In nearby West Palm Beach, not far from the homes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, politicians and propagandists were out working the crowds of tea flavoured idiots, some dressed in items of late 18th century attire.
"Yes, we do need change, you can start by giving me my money back!"yelled Joyce Kaufman, of AM station 850-WFTL.
"I don't care which side of the aisle you're on, if you're taking money away from my children, you've got to go"said GOP Congressional candidate Edward Lynch who lost the 2008 race to a Democ
rat. Of course he cares about little else, but who knows whether he really believes our current predicament derives from the expensive attempts of the current administration to keep our economy alive long enough to recover and not from the decades of "debt doesn't matter' and "upper bracket tax cuts boost the economy" and "freedom isn't free?""yes, I had doubts about George Bush, but this guy. . ." was a common theme, as though any of the people clinging to it actually did anything to question the years of borrowing, revenue cutting, removal of oversight, deregulation, expense bloating and war mongering, the newly legalized scams and frauds and schemes and practices that havecharacterized those on that "side of the aisle." In fact most of these people would have deported you, if they could have, simply for questioning the Right Wing Religion.
To me, it's like yelling about dental bills when you haven't brushed your teeth or seen a dentist for 20 years. It's like complaining about how the repair bills are putting you into debt when you let the Sex Pistols crash at your house for years and left your checkbook and credit cards and key to the liquor cabinet on the kitchen table. It's your own damn fault and many of us predicted this collapse years ago to a chorus of your jeers and accusations.
Sure the dentist may be too expensive or the contractor may not be the best, but when you let it all go to hell, when you wouldn't listen to any advice, it's your fault and wearing three-cornered hats, knee length pants and tights in the 90 degree heat isn't going to get "your" money back after you spent it on a useless war that cost nearly as much as WW II and on gifts to the richest men and corporations in the world.
Ride Captain Ride....
ReplyDeleteThe folks are just mad that someone else is spending the money....
Had John McCain won the election and implemented the exact same spending plans as Obama has you would have been tarred and feathered for being so unpatriotic!
Remember, these folks still believe in supply side economics and that lowering taxes increases revenue (so, zero taxes would mean a budget surplus...)
I believe you're right about McCain.
ReplyDeleteI have been tarred and feathered, but only in a virtual sense, and been called all kinds of names for having seen this coming.
Think they remember?
Now we know who really are the dead fish.
ReplyDeleteMcCain's a politician. They make grand promises and break them.
ReplyDeleteCandidate Obama promised to reign in the deficit, and took a hard-line against earmarks, but he has done the opposite when in office (significantly increasing the deficit from the Bush levels and quickly signing massive amounts of earmarks into law with no objection).
I'd like to think that McCain might have been better at keeping such good promises, but yet again, he's just a politician. One who has cultivated the "principled maverick" idea just as Obama cultivated the "hope and change" thing.
Perhaps Perot might have been one to keep promises like this, but at one point he totally went bonkers. And that was a long time ago.
Nice try, but imperfection in all things does not mean the equivalence of all things, OK? You're not talking to children or Republicans here so spare me the crude fallacies.
ReplyDeleteMcCain has never had an economic plan of any kind other than to deny there is any problem and blabber about Liberals -- and whether or not it's too late to save us from what his party has done, Obama does have a plan.
Risky and painful though it might be, it does not include more of the same, more blaming the opposition and distracting us by praising the troops, warning of terrorists, confusing capitalism with communism, waving the flag, screwing the public and supporting the aristocracy. This adolescent, petulant mediocrity doesn't say much for a party that has billed itself as the party of pragmatic economists and if he's the best you can offer, it's time to go sit in the corner and shut the hell up while there are still a few people dumb enough to support you.
It took over a decade to recover from the last Republican Depression and not being able to fix this one in the face of Republican obstructionism in less than 6 months constitutes neither failure or the breaking of promises.
"You're not talking to children or Republicans here so spare me the crude fallacies."
ReplyDeleteNo crude fallacies yet, so there was no need of you to say that.
"McCain has never had an economic plan of any kind other than to deny there is any problem"
Erm.... He did have one, and he campaigned on it. His web site had many pages about it.
"Obama does have a plan....it does not include more of the same, more blaming the opposition and distracting us by praising the troops"
There's been plenty of blaming the opposition in his speeches, even to the current day. As for the "distraction", that was not happening before Obama. The troops do need praise for their sacrifice. It is not a "distraction" to do so. But if praising the troops is a distraction, then Obama is doing "more of the same" too. As I have heard him praise the troops in his speeches. I don't think there is anything wrong with Obama or anyone doing that, even if you think it is bad.
"...waving the flag..."
It'd be interesting to find out a documented example of McCain, or even Bush or Cheney doing this.
"...warning of terrorists..."
That's only rhe responsible thing to do. Much better than keeping them secret when threats arise.
"...screwing the public and supporting the aristocracy..."
This is a perfect example of "more of the same", as Obama did continue Bush's no-strings-attached bailouts. And Obama's plans to further overtax the people and enrich the federal bureacrats are a perfect example of screwing the public and supporting the aristocracy.
"it's time to go sit in the corner and shut the hell up"
So much for bipartisanship, dialogue, and respect for dissent. Want to pass some laws to censor the opposition and force them to "shut up" while we are at it? Several Democrats in Congress have proposed this.
"not being able to fix this one in the face of Republican obstructionism in less than 6 months constitutes neither failure or the breaking of promises."
It is not Republican obstructionism which has caused Obama to spend worse than even Bush. It is his own choice. And Obama has no one to blame but himself for breaking of promises. The opposition did not insist that quickly he sign bills laden with pork and earmarks. The "failure" comes in his early "emergency economic stimulus" package which had nothing to do with stimulating the economy and everything to do with wasting money on projects that had nothing to do with economic growth.
And "Republican obstructionism" can't do a thing. The Republicans have been a minority party in both houses of Congress for all of Obama's term so far. Obama has only himself and his political party (which has run Congress) for not getting their act together.
Blaming the opposition for something you caused -- or blaming the party whose policies are to blame in the first place? Same thing? Hardly.
ReplyDeleteThat's a better attempt at false equivalence than the first one, but, no, Obama isn't more of the same - you just need him to be and yes, McCain's economic policies were pages of nothing but the same old catechism of the vague and empty and discredited credos we've heard for 30 years and his campaign rhetoric telling us it was all OK, that it was only the liberals talking down the economy stripped him of any credibility he had left after Palin and the "bomb Iran" dance.
You're suggesting that since the bilge pumps were on before we hit the iceberg, keeping them on afterward is a mistake and "more of the same" and lifeboats are too risky and expensive anyway and hitting the iceberg was the result of too much looking ahead and not enough speed...
Once again, save it for the Republicans and the plumbers, but I'm not going to fight a war of attrition with you or struggle over every rebarbate diversion and unfounded denunciation you can append endlessly to every assertion I make. Try offering a solution instead of dumping these ham-fisted, way past the expiration date, too young for the age group arguments on me.
What would you do - more tax cuts for people like me? Less regulation of energy derivatives, more license to gamble for banks? Should we have let credit dry up completely, let 95% of our industry go out of business? Do nothing and let the invisible hand handle it? I've yet yet to hear a suggestion from you.
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ReplyDelete"Blaming the opposition for something you caused -- or blaming the party whose policies are to blame in the first place?"
ReplyDeleteBlaming the opposition for something your own party caused is what applies best to Obama. Especially in the housing meltdown.
"McCain's economic policies were pages of nothing but the same old catechism of the vague and empty and discredited credos we've heard for 30 years"
That's a very vague criticism.
"unfounded denunciation you can append endlessly to every assertion I make."
It was such an easily refutable list. I can revisit one of them here: So, tell me, can you find any instance of McCain, Bush, or Cheney waving a flag? More to the point, why would it matter if anyone did "flag waving" ?
"You're suggesting that since the bilge pumps were on before we hit the iceberg..."
Using your lifeboat analogy, the bad Obama policies are like having the crew take axes to smash holes in the hull before the ship even smashes into the iceberg.
The denunciations were quite well-founded.
"Try offering a solution instead of dumping these ham-fisted...."
So, now the idea of fiscal responsibility is ham-fisted. How about reducing the deficit instead of increasing it? How about vetoing earmarks whenever they come across your desk? Hardly "Republican solutions". Candidate Obama made these promises himself. Good ideas. He should stick to them, but instead he chose to break the promises.
Oh, so now it's Obama's meltdown.
ReplyDeleteSo just what are your qualifications as an economist and historian once again?
Flag waving is a metaphor for making a fuss about patriotism, OK? Remember the bit about pins and hands on heart and honoring the troops and all the other tropes?
You're getting ridiculous.