Friday, November 07, 2008

Missing Voters, ACORN and the Leftist Media

Headline in the Columbus Dispatch: Experts confounded: Turnout higher in Ohio in 2004.

So what about all the "record" registrations. Can anyone spell ACORN? Why would ACORN want to load the voter rolls with fraudulent registrants? To suppress the Republican vote, enthusiasm and, perhaps most importantly, contributions. After all, who sends money to a campaign that can't possibly win?

And, of course, the leftist media used these fraudulent numbers to boost their pro-Obama polling results. Because there were so many more Democrats on the rolls -- folks with names like Mickey Mouse and ASDF FDSA (the "name" you get from running your fingers over the third row down on the keyboard) -- they polled more Democrats and thus got the more pro-Democrat result.

Yesterday NBC's cable channel star Chris Matthews announced that he sees his job as working on behalf of a "successful" Obama administration. This comes after the media's "job" working to make Obama's campaign for president "successful."

To my friends on the left -- you may have gotten the RESULT you wanted, but is this the AMERICA that you want?

185 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chris Matthews announced that he sees his job as working on behalf of a "successful" Obama administration.

Hmmm..that's funny, I see his job as a liberal hack who suffers from tingling sensations.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else read the article about the voter turnout? Aparantly, after all the talk of the enormous turnout expectations, the number was about the same, or perhaps just a smidge higher than in 2004. And this is from CNN! (I'll leave the url instead of cutting and pasting the whole article):
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/06/report-08-turnout-same-or-only-slightly-higher-than-04/

Anonymous said...

"To my friends on the left -- you may have gotten the RESULT you wanted, but is this the AMERICA that you want?"

Given your tone in recent years, is there anyone on the left who you'd WANT as a friend? Your constantly insulting tone may come from a true place, but why do you feel the need to declare yourself the better, nicer person by dint of your political philosophy, and not your actions?

And no, there's no particular "America" that I want. I don't think that's my decision to make.

Anonymous said...

POLITICAL CONNECTIONS

Bush's Failing Final Grade

The Harm He Caused His Party's Prospects Could Echo Beyond This Year's Election.
by Ronald Brownstein

Friday, Nov. 7, 2008

It detracts nothing from Barack Obama's achievement to note that his historic electoral success rests atop the epic political failure of George W. Bush. If Obama is shrewd enough, there's a lesson for the new president in the failure of the old one.

Bush and his chief political strategist, Karl Rove, dreamed of cementing a lasting Republican electoral majority. Instead, Bush has left his party in rubble.

The 2008 election represented a final grade on Bush's bruising and polarizing political strategy. To a degree unmatched by modern presidents, Bush governed more by mobilizing his base than by reaching out to voters and interests beyond it. His legislative strategy centered on minimizing dissent among congressional Republicans; his electoral strategy revolved around maximizing his vote among Republicans and conservative independents. On both fronts, his guiding principle was deepen, not broaden.

Only the most culturally conservative areas remain reliably red.

Through Bush's first term, that approach generated undeniable successes. The congressional Republican majority, demonstrating levels of party unity unequaled since around 1900, passed key elements of his agenda. A skillfully engineered surge in Republican turnout powered his re-election and GOP congressional gains in 2002 and 2004.

But through Bush's second term, this insular strategy grew unsustainable. By targeting so many of his policies toward the priorities of his conservative base, Bush ignited volcanic opposition from Democratic voters and steadily alienated independents. Because he had done so little to court voters beyond his ardent core, he lacked a well of good will to draw on when events turned against him, first with Katrina and Iraq, later with the economy. His disapproval rating soared to heights unsurpassed in modern polling.

That ferocious dissatisfaction fueled the Democratic recapture of Congress in 2006 by stampeding independent voters in their direction. Discontent with Bush again provided a huge tailwind for Democrats this week. Exit polls showed that a breathtaking 71% of voters Tuesday disapproved of Bush's performance. Two-thirds of them voted for Obama. That in itself effectively sealed the election against John McCain.

The pattern was similar in the states where Democrats captured Republican Senate seats: Exit polls showed that about two-thirds or more of voters who disapproved of Bush voted for winning Democrats in North Carolina, New Hampshire, Oregon, Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado. McCain and other GOP candidates made plenty of their own mistakes. But discontent with Bush was the gravity in this election -- the irresistible force that McCain and so many other Republicans could never escape.

Bush's polarizing method of governing will likely reverberate for Republicans far beyond these immediate losses. His approach has severely narrowed his party's electoral reach. Young people moved steadily away from the GOP under Bush and cast two-thirds of their votes for Obama. Likewise, Obama carried two-thirds of Hispanics and won comfortably among independents, reinforcing their Democratic tilt from 2006. And Obama reached 47 percent among white voters with college or post-graduate degrees -- which keyed his game-changing routs in white-collar suburbs from Pennsylvania to Colorado. McCain dominated only among working-class white voters, many of them culturally conservative and hawkish, but they represented just 39 percent of voters -- down from a majority as recently as 1992.

For Republicans, the geographic trends are even more ominous. The Southern evangelical face that Bush placed on his party accelerated the long-term GOP decline in the Northeast: Obama easily carried all 11 states from Maryland to Maine. Republicans now hold just four (of 22) Senate seats in those states and 17 (of 92) House seats, severe declines from as recently as 2002. In the Mountain West, Obama captured three states that backed Bush in 2004. Before 2004, Democrats held just three (of 16) Senate seats and seven (of 28) House seats across the eight-state region. After Tuesday, the numbers were seven and 17.

Under Bush, Democrats also solidified their hold on the West Coast (where they now hold all six Senate seats) and upper Midwest; now they are advancing in outer South states like Virginia and North Carolina, where Democratic House and Senate gains accompanied Obama's breakthrough victories Tuesday. Only the most culturally conservative areas -- the Deep South, Great Plains, rural Midwest and upper Rockies -- remain reliably red.

Bush can't be blamed for all of the GOP's distress. He sensibly sought to court Hispanics with comprehensive immigration reform (though he myopically retreated when congressional conservatives resisted). But by focusing his agenda so intently on the center of his coalition, Bush lost the center of the country. That's the cautionary lesson Obama will overlook at his peril

Anonymous said...

Scum like you don't deserve to live in the America we want. As a matter of fact, we will be much closer to getting the America we want once the bigoted, lying and hateful mentality like yours has become extinct.

Which it will, and you will see it happening in your lifetime. Mark my words.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's the America I want.

Anonymous said...

The "friend on the left" slanders the mentality of the classically liberal, American conservative as "bigoted, lying and hateful" and promises that it will become extinct in our lifetimes.

To make his message completely clear, he tells us that scum like us do not deserve to live.

It seems to me that it would be optimistic to say that he sees re-education camps in our future: he sounds much more inclined to support gas chambers.

Anonymous said...

Oh,dats funny stuff coming from a belly slider who just loves O'Reilly, Hannity, Scarborough, etcetcetc and a zillion others like Coulter,Malin, Limbaugh and an entire array of hate radio lunatics using the public air waves to work on behalf of whatever GOP vermin happens to be fouling the air at any given time.

Anonymous said...

I am a motherhumping genius,

Anonymous said...

No, "bubba", you paranoid idiot, you got it completely wrong (as conservatives generally do).

I don't see re-education camps nor gas chambers. I just see natural selection taking its course. As man evolves, he discards behind him stupidity and close-mindedness. Voting demographics of this election make that trend very clear.

Oh, but then you probably don't believe in natural selection anyway, right?

Anonymous said...

PS To "it's over": YES, you are a motherhumping genius. You nailed it to a T...and this only goes to show how predictable and transparent our crazy blogger is.

Anonymous said...

In all fairness, though, why aren't you pointing out the obvious vote theft by the GOP in Alaska, Evan?

Anonymous said...

Because he only points out things that make his side seem good and the other side seem "evil".

Wolaboga said...

Did anyone else read the article about the voter turnout? Aparantly, after all the talk of the enormous turnout expectations, the number was about the same, or perhaps just a smidge higher than in 2004. And this is from CNN!

That article is hilarious. "Many people were fooled by [list of supposedly huge increases in voter registration and early voting]." Huh? How were they fooled by the "huge" increases if (when combined with decreases) they still only added up to 1 percent?

Translation: "We were caught up in the Obama worship and now we have to figure out a way to explain why we were wrong."

Anonymous said...

Goodalawys appears as evil to he G-dless. Mr. Sayet is right this election is not over. Dramatic events will insue in coming days as Mrs. Palin is chosen to take command of this country and cannot be denie.

Either great voter fraud will be discoverd or President Bush will have to declar martial law for the security and comfort of this natoin as terror activity will be seen as omens on the horizon in coming days or weeks.

Anonymous said...

These guys are too funny:
Bozell Says Obama Was A Far-Left Candidate, Seconds Later Says He ‘Won As A Conservative’»
Reeling from Tuesday’s widespread losses, yesterday “about 20 political strategists and social and fiscal conservative leaders met” to discuss the future of the movement at the home of Brent Bozell, head of the right-wing Media Research Center. Describing the meeting on Fox News this morning, Bozell insisted America remained a “center-right country” and that the election had not been the death knell for conservatism because “conservatism played no role in the election.” Seconds later, however, Bozell claimed that Barack Obama had won the election “as a conservative”:

BOZELL: Conservatives didn’t play a role in this campaign. This was a moderate Republican against a liberal, left-wing Democrat. And the left-wing Democrat beat the moderate Republican. … If you look at the exit polls this year, you’ll find two fascinating results. Number one: This country remains every bit as center-right as it has for a generation.
HEMMER: You don’t think that’s changed at all?
BOZELL: No it hasn’t. … Number one is that the public is conservative; number two: Barack Obama won as a conservative. That means Barack Obama does not have the mandate to enact the progressive agenda he wants to enact.

Anonymous said...

President-elect Barack Obama's newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot "red flags," according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com. According to a complaint later filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Freddie Mac, known formally as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between the years 2000 and 2002.

Emanuel was not named in the SEC complaint but the entire board was later accused by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention."


“Clinton’s going-away gift to Emanuel was a seat on the quasi-governmental Freddie Mac board, which paid him $231,655 in director’s fees in 2001 and $31,060 in 2000,” Lynn Sweet wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times on Jan. 3, 2002.

During the time Emanuel spent on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandal involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities…

And, since his successful run for the House of Representatives in 2002, Emanuel has been the beneficiary of campaign cash from Freddie Mac and its sister organization Fannie Mae – $51,750 according to the Center for Responsive Politics Web site OpenSecrets.org.

Emanuel received $25,000 in contributions from Freddie Mac during his first run in 2002, right at the end of his tenure at the government-sponsored enterprise. Freddie Mac was his third largest overall contributor that year.

However, there was an even larger conflict of interest that Sweet pointed out in an editorial column published in the Chicago Sun-Times on Aug. 14, 2003.

“Emanuel’s trust is supposed to be blind, not stupid,” Sweet wrote. “Freshman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), a former Freddie Mac board member, sits on the very House subcommittee that has oversight of the federal government-sponsored enterprise at the same time that he has outstanding options for 2,500 shares of the company.” …

Although he was compensated handsomely, Emanuel told Sweet his job on the Freddie board was to attend quarterly board meetings and take part in committee meetings, either on the phone or in person.

Anonymous said...

Devon, your G-d can suck my c-ck. I'm TIRED of you religious whackjobs, and it's now clear that so are the American people.

Keep beating your dead horses.

Anonymous said...

G-d sucks c-ck?!!

Well, I've been missing a good thing, then, haven't I?

Praps I'll start beieving in H-r after all.

Does this ever occur in church...or only, for example, during prayers at one's bedside?

The Christian Conservative Mom said...

I didn't get to vote for the America I want, but I voted against the America I DON'T want.

I went to Barry's new page today:

http://change.gov


-Interesting how fast his mandates ...."change."

Just today around 1:00 p.m. I clicked on the tab: "America Serves" and was reading his plan that said Middle and High school students will be "REQUIRED" to serve 50 hours of community service a year and college students would be REQUIRED to serve 100 hours.

My co-worker and I were discussing it and we agreed it was not right for the gov't to FORCE kids and college students to do community service. I suggested they give an incentive to do it without forcing them like a medal or a certificate or something that wouldn't cost a whole lot of money because we just don't have that kind of money available right now in this economy.

Then guess what? I came home tonight to show my husband what Obama was proposing and low and behold...

He changed the wording from "required" to this:

"Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by [setting a goal] that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and [by developing a plan so that] all college students [who] conduct 100 hours of community service [receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.]"

the words in brackets [ ] were not there earlier today. and in place of [setting a goal] was the word "REQUIRED" So appearantly "change" can happen as quick as a few hours and that "change," even if only 100,000 college students sign on for it-will equal $400 BILLION dollars!

In the same paragraph he says he will expand AmeriCorps, and the PeaceCorps, and will create NEW Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veteran Corps.

Where is all this money coming from????!!!!!

Right out of our pockets-that's where! He keeps talking about going back to the Clinton taxes, which were higher, but even THAT won't pay for all of these new programs AND balance the budget like he promised.

Clinton reigned in the dot.com boom, which brought in more revenue and he raised taxes, but at a time when our economy is in the garbage-how do you balance a budget and pay for the above new programs, PLUS THESE:

1.healthcare
2.give more to education
3.pass another $200 billion rescue plan
4.Create new gov't jobs
5.give tax credits to certain failing businesses
6.Give tax credits to small businesses to provide insurance
7.Bail out homeowners who have defaulted on their loans
8.Expand after school programs
9.End world poverty (oh yes-he promises that too)

AND SO MANY MANY MORE! Go check out all his new proposals on change.gov

I bet the Scorpions had no idea in 1991 that they were predicting history:
"the children of tomorrow dream away in the wind of change"

Well, dream away children, because dreams are all we'll have left once Barry cleans our clocks to pay for all these programs. Thanks liberals. Now we can all be equal-equally poor.

Anonymous said...

Sarah Palin blamed by the US Secret Service over death threats against Barack Obama
Sarah Palin's attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign.

By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 3:01PM GMT 08 Nov 2008

Palin's tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists Photo: Reuters
The Republican vice presidential candidate attracted criticism for accusing Mr Obama of "palling around with terrorists", citing his association with the sixties radical William Ayers.

The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric.

But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.

The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks.

Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: "Why would they try to make people hate us?"

The revelations, contained in a Newsweek history of the campaign, are likely to further damage Mrs Palin's credentials as a future presidential candidate. She is already a frontrunner, with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, to take on Mr Obama in four years time.

Details of the spike in threats to Mr Obama come as a report last week by security and intelligence analysts Stratfor, warned that he is a high risk target for racist gunmen. It concluded: "Two plots to assassinate Obama were broken up during the campaign season, and several more remain under investigation. We would expect federal authorities to uncover many more plots to attack the president that have been hatched by white supremacist ideologues."

Irate John McCain aides, who blame Mrs Palin for losing the election, claim Mrs Palin took it upon herself to question Mr Obama's patriotism, before the line of attack had been cleared by Mr McCain.

That claim is part of a campaign of targeted leaks designed to torpedo her ambitions, with claims that she did not know that Africawas a continent rather than a country.

The advisers have branded her a "diva" and a "whack job" and claimed that she did not know which other countries are in the North American Free Trade Area, (Canada and Mexico). They say she spent more than $150,000 on designer clothes, including $40,000 on her husband Todd and that she refused to prepare for the disastrous series of interviews with CBS's Katie Couric.

In a bid to salvage her reputation Mrs Palin came out firing in an interview with CNN, dismissing the anonymous leakers in unpresidential language as "jerks" who had taken "questions or comments I made in debate prep out of context."

She said: "I consider it cowardly. It's not true. That's cruel, it's mean-spirited, it's immature, it's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news that's not fair and not right."

She was not asked about her incendiary rhetoric against Mr Obama. But she did deny the spending spree claims, saying the clothes in question had been returned to the Republican National Committee. "Those are the RNC's clothes, they're not my clothes. I asked for anything more than maybe a diet Dr Pepper once in a while. These are false allegations."

Speaking as she returned to her native Alaska, Mrs Palin claimed to be baffled by what she claims was sexism on the national stage. "Here in Alaska that double standard isn't applied because these guys know that Alaskan women are pretty tough, on a par with the men in terms of being outdoors, working hard," she said.

"They're commercial fishermen, they're pilots, they're working up on the North slopein the oil fields. You see equality in Alaska. I think that was a bit of as surprise on the national level."

Anonymous said...

The right is not a political party. It is merely a collection of all the varieties of low life fools...bigots, religious nuts, sexual hypocrites and backward fools left over who don't fit into a civilized, progressive nation:

Here's another of the endless examples...

Bush's Friend Belusconi Under Fire in Italy for Racist "Suntanned" Remark About Obama, Which He Said with a Smug Grin

Anonymous said...

Amazing how The Witless Parrot is so worried about Obama paying for things when it's ALWAYS the right wing who runs up the deficit and leaves it to our children to pay off the incredible debts they leave behind.

And, is Obama really NOT an inflexible fool who sticks mindlessly to a PROPOSAL and doesn't perfect it as time goes by?!!

Oh, that is sooo terrible of him!!

Typical of a selfish wingbat to be opposed to any kind of service to their country. That's why the chickenhawk cowards put the burden of their war on a few individuals who are really REQUIRED to do all their fighting for them.

Yes, Lorione, they truly are a motley collection of low lifes.

Anonymous said...

And they just hate those elitist intellectuals who like, uh, know where Africa is.

So, add morons to the list.

Anonymous said...

on his own party!! AND the Freepers declare war....on FOX!!

As the implosion of the defeated Republican campaign continued yesterday, the landscape of American conservatism was dotted with signs that these were very strange times indeed.

Rush Limbaugh, behemoth of rightwing radio, took to the airwaves to declare war on two enemies: Barack Obama and the Republican party. Bloggers at FreeRepublic.com, an internet hub for conservatives, announced a boycott of Fox News and John McCain's aides fell over one another to leak embarrassing details about the campaign to the press.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is worse than I thought," Limbaugh told listeners. "What the Republican party, led by disgruntled and failed McCain staffers, is trying to do to Sarah Palin, is unconscionable ... There are country-club, blue-blood ... Republicans who want nothing to do with a firebrand conservative [who] can fire up people." He added: "We're going to be taking on two things here [over] the next four years: Obama, and our own party establishment."

Anonymous said...

And no, there's no particular "America" that I want. I don't think that's my decision to make.

LOL! Did you vote or NOT?

Anonymous said...

I'm starting a pool to bet on how many days Obama's in the White House before the first bimbo eruption happens.

I say it'll be about three weeks. Any takers?

As a side bet, I'm also giving 50-50 odds that the "bimbo" turns out to be a guy.

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha...and, nobody will give a shit except or repressed little queers like you.

HEYOK said...

Evan wrote and posted this blog. Evan, by posting this blog, has allowed the various verbiage in comments on this blog.
Evan - based on the comments on this blog are you part of the solution or part of the problem?
Blessings still,
David

Anonymous said...

He's part of a very serious problem: the mental health epidemic.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I voted, for the candidate I thought would do the best job of governing this country.

Anonymous said...

08 Nov 2008 04:18 pm

The Conservative Intelligentsia And Palin

Mark Lilla has a must-read in the WSJ today. (Dislcosure: we were political theory students of Shklar and Mansfield at Harvard together years ago). It charts the collapse of the intellectual right from a pioneering attempt to re-think established nostrums about public policy to ... well the Caribbean cruise now floating around on a sea of denial and contempt:

The Palin farce is already the stuff of legend. [but] John McCain's choice was not a fluke, or a senior moment, or an act of desperation. It was the result of a long campaign by influential conservative intellectuals to find a young, populist leader to whom they might hitch their wagons in the future. And not just any intellectuals. It was the editors of National Review and the Weekly Standard, magazines that present themselves as heirs to the sophisticated conservatism of William F. Buckley and the bookish seriousness of the New York neoconservatives. After the campaign for Sarah Palin, those intellectual traditions may now be pronounced officially dead.

Irving Kristol's bitter capitulation to populism a quarter century ago was the harbinger. It's all been downhill since:

Their function within the conservative movement is no longer to educate and ennoble a populist political tendency, it is to defend that tendency against the supposedly monolithic and uniformly hostile educated classes. They mock the advice of Nobel Prize-winning economists and praise the financial acumen of plumbers and builders. They ridicule ambassadors and diplomats while promoting jingoistic journalists who have never lived abroad and speak no foreign languages. And with the rise of shock radio and television, they have found a large, popular audience that eagerly absorbs their contempt for intellectual elites. They hoped to shape that audience, but the truth is that their audience has now shaped them.

One reason I believe the reconstruction of conservatism will require a generation's work is that the rot has gone so deep among so many with so much patronage. If it weren't for the blogosphere allowing new thoughts and debate to bubble up from below, and outside the Kristol-Lowry-Steyn axis, I'd despair.

Anonymous said...

08 Nov 2008 04:18 pm

The Conservative Intelligentsia And Palin

Mark Lilla has a must-read in the WSJ today. (Dislcosure: we were political theory students of Shklar and Mansfield at Harvard together years ago). It charts the collapse of the intellectual right from a pioneering attempt to re-think established nostrums about public policy to ... well the Caribbean cruise now floating around on a sea of denial and contempt:

The Palin farce is already the stuff of legend. [but] John McCain's choice was not a fluke, or a senior moment, or an act of desperation. It was the result of a long campaign by influential conservative intellectuals to find a young, populist leader to whom they might hitch their wagons in the future. And not just any intellectuals. It was the editors of National Review and the Weekly Standard, magazines that present themselves as heirs to the sophisticated conservatism of William F. Buckley and the bookish seriousness of the New York neoconservatives. After the campaign for Sarah Palin, those intellectual traditions may now be pronounced officially dead.

Irving Kristol's bitter capitulation to populism a quarter century ago was the harbinger. It's all been downhill since:

Their function within the conservative movement is no longer to educate and ennoble a populist political tendency, it is to defend that tendency against the supposedly monolithic and uniformly hostile educated classes. They mock the advice of Nobel Prize-winning economists and praise the financial acumen of plumbers and builders. They ridicule ambassadors and diplomats while promoting jingoistic journalists who have never lived abroad and speak no foreign languages. And with the rise of shock radio and television, they have found a large, popular audience that eagerly absorbs their contempt for intellectual elites. They hoped to shape that audience, but the truth is that their audience has now shaped them.

One reason I believe the reconstruction of conservatism will require a generation's work is that the rot has gone so deep among so many with so much patronage. If it weren't for the blogosphere allowing new thoughts and debate to bubble up from below, and outside the Kristol-Lowry-Steyn axis, I'd despair.

John said...

Oh, right, the populist wave that swept Obama in was not heavily comprised of tidal currents of herded up homeless, impoverished, uneducated illiterates, government mooches, private sector looters, and recruited teeny-boppers who think they're voting for the next American Idol.

The trailer-park trash you see on Jerry Springer vote Democrat.

The Red Staters that the left calls "trailer park trash" are simply rustics who watch Hee-Haw (and vote Republican).

Anonymous said...

Your bigotry couldn't be more apparent, John.

The Christian Conservative Mom said...

Well Lara, I would have gone into the reasons the gov't should not "FORCE" you to serve, but my previous comment was already long, so I skipped it.

It amazes me that you think it's ok for the gov't to start mandating what we HAVE to do. I have no problem with service. Our youth group volunteers at a homeless shelter and so do I. We also help with the Angel Tree Network every Christmas and take collections for poor families in our neighborhood on Thanksgiving and my church is letting me use our fellowship hall teach an aerobics class and every dollar of the money raised from fees is going to pay for dental work for a lady who has no dental insurance because she needs thousands of dollars worth of dental work. But hey-I'm a low-life, right?

The point is that when the gov't starts making you do things-where does it stop? And how do we know that eventually they won't tell us where and in what capacity we must serve. Maybe they will make me serve a cause I don't believe in! You don't know.

As for the military-I see no draft. No one is forcing anyone to go into the military. A friend of mine served in the late 90's till 2002 and went back in 2006 just because he wanted to go to Iraq. No one asked him to-he just decided to because he just got a divorce and wanted to get away. So don't try to compare this to anyone being forced to serve. Young men and women are still signing up today KNOWING they may end up in the Middle East and they still choose to sign up.

As for the Republicans always racking up the debt-as I mentioned Clinton raised taxes AND he was president during one of the BEST economic times our country has ever experienced-The dot.com boom. He had more money coming in than he had ever expected, but he didn't cut any programs or shaved them down in order to cut taxes for the people-he spent a lot, but there just happened to be a huge surplus of money coming in. Wouldn't it have been nice to get your taxes lowered due to the dot.com boom?

So when Bush came into office one of the first things he did with the surplus was give back to the people by cutting taxes and sending out rebate checks in 2001. If he could have foreseen that we'd be bombed on 9/11 I'm sure he would have done things differently.

During Bush's presidency we have not only had a very expensive war, but we have been rebuilding Iraq. On top of that we had Katrina, (which to date has cost as the gov't as much as 4 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the 34.4 billion that threw our insurance companies like AIG into a tailspin and caused us to have to bail them out) multiple floods, California fires, hurricane Ike, Hurricane Wilma, helping other countries when they have had weather disasters like the tsunamis in Thailand and Southeast Asia. I could go on, but why? You refuse to recognize these things. FDR racked up quite a bit of debt as well, but I will have to look further into previous presidents to really give an in-depth analyzation of debt of previous presidents but the trend has been that Republicans give tax cuts so it doesn't surprise me. Carter was in the black, but he taxed us so severely that people needed some breathing room when Regan took office so he gave tax cuts which raised the federal deficit slightly but Bush SR. lowered the national debt when he took office after Reagan, and Clinton came in with 8 billion in debt and lowered it with tax increases and an influx of taxes he never expected. In othr words, he got lucky.

Part of the problem with congress in general-both Republicans and Democrats alike is that they waste too much money on pet projects such as teapot museums, bike trails etc. There was 57% reduction in earmarks once they were made transparent, but congress holds every president over a barrel when the president gives them his budget for the next year. They ban together and refuse to sign it if their earmark isn't approved. I say no earmarks at all in federal budgets for the fiscal year. If they want a project done for their state and their state does not have the funds, then they must bring it before congress in a bill. That would greatly reduce wasteful spending. Hopefully Obama will address this, but it's unlikely. It's our money, not theirs so why should they care?

And I believe Obama went back to change his wording because radio hosts were talking about it Friday and people calling in were getting mad about it for the same reason I explained above.

sinking to call me a "lowlife" is what I expect from your side of the camp. You don't know anything about me or that I already serve my community yet you assume I am against serving simply because I don't want the gov't mandating it for me.

Anonymous said...

well said JOHN!

Anonymous said...

Don't waste your breath, patriot. These monkeys wouldn't know when to poop unless der leader told them to hit the head.

Anonymous said...

Powerful Mandate for Liberalism

"...now have bigger majorities in both houses than the G.O.P. ever achieved in its 12-year reign."

Anyone who doubts that we've had a major political realignment should look at what's happened to Congress. After the 2004 election, there were many declarations that we'd entered a long-term, perhaps permanent era of Republican dominance. Since then, Democrats have won back-to-back victories, picking up at least 12 Senate seats and more than 50 House seats. They now have bigger majorities in both houses than the G.O.P. ever achieved in its 12-year reign.

Bear in mind, also, that this year's presidential election was a clear referendum on political philosophies - and the progressive philosophy won.


This year, however, Mr. Obama ran on a platform of guaranteed health care and tax breaks for the middle class, paid for with higher taxes on the affluent. John McCain denounced his opponent as a socialist and a "redistributor," but America voted for him anyway. That's a real mandate.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Witless, don't waste your breath putting out asinine right wing rationalizations that anyone would laugh at who isn't insane.

Obviously, the public service plan is a PROPOSAL which would have to be debated and ratified by congress.

Your lies about the soldiers serving five terms in Iraq are a joke.

EVERY GOP president has run up huge deficits for decades.

Oh, we had a (criminal, UNNECESSARY) war to pay for. siiiiiiiiick.

Then, she's so stupid, she actually brings up Katrina.

All in all, a compendium of what the country just massively rejected.

You're a fool's fool, Parrot...but keep bringing the laughs.

"...giving back to the people."
I can't stop laughing. I guess the rich are people and everyone doesn't count.

Grow up and start looking ar reality.

Anonymous said...

Both parties inevitably have their morons, but the far greater proportion goes to the unspeakable GOP.

In fact, except for the greedy, sociopathic rich and the manipulative "moral" leaders in their television pulpits, they have nothing but morons.

The trick for the Dems is to get a larger share of the idiotocracy for themselves...which they should be doing very consciously.

Unfortunately, as we have seen to great destructive effect recently, the votes of society's lowlifes...like the pseudo-conservatives who visit this site -- count as much as anyone else's...but have a much more devastating effect on society.

It is not cynical to realize that realpolitik requires that they be herded in the right direction.

HEYOK said...

Hello Evan et al...
I was unable to fully participate in the election as I was training with my fellow troops for our deployment to Iraq. We didn’t have time or energy to watch all the results. I finally had time to youtube it today.

In answer to Evans question is this the AMERICA I want I SAY YES!

An America where your opponent/or anyone who disagrees with you isn’t met with Booo’s or a “bring it on” mentality... YES!

An America where labeling and calling names is not accepted. YES!

An America where ALL US citizens can feel empowered to state their views and put forward their ideas. YES!

Just before US troops entered Iraq this last time I had a discussion with my cousin and he said “wait and see.”
I’ve waited and I’ve seen. Now five years later I’m proudly deploying to Iraq with a new message.

I’d ask all folks who supported McCain to listen to his concession speech again and wait and see now. Don’t talk smack... just listen and wait.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Sam the shit spreader...Joe the UnPlumber and His Family Were on Welfare! (We Kid You Not.) You Know, All These GOP Hypocrites like the UnPlumber, Palin and McCain (Who Cashes His Social Security Checks) Should be Given Provisional U.S. Citizenship, Pending Lie Detector and U.S. Citizenship Tests. (Palin Would and Joe Would Fail the Latter for Sure.) Sunday, November 9, 2008


Meanwhile, Hussein Prepares to Exercise the MANDATE by undoing the vile works of the former "president."

What is this?

Praise the Lord and Pass the Shredder: "Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team."

Hilarious. Even now, Bushleague is doing everything in his misbegotten power to set as much damaging mischief into motion as he can in his last days, and Hussein slaps him in the face, very publicly, by letting him know he'll undo it all before it ever goes into effect!!

GOBAMA...this guy is looking more like the real deal every day.

Anonymous said...

Here's one from the "No Shit?" category:

American Spectator: Conservatives Sold Their Souls for Bush
Conservatives lost their way by stubbornly standing behind President George Bush even as he pursued policies directly at odds with conservative principles.

That’s the core assertion that Philip Klein, a reporter for The American Spectator, puts forth in the November issue of the conservative magazine.

“While the benefit of hindsight will be required to assess the Bush presidency in its broadest sense, this is nonetheless an important time for conservatives to reflect on what the past eight years has meant for conservatism itself . . . so that conservatives can begin to examine their own behavior during this time, and thus draw lessons from their own mistakes and false assumptions,” Klein writes.

Conservatives made a big mistake by assuming “that just because Bush appealed to their own cultural sensibilities and angered liberals so much, he must be one of their own.”

Klein pointed to a series of mistakes the Bush administration made during its two terms in office, including the launch of “a costly and unnecessary” war in Iraq, the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, the appointment of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, the ballooning of the federal budget, the erosion of civil liberties, and the failure to head off the current economic crisis.

“Because of Bush’s management failures, conservative governance has become associated with incompetence for a generation of Americans,” Klein maintains.

Bush decided that the only path to victory for a Republican was to “co-opt liberalism,” the writer opines, citing the Medicare prescription drug plan and the expansion of the role of the federal government in education.

Conservatives, Klein states, “often deluded themselves into thinking they had more in common with the man than they actually did . . .

“The bottom line is that for too long, conservatives treated President Bush as one of their own, defended him ferociously, and as a result often gave him a free pass even when his policies and job performance warranted criticism.”

In the future, Klein says, conservatives should actively support policies consistent with their principles and be “more intellectually honest about the flaws of leaders who claim to be conservatives, and more willing to oppose them vigorously when they stray off course.”

Anonymous said...

David,

Go light your crack pipe... and then shove it up your ass! You babykillers need to get a life. We don't need your reicho support.

Anonymous said...

Apparently many Americans visited the widely trumpeted change.gov site, the Obama campaign money shaking site and blueprint for Obama's regime.

What they saw in the America Serves section disturbed them;

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation's challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

Sensitive to publicly announcing his real plans for a forced peacetime draft for domestic purposes, Obama and friends have changed the site's wording. Required has been changed.

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

So students will be called on by Obama to volunteer by dangling a carrot of a "refundable tax credit" so part of "their college education is completely free." Sounds great, something free for a bit of community service.

Not believable.

No mention of increased taxes to fund these free refundable tax credits. Whoops! Obama is so busy basking in the presidential afterglow that he forgot to change a forced requirement. As Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs noted:

They're going through the site and cleaning up the places where it said "require community service," but they missed a spot on this page: Service | Change.gov.

Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama and Biden will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.

Believe it, this too will be changed.

Change is on the way. What about our freedoms? What can we believe about this type of change?

Anonymous said...

Conservative Wishful Thinking

Rich Lowry in a WaPo op-ed engages in one of the more thoughtful examples of Republican and conservative wishful thinking about the election, Sarah Palin and the future of the electorate. Most of the wishful thinking by other conservatives is just nonsense. The recognition of the electoral vote shellacking, the dancing in the streets all over the world over a Republican loss

The refusal to appreciate the across the board nature of the win, and above all, the ignoring of the demographic shifts to come - both ethnic/racial and age-related - are all too common.

Lowry, the editor of National Review, at least recognizes that

there were multiple reasons for losing that have to do with the GOP brand, itself:

Was it brought on by congressional corruption, Bush administration incompetence, intellectual exhaustion or John McCain's failings as a candidate? All of the above -- and then some.

The conservatives can't simply claim that whoever loses wasn't really a conservative.
This year is different. The president the public recoiled from has had the strong support of conservatives, who have celebrated him in books with titles such as "The Right Man" and "Rebel-in-Chief." The shepherd of the Republican congressional majority that was swept out of power in 2006 was conservative stalwart Tom DeLay. After this latest defeat, conservatism has no clear national political leaders and is confused about where it has gone wrong, or even whether it has gone wrong at all.

That's exactly right. Read any of the Abbreviated Pundit summaries to find confused conservatives claiming that the real problem is that conservatives aren't conservative enough, or that bogey man socialists progressives are going to overreach in the first hundred days and ruin the country while opening the door for conservatives to come roaring back by February.

Actually, the first thing Lowry ought to do is get his National Review people to get a grip and get some reality training. After (figuratively) losing Wick Allison and (literally) losing Christopher Buckley, they're more reality-challenged than ever, especially on line. Granted, the amusement of watching a journal that no one takes seriously might be lost, but if the rest of the pundits get a clue from Lowry, there might be a chance for them to rejoin the reality-based community.

In the meantime, the ridiculous rallying cry of the right (this is still a center-right nation) continues unabated.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, "it disturbed them."

You mean it disturbed you self centered, little chickenshithawks.

Anonymous said...

...says the cut'n-run surrender monkey.

There's still time to surrender in Iraq. Send Petreus over to see Moqtada al-Sadr and law his sword at Moqi's feet.

Wolaboga said...

Evan,

How do you put up with all this vitriol? Many Liberals are obviously incredibly mean-spirited and nasty.

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine served in the late 90's till 2002 and went back in 2006 just because he wanted to go to Iraq. No one asked him to-he just decided to because he just got a divorce and wanted to get away.

gotta divorce...wanted to get away, maybe take his anger and frustration out on some Iraqis, huh?

Anonymous said...

That's funny; the country you hate so much thinks the reichos are the vicious ones.

That's why your issue free campaigns worked so well for you this time around.

The Christian Conservative Mom said...

Lara:

"Your lies about the soldiers serving five terms in Iraq are a joke."

When did I say they served 5 terms? He served 2 terms. I said that.

and Bush gave tax cuts to nearly everyone, not just the rich. My federal income tax refund has been almost 40% higher since he's been in office & we make less than $60,000 and until just a few months ago we made under $50,000 so I'd hardly say we're rich, but if you want to bring that up, I'll point out that the U.S. taxes on the rich are the 2nd highest in the WORLD. (even under Bush) Japan is #1. What is it you want? For all corporations to have to lay people off or raise the price of things we buy to get back the taxes they are going to face?

You know that's what is going to happen. You know they're not going to take a profit loss. So WE are going to pay higher prices. You can also only tax them so much before they leave and then when they are gone-where does he get the money to pay for all of these new programs I mentioned in my first comment? You never addressed that. Where is all the money coming from?

And I think Katrina is a VERY valid point. Why is it not? Katrina got so much funding because the victims of Katrina whined so loud. We've had other national disasters and FEMA & neighborhoods pull together and rebuild and the people don't just stand there with their hands out and expect to get their visa card and their new house built and everything else paid for, but because everyone was whining about how the gov't didn't care about black people the gov't had to shut them up by throwing money at them and they STILL aren't grateful!

I really don't care if you think I'm a fool. I'm pointing out obvious things and only a real fool could think there is enough money in a bad economy to support all these new programs like healthcare, $4000 for every college student who serves 100 hrs, all the new corps, ending world poverty, stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons, 200 billion more in another rescue plan, education, expanding gov't jobs, lowering taxes for the middle class, gov't funded abortions, expanding federally funded after-school programs, etc. So DO TELL where all the money is going to come from since you are so wise.

If taxes are going to be lowered for 95% of us, (even giving tax refunds to people who pay NO TAXES) how is 5% of the population going to pay for all of these expenses? I'd really like to hear your feedback on this since you ignored it last time.

Anonymous said...

Don't you mean the whole world knows how vicious they are?

UK Telegraph: Sarah Palin blamed by the US Secret Service over death threats against Barack Obama, Sarah Palin's thinly veiled racism and her attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign. 11/9

As Krugman says, the time of the MONSTERS is over...for now.

But like in a typical horror movie they'll be back again.

Anonymous said...

Not my argument...and I don't usually argue with wingbats like this, but the figures on taxes are clear...the overwhelming cuts went to the wealthiest...and we have the deficits now to show how that worked out. Typically, we get cuts for the wealthy from these whores, INCREASED spending on useless crap like even more for the bloated "defense" industry...and the huge, growing deficits blithely ignored while these short sighted morons stick their heads up their asses. Obama merely wants to take them back to the pre Bush years which is still a far too low rate...far lower than it has historically been.

As for the rest of this silly garbage, the country just rejected this whole retardo "philosophy" overwhelmingly.

Come back in thirty years, witless one, when they've forgotten it again.

Anonymous said...

We've actually got someone here using the Bush tax cuts and economic plan as a model??!!!

Witless, indeed!

Definition of a conservative: someone who CAN NOT LEARN.

The Christian Conservative Mom said...

karin:

"the overwhelming cuts went to the wealthiest..."

Yesssss? I never said the rich didn't get tax cuts. In fact I pointed out that once we tax them higher they will pass on the tax to us and that are the second highest taxed in the world. I did say that my Husband and I also got a tax cut and that's true.

Your Messiah says he will give a tax cut to the middle class ASAP, but you say Clinton's taxes were already too low and now Obama is promising even lower taxes than the current Bush tax cuts, which will be WAY WAY lower than Clinton's so you must be saying that Obama shouldn't give tax cuts at all, yet you support his economic policies?

The Christian Conservative Mom said...

fj:

"Don't waste your breath, patriot. These monkeys wouldn't know when to poop unless der leader told them to hit the head."

true fj. I don't know why I continue to cast my pearls before swine, but I do enjoy a good debate and I find that I learn more and do more research when I am up against the opposition.

I don't think I really ever understood Democrats till this election, but now I do partly thanks to Evan's speech at the Heritage Foundation and a radio program I heard him on and everything he said has turned out to be exactly right.

Anonymous said...

We all enjoy a good debate, patriot, but you won't find one here anymore. The "reasonable" liberals have long since abdicated to the hecatoncheires of their party as Evan refuses to exercise even a minimal level of control over his own property (this blog). Like the Bush Administration, he lets the tresspassers and n'er do wells vandalize everything around him in the name of "free speech". Just another "tragedy of the commons" if you ask me. Like ducks who crap all around the pond and create a health hazard, the hecatoncheires now rule this blog's comments section.

Evan should do everyone a favor and disable comments.

Anonymous said...

It's like trying to re-educate brainwashed robots who were never that smart in the first place.
This FJ moron is the fool who was telling us about the astronomical rates just prior to your last great depression...when in fact they were again historically low...as they have been prior to this disaster. Your tax bleat is simple minded, historically incorrect idiocy. And your reckless, corrupt president is the first in history to cut them during war.

Anonymous said...

Good plan there FJ. I think you should all crawl into a hole and plug your ears.

Taxes are about paying bills. I know the party of personal irresponsibility is opposed to that, which is why we need adults to run the country after every one of your childish "administrations."

HEYOK said...

Wolaboga said...
Evan,

How do you put up with all this vitriol? Many Liberals are obviously incredibly mean-spirited and nasty.

My first post above says:
HEYOK said...
Evan wrote and posted this blog. Evan, by posting this blog, has allowed the various verbiage in comments on this blog.
Evan - based on the comments on this blog are you part of the solution or part of the problem?
Blessings still,
David

And here’s a response... rhamboid said...
David,

Go light your crack pipe... and then shove it up your ass! You babykillers need to get a life. We don't need your reicho support.
I’d ask Wolaboga if it’s ONLY the liberals responding with mean-spirited and nasty comments? Is it only one sided?
Wolaboga... IMO Evan uses many labels. The labels Evan uses don’t tell us who we are as US citizens, patriots, etc. They do not connect people.
IMO the vitriol in comments on Evan’s blog are encouraged by Evan based on the language he chooses. He is a “writer” right. He knows how to word smith and how to make his point.
Given the state of the world, the US economy, the media, ongoing war zones, --- isn’t their something more to focus on rather than the vitriol that seems to follow what Evan has to say?
My worry – Evan (based on passed “personal” experience interacting with him) will state that this blog had “X” hits and that means everyone agrees with him. Much like the labels he doles out he is very free with the facts (facts he never supports with links or anything else). IMO that’s why he quit communicating with me. The facts simply don’t support his Modern Liberal take on current events.
His blogs are good for a laugh and a bunch of responses yet don’t measure up to the scrutiny of proof.
So it’s both sides saying nasty things IMO. Lets all stop that and figure out how to get out of the mess we’re in. Let’s all stop the labels and do what we can to try and make the world better for our kids!
(Too others who are hopeful and excited Obama is the president elect): I’ve been through some pretty intense training in my prep to deploy to Iraq. One of the things that has stuck with me is, “Your facts cannot change my perspective.”
Blessings, David

Anonymous said...

Yes, and they like to make up their own facts...like the lie about our high taxes. First, she confuses corporate taxes with individual taxes and then lies about even that. Because we have so many special tax preferences for businesses, our actual collections are the fourth lowest corporate tax revenues among all OECD countries. You cannot just look at the initial rate.

But this should all be moot. We have a clear historical record with our best economic performance and highest living standards for the middle and working classes coming before the disaster begun by Reagan and leading to this mess.

Anonymous said...

Is Sanity Catching On All Over?

Pentagon board says cuts essential
Tells Obama to slash large weapons programs
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | November 10, 2008

WASHINGTON - A senior Pentagon advisory group, in a series of bluntly worded briefings, is warning President-elect Barack Obama that the Defense Department's current budget is "not sustainable," and he must scale back or eliminate some of the military's most prized weapons programs.

HEYOK said...

If "sanity" means real interactions between real people I'm all for it.

Anonymous said...

David, you sick reicho thug. We got this blog covered alredy. And If all you did was train to deploy to Irak and never deployed you're even a loser at killing babies that needs to go find a pacifier to suck on. If you want to sing kumbaya, go start a fucking band of your own.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree that comments need to be disabled, but I do think that Evan needs to find a way to moderate them. I also think Evan's speech at Heritage went a long way toward explaining some of the contradictions I had long seen in the liberal philosophy. I like a good debate, and have no problem with respectful disagreement. I just don't think the discussion is in any way productive when it devolves into personal insults. I continue to marvel at how the party of peace and love and tolerance is consistently the first to stop rational discussion and get nasty. I know it shouldn't surprise me anymore. (Ironically, maybe there is a grain of truth about conservatives not learning from their mistakes, given that we keep assuming we can have these discussions without the sniping!) Anyway, I think Evan has a great site here and I would love to be able to have intelligent discussions here. I don't need to agree with everyone, but I also don't want to waste my time and energy digging through the nastiness to get to the substance. I know other forums have had reasonable rules about "flames" that could be used here. I hope that can happen here too.

HEYOK said...

Ohh soooooooo sad.
herrkleinschmidttmukluk
You made my point better than I did. Thanks for that.
Evan - when will you show up and deal with what you've encouraged??

Wolaboga said...

I think Evan has a great site here and I would love to be able to have intelligent discussions here. I don't need to agree with everyone, but I also don't want to waste my time and energy digging through the nastiness to get to the substance.

Ditto.

Evan Sayet's talk at Heritage (found on Youtube) was the ONLY Youtube video greater than 3 minutes that was able to hold my attention to the end.

In other words, he has a lot of great stuff to say. So I'll read it whether the comments are civil or nasty. But it sure would be nice to have civil conversations about what he has to say.

Anonymous said...

What he has to say, peabrain, if you can call his redundant parrot squawk speaking, is that liberals are evil and wear black hats and conservatives are good blah blah blah...then we have to hear the endless chorus of how nasty liberals are from his parrot flock...blah blah blah...when we respond in kind to the sicko whack job.

Booooooooooooooooooring little dingalings.

Anonymous said...

Obama set to wipe out Guantanamo and the blight on our reputation it brought.

Anonymous said...

Since the New York Times first revealed in 2005 that the NSA was eavesdropping on citizen's overseas phone calls and e-mails, few additional details about the massive "Terrorist Surveillance Program" have emerged. That's because the Bush Administration has stonewalled, misled and denied documents to Congress, and subpoenaed the phone records of the investigative reporters.

Now privacy advocates are hopeful that a President Obama will be more forthcoming with information. But for the quickest and most honest account of Bush's illegal policies, they say don't look to the incoming president. Watch instead for the hidden army of would-be whistle-blowers who've been waiting for Inauguration Day to open the spigot on the truth.

"I'd bet there are a lot of career employees in the intelligence agencies who'll be glad to see Obama take the oath so they can finally speak out against all this illegal spying and get back to their real mission," says Caroline Fredrickson, the ACLU's Washington D.C. legislative director.

New Yorker investigative reporter Seymour Hersh already has a slew of sources waiting to spill the Bush administration's darkest secrets, he said in an interview last month. "You cannot believe how many people have told me to call them on January 20. [They say,] 'You wanna know about abuses and violations? Call me then.'"

Anonymous said...

Wolaboga, I think the problem lies with your attention span more than anything else.

Anonymous said...

Barack Obama has AIDS. That's why they would only release a summary of his health records.

Anonymous said...

"karin said...
What he has to say, peabrain, if you can call his redundant parrot squawk speaking, is that liberals are evil and wear black hats and conservatives are good blah blah blah...then we have to hear the endless chorus of how nasty liberals are from his parrot flock...blah blah blah...when we respond in kind to the sicko whack job.

Booooooooooooooooooring little dingalings."

...and yet you choose to spend your time here. Fascinating. So, either you enjoy being bored, or you somehow feel compelled to spend precious time reading and replying to things you claim to already have such a good handle on. Thanks, Karin, for illustrating my point far better than any mere description!

By the way, Evan makes it pretty clear that he does not see liberals as evil. That's one of his main points. The speech at the Heritage Foundation, from what I gathered, is an attempt to explain how so many smart, good people, could be in favor of the things they espouse. But there again is proof of my point- that it's not about what conservatives say or do so much as that we merely exist and have differing opinions, that causes so much vitriol among libs. Half the time they can listen to an entire speech and come away presuming we believe things we never said- and don't believe. (Guess it's those darn "code words" we're always using!)
***
So, for those of you who have seen Evan's Heritage speech, how do you reconcile the left's mantra of peace and love and tolerance with their apparent need to hate? How does that fit with his thesis? Any interesting thoughts?

Lorione said...

Ok- the AIDS comment is totally unnecessary and actually detracts from the point-- that it really would be nice to have all his records made public- including all those years at Harvard where we have zippo records of his publishing anything of substance. Editor of the law review with nothing published? Huh? I guess all messiahs need to have those "missing years" to keep the mystique going? If there's nothing bad in any of those records, then why are they not public?

p.s. I gave in and created a google acct. so I could be the one and only me! :-)

Anonymous said...

O has AIDs...Yeeech! You reichos are the most vicious scumbags on the planet. First your vicious, racist campaign which sickened even decent conservatives...

Anonymous said...

So, for those of you who have seen Evan's Heritage speech, how do you reconcile the left's mantra of peace and love and tolerance with their apparent need to hate? How does that fit with his thesis? Any interesting thoughts?

Lol...on what...your delusions?
Are we actually supposed to take insane babble like that seriously?

Lorione said...

Karin, in response to an intelligent question said:

"Lol...on what...your delusions?
Are we actually supposed to take insane babble like that seriously?"

It's adorable, how you continue to prove my point. Since you've been so kind as to provide me with a priceless illustration, I'll bite! Your previous "summary" of Evan's speech was factually quite inaccurate. I'm wondering if you have seen or heard it, or are simply making things up to suit your view of what conservatives think. If you have seen, heard, or read it, I'd love to know what, specifically, you disagree with and why. Or you can fling more insults and continue to be a shining example of exactly the point he's making. It's all good! :-)

Anonymous said...

More Right Wing Hate:

James Dobson's Focus on the Family compares Obama victory to Nazi bombing. Dobson Should be Exiled. 11/10

FBI finding big spike in racist death threats to Obama. Secret Service blames Palin/McCain speeches.

Anonymous said...

Would you believe Barack Obama has hemroids and finds that the only way he can find relief from the itch is to be penetrated by a 350# canine mastiff nightly?

Anonymous said...

"Karin, in response to typical, idiotic slander said:


"Lol...on what...your delusions?
Are we actually supposed to take insane babble like that seriously?"

Hear, hear, K. They can't understand why their lies don't work for shit anymore.

Anonymous said...

Okay, would you believe that the only way Obama can find hemroid relief is to have a 350# mastiff lick his ass nightly?

Anonymous said...

I'm HIV positive that Obama has AIDS, though.

Anonymous said...

And, when he starts spreading it to the interns that's when America will turn on him.

Anonymous said...

And we know Bin Laden is readying his attacks now...the only question...is Obama signaling Osama?

Anonymous said...

Roftlmao...do you think he will infect more male interns or more female inters...or the dog he's geting?

Anonymous said...

lol...do you thing hes given it to Biden yet

The Christian Conservative Mom said...

Since some of you seem so eager to refute my data and none of you have links to where you get yours I thought I'd actaully post my links here.

"Currently, the average combined federal and state corporate tax rate in the U.S. is 39.3 percent, second among OECD countries to Japan's combined rate of 39.5 percent."

you can find the above quote by clicking here.

In fact, in most other OECD countries, they are CUTTING corporate taxes and you can read about it here.

Now, I know how you guys are so eager to prove me wrong so you'll be quick to find a study like this one: here which says the "overall" tax burden in the U.S. is low, but that's because they are factoring in ALL taxes-including the middle class, but still the fact remains that corporate taxes are higher.

Here's another non-partisan study analysis:

DALLAS (January 21, 2008) – As Congress debates whether to renew tax cuts enacted early in the George W. Bush presidency, as well as various economic stimulus plans, critics often label the measures as "tax cuts for the rich." Yet a new report from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) says the Bush tax cuts made the tax code more progressive, no matter how progressivity is measured. In fact, the report concludes that every major tax change (Republican or Democrat) over the past two decades has increased the share of taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans.

you can read the rest of it:

here

I realize this would require some reading and critical thinking so it's a lot to ask, but do take the time to actually read it and not just continue to spout your opinion on things based on your allegiance to Keith Olbermann and friends.

And based on my reading in these studies I might actually have to admit I made a mistake in assuming the rich or corporations got big tax cuts. Actually it looks like it doesn't pay to be rich in America- it costs more.

Anonymous said...

These are the plans the leftists have for us...be very careful from now on:

Congressman Warns of Obama Dictatorship

Monday, November 10

WASHINGTON — A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship.


"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."


Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.


"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."


Obama's comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado.

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," Obama said in July. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."


Broun said he also believes Obama likely will move to ban gun ownership when he does build a national police force.


"We can't be lulled into complacency," Broun said. "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany.

Obama's transition office did not respond immediately to Broun's remarks.

Anonymous said...

Omigod, what a tool...the Tax Foundation! These are the right wing crackpots who propose their looney "tax freedom day" for April 15 every year.

Why do you bother? Don't you know you're history...til the next batch of naive fools comes along in 20 or 30 years.

Anonymous said...

I know why Obama's getting the dog...it won't tell.

Anonymous said...

on the Fox Boycott.
Here are some of our reasons and comments:

Boycott of FOX
Vanity | 11-06-08 | Veritas 2002

Posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:07:54 AM by veritas2002

I propose that we punish the FOX Network for its hatchet job on Sarah Palin.

For one week beginning at 3:00 PM today no one tunes them in. We will demonstrate the power of conservatives when their ratings plummet dramatically.

Will you join me?



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TOPICS: News/Current Events; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: boycottfox; cameron; crushfox; defendpalin; fox; foxcnnmsnbc; foxnews; palin; protectpalin
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Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-50, 51-100, 101-150, 151-200 ... 301-312 next last
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1 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:07:55 AM by veritas2002
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To: veritas2002
I joined the boycott 3 months ago.



2 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:08:49 AM by albie
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To: veritas2002
..also send Thank's to Governor Palin.. Operation Freep Palin

3 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:08:50 AM by mnehrling
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To: veritas2002
I’m done with Teevee. Let them all go to hell.



4 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:08:56 AM by rom
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To: veritas2002
I am with you all the way my friend...i hope FOX goes off the air...hate em now...



5 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:08:58 AM by MountainWoman
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To: veritas2002
Count me in. I have been very unhappy with them lately!



6 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:09:49 AM by NRA2BFree (FAITH IS DARING THE SOUL TO GO BEYOND WHAT THE EYES CAN SEE.)
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To: veritas2002
It would be easy. Nearly every show on FNC is unwatchable these days. ....for quite a while, in fact.



7 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:00 AM by Mr. Mojo
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To: albie
Ha, I’ve been on a TV news “boycott” since the 2004 election.



8 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:07 AM by Carling (After the post-election GOP attacks against Gov. Palin, I am sad to say I am leaving the party..)
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To: veritas2002
I’m in.



9 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:11 AM by Kent C
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To: veritas2002
I started last week.



10 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:21 AM by pgkdan ("White folks greed runs a world in need," Jeremiah Wright as quoted by Barack Obama)
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To: veritas2002
fauxNEWS - We Distort, You Comply

11 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:34 AM by TV Dinners (....there's nothing else to eat)
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To: MountainWoman
What a bunch of turncoats you are. Don’t like what you hear, let’s boycott. Give me a break. You boycott your family members when they don’t agree with you or say something you don’t want to hear? Hey, don’t watch Fox if you don’t like it, but tossing out boycott is petty



12 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:38 AM by GerardKempf (Let's Get Over This)
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To: veritas2002
I think we are already boycotting all MSN, including FOX!



13 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:38 AM by timestax ( CNNLIES)
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To: albie
Noob! I quit watching tv news 3 years ago. ;o)



14 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:41 AM by yooling (The MSM is to Obama as Ron Santo is to the Cubs)
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To: veritas2002
YES.

Send this to FOX. I am DONE until the hatchet job on Sarah Palin stops being tabloid journalism in place of news. Maybe longer.



15 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:59 AM by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: veritas2002
Who will know if I don’t tune in?



16 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:10:59 AM by DManA
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To: veritas2002
We don't watch any of the entertainment "news" stations, and haven't for ages.
Sorry we can't help.


17 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:00 AM by G.Mason
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To: veritas2002
too late.........I wrote them off months ago



18 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:10 AM by Carley (Vote McCain/Palin.....Change babies can live with.)
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To: veritas2002
only if this action guarantees that Shep Smith be ‘promoted’ to replace Mario Lopez’s gig searching for pet talent



19 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:10 AM by conservative_guyz
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To: veritas2002
I’ve been boycotting for about two years.

Faux is a joke other than Neil Cavuto.



20 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:14 AM by A message (This tagline is in mourning.)
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To: veritas2002
Already started! I am in!



21 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:15 AM by Shire
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To: veritas2002
I turned them off long ago...but I will be curious to see if we can lower their Nielsen ratings.
GO TO EVERY RIGHTWING BLOG AND TELL THEM TO TURN OFF FOX.


22 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:17 AM by roses of sharon (The MSM vampires must die.)
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To: veritas2002
started here 2 weeks ago, no end in sight.



23 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:32 AM by lmc12
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To: veritas2002
Start with:

Oreilly@foxnews.com

Tell him he’s no better than the “smear merchants” and “bombthrowers” he holds in such contempt. Allowing Carl Cameron to spew unmitigated hearsay and garbage without one shred of supporting evidence or fact makes O’Reilly just as bad as the supermarket tabloids.

Maybe it won’t make any difference, but at least it’s theraputic to hit that smug condescending bastard where he’s most vulnerable - square in his gigantic ego!



24 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:39 AM by bigbob
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To: veritas2002
The only good one on there is Hannity and I usually don’t watch him anyway, not home at that time, or busy. Though Greta was OK for a while there too.

I would only turn on a news channel at this point if there were some huge story where one would need the news station’s infrastructure to find out what was going on, whether a natural disaster, terror or international story.



25 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:50 AM by Yaelle
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To: veritas2002
I haven’t watched FOX since I got disillusioned over the amnesty push by both Bush and McCain.

Life without FOX is good.



26 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:50 AM by TruthConquers (Delendae sunt publici scholae)
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To: albie
I joined starting today. Don’t forget to take the recordings off the TIVO or DVR. Their ratings can read that somehow.



27 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:51 AM by carjic (I would crawl over a mile of "Broken Glass" to vote for Palin!!!)
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To: GerardKempf
tee hee, that you Shep?



28 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:57 AM by Carley (Vote McCain/Palin.....Change babies can live with.)
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To: veritas2002
What’s the purpose behind these attacks on Sarah Palin from Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron?

It’s not a secret that Rupert Murdoch donated to Hilary Clinton’s campaign.

It’s not a secret that 81% of Fox News reporters and employees donate money to the Democratic party - that’s a crazy high number for an allegedly conservative TV channel.

It’s no secret to the gay community that Shepard Smith is “one” of them.

It’s no secret that Fox News has really hot chicks and I’m tuning in just to look at them!

We’re on our own as conservatives and we need to be prepared for the next couple of years.



29 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:57 AM by Doug4McCain (I'm sorry for supporting McCain, but I still love Sarah Palin.)
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To: veritas2002
IN...for awhile now
and I don’t miss it



30 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:11:57 AM by jocwhales
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To: veritas2002
I hope she sues them for defamation.



31 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:12:20 AM by BigCinBigD ('When a man believes that any stick will do, he at once picks up a boomerang,')
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To: bigbob
Be sure when you tell O’Reilly anything to keep it pithy.



32 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:12:42 AM by Shire
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To: veritas2002
I began my boycott of Fox election night. They are locked out of my Dish.



33 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:13:03 AM by kittymyrib
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To: veritas2002
I boycotted Fox following the third debate.



34 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:13:03 AM by libh8er
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To: veritas2002
I’m in, veritas. Deal.



35 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:13:08 AM by Miss Behave (Beloved daughter of Miss Creant, super sister of danged Miss Ology, and proud mother of Miss Hap.)
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To: veritas2002
No problem! I don't receive FOX News via my roof antenna and have no intention of subscribing to cable or satellite service. NO FOX News for me!
I get all of my news from Conservative websites (like here on FR) and 1. Rush, 2. Levin, 3. Hannity 4. some Boortz 4. and some Laura Ingraham.


36 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:13:29 AM by KriegerGeist (Hey Hussein! REDISTRIBUTE THIS!)
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To: veritas2002
Boycott already long under way here.

I’ll step them up to Double Secret Boycott, because my disddain for Fox reached the tipping point around the time of the hiring of Jerry Rivers, and the trashing of the Swift Boat Vets by East Coast Bill O’Ego.



37 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:13:40 AM by EyeGuy (Obama will deliver America on a Leash to an envious world.)
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To: veritas2002
FNC throws its base under the bus, just like Bush did. We’ll see if it works better for them than it did for the RINOs.

I’m in.



38 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:13:46 AM by Thane_Banquo (President George W. Bush, RINO-in-Chief.)
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To: veritas2002; All
Get local with this. There are Fox and other network affiliates in most cities. Let them know.

I disconnected my satelite 2 years ago over this. Let the cable co’s etc know why if you do the same.



39 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:13:48 AM by AuntB (The right to vote in America: Blacks 1870; Women 1920; Native Americans 1925)
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To: veritas2002
I’m in.



40 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:13:59 AM by The Californian (The door to the room of success swings on the hinges of opposition. Bob Jones, Sr.)
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To: veritas2002
Already started.

We bought Fox News a dress, picked them up in a limo and pinned the corsage on them. Now that they are at the dance they don’t even know us.



41 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:13:59 AM by Treefiddy
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To: veritas2002
I’m in. I usually watch Fox News from 3-10 pm. I’ll tune out the next few days.



42 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:14:04 AM by Unkosified (What do Osama and Obama have in common? They both have friends that bombed the Pentagon.)
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To: albie
Count ME in too!



43 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:14:13 AM by CARepublicans
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To: veritas2002
I’m absolutely in. And im in for a good long while. I’ve 90% decided to disconnect my cable TV. Except for Turner Classic Movies and history and travel channel id never miss it.



44 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:14:20 AM by DesertRhino (Dogs earn the title of "man's best friend", Muslims hate dogs,,add that up.)
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To: veritas2002
I’ve been a part of that boycott for going on two years now.



45 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:14:26 AM by brushcop (We remember SSG Harrison Brown, PVT Andrew Simmons B CO 2/69 3ID KIA Iraq OIF IV)
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To: veritas2002
I boycott all TV news. It’s all spoon feed propaganda to make the rats look good.



46 posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:14:26 AM by 4yearlurker (Want to be lied to? Turn on your TV.)
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To: veritas2002
I am going to do that and raise you one cable contract cancelled.

Anonymous said...

The long stab in the back continues as a cockroach prepares another raid on the people's pantry.

Anonymous said...

Like conservatives are REALLY about to join liberals in boycotting the only MSM news outlet that gives conservative views any hearing at all...

Keep dreamin' moonbats!

HEYOK said...

As I'm someone who acknowledges I simply cannot know it all. I'm asking anyone to explain to me what all the messages regarding boycott of FOX news are about. Why are these messages suddenly thrown up here?

I've been trying to read and listen to all sides outside the public media which is how I met Evan in the first place. So FOX won't miss me.

HEYOK said...

Again I SAY!!!!

Evan where are you? You wrote this blog and are responsible to respond to peoples responses.

IMO the diversity you've gathered (minus the vitriol you have privately stated is annoying)can come together to accomplish so much.

Yet you spit out "labels." What next?

How do we solve the various problems our nation faces?
Any ideas on that (without labels - PLZ don't type "white house nigg-r ever again)??

You disappeared from our personal discussion before... you disappeared when I offered too many facts IMO.

It's time to meet in the middle. OR at least meet. Up until now you say whatever you want and then stay silent.

If your point is strong quit counting hits on your site and discuss it.

Anonymous said...

Wow, talk about someone with an overblown opinion of himself.

heyok, don't you know that your job now that the election is over is to put one thumb in your mouth and the other up your ass and wait for der leader to tell you to "switch"?

The Obamessiah is all knowing and all powerful. He's going to heal the planet, I tell you. And he doesn't need any of your stupid ideas to do it!

Anonymous said...

The shrub was right....he is a uniter. Thanks, W!

Thank you, President Bush, for taking your eight years in office to
finally unite the country as one. You have accomplished a goal that has
never been attained by any one man in the political history of the
United States.

Bush made it possible for a mixed-race American to become president. He
helped dissipate the Republican Party. He helped people recognize that
if we do not come together, we cannot survive as a country.

Every class of America has said, "Enough." America craves the neglected
ideals of equality, honesty, integrity, dignity, democracy, brotherhood
and sisterhood. America has spent eight years in the dark, and now,
thanks to Bush, America has voted overwhelmingly for a dark man to shine
the light and let us back in.

Bush tore the country apart, and by doing so, he pulled the country
together, stronger and faster than any act of war or nature.

Thank you, George Bush, for being so bad.

Anonymous said...

Heyok, the boycott of Fox is a growing CONSERVATIVE movement. They have been utter T-R-A-I-T-O-R-S in their treatment of Sarah Palin. Go to Free Republic and see for yourself. In addition, it is known that Rupert Murdoch gave big to Hillary and that many of their reporters give to the Democrat party.

Read the comments and learn why. They can all be found on F R if you doubt their authenticity.

Anonymous said...

PS. the purpose of posting them here is to alert more conservatives to the new threat posed by...of all things...our one friendly television station!!

Spread the word. Our movement is in great danger.

Anonymous said...

Goooo Billeh!!

You've really found something to bring us together.

I've been girlcotting Fox, well....like forever. Lol.

Anonymous said...

Yes. This is an excellent idea. For conservatives, your path back to power involves large-scale purges and purity tests. Whittle yourselves down to the tiniest core of frothing-at-the-mouth true-believers. Choosing Sarah Palin as your litmus test is also an excellent idea, because she is well-respected by many, many Americans who consider her smart, knowledgeable about the issues, and ready to lead at a moment's notice. Conservatives, this is your path to salvation. Now go to it.

Anonymous said...

Boy, this place is getting to be a microcosm of what's left floating in the bilge after the destruction of the right:

A bunch of degenerate, little homophobes, a "rational" conservative bleating the discredited, old talking points on taxestaxestaxes (yaaaaaaaaawn), and another guy involved in one of the many internecine battles amongst the tattered remnants of America's nastiest movement ever...the last gasp of the Neandertals.

Tooooooooo funny...has it ever been more fun to be LIBERAL?

Anonymous said...

That's right, 'it's over,' they should definitely go all the way with this small (circus) tent idea. In fact, I think they should just make it a pup tent.

One GOP congressman wants to "rebuild" the party around the sank-titty of marriage idea. I found that to be brilliant.

In an age of war, environmental collapse and financial ruin, what else will grab a trogs soul more than a big idea like that?

A whole tent full of religious nuts, bigots,chickenhawks, homophobes and happy, lil married couples in three ways with naughty Sarah...that's the way back.

We'll be sure to send you the measurements for the White House drapes so you can sew in your spare time.

Anonymous said...

This is not over. G-d will find a way in fact he probaly already has a plan to implant Mrs. Palin in the Whitehouse. Don ot give up hope for a G-dly America where liberals will be forced to colme to G-d at last.

Anonymous said...

Oh, gosh I forogot to add the story:

Palin: 'God' will show me the way

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Defeated Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Monday she hopes God will "show her the way" to the White House.

Anonymous said...

ps - And all you liberals out there, don't forget to boycott NBC Monday Night Football until they can the T_R_A_I_T_O_R Keith Olbermann! He had the nerve to say that Obama was NOT the TRUE messiah!

And remember, to be a journalist in the tank with Obama is the mark of a true patriot!

Anonymous said...

The new Secret Service's code name for Barack Obama is RENEGADE and for Michelle Obama is RENAISSANCE.

Talk about RACIST! It's like a combination of Mandingo meets Billy Holiday, uptown. Will the racial divisions in our country NEVER be healed?

Anonymous said...

O-Ba-MA! O-Baaaah-MA!

The Christian Conservative Mom said...

lara...I ALSO used the Tax Policy Center and the NCPA, but my guess is that you didn't click on the links or read them, which just proves my point that it would require some reading and critical thinking that I don't think you are capable of.

As usual-you provided no links and no valid arguments. Refuting my source does not show your knowledge on the subject and until you have knowledge you will have nothing but what the media tells you is the truth.

I have noticed that rather than engage in a stimulating debate and prove your points with facts and resources-you choose to just take the low road and spout your hate. If you have noticed-I have yet to call you a name or be hateful. I have simply put out info but instead of returning the favor-you just choose to insult me and call me names. The difference between you and me is that I love this country and I want people to wake up and see what is going on here and I know that name calling and just refuting someone's source is not going to get us where we need to be-which is quite opposite of what you are doing by being hateful.

What resources do you use to come to your conclusions anyway? I'd really like to know. Do you go to

Thomas.loc.gov
congress.org
senate.gov
house.gov

My guess is no because people who actually write to their Senators and congressmen and take a vested interest in their country and study the issues through a variety of sources including the actual documents and bills themselves, have more to say than:

"It's like trying to re-educate brainwashed robots who were never that smart in the first place. "

and

"Omigod, what a tool...the Tax Foundation! These are the right wing crackpots who propose their looney "tax freedom day" for April 15 every year."

If you were really that passionate about "changing" your country, and you had a real clue about what is going on in this country then you'd back your claims with actual things you had read or studied instead of just spouting idiotic statements that have no relevance to what you are saying is "the truth."
(and yes, I said idiotic "statements", but I did not call YOU an idiot. I think you are just misled by the liberals, but that can change. Look at Evan-he use to be a liberal so there's still hope for you, my friend...)

Anonymous said...

LOL...Witless is one of those sanctimonious passive-aggressives who couldn't learn if even if she did actually try ...which she does not.

Here's your REALITY...look at the performance of the presidents and the huge deficits run up every time by the GOPiggies...and the growing gap between rich and poor...now the biggest ever since the FDR years, and if you still haven't learned anything by then, at least quit bothering sane people to debate you when everyone knows it is useless.

I've been down that road and learned that you people are just for kicking around...objects of sport.

Anonymous said...

Some GOPs can learn, though, I guess...look at the army of big names that left the halloween party recently...of course, they're no longer GOPs, are they?

Leaving you even narrower and loonier than ever.

Anonymous said...

Wall Street Journal questions McCain's honor!!

Calls him 'dishonorable,' 'incompetent,' 'a loser.'


The conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal called out Sen. John McCain Tuesday, excoriating his campaign for leaking "nasty stuff" about Gov. Sarah Palin after the election and questioning his honor.

"Where's John McCain's honor when we need it?" the Journal remarks. "In the week since the election, Mr. McCain's campaign team has leaked some nasty stuff about Sarah Palin. These leaks are personal, and they speak more to the character of Mr. McCain and the leakers than they do to Mrs. Palin. So it will be telling if Mr. McCain stands up for his partner and says how offended he has been by what some of his staffers have done to her."

"Two weeks or so before the campaign was over, the first round of McCain campaign rumors alleged that Mrs. Palin was a 'whack job,' and characterized her clothes-shopping as "hillbillies looting Neiman-Marcus from coast to coast.'"

An adviser also leaked a claim that Palin didn't know Africa was a continent, an allegation Palin denies.

"The first point to make here is the most obvious: This is the language of losers," the Journal says. "This whole display calls to mind those embarrassing codas to each episode of "The Apprentice," when the losing team would sit before Donald Trump in the boardroom and then start blaming everyone but themselves for their failures. The apparent eagerness of Team McCain to indulge in this kind of fingerpointing is similarly unprofessional, and it raises an interesting question.

"We are asked to believe that Mrs. Palin was not ready for a national campaign," the paper adds. "On what evidence from any part of this election are we to conclude that anyone on the McCain campaign team was ready for a national campaign?"

Anonymous said...

patriot,

I hate to say I told you so. There are no "constructive" liberals willing to engage in a rational debate here because all they've got is hate and a need to suppress by ridicule everything that comes out of Evan's mouth.

Now, we return back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Anonymous said...

Obama to create a new office of Government Handouts to Urban Deadbeats within his cabinet to coordinate giveaways to Democrats in inner cities who voted for him.

How original.

Anonymous said...

It'll be located right next to the new Department of Handouts to Corporate Donors.

Anonymous said...

You lost, WP, Give it up:

Poll Shows Wide Support For Liberal Agenda
A new AP/GfK poll suggests a broad mandate for Barack Obama pursuing liberal policies after he is sworn in. The poll shows 78% saying that removing U.S. troops from Iraq by 2010 should be an important or top priority, compared to only 10% who say it shouldn't be done at all, and 59% say it should be an important or top priority to eliminate the previous tax cuts on families making over $250,000, compared to only 18% who say it shouldn't be done.

Anonymous said...

Nothing like killing the American entrpreneurial spirit with a tax increase on the $250k+ set. But then we shouldn't worry, the government bailout of Ford and GM will more than make up for the loss of Silicon Valley jobs... at least the UAW slugs will be getting their over-ripe and untaxed patchecks.

Sounds like something Warren Buffett would recommend, considering he'll pay zero in taxes no matter what the tax rate goes up to.

Anonymous said...

Oh, dasrite, parrot...the "entrepreneurial spirit" will be killed by a putative top rate of 39%.

The upper rates used to be 90%, and that was in the best days of America's entrepreneurial spirit, you simple fuck.

Just prior to The Great Depression I, they were at a historically low rate of 25%, and just prior to this Great Depression II they were also at extremely low rates.

You've been repudiated. Why don't you just step aside so we didn't have such fat, stupid targets to kick around, loser?

Anonymous said...

The upper rates used to be 90%

$200K went a lot further in 1954 than it does today, shit4brains. The point is that the mega-rich today pay little to NOTHING in taxes while you're proposing that the innovative 5% pay for all of Warren Buffet's philanthropies.

If you want to tax the rich, then tax them. $200K in '54 is like $1.5 million today.

Anonymous said...

And besides, when income taxes go up, millionaires like Buffett simply convert their compensation from income into capital gains. People at the $250K level aren't even near to hitting the legal loopholes, yet.

The Christian Conservative Mom said...

You're right fj. I am done trying to assume lara has any rational thoughts. I gave her an opportunity to try to prove her point, but once again I am reminded that liberals do not want to PROVE their case, which is why the Republicans will come out on top again very soon. We had a weak campaign and we lost by our own fault, but conservatives are resilient and we will endure.

Had we known this years campaign would require a fancy Jr. orator over a man who, though didn't necessarily run a good campaign, but still has sacrificed himself for lara's freedom to be hateful; we would have chosen a better speaker. Who knew?

Anonymous said...

The innovative 5%, my ass... you don't have to go back to '54 to see MUCH higher rates ACROSS THE BOARD...and we constantly had a much better economy than we do now.

And where have the "innovative" wonders been the last eight years? Giving us all these innovative derivatives and imaginative, magical financial tools that have us in the hole, bigtime...lol.

Funny shit about how the top rank doesn't pay any taxes...the Witless Parrot has been telling us they pay the highest rates in the world...When someone pointed out that the loopholes put them at fourth from the bottom, which is the ACTUAL figure, she stuck her head up her ass. Now the dinks are saying they pay even less than that!! LOL...whadda pack of braying jackasses.

And, now they've revamped it to how, now, it's just going to be this imaginary,"innovative" 5% who gave us our recent economic miracle!!!


They don't think...they just spout REPUDIATED GOP religion...because it certainly has nothing to do with economics.

Don't they ever scratch their louse riddled, little pinheads and wonder why there's a Depression or an S and L scandal every time naive, free market morons have power long enough?

It seems everyone else has finally noticed and elected "the most liberal man in the US senate" along with a whole raft of congessional helpers.

Anonymous said...

Jeeezus...another whine from another parrot clone about how no one wants to debate them.

You can't debate a fucking parrot, witless one.

And we've already won the debate...you've been re --- pew--- deeeeeeeeee --- eight ---- ed.

Now, sit quietly on the sidelines and watch us fix your latest mess...AGAIN.

Meanwhile, study the correlations between tax rates and the economy...precisely the opposite of your quasi-religious dogma. It's the only evidence that is relevant.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Lara would tell John McCain to fuck himself for all that "freedom" the baby killing fuck off "gave" her in a war which was always about robbing other people of their freedom rather than saving our own.

Then, the incompetent fuck lost his fifth airplane...at huge expense to the taxpayer...and sat in a fucking chicken coop...after signing commie propaganda...for the duration of the war.

Anonymous said...

Giving us all these innovative derivatives and imaginative, magical financial tools that have us in the hole, bigtime...lol.

Actually you can thank your intellectual genius friends in government like Barney Frank and his peanut butter pals in the Clinton Admin for passing changes to the CRA allowing securitization of subprimes and lowering loan qualification and documentation standards. And then you can thank idiots like Andrew Cuomo at HUD who upped and re-upped the loan targets for making loans for to previously "unqualifiable" loan applicants to 50% from 38% at an historical interest-rate minimum causing the housing bubble and the no-security deposit required own instead of rent housing deal of the century. Hey, if somebody offered me a 20% over a house's value with no money down just to sign a mortgage, I'd take it and walk away from the house, too!

Anonymous said...

btw - Did you see last week how Barney Frank personally vouched for an addition $2 trillion in Fed/Treasury giveaways w/o any insight into the collateral to be offered? "Trust me," he says.

Didn't Barney personally vouch for his gay live-in lover's Fannie and Freddie before they collapsed last summer, too?

Talk about INCOMPETENT. He should be tarred, feathered AND run out of the House on a rail! The guy's got his lover c*ck stuck so far up his FANNIE, that everything that spurts out of his mouth should be suspect by definition.

Anonymous said...

Oooops, did I say $2 trillion? I Meant $2 OUT OF $5 trillion.

According to CreditSights, a research firm in New York and London, the U.S. government has put itself on the hook for some $5 trillion, so far, in an attempt to arrest a collapse of the financial system.

Anonymous said...

Patriot,

This place is for playing rochambeau, only.

Anonymous said...

In our most Republican state:

Oklahoma KKK recruit murdered trying to leave initiation ritual

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) - An Oklahoma woman who was lured over the Internet to take part in a Ku Klux Klan initiation was shot and killed after the ritual went awry, and the group tried to cover it up by dumping her body on a rural roadside and setting her belongings aflame, authorities said.

But the plan failed: By Tuesday, a local Klan leader sat in jail on a second-degree murder charge, and seven others were charged with trying to help conceal the crime.

"The IQ level of this group is not impressive, to be kind," St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said Tuesday.

The woman, whose identity was not released, was supposed to be initiated near the village of Sun, La. and then return to her home state to find other members for the white supremacist group, Strain said.

It wasn't clear what rites awaited her at the campsite, but authorities believe the initiation had begun by the time the shooting happened. Strain said the group's leader, Raymond "Chuck" Foster, 44, shot and killed her Sunday night after a fight broke out when she asked to be taken back to town.

Foster was charged with second-degree murder and is being held without bond. Capt. George Bonnett, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, said he doesn't know if Foster has an attorney.

Seven others - five men and two women ages 20 to 30 - were charged with obstruction of justice and were held on $500,000 bond at the St. Tammany Parish jail. All eight of the suspects live in neighboring Washington Parish, but Bonnett said he couldn't immediately identify their hometowns.

Authorities said some of the suspects tried to destroy evidence by burning the woman's belongings along with other items. At the campsite, investigators found weapons, several flags and six Klan robes, some emblazoned with patches reading "KKK LIFE MEMBER" or "KKK SECURITY Enforcement."

Strain said the woman arrived in the Slidell, La., area last week and was met by two people connected to the Klan group and taken to the campsite on the banks of the Pearl River, about 60 miles north of New Orleans.

"We haven't completely sorted out if they finished the initiation," Bonnett said, adding he wasn't aware of any other KKK-related cases during his three years with the department. "I assume that they had started it, but I don't know if they were finished."

Authorities said the group's members called themselves the "Dixie Brotherhood." Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research for the Anti-Defamation League, said the Dixie Brotherhood appears to be a small, loosely organized group of people.

"This is not what I would call an established Klan group," he said. "The Klan has a pretty high association with violence. Some of these guys are just crooks, sociopaths."

But the sheriff said the public shouldn't feel endangered.

"I can't imagine anyone feeling endangered or at risk by any one of these kooks," Strain said.

Anonymous said...

No, ackchooly, you can TRY to blame them, weasel dick.

As the man said, it makes no difference who you blame.

The public has decided.

You've been repudiated.

Your "opinion" doesnt' count.

Anonymous said...

Yep, you've got no excuses Curt vonGutt. The economy's going south faster than anyone can say, "Obama's a Commie" and we're all powerless to stop it because you've hamstrung Bush and turned the future over to a wrecking crew. Congrats. I hope you're happy. Lowest stock market in how many years and a depression on the horizon. And it's ALL "change".

Anonymous said...

NEW YORK (AP) -- An increasingly despondent Wall Street fell for the third straight session Wednesday as investors absorbed another series of dismal corporate reports and news that the government won't buy banks' soured mortgage assets after all. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 410 points, and all the major indexes lost more than 4 percent.

The stock market has lost about $1 trillion over the past three days, according to the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, which reflects the value of nearly all U.S. stocks.

Anonymous said...

The voters may be full of hope about the looming Obama Presidency, but so far investors aren't. No President-elect in the postwar era has been greeted with a more audible hiss from Wall Street. The Dow has lost 1,342 points, or about 14%, since the election, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting similar skids. The Dow fell another 4.7% yesterday.

Much of this is due to hedge fund deleveraging, as well as dreadful corporate earnings reports and pessimism that the recession will be deeper than many had hoped. We also don't want to read too much into short-term market moves. But there's little doubt that uncertainty, and some fear, over Barack Obama's economic agenda is also contributing to the downdraft.

The substance of what Mr. Obama has promised for the economy is bearish for stocks. The threat of higher tax rates, especially on capital gains and dividends, now may be getting priced into the market. Add that to investor doubts about Democratic policies on unions, health care and trade -- and no wonder stocks are falling. Lower stock prices in turn reduce household net worth, thus slamming consumer confidence and contributing to what appears to be a consumer spending strike.

If Mr. Obama wants to reassure markets, he could announce that he won't be raising taxes for the foreseeable future. Unlike hundreds of billions in new government spending or more taxpayer cash for Detroit auto companies, this no-tax-hike declaration is a "stimulus" that would cost the U.S. Treasury nothing. In the current market, there won't be many capital gains and few companies will have surplus earnings to pay out in dividends. A higher tax rate on zero gains yields zero revenue, so what's the point of raising rates?

What markets want to see from Mr. Obama is a sense that the seriousness of this downturn is causing him to rethink the worst of his antigrowth policies.

Anonymous said...

lara's as empty headed as all the rest of her multiple fake personaes, patriot.

Anonymous said...

Well, it looks like you losers will be spared the embarassment of having ANOTHER felon in the Senate.

Stevens is going down fast.

Young will be indicted soon after he returns to Washington.

Coleman will probably join them sometime after he loses the recount.

Maybe they can soon join all their other friends from the LATE, unlamented GOP guvmint in the big house.

haha...that should be fun...and, well, a little touching.

Anonymous said...

Will the DOW hit 7000 before we get the chimp out of the Whitehouse?

Isn't there a way to move him out right now?...so there's something left to save?

Anonymous said...

Creaky, irrelevant, out of touch, the last gasp from the party of backwardness...like their recent candidates.

GOP Ponders Gloomy, Dark Forecast
Washington Post

MIAMI, Nov. 12 -- Republican governors were the brightest spot in an otherwise dispiriting election last week for the GOP, but the chief executives gathered here Wednesday provided a gloomy assessment of their party's failures and a dark forecast for the future.

The Republican Party is ill situated to serve a changing America, they said. Members make excuses for corruption. The Bush administration and congressional leaders are fiscally irresponsible and have ceded the tax issue -- of all issues -- to the Democrats. Large swaths of the country are off limits to GOP candidates. Republicans have lost the technology advantage, and if they were part of a corporation, "heads would roll." It's going to be worse in 2010.

The Republican Governors Association, meeting at a sleek hotel on Biscayne Bay to survey the damage, itself is a thinned version of what it was in the heyday of GOP dominance of national politics.

There will be only 21 GOP governors come January, and only 16 of them even bothered to make the trip.

Anonymous said...

The Republican Party is ill situated to serve a changing America, they said. Members make excuses for corruption. The Bush administration and congressional leaders are fiscally irresponsible and have ceded the tax issue -- of all issues -- to the Democrats. Large swaths of the country are off limits to GOP candidates. Republicans have lost the technology advantage, and if they were part of a corporation, "heads would roll." It's going to be worse in 2010.

Anonymous said...

Hey, you're the genius' who sewed the CRA mortgage mess and killed the US economy. This is what Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and your little "community organizing" ACORN planting groups have been planting for all these years. So take it like a man.

Anonymous said...

The Sick Right...part XXXXXXXVIII.......


Idaho students chant 'assassinate Obama' on school bus: ReportDavid Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday November 12, 2008





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Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed "the reddest place in America" by Salon, but that didn't make it any less shocking when elementary school children allegedly started chanting "assassinate Obama" on the school bus.

Matthew Whoolery told KIKD News he found out about the chanting from his second and third graders, who had no idea what the word "assassinate" meant.

"They just hadn't heard anything like this before," Whoolery stated. "I think the thing that struck us was just like, 'Where did they get the word and why would they put that word and that person together?'"

Whoolery, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University in Rexburg, is not an Obama supporter, but he was shocked that any public official would be threatened in that way. "I don't think that the majority of people in Rexburg have extreme ideas like that, but we were just surprised that it would go that far," Whoolery told KIKD.

The Madison County School District has sent out an email saying that students are to be told this sort of behavior is unacceptable.

According to an article which appeared in Salon in 2006, "You've heard of Jesusland, but Rexburg, Idaho, is something more. It's not just a small town in rural Eastern Idaho. It's a small town in rural Eastern Idaho completely dominated by a fast-growing Mormon college, Brigham Young University-Idaho."

"Through this conservative convergence," the article continues, "Rexburg and surrounding Madison County may well be the rosiest place in all of red America. Need numbers to prove it? In the 2004 presidential election, 93 percent of Madison County's votes went to George W. Bush or minor-party conservative candidates -- arguably the reddest result of any county in the entire country."

The population of Madison County is not only heavily Republican but also 97.7% white. One of Rexburg's lone Democrats, a professor at the university, told Salon that "she remembers the time when a group of classmates followed her third-grader home, shouting out 'baby-killer' all along the way. She took it up with the teacher, who didn't seem to mind."

Anonymous said...

Yeah, we really fucked up that economy...but the country is blaming YOU....hahahahahahahahahaha...git used to it.

Anonymous said...

We used a right wing government to bring socialism to the financial sector for us...and to take the blame for the economic disaster.

Then, using that in the election, we got our man in the Whitehouse, where he'll quickly bring in socialist health care, set up huge green energy and socialist style public works programs in the name of undoing the deep recession that the public blames you for, then he'll drastically cut defense spending in the name of saving the budget, and we're well on the way to the marxist state you fear most...and you made it all possible for us!!!

Thank you, thank ewe, thank ewes!!!

Lol...you've been so badly outmaneurvered and harshly used that this one will go down in the history books as a model of how to let the hapless right wing bring socialism to your country

Anonymous said...

You haven't brought shit to the country but economic disasters and looming Superdome sized Katrina soup kitchens. And people are going to get tired of eating soup REAL quick. "Brother, can you spare a dime," wasn't the kind of change the people were promised, and boy are they going to be pissed when the Obamessiah fails to deliver!

So you'd better start getting used to the thought of Sarah Palin as president.... and the waning and soon to be fading gay agenda being relegated back to the dustbins of ancient history, where it so aptly belongs.

Anonymous said...

Latest post election poll...

Thirty-six percent said the country is moving in the right direction, about double the 17 percent who said so in last month's poll. Reflecting the election results, half of Democrats now see things heading the right way — quadruple their number who said so in October.

Bush and Congress remained mired in awful ratings, with 28 percent approving of the job Bush is doing and 21 percent approving of Congress.


Wow! Bush is STILL WAY ahead of the Democrats in the polls, despite Obama getting elected. LOL!

Anonymous said...

In a new afterword to his memoir, 1960s radical William Ayers describes himself as a "family friend" of President-elect Barack Obama and writes that the campaign controversy over their relationship was an effort by Obama's political enemies to "deepen a dishonest narrative" about the candidate.

Yeah... a deepen a dishonest narrative that began, "Ayers was just a guy in my neighborhood" and has now worked itself up to "I was just a family friend of Barack Obama...."

Anonymous said...

It seems that in addition to his 6/10ths of a billion dollars to move into the White House, the Democratic National Committee spent way more than the $100 million in cash it had raised.

In fact, it took out "substantial loans."

Well, it turns out now, the DNC's debts are far worse than originally imagined. Today, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe sent another urgent e-mail to supporters seeking at least another $30.

Here's what he said:

"We'll get to work transforming this country. But first, we need to take care of the DNC."

Did we hear that right? Now that Obama's the president-elect, the top priority is the Democratic National Committee?

To drive home the point elsewhere in the same e-mail Plouffe adds: "Before we do anything else, we need to pay for this winning strategy."

Don't worry, you still get the Victory T-shirt for this $30. But it sounds like pretty much everything else is on hold. This change stuff is looking to be an expensive process, even before it gets started.

Anonymous said...

How much you wanna bet that those $2 trillion in "undisclosed loans" that the Fed made as part of the bailout include a couple to the DNC...

wtf- printing money is all the feds seem capable of doing, anymore...

Corruption? Have no fear, the DNC is back and heading into the black! Roll the presses!

Anonymous said...

18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

18:23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

18:24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 18:25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

18:26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 18:27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 18:28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

18:29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

Anonymous said...

BOYCOTT San Francisco until the Gay Lobby holds it's convention in Salt Lake City!

Anonymous said...

BWAAAAAHHHHHAAAAHHHAAAAA!!!!

Let the Boycott commence!!!!

Anonymous said...

I live in San Francisco...you don't need to boycott us, Dickable...we'd kick your ass out if you even got near the place.

And don't be sneakin' in, now. We can smell a trog bitch a mile away.

Anonymous said...

GOP Ponders Gloomy, Dark Forecast
Washington Post

More Senate losses coming in 2010... six weak GOP crooks up in states where Obama won big:

MIAMI, Nov. 12 -- Republican governors were the brightest spot in an otherwise dispiriting election last week for the GOP, but the chief executives gathered here Wednesday provided a gloomy assessment of their party's failures and a dark forecast for the future.
The Republican Party is ill situated to serve a changing America, they said. Members make excuses for corruption. The Bush administration and congressional leaders are fiscally irresponsible and have ceded the tax issue -- of all issues -- to the Democrats. Large swaths of the country are off limits to GOP candidates. Republicans have lost the technology advantage, and if they were part of a corporation, "heads would roll." It's going to be worse in 2010.

The Republican Governors Association, meeting at a sleek hotel on Biscayne Bay to survey the damage, itself is a thinned version of what it was in the heyday of GOP dominance of national politics. There will be 21 GOP governors come January, a loss of one, and only 16 of them bothered to make the trip.

Anonymous said...

Stevens goes down!!

Coleman next.

Then Chambliss.

What a rout!!

Anonymous said...

This is hilarious to anyone who has monitored the weak minded goofballs on this blog:



The Anatomy of Conservative Self-Deception

By Ed Kilgore - November 13, 2008, 9:15AM
For those Democrats who were settling down with a bag of popcorn to watch an orgy of ideological strife among Republicans, it's beginning to become apparent that the war may be over before it began. Sure, there's plenty of finger-pointing and personal recriminations over tactics and strategy, some of it focused on the McCain-Palin campaign, and some looking back to the errors of the Bush administration. There's clearly no consensus on who might lead Republicans in 2010 or 2012. But on the ideological front, for all the talk about "movement conservatives" or "traditionalists" at odds with "reformers," it's a pretty one-sided fight. And one prominent "reformer," the columnist David Brooks, pretty much declared defeat yesterday:

The debate between the camps is heating up. Only one thing is for sure: In the near term, the Traditionalists are going to win the fight for supremacy in the G.O.P.

They are going to win, first, because Congressional Republicans are predominantly Traditionalists. Republicans from the coasts and the upper Midwest are largely gone. Among the remaining members, the popular view is that Republicans have been losing because they haven't been conservative enough.

Second, Traditionalists have the institutions. Over the past 40 years, the Conservative Old Guard has built up a movement of activist groups, donor networks, think tanks and publicity arms. The reformists, on the other hand, have no institutions.....

Finally, Traditionalists own the conservative mythology. Members of the conservative Old Guard see themselves as members of a small, heroic movement marching bravely from the Heartland into belly of the liberal elite. In this narrative, anybody who deviates toward the center, who departs from established doctrine, is a coward, and a sellout.


There are, however, two aspects of contemporary conservative self-justification that strike me as somewhat new.

The first is the iron and laughable conviction that there is a popular majority for core conservative policies at the very moment when they have been repudiated. Sure, conservatives have long postulated "hidden majorities" that can only be tapped by a more rigorously ideological approach, but only in the context of long periods of Democratic ascendancy. There was nothing self-deceptive about the conservative belief in the 1970s and 1980s, up through 1994, that large numbers of conservative Democrats, particularly in the South, could be picked off in an atmosphere of ideological polarization. But that realignment has clearly run its course. Just as importantly, the big conservative victories of 1980 and 1994 were pretty self-evidently based on a popular desire to restrain or reform the governing Democrats, rather than representing a referendum on conservative ideas. I say that's "self-evident" because both Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich got into immediate trouble when they promoted a truly conservative vision of what government ought to do and not do.

Maybe Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress will quickly overreach and produce an opportunity for this sort of negative victory in the near future (though there simply is not the kind of low-hanging demographic fruit to pick that benefitted past conservatives). But it's hardly the moment for loud-and-proud conservative governance. After all, many of the scandals and failures of the regime of George W. Bush (like Nixon before him) flowed from the natural corruption and misgovernment that so often befalls conservatives who are forced to operate public-sector programs and agencies that they don't actually believe in.

Furthermore, Karl Rove's famous strategy for building a permanent Republican majority, which relied on strategic public-sector activism deisgned to attract Latinos (immigration reform); seniors (Medicare Rx drug benefit); and married women with kids (No Child Left Behind), was based on the recognition that there simply wasn't a majority for hard-core small government conservatism. That all these initiatives became major grievances for conservatives is a sign of political self-deception. Conversely, conservatives don't seem to have internalized the fact that every major conservative assault on the heart of the New Deal/Great Society legacy (Ronald Reagan's and George W. Bush's efforts to "reform" Social Security, and Newt Gingrich's drive to "contain costs" in Medicare) has failed dismally in the court of public opinion.

In a parallel development, during both the Reagan and Bush years, public support for conservative efforts to make the tax system more regressive has declined steadily once the free-lunch assumptions of supply-side economics proved to be a fraud.

And there has never, for a moment, been anything like a popular majority supporting the sort of broad-scale reductions in government services that could eliminate the fiscal problems associated with the conservative tax-cutting agenda. There's a reason John McCain's campaign based his fiscal-discipline message on the small but symbolic issue of appropriations earmarks, rather than the big-ticket "entitlement reform" that virtually all movement conservatives support. And for that matter, George W. Bush's "Big Government Conservatism," like its Reaganite predecessor, was an accomodation to public opinion rather than a gratuitous betrayal of conservative principle.

If today's conservatives succeed in convincing each other to embrace a more forthright message assaulting entitlements, progressive taxation, public education, regulation of corporations and Wall Street, just to cite a few domestic policy examples, they are almost certainly cruising for more electoral bruising.

It seems to me that conservatives today have almost completely internalized their own rhetoric about Obama's "radicalism," "socialism," "anti-Americanism," and so forth. If you have read or listened to movement conservative pundits recently, it's hard to avoid the impression that they truly think this temperate man pursuing Clinton-style centrist policies is determined to enact "socialized medicine," create vast new "welfare" programs, legalize infanticide, surrender to terrorists, and use the power of the state to censor or perhaps even jail his opponents.

Perhaps both these phenomena are at least partially attributable to the rise of conservative ideological media networks that enable their consumers and producers alike to live in a parallel universe that is largely impervious to adverse information. There's a reason that the Left is referred to as "the reality-based community," just as there is a reason that leftbent Democrats cut Barack Obama a lot of slack during the presidential campaign while movement conservatives hobbled John McCain with an endless series of demands and complaints that arguably guaranteed his defeat.

If I'm right, or even half-right, about this, Barack Obama, Democrats, and progressives may have a large window of opportunity to build a majority against an opposition party that's drunk on the locusts and wild honey of the political wilderness they inhabit.

Anonymous said...

Great idea!!!

Boycott Gomorrah by the Bay! No Conventions in San Francisco! Let the fags stew in their own bath houses!

Anonymous said...

Lol...boy it's gonna break their hyper-sophisticated hearts to hear no Okie hayseeds, Idahorians or Utah hicks coming to town...like you freaks were ever welcome there in the first place.

The muggers'll be pissed though...no rubes or yokel lushes to mark.

But, seriously, I think you should make that the centerpiece of your big party rebuilding effort...that'll really pay your tuition back into the electoral college...hahaha

Anonymous said...

Poor Bill Ayers. It seems he's upset because the GOP tried to "demonize Ayers" by linking him to Barack Obama. And who would know better just how evil Barack Obama REALLY is... than a terrorist like Bill Ayers.

Anonymous said...

Hey, all you little IdahOkieUtahvians!

Are you learning to enjoy your ass kickings yet? Get used to it.

You're the designated fringe party for the next generation.

Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

America 2.0, the "Brother, can you spare a dime?" era of the government run soup kitchen and Section 8 mortgage has officially begun! Woo-hoo!

Anonymous said...

Hey Freddie, can you loan me $100B?

Anonymous said...

Here's another plan for them: mass suicide...for the nation's good.

Gingrich says GOP is outmatched
By: Roger Simon
November 13, 2008

How bad off is the Republican Party right now? Ask Newt Gingrich.

“The Republican Party right now is like a midsize college team trying to play in the Superbowl,”

Gingrich told me Wednesday. “It is pretty hard to say our losses were because of John McCain’s campaign. McCain performed way above plausibility compared to where the Republican president was in the polls. We have to look honestly at what went wrong.”

Gingrich, Republican speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, declined say who he wanted as the next chairman of the party. He said his main concern was the rise of what he called the “modern left,” which just a few years ago was thought to be moribund in this country but now looks alive and kicking.

Gingrich said the fundraising capacity of the left in the last election proved astonishing and far outstripped what Republicans were able to gather. “The modern left has gotten that large,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich said that the best thing the Republican Party could do right now is stop worrying about the Republican Party. “We need to worry about the nation,” Gingrich said. “Wal-Mart doesn’t get ahead by attacking Sears but by offering better value.”

Greg Mueller, a political consultant who specializes in conservative candidates, said that the next chairman of the party must be an “ideological conservative.”

“We need full-throttle conservatism,” Mueller said. “We have governed as lighter versions of liberal Democrats. We went to Washington to be fiscal conservatives and we became profligate spenders and big-government bureaucrats.”

Anonymous said...

wait 4 it...

Anonymous said...

Palin has reached her 'sell by' date.

Herbert Bush Hoover Jr has long ago expired as a viable political commodity and should be moved off the shelf immediately so Obama can save what's left of the economy ...while there is still some left.

This is a national emergency and the team that caused it is still in place for another two months??!

This is insanity.

Anonymous said...

Sayonara, Republican Party

The Republican Party (1854-2008)
The GOP has been on life support since 2006. Four days ago, it died a loud and ugly death.
By Ron Knox
Sunday, November 9, 2008


"The party in the Northeast is all but extinct; the party on the West Coast is all but extinct; the party has lost the mid-South states — Virginia, North Carolina — and the party is in deep trouble in the Rocky Mountain West, and there has to be a message and a vision that is compelling to people in order for them to come back and to give consideration to the Republican Party again."

—Steve Schmidt, McCain campaign manager

It’s been four days now since the Republicans’ “big tent” officially imploded. Like Schmidt says, the party is basically defunct in the majority of the country. We appreciate the sentiment, Steve—always the wishful thinker. But sorry. Watching the party canibalize itself over the past four days, it's obvious to anyone without an NRA membership: The party's over. Forever.

The decimation of the Sarah Palin campaign (this election was never about John McCain) exposed a devastating reality for the GOP: all of the awful divisions born during the 1960s culture wars are, for the majority of Americans, over.

The country is certainly just as God-fearing and moral as it has ever been. But until Democrats make some outward and obvious attack on religion or gun rights, the days of riding into national office on the backs of social issues ended sometime during George W. Bush’s second term.

This reality is lost on the people who showed up en masse to Palin's rallies. For this collection of backwoods half-wits, the culture war is like the war on terror or drugs — endless and omnipresent. These are the Republican Party’s new loud and boisterous base, focused so intently on saving America from eternal damnation, they would rather vote against gay marriage than in favor of their own economic interests.

These mobs are small and shrinking in lockstep with the number of good jobs in small-town America. Yet these mobs have, throughout the Rove years, become the face of the GOP, and remained that way throughout Palin's cartoon campaign. The party's microscopic intellectual wing can gasp and choke on the stupidity of the party's base until they turn blue, but it won't help. Who else would vote for Republicans now?

At some point, one side of the party is going to lose their voice entirely. It will be wildly entertaining to see which half can suffocate the other first. Will it be the orphaned children of Reaganomics, left to flounder aimlessly after their theories on deregulation and trickle-down wealth redistribution were buried under the weight of the economic disaster they caused? Or will it be the lunatic fundamentalists, whose ugly, racially-tinged rhetoric was exactly what the party needed if it wanted to get blown out in every conceivable electoral way.


For most, I think the answer is: Who cares? Let the two halves of the GOP gut each other until they both bleed out. At this point, it looks like it might happen; the nasty and very public in-fighting over the degree of Sarah Palin’s ignorance and selfishness during the campaign might well be the first wounds of the death match. At the end of the day, it might be all for the best. The party can't and won't survive as it is, with two rotting ideological corpses as its central premises, its main talking points.

In Ana Marie Cox's terrific interview with Schmidt, he talked about moving the party to the ideological center — the home of most American voters. Again, Steve is always the optimist. The Republican base detests the center. The center is the bastion of gay marriage, of upholding Roe v. Wade, of enforcing the division of church and state. The base would flee, and if they lose the base, they lose the few remaining loyal Republican voters in America.

Maybe Schmidt knows this and just doesn't care. They've lost everything already. Maybe he knows as well as we do that the party can't be repaired. It has to be ripped apart and reconstructed, from the ground up.

Anonymous said...

You try to tell these dumbasses, but they just can't comprehend...maybe they'll believe the pro business, right wing WSJ...their actual rates come out to the fourth lowest in the developed world:

WSJ: "The Internal Revenue Service found that U.S. companies paid federal income taxes on their reported U.S. profits at far less than the 35% statutory rate, offering a potential revenue source for an incoming presidential administration that faces a yawning budget deficit. Newly released data from the IRS show companies paid federal and foreign income taxes on their U.S. book income -- the amount reported to shareholders -- at a rate of 25.3% during 2005, the most recent year for which data were made available by the IRS." 11/15

Anonymous said...

Great article there on the demise of the right...and I'm a Republican.

I tried telling these people to quit making excuses eeeeeeeeeverytime the Bush administration screwed up and start taking the party back from these bozos, but noooo...I had to be a liberal troll to even see anything wrong.

Anonymous said...

Do you enjoy watching this Obamster dance, Evan? Even the one that claims to have once been a Republican can't hide his two left feet.

If only governing were as easy as making up a plausible story and pretending it was true... There's gonna be a rude awakening come January when the messiah's followers find out there's no there, there.

Anonymous said...

Ted Stevens (R-Federal Prison) is falling further behind every day.

Do you go to bed optimistical, tonight, Evan?

Do you think it will be reversed if the communist appears to win?

I want to know.

You were sure right about that big election.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of falling further and further...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street ended a turbulent week with another astonishing show of volatility Friday, with stocks plunging, recovering and then plunging again as investors absorbed another wave of downbeat economic news. The Dow Jones industrials fell almost 340 points and the major indexes all fell sharply for the second straight week.

The Obama Depression is getting deeper and DEEPER. "Yes we can" is becoming "with what?" as the Fed reaches deeper and deeper into Joe Taxpayer's pocket and keeps coming up empty.

It'll take more than slogans to get America moving again. And so far Wall Street's betting that Obama doesn't have what it takes.

Anonymous said...

Since Barack Obama is floating a 'Hillary for Sec State' trial balloon, that means America's national interest has once again been subordinated to the UN and their purposely faux-legalistic and meandering humanitarian philanthropies, as puppetted through Ban Ki Moon by the liberal jet set.

Being a liberal today means never having to experience or be blamed for the damage you inflict on the rest of the world. It was Bush's fault, and the buck will never stop at Obama's desk.

Anonymous said...

Watching Obama staff his government is like watching a Washington political boneyard on a dark moon filled night. Obama mumbles his name-laden incantation and ex-Clinton official after ex-official rises from his casket, removes the wooden stake from the empty cavity where his heart should have been and then walks to a new desk at 1600 PA Ave.

It's spooky, I tell ya.

Anonymous said...

Well...as we expected nothing going on here anymore after the recent avalanche.

I guess the reichos are finally so demoralized that they've just about given up completely.

There's a great article going around now saying that many in the religious right are deciding that political activism has not worked for them and has merely caused a backlash against their causes.They plan on opting out of the political game and seeking other venues for their medieval propaganda.

What a relief it'll be to have them shut up for a while, and their goes a third of the GOP votes.

Anonymous said...

Demoralized? DC needs a good flushing NOW more than ever, especially that Congressman from Sodom's Codpiece, Barney Frank!

I have not yet begun to fight!

Send 'em ALL to the pen in 2010!

Anonymous said...

I think I hear the cavalry coming in 2010..

I find myself in a lonely position. While many states and local governments are lining up for a bailout from Congress, I went to Washington recently to oppose such bailouts. I may be the only governor to do so.

But I suspect I'm not entirely alone, as there are a lot of taxpayers who aren't pleased with Christmas coming early for politicians. And I hope these taxpayers make their voices heard before Democrats load up the next bailout train for states with budget deficits.

Several questions led me to oppose bailing out the states. They are worth asking, even if you supported bailing out Wall Street.

Who bails out the "bail-outor"?

Washington is short on cash these days and will borrow every dime of the $150 billion to $300 billion for the "stimulus" bill now being worked on. Federal appetites may know no bounds. But the federal government's ability to borrow is not limitless. Already, our nation's unfunded liabilities total $52 trillion -- about $450,000 per household. There's something very strange about issuing debt to solve a problem caused by too much debt.

Do you now have to be a financial "bad boy" to win?

Community bankers tell me that they are now at a competitive disadvantage for being careful about who to lend to, because others that were less disciplined will get a federal bailout. This is also true for states. Those that have been fiscally responsible will pay for or lose out to the big spenders. California increased spending 95% over the past 10 years (federal spending went up 71% over the same period). To bail out California now seems unfair to fiscally prudent states.

Was the economist Herb Stein wrong when he said that if something cannot go on forever, it won't?

Medicaid grew 9.5% annually over the past 10 years. That's unsustainable. But if Congress opens the checkbook now, there will be no reform.

Isn't government intervention supposed to be the last resort and come only when it can make a difference?

In 2008 bailouts became the first resort. Over the past year the federal government has committed itself to $2.3 trillion (including the tax rebate "stimulus" checks of last February) to "improve" the economy. I don't see how another $150 billion now will make a difference in a global slowdown. We've already unloaded truckloads of sugar in a vain attempt to sweeten a lake. Tossing in a Twinkie will not make the difference.

However, there is something Congress can do: free states from federal mandates. South Carolina will spend about $425 million next year meeting federal unfunded mandates. The increase in the minimum wage alone will cost the state $2.6 million and meeting Homeland Security's REAL ID requirements will cost $8.9 million.

Based on what I saw in Washington, the bailout train is being loaded up. Taxpayers will have to speak up now to change its freight, tab or departure.
--Mark Sanford, Governor of SC

Anonymous said...

When does the psycho get out of intensive care for the trauma he suffered on election night?

We need our psychopath, rationalization, bizarro entertainment fix.

Anonymous said...

Down the Republican Rabbit Hole

History may be written by the winners, but that doesn't stop the losers from wasting a lot of ink in the attempt. This time, it's the GOP revanchists who are busy trying to come up with a reason -- any reason -- for the economic crisis that doesn't point directly to their conservative ideology and the greedy green horse of the Apocalypse, deregulation.

There are dozens of letters percolating through Republican chain mail, and a matching number of posts on right wing blogs, all trying to spread the same message: Democrats loaned money to black people!

Here's an example plucked from my own mailbox.

We're on the brink of an economic disaster and another Great Depression. This was not caused by Republicans. This was caused solely by Democrats.

In 1977 Democratic President Jimmy Carter passed the Community Reinvestment Act to provide housing to poor people. In the 1990s Bill Clinton had Attorney General Janet Reno threaten banks under red lining rules into giving loans to people who could not afford them. Then in the last 8 years, the leftist group ACORN, which has ties to Barack Obama, went to banks and threatened them to relax their rules again. Banks had to give loans to people who had no jobs or no identification.

You have to hand it to them. In terms of bringing together the maximum number of Republican demons -- Carter, Clinton, Reno, Obama -- with the smallest amount of connecting narrative, this is a keeper.

It's a satisfying bedtime story for the right. They can snooze and dream of revenge, when the wonders of True Conservatism will pave the streets with a mixture of gold and liberal bones. Unfortunately for them, it's not only simplistic, not only demonstrative of deep prejudice, it's also dead wrong.

The Community Reinvestment Act and other red lining laws weren't passed to force banks to make loans to African-Americans and other minorities. They were there to make the rules consistent. Previous to the passage of the CRA, minorities were often required to have better credit, and make larger down payments to get loans equivalent to those awarded whites. Nothing in these laws required that banks lower their lending standards, only that they be fair, consistent, and operate in a "safe and secure" way. There was no evidence then, and no evidence now, that minorities with the same initial credit rating as whites tend to default on their loans at any greater rate.

Want proof? Mortgage failure rate in 2000: 1%. 2001: 1%. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006? One (1) as in ONE percent. But wait! Everything that Carter, Reno, and Clinton could do was already in there. The nefarious community organizers of ACORN had already grown their little oak trees of pressure. Carter's poor people had been sitting in their new homes so long, that many of those initial mortgages were paid off and gone.

What does legislation passed 31 years ago have to do with problems today? Nothing. Neither do tweaks Clinton made to that legislation in the mid 90s. The real culprits require a much shorter trip down memory lane.

Subprime mortgages (and all mortgages, really) are a fraction of the current problem. The bailout would have been enough to buy out every subprime mortgage in foreclosure across the country. In fact, it was enough to do that several times over. So why not do that?

The reason is that the purpose of the bailout (at least as Treasury Secretary Paulson sees it) isn't to stop mortgage foreclosures, but to save the banks. And the banks have some self-inflicted problems that make those mortgages an afterthought.

For example, the wonderful credit default swap. In essence, credit default swaps are (or were) nothing but insurance policies for loans. And yet in 2007 the total number of credit default swaps traded far exceeded the value of all loans. In fact, it may have touched $70 trillion dollars, which puts it above the gross domestic product of the entire planet.

How is that possible? Come with me back to the primitive world of 1999, when SUVs ruled the roads and cell phones did not yet shoot video, and let's see how this clumsy bit of fiscal jargon conquered the planet.

The Evolution of the Credit Default Swap

Stage 1 (Perturbo mutans)
You have just made a loan to someone, and now you're nervous that this scoundrel might not pay. What to do, what to do? Ah, but you need not worry! I happen to have assets on hand that can easily cover your petty loan. What's more, for a small monthly fee, I'll be happy to provide you with insurance of a sort. Should the person to whom you've extended a loan prove unreliable, I'll shoulder the burden -- so long as you keep up the payments. Let's call this insurance a... credit default swap.

In 1999, these credit default swaps already existed, but they were a niche product. Only a fraction of banks employed them and then only on a fraction of loans. Without some knock to the system, swaps would probably have remained a relatively small player.

Stage 2 (Perturbo furtiva)
Knock, knock. In 2000 Republican economic hero, Phil Gramm, with the assistance of a small legion of lobbyists, created the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. Along with ushering in the Enron disaster, this bill provided the one thing that credit default swaps needed to grow and mutate -- invisibility. Thanks to the CFMA, not only were credit default swaps unregulated, they were impossible to observe directly. Like black holes in deep space, you could only spot swaps by looking at how other things acted nearby.

So, now you've made a loan to someone, and you're worried about it. I want to offer you a credit default swap so I can collect the fee. Trouble is, I don't have the assets to cover your loan. So how can I... hold on, credit default swaps are so unregulated that no one says I actually have to be able to deliver on my promise. Hey, over here! Have I got a swap for you, and it's a bargain.

So now the CDS is a means of moving the risk, but the risk is still as high (or higher, since the original lender might have been better able to cover the loss). In fact, credit default swaps have gone from being a risk mitigator, to a risk magnifier.

Stage 3 (Peturbo veloxicresco)
You have a loan you're worried about. That's good, because lots of people want to offer you swaps. After all, you don't have to have any assets to issue a swap. The investment bank of First Me and The Change I Found In the Couch Cushions can offer swaps for all the debt at Morgan Stanley, and that's okay. I get free money for issuing the swaps, and the swaps have value on the books. So both me and my pal Mr. Stanley have values that are inflating faster than a tick in a blood bank.

Now you can get a swap for any loan you want, and with all the competition, the cost of these swaps is lower, and lower, and lower. Here's an idea: why not go out and make more loans, riskier loans. Why not offer anyone you can collar on the street a loan, no matter whether or not they can pay it off, not because some 30 year old law makes you do it, but because your friend the credit swap makes it perfectly safe!

So many people are offering these things that you could give a loan to Saddam while the bombs are falling without a care in the world. You can always get a swap.

Stage 4 (Fatum casus)
I have a swap. I really, really want someone to take my swap. Only even with every incentive I can offer, not enough people are loaning. Sure, there's a record amount of hypothetical money sloshing around the system thanks to me and my swaps, but it's still not enough. So what can I...

Wait a second. Swaps are unregulated. No one says I have to have enough resources to cover the swap, and even better, no one says I have to offer the swap to the person who actually made the loan! Hey buddy, see that loan over there? You may think it's iffy, but I think it'll hold up. In fact, I'm so sure it will, I'll sell you a credit default swap on it that pays off if it fails. You don't make the loan, you don't have to pay off on the loan, you don't have anything to do with the loan. You just pay me the fee. And if that guy loses his money, you collect. How sweet is that!

This mutation is enormous (see how the genera changed up there?). At this point, credit default swaps have become completely divorced from the original function. A single loan can be covered by multiple swaps. There's a complicated fiscal term for this. It's called gambling, and at this stage, that's all that remains of those little "insurance" policies. They no longer protect anyone from anything, they just offer a chance to place enormous overlapping side bets on everything.

Stage 5 (Fatum insanus)
I have swaps! Get your swaps here! Want a swap on a loan you made? Okay. Want to bet that the bozo in the next cube is making bad loans? We can do that. Want to bundle up some loans and bet on those? Buddy we can do better than that. I can give you a swap on the value of other swaps. Now we're really in business.

Who owns the original loan? Don't know, don't care. Who's actually responsible for the money if that loan should fail? Ehhh, can't really say. Has anyone noticed that a single bad loan could cause a cascade of swap calls that bounce around the system like a rocket-power pinball? Shut up.

Isn't anyone worried that this is the most massive house of cards ever constructed in human history? Lookit, what part of "we took 120 billion in bonuses out of this place in the last five years" are you missing?

Stage 6 (Fatum exicelebritas)
Hey, my loan went bad. Can I have my money from that swap, please?

Stage 7 (Fatum cerus)
Oh shit.

Now that people are paying attention, it turns out that the value of most credit default swaps is not just bupkis, it's Bupkis Plus. More computer power went into modeling these things than has been invested in predicting climate change, but everyone overlooked the giant "and then a miracle occurs" at the center of all the equations that allowed credit default swaps to generate revenue ex nihilo.

Trying to blame the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act for the current fiscal crisis is like blaming a spot on your windshield for engine failure while ignoring the gaping wound in you head gasket. Republicans are scribbling hard to create their new version of reality, and you never know what's going to sell. After all, people bought a "Book of Virtues" authored by Bill Bennet.

But in this case, even the Mock Turtle and the March Hare think the GOP line is too outlandish.

Anonymous said...

Rudderless and fighting with each other, the gop has pulled so far to the right that they have alienated pretty much every voter who isn't a subscriber to the Limbaugh Letter. Judging by the sad crop of leaders they are stuck with, hopefully they'll stay in the wilderness for the next few election cycles.

Anonymous said...

McCain adviser admits America is ‘center-left.’

While conservative pundits and even some traditional journalists continue to insist that America remains a center-right nation. Today in a Washington Post op-ed, Hoover Institution fellow and former informal adviser to the McCain campaign Tod Lindberg rebuts this myth:

Here’s the stark reality: It is now harder for the Republican presidential candidate to get to 50.1 percent than for the Democrat. My Hoover Institution colleague David Brady and Douglas Rivers of the research firm YouGovPolimetrix have been analyzing data from online interviews with 12,000 people in both 2004 and 2008. It shows an overall shift to the Democrats of six percentage points. As they write in the forthcoming edition of Policy Review, “The decline of Republican strength occurs by having strong Republicans become weak Republicans, weak Republicans becoming independents, and independents leaning more Democratic or even becoming Democrats.” This is a portrait of an electorate moving from center-right to center-left.

Lindberg acknowledges that “the percentage of voters describing themselves as ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ has held relatively constant over many election cycles.” However, he notes that “the views behind those labels” have shifted to be more liberal.

Anonymous said...

Center left isn't strong enough. The election shows it's strongly liberal.

Anonymous said...

...make that gullible. But then, fool me twice becomes shame on me. And the peeps are NOT going to be buying the Dem BS line again in 2012.

HEYOK said...

Hello all - to the point.

Anyone have a definition for "reichos" as has been used in several comments above.

I realize many of the people here aren't looking for insight, information, or dialogue but you can't just post a word you know and expect others to know what you mean.

What's "reichos" (I already tried googling which led me to a profile page and the urban dictionary.)

Anonymous said...

Heyok, let me educate you. "Reicho" refers to the "Third Reich," the Nazi regime. I am sure that a good number of the people who post on this blog know that - I think that you need a crash course in history and culture.