As the wheels are falling off the global warming bandwagon, Obama will double down?
By Ben German
President Obama is vowing to make the case for action on global warming during the 2012 campaign.
“I suspect that over the next six months, this is going to be a debate that will become part of the campaign, and I will be very clear in voicing my belief that we’re going to have to take further steps to deal with climate change in a serious way,” Obama told Rolling Stone magazine in a newly published interview.
Obama’s comments follow a first term that saw global warming legislation collapse in Congress but several administrative steps to address climate proceed, such as tougher auto mileage rules and first-time greenhouse gas standards for new power plants.
The total amount spent by pro-fossil fuel groups, for advertisements (i.e. propaganda) is more than $24 million in just the first few months of 2012, based on a ThinkProgress analysis.
Jobs in green goods and services accounted for 3.1 million jobs in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, a study found that every dollar put into clean energy creates three-times as many jobs as investing in fossil fuels.
So people who believe as I do that have some money to spend can’t spend it on some PSA’s, or make some commercials? The opinion that AGW is happening should be the only opinion out there, because that’s the one you agree with? No other opinion is allowed? $24 million huh? I don’t care if it’s $124 million, it would still be peanuts compared to what is spent to get out the news (i.e. propaganda) advocating global warming action, not to mention the agitprop of An Inconvenient Truth, Avitar, The Muppets, etc. etc. that people actually pay to see. Get out of here!
I will ask the question I always ask when you bring this stuff up. Are the oil companies not allowed to defend their industry? I mean, come on. Get out!
That is the same incongruant attitude that makes a person of modest means want to defend the wealthy. It is not only counter-intuitive, it is downright strange and makes the more sensible people of the world want to rip their hair out by the roots. But, those Uncle Tom oddballs seem to know best, they have their rationales down tight, they are confident in their own (il)logic, and are quite prepared to paint their more Liberal brethran as extremist, not to mention soft-headed. Thus we fight amongst ourselves while the wealthy buy more homes they don’t need nor seldom use, and give more money to media and politicians to sway the unwashed masses to vote certain ways that… well, you get the idea…
So…. Oil companies are not allowed to defend their industry. You answered the question without answering the question.
And what the heck does it matter to you if the wealthy by homes they don’t need, or seldom use? I think it’s all good. There is employment created because of it! Landscapers, gardeners, housekeeping, maintainence. They spend money to keep the place up clean and looking good, so that means jobs. What is wrong with that?
Maybe I defend the wealthy because I think they are being unfairly attacked and demonised by people like you who think that because you don’t have any wealth that nobody should.
More Americans than last year believe the world is warming and the change is likely influenced by the Republican presidential debates, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Thursday. The percentage of Americans who believe the Earth has been warming rose to 83 percent from 75 percent last year in the poll conducted Sept 8-12. It also increased from 41% to 63% of so-called moderate Republicans. These are reliably obtained numbers, and besides his own personal beliefs, Obama is doing the smart political thing.
That poll was from Sept of 2011. Do you have anything a little more current?
http://www.aei.org/article/politics-and-public-opinion/polls/polls-on-the-environment-energy-global-warming-and-nuclear-power-april-2012/
“Global warming doesn’t rank at or near the top of issues people want the president and Congress to address. In January 2012, 25 percent said global warming should be a top priority, ranking at the bottom in terms of top priorities.”
If you want to use polls, be prepared to live by them. I personally don’t put much stock in them because they are too easily skewed, and can basically be fashioned to say whatever a pollster wants it to say by the types of questions, how the questions a phrased, and who is asked the questions.
Hood guy, your banter/blather never ceases to amaze me as others. Come November Hood guy, whomever you may be (troll I assume) we shall all see won’t we? The battle for truth goes on reading your left wing, Soros, Gore, Obama posts. Can hardly wait and am counting the days that American gets it back together again absent the “Divider” now known as our “President.” In over 50 years of observing the political area I have never witnessed the divisiveness uttered by our President. Be gone I say come November!
Oops, I forgot, with 47-50% subsidized by him, he’s got the vote to keep the money flowing knowing they are entitled to receive it. Darn, I must have been dreaming or born to early where we had to “earn it”?
Joe I have to disagree with you. Our fearless leader is not responsible for the myriad of social programs that redistribute wealth. Those have been in place for a long time. But, of course, he is counting on the recipients as a large portion of voters who will vote to maintain the gravy train. But to say they are subsidized by him is giving him way too much credit.
You must have been asleep during all those W years. He divided this country like no other. And to Neil below other than corporate welfare, what “gravy train” are you fantasizing about?
It’s funny. If you do a search for the most devisive president, you get a lot more stories mentioning Obama, a few say Bush, but they are overwhelmingly slanted to our current fearless leader as the most devisive president. Hmmmm.
Obama wants to double down on the green agenda. Ok. That’s just fine and dandy. I mean it’s worked so well in other countries. Hasn’t it? Spain? Oh yeah, Spain! They did that didn’t they? How’d that work out for them?
http://real-agenda.com/2010/05/19/green-policies-in-spain-are-a-total-failure/
“On eight separate occasions, President Barack Obama has referred to the “green economy” policies enacted by Spain as being the model for what he envisioned for America.”
“Put simply, Obama is currently promoting a policy in the U.S. which is based on a policy that he wishes to see Spain abandon.”
http://www.smh.com.au/world/one-in-four-without-a-job-in-spain-20120428-1xrjp.html
“The jobless rate in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy hit 24.4 per cent, the highest in the industrialised world, in the first quarter of this year, signalling one in four Spanish workers is jobless. Among under-25s, the rate climbed to 52 per cent.
At least 1.7 million households now have no wage earner, an increase of almost 10 per cent since the start of the year.”
So, ok Mr POTUS, let’s charge headlong down that road, just ignore the “Wrong Way-Do Not Enter” signs. It’ll work for us!
Smoking gun for AGW found!!!!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-30/wind-farms-linked-to-temperature-rises/3979930
“Air turbulence from giant turbines causes air temperatures to rise around wind farms, scientists say.
Researchers including Associate Professor Liming Zhou from the State University of New York examined conditions around 2,358 turbines at four Texas wind farms.
Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, Professor Zhou and colleagues reported a temperature increase of up to 0.72 degrees Celsius per decade at wind farm locations, compared to nearby areas.”
Uhh, so the warmest ground level air is being whipped up and blown around? Big whoop.
Research has revealed that individuals who more strongly endorse social conservatism have greater cognitive rigidity, less cognitive flexibility and lower integrative complexity. Socially conservative individuals also perform less well than liberals on standardized ability tests.
http://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conservatism-racism.html
“The Pew survey adds to a wave of surveys and studies showing that GOP-sympathizers are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party.”
http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/22/science-say-gop-voters-better-informed-open-minded/
That’s a load of crap! They are grouping far right morons in with conservatives and that just does not reflect reality. Now I do agree that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. I could have told you that. But racists are not conservative, and conservatives are not racist.
You know, that’s the press for you. Funny how they left this out of the story.
“Hodson was quick to note that the despite the link found between low intelligence and social conservatism, the researchers aren’t implying that all liberals are brilliant and all conservatives stupid. The research is a study of averages over large groups, he said.
“There are multiple examples of very bright conservatives and not-so-bright liberals, and many examples of very principled conservatives and very intolerant liberals,” Hodson said.”
So with that in mind what is this study saying then? I don’t think it means what you want it to mean.
Actually the added info above is something I’m very aware of, and is what keeps me here trying to figure out how people with average or even above average intelligence cannot or do not process information in a logical and rational manner. Plus, I try to leave out anecdotal evidence but you see it everyday, confirming the above research, which is only one of many studies that have found the same thing. But you see, that is what is so interesting, and what no one has yet figured out completely- it’s a brain thing, and complicated. And it’s been part of humans forever, and I also believe it is the part that makes them prone towards violence, wars, etc. Your statement about conservatives and racism simply floors me, but it is the PERFECT example of this while thing! Keep in mind Neil, I am not saying you are racist, nor do I beleive I ever have. You probably are not racist. But Neil- it appears that through Denial, or somethin else (what? we don’t know) you and many other conservatives may even go to your graves believing racism is not a part of the conservative “community”, when in fact this is a very basic fact, and obvious to many many people- so much so it isn’t even talked about as an issue to debate- except for thos who cannot or will not admit it to themselves. No Liberal agrees with a complete Liberal agenda- that is what weakens us as a group. So you can surely go on being a Conserative, and disavow your fellow racist conservative in any manner you choose. But willful ignorance disgraces all Intelligent humans, thus why I cannot stand it very well.
Since you are so interested in this subject, and you brought it up, perhaps a history lesson is in order.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Franklin Roosevelt, the long time hero and standard bearer of the Democrat Party, headed up and implemented one of the most horrible racist policies of the 20th Century – the Japanese Internment Camps during World War II.
Hugo Black: A former Democrat Senator from Alabama and liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice appointed by FDR, Hugo Black had a lengthy history of hate group activism. Black was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920’s and gained his legal fame defending Klansmen under prosecution for racial murders.
Senator Robert Byrd, D-WV: Byrd was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and was the only national elected official with a history in the Klan, a well known hate group. Byrd was extremely active in the Klan and rose to the rank of “Kleagle,” an official Klan membership recruiter.
Senator Ernest Hollings, D-SC: Hollings is liberal Democrat Senator from South Carolina who is also notorious for his use of racial slurs. He rose out of the Democrat Party’s segregationist wing in the 1960’s as governor of South Carolina. While in office as governor, Hollings personally led the opposition to lunch counter integration in his state.
Jesse Jackson: Jackson was the featured prime time speaker at the 2000 Democrat Convention. Jackson has a history of using anti-Semitic slurs and derogatorily calling New York City “Hymietown.”
Al Sharpton: Sharpton, a perrenial Democrat candidate and one of the rumored candidates for the Democrat’s 2004 presidential nomination, has a notorious racist past. Sharpton was a central figure who fanned the 1991 Crown Heights race riot, where a mob shouting anti-semetic slurs murdered an innocent Jewish man. Sharpton also incited a 1995 protest of a Jewish owned store in Harlem where protesters used several anti-semetic slurs. During the protests, a Sharpton lieutenant called the store’s owner a “bloodsucker” and declared an intent to “loot the Jews.” A member of the protest mob later set fire to the store, resulting in the death of seven.
Representative Dick Gephardt, D-MO: Gephardt, the former Democrat Minority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, gave several speeches to a St. Louis area hate group during his early years as a representative. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Gephardt spoke before the Metro South Citizens Council, a now defunct white supremacist organization, during his early years as a congressman. Newsmax.com further reported that Gephardt had openly asked the group for an endorsement of his candidacy during one of his many visits with the organization.
Lee P. Brown: Brown, Bill Clinton’s former drug czar and Democrat mayor of Houston, engaged in racist campaigning designed to suppress Hispanic voter turnout during his 2001 reelection bid. Brown faced challenger Orlando Sanchez, a Hispanic Republican who drew heavy support from the Hispanic community during the general election.
Mary Frances Berry: Berry is the Democrat chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR). Berry is an open racist who is affiliated with the far-left Pacifica radio network, a group with ties to black nationalist causes. Berry once stated “Civil rights laws were not passed to protect the rights of white men and do not apply to them,” indicating that she believes the USCCR should only look out for civil rights violations against persons of certain select skin colors.
The Democrat Party and the Ku Klux Klan: Aside from the multiple Klan members who have served in elected capacity within the high ranks of the Democrat Party, the political party itself has a lengthy but often overlooked history of involvement with the Ku Klux Klan. Though it has been all but forgotten by the media, the Democrat National Convention of 1924 was host to one of the largest Klan gatherings in American history. Dubbed the “Klanbake convention” at the time, the 1924 Democrat National Convention in New York was dominated by a platform dispute surrounding the Ku Klux Klan. A minority of the delegates to the convention attempted to condemn the hate group in the party’s platform, but found their proposal shot down by Klan supporters within the party. As delegates inside the convention voted in the Klan’s favor, the Klan itself mobilized a celebratory rally outside. On July 4, 1924 one of the largest Klan gatherings ever occurred outside the convention on a field in nearby New Jersey. The event was marked by speakers spewing racial hatred, celebrations of their platform victory in the Democrat Convention, and ended in a cross burning.
July 17, 1862
Over unanimous Democrat opposition, Republican Congress passes Confiscation Act stating that slaves of the Confederacy “shall be forever free”
January 31, 1865
13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. House with unanimous Republican support, intense Democrat opposition
April 8, 1865
13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. Senate with 100% Republican support, 63% Democrat opposition
November 22, 1865
Republicans denounce Democrat legislature of Mississippi for enacting “black codes,” which institutionalized racial discrimination
February 5, 1866
U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-PA) introduces legislation, successfully opposed by Democrat President Andrew Johnson, to implement “40 acres and a mule” relief by distributing land to former slaves
April 9, 1866
Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Johnson’s veto; Civil Rights Act of 1866, conferring rights of citizenship on African-Americans, becomes law
May 10, 1866
U.S. House passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the laws to all citizens; 100% of Democrats vote no
June 8, 1866
U.S. Senate passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the law to all citizens; 94% of Republicans vote yes and 100% of Democrats vote no.
What does that do for your brain thing?
Re: the immediate above paragraph, (see also comment below): The above ugly affair was probably the last gasp of overt racism via the Democratic Party. In fact, it really wasn’t until Johnson’s Civil Rights Act in the 60’s that sealed the loss of the Southern “conservative” vote for a generation- his own words actually, which came true (in addition to being a hard-nosed political bully he was pretty smart too). So you see Neil, Johnson, as well as any half-wit Democrat KNEW they were going to lose the Southern Red-neck Democrats of that time to the Republican Party. We still haven’t gotten them all back, nor will we- and as a Liberal I and others say good riddance to bad garbage. More history learnin’ for Neilio. Perhaps you can find us an example of the Right throwing away a huge block of voters out of decency and doing the right ethical thing (and please try and keep it to the last century and/or this one). I’ll be waiting… and waiting.
-paragraph above the one above. sheesh
The crux of all notions that somehow Republicans are hostile to blacks while Democrats champion black rights dates back to Barry Goldwater and his opposition to federal civil rights laws which forbid private citizens and businesses from discriminating against people based upon race, color, or national origin.
This had nothing to do with equal rights for blacks before the law. Goldwater, in fact, had been one of the founders of the NAACP in Arizona. He supported every single civil rights bill before the 1964 law, and his opposition to that one was based upon its unconstitutionality, as Goldwater explains here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tacJtYPHKiE and as his campaign brochure http://www.4president.org/brochures/goldwater1964brochure.htm also explains. LBJ, as Goldwater noted at the time that the 1964 law was passed, had opposed every other civil rights bill in his political career.
No one today can seriously question the integrity of Goldwater. He was a principal mover in forcing the resignation of Nixon. He often stood alone, or almost alone, on other issues. What caused the change in the attitude of blacks towards the two political parties was not any real perception of Goldwater as a bigot, which he emphatically was not, but rather upon the perceived benefit to blacks of socialism and of statist intervention in the private affairs of Americans.
Socialism promises those who are at the bottom of society greater affluence by the redistribution of wealth. Historically, that noxious doctrine has had very little appeal in America because groups have entered America destitute and, through dint of hard work, have risen to the heights of society within a generation or two. Irish, Italians, Jews, Japanese, Greeks, and other immigrants have proven the validity of this proposition over and over again.
As Thomas Sowell has so persuasively demonstrated, black America not only could, but did rise fast in American society once legal restraints on race — the sort that men like Coolidge and Goldwater have always opposed — were lifted. As one small but telling example, Sowell notes that in the segregated school system of Washington, D.C. in 1899, blacks scored better than whites on standardized tests. Moreover, just as blacks unhindered by government hindrance or “help” have risen fast, private enterprise, the great equalizer, is often the first part of society to accept blacks. The boycott of the Montgomery Bus System which inspired Rosa Parks’ passive resistance was opposed by the City of Montgomery, which obtained an injunction against blacks using taxis to avoid riding on buses. The private black boycott was working, and the statist racist response was to stop the boycott through government intervention.
Socialism punishes individual achievement, and that achievement is the best avenue of success for blacks and all others who have suffered from discrimination. The bosses of socialism, which is in essence no more than a scam to seize and to hold power, have utter indifference to real racism (e.g., having Klansman Robert Byrd as Democrat Senate Floor Leader) and a deep interest in the permanent poverty and misery of those who irrationally view statist collectivism as their only hope.
Democrats have long been addicted to machine politics, which requires its constituencies to be clumps of votes and not human souls. This addiction requires the perpetual enslavement of black America, although with a different and more generous master. Republicans have been consistent on race relations from the very beginning, and this reflects the fact that moral principles cannot change to meet the needs of political power. Many black Americans know this and have rebelled against it, but the party of the slave whip does not surrender easily, and the party of emancipation too often apologizes for sins never committed.
For a history lesson, simply do a keyword search for ‘democrat’ on these two pages…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_history
This is great. I hope that the president truly does make this a big part of his campaign platform!
Uhh… Neil – it does nothing for me. In addition to being a long time ago that was when the two Parties were the almost the exact opposite of what they are now- in just about every way. You see, it is this kind of thing I am referring to. It is your brain that cannot get of it’s one way track. And my point here is NOT MY OPINION- looke up just a LITTLE bit of actual history and you too will learn what the rest of us learned in, say, 8th grade.
And the stuff above the stuff above- anecdotal. That is why I usually don’t post anecdotes- their worthless in the BIGGER scheme of things and anyone with a little extra time on their hands can find contrary “evidence” to EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN, including the Sun too. Once again- fail; x 2.
“That was when the two Parties were the almost the exact opposite of what they are now.”
Really? That is comforting to tell yourself that, I’m shure, but it is divorced from reality. I would do a little research before making a claim like that. What the reality is, and I know you don’t want to hear it, is that the Republican party has changed very little from it’s founding, but the Democrat party has moved farther Left. A bitter pill, I know. But that is the truth, so swallow or choke on it.
The world belongs to those collecting capital gains.
They’re the ones who demanded and got massive tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, on the false promise
that the gains would “trickle down” to everyone else in the form of more jobs and better wages.
They’re now advocating austerity economics, on the false basis that cuts in public spending – including
education, infrastructure, and safety nets – will generate more “confidence” and “certainty” among
lenders and investors, and also lead to more jobs and better wages.
None of this is sustainable, economically or socially.
Liberals should make Obama a deal:
We help him get re-elected on his promise that he’ll act like a Democrat in his second term.
I don’t know where you copied that from, and I really don’t care. It’s a pack of lies, is what it is. Go look at the economy in 06′. It was not bad. It wasn’t until 07′ when the Democrats took control of the senate that things started going bad. Here’s a story from Feb 1, 07′:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/31/AR2007013100422.html
The U.S. economy turned in a surprisingly strong performance last year, new data show, growing 3.4 percent despite higher interest rates, high oil prices and the sharpest housing downturn in 15 years.
The report from the Commerce Department, showing that economic growth picked up in 2006 from the 3.2 percent growth of 2005, dispelled any lingering doubts about the momentum of the economy going into this year. Many economists predict growth will slow this year, but gone are the recession worries of last summer.
“Nothing, other than an external shock, will derail the economy this year,” said Eugenio J. Alem?n, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “The economy’s in good shape.”
Unemployment and inflation fell last year while wages and salaries rose at their quickest pace in five years, according to a series of recent government reports. The reports suggest that troubles in housing and manufacturing, though painful for many people, have not caused the widespread economic damage that many experts had feared.
Federal Reserve policymakers held short-term interest rates steady yesterday, showing they are content — at least for now — with the state of the economy. They left their benchmark rate on overnight loans between banks unchanged at 5.25 percent, where it has been since June. But they indicated that they remain ready to raise borrowing costs if strong economic growth fuels a fresh bout of inflation.
President Bush hailed the news in a speech extolling the strong “state of the economy” on Wall Street, where he was also mobbed visiting the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. “As we begin this New Year, America’s businesses and entrepreneurs are creating new jobs every day,” he said. “Workers are making more money; their paychecks are going further. Consumers are confident, investors are optimistic.”
I know you want to blame Bush, and that’s understandable because of your seething hatred for him. But it was all good. And then the Democrats took over the senate and things started to go to h-e-double toothpicks. And that is the reality. Something of which I am becoming more convinced everyday that you are unfamilliar.
But oh it was Bush’s fault right?
A September 11, 2003 New York Times article shows that President Bush proposed “the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.” His proposal: An agency within the Treasury Department to supervise mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Fearing that mortgages would no longer be available to people who were unable to pay them back, Democrats eventually killed the proposal. The current meltdown in the mortgage industry is a direct result of giving mortgages to people who could not pay them back, a practice protected by Congressional Democrats.
Wake up!
That’s a simplistic viewpoint- the devil is always in the details. Plus targetting only fannie and freddy was not enough, as proved out by “recent” history. Neil- your views are not just biased, but superficial. You don’t dig any deeper unless you know what and where to find that which supports your views, regardless of the bias of the source, etc. You do that all the time. You are not a lazy researcher necessarily but you are intellectually lazy. Besides both parties are owned and operated by big business and bid finance, but the Republicans have been that waymuch longer and to a greater degree. Those degrees have shrunk smaller and smaller, thus the anguish felt by many people, myself included. Except that your idea of repair or fix, is to double down on what got us into this mess in the first place. Again- intellectual laziness. It is people like you who need to wake up. Did you research the evolution of the two parties, as discussed previously? Are you going to continue to double down on that farce? You apparenlty have no idea how naive that kind of thing makes you look.
Sorry the truth is too simple for you. Plus targeting Fannie and Freddie went nowhere because of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. Nothing was done! 17 times Bush warned of problems with Fannie and Freddie, and he was blocked every time by Frank and Dodd, who insisted that nothing was wrong. If something was done it would have been something! Maybe it wouldn’t have been enough, but maybe it would have. We will never know.
You’re right Neil- THAT truth is too simple for me. But not for you.
“Except that your idea of repair or fix, is to double down on what got us into this mess in the first place.” Huh? I didn’t put forth any ideas on repairing, or fixing anything. I know you think that the problem was that worthless loans were being sold off, and that is what precipitated the housing collapse. I know you think that because it is the Democrat party line. But, I ask you to apply some logic to that by asking a simple question. What made those loans worthless in the first place? What made those loans worthless is the fact that they were made to people who had no way to pay them back. And the loaning institutions were forced to make those loans, to people who had no possible means to pay the loans back, by Democrat policies.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo125.html
“The thousands of mortgage defaults and foreclosures in the “subprime” housing market (i.e., mortgage holders with poor credit ratings) is the direct result of thirty years of government policy that has forced banks to make bad loans to un-creditworthy borrowers. The policy in question is the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which compels banks to make loans to low-income borrowers and in what the supporters of the Act call “communities of color” that they might not otherwise make based on purely economic criteria.”
Neil- you have posted this info previously (maybe Joe). it is biased and tells only half the story, if that. And in addition to that you see what I have done here is extrapolated, deduced, used logic and rational thinking to dsicern your position on this issue, which you then simply confirmed by posting another biased purportedly official and final word on the subject. That is what separates us, you see. Or don’t see. Your “thinker” is black and white, like an old-timey movie. Sometimes it’s even a silent one, not even a “talky.” You don’t debate, you don’t know how. Or you don’t want to know how, or you just are playing dumb. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt by listing these possibilities. (Hint: that, in and of itself, is an example of debating technique- not to mention being polite.)
You go ahead and just keep telling yourself that. There is a thing called a dictionary, and it gives definitions of things like logic, rationality, extrapolation, and deduction. I think you should look at one because I don’t think you know the meaning of those words. Because what you are really doing is dismissing what I post, rejecting it, and then deriding me for posting it.
Ohhh. My mistake apparently. Here you’ve been utilizing the Dictionary all this time and I thought something Different. Gee, well, I do apologize for that wacky error…
Or perhaps I need to follow the sage advice of Plotinus (not Plato): Do not try and make the finger see. Allow it to do that which it is destined to do.
Yeah, but how do blind people read?
You would persevere as I have done. Plus, you may want to go back in time and ask Plotinus that question directly. That, or invent braille while back in time and present it to Plotinus so he could have used a different metaphor.
Can you read this finger?
Everything is a “key issue” in an election. May as well be Global Warming, what else has Obama got to lose? May as well scare people. When people wake up to his inept administration, policies et al, he will be one term. As to fingers? One pointed at the other is three pointed back. RNHood seems to be an expert. Hope his aim is straight for which I doubt.
Obama is scaring people? Not really. That’s the Right’s modus operandi- and it works very well for them and their freaky base. Racism and abortion are the icing and cherry on top of their sick manner of garnering votes year after year…
This is the picture of Republican America: Their unspoken core doctrine is private ownership of everything – where government is subservient to the will of the select “owners.” Extreme libertarianism leads to the dismantling of the commons, the public sector – where schools, roads, bridges, and the post office are privatized and even the military evolves into nothing but a mercenary force. Nothing could be more destructive to a society.
The only ones making a living wage are the white-male-owners in this future vision where surveillanced castles (gated communities) are surrounded by tin shanties occupied by the impoverished vast majority. Megachurches rise over city landscapes reminiscent of prominent cathedrals of antiquity towering over paupers’ huts. The New Dark Ages has arrived.
Yet, the Owners proceed. We, the people, are nothing but property in their hands – commodities to be traded on the “open” market. “Free trade” is not free for the increasingly enslaved. And that isn’t just a “scare tactic”- it’s the truth.
Us vs. “them”, territorial/clan aggression and competition, disdain and derision to that which is “different”, and how these characteristics more closely define an ideology rooted in “predatory anarchism” (or laissez-faire capitalism), if you will, whereby the “state” is harmful and undesirable only in that this inhibits “survival of the most aggressive”, seems the central meme of such “rugged individualists” that “want to take the country back” (from whom?) and whom democracy is seen as some kind of obstacle to that end.
Cooperation (democracy) is deemed a weakness; and multi-culturalism a threat to their status quo (dominance).
Hood Dude. Been around a little more than you. Your rants remind me of France, Italy, Spain and Mexico as it is today, not yet America but based upon mindsets like you, it will be forthcoming. I must admit, your generation is the most inept generation I have ever witnessed. The “poor” have more material things then when I was working three jobs with no food stamps, no entitlements etc. Today, (Big screen TV’s, Cell Phones, Car, food, tattoo’s, liquor, cigarettes, check every month etc.) In today’s society does anyone take responsibility for their actions? The answer is rarely, if at all. Why work? Just like France where Sarkozy got bumped for an idiot that will let you retire at 60 with full benefits instead of 62 and it should be 67! Who voted the opposing party in? The one’s that live off the teat. Need that milky savory entitlement check don’t they? If not they riot like lemmings off a cliff. Poor souls. Yes, your generation was raised to want not freedom but free stuff no what it may be. Just wait until the free stuff is gone as well as the people that allowed you to get your entitlements by taking all from them not earning it. Then you may see the light. As to now? I doubt it. Only when you lack food and your stomach aches as well as your children’s will you understand. Been there and it is not fun. I worked and earned it.
Finally, I note you seem to quote others quite often. You seem to be the water boy for others and carry quite often. Hope you salary is commensurate for your work? I assume that I’m correct? Do you actually think/write/dream/live without talking points? My statements come from myself, not others. What say you or do you have to request and await orders for a written response from a higher person? Based upon your posts that seems to be a given.
Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle. The legislation, essentially bipartisan, drives new fiscal policies and tax changes, as well as the rules of corporate governance and deregulation. Alongside this began a sharp rise in the costs of elections, which drove the political parties even deeper into the pockets of the corporate sector.
Both parties have dissolved in many ways. It used to be that if a person in Congress hoped for a position such as a committee chair, he or she got it mainly through seniority and service. Within a couple of years, they started having to put money into the party coffers in order to get ahead, a topic studied mainly by Tom Ferguson. That just drove the whole system even deeper into the pockets of the corporate sector (increasingly the financial sector).
In other words Hood, you personally cannot answer. (Puppet re-posts don’t qualify) Thought so and you just verified my previous statement. You must still be awaiting orders from above I assume? You never change, or should I say your employer?
Answer what? Sheesh this is sad, plus I did respond to your non-questioning post above, but we’ve been down this dull dead-end road you and I MANY times.
The House voted Thursday to override steep cuts to the Pentagon’s budget mandated by last summer’s debt deal and replace them with spending reductions to food stamps and other mandatory social programs.
While doomed in the Senate and opposed by the White House, the legislation, which would reduce the deficit by $243 billion, is a Republican marker for post-election budget talks with the White House.
Zero Democrats voted for the bill, and the proposal even went too far for 16 House Republicans, who broke ranks and voted with Dems.
Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow.
Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 1864
Your opinions are well known and are very repetitive. Hello? Hello? Hello? Should call you “Tin Cup.”
A quote isn’t exactly an opinion. Plus Lincoln was Republican. Perhaps you have the Tin Ear (cup, whatever…)
Lincoln was Republican, and so how in the world does that make me repetitive? Perhaps you have a Tin Ear… or cup, whatever.
And that was Lincoln’s opinion, obviously. Just because mine is similar makes me repetitive? Only if Lincoln had been a Democrat would it make it possibly repetitive. Your posts are not repetitive Joe? They are. So you should work on getting beyond hypocrisy before doing anything else. You don’t think Lincoln was a smart, brave, and great President? If you do, how to reconcile his statement, and many others like his by even conservative notables? Ignore otherwise brilliant people’s opinions on that ONE subject? As, what, and anomaly? Perhaps, but there are too many of them for that to make any sense.
The above repetitiveness was done by mistake- not done to mock anyone, although if it does….
Direct Romney quotation:
“I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that’s the America millions of Americans believe in. That’s the America I love.”
No that’s repetitiveness and well, dumbness.
Actually I believe Mittens is talking about the America that the propaganda via the elite has made many of us believe exists, which it really doesn’t. Maybe there is albeit dark-sided brain cell or two working under that Presidential looking hair.
Privatization simply hasn’t worked for health care, mortgage banking, higher education, or prison management. There is little incentive for profit-motivated firms to invest in disadvantaged or underemployed Americans. That’s why taxes are necessary – to provide for the common good, and to return some of the gains from 60 years of productivity to the great majority of Americans who contributed to our growth. Unfortunately, the golden door on the Statue of Liberty seems to have an invisible hand holding it shut. That invisible hand is the global corporate elite who now don’t give a damn about any country or its countrymen.
I don’t know about prison management but the other industries you mentioned have been destroyed by government interference.
Health care used to work before all the mandates and the advent of the third party pay model brought about by wage controls imposed by the federal government. Heck – Doctors used to make house calls and people could afford it. Can you imagine what a house call from a doctor would cost today? Only people like Michael Jackson or Oprah could afford it.
Mortgages weren’t a problem until the feds required banks to give loans to people not worthy of credit – with no means of repaying the money.
Banking worked just fine for consumers until the federal government began perverting the money supply and heaped burdensome regulations on the banks.
A recent example of how government regulation ruins industries: Until very recently, free checking was very common, even for people with low balances. Now, thanks to Obama’s crazy new financial regulations, minimum balances are way up, fees are way up and free checking is a thing of the past because the banks can’t afford to operate under the new regulations otherwise.
More government isn’t the solution. Rolling back the burdensome and nonsensical government regulations that have crippled those industries is. I think you know that, but you don’t want solutions. You’re here to employ agitprop. The radical left doesn’t want success. They want to destroy every industry with government regulation and then blame the “free market” for the failure, so the communist revolution can remake everything in a centrally-planned new tyranny. We aren’t buying it. Take your lies elsewhere.
Yes, Obama’s to blame for the banking industry for being the greedy pigs they are. Riiiight. omg
Of course in reality the exact opposite is true. The destruction of appropriate mandates and regulations is destroying this country, all for the profit of the elite. Regulations don’t mean more government, it means stability, fairness, democracy, justice, and equality, etc. It has been the lack of them and lack of enforcement that is ruining this country. People like you Dan apparently will never see that. It’s a mental block of some kind, as far as I can tell. I don’t have to lie because the truth in what I speak is plain as day for any who wish to see it.
“…the chief business of the Supreme Court is to keep the Constitution loose and elastic, so that blasting holes through it may not be too onerous.” H. L. Mencken
Allegedly circulated by British banking interests among their American banking counterparts in July 1862:
[S]lavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of the laborers, while the European plan, led by England, is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages. This can be done by controlling the money. The great debt that capitalists will see to it is made out of the war, must be used as a means to control the volume of money…. It will not do to allow the greenback, as it is called, to circulate as money any length of time, as we cannot control that. [Quoted in Charles Lindburgh, “Banking and Currency and the Money Trust” (Washington, DC: National Capital Press, 1913), page 102.]
Both the Fascist Democrats and the Fascist Republicans commit mass treason every time they vote for another unconstitutional bill. Then they are joined by a treasonous fascist pResident who signs it into law.
Instead of “We the People” marching on Washington and kicking them all out of office, we listen to their lies (like Obama supporting gay rights) and then go to the polls and make the false choice vote for the lesser of two evil fascist political parties, again.
While corporate profits have doubled to $1.9 trillion in less than ten years, the corporate income tax rate, which for thirty years hovered around the 20-25% level, suddenly dropped to 10% after the recession. It has remained there for three years.
We are seeing a manifestation of the “Shock Doctrine”. Corporations are using the national emergency of the financial collapse to make a statement about taxes, and a traumatized nation is too preoccupied to do anything about it.
From the WaPo:
Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree. Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true. But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.
Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has.
Even were that true (it isn’t), when you’ve spent so much money that babies being born today are already in arrears with the feds to the tune of $44,000, slowing the growth of spending isn’t enough. It’s a joke. We have to CUT spending back to manageable levels.
Your attacks are a joke. Get real, then we can talk.
There are several if not many ways to tax those who can very much afford it on levels they would be virtually unnoticeable to them or their families. But these pennies cannot be touched, for they are the elite, and they must be protected from as much citizen responsibilities per taxation as possible! And people like Dan, although not rich himself, is a brave soldier in their war against the rest of us.
Hah! Conservatives like myself just want to be left alone. It’s your camp of busybody “progressives” taking “war” to my doorstep. I got involved in politics as a matter of self-defense.
Former US President George W Bush, his Vice-President Dick Cheney and six other members of his administration have been found guilty of war crimes by a tribunal in Malaysia.
…Transcripts of the five-day trial will be sent to the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, the United Nations and the Security Council.
A member of the prosecution team, Professor Francis Boyle of Illinois University’s College of Law, said he was hopeful that Bush and his colleagues could soon find themselves facing similar trials elsewhere in the world.
The eight accused are Bush; former US Vice President Richard Cheney; former US Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld; former Counsel to Bush, Alberto Gonzales; former General Counsel to the Vice President, David Addington; former General Counsel to the Defense Secretary, William Haynes II; former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo.
Besides not caring one whit about what some goofball, powerless kangaroo court in Malaysia thinks, what’s this relevant to? This discussion has drifted pretty far afield.
Me and my buddies had a trial in my back yard last weekend and found Obama guilty of treason. Stop the presses! Front page news! Sheesh.
Ahhh, the ego of the wing-nuts rises its HUGE head once again. BTW- we true Liberals may not disagree re: some of obama’s culpabilities. Some but probably not all- you Rightys always go way goofy when goofiness is the least unhelpful. In another dimension people like us could actually agree on many things, creating a big problem for the powers that be. But you are too compromised by a lifetime of right-wing propaganda to realize this.
BTW- are there any weekends when you and your buds Don’t find Obama guilty of something?
And wouldn’t your back-yard judgments be considered a “powerless goofball kangaroo court”? Seems like it would fit your own criteria as such.
Um. That’s the point. This Malaysian farce has as much authority and value as me and my friends drinking beer and complaining about Obama at a back yard BBQ.
Oh…I missed YOUR POINT. Duh, for me. But admitting that you and yours are goofballs is very enlightening nonetheless. I would hazard, also though, that the Malaysian “thing” didn’t occur in a backyard, with or without BBQ, including perhaps liquid refreshments of some kind. Just sayin’.
This Hood guy is proof to the statement “Kool Aid drinker.” Just what the hell do they put into that stuff? Like to know so I could make millions.
It must contain logic, cause you guys sure don’t experience it.