Over at Hindrocket’s, The Deacon’s and the Big Trunk’s World Of Closeted Homosexual Metaphors As Blogging Handles, John “Ass-Missile” Hinderwhateverthefuckhescalled is having a sad.
See, it’s not that their candidate was horrible, or that their institutional racism cost them pickup opportunities with minorities or that women like living in the 21st century, it’s ZOMG, SOCIALISM!
Then there is the fact that relatively few Americans actually pay for the government they consume. To a greater extent than any other developed nation, we rely on upper-income people to finance our federal government. When that is combined with the fact that around 40% of our federal spending isn’t paid for at all–it is borrowed–it is small wonder that many self-interested voters are happy to vote themselves more government. Mitt Romney proclaimed that Barack Obama was the candidate of “free stuff,” and voters took him at his word.
That’s the worst of the logical fallacies, but it’s not the least of them. And the comments section is ever so fucking priceless.
Let the schadenfreude flow. Also too, Open Thread.
On another note, the Article 32 hearing for the SSG Bales, provisionally charged with the murders of 16 Afghan civilians (9 of them children) in their sleep, is winding up and should complete tomorrow. I don’t have anything on it, and we’ve all been otherwise occupied anyway.
UPDATE: Drink up!
Maude
The Reagan Doctrine is dead. Bury it.
General Stuck
Fuck that fascist pos.
Baud
Up till the 1960s, the conservatives were at least consistent in their desire to reduce government spending in that they recognized that military spending was big part of government spending. Until they acknowledge that fact again, their complaints about spending cannot be taken seriously.
Tin Roof
What about all the Afghan civilians George W. Bush murdered, including these 16?
Mudge
It’s AssRocket.
MikeJ
Bwahahahahahahaha
http://imgur.com/gallery/cPmU1
Enhanced Mooching Techniques
Maybe conservatard assholes like this darling might start accepting that we have the level of Federal government the public wants and tax to support it instead of calling for endless deficit spending?
Comrade Dread
Why is this surprising? Conservatives have wholeheartedly embraced the notion that government shouldn’t do shit, so even holding the idea that government should be an extension of our will as the people and try and improve the welfare of the republic is collectivist and communist.
So it couldn’t possibly be because a majority of Americans saw the ideas of Social Darwinism you were peddling and said, “@#$# you.” it must be looters and moochers stealing from the oppressed upper class.
Bort
Won’t someone please think of the rich people? Sob…
EconWatcher
The guy was a relentless shill for W, but never saw fit to complain about having the Iraq War “off balance sheet,” or, to the best of my memory, about passing Medicare Part D with no revenues to fund it. So putting “free stuff” on the government credit card is OK, but only if you’re a Republican. It really gets tiresome.
Handy
The reason they have been losing is they aren’t conservative enough, not obstructionist enough, not even racial enough.
That and the SCLM. (/snark)
BarbCat
OT, sort of. Can you tell me if the position below has any validity or am I just rationalizing my own projected laziness?
If the Republicans in the House and Senate choose to do nothing, the deficit will shrink precipitously due to the expiration of ALL the Bush tax cuts and the effect of the sequestration agreement. ObamaCare will be fully implemented. Lack of immigration reform means Dems will win ALL subsequent elections that we get out the vote for.
300baud
Just so that everybody has the facts handy, the US tax system is basically flat:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/07/taxes-and-rich-0
HRA
“Then there is the fact that relatively few Americans actually pay for the government they consume”
The translation for his statement is my taxes are going to go up since I am of the 1%. He’s such a tool.
NotMax
cough Clinton. Surplus. cough
Alex in NYC
Umm…amazing how they live in a bubble:
Any possible way that can be true, with our low marginal rate? I guess since our income inequality is so high, it could be true, but it seems very misleading.
This made me laugh (he’s saying that educational structures on the left have led to this:
Funny stuff.
Raven
Fucking pig Allen West got his oreo ass handed to him. AMF asshole.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bort:
The reason the rich pay more is they are obviously getting more out of the deal.
Why these assholes want to freeload on those who make their wealth possible does not surprise me. What does surprise me is that so many who are being ripped off by these assholes go along with it, imagining that someday they, too, will be in a position to fuck over the not so wealthy.
Argon
One of the best comments from last night’s live blog was “Keep fucking that chicken, Ken!”, when former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was getting raked over the coals for voter disenfranchisement while being interviewed on MSNBC.
That comment works in so many situations today.
“Keep fucking that chicken, (Fox News/Karl Rove/Dick Morris/ etc)!”
Brachiator
Still enjoying the glow of Obama’s victory.
Things Can Only Get Better, Howard Jones.
dmsilev
@BarbCat: You’re right about the tax cuts/sequestration and Obamacare. I’m less sure about the immigration thing; I think the Latino community will (rightfully) expect a good honest attempt to fix the mess.
MattR
Maybe if those few hadn’t taken all the wealth, they wouldn’t be asked to pay for everything.
Nemo_N
They think anyone who is not a straight white man is a moocher.
Moreso, anyone who is not a straight white man and dares ask for something minimal (like equal rights, access to birth control, freedom to choose or just a little respect) is a parasite who wants freebies from the government.
All straight white men are hard workers who don’t ever ask for anything and if they do, they are simply exercising their rights.
It’s disgusting.
NotMax
@Raven
He’s 2 for 2.
Booted out of the military and out of Congress.
300baud
I would love to see the stats behind his claim that government funding in the US depends more on rich people than anywhere else.
If true, which I doubt, I suspect you could explain it easily in terms of lower corporate taxes and much higher inequality.
Rommie
I saw two main lines of thought before the election in the places I haunt that are near the Winguarity: We’ll win because Green Lantern and We’ll win because it’s the end of the world if we don’t.
So the results are either the various stages of grief spewing forth, or pronouncements of the impending demise of America. Sweet. Sweet. Honey! Oh so delicious. No signs of rethinking the core ideas, of course. Maybe that will come later, for a brave few.
WereBear
Do they not understand how things work, OR do they not want to understand how things work?
The rest of us were quietly exuberant, tiptoeing metaphorically around the office Republican. Ahem. Out of respect for the loss.
In Open Thread news, I am finally done with the new site revamp. Mosey on over.
feebog
Yes and who do we have to thank for that Sparky? Write Bush tax cuts on the board 100 times. When you are done with that, you can add Iraq and Afganistan, Medicare part D, and the financial crisis of 2007/08.
Read an interesting CBO report not too long ago. Had Gore been elected, and the country continued at the same tax rate under Clinton/Gore, we would be close to or at a 0 defict now. Before you scratch you heads, remember that the deficit was around 5 trillion and we were running surpluses of 200 billion or more. The CBO was projecting the surplus would increase each year. Combined with reduced interest on the debt, we were looking at about a 12 year plan to pay off the deficit.
Culture of Truth
“Free stuff”
I think this is the excuse they will settle on. It was the theme of the convention, it was what Romney was saying behind closed doors, and it feels so good to believe.
Also it’s neatly racist, it plays into their policies, and NPR loves it.
? Martin
@BarbCat: There will be a deal – the Dems don’t want sequestration either.
And there will be immigration reform – the GOP can’t afford to not do it. They need to get that issue off the table. There’s enough Republicans in blue states where they can vote for this and not get killed in 2014.
SatanicPanic
Those comments are goth teenager level mopey! I LOVE IT
Culture of Truth
Mitt Romney ‘Would Be Willing to Work for Barack Obama’
Nov. 7 (Telegraph) – Mitt Romney would be willing to work in Barack Obama’s administration despite being defeated in their battle for the presidency, according to one of his closest friends.
Anoniminous
Is there a single adult conservative? Swear these people have the emotional stability of a teenager, “If you don’t let me paint my room black I’ll RUN AWAY AND NEVER SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN.”
Jeebus fvck, grow up.
Just Some Fuckhead
Socialism blah blah communism blah blah poor people blah blah the blahs blah blah.
How many overwhelming election losses do they have to endure before they lose the mythology and start operating empirically?
We’re gonna find out.
piratedan
and yet, the rich seem to be doing just fine, what with their having to support and finance the government by themselves…. you’d think that they would find themselves well compensated for their efforts.
Zifnab25
I mean, he’s got a point. Why should Sam Walden pay a dime more than one of his truck driver employees? Does one of them really benefit any more from the US Highway system, or the state department that negotiated trade agreements with China, or the coast guard that secures the shipping lanes, or disaster relief groups that keep his businesses insured and in good repair, or the countless other social services that keep Walmart in the black?
Why, imagine how much more productive the owner of Walmart would be if we gave him a hefty tax cut. He’d finally have a reason to take his rinky-dink little retail outlet and really make something of it.
NotMax
@Culture of Truth
Might one suggest ambassador to Somalia?
BarbCat
@dmsilev: @? Martin: If Republicans decide to do nothing, not Democrats. It seems like we’ve got most of the leverage here?
I’m still basking in the glow but it’s like the Kenyan Soshulist Usurper planned this, in between all his incompetencies.
Hal
Jezebel’s collection of Racists being racist on twitter. Surprised at how young so many of them seem to be:
http://jezebel.com/5958490/twitter-racists-react-to-that-nigger-getting-reelected/gallery/1
Anoniminous
@SatanicPanic:
@Anoniminous:
Great Minds & all that.
Liberty60
If there’s one part of conservative theology that pisses me off, its their insistence that they alone are hardworking and self-sufficient; the rest of us are all lazy moochers.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
If these idiots were deliberately trying to resurrect Socialism and make it a respectable ideology for the mid-21st Century by associating that word with everything under the sun that is mildly progressive, they couldn’t possibly be doing a better job of it. An entire generation of kids are now being raised who have no associations to go with the S-word other than that it is whatever it is that Uncle Fester rants about over Thanksgiving dinner, right before he pees all over himself and has to be left in the easy chair with the plastic cover so that he can fall asleep watching the Dallas Cowboys without leaving a permanent stain on the sofa.
With friends like this, Capitalism doesn’t need any enemies.
BarbCat
@feebog: Arithmetic is still suspect.
dmsilev
@Culture of Truth: Talk about a waste of time. Can you imagine Mitt Romney asking Obama for a position?
LD50
@Baud: I have had conservatives explicitly claim to me that military spending is NOT government spending.
Chyron HR
@Culture of Truth:
So does Romney’s resume say “2008-2012: Presidential candidate”, or does he just leave those years blank and hope the interviewer doesn’t ask?
JoyceH
What happened with “True the Vote”? There were supposed to be bajillions of them in precincts all across the nation, putting an end to all the vote fraud. Were they spotted anywhere, or was it all a scam?
Mike Lamb
Has there ever been a study of relative “usage” of gov’t services by income bracket? My suspicion is that rich people use more gov’t benefits–for instance, corporate welfare or mortgage interest deductions or general tax loopholes or the upper income brackets’ ability to travel more often. I’d be very surprised if they aren’t benefiting more than your average person in middle class or lower income bracket.
dmsilev
@Chyron HR: You know, on full consideration I kind of hope Romney does decide that he wants to work with Obama. Just so Obama’s team can demand a full financial background disclosure, including several years of tax returns…
SatanicPanic
@Anoniminous: Haha yup. And the fact that it’s coming from middle aged men, all of whom I suspect think they are rugged individualists, makes it that much sweeter.
Figs
It’s funny to me how quickly assholes like this go from, “We weren’t conservative enough, Americans will enjoy our real values” to “Americans are mostly pieces of shit.”
Slugger
Two things:
Who pays a higher percent of their income in taxes, Warren Buffett or his secretary? According to Warren it is the secretary. What percentage Mitt paid over the last ten yen years is a guarded secret, of course.
Secondly, who fights in America’s wars? The people in the high tax brackets or the people in the low tax brackets? Paying income tax is not the only way to contribute to the country.
JoyceH
Also – I see that Obama beat Romney in Virginia by almost exactly 100,000 votes. You guys know how many new voter registrations Organizing For America did here in Virginia?
100,000.
dmsilev
@JoyceH: Some of them showed up in Ohio, where they were promptly kicked out of the polling places because they had forged the signatures authorizing them to be there.
Yes, really.
NotMax
@BarbCat
You betcha, what with that zero being a Mooslim innovation.
BGinCHI
Is everything in that image shaped like a [email protected] or is it just my imagination?
Also, typing with pants on is a drag.
Violet
@Hal: Not surprising they’re so young. They probably live in mostly white suburban enclaves in the south. It’s easy to be racist when you never encounter anything but white people and your family and environment feeds you racist crap.
JGabriel
__
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Gail Collins brings the snark in her latest dialogue with Bobo:
.
Chyron HR
@JoyceH:
They got eaten by the Operation Orca.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
So what’ll it be for the Repubs: civil war or circular firing squad (purge)? I was among those who thought their ’08 drubbing would lead to self-reflection. Silly rabbit! I suspect they’ll do the same thing again and expect different results (which is, of course, one definition of “crazy”).
Anoniminous
@JoyceH:
They may be indicted for election fraud.
keestadoll
What I would really like to see is the president reverse all the things that flew in the face of his ’08 campaign: GITMO, piling onto the already horrible Patriot Act, etc. My fave prop was also shut down (37 in CA) so I could add that to my wish list as well since he pledged to label GMO’s during his ’08 campaign. Ah well, multiple Rude Pundidt blogs have said it better than I. Now it’s time to start planning pies!
elmo
If I keep drinking those sweet, salty tears, my liver will never recover.
Comrade Mary
1) FUCK YOU MICHAEL COLTON because this needs to be said every time the CBC features this smug groupthinking blowhard on its hourly news. Also: blowtorch, rusty pitchfork, rabid wolverine: take your pick.
2) Dave Weigel summarizes how fucking huge the victories for gay marriage were last night:
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Well, if nothing else, I guess this loss for Repubs is good news for their wingnut writer brigade. Gonna have to avoid the “Current Events/Politics” section of Barnes & Noble for a while. I can almost imagine the titles now: How Democrats are Screwing the Country and Laughing (Coulter); Whaaaaaaaaah! (Michael Savage); 100 More Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad People (Goldberg).
Mike G
Ass Missile proclaims Obama is the candidate of “free stuff” because he’s black blackity black.
Unlike Rmoney, who promised a $5 trillion tax cut, $2 trillion more for the Pentagon, and magic ponies to make the deficit go down at the same time.
KG
@Culture of Truth: ok, only because I want to see them freak the fuck out even more… I want to see this happen. Give him ambassadorship to France (he should speak French since that’s where he was on his mission) for a year or two…
Joshua James
BTW, I’ve been running into variation of this argument quite a bit as of late, the aforementioned:
“Then there is the fact that relatively few Americans actually pay for the government they consume. To a greater extent than any other developed nation, we rely on upper-income people to finance our federal government.”
What’s a quick, succinct counter to this bull-hockey, if one doesn’t mind sharing?
Violet
@JoyceH:
I had two True the Vote guys inside my polling place. I wrote about it yesterday. They did nothing but sit at a table in their white shirts with American flag ties and eat a bag of chips. Loudly.
Zifnab25
@Mike G:
He also promised to carry Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Pennsylvania in a landslide that would make Reagan blush. :-p MATH!
Chris
What the fuck? I thought all of Europe and Canada and, really, the world, were bigger on that shit than us because they were all SOOOOOOCIALIST!!!! and we were fortunate we hadn’t gone as far down that path.
Fucking talking points, how do they work? Not so well when you’re in freak mode, I guess.
Soonergrunt
@JoyceH: They got into some trouble in a couple of different places from what I understand, but they didn’t accomplish anything.
Comrade Mary
Jesus Tapdancing Christ. The CBC news just had another nitwit attempting to cover the voting debacle in Florida, and not once did the words “Republican” or “obstructionism” or “voter suppression” pass his lips.
For some blatantly undefined reason, Florida just can’t “get it together”. This has been a problem since 2000, but he somehow couldn’t find a common factor. Maybe the heat, maybe the stealth toads. It’s a mystery, and must remain so forever.
NotMax
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
America, We Hardly Knew Ye (Gingrich)
Both Sides Do It (Scarborough/Brzezinski)
Chris
I’ll say this for the pasty-faced, dorito-stained pile of dumb- he manned up and just said he was wrong. More than every other asshat on cable tv
The Other Chuck
@Raven:
I’m happy to see the thuggish idiot gone too, but what the fuck was the justification for the racial slur?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Culture of Truth:
Obama could appoint him the SEC chairman. He already knows all the seekrit places where the 1% keep their ill-gotten money stashed away; hire a thief to catch a thief. After all, the firebaggers are always saying they wish Obama would be more like FDR…
piratedan
do we have any word from Kay and what happened in their local election where they were promoting their man for State office?
NotMax
@Joshua James
Not the best response, by any means, but quick and easily understandable:
Federal withholding. Gives the government wage earners’ money interest free.
Chris
@Baud:
A bit sooner, just to be pedantic. The idea that military spending was on the table died in 1952 with Taft. Eisenhower ran as a Republican specifically to kill that sort of thinking, along with the broader isolationist outlook of much of the GOP, at its source. When Goldwater tried to reclaim the party for True Conservatives in 1964, he’d already absorbed the doctrine of rabid militarism as untouchable, and Nixon, Reagan and Bush sure as hell weren’t going to contradict him on that one.
FlipYrWhig
It’s kind of funny, though not ha-ha funny, that Republicans used to _brag_ about how few people would have to pay taxes under their tax-cutting policies, and now they’ve moved on to a phase where they _moan_ about how few people have to pay taxes under their tax-cutting policies.
yopd1
WTF.
I love how Conservatives always forget their states are typically the biggest recipients of government “largess”.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
This, this, QF fucking T.
Yeah, if you’re going to create a system where virtually all the wealth is owned by the rich, they’re going to be the ones paying most of the taxes. Speaking for myself, I’d fucking love to make enough money to actually get to complain about taxes.
JGabriel
__
__
Chris:
Actually, because much of Europe relies on a Value-Added Tax to finance their social programs, they tend to have a flatter and more regressive tax system than the USA — this despite greater investment in social programs.
.
gbear
He must have a triple sad then. He’s from MN where the gay-marriage and voter ID ammendments both lost last night. Add another sad because both the state house and senate flipped back to democratic majorities to go with our democratic governor. Hahaha.
Chris
@Raven:
Oh, God, YES!!!! Racist war criminal piece of shit booted out like he deserves.
Oh, man. Akin, gone. Mourdock, gone. Scott Brown, gone. Allen West, gone. We’ve taken some serious fucking scum out of the government, and that’s almost as valuable as not having Romney to kick around.
Felonius Monk
AssMissle — AssRocket –it’s all the same. You would think that dropping intellectually dishonest turds like that “sad” post inside the bubble would send some of them screaming for air, but no, they just hunker down and breathe in the fumes. Hindrocker really isn’t any different than some redneck shit-kicker in his thinking (if you can call it thinking).
FlipYrWhig
@Chris: This is a new variant on that idea, though. Europe is bad (by conservative standards) because everyone pays too much in taxes that get redistributed as public services. America is extra bad because the rich in particular pay too much in taxes that get redistributed as public services. If the middle class were being taxed more in America, it would theoretically address the point about overreliance on the wealthy, but it would also create a European-style high-tax regime… which is also bad. Like Mitt Romney himself, they oscillate between badnesses depending on how much they think anyone is keeping track of their inconsistency.
Southern Beale
I read the NRO’s call for “revolution” really more in the context of higher education. They want to take back the college campuses and the schools. Those are the “breeding grounds of liberalism” in their mind and they are going to take those campuses back. And this is just continuing the whole “rat on your commie liberal college professor” nonsense that started under Bush. I guarantee we will see more college professor firings for things like not wearing flag pins. I’m exaggerating but I’ve said this before: the battle is moving to the college campuses, especially public universities.
And in light of Obama’s campaigning on things like ensuring everyone has access to a college education … well … battle lines have been drawn, my friends. Any of you folks who work in the college and university system have been put on notice.
Chris
@Hal:
I’m 25, I can think of a few racists who’re my age. Even more if you expand from “racist” to “bigot” (xenophobia, homophobia, religious intolerance, etc).
JPL
@FlipYrWhig: After much thought, I think we are moving closer to an Israeli type of Socialism.
Chris
@JGabriel:
FTFY.
Bhall35
Ok, this is 24 minutes of sheer awesome butthurt, and a terrifying yet funny window directly into the FOX/Breitbart conservative id:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wLoqti0lzAw
Joseph Nobles
I seriously saw someone on Facebook say that her vote counted for nothing and so she would NEVER VOTE AGAIN (hey, bonus!). And then she began to muse about moving to Canada. Canada! Marriage-equality, higher taxes, universal health care Canada!
Another talked about all her family checking their passports. Where are they going to go that’s less socialistic than America? Saudi Arabia?
I do think that before we build a wall between us and Mexico, we need to build one between us and Alabama. And I was born and raised in the state, so I know whereof I speak.
J.W. Hamner
One can only hope that conservative pundits continue to double down on the 47% concept like this. Sneering at the majority who just rejected you as a bunch of entitled moochers is a sure fire path to electoral success!!
IanY77
My fave part:
So, Little Johnny Buttmissile, you cannot wrap your head around the idea that some people, especially people who haven’t been alive as long as you might look upon capitalism with something other than uncomplicated joy AFTER THE WORST F#@%ING ECONOMIC DOWNTURN IN OUR LIFETIMES CAUSED BY THE VERY SAME [email protected]#&ING COWBOY CAPITALISM THAT YOU WORSHIP?!? REALLY?! YOU CAN’T FIGURE THAT ONE OUT?!
Jesus. These people are pathological.
Jay in Oregon
@MattR:
I know the TeaHadists in the House will never go for it, but I say call their fucking bluff. Raise that high-end income tax rate to 50% (Reagan era, baby!) and let them go Galt.
There will be no shortage of people to take their place; I’d be happy to make 10 times what I do and pay half of it in taxes, let alone 100 times. Or 500.
JustAnotherBob
There’s a simple solution to this. Pay workers a decent wage.
Decrease the vast gap between what the very few and the rest of us earn for our day’s labor and most folks will be able to pay their fair share of taxes.
If the rich want to suck up all the wealth then they’re also going to get stuck paying most of the taxes. They can try withholding tax payments and drastically cutting benefits for others but they should consider that “Let them eat cake” stuff….
Jay in Oregon
@Bhall35:
I listened to the whole thing but she starts running out of steam at the 16-minute mark.
JoyfulA
@JoyceH: True the Vote was thrown out of Ohio when their sponsors withdrew their support.
Patricia Kayden
If you’re not pictured out.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228970/Presidential-Election-2012-Barack-Obama-heads-party-Stevie-Wonder-Ashley-Judd-Will-Am.html
There’s a video showing reaction to President Obama’s election around the world on that link as well. Good times!
dead existentialist
With the GOP, it’s all about semantics: We waz wronged, not the way most of us say when we fuck up and admit to it.
ken
The GOP should go on the national review post election cruise
http://www.nrcruise.com/
Bhall35
@Jay in Oregon: Yeah, although that’s when she starts to get a little scary too, I sort of drifted toward the end. Can the sound of rage be soothing aural wallpaper?
WereBear
Absolutely. They want IT ALL.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@NotMax: Would there be a hot dustjacket photo of Mika? If so, I might just buy it!
Joseph Nobles
@Bhall35: Wow-dee-dow-dow.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@Chris: Don’t forget that Joe Walsh just had the door slam him hard in the ass on his way out!
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@Chris: Probably learned all of those phobias on Mom and Dad’s knees. The acorn doesn’t fall far from the oak, and that sort of thing….
Bhall35
@Joseph Nobles: I actually think this could be me if I was still drinking and Obama had lost last night, so, lol?
AA+ Bonds
Why argue with the assertion that once people benefit from effective policies they will vote to defend them and continue them?
That’s all they’re saying with this maker/taker line.
Their problem is that they are ideologically prevented from considering the possibility of effective government programs.
Don’t follow them down that trail of bullshit.
Mike G
@yopd1:
Given that we’re talking about red states, it’s more like “large ass”.
Michigan is the only high-obesity state that didn’t vote for Rmoney.
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
? Martin
@BarbCat:
Democrats do have leverage, but it’s not worth having. Immigration reform is just a sliver of the reasons why Latinos are backing Democrats now, and doing that reform won’t hurt Dems – and it’ll help a shitload of people – and help the economy immensely. There’s millions of shadow consumers and taxpayers that just need to be set free on the economy.
And if Latinos view Democrats as dragging their feet on the issue (which some do) then that support will be fleeting. Democrats win by doing the right thing here.
Too many seem to view the Latino vote as hinging on immigration – but it doesn’t. Shit, a big chunk of Latinos never immigrated here – many in the southwest from Texas to California were basically annexed into the US. Santa Fe, NM was founded in 1607 – the same year that Jamestown was founded. Immigration is important, but it’s far from the ballgame.
Labor rights are a HUGE latino issue. So are wages and jobs. So is education and access to higher ed. These are pretty bread-and-butter Democratic issues and will remain so even after immigration reform. The proof is in California which heads increasingly blue mainly due to huge support by the growing latino population.
Gravenstone
@dmsilev: Oh, they’re already talking about calling in that marker.
You owe Latinos for the election, pay up.
Someone needs to let them know that they need to be leaning on Congress more than Obama. Bills don’t suddenly materialize fully formed on the Oval Office desk, awaiting signature.
Chris
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
Actually, yes. Now that you mention it, all the people I’m thinking of inherited their prejudices from similarly minded parents.
In fact, while I have a few liberal friends whose parents are conservative, I can’t think of a single reverse example. Cheery news, I think. Thanks for brightening my evening
mclaren
You know what? John HInderaker is right. Relatively few Americans do pay for the government they consume.
For example, none of America’s billionaires pay for the massive 1.2 trillion dollar military-industrial complex whose services they consume — and the proof is that America now runs an annual deficit just about exactly equal to the total amount America spends on its military per year, a deficit of roughly 1.5 trillion this year. Meaning that America basically puts its entire annual military spending on credit card every year, we have to borrow every dime we spend each year on our military.
So I have a solution. Let’s raise taxes on every American who makes over a million dollars a year by an amount sufficient to pay for all that government that Republicans consume but don’t want to actually write a check for. 1.2 trillion dollars per year of tax raises. All on the wealthy.
Sounds like a plan, Hinderaker!”
Bubblegum Tate
I haven’t read Protein Wisdom in years, but I checked in today, and holy fuck, is it amazing. They’re all comparing how many pounds of beans and rice they’ve got stocked so they can quick-sell their houses and go live off the grid. They’re seriously trying to suss out the best way to acquire goats, mules, and pigs for food/work. They’re bringing .50-cal miniguns to the circular firing squad (one guy excoriated Fox News, Allahpundit, various right-wing pollsters, and “the GOP establishment” for the loss, then admitted that he didn’t vote–classic!), and Mr. Protein Wisdom himself had this to say:
The schaden, she is freuded.
PurpleGirl
@KG: No, not the French ambassadorship. That (along with the post to the Court of St. James) traditionally go to a large Democratic donor by a Democratic president. Examples: FDR sent Averell Harriman to Great Britain, Clinton sent Pamela Harriman (Averell’s 2nd wife) to France.
I’m not sure where I’d send the Mittster… maybe Vietnam, which he so smoothly avoided way back when.
Boots Day
The common thread for all these conservative whiners seems to be: America doesn’t even DESERVE the Republican Party anymore.
PurpleGirl
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Yes, that’s why FDR had Joseph Kennedy work on developing the various rules for reforming the investment sector. Kennedy knew what he had done to make his money and what needed to be regulated.
RSA
A liberal commenter named Michael Johnson there is doing yeoman’s work, though, bringing numbers into the conversation. I admire his good efforts, not to mention his masochism.
danielx
Playing Republican pundit, I think I can make a safe prediction: Chris Christie will never be a Republican candidate for president.
virag
Sweet Frakking Jeebus, those comments ARE brilliant! Those fools really are going nuts over all this. How stupid did you have to be to not go with analysis of folks like Sam Wang and instead listen to Fox News nonsense? At least as stupid as those poor clowns. Fantastic.
Chris
@virag:
Interestingly, the Obama elections have gone exactly the opposite from health care reform landmarks, in my anecdotal experience. With HCR, they freaked the fuck out the first time around (when it passed) but were pretty subdued, even resigned, the second time (Supreme Court). With Obama, they mostly behaved the first time around, but have gone absolutely hysterical in the last 24 hours.
(That’s just among my acquaintances, please note, YMMV).
different-church-lady
The entire conservative mindset has now been reduced to “You people are too fucking stupid to understand what you’re voting for.”
And then they wonder why they don’t win elections.
gelfling545
@Culture of Truth: What is there that Romney can actually do that would be useful to the administration? Doesn’t he hate government?
different-church-lady
@300baud: I’ma bookmarking this image HARD for the next time some wingnut spouts off with that “I’m paying 50% of my income in taxes!” BS: http://ctj.org/images/taxday2012table.jpg
Gus
@yopd1: Assrocket is a Minnesotan, a net payer. And after this election back as one of the bluest states there is.
Jay in Oregon
@Boots Day:
They are right. Please, GOP, pleeeeease go Galt.
We promise to miss you and to be ever so sorry that you’re gone.
different-church-lady
@Argon: Oh my yes, there’s a whole lot of poultry checking their supply of lube and making sure their birth control is in order this week. These dinosaurs are not going to change their stripes easily.
My instincts are now telling me the GOP will not be reforming so much as reinventing. In 2016 there will be no Dick Morris, no Hannity, no Coulter, no Rove, no more Akins, no more Bachmanns, no more hating on brown people. The candidates will be sick of losing and won’t let the extremists control the party any longer. The newer GOP faces will be younger and smarter, and they’ll have figured out that pissing off a diverse electorate isn’t any path to victory. Pat Buchannan will just be a dottering old fool to them.
Bokonon
The problem with Hindraker’s blog post is that it shows that the GOP is already doubling down on their same old positions – including the whole “47 percent of you people are parasites” thing. They are determined to not learn a thing.
Instead, if this post is any indication, the GOP is preparing to hold the line – because everyone else is WRONG, STUPID, IGNORANT, GREEDY, DEPRAVED, and TRYING TO DEVOUR THE REPUBLIC FROM THE INSIDE OUT.
How they think that the Ryan approach of gutting social programs while handing our massive tax cuts and increasing the deficit is a fiscally prudent alternative is beyond me. Like other commentators noted above, the Powerline gang was just fine with George W. Bush cutting taxes while increasing entitlement spending while fighting two wars on borrowed money.
But it shows why the GOP’s brain trust are hell bent on destroying Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. Because if you burn them to the ground and then sow salt into the scorched earth, then people can’t vote on them any longer! No more entitlements means great morality! The republic is saved!
different-church-lady
@Anoniminous:
I’ll be there is. But they don’t get put on the TV and they don’t get linked to.
Somewhere along the line wingnut pundit land is going to have to figure out that they’re being played for circus freaks and stop going along with that.
different-church-lady
@Bokonon:
They don’t view it as fiscal prudence. They view it as fiscal retribution. They don’t give a shit about whether the budget is balanced or if it’s good for the economy. They only care that none of the money gets spent on ethnic people.
different-church-lady
@JGabriel:
Holy crap… David Brooks is capable of realistic self awareness. Who knew?
OK, next step David: figure out why you don’t often get things right and then apply that information before you write your next column.
Dexter's new approach
When the crazies see that the top 1% pay a ~35% of income taxes, they see and overtaxed group. When I see that, in the context of only a 22% effective tax rate (after all their tax-sheltering shenanigans), I see a 1%-rigged, heads-I-win-tails-I-win-too, system.
Today many of the assholes seem to think they have lost this country and we’re all going down the tubes. I hope for their sake they can take their own advice on their favorite subject lately: if it’s inevitable, just lay (sic) back and enjoy it.
Dexter's new approach
When the crazies see that the top 1% pay a ~35% of income taxes, they see an overtaxed group. When I see that, in the context of only a 22% effective tax rate (after all their tax-sheltering shenanigans), and 93% of growth flowing to them, I see a 1%-rigged, heads-I-win-tails-I-win-too, system.
Today many of the assholes seem to think they have lost this country and we’re all going down the tubes. I hope for their sake they can take their own advice on their favorite subject lately: If it’s inevitable, just lay (sic) back and enjoy it.
karen marie
@Culture of Truth: What could he possibly think he’s qualified to do?
danielx
@Dexter’s new approach:
Warning: use of the n word in context, as you will see.
Well, yes, they do think they’ve lost their country, and they want it back – that is, they want back the (imaginary) Golden Age of the 1950s, and never mind the top tax rate of 91% or the fact that union membership was at its all-time high. What’s important is that it was a time when white men ran everything, could get good high paying jobs for the asking, and women, children, niggers and spics knew their place and by God kept to it, or else. The Promised Land.
That’s what they want.
gene108
@feebog:
Yeah, but if the budget’s balanced and the government’s flush with cash, people will expect the government to spend that money on them and not force grandma to starve.
Deficits are essential to drowning government in a bath tub.
Bruce S
Today’s appears to be the Schadenfreude Edition of Balloon Juice.
Can’t say I haven’t enjoyed it.
mainmati
@Mudge: Yeah, Soonergrunt, get it straight! Meanwhile, this chronic idiot (Assrocket not Soonergrunt, of course) continues to demonstrate the laziness of the right wing, the so-called (by themselves) Party of Ideas. Their ideology has over and over been empirically proven bankrupt but so was the Communist Party’s ideology. Remarkably similar denial of reality.
Soonergrunt
@Mudge: @mainmati: I like my name for him, so there!
Villago Delenda Est
@Figs:
This is pretty much the same rant Hitler had as he cowered in the bunker…the German people let him down, they were unworthy of his leadership, his generals were all incompetent, etc, etc, etc.
It’s never their fault…it’s always someone else. Always.
Soonergrunt
@Villago Delenda Est: And it’s being repeated all over the conservative internet and conservative facebook today. I’ve seen different variations on the theme multiple times.
This is what they are telling themselves and each other.
Joel
@BarbCat: The fiscal cliff — rising tax rates and drastic cuts in spending from sequestration — is real and we would do best to avoid it. Unless you liked watching the public sector wither the past few years, of course…
Liberty60
At TNC’s blog, a great comment from JBColo:
Joel
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: If Romney worked for the Obama administration, he would need to hire round-the-clock protection.
Paul in KY
@Culture of Truth: I don’t think I would want him, but if he could do a job, maybe SEC head, like Pres. Roosvelt putting Joe Kennedy in there because he knew all the tricks.
If Romney would/could do a legit job, he does know all the tricks of the ripping-off trade.