Citations for tonight's show are listed after the jump.
Why The Weather Channel is Naming Winter Storms
Naming a winter storm? Meteorologists are appalled by Nemo
Naming Nemo: how The Weather Channel took storm names away from the government
Government shutdown 2011 avoided with 11th-hour budget deal
Boehner Halts Talks on Cuts, and House G.O.P. Cheers
Michigan to Appoint Emergency Fiscal Manager for Detroit
Questions, answers about a possible Detroit emergency financial manager
NAACP: Detroit needs a partner, not overseer
Michigan governor clears way for state takeover of Detroit
Bing doesn't favor Detroit EM, but will work with state 'to move city forward'
Village of Three Oaks succeeds under emergency manager
The Danger Box: Middle Grade Novel by Blue Balliett Set in Three Oaks, Michigan
Michigan Town Is Left Pleading for Bankruptcy
Hamtramck manager: We'll pursue bankruptcy until 'door is shut, locked, barricaded, bolted'
Former Highland Park EM will stand trial on embezzlement charges
Pontiac emergency manager: How to save Detroit
Telford: Bring the feds into Detroit schools
Emergency manager: 'Dramatic changes' ahead for Muskegon Heights schools
Investigation uncovers non-certified teachers at Muskegon Heights new charter school
Allen Park needs an emergency manager, panel says
Voting Rights Act oral argument (audio)
Chief Justice Roberts' Long War Against the Voting Rights Act
Bridge Crossing Jubilee: VP Biden to participate in Selma events this weekend
Know-nothingness becomes part of Republican platform
The Rod Blagojevich Reality Show Heads to Court
Defense: Blago is 'silly' and 'broke'
GOP tosses fiscal responsibility for tax cuts
3D-printed car plans to cross country on 10 gallons of ethanol
Watch the New and Improved Printable Gun Spew Hundreds of Bullets
Leave a Comment:
Was just listening to the extended bit with Maddow on John Stewart. Was struck by the sole purpose of the sequester, as obvious as it may be.
Of course, this is the Obama Administration's receipt of the GOP version of Newt Gingrich shutting the government down. Playing chicken with every intention of going off the cliff. Scorched Earth Republicans, carrying the day once again.
See, here's the bit that catches me up: IF the entire point is to drive the car off the cliff (from the POV of the scorched earth side), how does the non-scorched earth side strategically play the chess game against that?
I mean, there SHOULD be a way to play that chess game. Clever people should be able to use such machinations to turn the GOP into a dead wildebeast or something.
What I mean is that ANY opponent in a struggle (pro- and an -tagonists) who can be counted on to give a machine-like and utterly predictable response can be manipulated to give that response against their own interests. Classic chess. Machine-like, predictable responses can be manipulated.
This is the wisdom of Machiavelli. A participant in such a struggle need not be amoral to use Machiavellian tactics, IF an amoral opponent has BOXED HIMSELF IN to giving machine-like, predictable responses to salvos.
That's just a classic IF/THEN statement. If you can predict an opponent's moves, you can beat him. In chess, you lay a trap, say, behind the King you're going to checkmate, and then make a frontal attack where the opponent responds in completely predictable fashion, and they walk right into that trap. Duh. (I should talk. I always got nailed by those sort of combination piece moves in chess, even when I studied famous matches, trying to learn how to avoid them).
So I may suck at chess, but I understand the game enough to know I suck at it. But there's one thing I DO understand: IF/THEN statements. I work with computers. I know how rule-based systems work. There is something wonderfully comforting about them. So predictable.
And the GOP has turned, in its own bizarre illogic, into a one-trick pony, a rule-based system that can be predicted, nearly absolutely. In short, it wouldn't pass a Turing Test. It can be stated thusly:
IF an opportunity exists to destroy or crash the economy, government, or administration of my opponent and thus saddle my opponent with a "bad record" to face the next election, THEN we will take that opportunity, regardless of the cost, the earth that is scorched, the baby that is thrown out with the bathwater, the mutually-assured destruction that will occur.
Given that that piece of information exists, could we not use it to our advantage? (I know some will refuse to believe that the IF/THEN statement above is absolutely true, just because it is impossible for them to comprehend anyone could be so self-destructive, could cut off one's nose to spite one's face, but that position is beyond naive at this point, I believe.) There is no tactical advantage to be gained by underestimating the degree to which this earth will become scorched in the game of chicken.
BUT there is a tactical advantage to be achieved against any opponent who is so completely predictable. THAT'S when you set up your chess pieces and back the opponent right into the corner they've created for themselves, to lead them, inadvertently, by their own machine-like scorched earth motivations, to create precisely the outcome that YOU desire, because they THINK it will scorch your earth!
What's that line they always put in the movies? "That's just what they expect us to do!"
But what approach sets them up this way? A willingness to push the GOP car right off the cliff, looking all wild-eyed and raving? And then when the car goes off the cliff, instead, it backs neatly into the Obama Adm garage?
I'm just trying to imagine what such a tactic might be. I actually THINK this is precisely what the Obama Adm did to get Health Care Reform through. They made it look like they were throwing the game, and in the end, got something that, while not perfect, is certainly historic.
But to do that, it's a high stakes game, and it surely did piss a lot of us off. It's not classic negotiation, that's for sure. It gives up too much ground. I prefer the approach of giving an opponent enough rope to hang himself, but not actually tying the noose around my own neck first, to lull them into a premature sense of victory.
Something like Newman and Redford did in The Sting.
Does anybody else have ideas about how to play this sort of a chess game? Surely there are some other chess players out there in Maddow geekdom who are better at it than I am. My imagination is coming up dry at the moment, tapped out on this Friday night. But I do KNOW such tactics are possible, ANYTIME an opponent becomes so completely predictable. It is within that predictability that contains the seeds of their own destruction.
This is why Machiavelli claimed to be able to easily defeat people who are moral. Because morality is so predictable, while a sophist needs no such compunctions.
Which doesn't mean moral people can't employ such tactics against people who appear not to be Machiavellians at all (Karl Rove notwithstanding; he's proven to be no Lee Atwater or Chuck Colson). They all drink too much of their own Kool-Aid. The election proved that. Their eyes burn with the fire of the zealot. They just happen to be zealots who are wrong. And they can be defeated, because of this.
Meanwhile...
Yes, let Maddow pace herself and take Fridays off! But NO PRISON! Preserve Maddow. Maddow Preserves! Spread them on toast! Ration it out. (Maddow Game Preserves?)
You're not understanding the playing field here. Govt spending will still increase this year. You're trying to play against a phantom enemy.
Way to avoid the point, Blank! Your goddess Ayn Rand would be proud of you.
Speaking of goofy strategy or tactical machinations, here's a good laugh!
(not quite as good as Karl Rove bugging his own office to blame it on his opponent in Texas, but of the same genus and species)
Evidently some very stupid GOP trickster paid for a #Maddow spoof Twitter astroturf campaign (as if these things are not transparently obvious), TRYING TO MAKE IT LOOK like the Maddow folks did it!
LOL. Like anyone would even remotely believe that. It's just SOP wingnut schtick, but pretty hilarious, that anyone would think it came from TRMS, or even that that sort of thing would have the desired effect (boost #Maddow influence on Twitter, which needs no boosting?) or the opposite effect (make it LOOK like the TRMS was doing something so lame-ass to boost #Maddow influence on Twitter, so they could froth about it on Newsbusters, lol), or even a THIRD effect (cause even the slightest blip of consternation among #Maddow fans and TRMS PTB over getting stupidly spoofed as Twitter lame-ass spammers).
But the only actual NET effect of such a silly move was that someone on the Tea Party or SuperPAC side PAID REAL MONEY to do something so transparently dumb. Not that Newsbusters or Free Republic have any sense of nuance when it comes to jumping on something so stupid.
ROFLOL!
Here's the silly stuff:
https://twitter.com/LeftyBollocks/status/307697011866603520/photo/1
News Busters: Did Rachel Maddow Use Multiple Fake Twitter Accounts to Boost Her MSNBC Show?
Free Republic: Rachel Maddow Busted Using Multiple Fake Twitter Accounts To Boost Mentions Of Her Show
And you wonder why the Romney 2012 election technology spend failed so miserably? Now you know why.
Inside Team Romney's whale of an IT meltdown
Romney campaign got its IT from Best Buy, Staples, and friends
Oh, Dr. Boese, I am lucky if I can beat the computer at chess when set to the most amateurish of amateur settings. It is such a rare occurrence that I insist upon taking a screen shot when it happens. I have two such images in my picture files.
If the opponent in the IF/THEM statement is President Obama, then the strategy of trying to saddle him with a bad record in the next election is one of denialism. They can play the cooties game, in which anyone associated with the administration or Dem Party is painted with the same brush. I don't have much to say about the "strategery" involved in this chess game. My one-track, rational scientist mind insists upon working from facts and proceeding in logical order, with strategy changes implemented when a hypothesis is not supported or a dead end reached. We don't have time for silly games.
I'm a plain-spoken, simple Midwesterner, who expects people to be honest, play by the rules and do the jobs they are getting paid to do. If most folks I know went home with unfinished business, they'd get fired, and rightly so. Does anyone want to find out what would happen if first responders left the scene of a house fire while still burning? Or how about an xray tech leaving a patient on the table mid-exam? The girl who cut my hair this morning certainly agreed it would be asinine for her to leave me sitting there in mid-cut. My brother, husband and sisters just can't pack up and leave their students in the middle of class. Etc, etc, etc.
Leaving business unfinished in any of those scenarios--however trivial one may view a hair cut--is not a chess move. It's unethical, unprofessional and intolerable. I don't know why we let JB and the Gang treat the Nation's well-being as a pawn in a chess match.
Maybe the only reason we "let" John of Orange and his scorched earth brethren "beat" us is that we're not being clever enough to outwit him!
This stuff isn't rocket science. I am also a fan of directness, and integrity. I struggle greatly with the part of my job where I play sophist and "manage" a client by softpedaling bad news, or things the client with the deep pockets doesn't necessarily want to hear. It is very difficult for me to call this "building a relationship" with a client, because the word "trust" gets thrown around, and in my relationships, "trust" requires openness and directness, and specifically NOT blowing smoke up anyone's butt.
Like telling a close friend if their fly is open, or if they got a bad haircut. Someone who trusts you COUNTS on you for that. You best deliver honesty. That's how it plays out in my book, at least.
But degrees and learning and research also means brains that can handle cleverness, ingenuity, the wiley ability to project out possible scenarios and see around corners, to know what is coming down the road.
Granted, anybody taking a scorched earth approach to anything is already short-sighted and unable to see around the bend. It gets praised sometimes as a balls-out approach, pulling out all the stops.
Which is why Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan walked Boehner back from the "grand bargain" he'd struck with President Obama in the fiscal cliff negotiations. These idiots were that CERTAIN they'd win the election in November and be able to write the sweet deal for their crony benefactors that were their marching orders.
Because balls-out scorched earth has no concept of NOT-WINNING. Pause on that for a second.
Standard pop-psych, Tony Robbins walk-on-hot-coals schtick of "believe in yourself and you can do anything" BS (as well as the delusional B-School positive attitude crap written about by Barbara Ehrenreich) reinforces this POV. It's a kind of happy-glow positive thinking bullying that can carry one over many finish lines. It may or may not beat cancer. It may or may not win elections. Or football games.
And Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan LOST. So here they are, driving us right over that damned cliff again, as if there is no future, no future chess moves, no foresight, no strategery, nothing but the NOW, until they lose again, are diminished further, but have the gall to demand everything again at the next NOW. And again. And again.
So I make my point again. By being so single-minded, so predictable, so one-note, THEY HAND LIBERALS A REMARKABLE ADVANTAGE, ON A SILVER PLATTER.
It should be ridiculously easy to subvert and defeat such short-sightedness, if one can see several more moves ahead than the opponent can see.
That isn't even hard chess. That's easy basketball, where you run to where the ball is being passed, instead of where the ball is.
Or it is like the Tarot card, Seven of Swords in the Rider-Waite deck, where the dude is sneaking around and putting the swords where he needs them, in advance, in order to set up a situation for a tactical advantage. See the little grin on his face? It's called "working ahead." Planning for several moves ahead in the game.
Blocking out a back row with your rook. Inching closer on the diagonal with the Bishop. And then moving in for the checkmate with your Queen.
I've had some time over the weekend to reflect on the goofy Twitter spam account spoof that went down in the name of #Maddow.
I see today that Twitter has suspended the spam accounts that unleashed this thing.
Spoofing originated (I think) back in the days of Internet Relay Chat (IRC), tho it could have started in Usenet, I don't remember exactly for sure. But its use was more widespread in IRC, and I spent more time in dignified listservs back in those days, not so much in the rough and tumble world of Usenet.
Back in the old days, you could fudge the line spacing on IRC to make it LOOK like someone else was posting something, when it was actually you (or one of your puppet accounts). It was a bit of a gag, to put words in other people's mouths.
So the twitter repeat bot said this: "Confession: I yell at my TV while watching Rachel #Maddow talk about filibuster reform in the same way most people do during football."
What made it a dead giveaway is that all the repeater accounts, none of them varied even slightly, not even with an "RT:" in the front.
But there was something else peculiar about these spam accounts. Instead of the generic Twitter egg as a profile picture, most common for auto-created new Twitter spam accounts, THESE often featured risque or cleavage-flashing busty women.
Porn come-on profile pictures, in other words.
The third ham-handed giveaway to the whole humorous scheme is the similar headlines that went up across conservative ditto-head sites, with News Busters and Free Republic leading the way, all instantaneously claiming that THEY had just BUSTED MADDOW for the Twitter spam account purchase to beam out into the universe the identical tweet (above).
Like any self respecting liberal would purchase spam Twitter accounts for something so silly, let alone do it and populate all the repeater accounts with porn-come-on profile pictures (cuz you KNOW, FEMINISTS are all about the porn come-on profile pictures, right? Lesbians too!)
So after several days of giggling at the rampant stupidity of it, I've come around to a few other conclusions (again, my head locked in some kind of twisted chess game).
Despite the absurd accusation against Maddow, the people who set up this spoof obviously knew everyone would see through it with one visual scan of the porn profile pictures.
So that makes it not even an ATTEMPT at a real spoof, right? Dumb right wing ditto-bots aside, no one would believe such a spoof, because it was DESIGNED not to be believed.
So if it was designed not to be believed, what was the point of it?
I can only come to one conclusion: It was to send a message.
The second thing that comes into my mind is that the top sound bite from Maddow's John Stewart appearance was the "Scalia is a troll" statement.
Perhaps the harshest language I've ever heard Maddow use, and I don't disagree with it. But strong language like that could be considered (among Scalia fans, say) "fighting words," something that would demand a return salvo.
I only raise this idea because over the weekend I was researching somewhat ubiquitous and sudden appearance in the Twitterverse of the progressive social media organization #Uniteblue.
It started showing up in my Twitter stream all over, and though I'm not much of a joiner, I wanted to see what sort of tools are being used for political organization and mobilizing online, so I went in and looked around.
Normally I steer clear of hashtag wars in Twitterdom, deliberately ignoring #tcot and #p2 and whatever else people sprinkle around the end of their tweets.
But reading around in the #Uniteblue FAQ, I found reference to some (I'm not naming the organization or the hashtag, because I don't want to attract them into this thread with keyword monitoring) Twitter wars that are going on between the right and left.
The particular tactic I saw referenced was mass requests (in the thousands) to Twitter to suspend REAL accounts, picking off progressive tweeters, saying they're not human, they're spam bots.
So to my mind, this #Maddow spoof tweet looks like an attempt to pull Rachel into the middle of some kind of swarmy sort of Twitter war. (in my mind's eye, that's what it looks like to me: swarms of red bees and blue bees zooming around this way and that)
Or, it was a bit of a kerfluffle payback aimed at Rachel, for calling Scalia a troll.
OTOH, purchased astroturf Twitter blasts could turn into the thing that kills Twitter, just like spam threatened to kill email.
Twitter! I love it! It's like a train wreck, but I can't look away. But then I just gotta sing along with Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria...
"Crazy World."
One good thing about the sequester. It slashes military - and the scumpugs have worked for years to put big military spending in their sorry red states, since they have nothing else except minimum-wage, anti-union disemployers. So we'll see a bunch of out-of-work rednecks and haters whining how they hate the gummint but they hate losing their gummint-supported armaments or military-base job, even more ;')
Just to reinforce that - we know that red states are net Takers from the government (despite their hatred of it) while blue states are net givers. So this will hurt the red states more. They've been trying to destroy the "gummint" for years so the South will rise again in all its minimum-wage glory, but they just kicked themselves in the butt. But then, I've always said a Southerner will bend over and kick himself in the butt just so he can see another man down.
and yet, Jim, they still wont get it, will they? I swear stupidity is in their genes now, plus decades of substandard education.
While it might be true that red states are recieve more federal spending than blue
states what exactly does this LIBERAL taking point mean?
What is the suggestion? That there are more of the 47% in red states (those on
government programs; like welfare, food stamps, housing, etc. )
Factually, it is true, but what are the reasons, the more the population the more federal spending, also a large percentage of government spending goes to defense. So, those red states that receive higher spending are due to defense spending, not the government programs.
If we use government programs like welfare and food stamps
MORE BLUE STATES ON THESE PROGRAMS, this is the low information voters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU-VpgpE3uw
Welfare
California
blue
New York
blue
Pennsylvania
blue
Michigan
blue
Ohio
blue
Tennessee
RED
Washington
blue
Texas
RED
Indiana
RED
Food Stamps
Texas
RED
California
blue
New York
blue
Florida
blue
Illinois
blue
Michigan
blue
Pennsylvania
blue
Ohio
blue
Georgia
RED
So as we see by drpaultyler's post, red states do in fact take money from tax paid by blue states but rather than use the money to help the people they prefer to give it to corporations and local politicians.
Are their roads better? Are their schools better? Are their wages and employment figures better?
Ah, what the heck its all a pile of bull huh.
Gee....How about breaking that down into which States have the most individuals on some form of Government assistance?
drpaultyler,
The point is not the gross amount of federal spending in each state, it is which states get more federal spending than they pay in federal taxes and other revenues.
Basically, metropolitan areas pay the taxes that pay for stuff in rural areas. Red states tend to be more rural, so they are 'taker' states.
If you think rural electrification and waste water plants are a good idea, thank the federal government that pays for them.
If you pine for kerosene lamps, no air conditioning, and cholera, there are several garden spots in central and eastern Africa you are welcome to move to.
John seeking enlightenment
No thanks I stay here for awhile, let's not make this personal between bloggers. Typical that I would be attacked
scott-3860658
this is broken into the state that get the most Welfare and Food stamps.
So, given the 10 ten most are Blue (taker) states that are on government assistance.
Paul S. Campbell
So, me the proof that this happens?
Why are red states the top 10 for food stamp usage and welfare?
Percent of citizens getting food stamps 2010
Source: US Dept of Agriculture - SNAP FY 2010 Annual Report - Benefit Redemption Division
fns.usda.gov/snap
R 20.7% Mississippi
D 20.1% Oregon
R 19.8% Tennessee
R 19.8% New Mexico
R 19.7% Michigan
R 19.2% Louisiana
R 18.8% Kentucky
R 18.7% West Virgina
R 18.6% Maine
R 18.2% South carolina
Highest usage in USA
R 49% Owsley county Kentucky (99.2% white, 76% voted for McCain)
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/28/us/20091128-foodstamps.html
drpaultyler,
You are posting raw cost of programs in a state. Of course California is on top -- it has about 50% more people than the second most populous state.
Look at your data on a per capita basis and you will find that red states top the list of 'takers' of federal aid. Again, this is primarily due to federal aid to rural areas.
Today has been a monumental day in America's History. We now know, and have concrete proof, that the Republican Party is more interested in the interests of the .1%, and has sold out their Constitutional duty to tax and spend to promote for the General Welfare of We the People. The President cannot make the Congress do their job, now the Republicans see themselves on a mission to create a neo-Confederacy in which a very small percentage gets to control the interests and reap ALL the interests of ALL of We the People. In other words, the Republicans are acting as shills for the .1% discriminators.
This knowledge is not an entirely bad thing. The rest of We the People now can bring racketeering and conspiracy lawsuits against the Republicans. Since the Republicans now see their oaths to Grover Norquist and the .1% as superior to We the People; as an attorney I know we can bring treason lawsuits in Federal Court (no one is above the Constitution, and no law can exist if it is inconsistent with the Constitution) against individual lawmakers based on attempting to overthrow the US. Constitution. Worse than bringing a lawsuit, MANY of We the People can threaten and form class action lawsuits against many in the Republican party (plus those Democrats who refuse to follow the Constitution) . We know what this is about, an un-American attempt by the Republicans to destroy the Union. Fortunately, we do not have to fight another Civil War like we did last time. This time, we can ridicule and threaten lawsuits against these enemies of the State.
Today has been a monumental day in America's history. However, now that we know where the discriminatory .1% are coming from, we can fight this neo-Civil War off the battlefield and over the Blogs and networks. We will overcome our .1% discriminatory foes based on our knowledge that the real discrimination in this case is the .1% versus the 100% of We the People, which is a very easy foe to ridicule and defeat.
Pres. Obama has improved the economy by adding new jobs to the private sector and lowering our national debt. The reason the public sector is not growing is because of the Republicans in Congress. They pass laws against teachers, police, fireworkers, and postal workers. The stock market is at all time high and the wealthy have their tax cuts and loop holes, so why are the Republics worried about the rich? Let us vote them out of office in 2014!
I see you are a low information voter.
Can I suggest you study some more before erroneously reciting incorrect talking points?
"This is an impressive crowd, the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base." George W Bush, Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York, 19th October 2000
Anyway, don't pay Shooter no nevermind. He's the kind of predictable reactionary Chris Boese talked about in her mega-post above. His goal is simply to antagonize.
Shooter we have had job growth. Employment has gone up virtually every month little by little but it has gone up. Period.
You are accusing someone else of having little information and you have misinformation and you know better.
What I don't understand is "Why" and maybe you can explain it to me...Why is it so important that Obama not have a successful second term? Why is it so important to make him look bad historically by manufacturing crisis after crisis and making the lives of millions of Americans miserable to do it...and it's not going to work anyway...look at Clinton...the right tried to smear his legacy and he was and remains one of the most popular Presidents ever...
It doesn't make the poll numbers better...your economic plans and policies don't work...the GOP's social ideology is ridiculously out dated and just continues to alienate the broader population of the country...and now we have a philosophy on gun safety that is outright dangerous and wildly unpopular and all this recalcitrance is just making the GOP look like a bunch of out of control spoiled children...SO why? I just don't get it
Seriously
To those on the right, "low information voter" means "not Ideologically Sound/Theologically Correct!" It has nothing to do with objective reality, which they openly disdain.
the phrase "Cutting off your nose to spite your face" seems like an understatement for this kind of lunacy
OK, from the top.
Not if you count all the people that were employed in 2009 and have dropped out of the work force. The unemployment number is manufactured. It is the percentage of people in a given group that is unemployed, yes? If one continues to delete people for the unemployed group because they've dropped out from discouragement, then the percentage of unemployed goes down. Change the category of the unemployed and viola! the numbers look better. If you have a chart of your own I'll be happy to look at it. http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/504a4051ecad04d160000004-960/chart-of-day-us-labor-participation-force-september-2012.jpg
By the Republicans definition of success, Obama is philosophically incapable. He is only a politician, and only capable of trying to make himself look good, the country be damned. The latest Armageddon line, which he has since recanted is exhibit "A". You may recall he threatened SS checks without cause earlier. Is that the action of someone who cares about his people? No, it's the action of a serial manipulator.
LOL. You're not going to credit Obama with any of this drama? Look at what's done to scare people over a smaller rate of spending increases. (The sequester) Obama will threaten, cajole, lie, and anything else he can think of to maintain borrow, tax, and spend, while spending time with the 1% and selling access to the White House. He's a black Blago.
Yes he is, even though he is a serial adulterer, liar, and accused rapist. It just goes to show what one can get away with when the economy is good. And no, Clinton didn't make the economy good, the burgeoning internet did. Obama doesn't have Clinton's luck.
How would you know? We've been doing it the Democrats way for four years now, while North Dakota did it the Republicans way. They are so well off now they voted on whether to repeal taxes. The rest of us are scraping and hoarding for all we're worth. Bush's tax cuts brought serious jobs, while Obama's tax threats and new regs galore just scare people.
Ah yes, another reason to stymie Obama.. the myth that making it harder for the law abiding to have guns will make people safer. Once again, Chicago demonstrates how false that is. Meanwhile he sends guns to Mexico, drilling rigs to Brazil, and blaming taxpayers for not paying more, while others skate.
for the same reason one doesn't indulge children's desire for cake and ice cream at every meal. It's not good for them. You can wave around all the polling data you like, but it's essentially meaningless. Who isn't in favor of fewer gun deaths? Who isn't in favor of more jobs? Who isn't in favor of painless fantasies? Obama has nothing to offer that isn't self-serving. He doesn't give a rat's patootie about Americans, just what they can do for him. And he'll offer up anything he can think of to curry favor of the majority. Even cake and ice cream at every meal.
One last blast. You know the $85 B in sequester cuts this year right? Did you know Bernanke is printing $85 B every month? Yes every month. Did yu hear that from Democrats any where while Armageddon was being declared? Of course not, it doesn't fit the narrative.
Any questions?
Cool story, Bro, tell it again!
I like the "story" about Maxine Waters and Keith Ellison (Minnesota Muslim) that demanded the National debt clock be turned off while they spoke at the Finance committee meeting this week. Liberals are self centered and country loathing individuals as demonstrated by the actions of these two Derelicts.
Still spewing verbal vomit, eh, Potty?
Those on the right have little or no use for objective reality. Ideological Soundness/Theological Correctness is all that matters to them. When they bloviate about "truth" they are actually being quite Orwellian.
So what does that say about our two leftists regarding the truth of the Debt clock? A bigger moron I have yet to meet.....
Says the one advocating the assassination of the President of the United States.
Proving my point,yet again....
You want the President of the Unites States to be murdered...you are profoundly anti-moral.
Entropy you're accusing Scott of a crime. Have you got evidence to support your accusation?
His very own words, Blank, but you knew that already, didn't you.
“Now, there are only 155 million workers in America,” Leno explained, “yet, she says we'll lose 170 million jobs - See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/03/02/leno-blames-maxine-waters-170-million-job-loss-claim-why-everything-i#sthash.gQlFDziE.dpuf
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/03/02/leno-blames-maxine-waters-170-million-job-loss-claim-why-everything-i#ixzz2MUx0k9vo
Thanks Keith Ellison for boosting Hannity's ratings. The first Muslim elected to the US House of Congress discusses his conversion to Islam. Keith is a fraud
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ClZjjCPY0w
walks away when hit with the truth
Oh look a circular firing squad. Typical GOP road rats on display giving each other a reach around.
Library open on Sunday whom? Or does being janitor at the library have perks?
Beats living in a 8X40 trailer in your mommas back yard stealing her cable water and electricity, or as the righties call it the good life. Funny how righties always claim any job is better then no job yet here we are with a rightie complaining someone has a job that pays more then his fantasy job.
I was guessing it was 8 hrs. of "relief" to keep your check going. Proved me wrong.....
You are just babbling pathetically.
And YOU must be terribly injured to have a hero that has turned out to be less than zero....
You have no idea what you are talking about...but you've been proving that all along.
scott-3860658 banned, never really rehabbed - kept on with the #1 violations.
Thank you for the kind words, Secretly Amused!
I woke up this morning and just as Maxine Waters predicted, 175 million people had lost their jobs.....its Armageddon.
Agreed. Rep. Waters seems to have been incorrect in her assessment.
Besides, you probably won't notice the effects for a few more weeks because of laws and stuff.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112561/sequestration-2013-ignore-rush-limbaugh-budget-cuts-are-real
The effects of the Sequestration will appear gradually but will crescendo in about six months. Many of the military contractors already have contracts in place that will carry them out about that long - then who knows?
Government agencies will begin cutting back everything but employees (which means places like Staples and Office Max are going to feel the effects sooner), but once they reach the point where they only savings they can get are through cutting FTE's, you will see furloughs and then layoffs.
Government will start cutting State grants immediately, so the first people to feel the pain will probably be the States that depend on the Feds for things like highway repairs, Medicaid, education subsidies, etc. Most of the State budgets were already gutted by the economic downturn, so it is not like they have a "cushion" left anymore.
So all of you who think that this Sequestration is a good thing are in for a rude shock. It will hit the most needy first, and then work its way up the food chain. You think Europe has it bad right now?
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/eu-unemployment-rate-hits-historic-high-europe-has-only-itself-to-blame/266924/#
Just wait and see what happens here......
Y'all know of course, that the sequestration cuts are only for what remains of this federal fiscal year (till Sept 30th). They would have to be reinstated to continue past that. Its not a great scenario, but not the worst. Its a "kill box" for the Republicans who will have all the blame of any fall out just in time for 2014. They are playing this game because they can go back to their homies and show them that "see" we made them cut all this social spending. In fact, it won't end up being that much and definitely not for long. Meantime, we have a chance to take a good hard look at that 'ol defense spending... and the Republican sacred cows and the states (mostly sourthern), where all those bases and military installations bring a lot of dough to those states and localities.
(I have to credit Kevin Drum for opening my eyes to the possibilities here) The Republicans are STILL in very bad territory
Can you provide a link that states that the Sequestration only lasts 7 months? Because everything I've read or heard states that if Congress doesn't pass a budget then Sequestration goes on again, and can go on for 10 years.
See Kevin Drum (Mother Jones) who states it straight out.
Kevin Drum has it right but I think you misunderstood it.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/03/the-sequester-explained
He's referring only to the cuts in the FY2013 budget. Congress will hopefully places the cuts in more appropriate areas in the next budget, but that doesn't mean the Sequestration is over. For the next ten years 109 Billion dollars has to be cut from each of the budgets (assuming they actually pass one):
The jesters are sequesters. Well, that's another fine mess, they've gotten themselves into. Have they no sense at all. Our enemies can keep coming after us, but in the end noone wins. They should just resign and then create their own reality show. Just as long as we're not a part of it.
After 4 years of being in a financial death spiral... with this administration spending more than EVERY previous administration ....THIS is what concerns you? The fact that in the last 2 months the economy as well as American manufacturing shrank to new lows under this failure really doesn't compute...but to actually try and show a LITTLE fiscal restraint is what you get upset about??? Liberals are in it for the Government handouts...no matter what it does to the American economy and the debt this miserable failure-in-chief leaves to future AMERICANS....More Americans on welfare and food stamps than at ANY time in American history. Gas prices TRIPLED under this failure and all Liberals worry about is getting the "Goodies" Hussein is handing out. Liberals are a despicable lot....
Potty loves to spread malicious misinformation. He persistently demonstrates the ugly reality that conservatism in all its forms* is a cancer on the body politic.
Here is that simple yes or no question again: Were the states that made up the "Confederate States of America" justified in seceding. So far, all of the trolls have desperately avoided answering it.
* Not just the Rethuglican Party
Malicious = TRUE in Liberal speak....
Typical right-wing projection, and typical avoidance of that simple yes or no question. Again: Were the states that made up the "Confederate States of America" justified in seceding?
Worried about Hussein causing ANOTHER civil war?......... Perhaps trampling the Constitution was not his best idea after all......
Modified Godwin's law: By referring to our president simply by his middle name, you loose the argument by admitting your position has no merit.
Besides, wasn't it the previous administration who said deficits didn't matter, who suspended civil rights of prisoners by simply calling them terrorists, and who oversaw massive growth of this country's intelligence apparatus, so it could spy on every American citizen 24/7/365? Perhaps trampling the Constitution wasn't Bush's best idea after all...
And Potty still hasn't answered that simple yes or no question: Were the states that made up the "Confederate States of America" justified in seceding? The trolls in general have run away from it.
Advocating the assassination of the President of the United States is doubtless illegal.
@Sprint72...I"Loose" nothing...it IS his Allah given middle name. For you to find your panties in a twist NEVER ceases to amuse me. Indulge yourself...blame his parents for his middle name and not the guy that only uses it. Be a MUCH happier Liberal like that....And in regard to the nonsense that Bush somehow "stripped" the rights of the Murderers in Gitmo...A) they are NOT American citizens, therefore enjoy NONE of the Constitutions protection and B) Read the Geneva convention and come away with the understanding that these murderers would be hung without a trial under the Geneva Convention. Get a CLUE!
Says the one advocating the assassination of President Obama.
In other words...YOU know this guy to be a tyrant then. I just quoted a founding Father...YOU fell to the conclusion Jefferson was indeed correct about tyrants. Not often you get a liberal that tumbles to the obvious truth. I'm a LITTLE vague on that whole "Advocating Assassination" though...where did you read that into Jefferson's quote?
You advocated the assassination of President Barack Obama. I know it. You know it too. You've got murder in your heart.
It's just another way to decrease the surplus population, does Vietnam ring a bell, now including the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war, let's add all the casualties up, and see what you get, a decrease in the surplus population.
Rachel, Please do not invite Dan Rather on again. His performance last night was a a new low for him. First he started off with his usual "both sides are to blame, blah, blah...." Fortunately, Rachel did not let him get away with it (Thank you!!) and asked him pointedly if he really believed Democrats were as responsible as Repubs. He immediately changed his tune and went on with some other blather. Finally ending up with some nonsense about "if only Obama would stop the pay of Congress!!..." He really is, to put it nicely, completely out of it. In any case, Rachel somehow has the idea that he is some great representative of the good old days of journalism and introduces him with bated breath and hushed respect. Please, no more.
How about getting your head out and see what a failure this Guy has been. In a time where many Americans have been out of work two years or longer ...this failure wants to dump 11-25 MILLION illegals in the workforce to take jobs away from the American Citizens that he could care less about. This is without a doubt the biggest failure-in-chief in the history of the U.S.
Potty is just another eye-rolling, spit-spraying Neo-Confderate.
I, too, immediately saw him attempting the "both sides are responsible" meme. I guess that's better than the Right Wing Media Bubble "It's all Obama's fault" crap, but not much.
I agree that Dan Rather is over the hill and I don't need to see him any more.
Dan Rather was just "playing the game". Blame both sides so both sides won't get angry at you and not talk to you.
Reporters these days are more interested in keeping their sources and their corporate sponsors happy than in telling the actual truth! This is one of the reasons the country is in such sad shape.
The truth just goes out the window when you add a Liberal....are there ANY of the Jobs reports over the last 4 years liberals believe? How about any of those 47 MILLION Americans now on food stamps...believe ANY of that? You are a sad, Anti-American lot.... Hussein brings on the Government Bennies, and Liberals roll over to the devastation this failure has done to American business.
The devastation done to American business is shown very clearly in the stock market, wouldn't you say, scott?
Wall street has stayed high because Business is keeping the profits, putting money in reserve due to American business not risking any capital due to the Socialist-in-Chief and his Anti-American, Anti-Business Policies....
More Neo-Confederate verbal vomit from Potty.
just click the little ! in the lower right, then click 'No value' and move on.
On everything he posts, as soon as he posts, with no reply.
The internet version of the ranchers motto, "Shoot, shovel, and shut-up".
I can make you look really dumb faster than you can delete it, genius.
In your dreams, knucke-dragging Neo-confederate! Think you can take on the Secret Service, punk?
I would worry about the loyalty of my inner sanctum after trampling the founding documents,actually. The Secret Service STILL remains American Citizens. How does the military think of Liberal policy? I'm guessing MANY agents are former Military.
Just another bitter fact-free rant from our resident insurrectionist.
If you OCCASIONALLY mixed in a NEWSPAPER ...Perhaps your head wouldn't be so far up this Socialists Keister? Noticed the RECORD Welfare and Food Stamps lately? History will not judge this administration very kindly..And just because you wish His performance were better, His Miserable record IS what it is...
Bitter, bitter, bitter. Coherence is preferable to incoherence.
Were I you...then I would think psycho-tropic drugs could bring things more into focus for you....
Oh, you're a druggie...that would explain a lot. AMF for tonight, Neo-Confederate.
More excuses from a whiny Liberal. Debt higher than the GDP . And this failure wants to put Another 11-25 million illegals in direct competition with American workers that have been long term unemployed. Sounds pretty Anti-American to me. Shows where his "loyalty" lies.... Make certain every illegal is eligible to be supported off the taxpayers backs as well.
Says the one who advocates the assassination of President Obama.
Actually..I was thinking more along the lines of impeachment and then on to a life of never ending shame for his record on the economy...But,whatever you say...(lol)
You can't weasel out of it...it's right up there in #6.9. You've got murder in your heart. I've got your number, and this will follow you. AMF, for tonight.
Yup. It does look like Scott is advocating violence against the POTUS.
I wonder if the Secret Service follows this blog?
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure." Even for a Liberal...it takes a pretty warped and Government program addicted individual to even TRY and besmirch a great man like Thomas Jefferson in the defence of a contemptible Socialist, ESPECIALLY one that has been such an unmitigated failure as the current Failure-in-chief has been.
Rarely, if ever, do we get posters advocating violence against our President and our government because:
1) It is complete insanity
2) It is sedition and treason
Get a clue Scotty, you've gone WAY over the bounds of free speech here. In fact you've gone WAY over the bounds of sanity!!! I sure hope some sort of law enforcement agency looks at these posts!! You need their "help" IN A BIG WAY!!!
Newsvine, why aren't you paying attention?? I'm betting this guy also broke all your TOS!!
Are you some kind of escapee from a institution? I just quoted a Founding Father and Liberals take THAT as an offense...It kind of makes sense in a weird twisted Anti-American kind of way...This current failure-in-chief has trampled the Constitution as far as Immigration law is concerned...not to mention the Gun Grab this Socialist has engaged in to try to shift focus off the staggering Economy. So it only makes sense that to ACTUALLY believe in the Constitution one would fing themselves at odds with the backers of this failed Administration.
Is that your way of "covering" for what you've done? Much of what was said against the British Empire would be considered Sedition if said against our government in the manner in which you said it.
Sorry, you can't just quote what someone else has said under a different context to further your own aims and then just "claim" you were "quoting" someone else. Not after you have already threatened the President.
As for anti-American - nobody fits that bill better than YOU Scotty. None of us, NO MATTER HOW MUCH WE DISAGREED with a President would EVER consider using force against that President. Do you now want to explain what your comments were about the President earlier?
Start back-peddling now, Scotty, you have MILES to go!!!
Truly...After this Manchurian candidate went after the Second Amendment I would probably resign my post at the secret service. Not only from the standpoint of preserving One's honor and integrity by no longer serving at the Behest of a "Politician" such as this...but perhaps from a self preservation standpoint would make good sense as well.
ROTFLMAO!!! What "secret service"? The one in your head?
Looking at how BP and the other companies have been so neglectful of this oil spill in the gulf, you had better watch out at what they will be pulling to get away with this disaster they caused. Oil Companies are notorious at buying the cheapest equipment they can find that lacks any real quality. The amount of oil spilled in the Gulf was huge and a lot of it still sits on the bottom of the ocean where it can eventually wash up to the shore line and majorly impact animal, plant, and sea life. You don’t see BP and those other companies going to the bottom of the ocean surface to collect all the oil that has been spilled there. They just make an excuse “oh we cleaned it all up now” as millions of barrels of oil still sit on the ocean floor. Unless they go actually deep down into the ocean where the actual oil spill is sitting nothing is cleaned up and that oil will just sit there as parts of the oil breaks off to be carried away in the ocean currents to do continuous damage to the environment. Deep Water Drilling is very much a disaster waiting to happen, since Oil Companies lack any real quality in their equipment they use. And no one can really guarantee any type of assurance that a disaster will not happen due to the act of God and actual wear and tear on equipment. To actually have Deep Water Drilling will just become more disastrous also, since right from the actual effects of Global Warming is going to make our weather even that much more severe to actually have an oil rig out in the ocean. Oil Companies had way too many oil spills already from these oilrigs and it will get only worse. This can too easily turn into Environmental Disasters of the Century as we think we can keep doing these ridiculous things just to get more oil in ever more deeper ocean waters.
I have started a White House petition to tie cuts in Domestic programs with cut in foreign aid. Please join me.
The only problem with Boehner is he is such a lying little weasel, you just don’t know what to believe with him. Boehner sits there boasting his load of crap and it is just riddled full of lies and that is the problem with too many politicians who are just for rich bastards and themselves only. Why don’t you shred some more fake tears Boehner and see if that helps you. It is just too obvious where you have just made it your career in being a weasel of politician your whole life. Being a Congressman or Senator is not meant to be a lifetime career that you will do anything to keep, it is suppose to serve the people, not just you and the rich bastards at the price of everybody else.
By "serve the people",,that REALLY does not cover making sure YOU have taxpayer bought health insurance, NOR allowing a failed Administartion to Bankrupt this country to provide for the "Responsibility challenged". Got it?
Scott you mean how Bush, Chenney and their cronies ruined our economy and looked to bankrupt the country for rich bastards.
Deb,
Our resident insurrectionist is especially petulant because he got smacked down so hard yesterday.
That's why you feel need to remove the verbal thrashings you received both yesterday and today. Cannot say as I blame you...Liberals often find themselves defending the undefencible.
Now he's into delusional self-congratulation!
And yet...I have not taken a moment out of my day to make sure your comments do not get seen by others...you are to laugh at...
Quit commenting? Way too late for that...
Keep the faith, Democrats! Even with the sequester, the Republicans will find themselves in hot water sooner rather than later. The thrust of the new web-page forum www.ConstitutionalChallenge.org is to remind ALL the public figures that they have to follow the Constitution and not favor a particular group above another (such as favoring the .1% anti-constitutional discriminators as led by Rove, Cheney, Romney, Fox News et al. over the rest of We the People). As such, all of those in Congress (particularly on the Republican side of the aisle) have to ignore your walking orders from your croneys in the NRA, or potentially risk individual treason, conspiracy, racketeering, and other really nasty sounding Federal charges that could send many Republicans in Congress away to Federal prison for a very long time.
Recall, after all, that ALL Senators and Representatives in U.S. and State Congresses have sworn according to their individual Constitutional Oaths (and therefore Constitutional job description), to tax and spend and to make laws to promote the General Welfare of We the People (that means 100% of We the People, not the .1% of the anti-constitutionally corrupt and morally as well as ethically bankrupt). Just to show the Republicans in Congress that the Constitution means ALL of We the People instead of those that sign their checks to buy them out from their Constitutional oath (OK, a few Democrats might be bought out as well, but the Republicans have made an art of it); I personally have created within ConstitutionallyChallenge.org the fourth, mightiest, and most righteous branch of Government called "We the People". While We the People might not get any parking spots at National-Reagan Airport, We the People are very populous with about 250 million represented, and We the People have a kick-butt type attitude that appears to be saying in unison, to All public figures "Follow the Constitution, Stupid!"
Now, if any stupid lawmaker or moronic Supreme Court Justice wants to place their personal or the interests of the .1% above the rest of We the People (like the Republicans in Congress clearly have with the sequester; or U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia has with his proclamation that he is personally more powerful than the U.S. Congress); well We the People cannot stop .1% anti-Constitutional discriminating public figures who appear to be supporting and politically aligned with the KKK, ponze schemes that favor the very few, and other discriminators. However, such .1% discriminating public figures should recall that ALL the public figures in Articles 1, 2, and 3 of the Constitution (Congress, Executive be it President or Governors, or Courts) are not individuals but positions. If any individual like Scalia or the Republicans in Congress are committing treason by his .1% flagrantly discriminatory language, then they can and will be individually removed by We the People (either in Federal Courts or in the highest Oversight Court of the Land, which the Court of Public Opinion).
In this manner, We the People Shall Overcome such .1% anti-Constitutional Discrimination. Before long, it will; be evident that public figures from both political parties really do have to follow the Constitution; that no lawmaker can think that they can pass an unConstitutional law like the Patriot Act, and all the Public Figures who try to place themselves above the Constitution will be open to a Mark Twain type ridicule and be driven from office likely on a rail. When this happens, Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech will be largely satisfied, not only for African Americans but for ALL of We the People. His Dream will be satisfied when ALL public figures who are in Government, law, judges, etc. stay within the Constitutional sandbox and treat them the same under the law regardless of color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political party, class, etc. MLK's I have a Dream Speech will be satisfied when few public figures (or Americans who have ALL taken the Pledge of Allegiance) will have the bravery or stupidity to wander into the unConstitutional sandbox where they will risk their personal professions and reputation (as well as likely being sent to Federal Prison for treason).
That Moronic waaaaaaay too long diatribe ended with Hussein not bothering with a B-U-D=G-E-T for 4..(count those) 4 years...Lunacy apparently runs rampant through the hard left. This Failure is the Antithesis to President that follows Constitutional mandates..so the whole premise is a FARCE...at best, and a sick joke at the very least.
Insurrectionist Potty is an expert at being moronic.