Politics
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- vaxorcist0
Negotiation 101:
Now consider this strategy: Once the cars are headed directly toward each other, you unscrew your steering wheel and throw it out the window, making sure that your opponent sees you do it. Foolish? So it would seem, but your threat is now entirely credible. You can't change course even if you wanted to. It's up to your opponent to decide whether to lose the game or die. The odds are in your favor.
- Depends. What size are the cars and does everyone have airbags?TheBlueOne
- The Republicans were in the clown car btw.TheBlueOne
- is there a head or tail wind?74LEO
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- Nope, they're suing in order to see her alleged proof that there's voter fraudlocustsloth
- hah... look at the look on the dudes face, and hers.... they're obviously faking moral outrage..vaxorcist
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Obama’s base: We’ve been ‘thrown under the bus’
http://www.washingtontimes.com/n…Even without a debt-limit deal completed, liberal lawmakers and activist groups are already lining up against the outlines of the agreement, saying President Obama and congressional Democrats are risking Social Security while squandering a chance to force tax increases.
“Today we, and everyone we have worked to speak for and fight for, were thrown under the bus,” Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who is co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Sunday as top senators began to describe the deal they are trying to strike with Mr. Obama.
- Really wish Obama had opted to tank his chances in 2012 by sticking up for the less fortunate rather than burying themlocustsloth
- LOVE Bernie BTWlocustsloth
- yep, he's a fake, that's why, there is no Hope and Change. Just rhetorical jargon.********
- Ramanisky20
:)
- but wasn't that a case of anarchy, really? isn't that part of the liberal thinking. not happy take the person out?********
- but wasn't that a case of anarchy, really? isn't that part of the liberal thinking. not happy take the person out?
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Fiscal Conservatives Barred from Supercommittee
Will Senate Republicans be able to prevent tax hikes?
http://www.weeklystandard.com/bl…
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- About 74 percent of the Tea Party Patriots in the US want Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner to go.********
- about 74% of the US population want the Tea Party to go. And republicans want them to quit gravytraining their partyBonSeff
- ain't gonna happen, both parties created this monster.********
- If I met a tea party member I'd knock their fucking teeth out.mikotondria3
- About 74 percent of the Tea Party Patriots in the US want Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner to go.
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http://thehill.com/blogs/congres…When a cut is not a cut
By Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) - 08/01/11 12:15 PM ET
One might think that the recent drama over the debt ceiling involves one side wanting to increase or maintain spending with the other side wanting to drastically cut spending, but that is far from the truth. In spite of the rhetoric being thrown around, the real debate is over how much government spending will increase.No plan under serious consideration cuts spending in the way you and I think about it. Instead, the "cuts" being discussed are illusory, and are not cuts from current amounts being spent, but cuts in projected spending increases. This is akin to a family "saving" $100,000 in expenses by deciding not to buy a Lamborghini, and instead getting a fully loaded Mercedes, when really their budget dictates that they need to stick with their perfectly serviceable Honda. But this is the type of math Washington uses to mask the incriminating truth about their unrepentant plundering of the American people.
The truth is that frightening rhetoric about default and full faith and credit of the United States is being carelessly thrown around to ram through a bigger budget than ever, in spite of stagnant revenues. If your family's income did not change year over year, would it be wise financial management to accelerate spending so you would feel richer? That is what our government is doing, with one side merely suggesting a different list of purchases than the other.
- MIKE GRAVEL would win over Ron Paul. Ron Paul's son fucked him from winning74LEO
- i don't think Rand Paul will really effect Ron's chances. Being that those chances are slim anywaylocustsloth
- I just like hearing Ron Paul, it's not the same old mumbo jumbo, at least he understands********
- he will dismantle teh central gov and leave noting in place for the little guy.74LEO
- 74LEO0
I still want to see Mike Gravel run again in 2012.
- i don't see his plan for taxes working out, but i agree with most of his other issueslocustsloth
- seems ok to me********
- TheBlueOne0
This -> http://www.ianwelsh.net/what-the…
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What the Debt Limit Crisis Should Have Taught You
This is not primarily about the Tea Party
It is about what rich donors want. The Tea Party does not even have the amount of muscle progressives do. Progressives can bring tens of thousands of people out, the Tea Party can rarely even get above 1,000. They are a convenient excuse to do what the Beltway and the oligarchs already want to do.
Where are you going to go?
Both Dems and Republicans are onside with cutting Social Security and Medicare. They are only third rails if there is someone else to vote for.
The deals being offered will cause a second downleg of the Depression and a worse one
We’re in a Depression. This is fact. Anyone who doesn’t call it that is gutless, stupid or uninformed. This will make it worse, not just for the US, but for the entire developed world.
Representatives work for the people who pay them
That isn’t really you. They don’t become multi-millionaires on their salaries, you know. It’s their donors, the people who hire their wives and children, the people who fund their campaigns, the people who give them good jobs when they leave government. If you want Reps and Senators to work for you, you must pay them better, you must fund their campaigns (and sharply limit outside funding) and you must make it illegal for them to EVER make more money in a year than their government salary (index it to an average of the median wage, the minimum wage, and CPI). You should do what Canada used to do and give them a good pension after 6 years. You DON’T want them worrying about their next job, or what they’ll do if they’ll lose.
Point being, they don’t work for you.
This is a representative plutocracy
I believe Stirling Newberry, in the early 90s, pointed this out first. Politicians are paid by people other than you. You are the product. Think of this as the Facebook rule, if you aren’t paying for something, then you are the product. The rich pay politicians to rangle you. The amount of salary and public funding most Reps get is trivial compared to how much money they get from donors, even during their time in elected office, let alone after they leave. You are the product, not the customer, of DC politicians. They do not represent you, and you should not expect your interests to be looked after except as an afterthought. When the oligarchs all agree that something needs to be done (like cut entitlements), it will be done, no matter how unpopular it is.
This “Crisis” is what Obama wanted
Again, if he didn’t, he would have raised the debt ceiling in the lame duck. Nancy Pelosi was always very good at getting those sort of basic housekeeping bills through. It would have passed. Period. Obama wanted to cut SS and Medicare, and he needed a “crisis” in order to do it. He also needed a Republican House, which he had, because his policies during 2009 and 2010 didn’t fix the economy.
You should have been working on nothing but primarying Obama since the day after the midterms
If you don’t understand why, I can’t help you.
There is no war but class war
Break the rich, or they will finish institutionalizing aristocracy. Period."
- Calling Lucy Parsons...locustsloth
- ..we could use soem real leftists these days. Not these teatards who think Obama is a "socialist"TheBlueOne
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Biden collects rent from Secret Service
$2,200 a month for cottage use
http://www.washingtontimes.com/n…The U.S. Secret Service does more than protect Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. — the agency also pays him rent.
Since April, Mr. Biden has collected more than $13,000 from the agency charged with protecting him and his family for use of a rental cottage adjacent to the waterfront home he owns in a Wilmington, Del., suburb.
Mr. Biden, listed not as vice president in federal purchasing documents but as a “vendor,” is eligible for up to $66,000 by the time the government contract expires in the fall of 2013, the records show.
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WTF!?
- That's peanuts, dust on his shoes.mikotondria3
- I don't understand whats alarming about this. It's rental property. Do we expect him to let the Secret Service for free?IRNlun6
- Because he's a public official, should we expect him to loan his rental property to the secret service?IRNlun6
- yes, he shouldn't be charging a group who's tax dollars are paying their salaries and his.********
- So the Secret Service should be able to live in your house free because you receive unemployment?TheBlueOne
- I'll let them know.TheBlueOne
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Most of you called it...
Islamist factions jockey for power, vow religious rule
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/…CAIRO -- If a new political force here has its way, public stonings, whippings and the lopping-off of hands will become the law in the Land of the Pharaohs.
It all would help return Egypt to "an Islamic state (of) the Middle Ages," in the words of one Salafist.
Even before President Hosni Mubarak fell from power on Feb. 11, many Western and Egyptian analysts worried that the world's most populous Arab nation -- and America's most crucial Arab ally of three decades -- might tumble into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood.
- Mubarak is starting to look good********
- So, you'd be happy to live in a Middle Eastern dictatorship, is that your point?TheBlueOne
- better than the alternative no? a religious state********
- You live in America, don't you? We're in a crusdae against them muslims bc we're a christian nation you know.TheBlueOne
- Mubarak is starting to look good
- utopian0
Why Texas is the China of the West
As Americans lose ever more jobs and economic clout to China, the pressure's mounting for us to become more Chinese. Enter Texas Governor Rick Perry, whose 2012 presidential campaign slogan might as well be, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." In many ways, Texas is the China in our own backyard, a big, brash upstart that's created thousands of jobs by playing economic hardball. Admirers of the Lone Star State have dubbed its economy the "Texas Miracle," but maybe a better name would be the "Texas Tiger."
Jobs for the taking:
China: Since joining the WTO, it has taken or caused the loss of more than 2.4 million US jobs.
Texas: Home to half of all US jobs created since 2009. Perry travels to other states to poach major employers.Red states:
China: Deflates the value of its currency by 40 percent to subsidize exports and job creation.
Texas: Since 2003, has doled out $732 million in tax credits and subsidies to companies that relocated to the Lone Star State.Labor on the cheap:
China: About 10 percent of the population still earns less than a dollar a day (pdf).
Texas: Tied with Mississippi for the highest percentage of workers that earn the minimum wage or less.Eco-impunity:
China: World's top carbon emitter would rather burn cheap coal than sign a climate treaty.
Texas: Nation's top carbon emitter was only state to refuse to comply with new federal regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.Tea party:
China: Effective corporate tax rate of 16.6 percent is less than half the US rate.
Texas: Top corporate tax rate of 1% is fourth lowest among US states. Bonus: No personal income tax.Toxic torts:
China: Tainted milk, poisonous toys, glow-in-the-dark pork: Product scandals are common. Court convictions, not so much.
Texas: "Hurt? Injured? Need a lawyer? Too bad!" writes Texas Monthly, pointing out that the state's tort reforms force everyone from the hospitalized to homebuyers to fend for themselves.Of rice and men:
China: Suffers from "a lack of adequate (even basic) social protection for a large portion of its 1.3 billion population," according to the International Social Security Association.
Texas: Ranks 46th out of 50 states in per-capita spending; new budget slashes another $15 billion from social services such as Medicaid, mental health centers, and legal aid for the poor.Free-market cronyism:
China: "Princelings" such as vice-president Xi Jinping and Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai have gotten rich by trading on their connections.
Texas: "Good ol' boys" such as corporate raider Harold Simmons and real estate mogul Harlan Crow have gotten rich by trading on their political donations.Pray for rain:
China: Encroaching desert consumes a million acres of land a year.
Texas: The worst drought in history has turned large parts of the state into a moonscape.- And we could sit around and compare Lenin to Obama as well, no?********
- I can see how a president who's policies are to the Right of Reagen is definitely Lenin-esque. Yes.TheBlueOne
- And we could sit around and compare Lenin to Obama as well, no?
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http://paul.senate.gov/?p=press_…
Open Letter: Why I Oppose the Debt Ceiling CompromiseAug 1, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today Sen. Rand Paul issued an open letter on the subject of the debt ceiling compromise facing the Senate. Below is that letter.To paraphrase Senator Jim DeMint: When you're speeding toward the edge of a cliff, you don't set the cruise control. You stop the car. The current deal to raise the debt ceiling doesn't stop us from going over the fiscal cliff. At best, it slows us from going over it at 80 mph to going over it at 60 mph.
This plan never balances. The President called for a "balanced approach." But the American people are calling for a balanced budget.
This deal does nothing to fix the overreaches of both parties over the past few years: Obamacare, TARP, trillion-dollar wars, runaway entitlement spending. They are all cemented into place with this deal, and their legacy will be trillions of dollars in new debt.
The deal that is pending before us now:
Adds at least $7 trillion to our debt over the next 10 years. The deal purports to "cut" $2.1 trillion, but the "cut" is from a baseline that adds $10 trillion to the debt. This deal, even if all targets are met and the Super Committee wields its mandate - results in a BEST case scenario of still adding more than $7 trillion more in debt over the next 10 years. That is sickening.
Never, ever balances.
The Super Committee's mandate is to add $7 trillion in new debt. Let's be clear: $2.1 trillion in reductions off a nearly $10 trillion,10-year debt is still more than $7 trillion in debt. The Super Committee limits the constitutional check of the filibuster by expediting passage of bills with a simple majority. The Super Committee is not precluded from any issue, therefore the filibuster could be rendered moot. In addition, the plan harms the possible passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment. Since the goal is never to balance, having the BBA as a "trigger" ensures that the committee will simply report its $1.2 trillion deficit reduction plan and never move to a BBA vote.
It cuts too slowly. Even if you believe cutting $2.1 trillion out of $10 trillion is a good compromise, surely we can start cutting quickly, say $200 billion-$300 billion per year, right? Wrong. This plan so badly backloads the alleged savings that the cuts are simply meaningless. Why do we believe that the goal of $2.5 trillion over 10 years (that's an average of $250 billion per year) will EVER be met if the first two years cuts are $20 billion and $50 billion. There is simply no path in this bill even to the meager savings they are alleging will take place.Buried in the details of this bill is the automatic debt limit increase proposed a few weeks ago. The second installment of the debt ceiling increase is initiated by the President automatically and can only be stopped by a two-thirds vote of Congress. This shifts the Constitutional check on borrowing from Congress to the President and makes it easier to raise the debt ceiling. Despite claims to the contrary, none of the triggers in this bill include withholding the second limit increase.
Credit rating agencies have clearly stated the type of so-called cuts envisioned in this plan will result in our AAA bond rating being downgraded. Ironically then, the only way to avoid our debt being downgraded and the resulting economic problems that stem from that is for this bill to fail.
This plan does not solve our problem. Not even close. I cannot abide the destruction of our economy, therefore I vigorously oppose this deal and I urge my colleagues and the American people to do the same.
Sincerely,
Rand Paul, M.D.
United States Senator- Ah, so Delusional Troll is a fan of Delusional Politician. Perfect.TheBlueOne
- TheBlueOne0
Dear Idiot.
Countries whose currencies are sovereign don't need to "balance".
A nation is not you. A checkbook is not an economy.
But then again, you can't even get a job, so what the fuck do you know about finance anyway?
You seem to think posting rightwing agitprop on a design forum is a valuable use of your time, what the fuck do you think you can tell us about economics? Unless of course, you're getting paid to do this.
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Massive Global Cyberattack Targeting U.S., U.N. Discovered; Experts Blame China
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2…
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Now Obama vows to raise taxes
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nat…
- TheBlueOne0
So what's the large picture here popfodders? What's your world view? Do you have something that ties all these posts together, or are you the typical Pop Tart & cable TV American reacting to whatever is shiny and in your face? A stunted, emotional, intellectual dwarf?
I mean deathboy is out there trying to figure stuff out, asks good questions. VikingKing is at least consistent in his Anarcho-Libertarian Conspiracy costume. You? You're like a puppet posting whatever shit comes into your vision thinking "Oh yeah! That'll piss off them Libtards! Haha..I got them now! Ha!"
So, what's the big picture for you? Can you articulate it? In words. Perhaps paragraph length.
- GFY********
- Haha. You're ugly when you think you're funny.TheBlueOne
- You're a shiny example of America Chris. Get a job, you fucking freeloader.TheBlueOne
- yep, you got me good, I can see that now. How is it you deem yourself captain of this thread?********
- I can have my own political views, if I like and you can go pound salt.********
- Pounding salt probably pays at least minimum wage, why don't you try itTheBlueOne
- are you hiring, I bet you own a salt mine, you closet conservative, you!********
- I do, but I only hire Union laborTheBlueOne
- of course you do, but you'd hate it after a year, your company would fold dumbass********
- The only way it would fold is if you had anything to do with it.mikotondria3
- GFY
