Deja vu all over again

[Drtooth]

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Eh, well, McCain has flipflopped on so many issues (FAR more than Kerry was ever accused of, even) that I no longer listen to a word out of his mouth. Plus, what has he done for AZ lately? You remember them...the state he supposedly represents...

Much as I dislike McCain (he would have been a much better president than Bush, though. I know a lot of even left people who were hoping he got the nod back in 2000), sometimes he comes out and does something admirable. In the 2004 election, he was the ONLY Republican to speak out against the "tarnish Kerry's Vietnam war record" ads, even in the 2008 election when nasty rumors about Obama started to surface he at least debunked the "I don't trust him, he's a Muslin" crap.

But I'll let him speak for himself...

"The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . . Barack Obama," McCain said, quoting the Journal article. "The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor."
"This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees," McCain added, still reading from the article.

WHAT the?!?! He's actually DEFENDING the Democrats, it seems. And he IS trying to bring it to the governments attention that slim minority of so called Americans want total economic chaos to happen because it will fulfill some Loonytunian prophecy.

And hey! He's mocking li'l Miss "I'm not a witch!" and the other "grab yer gold, an' yer guns! Small Gov'ment! YEEEHAWW!" political candidates.

I'd take McCain's actual voice of reason over Boehner's pandering to Fool's Gold policies anyday.

 

[newsmanfan]

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Hm, does this mean he's actually returned to speaking his mind as opposed to what his spin doctors WANTED him to say? May be hope for him as a moderate yet. I'm not holding my breath, though.
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[Drtooth]

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Hm, does this mean he's actually returned to speaking his mind as opposed to what his spin doctors WANTED him to say? May be hope for him as a moderate yet. I'm not holding my breath, though.
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He was a moderate... then he lost the 00 primary. Come time for the 08 election, he basically bucked the Rep trend, pandered to the same religious groups he once panned, and I swear he took Palin as a running mate because he was told to. Basically anything to win, right? His daughter speaks more sense than most conservative talking heads. Her and Ben Stein I quite like.

But then again, I like Ben as an actor anyway... the Psychiatrist from The Mask (which he continued into the cartoon), The Pixies in Fairly Oddparents, Frances Pumphandle ("But everyone calls me Pip") from Animaniacs, even the sad lonely man science left Bunsen Honeydew in Muppets Tonight. Heck, I don't mind some of the conservative actors either.

I can't really complain about the general wanting of fiscal responsibility, but the actual republican party ONLY cares about fiscal responsibility when someone else is in charge. I'm all for cuts, but ONLY if we can come up with revenues. not as a lefty, not as someone who hates how out of control the wealthy has become... someone who's not an economist... but SOMEONE has to be the parent. Someone has to be the bad guy.... if you have a kid that's massively overweight SOMEONE has to slowly ween him off of junk food or he'll get catastrophic health problems.

 

[newsmanfan]

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Funnily enough, I think the government-as-an-obese-child argument has been put forth by some of the more libertarian types!

But yes. The whole point with the budget, to me, is that certain groups aren't chipping in...some are even being pandered to (big oil, big banks, big communications), and yet they whine about anything dipping into their profits/trustfunds/offshore accounts. Tax 'em! Yes, undoubtedly cuts will have to be made and some will suffer. That's what majority rule is all about. Not everyone gets a break. But at LEAST we could insist, as a nation, that the richest folk and major corps pay their FAIR share! Heck, Canadians are used to high taxes in the highest income brackets, as are Brits and other Europeans...don't know about Japan, but it sure feels like we're the only "first-world" nation which allows the rich to scramble over the trough and push away the skinny starving folk in their hurry to scarf up all the food first!

Any suggestions on how to reach the folk who actually think the Teabaggers are on their side who make LESS than $250K a year??
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[CensoredAlso]

Any suggestions on how to reach the folk who actually think the Teabaggers are on their side who make LESS than $250K a year??

"Don't forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of being rich...then face the reality of being poor."

 

[newsmanfan]

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Found out this weekend that a bill failed in the House which would have required Congress to NOT cut the education budget before cutting tax breaks to Big Oil.

Can the Repubs be any MORE blatant about WHOM they actually represent??

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[Drtooth]

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Found out this weekend that a bill failed in the House which would have required Congress to NOT cut the education budget before cutting tax breaks to Big Oil.

Can the Repubs be any MORE blatant about WHOM they actually represent??

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The Reps did what they were elected to do. They scammed the Tea Party (which I couldn't stress more is a libertarian movement that conservatives fell into) into voting for the same people who were in charge the last decade. You know, the one where things went real well. All because of scary rumors about Health Care reform. I tell you, the VERY first thing all Soviet socialist companies did was force their health care providers to accept clients with prior conditions! After that, dominoes fell.

Suffice to say, we are having the same downfall as the USSR... we're spending a FORTUNE that we don't have in defense. And the very same army generals that went into these places without an exit strategy are basically telling us to stay there even longer. I thought we were supposed to start pulling out troops from Iraq this year. SURELY that would've saved us several billion right there. So yeah, the big socialist dictator is too wimpy to give us the very same change that got him elected into office. Some of it is his fault, so let's get that straight... but he took the "You're not going to reach across the aisle" so seriously ALL he does is reach across the aisle. Reach out to your dang old party!

The worst part is, our supposed liberal Democrat president is a moderate Republican... and the republicans don't think he's far right enough. The massive historic (and not in a good way) cuts to anything and everything that isn't a corporate hand out wasn't cutting enough. it barely passed if it even passed at all.

Memo to the Dems and the President... next time the Right pulls this crap, take the FIRST offer they have. Chances are, that's going to be the liberal compromise that doesn't pass.

I just wish the American public got the message that the Tea Party got everything in the world it wanted, and it's still acting like a childish brat at someone else's birthday party.

 

[newsmanfan]

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I doubt the public grasps anything beyond where its next fix of Cheetos comes from and the release date for KillEmAllFPSPartEighteen for XBOX.

sigh... Though I disagree with you about Obama being Republican, as far as war goes he certainly hasn't earned that Nobel yet. Honestly Afghanistan/Iraq is another Vietnam. The majority of the populace doesn't even want us there. How about LIBYA instead, if we HAVE to be involved in a foreign war? How about SOMALIA where millions are dying because the resident warlords won't allow peacekeepers in to distribute food or water? Now THOSE are worthy causes I feel we should be more involved in...not a dragged-out, unwinnable war of fanaticism where we're NEVER going to get the "hearts & minds" on the side of peace. Ever. Yes we SHOULD pull out completely there...we can't win, and the locals are beginning to hate us. Well, maybe "beginning" is a generous understatement!
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[Drtooth]

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I doubt the public grasps anything beyond where its next fix of Cheetos comes from and the release date for KillEmAllFPSPartEighteen for XBOX.

sigh... Though I disagree with you about Obama being Republican, as far as war goes he certainly hasn't earned that Nobel yet. Honestly Afghanistan/Iraq is another Vietnam. The majority of the populace doesn't even want us there. How about LIBYA instead, if we HAVE to be involved in a foreign war? How about SOMALIA where millions are dying because the resident warlords won't allow peacekeepers in to distribute food or water? Now THOSE are worthy causes I feel we should be more involved in...not a dragged-out, unwinnable war of fanaticism where we're NEVER going to get the "hearts & minds" on the side of peace. Ever. Yes we SHOULD pull out completely there...we can't win, and the locals are beginning to hate us. Well, maybe "beginning" is a generous understatement!

Uh... we actually ARE in those places. Though, to Obama's credit he was badgered for almost a month, and refused to do it when everyone was telling him to go in (John Kerry, John McCain, certain Republicans, then finally NATO). I hate the fact we're in, but at least we're the unlockable assist character in that one, and not completely as involved as we would be if McCain was president. And the Right's trying to get on his case for going into Libya. They just want him to look like an idiot over ANYTHING!

Obama got a Nobel prize for a simple reason... he wasn't Bush. Again, everyone but me seems to forget what the heck happened those miserable 8 years. The other countries HATED us. There's a picture from after the 2004 election where a bunch of people are standing out side with a message to the world, "Sorry! We tried!" US people had to pretend to be Canadian when going overseas. We were in a hot slimy mess. If nothing else, the other countries like Obama better than our own people. Maybe it's the fact that we traded "You're either with us or against us" for "You're either with us or... well, we'll see your point and agree with you if you don't hurt us." Of course, that with us or against us crap got stuff done.

As far as Iraqistan goes, it's every bit his Vietnam as it would have been Gerald Ford's if Nixon didn't pull the US out of Vietnam after Watergate. But let's face it, NO ONE's gonna get us out of there for multiple reasons. The least of which, we keep listening to the genius military advisers that are so smart that they DIDN'T come up with a bleeding exit strategy in the first place. And unlike Vietnam, we can't just easily pull out of these places either... these countries are in the hands of Cheif Wiggum-esque, out of shape loser Iraqis and Afghanis that WANT us to do their job for them. We effectively created terrorists by going into these countries (we never learn our lesson), and it's a muddle of wasted lives, wasted billions, and wasted time if anyone thinks killing half their people will make anyone see the light. I want us to run out of these countries fast and furious like pulling off a bandaid, and to NEVER go into these wackadoodoo countries in the middle east ever again. But NO ONE, not left or right is going to break the US's spell of getting involved in oil rich crazy towns.

 

[Drtooth]

Talk about freaking Deja Vu....

All this year Speculators and investards were trying to lie the price of oil up like crazy, which they DID in 2008, and guess what happened today?

The market crashed because of slow growth...

DUUUUHHhhhhhhhhhh!

Hey geniuses... if you pull money OUT of the market, THINGS ARE GOING TO SLOW DOWN OR REVERSE! I swear, these invertards and hedge fund managers and Gordon Gecko wannabes are destroying America from the inside out worse than any terrorist could hope for. I've had it with these completely legal criminals ruining capitalism, keeping all of us poor and unhappy and caring only about their short term gains that kill us all in the long run.

Welcome to the new normal... Well, at least we can take stock in the fact that the Republicans are wrong about something else again... Obama is in NO way a socialist. if he was, he'd DO SOMETHING about these people. There is no reason why the economic fate of the nation has to rest on people who are too stupid or too greedy or both to care what they're doing. Shame isn't even the word.