Front Office Football Central

Front Office Football Central (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc//index.php)
-   Off Topic (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc//forumdisplay.php?f=6)
-   -   The Obama Presidency - 2008 & 2012 (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc//showthread.php?t=69042)

DaddyTorgo 05-20-2010 10:23 AM

I <3 Kucinich.

DaddyTorgo 05-20-2010 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larrymcg421 (Post 2286302)
I find it interesting that you keep bringing up Kucinich since he sold out his position on abortion so he could run for President in the Dem primaries.

:(

DaddyTorgo 05-20-2010 10:26 AM

Yeah, the kind of "austerity measures" they're going to go through in Greece and elsewhere would never fly here. People say they want that shit, but in reality we're all too impatient and entitled (even those of us who think we aren't).

panerd 05-20-2010 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larrymcg421 (Post 2286302)
I find it interesting that you keep bringing up Kucinich since he sold out his position on abortion so he could run for President in the Dem primaries.


Not an issue I care about at all but if he changed to the pro-chocie crowd than it would make me like him even more.

larrymcg421 05-20-2010 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286306)
Not an issue I care about at all but if he changed to the pro-chocie crowd than it would make me like him even more.


I'm just talking about how you hold him up as being above the usual politicians, but he famously sold out to the "money and power" of the pro-choice lobby so he could run for president.

panerd 05-20-2010 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo (Post 2286305)
Yeah, the kind of "austerity measures" they're going to go through in Greece and elsewhere would never fly here. People say they want that shit, but in reality we're all too impatient and entitled (even those of us who think we aren't).


No doubt. I fear we are past the point of no return but spending more and more is just going to get us to the collapse faster and faster. It's much easier to blame Bush or blame Obama and to say maybe we need to cut some of these government programs or stop some of these wars or stop these corporate handouts but very few have the balls to say that we have to do all three. Who is going to win an election by proposing cutting spending, stopping war, and raising taxes?

panerd 05-20-2010 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larrymcg421 (Post 2286311)
I'm just talking about how you hold him up as being above the usual politicians, but he famously sold out to the "money and power" of the pro-choice lobby so he could run for president.


will concede that. Let's just say that Paul (as I am sure there will be some issue that Paul has flip-flopped on as well) and Kucinich seem to be the people at the debates that don't just give the "Rah rah America, listen to what the other side does wrong while I offer no tangible solutions" answer to every question. I don't mind moving Kucinich a little lower than Paul. :)

EDIT: Believe me I think Kucinich has some really backwards plans but he seems to at least have solutions that Democrats should want and not "I will end this war" while just moving it to Afganistan and Pakistan.

Senator 05-20-2010 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286297)
I apologize that lots of people hate your own personal hero, George W. Bush.
*There is no cabal.


Not sure but you might be an idiot.

View Poll Results: Who was the worst President in your lifetime thus far?

George W. Bush
-apoc-, ace1914, Apathetic Lurker, Arctus, Atocep, Autumn, AZSpeechCoach, bhlloy, Big Fo, boberot, Butter_of_69, Calis, chesapeake, Chubby, claphamsa, CleBrownsfan, clemsonfan, CrimsonFox, DaddyTorgo, Daimyo, Danny, Dark Cloud, dawgfan, DeToxRox, Dodgerchick, ds27, duckman, fantom1979, Fidatelo, Flasch186, flere-imsaho, Fonzie, gkb, GoSeahawks, GrantDawg, I. J. Reilly, INDalltheway, ISiddiqui, Izulde, jaygr, JetsIn06, johneh, JPhillips, JS19, Karlifornia, kcchief19, Kodos, korme, KWhit, larrymcg421, laser, Lathum, lerriuqs, lighthousekeeper, like a dog, LionsFan10, M GO BLUE!!!, MacroGuru, Marc Vaughan, Masked, McSweeny, MIJB#19, molson, MrKordell, NevStar, nol, Noop, PackerFanatic, panerd, Panthersfan75, path12, Peregrine, PineTar, Pyser, Qrusher14242, Racer, Radii, RainMaker, RendeR, rockboy70, Ronnie Dobbs2, Router Help, RPI-Fan, Saul Goode, Scoobz0202, Senator, Sgran, SirFozzie, Solecismic, sovereignstar, SportsDino, SteveBollea, Sublime 2, SunDevil, Swaggs, Telle, TheOhioStateUniversity, thesloppy, Thomkal, Tigercat, TLK, Toddzilla, TredWel, yacovfb

flere-imsaho 05-20-2010 11:58 AM

Ah. Well, then.

I do apologize. That was catastrophically stupid of me.

Guess I'll have to get you that check then, now. :D

Senator 05-20-2010 12:54 PM

That's all I wanted in the first place!!!! :)

path12 05-20-2010 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by molson (Post 2286282)
I think the tea party (or a more sane version of it) is a double-dip recession/public debt crisis away from really taking off. Which seems inevitable once the stimulus dries up.


I think a third party makes a lot of sense and I would love there to be one. Unfortunately the only examples I've got so far are Perot, Nader and the tea partiers -- all of which became crazy as batshit within six months.

Color me skeptical.

A parlimentary system is making more and more sense to me as time goes by. Jesus, England's got the liberals and conservatives working together. When do you think that's going to happen here again?

larrymcg421 05-20-2010 04:21 PM

Throwing in extra parties could cause chaos with our current electoral system. You'd very likely have the elections decided by congress almost every single time, or you could have someone managing 35% in enough states to get 270 electoral votes. They could have less than 30% nationwide and be President.

path12 05-20-2010 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larrymcg421 (Post 2286511)
Throwing in extra parties could cause chaos with our current electoral system. You'd very likely have the elections decided by congress almost every single time, or you could have someone managing 35% in enough states to get 270 electoral votes. They could have less than 30% nationwide and be President.


Fair point. I obviously haven't thought the whole idea through. :)

JonInMiddleGA 05-20-2010 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by path12 (Post 2286508)
A parlimentary system is making more and more sense to me as time goes by. Jesus, England's got the liberals and conservatives working together. When do you think that's going to happen here again?


Unless there's more common ground some day, hopefully never.
edit to add: Unless, of course, our left wingers find some common decency & suddenly discover common sense ;)

Greyroofoo 05-20-2010 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by path12 (Post 2286508)
Jesus, England's got the liberals and conservatives working together. ?


Hey, the Democrats and Republicans are in complete agreement that the two-party system is superior.

panerd 05-20-2010 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by path12 (Post 2286508)
I think a third party makes a lot of sense and I would love there to be one. Unfortunately the only examples I've got so far are Perot, Nader and the tea partiers -- all of which became crazy as batshit within six months.


All of the examples you mentioned question the establishment. The establishment owns all of the media (mass media at least). Are you really sure they are all batshit crazy or are they really any different than whatever the CNN/Fox flavor of the month is? (Obama, Palin, etc) I guess perception is reality but I am sure if you attended some of these third party rallies you would see they are made up of mostly normal people who are pissed off like you. Of course the radicals will come out in droves, I am sure they probably go to GOP and Democrat rallies as well. I dunno unless you really have firsthand knowledge I would at least give them a shot.

path12 05-20-2010 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286554)
All of the examples you mentioned question the establishment. The establishment owns all of the media (mass media at least). Are you really sure they are all batshit crazy or are they really any different than whatever the CNN/Fox flavor of the month is? (Obama, Palin, etc) I guess perception is reality but I am sure if you attended some of these third party rallies you would see they are made up of mostly normal people who are pissed off like you. Of course the radicals will come out in droves, I am sure they probably go to GOP and Democrat rallies as well. I dunno unless you really have firsthand knowledge I would at least give them a shot.


Don't talk to me about the media. The failure of the media to do their job over the past thirty years is in my opinion one of the top three reasons that we are where we're at right now.

And yes, I have attended more than a few third party rallies in my life. Hell, I even attended some Libertarian ones. ;) I'll stand by my statement.

path12 05-20-2010 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA (Post 2286523)
Unless there's more common ground some day, hopefully never.
edit to add: Unless, of course, our left wingers find some common decency & suddenly discover common sense ;)


Well, you've always got that secession thing to fall back on. ;)

RainMaker 05-20-2010 06:46 PM

Rand Paul is an interesting guy and I'd love to see some Libertarian voices in both the House and Senate. But he's already backtracking on a lot of his libertarian beliefs and is morphing into just another politician. I mean he's against socialized medicine, but not Medicare.

It's cute to give speeches and stuff about how you're for small government. But winning elections and staying in power are another people. All these anti-big government people don't like it when you tell them you're taking their government social security and health care from them.

panerd 05-20-2010 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RainMaker (Post 2286602)
Rand Paul is an interesting guy and I'd love to see some Libertarian voices in both the House and Senate. But he's already backtracking on a lot of his libertarian beliefs and is morphing into just another politician. I mean he's against socialized medicine, but not Medicare.

It's cute to give speeches and stuff about how you're for small government. But winning elections and staying in power are another people. All these anti-big government people don't like it when you tell them you're taking their government social security and health care from them.



I have noticed the attacks have really started up in the press. (EDIT: I know, I know. Tuesday I was bitching about him not being in the news. I should be happy that he is now) Going back to the race baiting like they always do with his father. (Buried somewhere in the Rand Paul is a Racist headline is that he doesn't believe in the Civil Rights Act for private business. Not sure I have met many who do.) If he is backtracking on some other major stuff that is kind of sad. I am a big fan of his dad's and would love to be a fan of his too. You won the primary because you weren't mainstream don't be convinced that's what you need to do to win this election, it's the exact opposite of what you need to do! The tea party is really starting to follow the famous Gandhi quote (not quite the same situation but with the spending the way it is it could get just as bad!) though. It will be fun to watch Republicrats and Demolicans unite to try and save their asses when these guys start winning their seats.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

DaddyTorgo 05-20-2010 07:57 PM

You haven't met many people who believe in the Civil Rights Act for private businesses??

Where (and in what year) the fuck do you people live??? WTF!!!!!!

panerd 05-20-2010 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo (Post 2286631)
You haven't met many people who believe in the Civil Rights Act for private businesses??

Where (and in what year) the fuck do you people live??? WTF!!!!!!


Yawn. Hasn't this topic been done here 1000 times? Go talk to Skydog if you want. It seems like all of the faux outrage is gone when a black guy says it.

EDIT: Though if you google "civil rights act for private business" the first 20 results are Rand Paul. Sure no media manipulation going on in this country at all. :rolleyes:

JediKooter 05-20-2010 08:03 PM

I thought it was funny...

Rodent scurries by as Obama lauds Wall Street vote - Yahoo! News

JPhillips 05-20-2010 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286625)
I have noticed the attacks have really started up in the press. (EDIT: I know, I know. Tuesday I was bitching about him not being in the news. I should be happy that he is now) Going back to the race baiting like they always do with his father. (Buried somewhere in the Rand Paul is a Racist headline is that he doesn't believe in the Civil Rights Act for private business. Not sure I have met many who do.) If he is backtracking on some other major stuff that is kind of sad. I am a big fan of his dad's and would love to be a fan of his too. You won the primary because you weren't mainstream don't be convinced that's what you need to do to win this election, it's the exact opposite of what you need to do! The tea party is really starting to follow the famous Gandhi quote (not quite the same situation but with the spending the way it is it could get just as bad!) though. It will be fun to watch Republicrats and Demolicans unite to try and save their asses when these guys start winning their seats.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”


Paul only got about a quarter of the overall vote in the KY primaries. Let's at least see a Tea Party candidate win a general election before comparing them to Ghandi.

JPhillips 05-20-2010 09:31 PM

Ron Paul and Reagan staffer Bruce Bartlett on Paul:

Quote:

Rand Paul, son of legendary libertarian Congressman Ron Paul, for whom I worked in the 1970s, is now the official Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky. Perhaps unfortunately for him, he did not get a great deal of national press scrutiny during his primary campaign because he was an outsider that many in the national press corps thought could not win. Now that he has, they are making up for lost time. And Rand has accommodated them by repeatedly saying that he would not have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on libertarian grounds: private businesses should not be forced to serve African Americans if they so choose. Presumably, market pressure will eventually force them to be more accommodating. If it doesn't, then so be it, Rand believes.

Both Rand's supporters and critics point to Senator Barry Goldwater's principled opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, according to Rick Perlstein's excellent book, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, Goldwater's opposition to the Civil Rights Act was based entirely on constitutional concerns. He had been told by both William Rehnquist, then a private attorney in Phoenix and later chief justice of the Supreme Court, and Robert Bork, then a professor of constitutional law at Yale, that it was unconstitutional. Bork even sent him a 75-page brief to that effect.

To be sure, the Rehnquist-Bork position was not a lame rationalization for racism. It was rooted in the fact that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 essentially replicated the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which was enacted by a Republican Congress over strenuous Democratic opposition. However, in 1883 the Supreme Court, then it its most libertarian phase, knocked down the 1875 act as well as many other Republican measures passed during Reconstruction designed to aid African Americans. The Court's philosophy in these cases led logically to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which essentially gave constitutional protection to legal segregation enforced by state and local governments throughout the U.S.

As we know from history, the free market did not lead to a breakdown of segregation. Indeed, it got much worse, not just because it was enforced by law but because it was mandated by self-reinforcing societal pressure. Any store owner in the South who chose to serve blacks would certainly have lost far more business among whites than he gained. There is no reason to believe that this system wouldn't have perpetuated itself absent outside pressure for change.

In short, the libertarian philosophy of Rand Paul and the Supreme Court of the 1880s and 1890s gave us almost 100 years of segregation, white supremacy, lynchings, chain gangs, the KKK, and discrimination of African Americans for no other reason except their skin color. The gains made by the former slaves in the years after the Civil War were completely reversed once the Supreme Court effectively prevented the federal government from protecting them. Thus we have a perfect test of the libertarian philosophy and an indisputable conclusion: it didn't work. Freedom did not lead to a decline in racism; it only got worse.

Sadly, it took the Supreme Court more than 50 years after Plessy before it began to undo its mistake in Brown. This led to repeated efforts by the Eisenhower administration to enact civil rights legislation, which was opposed and gutted by Senate Democrats led by Lyndon Johnson. But by 1964, it was clear to Johnson that the tide had turned. The federal courts were moving to dismantle segregation to the extent they could, and the 1963 March on Washington, the murder and beating of civil rights demonstrators in the South and growing awareness of such atrocities changed the political climate and made the Civil Rights Act of 1964 possible--despite the filibuster against it by Senator Robert C. Byrd, who still serves in the Senate today.

If Rand Paul were saying that he agrees with the Goldwater-Rehnquist-Bork view that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was unconstitutional and that the Supreme Court was wrong to subsequently find it constitutional, that would be an eccentric but defensible position. If he were saying that the Civil Rights Act were no longer necessary because of the great strides we have made as a country in eradicating racism, that would also be defensible. But Rand's position is that it was wrong in principle in 1964. There is no other way of interpreting this except as an endorsement of all the things the Civil Rights Act was designed to prohibit, as favoring the status quo throughout the South that would have led to a continuation of segregation and discrimination against African Americans at least for many more years. Undoubtedly, changing mores would have broken down some of this over time, but there is no reason to believe that it would have been quick or that vestiges wouldn't still remain today. Indeed, vestiges remain despite the Civil Rights Act.

I don't believe Rand is a racist; I think he is a fool who is suffering from the foolish consistency syndrome that affects all libertarians. They believe that freedom consists of one thing and one thing only--freedom from governmental constraint. Therefore, it is illogical to them that any increase in government power could ever expand freedom. Yet it is clear that African Americans were far from free in 1964 and that the Civil Rights Act greatly expanded their freedom while diminishing that of racists. To defend the rights of racists to discriminate is reprehensible and especially so when it is done by a major party nominee for the U.S. Senate. I believe that Rand should admit that he was wrong as quickly as possible.

panerd 05-20-2010 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPhillips (Post 2286670)
Paul only got about a quarter of the overall vote in the KY primaries. Let's at least see a Tea Party candidate win a general election before comparing them to Ghandi.



Yeah because that's what I did. I know it's hard for you when the typical Democrat/Republican playbook of Obama and Bush bashing back and forth doesn't work out but you can surely do better than that can't you?

JPhillips 05-20-2010 09:45 PM

Yes, bashing both Republicans and Democrats is much more morally pure.

You're as partisan as anyone in this thread you just root for a different jersey.

panerd 05-20-2010 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPhillips (Post 2286685)
Yes, bashing both Republicans and Democrats is much more morally pure.

You're as partisan as anyone in this thread you just root for a different jersey.


Nah, I honestly couldn't tell you one Libertarian outside of Bob Barr. (and my guess he was just using the party in 2008 to run for president and probably isn't with the party anymore) I like a lot of their ideas and find that Ron Paul and Gary Johnson (Republicans) match my ideas best but I am hardly partisan. i.e. committed to a party. You are correct that I am firmly against the shit we have in Washington. But no reason to do anything about it. In 2015 we can talk again about how it's too late to really do anything anyways, then again in 2020, then in 2025. The government is already too big I give up! Spend more! Spend us out of this mess please!

Grammaticus 05-20-2010 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286281)
No, there's a mandatory 4-year cooling-off period after your guy was President for 8 years.

By the way, we did ship the pony via certified mail. Did you not get it?


Hey, you never said we could have a real pony :(

JPhillips 05-20-2010 10:10 PM

Quote:

Join a local Libertarian group, those chicks are wild.

Libertarians say Kagan is bad, but bigger problem exists

And this isn't my usual Libertarian rant.

True, but it is a true Libertarian response. Every major Libertarian scholar I have ever read has done anything but call for isolationism.

when I presented a Libertarian viewpoint

Libertarians on health care

Libertarians on the enviornment

Take a look at the Libertarian platform sometime and tell me where you differ.

I feel like my Libertarian viewpoints at least resonate with some people.

Your description of yourself sounds very Libertarian.

But you're right my Libertarian views are wacky!

I can only speak for myself but the Libertarian platform is almost spot on in both economic and social aspects for me.

I will still be voting Libertarian

You're entitled to argue whatever floats your boat, but let's not pretend you haven't been one of the main supporters of the Libertarian Party in this thread.

path12 05-20-2010 10:15 PM

I flirted with Libertarianism during that time in one's life where you try and get past the bullshit you've been brought up to believe and start to figure out what you really do believe.

My conclusion was something like this. Any time you have a clear belief system that promotes otherwise perfectly avoidable suffering of fellow human beings you lose me. Plain and simple.

It is a utopian dream that is absolutely unworkable in our age and society. Name one social ill that an unfettered free market is able to fix. You can't.

DaddyTorgo 05-20-2010 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by path12 (Post 2286696)
I flirted with Libertarianism during that time in one's life where you try and get past the bullshit you've been brought up to believe and start to figure out what you really do believe.

My conclusion was something like this. Any time you have a clear belief system that promotes otherwise perfectly avoidable suffering of fellow human beings you lose me. Plain and simple.

It is a utopian dream that is absolutely unworkable in our age and society. Name one social ill that an unfettered free market is able to fix. You can't.


What you said. I did the same thing - flirted with it, espoused it for a little while, even voted that way when I was 18...19. But yeah...it's unworkable.

panerd 05-20-2010 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by path12 (Post 2286696)
I flirted with Libertarianism during that time in one's life where you try and get past the bullshit you've been brought up to believe and start to figure out what you really do believe.

My conclusion was something like this. Any time you have a clear belief system that promotes otherwise perfectly avoidable suffering of fellow human beings you lose me. Plain and simple.

It is a utopian dream that is absolutely unworkable in our age and society. Name one social ill that an unfettered free market is able to fix. You can't.


LOL. So the Utopian dream is one where I live for myself and hope that my neighbors do too? While a realistic one is world peace or no guns or conquering the middle East and solving the oil crisis or no abortions because of law or 100% literacy from government run schools or spending money to get out of debt. You're right Libertarians are so unrealistic and living in a dream world.

panerd 05-20-2010 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo (Post 2286698)
What you said. I did the same thing - flirted with it, espoused it for a little while, even voted that way when I was 18...19. But yeah...it's unworkable.


Does the federal government require a handicap ramp on your ivory tower? Please tell me more about when I grow up? What don't I understand about the real world and King Obama?

DaddyTorgo 05-20-2010 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286709)
Does the federal government require a handicap ramp on your ivory tower? Please tell me more about when I grow up? What don't I understand about the real world and King Obama?


Don't be a douche. Other people are allowed to have their opinions - you haven't discovered some magical "elixir of perfect politics" because you're a libertarian.

panerd 05-20-2010 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveBollea (Post 2286710)



What about a fully grown man who gets kicked off a football message board for acting like a 14-year old and thinks he can trick everyone by coming back under a different handle?

panerd 05-20-2010 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo (Post 2286712)
Don't be a douche. Other people are allowed to have their opinions - you haven't discovered some magical "elixir of perfect politics" because you're a libertarian.


So your discovery at age 18 of why my opinion is wrong wasn't you being a douchebag it was just an opinion? Got it.

path12 05-20-2010 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286708)
LOL. So the Utopian dream is one where I live for myself and hope that my neighbors do too? While a realistic one is world peace or no guns or conquering the middle East and solving the oil crisis or no abortions because of law or 100% literacy from government run schools or spending money to get out of debt.


Tell me where I said that.

You're free to believe whatever you want. But don't go around acting like you've got the answer and nobody else is wise enough to see it.

DaddyTorgo 05-20-2010 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286714)
So your discovery at age 18 of why my opinion is wrong wasn't you being a douchebag it was just an opinion? Got it.


Exactly. IT IS MY OPINION THAT I FORMED AT THAT TIME THAT IT IS UNWORKABLE.

You're free to come to a different conclusion. Doesn't mean that either of us is right in the end.

panerd 05-20-2010 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo (Post 2286717)
Exactly. IT IS MY OPINION THAT I FORMED AT THAT TIME THAT IT IS UNWORKABLE.

You're free to come to a different conclusion. Doesn't mean that either of us is right in the end.



Right. You didn't throw the 18 or 19 yeard old part in just to be a dick about it. Got it, you just wanted to make sure all of us were clear on the dates of when you made discoveries.

DaddyTorgo 05-20-2010 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286720)
Right. You didn't throw the 18 or 19 yeard old part in just to be a dick about it. Got it, you just wanted to make sure all of us were clear on the dates of when you made discoveries.


Actually...yes.

You have quite the "Libertarian persecution complex" going on lately hmm?

RainMaker 05-20-2010 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286625)
I have noticed the attacks have really started up in the press. (EDIT: I know, I know. Tuesday I was bitching about him not being in the news. I should be happy that he is now) Going back to the race baiting like they always do with his father. (Buried somewhere in the Rand Paul is a Racist headline is that he doesn't believe in the Civil Rights Act for private business. Not sure I have met many who do.) If he is backtracking on some other major stuff that is kind of sad. I am a big fan of his dad's and would love to be a fan of his too. You won the primary because you weren't mainstream don't be convinced that's what you need to do to win this election, it's the exact opposite of what you need to do! The tea party is really starting to follow the famous Gandhi quote (not quite the same situation but with the spending the way it is it could get just as bad!) though. It will be fun to watch Republicrats and Demolicans unite to try and save their asses when these guys start winning their seats.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

The thing is, he isn't that much different. He's just like your typical Republican or Democrat. Look at his platform, it's not that much different than the rhetoric you see by just about any politician on the right. The one major difference is that he's against the Iraq war. He's a libertarian only in image.

I would vote for the guy because while I think some of his ideas are crazy, they are crazy to the point that he'll never be a deciding vote on the issue. But his votes on spending and other things that are close will be good overall.

As for the race-baiting, I agree that it's horrible. People try and portray those against the private sector portion of the Civil Rights Act as racist when in fact they just don't feel the government should be legislating morality. I wish he would just say that and stop pussy footing around. But he's running in a party that wants the government to legislate morality, so he can't.

JPhillips 05-21-2010 06:26 AM

From the BArtlett essay posted above:

Quote:

I don't believe Rand is a racist; I think he is a fool who is suffering from the foolish consistency syndrome that affects all libertarians. They believe that freedom consists of one thing and one thing only--freedom from governmental constraint. Therefore, it is illogical to them that any increase in government power could ever expand freedom. Yet it is clear that African Americans were far from free in 1964 and that the Civil Rights Act greatly expanded their freedom while diminishing that of racists. To defend the rights of racists to discriminate is reprehensible and especially so when it is done by a major party nominee for the U.S. Senate.

JonInMiddleGA 05-21-2010 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by path12 (Post 2286572)
Well, you've always got that secession thing to fall back on. ;)


Sigh. If only ... :(

JonInMiddleGA 05-21-2010 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286625)
You won the primary because you weren't mainstream


Umm ... he's "100% pro-life", he "opposes all federal bailouts of private industry", on defense he believes "When we are threatened, it is the obligation of our representatives to unleash the full arsenal of power that is granted ...", he believes "Lowering taxes gives working men and women the ability to take control of their own lives", he's pro-veteran, he's pro-homeschool rights, he opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, he says he'll "fight to balance the budget and dramatically reduce spending".

Other than his take on health care (and apparently Iraq, I haven't read his comments on that in detail), how far outside the GOP mainstream are his actual positions?

Let's be honest here, winning a GOP primary is a feat that has some pretty narrow parameters you're going to have to be within. I'm not being critical of that, we both know you aren't going to find me being too upset by narrowly defined boundaries of acceptability. To pretend that he won because he's some sort of socio-political revolutionary is just fucking silly.

JonInMiddleGA 05-21-2010 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2286632)
EDIT: Though if you google "civil rights act for private business" the first 20 results are Rand Paul. Sure no media manipulation going on in this country at all. :rolleyes:


That's Google's algorithm being influenced by frequency of searches, immediacy, and link backs. That's not a sign of a vast bipartisan media conspiracy.

Such a thing might conceivably exist but what you cite isn't evidence of it.

flere-imsaho 05-21-2010 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by path12 (Post 2286513)
Fair point. I obviously haven't thought the whole idea through. :)


That's OK: I have. :D

Keep the Senate as it is, but convert the House to a body that is elected by a national vote based on proportional representation, with no more individual districts.

Any party can run in the national election and they put a slate of candidates up who would take the seats they end up being allotted. As an example:

Republicans get 37% of the vote, they get 161 seats
Democrats get 32% of the vote, they get 139 seats
Libertarians get 15% of the vote, they get 65 seats
Greens get 10% of the vote, they get 44 seats
Socialists get 3% of the vote, they get 13 seats
Federalists get 2% of the vote, they get 9 seats
States' Rights Party gets 1% of the vote, they get 4 seats

Republicans form governing coalition with Libertarians for a 226-seat majority.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA (Post 2286523)
edit to add: Unless, of course, our left wingers find some common decency & suddenly discover common sense ;)


:p

path12 05-21-2010 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286860)
That's OK: I have. :D

Keep the Senate as it is, but convert the House to a body that is elected by a national vote based on proportional representation, with no more individual districts.

Any party can run in the national election and they put a slate of candidates up who would take the seats they end up being allotted. As an example:

Republicans get 37% of the vote, they get 161 seats
Democrats get 32% of the vote, they get 139 seats
Libertarians get 15% of the vote, they get 65 seats
Greens get 10% of the vote, they get 44 seats
Socialists get 3% of the vote, they get 13 seats
Federalists get 2% of the vote, they get 9 seats
States' Rights Party gets 1% of the vote, they get 4 seats

Republicans form governing coalition with Libertarians for a 226-seat majority.


Interesting. But if the Senate stays the same that body (at least for awhile) is likely to remain mostly two party. So say you have this governing coalition of Repub/Libertarian and a Democratic majority in the Senate. Nothing could pass both bodies. Though of course there are some who would consider that a victory. :)

flere-imsaho 05-21-2010 10:02 AM

A key benefit of a nationally-elected PR system would be immediate relevance for some third (or fourth, or fifth) parties. As it stands now, a vote for someone other than D or R is essentially a protest vote, and so even if you, say, really agree with the Greens, you probably won't vote for them over a Democrat, especially in a tight race.

In this system you can, especially since Greens would likely ally with Democrats on more issues, you're not necessarily voting to the benefit of Republicans by voting Green (from the opposite side, substitute Libertarians for Greens and Democrats for Republicans).

Later, if non-D/R politicians get press and reputations, you might even see a few of them run, and win, Senate seats. So you get more diversity of opinion overall.

JonInMiddleGA 05-21-2010 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286870)
A key benefit of a nationally-elected PR system would be immediate relevance for some third (or fourth, or fifth) parties.


Except that there's a great deal of the country (I'd dare say a majority of those who actually have an opinion) who don't see that as a "benefit".

Truth is, a lot of us don't believe that most of those fringe elements have any actual relevance, and especially don't think a system should be jury rigged in order to create an artificial relevance for them.

edit to add: Further, if someone thinks "special interest groups" have too much sway now, wait 'til they get a load of the deals cut between the Vegetarian Party & the Dem's (or any of the dozens of other possible combinations on either side of the aisle).

flere-imsaho 05-21-2010 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA (Post 2286876)
Except that there's a great deal of the country (I'd dare say a majority of those who actually have an opinion) who don't see that as a "benefit".


I disagree. I'd suspect even a majority of the supporters of the two big parties are dissatisfied with the party they support and would prefer to support a party more aligned to their specific interests, especially if said party would actually have some relevance on a national level.

In a way, it's a bit of transference (on this specific subject). Instead of voting for a Republican or a Democrat and hoping they share, and promote, some of your personal agenda/ideals, you vote for a party that's closely aligned with your agenda/ideals and let them wheel and deal for those ideals with other diverse parties in this national legislative body.

flere-imsaho 05-21-2010 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA (Post 2286876)
edit to add: Further, if someone thinks "special interest groups" have too much sway now, wait 'til they get a load of the deals cut between the Vegetarian Party & the Dem's (or any of the dozens of other possible combinations on either side of the aisle).


In my view, the creation of coalition governments actually restrains this. To use the example of the Republicans forming a coalition with the Libertarians, the latter may want to abolish the FDA, but the former isn't going to do that, though they may agree to a restructuring of how the FDA conducts oversight and require faster tracks for drug approval.

Chief Rum 05-21-2010 10:44 AM

Forgive me if this has been suggested, but it just occurred to me, and I wondered what everyone thought.

What if votes could be given out by percentage? Meaning an individual vote counts for 100% of that person's vote, but if he/she likes, he can assign a percentage of it to different parties.

Take me for instance. I am a fiscal Republican with some Libertarian leanings and a handful of social Democratic leanings. If I had the option, I might assign 60% of my vote to Republican, 30% to Libertarian and 10% to Democratic.

Obviously, we couldn't actually use percentages, because voting has to be the lowest common denominator (the stupider, the better). But you could tell people they get 10 vote "points" (each point equals 10% of their vote), and can assign those points however they wish. Even stupid people play enouh video games to understand points.

This, IMO, would go hand in hand with the national Congressional election put up above, although it would be impractical on a local level (so that would presumeably stay the same as currently).

JonInMiddleGA 05-21-2010 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286878)
Instead of voting for a Republican or a Democrat and hoping they share, and promote, some of your personal agenda/ideals, you vote for a party that's closely aligned with your agenda/ideals and let them wheel and deal for those ideals with other diverse parties in this national legislative body.


Nice theory, except that you can't vote for 5 Representatives from 5 different parties that are closely aligned with your 10 major interests. You only get one Rep. Getting someone to work on 7 or 8 of your top 10 is why most of us eventually end up voting R or D (excluding family history & its influence on voting patterns).

What you're talking about only has a shot of working better (in terms of attempting to get your p.o.v. represented at the table) if you're a 1 or 2 issue person. I don't believe there's actually that many of those. You can fail to get someone's support by getting a key issue wrong much more readily than you can gain their support by getting only one key issue right IMO.

How many issues are actually strong enough to generate that kind of isolated issue party? I can see a Right-to-Life Party getting seats, I can see a Green Party getting seats, but don't see (pulling some random example of a hot button that isn't a dominant driving force) a Stem-Cell-Research Party gaining enough traction to pull even one seat.

JonInMiddleGA 05-21-2010 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286880)
In my view, the creation of coalition governments actually restrains this. To use the example of the Republicans forming a coalition with the Libertarians, the latter may want to abolish the FDA, but the former isn't going to do that, though they may agree to a restructuring of how the FDA conducts oversight and require faster tracks for drug approval.


Which is the basic construction of what happens within the two parties we already have now.

flere-imsaho 05-21-2010 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA (Post 2286888)
Nice theory, except that you can't vote for 5 Representatives from 5 different parties that are closely aligned with your 10 major interests. You only get one Rep. Getting someone to work on 7 or 8 of your top 10 is why most of us eventually end up voting R or D (excluding family history & its influence on voting patterns).


But if I'm given the choice of five parties for whom to cast my vote versus two, surely the likelihood of being able to choose a party more closely aligned to my principles is higher?

Imagine, for example, the UK without the Lib Dems (and England doesn't even use a PR system). Most of the current Lib Dem membership would be holding their nose considerably more to vote for Labour or the Tories.

Here's my contention: if you surveyed U.S. voters after an election where they had a choice of Democrat, Republican, Libertarian and Green (and all parties would actually get seats if they got enough votes) versus an election where they had a choice of Democrat and Republican, I think you get considerably more satisfied voters in the first scenario than in the second.

Here's my other contention: the wheeling-and-dealing that would happen between parties in a PR system to agree on legislation would be (actually, is) considerably more transparent than the wheeling-and-dealing that happens currently intra-party in the U.S. system. If, say, the Greens vote with the Democrats to pass a bill on oil drilling, for example, they're going to have to explain to their constituents why (perhaps they got major concessions on safety and oversight requirements). In our current system, this bill probably passes because the "greener" Democrats were bought off with earmarks.

NOTE: I'm not expecting people in a PR system to act like Utopian hippies. I'm just saying there are a number of benefits, and one of those benefits is a more transparent legislative process and another is a better marketplace of ideas. And a third is a lot less earmarks for specific legislative districts.

flere-imsaho 05-21-2010 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA (Post 2286890)
Which is the basic construction of what happens within the two parties we already have now.


I disagree. Intra-party compromise, especially in the U.S. Congress, is not driven by ideological compromise inasmuch as it's driven by vote-trading (which includes voting for other peoples' earmarks).

JonInMiddleGA 05-21-2010 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286895)
I disagree. Intra-party compromise, especially in the U.S. Congress, is not driven by ideological compromise inasmuch as it's driven by vote-trading (which includes voting for other peoples' earmarks).


You seem to be suggesting that there's a substantial difference between "ideological compromise" and "vote-trading", whereas I would strongly argue that they're almost exactly the same thing in DC, regardless of what scenario you're electing the reps under.

Eventually it boils down to "I'll give you this if you give me that" ... which is what we've got already as much so (even moreso) intra-party as inter-party.

JonInMiddleGA 05-21-2010 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286894)
But if I'm given the choice of five parties for whom to cast my vote versus two, surely the likelihood of being able to choose a party more closely aligned to my principles is higher?


Not at all, unless you're talking about parties with full agendas as opposed to these single/few issue minority parties that seem to be the most likely scenario.

Quote:

Here's my contention: if you surveyed U.S. voters after an election where they had a choice of Democrat, Republican, Libertarian and Green (and all parties would actually get seats if they got enough votes) versus an election where they had a choice of Democrat and Republican, I think you get considerably more satisfied voters in the first scenario than in the second.


Maybe this is a key distinction that we're dealing with here. I might not argue strongly against your suggestion of "more satisfied voter" after such an election. But I'd argue strongly against the suggestion that they'd be more satisfied with the outcome of the next Congress.

flere-imsaho 05-21-2010 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA (Post 2286896)
You seem to be suggesting that there's a substantial difference between "ideological compromise" and "vote-trading", whereas I would strongly argue that they're almost exactly the same thing in DC, regardless of what scenario you're electing the reps under.


OK, I see what you're saying. We may have to agree to disagree (shocker, I know :D ).

What I would contend is that pretty much all of the "vote-trading" that goes on currently boils down to sending money to specific districts, no matter how the people involved might try to explain it. Such as Mary Landrieu voting for HCR for $300 million.

In my proposed system, the "vote-trading" is more along the lines of the Greens agreeing to vote for an oil driling bill after extracting, say, safety regulations and a promise to buy more land for federal parks out of the Democrats.

To me, there's a difference between those two mechanics, but I can see how you would disagree. In my defense, I think the real-world experience of PR systems supports my contention.

flere-imsaho 05-21-2010 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA (Post 2286898)
Not at all, unless you're talking about parties with full agendas as opposed to these single/few issue minority parties that seem to be the most likely scenario.


100% YES. The experience of PR, when implemented, has been that single/few-issue parties tend to get single-digit percentages of votes. This is why, for instance, the Green Parties in Europe have full agendas (in comparison to their narrowly-focused US counterparts): they realized they needed to do this to get relevant representation in various parliaments.

Plus, I'd expect if you made the change today in the U.S., the first few elections would be 90% Dem/Rep with a bunch of fringe parties splitting the other 10%, but over time parties with broader appeal would arise from those fringe parties (not perhaps 50% broad appeal, but certainly 20% broad appeal).

Quote:

Maybe this is a key distinction that we're dealing with here. I might not argue strongly against your suggestion of "more satisfied voter" after such an election. But I'd argue strongly against the suggestion that they'd be more satisfied with the outcome of the next Congress.

Absolutely. Goes without saying.

Edit: The advantage here is that while people tend to not be 100% happy with coalition governments in a PR system, they tend not to hate them outright and change tends to be more gradual. This as opposed to a two-party system where if one party gets on a roll they just ram a ton of stuff through and a significant minority (or sometimes even a majority) of the populace hates it with a passion. The late periods of the previous two governments in Britain (Brown's Labour and Major's Conservative) are excellent examples, as is Delay's Congress (or O'Neill's back in the 80s).

JPhillips 05-21-2010 02:04 PM

Rand Paul is Bubba Wheels!

Quote:

Q: What does Ron Paul want to do to fight the prospect of a North American Union and an Amero?

Rand Paul: Well I think publicizing it is the first thing, publicizing that it's going on. Trying to get the legislature to stop it, through official acts of Congress. You know any time he talks about it, though, the media tries to make fun of him as if it doesn't exist. But I think in Montana, your state legislature has talked about the North American Union. Texas has had several votes about the corridor, they just call it a different name, they call it the trans-Texas corridor.

Q: It comes right through here.

Rand Paul: Yeah, it's the same thing. It's gonna go up through Texas, I guess, all the way to Montana. So, it's a real thing, and when you talk about it, the thing you just have to be aware of is that, if you talk about it like it's a conspiracy, they'll paint you as a nut. It's not a conspiracy, they're out in the open about it. I saw the YouTube of Vincente Fox talking about the Amero. So, it's not a secret. now it may not be [inaudible] tomorrow, but it took 'em 20 or 30 years to get the Euro, and they had to push people kicking and screaming into the Euro.

But I guarantee you it's one of their long term goals to have one sort of borderless, mass continent.

Dutch 05-21-2010 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286908)
Edit: The advantage here is that while people tend to not be 100% happy with coalition governments in a PR system, they tend not to hate them outright and change tends to be more gradual. This as opposed to a two-party system where if one party gets on a roll they just ram a ton of stuff through and a significant minority (or sometimes even a majority) of the populace hates it with a passion. The late periods of the previous two governments in Britain (Brown's Labour and Major's Conservative) are excellent examples, as is Delay's Congress (or O'Neill's back in the 80s).


The biggest experience I have with coalition government was my time spent in Turkey. Everybody there loved the concept of multiple parties, but hated the coalitions that formed. They wished they only had two parties with the winner take all format so they could get shit accomplished. The grass is always greener, I suppose.

Ronnie Dobbs2 05-21-2010 02:38 PM

What if my business wants to only accept Ameros?

RainMaker 05-22-2010 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPhillips (Post 2287021)
Rand Paul is Bubba Wheels!

When is he going to address the thermite that was used to take down the towers and how the Bilderberg Group was behind the recession? AMERICA DEMANDS ANSWERS!

Flasch186 05-22-2010 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho (Post 2286860)
That's OK: I have. :D

Keep the Senate as it is, but convert the House to a body that is elected by a national vote based on proportional representation, with no more individual districts.

Any party can run in the national election and they put a slate of candidates up who would take the seats they end up being allotted. As an example:

Republicans get 37% of the vote, they get 161 seats
Democrats get 32% of the vote, they get 139 seats
Libertarians get 15% of the vote, they get 65 seats
Greens get 10% of the vote, they get 44 seats
Socialists get 3% of the vote, they get 13 seats
Federalists get 2% of the vote, they get 9 seats
States' Rights Party gets 1% of the vote, they get 4 seats

Republicans form governing coalition with Libertarians for a 226-seat majority.



:p


AHHHHHHHHHH, but that's not American. Its too much like those 'other countries' across the pond and we know that anything they do is socialist, failed, and BAD.

panerd 05-22-2010 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RainMaker (Post 2287327)
When is he going to address the thermite that was used to take down the towers and how the Bilderberg Group was behind the recession? AMERICA DEMANDS ANSWERS!


I love when people try to use 9-11 conspiracy theories, that I have never seen any serious politician endorse, as the reason why any criticism of the US government outside of what we are taught in public schools is basically nonsense from the same group of "nutjobs". We know America is the greatest and would never take part in any disinformation or lies about the corruption that those nutcases claim exists in many parts of the federal government.

Didn't you know that all of those conspiracy theories are false? Why? The government says so! It has always been clear to me that Oswald acted alone, the government and my teachers said so. Let them clear up other theories at this site... (I tried to find the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the Gulf of Tonkin, and the Tuskegee experiments on here. I thought those were all just misinformation from anti-government "nuts" as well)

Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation - America.gov

I also found the readings on the Economy especially helpful...

Quote:

Originally Posted by US Government (Post 2287327)
Economic conspiracy theories are often based on the false, but popular, idea that powerful individuals are motivated overwhelmingly by their desire for wealth, rather than the wide variety of human motivations we all experience. (This one-dimensional, cartoonish view of human nature is at the heart of Marxist ideology, which once held hundreds of millions under its sway.)


Did you know the idea that rich and powerful people will try to make money at the expense of their fellow Americans is nothing more than Marxist ideology? Thanks US government! LOL. When someone showed me the above excerpt I thought it was from the Onion.

RainMaker 05-22-2010 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by panerd (Post 2287408)
I love when people try to use 9-11 conspiracy theories, that I have never seen any serious politician endorse, as the reason why any criticism of the US government outside of what we are taught in public schools is basically nonsense from the same group of "nutjobs". We know America is the greatest and would never take part in any disinformation or lies about the corruption that those nutcases claim exists in many parts of the federal government.

The Amero is basically another bullshit debunked conspiracy. Just like 9/11 being an inside job, fake moon landing, Billderberg Group, NWO, and on and on. Run a search on Ameros and tell me what sites come up. The same ones that are talking about the stuff I mentioned.

This isn't about the government lying, it's about crazy conspiracy theories with no substance.

JPhillips 05-22-2010 09:24 PM

He may not be a 9/11 truther, but he does subscribe to some wild conspiracy theories. From an Alex Jones radio show:

Quote:

Later on the show, while Jones was denouncing cap-and-trade legislation (which he says could lead to "toilet paper taxes") and calling for investigating Al Gore, Paul noted that should the climate bill become law, "we will have an army of armed EPA agents--thousands of them." These EPA troopers, according to Paul, would be free to burst into homes and apartments to determine if they were meeting energy-efficiency standards.

DaddyTorgo 05-22-2010 09:25 PM

where do these people get these stupid ideas? i mean seriously - are they just gullible idiots?? I don't get it.

Mizzou B-ball fan 05-24-2010 09:56 AM

Interesting read. Dr. Doom is leaning towards a double dip recession barring a major change in gov't debt worldwide.

Nouriel Roubini said said the bubble would burst and it did. So what next? - Telegraph

DaddyTorgo 05-24-2010 09:58 AM

Couldn't remember if we had a specific Arizona thread, but this just in:

Arizona has asked the Federal Govt. for UAV's (Unmanned Ariel Vehicles - Predator drones, etc) to patrol the border, along with additional helicoptors.

Arizona to White House: Send us helicopters, recon drones - May. 24, 2010

DaddyTorgo 05-24-2010 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan (Post 2288023)
Interesting read. Dr. Doom is leaning towards a double dip recession barring a major change in gov't debt worldwide.

Nouriel Roubini said said the bubble would burst and it did. So what next? - Telegraph


Wouldn't surprise me - this is what our smartest client (money manager) has been saying for months, and they were also right about the first bubble (in fact they called it and positioned for it in mid-2006, and held that position until it did burst). It's almost common-sense.

Mizzou B-ball fan 05-24-2010 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo (Post 2288027)
Couldn't remember if we had a specific Arizona thread, but this just in:

Arizona has asked the Federal Govt. for UAV's (Unmanned Ariel Vehicles - Predator drones, etc) to patrol the border, along with additional helicoptors.

Arizona to White House: Send us helicopters, recon drones - May. 24, 2010


I want to know if they'll be armed with Hellfire missiles. That'll spice it up in a hurry.

Dutch 05-24-2010 10:43 AM

What the hell is a UAV gonna do? I say we just put up an actual security fence with IDS capability and see if the #'s of illegals drop.

JediKooter 05-24-2010 11:12 AM

Wait, isn't that the main reason Arizona passed that law was because the federal government WASN'T helping? And now they are asking for help from the same people they are accusing of not helping to begin with. WTF??

JonInMiddleGA 05-24-2010 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan (Post 2288046)
I want to know if they'll be armed with Hellfire missiles. That'll spice it up in a hurry.


I think it would be a great opportunity to make use of our stockpile of cluster munitions/sub-munitions. Cheaper than Hellfire & longer lasting :)

Kodos 05-24-2010 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo (Post 2288027)
UAV's (Unmanned Ariel Vehicles - Predator drones, etc) [/url]


Good lord! Mermaid Predator Drones? Singing and blowing up everything?!!!1!

DaddyTorgo 05-24-2010 04:27 PM

bah...you got me. spelling fail due to brain broken.

Mizzou B-ball fan 05-25-2010 10:09 AM

Since this story was previously mentioned in this thread.........

James O’Keefe: No Felony « Liveshots

Mizzou B-ball fan 05-26-2010 07:14 AM

I don't get this at all. Did we elect a president or a low-rate comedian?

Obama Heckles His Heckler At Boxer Fundraiser

Stop thinking that you need a good comeback if someone heckles you at an appearance. Act presidential and just ignore it. Let the crowd deal with the loudmouth.

Also, it was noted on several sites yesterday that the press secretary privately told White House pool reporters to stop asking so many questions about BP. What exactly is the purpose of that?

Mizzou B-ball fan 05-27-2010 10:10 AM

Some REALLY frustrating figures coming out of Recovery.gov. The amount spent per job created is just mind-boggling in New Hampshire.

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/05/2...new-hampshire/

I will give credit to the administration for being open with their records, even if it shows how miserably the stimulus has been mismanaged.

SportsDino 05-27-2010 10:37 AM

Well the source is right-biased obviously, but those numbers match up reasonably with other stats I've seen. Realize this is only the money spent directly on supposed job creation projects, it doesn't include spending on benefits, tax cuts, or other random ass stuff that was included in the stimulus.

This is where my 'million dollars per job' estimate came from in another post I made before. If you subtract out the non-jobs stimulus spending, the statistics across the nation are in the multiple hundred thousands per job, which is even more sickening when you see the salaries for these jobs. Like I also previously mentioned in a post, most software companies (which are high margin to begin with) would be happy to have 200-300K revenue per employee. They'd consider that high growth rate money.

We've spent more than that on average for jobs that pay less then such companies would generally pay... someone is taking a massive cut for themselves in the picture.

This is why I favor an employment based credit, put a multiplier on the cost of each job to make labor on average cheaper while individual salaries remain constant or growing, and you get your subsidy effect in a way that is game theory unexploitable (to get the 'cut' you need to perform an action that creates the intended result).

I'm also sure that I could create a lot more jobs at a lower price than 300-500K per job. Find the biggest messes that need to be cleaned up in America, buy a good quality shovel and some Windex, and I'm sure you can employ a lot of well paid mess cleaners and get some things fixed around here (power grid, roads, etc... apparently road contracts require several times each workers salary to be feasible.... I thinks I can underbid that easily enough).

JonInMiddleGA 05-27-2010 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SportsDino (Post 2289790)
Find the biggest messes that need to be cleaned up in America, buy a good quality shovel and some Windex, and I'm sure you can employ a lot of well paid mess cleaners and get some things fixed around here


Didn't you get the memo? American citizens won't take jobs like that, it's why we simply have to let all the illegals stay.

Mizzou B-ball fan 05-27-2010 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SportsDino (Post 2289790)
Well the source is right-biased obviously, but those numbers match up reasonably with other stats I've seen.


The opinion in the post I put up is right-biased, but the source of the numbers are Recovery.gov and the state of New Hampshire, which should not have any bias.

RainMaker 05-27-2010 11:13 AM

Shush, MBBF doesn't read and post the daily talking points at Michelle Malkin's site.

Mizzou B-ball fan 05-27-2010 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RainMaker (Post 2289818)
Shush, MBBF doesn't read and post the daily talking points at Michelle Malkin's site.


Let me guess. The great Michelle Malkin (who you obviously read more than me) posted this information, so therefore I must read her site.

While I fully understand that I posted a link from a right-leaning website, the data comes straight from the White House. Would it kill you to realize the guy is a flaming conservative and just view the information as it is? Go to Recovery.gov (which I also mentioned) and view it without the commentary if that's what you need to do to realize that your tax dollars were not used well in this situation.

RainMaker 05-27-2010 11:40 AM

I'm not arguing the data, I said from the start the stimulus was nothing more than all the Democratic pet projects that had built up over a decade.

Just that you trumpeted the fact you had never heard of Michelle Malkin despite posting her talking points on a daily basis and then posting one off her actual site.

Masked 05-27-2010 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan (Post 2289827)
Let me guess. The great Michelle Malkin (who you obviously read more than me) posted this information, so therefore I must read her site.

While I fully understand that I posted a link from a right-leaning website, the data comes straight from the White House. Would it kill you to realize the guy is a flaming conservative and just view the information as it is? Go to Recovery.gov (which I also mentioned) and view it without the commentary if that's what you need to do to realize that your tax dollars were not used well in this situation.


The problem is that the site you linked to is so biased, that I don't trust any information I see on it (I'd feel the same for a site biased to the extreme left). When evaluating statistics you can't ignore the context and the author who is presenting them. All the available data can never be presented in a limited space, so the author choices of what data to include and what data to exclude are critical. With this author, I have no confidence he made these choices in a reasonable manner. Consequently, I stopped reading after 15 seconds.

RainMaker 05-27-2010 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masked (Post 2289837)
The problem is that the site you linked to is so biased, that I don't trust any information I see on it (I'd feel the same for a site biased to the extreme left). When evaluating statistics you can't ignore the context and the author who is presenting them. All the available data can never be presented in a limited space, so the author choices of what data to include and what data to exclude are critical. With this author, I have no confidence he made these choices in a reasonable manner. Consequently, I stopped reading after 15 seconds.

It's a hate site. Stormfront for politics.

I'd want to know if all the stimulus money has been handed out so far. How accurate the jobs creation statistics are and a slew of other things.

JediKooter 05-27-2010 11:47 AM

Michelle Malkin, Michelle Bachman and Ann Coulter...notice you never see all 3 of them in the same place at the same time?

DaddyTorgo 05-27-2010 11:52 AM

The problem with "cleanup" type jobs is that they're not sustainable, and they don't improve the GDP. You want to try to create jobs that result in long-term GDP growth and will be around indefinitely.

But as a shorter-term thing I don't disagree that it can often be useful.

JPhillips 05-27-2010 12:02 PM

I've always said trying to track jobs is a fool's errand. However, I don't think you should get too bent out of shape over Recovery.org, as it certainly doesn't look very accurate. Click on a few of the projects and it's pretty clear that the reported jobs number is nearly useless. The NH DOT got about 750,000 to pave a section of road and said that created .15 jobs. A private company got 65,000 and said it created .06 jobs. How do you create six one hundredths of a job?

According to most economists and the CBO the stimulus has so far done exactly what was expected, lift GDP. That's got it's own problems, but it's much easier to measure than job numbers.

lungs 05-27-2010 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA (Post 2289792)
Didn't you get the memo? American citizens won't take jobs like that, it's why we simply have to let all the illegals stay.


For somebody that rails on the worthlessness of most people.....

Mizzou B-ball fan 06-02-2010 11:08 AM

Just in case anyone was wondering what the POTUS was doing this morning, he just sent me an e-mail...........

Quote:

Presidential Proclamation--Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month

As Americans, it is our birthright that all people are created equal and deserve the same rights, privileges, and opportunities. Since our earliest days of independence, our Nation has striven to fulfill that promise. An important chapter in our great, unfinished story is the movement for fairness and equality on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This month, as we recognize the immeasurable contributions of LGBT Americans, we renew our commitment to the struggle for equal rights for LGBT Americans and to ending prejudice and injustice wherever it exists.

LGBT Americans have enriched and strengthened the fabric of our national life. From business leaders and professors to athletes and first responders, LGBT individuals have achieved success and prominence in every discipline. They are our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, and our friends and neighbors. Across my Administration, openly LGBT employees are serving at every level. Thanks to those who came before us the brave men and women who marched, stood up to injustice, and brought change through acts of compassion or defiance we have made enormous progress and continue to strive for a more perfect union.

My Administration has advanced our journey by signing into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which strengthens Federal protections against crimes based on gender identity or sexual orientation. We renewed the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides life saving medical services and support to Americans living with HIV/AIDS, and finally eliminated the HIV entry ban. I also signed a Presidential Memorandum directing hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds to give LGBT patients the compassion and security they deserve in their time of need, including the ability to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions.

In other areas, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a series of proposals to ensure core housing programs are open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. HUD also announced the first ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services has created a National Resource Center for LGBT Elders.

Much work remains to fulfill our Nation's promise of equal justice under law for LGBT Americans. That is why we must give committed gay couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple, and repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. We must protect the rights of LGBT families by securing their adoption rights, ending employment discrimination against LGBT Americans, and ensuring Federal employees receive equal benefits. We must create safer schools so all our children may learn in a supportive environment. I am also committed to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" so patriotic LGBT Americans can serve openly in our military, and I am working with the Congress and our military leadership to accomplish that goal.

As we honor the LGBT Americans who have given so much to our Nation, let us remember that if one of us is unable to realize full equality, we all fall short of our founding principles. Our Nation draws its strength from our diversity, with each of us contributing to the greater whole. By affirming these rights and values, each American benefits from the further advancement of liberty and justice for all.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2010 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

flere-imsaho 06-02-2010 11:15 AM

Yeah, I'll bet he spent a lot of time on that.

JPhillips 06-02-2010 12:21 PM

When you put together the time it took to research it, to write it, to edit it, to enter all those email addresses and then hit send, I bet Obama has spent the past two or three days doing nothing but this resolution.

Outrageous.

Mizzou B-ball fan 06-02-2010 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPhillips (Post 2292544)
When you put together the time it took to research it, to write it, to edit it, to enter all those email addresses and then hit send, I bet Obama has spent the past two or three days doing nothing but this resolution.

Outrageous.


Worse yet, I don't think all of the LGBT U.S. citizens received that e-mail. How they hell are they going to know it's their month???????

JediKooter 06-02-2010 01:05 PM

So is AMC going to show Victor/Victoria all month long?

sterlingice 06-02-2010 01:35 PM

The 2 posts with odd (mocking?) punctuation about an issue you claim to be in favor of (gay rights and gay marriage) are duly noted, MBBF.

I'm sure it was just a typo or all in playful fun. And I'm sure you weren't picking up on the meme about how Obama is doing something other than watching the oil geyser 24/7 that even made the Daily Show last night. I'm probably just mistaken there.

SI


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:34 AM.

Powered by vBulletin Version 3.6.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.