Sorry Mike but you're a couple weeks late and look to be a few dollars short. Obama's PAC produced the Romney killed this man's wife ad, which got more air play than Obama could pay for. It was roundly denounced and debunked.
Biden has invoked slavery, and called Republicans "squealing pigs".

Can anything Trump produce exceed that kind of rhetoric? I doubt it. But if he does, don't complain. Your side took the gloves off, so don't be surprised when the other side does too and you get a bloody nose.

Shooter is the perfect example of hypocrisy and stupidity on the Republican side. All they constantly scream about is that taxes must be cut and spending must be cut to balance the budget and create jobs despite the fact that there is absolutely no proof in the history of any government anywhere that those policies have ever worked.

But to get compromise Obama did cut spending in Medicare just like the REPUBLICANS wanted. In fact it was their proposal. Now they are using it against him. Obama instituted what they now call "Obamacare," which we formerly called "Romneycare," and was a REPUBLICAN idea twenty years in the making but the Republicans are using against him. Ryan is now claiming that Obama is massively cutting the military budget but again that was Ryan's idea as a default if Ryan and the Congress couldn't reach an agreement in the Congressional Super Committee.

Of course blaming Obama for the jobs situation has been part of the Republican mantra since day one even though the Republican's have refused to vote for every single jobs bill that have come across their desks and laid off over 650,000 government workers while the President actually saved1.1 million auto workers and related jobs.

So the truth is while the Republicans have neither cut spending like the President has nor have they increased revenues by increasing taxes like the president has attempted to do (which resulted in the only balanced budget and surplus we have had in the last thirty years under Clinton's watch, something none of the Republicans have ever accomplished using their supply-side, trickle down Reagan scam), the Republican's like Chem, bitch and moan about cuts but when the President does cut they blame him. When the President enacts their healthcare plan, they blame the President. When they refuse to enact any jobs legislation they blame the President. These are not real adults who take responsibility for their actions nor do they do anything at all. They simply sit back and do nothing, wait for the Democrats to act and them blame them.

sedwinmars . . . "Shooter" is just here to provoke. You're better off ignoring him and using your energies elsewhere. I've tried to engage him in civil debate, including earlier this week when he came up woefully and laughingly short on a question of having the banks once again become intermediaries in the student loan process.

He's long proven his lack of interest in using logic and having reasonable discussions and, apparently, continues to do so with his post at 1.1.

Yes...a right wing troll. I enjoy fighting back. The Republicans have believed for too long that Dems just roll over and play dead. They need to know those days are long gone especially since they have no ideas, never have facts to back up any of their arguments and base all of their campaigns on hatred of their fellow Americans instead of policy of any kind.

It's time to vote all Republican's out of office for the next several decades to get this country back on track. I'm sick and tired of having out country rated 27th out of 30th in every single category out of the 30 western democratized nations since the Republican takeover under Reagan.

All this noise about "You didn't build that" - Obama's comment that was twisted. Why isn't the media playing Mitt Romney's identical remark to the olympic athletes? He told them that although they won medals, THEY DIDN'T DO IT - the whole village behind each athlete contributed to their success! I saw this clip once on MSNBC before the Olympics, and I wonder why it hasn't played aa hundred times during the Olympics. Again, Romney said the EXACT same thing as Obama, now he's flipped it against Obama, with all the knuckleheads standing behind Romney onstage wearing tee shirts that say "I built it myself". There will be a whole night at the RNC convention titled "You didn't build it", yet Romney said the Exact same thing when he ran the Olympics. Please MSNBC, run that clip ad nauseum!!!!

What's hilarious is that the RNC convention theme is, "We built that," but they are holding their convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum which was built with millions of taxpayer dollars (like most corporate/millionaire buildings and businesses) and of course the overwhelming majority of these millionaire donors like Trump and the Koch brothers inherited their money and businesses from their fathers and families as well as continuing to borrow millions from taxpayers and banks annually to keep their businesses going.

So this myth that they build their businesses on their own, is B.S. especially when one considers that it is us the consumer that allows them to be profitable in the first place. The fact that all of these clowns refuse to give back to society by paying zero in taxes or hiding as much money as possible to avoid giving back to the society that has made them so rich is appalling.

mpguy,

you indeed made a point I didn't have a good answer for. And as it turns out I don't care enough to do the research. So, if you've got something to look at that is a good overview, I'd like to look at it.

sedwinmars,

Tommorow, I'm driving to Maine for a week, and I'll have a lot of time on my hands. We'll give it a go and see what happens.

Am I the only one who sees a strong similarity between how a woman who has been raped is to be treated by the Republicans who have signed onto that party's platform and the Taliban's interpretaton of Sharia law on the subject? Or is my understanding that, under an extreme interpretation of Sharia law, such a woman would be stoned to death or killed by a family member--to preserve the family's "honor"? I think the Taliban may be a little more humane in such an instance: at least they allow the woman to be put out of her misery, as they would any other of their breeding stock (again, do I misunderstand a woman's place in either organization?). Also--and this is an old question--what of the life of the impregnated woman? Does no one else consider Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale cautionary?

Very true. I get very weary of all commentators and reporters talking about the National Popular Vote as if it matters as something more than an interesting factoid when the truth is the vote for President/Vice President is made up of 51 local elections.

Perhaps they (including Rachel) think this is too complicated for us to grasp -- they all live in NYC and DC after all where folks are smarter and much much more sophisticated.

I've been thinking about this. While clearly there is much ignorance in the Republican base, I believe these people are being manipulated by corrupt religious and corporate leaders.

This whole movement to use the government to restrict the rights of women's healthcare really flies in the face of the so called Republican philosophy of "big government," as well as the philosophy of balancing the budget. Of course the Republicans are addicted to power and they are upset that the Dems have taken the initiative on these issues and feel they may lose that power because of that but I believe it goes beyond that.

The Republican elite all have full healthcare, and pensions themselves. This includes the corporate and political elite and they will never give that up. But they don't want everyone else to have insurance or pension plans like the rest of the world. Part of that is that they will have to pay into that plan. Their payment swill be minuscule but any payment at all is offensive to their scrooge like personalities.

As an alternative they have developed a plan with the religious authorities to turn America back into a medieval society where our citizens will simply "pray" away their illnesses. Where women's illnesses and other illnesses shall not be questioned on a religious basis or authority. Now remember this will only apply to the lower classes as the upper class will all still have their vastly superior insurances and pensions.

I am reminded of the Terri Schiavo case where 99% of the doctors said her brain had deteriorated to the point where she was completely brain dead but all the right wingers including the Republican Senator and doctor Bill Frist said she was fine (she had been in a coma for years), but upon her death it was found that indeed her brain had shriveled to the size of a walnut.

The point is I believe these supremely rich extremists are slowing proposing that the lower classes simply rely on prayer rather than real modern healthcare like the rest of the modern world so that they don't have to pay minuscule payments into public insurance and pension systems.

WE all know that the Governor of a state is responsible for every misdeed, illegal and evil thing that happens in their state while they are Governor. I am sure we could go to MA during the time Gov. Romney was in "power" and find a similar laundry list of unexplainable, unsolved, horrible situations out of the governor's control that we could blog onto a conservative site.

Oh well, I have better things to do and know that in the long run, it would be meaningless.

Just a couple point's I'd like to make:

1. "Raise taxes on the wealthy" really needs to be rephrased to reflect the truth--end entitlement programs for the wealthy. Why do we reserve the "E" word for programs that help those in greatest need?
2. The slide in education in this country has many contributing factors. Mr. Blow touched on one in his opening paragraph: "we squabble about punishing teachers and coddling children." We do coddle children nowadays. Parents, you are doing your kids no favors by not holding them accountable for their performance. Please stop the no-child-without-a-trophy mentality.
3. There seems to be a paradigm shift in that for the first time, parents do not push for their kids to achieve more than they have. It's the "it's okay, honey, you are still perfect" mentality. My mom was a homemaker. My dad was a factory worker. Neither went to college. Although they loved their kids no matter what, the one thing they impressed upon us is the expectation that we do something productive with our lives. I could have been a pooper scooper and they would not have loved me any less so long as I was the best damned pooper scooper in town. Are some parents threatened by their children's success? Are some afraid to let their kids know that they are disappointed? Get over it. Be proud of your kids. But expect them to try their best always.

Just my anecdotal-evidenced, emotionally charged, knee-jerk reaction opinion. Take it for what it's worth.