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What is the practical application of your obsession with "welfare states", and states getting "screwed"? Would you favor a constitutional amendment that required 1:1 fed taxing/spending fairness across the states? And why just limit this unjust differential to states? Let's do it with races. I bet whites are being "screwed" compared to minorities, in terms of taxes v. support. Is that a travesty? I bet married suburban couples are getting "screwed" compared to single urban mothers. Isn't that what government is supposed to do? |
Anyway, if the deal is that tomorrow, federal support to Idaho is cut by some amount, AND Idahoan's federal income taxes are cut by the same ratio, I'm sure many (middle class people and up at least), would sign onto that in a second.
Only the poor would be screwed in that scenario. |
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EDIT: I could care less about this as I don't support most of the federal programs. So don't get mad if I leave this debate to you and Molson as I feel like I am starting to defend Republicans who I care about even less than Democrats. |
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I would say the same thing about individuals. If a guy is collecting a welfare check to survive and then goes on and on bitching about the government, I'd call him a hypocrite. Just as I wouldn't call a rich guy a failure who went bankrupt having to support deadbeat family members. |
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There's a whole lot of difference between auditing the Fed, which I would like to see, and returning our economy to the gold standard. Tying our economy and to a large extent the global economy to the price of a single commodity just isn't smart. Look at the price of gold over the last ten years. Do you really think it would have been a good idea to have that price fluctuation as the foundation of our currency? |
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I'm in favor of a full audit of the Fed FWIW. |
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She's a fuckin whack-a-doo. |
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I would not be surprised if she was their Queen whack-a-doo. |
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The richest, whitest, most Republican people in Idaho would completely agree with you. |
Want to stabilize the debt? Do nothing!
![]() From Matt Yglesias' blog: Quote:
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lol
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I think I've gotten that shirt as a gag gift 5 times. It sucks 'cause I can't wear it. I mean, give me something I can use, people. |
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Interesting open letter from Zogby to Silver. Not terribly surprised to see something like this as there have been complaints related to Silver's smug commentary at times.
John Zogby: A Note to Nate |
It's an advertisement. Silver has the goods on the Zogby interactive(as do lots of other folks). It's a seriously unreliable poll. Zogby's phone polls are better, but the interactive is total garbage.
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I don't get how you can read the article you linked, yet think Silver is the smug one. |
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Complaints almost always from pollsters ranked low in reliability by Silver's algorithms. Or, put another way, pollsters with a factual history of unreliable polls whose unreliability is made more clear by the way Silver exposes all of his data to the public. No sympathy. And Zogby's perhaps the worst of the well-known offenders and has been for years. |
Silver responds: FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: A Note to John Zogby
Key quote: Quote:
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Interesting goings on in Hawaii. House and senate both passed a same-sex marriage bill (allowing same rights, without recognizing marriage I believe) and it was vetoed by the republican governor. She says it's such an important issue, the people should vote on it themselves, and not the elected leaders (that already banned same sex marriage). She says it's not the job for elected officials to have closed doors meetings and legislate something of such societal importance. So my question is, what is the point of the legislators if not to represent the people?
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I read Silver's site on a daily basis. He's very smug at times and as Zogby notes, it will catch up to him. |
Here's a considerably better critique than Zogby's op-ad(vert): Pollster.com: Rating Pollster Accuracy: How Useful?
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Meh. Personally I'm glad he's not part of the back-slapping what's good for the goose is good for the gander insiders. We need more smug people in politics to cut through the bullshit. |
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:lol: |
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Deficit, schmeficit. At least he didn't say all tax cuts pay for themselves. |
fiscal irresponsibility FTW!!!
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No one talks about him much, but John Kyl might be my least favorite Senator for a variety of reasons, most of which are too boring to go into here.
But that quote above about taxes and spending should indicate to anyone that America will be better off when Kyl no longer represents 1% of the United States Senate. |
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He's hardly alone. The McMahon commercials out of CT have her supporting a balanced budget amendment and a permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts, all without even mentioning a dollar of budget cuts. |
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Did you know that Kyl is actually more popular than the average US Senator? Public Policy Polling: Senate Approval Ratings |
You take his name out of there and it sounds like something Palin would say, but, you would then have to question whether or not she actually said it because it doesn't meander enough.
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I'm starting to think that McMahon campaign might actually not be just a drawn-out wrestling angle. |
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It's called a "fuck the future...we baby boomers want to have our cake and eat it too" plan. |
I dunno why 30 and 40 somethings want to bicker amongst ourselves about stuff like abortion, etc. The real issue is old people, and how badly the 60-70 somethings are going to fuck up our way of life over the next 20-30 years.
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But 43 approve/ 40 disapprove is nothing to be proud of. |
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Well, relative to most Senators, it's actually pretty good. And with disapproval ratings, I don't see much that's really meaningful. Let's see how many of those with big swings to the negative end up getting re-elected anyway. Likely there's a function of "disapprove but for very different reasons", further illustrating the depth of the divide among even residents of the same state, much less the nation. And then there's "disapprove but beats the hell out of the alternative", which is another sub-segment within those who disapprove. |
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Fixed - and true. |
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This isn't a GOP approach either. Both parties play this motto. Generation X and Y (which is mine) seems to be blamed for being lazy and irresponsible by the Boomers, but the Boomers never seem to look in the mirror. Just remember, we "pick" the nursing home when they are old. Only 20-to-30 years? I got a feeling it's going to a lot longer than that. |
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They also destroyed the environment. Stupid old people. |
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Yup! |
With Georgia unemployment higher than the National average, as well as a state budget crisis (in that education is being cut like nobody's business), what are the potential GOP candidates arguing over?
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Rednecks everywhere rejoice! |
DONT TRUST ANYONE OVER 50
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I don't want to pull a MBBF (got this from another board, so I imagine it's a talking point right now) but this really distills the tone-deafness from the Obama Administration that has really got me thinking against voting for him again.
Obama Says Middle Name May Be Source of Israeli Skepticism - Political Hotsheet - CBS News |
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You may associate me with posting legitimate points from other sites anytime you wish. |
Another winner from Kyl:
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We? |
Is Dick Cheney nearing the end of his life? This is from Talkingpointsmemo:
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I know congestive heart failure was the COD for my Grandmother, but she was near 90. God bless him and family. |
triple dola!
Rand Paul, profile in courage: Quote:
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He sounds like an appropriate candidate to replace Jim Bunning. :)
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i do not think this word (forthright) means what he thinks it means:
forth·right (fôrth ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
I think he's saying his dad is forthright, but he isn't.
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Sounds to me like he's using the word in proper context, am I missing something?
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Looks like W is coming out with a book around election time. Should be interesting. As loathed as W was, my pansy ass liberal self didn't hate W as much as a few of his advisors I felt actually ran his policy.
This book might be one I have to pick up. |
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just saying - if his dad is more "without evasion" does that mean that he is "with evasion?" |
I think what he means is that he and his father both have the same end goals but he's more willing to take a more pragmatic step-by-step approach rather his father's 'Lets change the whole system' rhetoric.
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Yeah - I'm sure you're right.
I'm just picking on the guy. :) |
Im happy Michele Obama is tackling childhood obesity. This is an important issue.
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At least she's not starting a war on drugs. ;) |
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Yep...can't wait until government controls food distribution and what we can/can't eat. |
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It's already begun in New York City. |
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you're kidding right?? |
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Same. I have a feeling he would have been a whole different politician if the decendents of Nixon's political tree weren't glued to him since the moment he ran for office. (Although that is not to say he would have been any more or less effective.) |
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Not really. It's starting...taxes for this, taxes for that. Always starts slowly and in the name of something else. |
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There have been just as many wrongs committed and wrongs ignored under paranoia as under ambition. |
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lmao if the states want to impose taxes on people for eating unhealthily, I'm all for it. And I say that as a person who is overweight. Hit me in the pocketbook - that'd motivate me to lose some of this weight for sure!! Now I don't think they should be putting a tax on say - salt at the supermarket, or heavy cream at the supermarket, or affecting the way that people who cook for themselves eat, but if they want to put in say a "fast food tax" or a "junk food tax" or something?? Go for it. |
The financial reform bill passed the Senate, and is heading to the White House for Obama's signature.
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Wouldn't more healthy people decrease gov't spending? |
It never ceases to amaze me what people think the government should have the power to do.
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Like give handicap parking to obese people? |
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Um dude...newsflash: they already have the power to tax. And really...for all the bitching that fat people do, they'd be a lot better off (and so would all the skinny people) if they all lost some weight (again, so says the guy who could stand to lose 50lbs). If it takes hitting them in the pocketbook to get them to do that...it's a power the government already has, so why not. |
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And the GOP has already com out saying they'll try to repeal it next year. |
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GOP - "A vote for us is a vote for people who profited off subprime mortgages and the collapse of your home values!" |
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Of course they do realize that they would need the President's signature on it, right? |
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they'll have impeached him for being "one of them muslim terrrists" by then :P |
But seriously, if someone told me that 19 months ago, Obama would have passed a major healthcare expansion, and a financial regulation bill to contain the worst impulses of the financial industry that led us into a near-depression that we're just getting out of now, I'd say that's a damn good start. Anyone who expected more is completely fooling themselves as to the nature of the Washington beast.
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Joe Biden, stealth conservative ;)
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besides, it makes them a good soundbite that means absolutely nothing. IF they get control of the House and Senate, they can point to Democrat "obstructionism" as the reason they didn't make it, and it gets the rabid base out to vote, no matter how completely unrealistic is.
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Wouldn't that depend on if the GOP can get the 2/3 majority in both the House and Senate? |
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Now if only Obama could pass a GOOD healthcare bill he might be on to something. I have no idea what's in the financial regulation bill, so I can only hope that my congressman actually read the bill. |
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They can't be that delusion to think that will happen. And is that even possible considering the makeup of the Senate? |
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Sometimes, you just have to be smug. FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: ARG, My Brain Hurts! |
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Using this method I'd be willing to concede MBBF makes the most accurate predictions at FOFC. |
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Yep, but people like DaddyTorgo want the state to have the power to solve all the country's (world's) ills. What's another $8,000,000,000? That's "only" about another $25 for every fucking person in this country to have zero effect on peoples' shitty parenting. Or in other words "Money well spent!". It's only when the state wants to infringe on them (gay marriage, endless war in the middle east, abortion rights) that they realize the monster government basically now does whatever the hell it wants in the name of the common good. Of course I am sure the $8 billion (with a "B") won't come out of our pockets but only the evil rich. Think otherwise? You must be a wacko who wants to live in the crazy 1800's and you don't appreciate roads. Taxpayers could spend $8 billion to make school lunches healthier | ksdk.com | St. Louis, MO |
Personal responsibility? Fuck naw, the government can handle it!
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Sorry - let's have overweight kids who develop expensive health problems early in life and who (if they're on school lunch programs) are likely going to end up either living taxpayer subsidized lives (thru welfare or thru taxpayer subidized healthcare). Or is the notion that $8bn in costs now could save us $20bn in costs later completely incomprehensible to you?? NB: $8bn sounds like a hell of a lot for school lunch improvements, even to me. |
By the way what exactly would panerd do about child obesity? End the government?
1. Stop subsidizing corn farmers (i.e. Fast food's drug dealers) 2. Stop paying for medical problems caused by obesity. Get diabetes from eating too much? Hit the fucking treadmill. 3. If government wants to run healthcare then establish a health savings account for every dependent family. It's amazing how much more healthy people can be when it is "their own money" and not another handout. 4. Stop shoving things like No Child Left Behind down elementary school's throats when in turn causes them to cut out recess and sports programs so teachers can teach to the math test. (i.e. teach kids nothing since they don't teach any critical thinking skills)... |
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No shit. If all of these utopian ideas were not so fucking expensive I might be on board for some of them. Sorry but the $8,000,000,000 lunch program will not save $20,000,000,000. In fact in probably won't save $0.01. It will create more buracracy and committees. |
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Unfortunately hitting the treadmill won't cure diabetes. I agree about the corn farmsers though. And as far as #3, as long as you're advocating that the HSA be privitized and invested in the stock market or some republican-BS then I agree with you that's fine too. Agree with you on #4 too. Shocking - see...we can agree on stuff. |
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Instead the voters are convinced the Republicans will come save them this fall and in 2012 when it will instead be more same bullshit like this from the other side. (more religion!, more war!, more government funded parenting!) |
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Jon and I have had this discussion before...many times. Frankly, I don't think there's many on either side who would disagree with it. It'd work out well for me, I can tell you that. I pay in to the system far more than I get back from the system, being in a "net-outflow" state. |
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Type 2 diabetes in fat people is almost always caused by lifestyle. I didn't say all diabetes, I said health problems caused by being obese. |
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But once you have it you can't get rid of it by losing weight is my point. |
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Well fuck em. They shouldn't have gotten fat. |
And people who get injured while exercising? Fuck them too. They shouldn't have been trying to get skinny.
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ANd motorcycle injuries. Fuck them, they should have stayed home.
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Plug the damn hole!...why didn't anyone else think of that? |
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Although you've poorly paraphrased it, that's why a large portion of us are voting for them in the first place, so it's got that going for it. |
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I think a good bit more of those folks than the deadbeats who took the mortgages, so again, it's got that going for it. |
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LOL |
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Yeah this is the cause of America's obesity problem. Go post another Rand Paul mass media article talking about all of his "empty promises". The thread is the Obama presidency, the epitome of empty promises. |
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