the rich, like me' a little more" is true?
And on assumptions, Steve Ratner (the Administration's point man on the Auto bailout), ridiculed the assumptions that there will be Medicare savings in the 1T range, because that is what is required if the ACA numbers are to work out.
So both sides do it.
Yeah, we are "off and running".
Mr. Obama has "discreetly" introduced "new procedures" allowing 1,000,000 Illegal Immigrants to remain in the United States, bypassing any Congressional procedure or conforming to existing Federal Imigration LAWS. This "new procedure" was supposed to be announced yesterday, but I suppose Mr. Obama is waiting for the "right opportunity" to release the information. Another "shadow government" procedure to garnish the "mainly" Latino vote during the Presiental election when Mr. Obama FAILED on his promise for "comprehenvise Illegal Immigrant Reform (Amnesty)" during the LAST ELECTION. SICK.
Strange, that MSNDC has failed to report this story.
Your question is unclear. Do you want to know about access? Universal coverage? Cost? Quality of health care? Seeing you don't specify, here's a general view of it:
Return healthcare responsibilities to the states where health care can be tailored best for each state, and it is not a one-solution fits all centralized solution like ObamaCare. Allowing individuals to buy insurance across state lines. Make health insurance a market driven entity where consumers can shop for the least expensive medical services, and create competition among healthcare providers.
A government mandated, medically unnecessary, transvaginal ultrasound.
This game is fun, what else, what else???
U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli played the SCOTUS argument perfectly. If the SCOTUS strikes down the 'market based' mandate in the ACA - the entire Republican 'market based' legislative agenda is ruled unconstitutional.
Health care reform is no longer an option - it is a necessity. Health care consumes the most money in our economy with expenditures at 17 pct of GDP. By comparison, national expenditures for oil is at 8 pct of GDP. Health care is no longer sustainable - almost half of our economy will be based on health care.
Market based reforms - like Obamacare - is not going to prevent the costs of health care from overwhelming our economy. Obamacare is actually the only real obstacle to attempting to control the costs of health care.
A SCOTUS ruling that Obamacare is unconstitutional will not only remove an obstacle to enacting true reforms - it would also eliminate the 'market based', 'personal responsibility' reforms that the Republicans have been touting for decades. 'Market based' government may finally be dead ...
ROY WILSON-336103
aren't you tired of copying and pasting your worthless crap everywhere?
Bush 2 (2001-2008) = $2.006 Trillion over 8 years, or $251 Billion per year.
Obama (2009-2012p) = $5.333 Trillion (Proj) over first 4 years, or $1,333 Billion per year. That's $4.6 Trillion more than Bush spent in his first 4 years.
ldo,
It is interesting how close that plan is to what Rubio has published. So you believe that the Rubio plan is wrong for our country?
The problem I see for both plans is that they both create a "second class" group of people with little, if any, allegiance to the US.
JAS,
How will this be funded? What will the coverage look like? How will you handle the logistics of a resident of one state seeking or needing care in a different state? Will you keep it on a fee for service system?
Sounds great. What about coverage for pre-existing conditions? What about those who can't afford it? What about the industry's anti-trust exemptions? How do you propose to create competition with those in place, and with money in politics, how do you propose we repeal that?
You answered with a solution, not with a plan to reach that solution. You can't just say, "I'll produce world peace" it's about HOW.
Reducing the deficit so your kids are off the hook to pay for your "free" contraceptives.
And maybe an energy policy that depends on oil and not on wind.
Come November women as well as men will look at how much more they are spending for gas, food, clothing, and shelter. They'll look at their jobs, if they have one, and wonder when it will be eliminated. They'll look at their children and ask who is going to pay for the nations debt. And they'll ask themselves "Am I better off than I was four years ago?"
The only aspirin they'll be thinking about is the one they'll need to take for the headache of having Obama around for four years.
Sarah, there is nothing that I can say that will make you happy. Plans begin with policies, and that is what I gave you. A plan for health care would take more than First Read has disk space for. What I've given you is more than Obama ever did in 2008. His only answer to health care was "And I'm going to fix health care!". Guess what, he didn't.
JAS,
Well that's not good, seeing as oil WILL run out and wind won't.
I would have no problem with my future children paying into preventative care, seeing as how they would also benefit from it. They SHOULD pay into it, but how does that pertain to lowering the deficit?
And than they'll ask, what is the GOP plan to make things better? What is it???
No it wouldn't, you just don't have one.
Mitch McConnell the heartless, spineless majority leader of the GOP has come out and said that the 3 losers in the GOP race need to bailout so the GOP can begin trying to get rid of the current President in the general election in November.
WTFF, isnt that what they have been doing since Obama took office with their obstructionist block voting of no on every issue except tax cuts for the rich?
So, you're finally admitting that Obama will be re-elected then? Thank you!
Rush won't be taking anything as mundane as aspirin for his headache. It's Oxy for him.
Show us a town run by wind power. Show us a corporate office run by wind power. Show us a steel mill run by wind power. Show us a sub-division run by wind power.
That's easy. The GOP will come up with little slogans like "Hope and Change" and "Yes We Can". That should convince people like you. It did in 2008.
Bet you're sorry you were not so inquisitive back in 2008.
But to be serious, there is going to have to be some serious tax reform done to fund this government. See Simpson/Bowles for details. Taxes will need to increase, but not just on the rich. Everyone is going to have to pay. In addition, for every new tax dollar, there needs to be $4 in cuts to the federal government spending. After that, the entitlements need to be reformed to be structured in away to preserve their long term viability.
To your credit, the GOP is not talking about any of this, but neither are the Democrats. It's political suicide to tell the truth that the country is broke and it can't meet it's obligations and promises. But without reform, this debt, and those entitlements are going to doom the country.
I was talking about the four years from 2009-2013.
You're welcome.
Communist Democrats: I give you a win when it comes to sex and babies. Because Muslim Republicans are only interested in taking care of kids until they are born. And that right there is the reason to use birth control. The only Muslim Republicans who get a pass on this are the ones who only had marital sex to have babies and when they were done got themselves spayed.
Muslim Republicans: I give you a win when it comes to finances. If you are going to steal money from the public, it is truthfully better to give it to your rich friends than flush it down the toilet in Greece. True, it may trickle down (oh did we mention to China, and not to other US citizens?) but does that really matter when there is no end to the zeroes you can plaster on your bank account? Ideally, if you are going to not spend money on anything but the military, it is true I would at least rather have it spent there. I would simply ask you to stop lying about using that military to make sure the price of oil remains cheap, and you should feel free since most Dems don't drive any less anyway.
Derek - my logic??? uhhh, Zimmerman identified himself in his police report. I was not there to advise or provide clarification to him or the police officer on his race/ethnicity selection! So you can take your name-calling, and lengthy diatribe to Zimmerman and Sanford police or anyone who will listen as intently as you do to yourself.
I am sure you make perfect sense to you, but your argument with me is misplaced.
However, because I am nice, for your easy reading, below is a summary on this topic a White Hispanic posted a couple of days ago which I reposted. Again, you can save your flowery compliments since I am just passing it along. As for me, this African/Irish/German/Native American is very comfortable in my own skin :)....Cheers!
@ROY WILSON-336103 -- You do realize that defense spending accounts for 35 pct of our current deficit?
The second largest contributor to our current deficit are medical costs - at 24 pct. Welfare type programs are third - at 17 pct of our current deficit. Social Security accounts for zero pct of our current deficit.
Those three budget expenditures account for 75 pct of the current deficit. Perhaps if the government's focus changed to controlling health care costs, creating job opportunities to move people from welfare, and placing greater emphasis on diplomacy instead of exerting military influence - maybe - would lower the deficit.
Hasn't someone in government leadership been proposing to address those three areas? Maybe it was Mitch McConnell - or - John Boehner - or - Eric Cantor - or was it Paul Ryan? Were they the ones calling for health care reform, jobs, and diplomacy? Maybe it has been Mitt Romney, on the campaign trail.
Certainly wouldn't want to admit that the President and Democrats have been focused on the REAL issues.
@Paris: All I'm saying is you and I agree on what someone calls themselves is what they are. But as far as the rest of it goes, you are justifying an ignorant point of view. However, as you have posts as long as mine, I see you recognize someone who likes to hear their own voice through projection.
Therefore, I will call you my Muslim Brother and say you are a rightful jihadist! Welcome, jihadist! It is good to see someone so ethically cleansed!
I agree with your assessment regarding name calling...
Perhaps you could forward your comment on to the hoards of Lefties (i.e. Feisty, Bev, Gingerbread... on and on and on) who are FOREVER doing the same... and with much NASTIER NAMES...
Derek, oh Lordie...well you are funny in a confusing kinda way! I think...
- from your Christian Sister! (ooops, did I just ruin the truce?)
Still projecting ...mic check, mic check, testing 1-2, testing 1-2, me-me-me-me-meeeeee; la-la-la-la-laaaaaa. self: Can you hear me now? ........
Here you go...
http://www.lakeshorewind.org/oceana-mason-wind-farm-faq/
http://www.wind-works.org/books/wind_power2004_home.html
Nice attempt at deflection, however the truth remains, as you said later in your post, THEY DON'T HAVE A PLAN. They cater to people like you, those who are so anxious to feel superior and exclusive that they buy the angry rhetoric, of "We hate (fill in the blank)" without asking what they like.
You're actually right about tax reform, they need to raise the capital gains rate and close the corporate loopholes and subsidies. That's where the money lays, and that's where people/entities aren't paying their fair share. And of course, you want to start cutting where we spend the most, right? That would be the DOD and war, so why isn't the GOP, if they're sooo concerned about spending, starting there?
Nerm_L "@ROY WILSON-336103 -- You do realize that defense spending accounts for 35 pct of our current deficit? "
I guess it depends on how you view things. Defense spending is mandated by the Constitution, while medical care is not. But let's take a look at Obama's new 2013 Budget projections (link below) over the next 10 years, and we find something quite interesting.
The projected Revenues for Medicare/Medicaid over the next 10 years are $2.823 Trillion.
The projected Costs for Medicare/Medicaid over the next 10 years are $11.134 Trillion.
That leaves a net Deficit in the Medicare/Medicaid programs of $8.311 Trillion, which is even greater than Obama's total projected Federal Deficits of $6.684 Trillion over the next 10 years. In other words, if we did not have a Deficit from health care, we would have a budget SURPLUS of more than $1.6 Trillion over the next 10 years.
It should be obvious that the REAL problem with Deficits is the massive Federal spending on medical care - something that Obama has totally ignored in his Budget Projections - but watch him demonize anybody that tries to address this huge problem - Paul Ryan.
Here's the link to Obama's projections - See Table S-5
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/tables.pdf
Now Sarah, we were having such a pleasant conversation, and now you get all b*tchy.
I've been saying the GOP is disappointing in their plans. The House GOP did have the guts to pass a budget that addressed many issues. What they got in return from the Democrats is criticism and scorn, all while the Democrats do not come up with any plans or budgets of there own. But the GOP must do more, much more, because it is clear Obama and the Democrats will not.
You say that like it's an insult???
The GOP plan is lopsided. It cuts from discretionary spending and doesn't significantly address revenue. From the Washington Post...
I'll give him points for being cute, however he gets more points for being santimonious.
@Paris: Yes, its probably my fault for overreacting. What happens is I just really, really loathe the media coverage and you're probably onto a sensitive area for me. So apologies for going over the top. Simply put, I just think it would be easier in life if, in general, the media and people in general stopped putting race and national heritage on the same line of a form and made you check boxes. I mean, if you are black and that is a name being used to refer to a race, should that really be in the same question as something that refers to a nationality? And you know, Latino as a term is exactly no more useful. Rhetorical question.
Now, back to the hyperbole. If pigeon-holing is acceptable to our society, then of course, I have decided to go the distance with it and I am now referring to all Republican as Muslim Republicans, because the extremist Republicans seem to have the exact same agenda as extremist Muslims. And of course I am referring to all Democrats as Chinese Communist Democrats for like reasons. It is only intended to insult those who find insult in it, and well if they do, its really their own fault. I may have miscategorized you, and according to my insanity, you may fall into the category of more Communist than Muslim. If I miscategorized you, I am sorry. But you know, these days, political discussion on First Read has gone into the crazy zone.
When on First Read, act like a First Reader, I say. Its looney toons the whole way down.
And the Democratic budgets Sarah? Any points for those?
WRONG!
That ad was nothing other than a SCARE TACTIC used by the democrats for the purpose of frightening seniors!
Nothing More! (Such a despicable tactic used by despicable creatures!)
JAS,
No, they don't get points either. Seeing as, as far as I know, they haven't addressed entitlement reform. Plus, the humdinger, which neither side has pointed out and which leads us to budget issues in the first place... MONEY IN POLITICS.
Ahh, Sarah, you are so funny!
@ROY WILSON-336103 -- If you know costs are increasing faster than CPI and revenues are rising slower than CPI - then a decline in available health care should not be very surprising. That is the situation with both the government and private sector health care benefits - costs are rising much faster than profits, revenue, or incomes.
The problem is the rapid rise in health care costs - not with providing health care benefits by either government or the private sector. A collapse of the health care industry would have the same effect on our economy as the collapse of the construction industry.
Your argument only shows that any attempt to control the cost of health care is the correct way to go. Simply reducing access or eliminating health care benefits will not avoid the inevitable - the health care industry is going to collapse unless steps are taken to correct the problem. A health care bubble will kill our economy just like the housing bubble killed the economy.
----------
As far as Constitutional requirements - the Constitution allows the creation of a military - it does not require it and certainly does not require excluding other government functions. The Constitution places as much emphasis on diplomacy as it does on maintaining a military. At this moment in time - the military is the largest contributor to the current deficit. 'Entitlements' are important problems but are also smaller problems.
Jack,
LOL, I learned a while ago that getting mad at the truth is counter productive. When someone says I'm "bi***y" all I really have a right to reply with is...
Touche.
A lot of Muslim Republicans would actually be willing to pay more in taxes if they had faith that the Chinese Communist Democrats would spend it in a reasonable way. The problem here is a lot of Muslim Republican Clerics running for head of the Theocracy of America are very much getting advantage out of making sure that the Chinese Democrats are cast in a terrible light. Certainly the Chinese Communist Democrats are not helping there cause due to putting forth their Communist agenda instead of doing things like making sure there is never a financial meltdown in this country again. This probably has a lot to do with that the Chinese Democrats are in bed with Goldman Sucks.
I'm picking out a Burqua in the meantime for JoAnneSmith1 and trying to decide between black and Muslim Republican red. Do not worry, Joanne, as the gift will be given to your father or husband, so it is clear nothing funny is going on.
For Sarah, its easy. The state dictates everyone wears grey slacks and shirt. The good news is you'll also be given receipts for birth control, should you wish them.
Is this taking the analogy too far?
It was all worth Sarah being on the Today show when Matt asked her if she started reading any newspapers....HA!!
Derek,
I look darn good in grey. Is it a slate, or more of a pastel shade??? And I prefer a flare leg cut for the slacks. Thx! :)
Obviously, your requests for change to the standard uniform will have to be submitted to The Committee. So as to make sure your alterations are not subversive.
Do you have a relative or someone who owes you a favor on it? It might make the process easier to pass.
The color, by the way, is called People's Revolution Grey. Pre-revolutionaries call it close to a sort of Seattle overcast never-stop-raining sky grey, but we've obviously changed the name based on the recommendation of the committee that picks the best names for everything.
Derek,
I believe the committee calls that "Depression Grey" which isn't my first choice, I'm more of a charcoal girl, but it will have to do. Le sigh.
Derek, we agree in many ways. It is looney tunes, sad but true. The whole race issue in America has been screwed from the beginning and will not be fixed anytime soon. I have learned to pick my battles and know when I've reached the "blue in the face" point of the discussion :). The extremes are Extreme. I find that I do not fit into the box of either party. However, one party certainly pushes me farther away than the other these days. There is nothing I read on here that will make me change my vote. I educate myself and make up my own mind in that regard. However I am interested in seeing how other people think and why they think that way. Entertaining in many ways, though some of the comments surprise me and boggle the mind, I pray that these people are in a very small minority. I don't take this forum too seriously and sleep very well at night. Call it an inner peace and positive hope in humanity, the American Spirit and a higher power that has it ALL in control!
nerm L
here is what Nixon wanted
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/September/03/nixon-proposal.aspx
The "mandate' was that businesses would be required to offer health insurance plans to their workers - not force them to.
The system was and still is a fail. When this was instituted, the alarm was how much health care was increasing and it wasn't increasing at near the rate it was after the plan was enacted. Since the ACA was instituted that rate of increase has increased.
The ACA violates every rule sought by Nixon and is more than a double down on regulation.
@Paris:
Blue? How come it isn't red?! Libbie!!! (I, of course, am totally kidding).
@Sarah: You know, and there I thought that everything was named 'Happy' or 'Sunshine' or 'Smiling' or 'People's' just because it led to better productivity for the masses. I agree you would look better in charcoal. Its a nicer color anyway. But please keep in mind that this is not about you, and that kind of individualism might lead to reduced worker capacity.
Derek,
Can I at least wear an "accent" shoe??? Maybe something in a "Conformity" gray?
I'm pretty sure Palm Springs in California is run totally on wind power. If not, then it's just semantics about all power from all sources goes to the grid and everyone pulls from the grid, etc... Anyway, there's a huge wind turbine farm (hundreds) just out of town that has to be producing more power than the entire city of Palm Springs consumes. They don't have any steel mills, though, but it seems to meet the rest of your challenges.
@DB Akron -- I am not defending ACA - simply because it does nothing to alter the 'for profit' nature of health care. 'Market based' government reforms simply will not work - because - they only provide another avenue for the private sector to suck more money out of government.
The critically important aspect of ACA is that health care reform is now on the political stage. ACA has shown that it is politically appropriate for the government to be directly involved in reforming health care. Health care reform is no longer an option - it is a necessity.
The opposition to Obamacare has done exactly what was expected. By attacking the funding portion of Obamacare - they have shown that any 'market based' reform (like the Ryan 'fix' for Medicare that mandates buying health insurance) is unconstitutional. The ability of the RWNJ to obstruct health care reform with 'market based' nonsense has been blocked - by the RWNJ.
Your quotation supporting Richard Nixon is about a 'market based' government solution, too. And it also required a mandate - the only way to receive a benefit was to purchase health insurance in the private sector.
I think there are lots of good things about Obamacare, like not precluding people with preexisting conditions, etc.
BUT the mandate, I don't entirely agree with. I understand what it's trying to solve, but I don't think mandating that people purchase health insurance is quite the answer to the problem.
Some people can't afford it - and while there will be some programs to help people, individuals under a certain income level will still not be required to buy it. So it doesn't really solve the issue of uninsured anyways, not entirely.
Plus, some people don't want insurance. Some people don't use it - my employer has been paying several hundred dollars a month for 8 years for my insurance, that I have used ONCE a year for my annual exam, with maybe a handful of other minor visits thrown in here and there over those 8 years. Now I'm pregnant, and will actually be using it to a larger degree for the first time ever (and still paying a large amount out of pocket). But adding my child will cost several hundred more dollars a month - out of my pocket.
I understand that I'm paying now for potential future costs. But that's like betting against myself - I'm paying in case I have some horrific accident or illness. By the time I'm old enough to have a higher likelihood of needing consistent medical care due to age, I will be on Medicare or the equivalent. So all the money I paid to my health insurer doesn't even pay for me down the road. They won't turn around and use that money to cover my bills, I won't be covered by them at that point.
And I'm also paying for other people who's insurance premiums don't cover their catastrophic illnesses - it all goes into an accident fund and gets paid out for whatever claims there are. So I'm not just paying for uninsured, I'm paying for other insured people's medical costs.
The saddest part about it is, the insurers make millions in profits every year. So I'm really NOT paying for other people's medical care - if all that money was needed for the sick and injured, there would be no profits, it would all be used. So I'm paying far more than I need in coverage, so that insurers can make money.
A lot of reform is needed, I agree. And I also believe that Obamacare was not entirely what Obama hoped or intended - because it was stonewalled in Congress until changes were made.
But insurance reform is at least an equal if not greater priority. The for-profit system has to stop. As long as this is the case, sick people don't really get the help they need. There is no profit in cures or fixing people, because there's no return business in that and profits suffer. Do we all really believe there's no cure for cancer, or other terrible ailments, because there's no cure, or because insurance companies, the healthcare system, and the pharmaceutical industry prefer to treat us rather than cure us?
The individual mandate is not the answer, although I respect its intentions and believe they are trying to get a foot in the door and make a first step on change. But it's not the answer.
For-profit medical care needs to go. Lobbying needs to go. Citizens United needs to go. Major changes must be made to the system at its core. And that's scary, because nobody in Washington seems to want to make those changes because they are all profiting from the status quo. Meanwhile the status quo keeps us sick, hurts us financially, keeps us out of jobs, wrecks our environment, and is destroying this country. All for profit.
JoAnnaSmith1
Then why did the Republicans have to doctor the audio as reported by Bloomberg News to make it appear much worse than it was? Oh, that's right. JoAnna doesn't have to respond to legitimate questions except with diversions and obfuscation.
And any day now you'll be getting your asbestos undies from Republican Headquarters to protect you next time your pants catch on fire.
Nerm_L
I think that when the Constitution said "To provide for the common defense", it meant that we actually PROVIDE the means of defense.
As for health care, I personally think this whole debate is nonsense. I think that Congress should set a 'minimum standard of care' and then just issue health care cards to every legal resident in America. At that point, we would have universal health care, and the debate would shift to how to PAY for it - something that Congress certainly has the authority to establish under their powers of taxation.
My personal view would be to set a tax on businesses that is approximately the same as they are currently paying (to be cost neutral from a business standpoint), and then have a National Sales Tax to cover the difference - my estimate is about 3% on all goods and services (excluding food and medicines). This would be far less expensive than the mishmash we now have, and everybody is covered with the same health care standard. That's the way it's done in every other significant industrialized country in the World.
By the way - While the 'standard of care' is set by the government, the administration should be done by private insurance companies to maintain competition - the government NEVER runs anything efficiently (please don't get me started on that).
Houston - I've come to the conclusion that JoAnnaSmith and no jo share the same 1/2 brain. And, it's atrophied to the point that neither of them can make sense!
@ROY WILSON-336103 -- I personally do not like sales taxes - but - that is viable funding mechanism with a track record. However, your proposal really does not address the increasing costs for health care delivery. I really do not care whether I have insurance or not - I only care about receiving health care when I need it. Insurance is only a payment mechanism - and - a 'for profit' mechanism at that.
'For profit' health care simply means the incentive is to increase profits - which leads to offering health care of dubious value or providing health care that is not really needed. It is far too easy to force unneeded products onto a captive market.
The fundamental question that is not being looked at - is health care a commodity? What role does health care play in our society and economy?
If health care is a commodity - then steps should be taken to break down the captive, monopolistic nature of the marketplace by developing alternatives to care delivery. Increasing competition is supposed to lower and control costs in the marketplace.
If health care is not a commodity - then health care should not be traded on the market as a commodity and the 'for profit' incentives should be removed. Removing the 'for profit' costs from the system would lower and control costs for the service that is provided.
As long as costs are allowed to increase unchecked - changing the payment mechanism will still allow the health care bubble to grow. It is inevitable that the health care bubble will pop at some point.
---------------
Keep in mind that Barney Fife provided 'defense', too. The Constitution only requires defense of the Constitution. The military is allowed by the Constitution but the level of defense, according to that document, is determined by the authority vested in Congress and the President. The Constitution does not dictate how much of our national economy is to be devoted to maintaining a military.
What an interesting thread...
To the opening post, it's amazing that Teapublicans opt for such unpopular policies like privatizing Medicare, and unwillingness to increase taxes on the rich--even via closure of loopholes (tax evasion) or corporate welfare (yes, we know subsidies apply to all manufacturing and not just Big Oil, and it should all end), or increase revenues even in a 10 to 1 ratio of cuts in spending to revenue, and women's rights in regard to contraception let alone abortion if the fetus is extremely deformed, and on and on.
There is a reason why the GOP/TP doubles-down with a repeat of the Paul Ryan Budget, or the Blunt-Rubio Amendment or "personhood" legislation, and this is it: ANARCHY. ALL of what the far-right is and has been doing at greater intensity is a reflection of their own internal chaos and insanity that they want to bring upon the rest of the nation.
The far-Right is trying to force deficit spending via "starve the beast" deprivation of revenue to create an excuse to cut all programs -- except defense spending and more breaks for the rich and corporations -- and to end labor rights, etc. And they are fast-tracking this anarchy with diabolical tools like A.L.E.C. And when they are done they hope to have their one-party plutocracy in place--using the religious Right to help get them there, but as always will diss these zealots once in power.
BTW, Derek you are on a roll today. I especially enjoyed your astute correlation between "stand your ground" and Islamic law that it's okay to kill infidels. However, it appears I need to pick up a copy of Mao's Red Book since I lean to the left.
Unfortunately, JoAnnaSmith, you have not told the full story. The $800 billion stimulus may have disproportionately went to unions, but economists all across the spectrum agree that it saved the economy. Note in any chart stating job losses/gains from 2008 to now goes negative after the recession hit in 2008, and then suddenly breaks even just a few months after the stimulus passed. Yes, it increased the debt, but I'd much rather borrow money for AMERICAN projects instead of stupid do-nothing tax cuts and pointless military adventures. As for the ACA, it is not considered unconstitutional, at least not yet, so don't act so confident. There is a huge debate across the spectrum on the bill's constitutionality, with some constitutional experts saying that it is legal and others opposing. And it allows many middle-class families to obtain health insurance by doing away with pre-conditions. And gas prices, as you know, are not in control of the president; they are controlled by the world market and by OPEC. The reason why gas is so high is three-fold: one, the economy is improving, demand is stronger than it was in the heart of the recession, and so oil companies feel more confident to raise prices; two, the sanctions that America and much of the West have exacted on Iran (something the GOP would toughen, which would spook the speculators because of a fear of war and blockade of the Strait of Hormuz); and three, demand from developing nations like India and China are skyrocketing thanks to economic expansion, driving demand up and prices along with it. If the president had a silver bullet to lower prices he would have, especially because of it being in an election. As for the SS trust fund, we all know how "fiscally adamant" the past Republican presidents have been with the fund, and that the payroll tax cut has HELPED the economy; economists warned of an economic slowdown if the cut was not extended. So unless you like the economy slowing down, you best keep your mouth shut. As for the 50% of people receiving a government check, there are other factors that have caused this, like unemployment, poverty, and the aging of America's population, not to mention an increase in government employees. That is not sustainable at current levels, but eventually those numbers will go down as the economy improves significantly. And if you wanted to sustain that, you should be out in the streets demanded tax increases on the wealthy. And 8% unemployment is much better than 10% at the peak of the recession. Unemployment is high in part because of Washington, where your damn Republicans wouldn't pass a deficit-neutral jobs package that would hire 2 million Americans, speed up growth, and send unemployment down even further, not to mention all the insufferable arguments on "class warfare," which we all know is a crock. If only you used the whole truth, my dear Joanna, and not just the facts most favorable to your side...
OBAMA BIDEN 2012
Backhouse
Two years after Florida enacted the first A.L.E.C. Stand Your Ground law in 2005, the number of "justifiable homicides" jumped to 100 - up from 34 prior to the law. All 23 states that have adopted Stand Your Ground laws have similar spikes.
Worst the NRA, Koch brothers, and ALEC want to extend the law to other states. These people hate AMERICA.
Steven Pearlstein: Eat your broccoli, Justice Scalia
By Steven Pearlstein, Published: March 31
Like most Washington policy wonks, I spent too much of last week reading transcripts of the Supreme Court arguments over the constitutionality of the new health reform law. This was to be a “teaching moment” for the country, an opportunity to see the best and the brightest engage in a reasoned debate on the limits of federal power. Instead, what we got too often was political posturing, Jesuitical hair-splitting and absurd hypotheticals.
My first thought on perusing the briefs filed in the combined cases was to notice what wasn’t there: any involvement on the part of Corporate America.
For the past 20 years, big business has complained endlessly about escalating health-care premiums, which they correctly blamed on “cost-shifting,” including paying indirectly for the free care provided to the workers at firms that did not provide health benefits. They wanted an end to fee-for-service medicine that rewarded doctors for providing more care than necessary. Some even talked of reforms that would begin to move the country away from an employer-based insurance system.
Yet despite the fact that “Obamacare” did all of those things and more, there was not a single brief in support of the law from an organization representing big business.
Small businesses have spent the past two decades complaining that the reason they don’t offer coverage is that it’s too expensive because they don’t get the large-group and community rating advantage. So how did the National Federation of Independent Businesses respond to a law that assured small businesses the benefits of large-group purchasing and community rating and threw in billions of dollars in subsidies to boot? It signed up as one of the named plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of the new law.
It’s hard to know what the business community will demand if the Supreme Court overturns the health-care law. At that point, however, it will hardly matter, since they will have lost all political credibility on the issue, particularly with the Obama White House and anyone who happens to be a Democrat.
That said, I don’t agree with the conventional wisdom that, in light of last week’s oral arguments, it’s a sure thing that the court will overturn the law or its individual mandate.
Judging from their blatantly partisan bleating from the bench, it is certain that Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito will join Clarence Thomas in doing whatever it takes to impose their conservative, free-market, nothing’s-changed-since-1788 agenda on the country.
An essential element of the Republican strategy these days is that, whenever confronted with an obvious failure of the free market, the correct response is always to try to turn the tables and blame it on misguided government policy. So it was this week when the solicitor general and several justices tried to make the obvious point that one reason so many Americans lack health insurance is that the market is inherently unlike any other in that we don’t deny medical care to sick people who can’t pay for it. It is from this anomaly that springs the “individual mandate,” a requirement that all citizens buy health insurance, to prevent them from becoming free-riders on a system paid for by others.
Rather than wrestling with this obvious anomaly, however, Scalia and Alito simply gave it the old Republican razzmatazz, blaming the government for creating the problem in the first place by obligating hospitals to treat the sick even if they are uninsured and cannot pay for the care. It was the kind of sophomoric logic you’d expect from high school debaters — or a Republican presidential candidate at a tea party rally — not from members of the highest court in the richest country on Earth.
Michael Carvin, the lawyer representing the NFIB, was clever enough to see that this was not going to be a winning constitutional argument. The proper constitutional solution to that dilemma, he explained, was not to shut the emergency room door on the uninsured, but simply require them to buy insurance when they show up seeking emergency care.
Ah, I get it! An insurance market in which nobody has to sign up for coverage until they’re ready to make a claim. Why didn’t Aetna and Kaiser think of that? And if it works for health insurance, why not extend it to fire, auto and flood insurance as well? Scalia and Alito, of course, wasted no time in taking up this brilliant idea.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/steven-pearlstein-eat-your-broccoli-justice-scalia/2012/03/30/gIQAyGkynS_story_1.html
__________________________________________________________
Big Business wanted this problem solved.
Small business promised they could treat their employees better if we would solve this problem.
So we solved the problem.
What happens? Turns out business didn’t want the problem solved after all. Or maybe it’s the fellow who’s doing the solving.
Obama Derangement Syndrome strikes deep.
Into your life it will creep.
And if you don’t watch it it will make you look like a fool.
Maybe Sarah Palin will create a bigger audience for the TODAY SHOW and thereby substantially increase the Network's revenue?...............go figure...........
IR -- My favorite paragraph in the piece!
Yea, by hiring someone that can relate to a demographic of low intelligence.
And still she seems to be a tad more wealthy than most people. If no one liked her you would think......they wouldn't support her or go to see her. Im not sure if its her you all dislike or the people who like her you dislike...... or both.
I will forever sign off the TODAY show if they bring Palin on. Enough said.
Both I guess. I have never seen Sarah Palin mutter a single intelligent sentence (Paul Revere anyone?). People who like her either find her 'sexy' (which I also don't see) or genuinely think she's a Godsend to women in politics. What those people don't realize is that Palin set women in politics back at least 50 years.
IR, terrific article and cheers for your analysis. It seems those who yelled the loudest for fixing the problem yelled the loudest against the solution. My assessment of republicans is they have all gone over to the dark side.
Don't Carry, that paragraph is disturbing on so many levels. Sophmoric justices and justices without a conscience, heart or soul.
Eric, ditto. If NBC hires Sarah Palin as a co-host for the Today Show, I will never watch it again.
Ruken, you said it about Palin.
Jody -- Agreed. Very disturbing.
I think Romney knows as much about foreign policy as Sarah Palin, and that is nothing. She and he know nothing.
@ Job1
Romney and Palin the next Regis and Kelly? Nah, maybe on Faux News
They could spin a globe and try to pick out the different countrys......... and then attempt to spell the names! LMAO
@Fuzzy44:
Michele Bachmann could be their "on-site correspondent". Because she'll be out of the job next year.
jollyoldsoul1 - I can tell you what a number of us don't like about Sarah Palin. As a woman I am insulted that she is held up as any example for young women or older ones to follow. She is an ignorant, arrogant, pompous fool who doesn't have the brains to get in out of the rain. But you right wingers have embraced her as something special. Well she is only special to the intellectual midgets that make up the far right. I don't give a damn about her money. If you fools want to pay her and listen to her garbage - you're the idiots who give her money - it's your stupidity!
Seeking Sanity,
The JOS would like nothing more then getting his 'jolly's' from having Bible Spice's head in his lap...
Typical 'horny' male Palin supporter...
IR:
That was a fabulous find. President Reagan's Solicitor General Charles Fried has noted the right-wing shills masquerading as impartial justices on the Supreme Court. Scalia has actually parroted right-wing talking points.
I urge First Thoughts readers to type this into a search block: "Reagan Solicitor General ACA".
When you read things like this, you realize how self-serving and shallow right-wing arguments are. The fact is, it's not that lefties are particularly elitist. The problem is that right-wingers are so obviously stupid.
Feisty - just looked back at the photo and the headline. Are they commenting on Romney specifically when they state "and we're off!" I'm pretty sure we all know he's "off."
Roy Wilson,
Your post on the deficits would be funny if it wasn't so deceitfull. You do understand that a budget is simply an ESTIMATE of expected revenues and expenditures for all things normally budgeted. In other words looking at budget numbers after the fact is meaningless as you should know, but maybe you are not that informed.
If you look at the actual numbers for how much the national debt increased during the fiscal years 2001-2009 during Bush's budget years it was right at 6 trillion or ~750 billion a year average. His last real deficit, not estimated budget deficit was over 1 trillion.
While it is true that Obama's deficts exceed those under Bush, why don't you be honest and use the real deficit numbers for Bush and not estimated budget numbers that don't even include all of the supplemental spending
Roy Wilson: You also know, I''m sure, that Bush didn't include the cost of the 2 wars in his budget or the failed prescription plan??? If he had, he would have been waaaaay ahead of President Obama on spending!
Additionally, what other president would start 2 wars and NOT raise taxes to pay for them? That the most ridiculous thing we can blame Bush for.....how did he figure we were going to pay for it without adequate revenue coming in?
Bush didn't think it mattered where the funds came from. Remember Dick "I shot a guy" Cheney's "Deficits don't matter" speech???
The great American liars of days gone by, the likes of Liddy (was it that long ago?), are now being surpassed by a new breed. Not content with the ultimate goal of lying once an office of stature is attained, the hopeful multiply and repeat their lies in order to achieve that office with a fervor rarely seen. It has been argued (a kind description) on these pages that the Summit of Mendacity is chaired by the current President, but when one looks at Gingrich, Santorum and Romney, there is an argument to be made that Obama has been mightily surpassed and when it comes to Romney, by a country mile. (I have left out Ron Paul as I can rarely grasp which cryogenic state he has emerged from. He sees history through the eyes of an eye-witness to times even as far back as the 1760s.)
Leaving aside the other GOP hopefuls whose bids are all but hopeless at this point, does anyone on either side here truly believe that Romney will change his coat if he becomes President, that the mountain of lies he has unleashed will turn him into ‘Honest Able Mitt’? I submit to Mitt some sound advice from Samuel Clemens- “If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
From the following ‘volumes of evidence’ for consideration, or as FOX might put it, I link/report, you decide. (And yes, I do loathe FOX as they give cynicism a bad name; CNN? … other than Soledad or Kyra Phillips, married to a Canadian who works for FOX, it is pompous in its supposed greyness; MSNBC? … well I do like Joe Scarborough. So, I consider myself to be fair but pleasantly unbalanced.)
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/mitts_mendacity034574.php
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/chronicling_mitts_mendacity034751.php
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/chronicling_mitts_mendacity_1034892.php
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/03/10311610-chronicling-mitts-mendacity
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/10/10374854-chronicling-mitts-mendacity
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/17/10436726-chronicling-mitts-mendacity
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/17/10436726-chronicling-mitts-mendacity
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/02/10563689-chronicling-mitts-mendacity
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/09/10624620-chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-ix
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/16/10720707-chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-x
Do not, though you will, allow yourselves to be too quickly judgemental as you read Maddow in the links as all of this is from Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly, and yes I am aware that he is to be a producer on Maddow’s show. The point is that Romney has become a habitual liar and the proof can be found within his approval polls from the left, right and center.
If this supplies food for self-reflection in some … Bon Appetit! If not, please use the free barf bag and not the aisles as I am sure you have all noticed that flight attendants (and a few pilots) are teetering on the edge of the Cliff of Insanity of late and any slippage you add, innocently or not, may lead to your demise.
Ah, mendacity! To be surely eschewed but by the means a great playwright’s pen … perhaps enjoyed-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiiE-h9ZYag
Try this again in the correct spot. Well done, my friend. As there is "Must See" tv, I would say you have provided "Must Read" links. :)
Romney has become a habitual liar and the proof can be found within his approval polls from the left, right and center.
So Ideo, you are now offering Poll results as claims of proof?
Cuz, I am pretty sure they are called "OPINION" Polls for a reason.
A Maddow Poll, on MSNBC, titled "Chroniciling Mitts Mendacity".
Really?
I'm sure there are no lies or bias in those links, eh, Ideo?
WAC, why don't you in that case tell us all about Romney's disapproval numbers? He is after all approaching Congress's level at a rapid pace.
WCA,
Polls from your right wing heroes show Mitt has some issues. Are you denying that? He has been losing ground with women and Latinos. Are you aware of that? Or, do you think that will not matter in the general election? One never knows, with Mr. Romney, where he stands one day to the next, except for tax breaks for the wealthiest in the country and deregulating everything for his friends.
Ideo - Regardless of the "opinion" polls you recommend, the right needs only to offer up their own brand of "hope and change". Obama however, must run on his record and his past lack of focus on the economy and inability to be a unifier for America to move forward.
Phine I thought you were an Independent? Huh.....
ksw
I am. I just looked at the fact - from a Fox News Poll - about the favorable/unfavorabe - on Romney with Latinos and women. One has to be honest about that. That is a bad sign for the GOP. But, blaming the messenger never sits well with me - no matter which side.
phine, I put absolutely no stock in polls. From either side. The pollster can get whatever result they wish by manipulating the questions.
About a year ago, here, I vowed never again to use a poll to try to prove my point and I haven't.
I wish more here would do the same.
We all know the only poll that matters is in November. How about we wait until then?
BTW in my previuos post I meant Maddow Blog not Moddow Poll
american-2051576 ... Just which opinion poll or polls did I recommend? Obama will have problems undoubtedly, but I am not so sure that they will prove to be more difficult problems than those of the GOP. The Republicans have spent the last three years saying no to even the sun rising. No is a word that everyone learns to hate in early childhood and it sticks. The other problem the GOP faces is Romney himself ... read Jody's post below.
WAC ... off topic but I thought you might enjoy this ... the song is by my neighbors-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzInnpL1ncI&feature=autoplay&list=UUsFlfxWKBkdMlH5AHSsRpCQ&lf=plcp&playnext=1
Phine, lmao! Care to share the major news links that support what you say?
Interesting that you have the misguided belief and lack of common sense that the right can conjure up all the votes needed from the 1% to win a general election. BTW - what politician doesn't carry baggage? Even obamas "open mike" and public comments show us that his interests lie more in denigrating the right or pushing the nations business beyond the 2012 general election. Who can forget his reply to ryans FY2012 budget plan and the lack of a senate plan + his latter open mike comments. How about XL pipeline? 3 + years of study and apparent approval by the obama administration prior to nebraska's sec ond thoughts. Then we have the russian open mike gaffe...
I still think people lie to pollsters on occasion - just to screw them up.
American,
I just remember hearing him say he supported something one day, only to say the next (or later the same day) that he "misunderstood" the question. For example, his stand on the union bill in Ohio. I feel he does change his positions to cater to whatever crowd he is speaking to and he is over handled by his staff. Just let him, without all the handling and spin, just flat out say what he really thinks and believes. I would be more appreciative of that. At least his competitors are doing so, even if I disagree with them on issues, I feel they are being more forthcoming than Mr. Romney. Just my opinion.
you have outdone yourself,Ideology.
Once again it shows Romney has no passion for governing - he just wants to add the job title to his resume.
What he has to say to get to his goal is not a moral/ethical issue for him. That was one reason he was considered a social liberal - as long as he got his bottom line, every other issue was a moot point.
Ideology, nicely done!
Anyone ever thought how nice it would be if a politician, don't care which side, just admitted to wanting to be the president because they thought it would be cool? That they liked the idea of the power and money that would come their way? That it would look great on their wikipedia page? Just asking..............
Ideo, you are right (post 3.9) by the strict definition of what a poll is. I should have specifically said "blogs" or op-eds. Regardless, they are all based on the opinions of others attempting to influence still others. Not really a good argument for predicting future outcomes or even a strong means of connecting dots.
As for ms maddow or any other political entertainment commentator, either Canadian or American, their body language and speech inflections have far more to do with misleading their listeners than any minimal presentation of facts.
american,
You are absolutely correct. The days, sadly, of a non-partisan press seem to be over. Good post!
Phine - it is what politicians do, play to the audience. Think santorum, gingrich or obama don't? So far as I can recall, only ron paul has presented a consistant message, but far to many choose to ignore it based more out of fear in losing beloved programs than on the political reality of what will happen.
Thank you.
american,
Have you checked out Americans elect? Ron Paul is the favorite there.
Katherine...
Makes romney just another obama doesn't it, albeit with less rhetorical skill?
Phine, thanks for the suggestion.
BTW, american, Katheryn's post just relates to my post 3.15. Seems like the majority of politicians today (both sides) are in it for the power, money and resume building. Not public service. Guess I am getting a mite cynical in my older years!
Youre actually on to something, WCA. The polling for the last few months has been questionable. There is, actually, a good reason- and a precedent- for that.
We all remember the stories about the headlines "Dewey Wins!" from 1948. People don't normally remember that polling in 1980 predicted an extremely close race- that Reagan won in a blow out. The reasons beind the poor polling in both races was that polling organizations had adopted, prior to both, new weighting criteria, that supposed contributed to better accuracy.
The results of those experiments speak for themselves.
So, what is the experiment this time? Once again, it is weighting- this time for cell phone users.
All polling firms include cell phone users in their polling, despite the common misconception that they do not. Unfortunately, polling organizations seem to believe that cell phone users are a totally different animal than those who use landline phones. The single, biggest, error they are making is the assumption that cell phone users are MORE likely to vote than landline users. Their basis for this assumption? Your guess is as good as mine.
Another adaption being made is the use of Internet polling. In this case, the weighting done is to attempt to make the results more "random". While I would not argue with the assumption that those dedicated enough to participate regularly in an online political poll are, in fact, very likely voters, I do question the weighting. Face it, this is not a huge segment of the electorate.
These anomalies in polling tend to run in cycles, as polling organizations get involved in adapting "new" methods to increase accuracy that have the opposite effect. I predict that the polls will show a statistically tied race right up until the day before the election- and Romney will win.
Close polling drives people to the actual polls, and that will be very good for Romney.
"Dewey Wins?" Man, that's reaching even for YOU no jo.
Question: do you think methodology has changed since that time?
Polls are a snapshot of the day they are taken. Some polls are more accurate than others.
Actually jo - close polls will drive Democrats, Independents and intelligent Republicans (not many left of them) to vote - all very good for President Obama.
American - Interesting point. And I do think they are more alike than any of the other Republican candidates. I also think they are probably more alike in the final choices they would chose on their own (and not pushed by their respective parties) than they are dissimilar in the final decisions they might make on their own.
Probably why I liked Romney when he was a governor before he morphed into somebody else for the primary.
Both have some similar personality responses,except one is a data based businessman and one is a community based law professor - and both of those approaches have negative and positive influences.
(but as you can tell, I have a personal preference for one -doesn't make the other bad)
Well done. Might not be appreciated by some, but I like it!
Oops! That was a response to Ideology's post #3.
So it begins...again.
Romney is in a hole in his showdown with Obama before he even officially captures the Republican Party's presidential nomination. The GOP has lost women as an electorate for this election year and possibly beyond. The short-sighted and radical agenda of the GOP in congress and at the state level to attack the rights of women in America has torn the party apart and made it almost certain that Barack Obama wil win another term in the White House unless something changes dramatically between now and November.
When did anyone's rights get attacked? If you believe they did, then you are just getting manipulated by the media. This "issue" of women's rights was nothing more than an attempt by the Dems to create a diversion and confuse people, and supposedly make people think that Dems are more favorable to women. I guess it worked on some of you!
WASHINGTON (AP) — A major donor to President Barack Obama has been accused of defrauding a businessman and impersonating a bank official, creating new headaches for Obama's re-election campaign as it deals with the questionable history of another top supporter.
The New York donor, Abake Assongba, and her husband contributed more than $50,000 to Obama's re-election effort this year, federal records show. But Assongba is also fending off a civil court case in Florida, where she's accused of thieving more than $650,000 to help build a multimillion-dollar home in the state — a charge her husband denies.
WTF?????? What are these ONE PERCENTERS doing donating to Obama? I thought his class warfare was all about "the rest of the country against them?"
If only there were good, solid, ethical, moral business people like those who support the GOP....what a better world this would be, eh?
The ONE PERCENTERS with a conscience will vote OBAMA - let's put it that way!
Even one's who work for Mr. Obama..... Jeffery Immelt comes to mind. But I seem to remember that he has opted out of Mr Obamas camp.
This is not surprising nor does it make any difference. Everyone of all ilks can donate to a campaign. It's what that campaign does with the money after it's found out the person or entity is into blatant criminal activity. Fortunately for us, President Obama's campaign releases the names of their bundlers unlike the GOP/TPers.
Money and politics go together like peanut butter and jelly. Might not be for everyone, but everyone does it.
Who is Mitt Romney. The truth about Mitt Romney is that no one knows who he really is or what his policies really are because he has been on both sides of nearly every issue at some point. It is one thing to change ones mind about a particular issue, it is another to change ones mind depending on where the person is and with whom he/she is speaking. When people from his own party and campaign describe him as a "well-oiled weather-vane" and compare him to an "Etch-a-Sketch", they are absolutely correct. He is a change-a-ling and that should give every voter pause to at least question a Romney presidency and what it would mean. The question voters should ask is why he's a "well-oiled weather-vane".
While no one knows for certain where Romney stands on the social issues of women's rights, gay rights, civil rights when it comes to taxes, we know Romney will likely return to the same failed Reagan, Bush and Bush policies of cutting taxes for the wealthy and big business, increasing funding for the military while decreasing--if not outright eliminating--the social safety nets, education and all other nonmilitary discretionary spending because that is where the GOP resides these days. Those failed policies are all republicans know; they run on the Reagan legacy without looking to see if that legacy failed or what parts were successful or even looking at the real Reagan. In fact, they have dismantled the Reagan legacy into something that it never was. They kiss the ring of Grover Norquist while disregarding their oath to uphold the Constitution.
We know Romney's tax plan is as irresponsible as Paul Ryan's budget and that trillions will be added to the debt, more Americans will fall from the middle class into poverty. We know the haves will have more and everyone else will have less because Romney's own plan was clearly in line with the GOP thinking; it is the same old failed policies of the past. Why would any voter consider a return to what failed and failed with catastrophic consequences not just for the USA but for the world.
Establishment republicans are slowly falling in line to endorse Mitt Romney if for no other reason than they want the ugly, mud-slinging, nasty fight for the nomination to end. While they may fully support Romney's tax plans and economic policies, the GOP itself is in political civil war. It is a war they brought upon themselves by shifting further and further right, by embracing extreme views and then even more extreme views, by embracing the radical religious crowd in their party, by going after workers' rights and women's rights. There is a reason why Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour and other more popular republicans are not running in 2012--they hope the anger and crazy in their party dissipates. That will not happen until the GOP choses to shift back toward center right, to once again embrace a variety of politicians who are moderate, conservative or somewhere in between instead of giving them the "purity test". For republican voters who do not agree with the direction their party has taken, who find its shift so far right disturbing, there is a solution--stop voting for a person simply because there is an "R" by the name.
Mitt Romney is Mr. Etch-a-Sketch but there is a reason for it. He is a political victim of the "purity test", he is a victim of what the GOP has become today. He cannot run a more moderate campaign even in the general election because his party has become a victim of its "purity tests". There are few moderate politicians left. They have been driven from the ranks and continue to be driven out. Moderate republicans have been left by the road side and progressive republicans, forget it, they are extinct.
It should be no wonder that establishment republicans are reluctant to embrace Romney because they have no clue what their own party is these days. His major endorsements have been anything but ringing ones; they have been in the tone of time to rally around a candidate. Many sound as if the endorser would rather have a root canal. Come to think of it, the entire GOP needs a root canal--maybe then they could find their way back to the sensible center where the rank and file of Americans sit, center right and center left.
Jody, nice slice and dice. It appears we were both chopping up some Boston Salad over the weekend.
Jody---most people's sense of Mitt Romney is that he is of that almost-vanished moderate wing of the Republican party but how can you tell? My concern over a person who seems to want to be President more strongly than he believes in anything is what happens when a moment comes when he has to do something unpopular or take a risk. What core beliefs does he fall back on when he seems to have none?
Jody -- In my opinion the republicans have lost their collective minds. They appear to have gone down of path of self-destruction by denigrating things such as education, healthcare, women and dare I say it, even sex. Talk about a party of dim wits. Until that party saturates itself with reason and intellect many, like myself, will ignore them at the polls. They must increase the wattage, clean up the mess, embrace modernity and a "best practice" mentality to become respected contenders in our two party system. I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Ideology, thanks and yes, we were both definitely chopping Boston Salad over the weekend.
Steeler Fan, Don't Carry, good points. The GOP has lost its collective mind. I found it interesting when it was reported that folks like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and those like them are thinking the anger and crazy in the GOP will subside and go way--it can't and won't go away until those more moderates stop kissing the feet of the angry and the crazy far right-wingers.
The Republicans adopted social issues of the right in order to capture their votes and continue the policies that favor the 1% and now they think that the right will go away? Where do they think they are going to go? And how do they think people like me, a former Republican, would ever trust them again?
So true Jody. The far radical right is killing the Republican party and hurting the country.
Jody, Steeler, Job1 - is there any remnant of the GOP left? I remember, growing up, having two strong, intelligent parties whose beliefs about the country differed but who still wanted the best for everyone. I don't see any of that left in the GOP. The party has lost all sense of country and has stooped to be the "me, me" party that feels everyone must be in lock step with their backward views in order to be part of the country. I have never seen anything as divisive as this "GOP." How sad it has disintegrated into such a hate filled group.
I'm a former republican, too, Steeler Fan. As that saying goes, I didn't leave the republican party, it left me. It left me with Reagan's shift to the right, his embrace of religion in politics, his southern strategy, his attacks on collective bargaining, his embrace of anti-women's rights, his fiscal irresponsibility, the massive debt, the tax cuts that benefited those who already had, the massive shift of borrowed federal spending money into the military industrial complex, the attacks on the poor by labeling them welfare queens, etc etc etc.
Job 1, so true, it is hurting this country badly.
Seeking Sanity, well said and sadly true. There was a time during national crises when both parties put aside their differences and worked together for solutions; now the GOP is Party First, defeat President Obama and too bad if it hurts the country. There was zero cooperation by the GOP after January 2009. Democrats and President Obama compromised with the GOP constantly in those first two years only to end up with zero GOP votes even for things the GOP traditionally supported.
Jody,
Oh, gee, I'm going to have to reevaluate my opinion of you. ;-)
I don't think I was ever, even for a second, a Republican. And yet if you had asked me my views pre-Viet Nam tour, I probably would have fit well with their philosophy.
Steeler Fan,
Excellent point. Can you imagine someone leading this country who is all over the map on every issue, whether it's domestic or foreign affairs? Changing his mind to fit the Whim of the Day?
There's no there there.
Jack--can you picture Romney risking his presidency over the raid to go after Bin Laden? I can't see him putting anything on the line for the good of the country.
Steeler Fan,
That's a good point. The only place I see Romney being consistent is in his "Whatever the corporations want" philosophy.
He'll drive some of his advisers nuts as they try to pace with one change of plans after another. Imagine being his Press Secretary.
Jack: I read an article somewhere that said that Romney has hired around 16 of Bush's ex-consultants to work with him.....if he gets elected (heaven forbid), it's be Bush Redux, for sure!
16 ex-consultants and Karl Rove cranking up his own 100-200 million dollar ATM....
b dune - which is pathetic in itself. When you have to rely on the repulsive Karl Rove (I never met a lie I didn't like) to try to win an office - it says volumes about your lack of integrity. But, Romney has never been charge with having integrity!
I like how FOX had Rove as their "impartial political operative" for the GOP Primary as he was out raising 100-200 millliion for Romney...
That's integrity!
b dune - oh the GOP has no integrity and Rove can't even spell the word!
What's torn the party apart are the tea people. Looks like I may have to drop tea people form the tea people Koch republicans.
When the nomination is settled - you will be suprised.
DB Akron - no but you will surely be disappointed.
DB Akron
What would surprise me is if you ever get in touch with reality....
DB - as usual - your opinion becomes fact to no one but yourself. You yak up statements based on your infinite knowledge of nothing in particular. You sir, are a pedant.
Hallelujah!
The quest for ratings makes networks do strange things. Katie Couric is co-hosting Good Morning America, which I suppose puts pressure on NBC to do something 'outta-the-box', ie. name Pale-in a co-host. But it is not a crowd pleaser, to be sure.
Palin!? there's no frickin way any major network other than Faux News would do such as thing
******12 YEAR OLD BLACK GIRL AMONG THOSE SHOT AT FUNERAL IN FLORIDA******
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/03/31/2-dead-12-hurt-in-mass-shooting-in-north-miami/
No doubt Jesse and Al will be right on this case as soon as they are finished with the Saint Trayvon case. I'm sure the Dumbfux Sisters, Bev, Fesity and Pat are very outraged about this and will demand justice, or else NO PEACE!
Well Damge...you continue to show what you are made of....post after post after post..
Keep up the good work!
They won't have to demand justice. Miami police are investigating.
Again, take a week and every day read the Detroit Free Press. See how many children, women, teens are shot and or killed every week. With out a peep from people, In the past year there have been several instance's where thugs were shot while robbing or attempting to kill innocent people. Im not asking you to change your mind, because I honestly cant tell who is telling the truth or more of the truth. But Im sure not going to believe Rev. Sharpton or Jesse Jackson on this one. Im going to wait and see what the investigation comes up with and believe that. The last thing I will say is that a few months ago a young teen in Downtown Detroit was told by his mother that he could not go out..... he was joining a local gang..... He decided to get out of the house his own thug way and shot his mother in the chest with a twelve gauge shogun. Hear much about that one? I didnt think so! This is why I carry legally everywhere I can in this city. I plan for myself and my wife to NOT be on the bad side of this kind of event.
I was a little wary of the "Stand Your Ground" law until I read some liberals complain that gang members use it as a way to LEGALLY kill each other. For that reason, I support it's continuation.
jollyoldsoul1 - what part of this anger do you not understand? The point is that NO charges were filed; Zimmerman was not tested for drugs or alcohol; he clearly was not beaten up; nothing was done that would have been done in normal circumstances. THAT is the outrage! If Trayvon had been white and the shooter black I can guarantee the shooter would be rotting in jail. Get real!
Please tell me it doesn't involve singing.
flbikerchick,
I remember when he was in Jacksonville in 2008 doing "Who Let the Dogs Out" It was quite painful to see.
phine - we won't see a repeat of that performance - that song has taken on a deeper meaning for everyone since we heard story about Seamus that the family still finds so humorous.
Katheryn,
That's TOO funny! Great post!
So will we see the rollout of mittens 3.0 or is it 4.0 now? The hatred of Obama drives the lemmings off the cliff following a waffler who does not share their core values of god, guns and anti gay fervor....
The liberal media is pushing Romney so hard it's a sure sign, he Shouldn't be the candidate. Wake-Up GOP establishment, you're headed in the Wrong Direction AGAIN!
"pushing" romney? really? how so?
funny, I saw post after post about how the liberal media was afraid of romney because he was the only candidate who could beat obama.
you guys need to get your conspiracy theories straight. :)
This liberal would LOVE anybody BUT Romney, because he may be out of touch, but he's sane. Look at the polls - he's the only one who can match Obama head to head! Obama beats the others by 10 points or better!
falconear - maybe but his stupidity with the elevator installation will be highlighted in commercials - bet on it. His being that far out of touch with reality will be all many fence sitters need to push them to vote for Obama. His being anti-women, anti-gay, anti-middle class, anti-poor - is probably going to sink him!
What is Romney's economic plan?
whats the big eared o's plan got it more debt
It's a serious question. All I've heard from Romney is that "Obama is bad". Well that's great, now tell me what's good. You think Obama broke this nation? Fine. Tell me what you're going to do to fix it. I have yet to hear an actual plan from any GOP candidate. All I have heard is that "Obama is bad".
And spare me the cutting taxes on job creators bullsh*t. It hasn't worked for over 30 years, and it isn't about to start.
i could tell you but i fine you would not understand
Try me.
"i could tell you but i fine you would not understand"
Perhaps if you wrote in proper English people would understand you.
Ruken, actually I would like to know what obamas economic plan was other than rhetoric or kicking the can down the road.
Our lame duck session should be very interesting come november in trying to address all of the economic policies kicked down the road untill jan 1 2013.
Simple: Tax cuts for the job creators and deregulation.
We're not talking about Obama. We're talking about how the GOP candidates say "Obama is bad" but then offer no alternative solutions.
I want to hear a solution, not how "bad" the incumbent is. Tell me why I should vote for you, don't tell me why I should not vote for him.
Since many of us like to make cracks about "corporate personhood", I just wanted to share something from last week. The sitcom series Community had a episode about corporate personhood last Thursday. Since any business opening in Greendale Community College had to be 51% owned by a Greendale student, Subway used a "surprisingly legal" process of turning a real human being into a "person" who is the living personification of Subway. See the link below for Slate's summary article on the episode and the Hulu link to the episode itself. It was absolutely priceless!
EDIT:
First Read ate my links. How do I successfully post links in my post like I see other people doing?
Wiser, if you have been a member long enough(in good standing) go to your newsvine page and click "help" in the upper right corner and then "contact us". Ask for permission to post links.
Ahhh, me first?
What would Feisty do?
Yep, he's a stump and a chump.
The MO RATES have created a 48% poverty level, a half under the table stock market (which none of you are inquiring where is that under the table MOney), a NO CHANGE with Kennedy Puppet Ben BernaKE interest rate and a back door banking policy that just entitled the CEO of Bank of America a $7.5 million pay check for looking the other way.
VOTE the money law ndering administration OUT while you have the opportunity.
If Romney has a passion it seems to be making the wealthy more wealthy on the backs of the American workers. These "job creators" can always "create" more jobs in China, India, etc., but how about here ?
What is Obama's plan to cut the deficit?
Oh yeah, he said he was going to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term.
Free birth control for all.
Nibor, that is no way to broaden the tax or voter base. :)
Nibor - please continue that tactic-keep Rush fresh in woman voters' minds.
Gov. Scott Walker must go-not because he is the worst-because he is the first.
You might try checking out the facts and the charts. President Obama has done less deficit spending that Reagan, Bush and Bush. Google it if you can stand the truth.
sofork, the biggest share of the debt and the reason it continues to grow is because of the Bush 43 tax cuts and his two unfunded wars. That's fact, not fiction.
Mr. Romney, if you truly want people to believe you are in touch with the common man's plight, whether you can afford it or not, wasn't putting a vehicle elevator in your home just a tad bit over the top and ill-timed? I cover my vehicle with a canvas tarp in bad weather.
I don't think either Romney or Obama needs to live in a trailer to understand the common man's plight. For those in the middle class, the common man's plight has deepened and spread under Obama. Larger government, larger deficits, more taxes (including state & local), and a sinking dollar will just add to the plight.
The radical right also will add to the plight by making cuts in the current safety net. I have no problem with a budget that starts with excessive cuts that can be negotiated to something more reasonable. I do have a problem with a budget that says the only solution in to take another trillion or two out of the economy so the government can decide winners and losers.
lawful1- I really don't care what Romney does with his money but I think the elevator installation is indicative of a bigger problem. Romney is out of touch with reality. Families are struggling to be able to eat or pay rent. And, in spite of the GOP blather, there are not enough jobs out there. To be so cavalier as to install an elevator in your home when a large part of the country is suffering shows - again - that this man (and I use the term loosely) is not competent to lead anyone.
@seeking - The same could be said for the Obama family vacations. The difference is that Romney is using his money, not ours.
Roger-396420 - Totally stupid remark. The Obama vacations - like all Presidents - are paid by the Obamas - not the taxpayers. We pay for their security but not their personal costs. And, he has taken less than half the number the Bush's did during the same period of time. Try to pose some real facts instead of stupidity!
Santorum said he would step aside if Romny got the requisite 1144 delegates. Gee, wouldn't that mean the Romney would get the nomination. There is no stepping aside. Santorum would lose and the world becomes a safer place.
Safe from the Light of the truth being shined on this dark nation!
I think it would be funny if Santorum won a few. This would make the clown show more entertaining.
the clown is in the wh now you been sleeping
jockland-your posts are pathetic-try to add some ideas not sourced from Glen Beck or Rush. If you study hard you could become a clown's helper.
Gov. Scott walker must go.
The ETCH-A-SKETCH MEX. republican CORPORATE POLITICAL PUPPET will make it, BUT ONLY ON ACCOUNT OF CORPORATE SUPERPAC MONEY!! Just think how much good that money would have meant for the 99% American People who are IN NEED OF HELP to support their FAMILIES, but instead, they have to spend their money ON OIL CORPORATE GASOLINE because they also BOUGHT OUR SUPREME COURT(The judges that were put in office to protect the 99% American People) otherwise, the Supreme Court would have ALREADY DECLARED the OIL CORPORATES unconstitutional BECAUSE OF THEIR MONOPOLY over the 99% American People!! You CAN BET, IF THIS WAS AN CORPORATE TO CORPORATES MONOPOLY, it would have ALREADY BEEN DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!
Except for the word"republican" you could have been describing Obama.
If anyone bothered to listen to the etch-a-sketch comment, they would know that it makes sense. In the primary, a candidate needs to differenciate himself from the others in the party. In a general election, more focus is put on the candidate from the other party. You may recall that once Obama beat Hillary, the focus was more on Hate Bush than while he was comparing his ideas to Hillary's.
The Supreme Court is not to protect the interest of anybody, but to uphold the Constitution. I realize that in our political divisivness, we don't like to focus on the Constitution, but on getting what we want.
While it seems like fun to want to take money from corporations, all that will do is hurt our economy. If their costs go up, they will pass those costs on to the consumer until they can establish production in more business friendly countries. If we continue a wishy washy foreign policy, uncertainty will drive up the cost of commodities, also passed along to anyone who drives, heats/cools their home, or eats. If we continue to rack up record deficits, the value of our currency will drop, making all the things we buy that no longer made in America more expensive.
We all need to rethink the politics of hate, and become a bit more reasonble about what is good for all of us in the long term; rather than think that the government will really make our lives better by giving us more of someone else's money.
Roger, trying to talk logically to a rabid progressive is a futile exercise.
But i'm with you!
The most striking thing about this article is that they Give Biden creedence. Biden is less than intelligent, and I thank the Lord he is not pres., and that says a lot with the head of the Chicago Political mob holding the office currently......Democrats openly say things that are contrary to the facts and the truth because they know the vast majority of Americans are too lazy to check the facts...just like the boobs that are posting on this article. Oh yeah, I forgot the boobs that post here don't want the facts as they do not support their ludicrous positions they take!
You should check out factcheck.org.
While it's obvious both sides "exaggerate", the GOP has been the greatest offender of just outright lying.
The main lies I've heard on CSPAN is the insinuation that Mitt Romney has very large genitals.
Greg-what do you think of mitt's angel Moroni?
Greg-3253201 - what stump have you been living under for decades? Even the Republican senators and congressmen respect VP Biden. He has more foreign policy knowledge and experience than most of them rolled together. Does he make the occasional gaffe? Yep - without a doubt. But, Romney and Santorum only talk in gaffes. You should be very embarrassed right now!
Greg,
Just a many republicans say things that are contrary to the facts as democrats do. It's sad the both sides have people who are either uninformed or dishonest
Greg, progressives would have us spend ourselves to oblivion.
And anyone who considers Joe anything other than a giant gaffe is delusional.
Rational Brent - then more than half the Republicans in congress are delusional. But, my guess is you're the delusional one since you don't have a clue about Biden's experience or reputation. You just hate him because he's with Obama. Pathetic really but not unexpected.
If you followed Biden's history, he has consistent policy flip flops. The seniority system put him in as chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, not his knowledge. Even if you wish to deny Biden's history, do you see him contributing anything to Obama's policy? Was he the author of the apology approach? Or the "wait until after the election" approach?
Don't confuse the influence that Cheney had as Bush's VP with the reality of Biden's influence. He has been relegated to the trash talk side of pushing Obama's policies.
Roger - wrong again. He has excellent knowledge that is extremely beneficial in Foreign Relations. Cheney's influence would normally have been illegal if he hadn't had his buddies protecting him so you probably don't want to go there. How much did he pocket by helping us get in two wars? He's still on Haliburton's payroll - always was. Biden is very influential. You're just upset that the GOP has no one competent in anything.
Seeking Sanity, your HERO Biden did it again!!!!!
Read this link.
And it's the pathetic Obama/Biden worshipers that I feel sorry for. Even more pathetic are those progressives who continually and futilely try to make excuses for their inept, inexperienced ideologically driven handlers.
Rational Brent - first of all, you posted no link. Secondly, I don't care what you post. Your hatred of President Obama and anything that has to do with him makes you totally useless. This is a man who is working to repair the total chaos Bush left behind and morons like you can't do anything but find fault with every little word. The fact that the GOP is reduced to running imbeciles speaks volumes. And, the fact that you think Romney is competent says everything about you! I don't worship anyone. The only worshipers I ever hear from are you guys calling anyone who is demented like you a "worshiper"! Go grow a brain or at least try!
Click on "Read this link". It works. Unless your gubimt job computer blocks it.
My "hatred"? Typical koolaid drinking, empty headed librool. Nothing but insults. Oblahblah is a failure and it has nothing to do with emotion.
Your HATRED of Republicans put the current occupant of the White House in office, btw.
Obama is in it for the ideology Einstein. You've heard of "Solyndra"? The "Police acted stupidly"? He's a community organizer that was slick enough to make enough of you think he's not Al Sharpton Jr. I'll give him that-he could sell ice to an Eskimo, provided the ice met an encyclopedia Bull@!$%#tica sized EPA rule book that is.
Just like November 2010, the not-so-sleepy dog will scratch off a few more fleas.....
Look at the rhetoric when you have no real intelligent comments to make! Why doesn't that surprise me? You have no game and you know it. Please go away - you're just embarrassing yourself! How totally lacking in intelligence to call the President of the United States names. Pretty bad - even for a Republican but nothing I wouldn't expect considering your earlier posts.
And, what put the current President in the White House was the fact that the GOP was running McCain (we have no problem with the economy) and brainless Palin. And, this time, you're doing no better! It must be really embarrassing to be you!