Not socialism:
Welcome to the People’s Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state’s Republican governor. That’s $22,400 for a family of seven, like Palin’s. Since 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests oil revenues from state lands, has paid out a dividend on invested oil loot to everyone who has been in the state for a year. But Palin upped the ante by joining with Democrats and some recalcitrant Republican state legislators to share in oil company windfall profits, further fattening state tax revenue and permitting an additional payout in tax funds to residents.
Among the more prominent elements of his tax proposal, Senator Obama would end the Bush tax cuts and allow the top two tax rates to return to 36 and 39.6 percent.
I know it is difficult to expect coherence out of a movement whose largest recipient of cheers at a rally is some guy talking out his arse named Joe the Plumber, but we will do our best to keep you up to date on what is and what is not socialism.
OniHanzo
But… but… America is still conservative!! We just need to dig up Ronald Reagan, attach him to a car battery and he’ll lead us out of this Commie-pinko nightmare! Why, just the idea of it should scare that Mooslim Barack Hussein!
Poor pitiful bastards.
Comrade Jake
Wait until the wingnuts find out that a family of illegal immigrants gets the cash as well. I think Michelle Malkin’s pompoms will spontaneously combust.
John McCain
I will tell you, My Friends, what I believe, or did believe before I had to kiss so many Right Wing Asses to become President , which is MINIE MINE MINE!!
I’m John McCain, and I approved this bullshit I have to eat every goddamn day.
bago
It’s OK if you’re a Maverick!
gbear
Bat Shit Crazy Fucking Assholes. And even at that words fail me.
4tehlulz
@Comrade Jake: OH U! If that happens, obviously Palin did not know about it. /Michelle
plus C
Also not socialist…
Top bracket under:
Reagan – 50%
Nixon – 72%
Eisenhower – 91%
Comrade Jake
@gbear:
Yeah I saw that too. Fucking cowards.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Actually America is still pretty conservative – that is one reason why Obama is doing so well. He reminds voters of St. Ronnie of Reagan (optimistic, cheerful, unflappable) much more than anybody in the current GOP.
That the GOP long ago ceased being a conservative party and simply became the Revenge of the Confederacy isn’t hurting either.
ThymeZoneThePlumber
The good news is, we are taking the country away from these people. They have played with it for eight years and completely fucked it up. Enough is enough, it’s over.
We are taking it back. Then they can suck it.
Loneoak
Let’s not forget where that Alaska $ comes from: the pockets of Real AmericansTM in the form of increased oil prices. Every tick up in the price of gas goes right to Bible Spice’s redneck welfare state.
I hate these fuckers soooo much.
gbear
Comrade Jake, I just noticed you caught the bear story in the last thread. Shit like that will alienate every remaining sane citizen from voting for McCain. It’s not going to scare anyone into not voting, and the repulsiveness of it demands an opposite reaction.
edit: @C.J. man, my reaction time is slow this evening.
Comrade Stuck
From the Campus Mountie Tom Johnson
@gbear:
You libruls just think too much. No message here.
**from comrade jake on previous thread.
MikeL
Like it or not, Obama supporters are using some pretty questionable tactics. Now I don’t remember much Sunday school after all this time, but I rather suspect that unleashing all that is Unholy and Vile on your opponents falls outside the scope of most etiquette guides.
Calouste
@MikeL:
Why would I even bother to read something on a site that’s called "injesus.com"?
Certainly not because I expect objective news coverage on there.
DaveInLA
@MikeL
Here is the transcript from Obama’s speech this morning:
Ooh-ee-ooh-ah-ah, ting-tang-walla-walla-bing-bang
Ooh-ee-ooh-ah-ah, ting-tang-walla-walla-bang-bang
Ooh-ee-ooh-ah-ah, ting-tang-walla-walla-bing-bang
Ooh-ee-ooh-ah-ah, ting-tang-walla-walla-bang-bang
Jay C
@MikeL:
I just loved this bit:
ZOMG! Dick Morris!! Now there’s an invocation of unholy powers!
BTW, nice explanation, too of Sen. McCain’s problems: I was wondering about that, myself…
Fulcanelli
My apologies if somebody else already brought this up but… Is now a good time for Mccain to have to explain his freindship with David Ifshin? Why he was never hunted down and clubbed like a baby seal with aids over this I’ll never understand, considering the mileage these fucking hypocrites have wrung out of O’s brief affiliation with Ayers.
I’d like to stuff this down Buchanan and Scarborough’s throat with one of those plunger thingies they use to pack the balls and powder in those old civil war cannons, and then use it on the other end…
KRK
Doing a happy dance cuz my Obama-Biden swag arrived today from that donation drive they were doing WAY back in August. More than just the t-shirt, too.
Too bad it’s now the windy season and I’m lucky to keep my downspouts attached, let alone risk a lawn sign.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@MikeL:
McCain/Palin have put a spell on themselves and Obama and his supporters are innocent of leveling any of their pointy headed voodoo on the GOP candidates. Your standard liberal witchery doesn’t work well on wingnuts anyway. It’s like cursing a bucket of pus. Nothing to be gained by that.
boonagain
Wow, if we could only nationalize the stupid…
They are realy losing it.
Jay C
Rats!
The following b-quote was supposed to have also gone into Comment #17:
But unfortunately, some evil, occult curse – no doubt the sinister black-magic spell of sserPdroW doesn’t seem to allow blockquotes split into paragraphs to display as one.
What do I have to do? Sacrifice a chicken or something?
boonagain
@KRK:
Great news!!
I haven’t got mine yet. Is this the one with the yard sign?
SamFromUtah
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Actually America is still pretty conservative – that is one reason why Obama is doing so well.
Indeed. I think it’s fair to say that America is still as conservative as it ever was.
gbear
@Jay C:
There is paragraph after paragraph as crazy as that. Wow. Here’s the opening paragraph:
Dear friends:
THIS IS EXTREMELY SERIOUS.
Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about Barack Obama’s family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin.
*****
My favorite was all the stuff associated with the site:
inJesus Benefits
inJesus Classifieds
inJesus Podcasts
Start your own Group!
MyinJesus.
KRK
@boonagain – Yep. It’s a t-shirt, car magnet, buttons, and plastic yard sign with 3-piece metal frame/posts.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@DaveInLA:
or
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, a lion sleeps tonight
A-winger-wet
A-winger-wet
A-winger-wet
drag0n
Via TPM it seems that McCain’s looniness is even losing leaving his loony neocons buddies behind. In The New Yorker George Packer writes:
The reason? Adelman writes:
In another note Adelman writes:
plus C
@Jay C: Try using the < p > tag.
SamFromUtah
@drag0n: Via TPM it seems that McCain’s looniness is even losing leaving his loony neocons buddies behind.
I have a suspicion that the important thing to the neocons is to keep as close to power as they can, the better to start more wars. In this case, that means backing the Magical Unity Pony.
Pooh
Hey, back the fuck off, man. That $3200 is taking me and the GF to Vegas this weekend…
Jay C
@gbear:
Yeah, this stuff ( the source for which was also linked on the previous thread, I believe) is definitely teh Serious Crazy.
Useta be, when you saw articles with headings like "African witch doctor conjures ‘spell’ for candidate" it was page-19 "feature" material; and usually written with a sort of amused-chuckle condescension. But in this case, it sounds like the likes of Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D (is he the medical advisor to the Department of Redundancy Department?) are really serious about this nonsense. Sad.
Jay C
@plus C:
@Jay C: Try using the -p- tag.
Sure. How?
JL
@Stuck in the Funhouse: Maybe they should start praying for McCain’s soul. His partying and adultery must be something of a concern. Do you suppose that some confuse the R for republicans for the R in religion.
boonagain
This is kinda sad.
15 people?
Comrade Jake
@Jay C:
Put the p in angle brackets at the beginning of the blockquote, and a backslash p at the end. It’ll turn off the damn bold font.
Of course, it would be nice not to have to do that in the first place, but we’ve come a long way since our WordPress error daze so no whiners allowed. Whining is for Girl Scouts, and John McCain.
Stuck in the Funhouse
Same Difference
plus C
@Jay C: put <p> before the selection and </p> after.
DaveInLA
@Pooh
You are a good American. I am sure your GF will understand if you spend some of that in $20 dollar lap dances:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a5I2yxVie96I&refer=home
Mr Furious
Maybe McCain or Palin or one of their bloglackeys can explain to me how that’s not a fucking windfall profits tax…
Jay C
@Comrade Jake:
Thanks, I’ll try that next time.
Now what do I do with this chicken?
Comrade Jake
This can’t be right. If McCain is throwing in the towel on Colorado, he’d really better start looking for a good witch doctor. The number of paths to him winning without CO is like five in a hundred.
SamFromUtah
Not socialism: […]
Actually, I think bribery isn’t socialism, as such.
Nylund
You are missing the crucial difference between the two. In the former case, you are taxing overall company profit and redistributing that. In this case, the executives will certainly make sure they still get paid their outrageous salaries. That lost money will come out of the pockets of the little guys. Screwing over the little guy is the American way.
In the latter case, you are taxing the money AFTER its been given to the executives, so its solely coming out of the pockets of the rich which is totally unfair to those rich guys and obviously pure marxism.
Genine
I just have to say "Thanks, John" for all the handy-dandy primers.
Without them I would never know that a small tax increase was socialism and that nationalizing the banks was not; that making college more accessible was socialism but having the government buy bad mortgages was not; that ignorance is strength and knowledge is not; that Eastasia’s our enemy and Eurasia is not…
Calouste
@Comrade Jake:
The plan is to flip Pennsylvania and hold onto Ohio and Florida. Problem with that is that McCain is roughly 15 points behind in Pennsylvania. The uptick is that they don’t do early voting, so he has two weeks to pump sludge in the state so vile they won’t even accept it at the George W. Bush sewage treatment plant.
Oh, and he is behind in Florida as well, and if he loses Virginia, as is likely, he needs to hold Nevada. It’s the last round of the roulette wheel, and Johnny is putting all his money on the "0".
Genine
My comment is in moderation? Have I been bad? If so, why don’t you just spank me or something, it’d be a lot more fun.
Will Hunting
I am in 300 to the MUP. Where is my swag???
I live in a part of Houston with A LOT of yard signs. More than any other place I have lived. I would say right now, it is about 60% Obama.
Worst sign I have seen: "Democrats cut and run. US Troops do not."
I really want to carpet bomb that house with a carload of my son’s dirty diapers…
Jennifer
Funny how when they’re talking about cutting taxes for rich people it’s because "you know how to spend your money better than the government does." But when it’s about cutting taxes for the rest of us – SOCIALISM!!!! OOGA-BOOGA!!!
Really, the Obama campaign should run ads of all the Republicans who have used that "it’s YOUR MONEY" hoo-haw over the past 15 or 20 years in defense of cutting taxes for rich people, and close it with a statement about how they obviously think the rest of us are too dumb to know how to spend "OUR MONEY"…and how they then accuse us of "class warfare" right after they’ve finished calling us stupid.
Calouste
@Genine:
My comment is in moderation as well. I assume it is because I spelled out the name of the current resident of the White House.
Tim (The Other One)
I have their first CD. A little synth heavy.
Comrade Jake
I just filled out my NC absentee ballot. I voted for That One. Feels pretty awesome. First POTUS candidate I’ve been excited to vote for in my life.
In the process I came to the conclusion that the ballots are biased toward Obama, because it asks you to use black ink.
4tehlulz
@Comrade Jake FUCK RACISM
(HAHA FUCK YOU CURSE FILTER)
jcricket
If Republicans ever lose the power of "tax cuts for the rich" – they’re toast, permanently. Short of turning themselves into Christian populists, and even then, they’d lose the libertarian and anti-government/anti-tax coalition members.
Better yet, if Democrats ever figure out a way to expand on the following themes Republicans are totally toast: "taxes are patriotic", "progressive taxation is a good model", "we need to pay for the stuff you say you want".
Seriously. All the other stuff could still hold water (fear of a black planet, fear of immigrants, hatred of gays, etc.) but it’s appealing to the short-term selfishness of people with "low taxes are inherently good" and spouting the ridiculousness of trickle-down economics gets Republicans a pretty big swath of voters.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Comrade Jake:
And Palin says to McCain
Ooh, baby, you are so talented! And they are so DUMB!
b-psycho
It’s as if conservatives these days forgot what real class warfare looks like…
Fern
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
Oh that sounds like a sure-fire winning strategy to me – all those states in which McCain is – well – behind.
Comrade Jake
@Calouste:
Sounds absolutely Mavericky.
libarbarian
Maybe not socialism but 70% is iffy and 91% is definitely fucked up.
I mean, it seems basic fairness to let a dude keep at least half of what he earns.
jcricket
Ditto (except for the NC part, I’m in WA).
Obama! Gregoire!
Yes on Mass Transit!
Yes on allowing Assisted Suicide (sign me up if McCain wins)!
Fuck Tim Eyman and his crap! No on I-985!
Fuck GOP tricks! No on "non partisan" KC Council!
And no on every Republican – including previously "OK" folk like Sam Reed.
Affirmative "ink" action at work.
Comrade Jake
WTF Cole? Even Blockquoting Bush triggers moderation? Jesus.
jcricket
I was just reading about the history of the Depression, which we all compress in our mind to a single event, followed by the New Deal. In fact it was a bunch of bank runs/failures and market crashes, followed each time by overly strict government non-intervention (disastrous Treasury Secretary).
Followed eventually by FDR (towards what would become the end of the Depression) pushing, heavily, the new deal on a skeptical public and Congress.
People were incredible docile, even in the face of really high unemployment. People even commented on that fact.
We’ve learned some of the lessons (the stimulus only the Fed can provide is being used, at least a little), but not all. And I expect a ton of Republican resistance to the big ideas that Obama will promote as things start getting a lot worse in the next year or two. Imagine the backlash to Hillary’s original health care proposal, but with more racism & xenophobia.
jcricket
John’s just trying to practice "comment suppression" to prevent "comment fraud" by you WALNUT types.
Punchy
but where do electrons fall in this argument?
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Fern:
To which Mccain responds
Oooh! He’p me, he’p me! Somebody he’p me! He’p me! He’p me! He’p
comrade wingnuts to iraq
@Loneoak: wins.
Tsulagi
The two major reasons Adelman cited below are exactly the same my dad gave a week ago were why for the first time he might not vote or may write in a name…
And…
Obama might want to play up the first one even a little more. For a lot of people like my dad looking at their retirement accounts lately, McCain’s erratic actions didn’t inspire a lot of confidence.
Comrade Jake
Breaking news on CNN:
Sounds pretty serious.
LiberalTarian
OK, time to hang it up for the night. When I read this the first time I thought it said,
Good grief.
I am all for assisted suicide. I watched loved ones suffer before they died, and it was heart breaking. Good luck with that!! Hope it passes.
" A Little Nutsy"
Democrats threatened for having Obama signs in front yard. Mayor quoted "someone is getting a little nutsy…." I think that will probably sum up the next 3 to 4 weeks. I would like to go straight to December, please?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-villa_park_signoct17,0,1501910.story
sarsipius
@drag0n:
Funny (for me) Goldwater was mentioned. I was out this past weekend canvassing for the MUP with a lifelong republican. She even canvassed for Goldwater and told me all about it. Never voted for a dem president in her life. She is so disgusted by the republican party, McCain, Palin, that she’s out canvassing for the MUP. Thought that was totally awesome.
And I’m in NC, which makes me happy about the prospects here.
Thomas Edward Theadore
As we all know "socialism is not simply a more liberal version of ordinary American politics. It is, instead, its own animal, and a very feral, dangerous animal indeed". [Link] You know, like Nazis and Soviets. And Swedes and Japanese.
It’s true that Obama has been quiet about his plans to nationalize all industry, removing it from the hands of the capitalists and moving it under the control of the proletariat, but Obama IS a liberal Democrat who wants more government regulation of the economy, more redistribution of wealth, more deference to international institutions, more nationalization of medicine, and so forth and so on, all positions that are way-extreme-far to the left of what mainstream America wants. [Link]
American mainstream wants non-socialist stuff like this (it should be noted that New Zealand is also socialist [Link]) and this. You know, state monopoly capitalism, USA! USA! USA!.
Read page 261! Wake up people!
4tehlulz
Obama’s deathbed visit is a stunt. [/rightards]
kommrade jakevich
@boonagain: And half of them were there for a Decembrists concert.
I kid. Obviously Columbia isn’t RealMissouri(TM).
Comrade Jake
The only reason Obama’s visiting his grandmother is because she’s black. /Rush
libarbarian
Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you label all arguments for "low taxes" under the short-hand "trickle-down economics" then it doesn’t sound like you are very familiar with more well-grounded arguments in favor of "low taxes" (I use scare-quotes because we could have different definitions of "low", but bear with me).
One argument pertains directly to your expression"we need to pay for the stuff you say you want". It’s really just not that simple because we don’t all say we want the same things or even given the things we want in common the same priority. Politics is about the practical issue of deciding what "we" want as a group with divergent interests and priorities. This means haggling and making compromises and generally engaging in a necessary but economically inefficient process. There are good reason to argue that people often spend their money money more efficiently for themselves – so let them do so as much as practically possible.
Secondly, gov’t spending is ultimately "spending other peoples money" and that has obvious corruption issues – how do I know they will spend it on what I want and not on something else – and more money is more power is more corruption. Its not just financial corruption either,the exercise of power itself can be addictive; corruption is not limited to perks given out by lobbyists.
Thirdly, besides corruption there is yet another issue with "spending other peoples money" – what you think they "say" they want might not actually be what they say they want which itself might not actually be what they would spend that money on if they actually knew all the facts. There is just a lot of information loss and distortion in the process of actually spending the money.
I’m down with paying taxes but there is definitely a limit to how much credence I’ll give to people saying "we need to pay for the stuff you say you want".
4tehlulz
And of course, as predicted, the cancer killing America does not disappoint.
KRK
Seriously. Will it never end. Can’t he just move to Alaska or Utah or something?
Stuck in the Funhouse
Several times a day I clear my cookies and re boot the computer. And every time I do that, the first comment is moderated. There is a BJ cookie that I now have protected from further purges . Or maybe I’m just imagining stuff.
kommrade jakevich
OT: A bit of Bachmannalia:
"Bachmann, one of the House’s most conservative members, is famous for grabbing Bush’s shoulder after the 2007 State of the Union address and holding on until she could give him a kiss. She suggested that Obama would get the same treatment: "If the presidency would somehow go to Barack Obama, I would welcome him to the 6th District as well. As a matter of fact, I would put my hand on his shoulder and give him a kiss if he wanted."
Lady got issues. And her issues have issues.
mannemalon
@ ThatLeftTurnAtABBQ
Being optimistic, cheerful and unflappable are conservative qualities?
Stuck in the Funhouse
Or maybe Rush thinks she’s been holding Obama’s birth certificate from Bonga Bonga, Boogityville, Africa in the heart of Mooslim Devil Country, and Obama just wants to hide it.
rh
I think this post just may be the perfect distillation of the entire right-wing blogosphere. The contrast between the last-line and everything before it is absolutely LOLtastic.
Litlebritdifrnt
Everybody read this it is pure poetry.
"Obama when noone is watching" (link at Ben Smith’s remainders Obama watches Malias soccer game). (I am working on a damn laptop and cannot figure out how to cut and paste the site. ) Sorry, but the piece is worth every second of the effort.
Best line "not on my watch".
Chills.
jcricket
I use this as shorthand for "if you pass something, you cannot fund it through magical ponies or trickle down economics". I’m fine with horse trading, and with cutting spending in one area to pay for another (seriously). Not as short-hand for "we should just ratchet up taxes until we can pay for everything everyone might want. For me, PAYGO is a good thing, and deficits are generally bad, except in times of recession/depression or a (necessary) war.
For example – I’m not fine with anyone (D or R) suggesting we can just repeal the AMT and replace it with nothing. We’d have to raise taxes in some fashion to replace all the lost tax revenue. Or make massive spending cuts. And with so many things like our huge debt, infrastructure and Medicare facing massive deficits, cutting spending enough to cover the lost revenue just isn’t realistic.
I’m also not fine with suggesting that waste and fraud constitute enough money to pay for McCain’s $1.3 trillion in health care costs (for example). It’s just silly – there’s waste, abuse and fraud to be sure (much of it defrauding the military, or outsourcing vital functions like IRS collections at a more expensive rate than we could do it via the government) but it’s barely material.
BTW – I agree that a return to 91% tax rate is too high. 60% is probably too high as well. But the only way to move towards balance the budget and pay for the things that (broadly) people have agreed to wanting (i.e. what we aren’t willing to cut unless we are Ron Paul) is to raise taxes. I’m merely suggesting returning the top brackets to Clintonian levels is a reasonable place to start. Not repealing the estate tax, and returning capital gains rates to where they were is another simple, sensible idea likely to do nothing but help the Treasury, reduce income inequality and barely put a dent in the earning power of the most fortunate.
jcricket
In Oregon they got rid of their Tim Eyman when he went down in a ball of fire caused by his own scandals. Eyman would be down for the count by his own scandals too if not for Dunmire (his sugar daddy). Seriously – the only way Eyman gets stuff on the ballot is because Dunmire spends a million or so every year paying signature gatherers.
Otheriwise, Eyman and those other two dudes would be out of jobs, and not a single initiative he promotes would get near the ballot.
BTW, 985 will be thrown out by the Supreme Court, I have no doubt. It does about 8 things (not 1), and probably constitutes an illegal "earmarking (wrong word, but you get the idea) of state tax revenue (which can’t generally be done by initiative unless you’re raising new tax revenue).
But whatever. He’ll use that ruling as more proof he’s being repressed or whatevs.
Maybe Dunmire will go bankrupt in the upcoming recession. That’s my big hope.
Litlebritdifrnt
Okay I figured it out! http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=31197
The other Steveonovich
#75. I’m totally fine with an argument of spending being a compromise with taxation. If that is an argument a politician wants to have then great.
But please don’t whine when the voters demand the hoct spend money on roads and schools and stuff. Not spending has consequences too.
Comrade Jake
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Here’s the link. Everyone here should absolutely read it. I have a little daughter, and I’m a mess right now.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@rh:
The fools at GP are getting like a sitcom that has run 13 years and all that is left are the same old tired scripts that are nothing but self parodies. This post, like all the others are made up of mildewed talking points that could be used as sedatives, or maybe laxatives. After claiming for the 9 milliionth time by boorish wingnuts that Obama threw his Grandma under the bus, they end the post with this little nugget.
–Please remember her in your thoughts and prayers.
They could have added for accuracy; that She IS white after all.
They are fucking first degree wankers that shouldn’t be left alone with a keyboard and computer and should have their happy asses shipped pronto, straight to Iraq and airdropped with parasols for parachutes, smack dab in the middle of the shit they support. Fuck them all day every day!
Comrade Jake
My favorite right-wingnut response is "57 states!" Point out something stupid McCain does, and that’s what I typically get in response. Because we all know that Obama is confused about the number of states in the Union, AMIRITE?
Karmakin
The McCain campaign is playing a very dangerous game. At this point they’re bringing forth what’s long been the subtext of the Republican party. Namely, moderate-Democratic views as proto-socialism, even communism. And they’re doing it in the terms of a campaign that this point is going to be VERY difficult to win. Actually, at least in terms of EV at this point, it’s probably not even going to be close. Obama is probably going to shatter the record for number of votes received by a candidate, and the only question is if McCain can beat him.
What I think that’s going to do is it’s going to shove the Overton window firmly to the left. All tactics and no strategy. Just like everything else.
Joshua Norton
Could you also ‘splain how Colin Powell crossed party lines to make an endorsement because he’s a turncoat and a secret racist, but insufferable vichycrat Joe Lieberman did it because he puts principles over party.
SamFromUtah
@Karmakin: Namely, moderate-Democratic views as proto-socialism, even communism.
Yup. And they seem to have forgotten that a large number of voters didn’t grow up, like I did, watching "Duck-n-cover" films and learning about how horrible the COMMIES COMMIES COMMIES were.
Mornington Crescent
Heh, Proposition R.
In the voter’s guide, the sole argument against R says, "if we name the local sewage plant after Bush, then what’s left to name after Jesse Helms?"
The rest of the arguments are here
Stuck in the Funhouse
And more of the Classic BS.
Sarah Palin sings her new Campaign Rally song:
Here I stand, the goddess of desire / Set men on fire / I have this power. / Morning, noon, and night, it’s dwink and dancing / Some quick womancing / And then a shower. / Stage door Johnnies constantly suwwound me / They always hound me, with one wequest. / Who can satisfy their lustful habits? / I’m not a wabbit. / I need some we..
Joshua Norton
The stuff going into the sewage plant.
KRK
While things look good for Obama (and, hence, for America), let’s not be absurd. There’s no way Obama is going to come close to Reagan’s 525 EV in 1984 or Nixon’s 520 EV in 1972.
Matching Clinton’s 370 EV in 1992 would be a huge result, even given current polling.
–edit–
Hmmm. Now I’m not sure if you’re talking about popular vote numbers (in which case a record breaking result seems possible) or EV numbers, since your prior sentence talks about EV.
The Moar You Know
JUNGLE FEVER
cain
@jcricket:
If you’re talking about that ass, Bill Sizemore then you’re wrong. We apparently didnt get rid of him. He’s got another ballot measure now to further cut taxes and what not. Fuck him. I’m not taking any advice from a crook.
cain
Stuck in the Funhouse
She went on to say, "then I would eat his apple and play with his snake"
SamFromUtah
@KRK: While things look good for Obama (and, hence, for America), let’s not be absurd.
I read that post as total number of votes, not EVs – which is not unreasonable. If it was EVs, I agree this is unlikely to be that big a blowout.
Martin
Well, McCain still seems to think that Iowa is in play, even though they are polling for Obama only slightly less than California.
The only way that Iowa can be considered in play is if you are convinced that a state which is 90% white can’t vote for a black guy, or that the almost ‘he’s a nigger’ message will ultimately work.
It’s almost pathological how they are holding onto that state, but I think it tells us quite a lot about the inner McCain camp.
SamFromUtah
@Martin: It’s almost pathological how they are holding onto that state, but I think it tells us quite a lot about the inner McCain camp.
Does make me wonder what the math has to say about it.
cain
You owe me a goddam keyboard.
cain
cain
I hope Obama’s grandmother survives long enough to at least see him elected and even take the oath. It would be a tragedy if she dies before. Here’s hoping for the best.
cain
KRK
Last week, John McCain says "We have them right where we want them."
Today, a Nevada journalist says "I am sure the GOP turnout machine is going to kick in any day now."
Also today, but I can’t seem to find it again, somebody connected to the McCain campaign or Republicans more generally expresses skepticism about whether the youth vote will really turn out in the end. And, since Obama’s favorable polling reflects those unreliable youths, McCain is sitting pretty.
Either they still think they can win (and not just the NRO Cheeto(TM) brigade) or they’re very invested in putting on a good show to the very end.
Original Lee
The newest McCain ad I heard on the radio this afternoon on the way home from work is really ugly.
Bill Ayers apparently isn’t working, so now they’re trying embezzlement and fraud.
Yes, my friends, Obama used taxpayer money to make his friends rich. Here are 3 examples of large amounts of money that he personally gave to his cronies. That money should stay in your pockets so you can become rich, instead. You cannot trust Obama to keep his hand out of the government cookie jar that your hard-earned tax dollars keep full. You can trust McCain to spend that money on important stuff, not on his friends. \translation
Original Lee
Where’d my "end translation" backslash go?
Seebach
Amazingly, John King reports that McCain insiders are stating that Colorado is lost, essentially stating the path to victory (the only path) is through Pennsylvania.
Brian J
I think the best thing that could happen for our side right now is for the polls to tighten considerably. That way, they will indeed think they can win, and there won’t be as much of a chance of an attitude of nonchalance when it comes to volunteering and GOTV efforts in swing states.
But you have to wonder if they really do think they can win. If that’s the case, what sort of assumptions is their internal polling firm using? Obama is probably not up by as much as fourteen points in Pennsylvania, but what is the huge difference that McCain’s side is seeing in the state that allows them to spend so much time there? Is it simply that they feel it’s their best pickup opportunity left out of the blue states, even if, by itself, there’s not a great chance it will flip? Or do they feel they have as good a chance to take it as they do Ohio?
Stuck in the Funhouse
They must have some internal polling that leads them that way/ or that they have lost NM and CO 9 electoral votes won’t make their calculus to 270 to work. It appears their primary concern will have to be offsetting the likelyhood that Obama will get at least one of the big red battleground states like FL or OH, and they have to go for broke and pick off a big blue BS. And added into the equation is their lack of money, so concentrating their efforts in the big states makes sense, although it is the desperate kind of sense. Although Penn. is running double digits for Obama at present, it has a history of really tightening up just prior to election day. And that is the state Obama was referencing with his "Bitter" comment, so their smeary little lizard brains tell them to go there.
Brian J
McCain has assured us that he will win California. So I guess that settles it.
plus C
@KRK:
During the 2006 elections, Ed Gillespie (RNC head at the time) was on TV late in the evening, when it was already obvious that the party was going down in flames. He looked like he had been up for days, and could barely stand up straight. And he still denied that anything was wrong.
So even though they’re probably thinking it, I wouldn’t expect to hear the "My friends, we’re fucked" speech anytime soon.
Brian J
So I just watched the video where John King talks about Colorado slipping away from McCain, along with Iowa and New Mexico. If that’s the case, then, as much as I hate to say it, Obama’s clearly going to win. In fact, he could lose every other swing state and still win if that happens. I just have to wonder, like I said earlier, what sort of information is McCain’s camp looking at that says Pennsylvania is the most viable option? Is it that, as it seems to me after playing around with some Electoral College calculators, it’s the only state with enough votes to make a difference? That seems to be the most likely case, but again, that’s predicated on McCain winning Ohio and Florida, as well as all but one of North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Missouri, or Georgia. That seems like a pretty tall order.
Delia
Well, are you making proper allowances for voter suppression? Admittedly, McCain’s running a crappy campaign, but as far as we know, the voter suppression machinery is not dead yet.
And on another note, I’ve found a blog that has really great essays on the right wing. driftglass. Maybe it’s one of those things that everyone knew about but me. But he’s got an outstanding one up right now about Clinton hatred and an even better one from a couple of days ago about the right wing as junkies. And don’t miss Judith Miller as a pole dancer.
DougJ
Cokie won’t be happy:
Recently, his Grandmother has become ill, and in the last few weeks, her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very serious. It is for that reason that Senator Obama has decided to change his schedule on Thursday and Friday so that he can see her and spend some time with her. He will be returning the the campaign trail on Saturday.
Couldn’t he just fly her to Myrtle Beach?
Soylent Green
The race will tighten by election day. They always do.
If we view winning it as a fait accompli, it won’t be. We still need to see voters willing to crawl over broken glass, as Cole so aptly put, to vote for Barack.
The rethugs still have a few tricks up their sleeves: purging registered voter rolls, covering up reports of faulty voting machines, maybe actual tampering with the software.
They will also throttle up the lies and hate and fear. These aren’t working as well for them this year but they do work. And no one really knows how big the Bradley effect will be.
In short there are many unknowns. The polls have been wrong before; the EV map with all that blue in it could still end up red in FL, OH, VA, MO, and NV, with Colorado as the crux.
But the polls mean nothing if we drown the bastards in a turnout flood.
tavella
I got no swag either, dammit!
protected static
@kommrade jakevich:
Not issues… Lady got subscriptions.
Delia
Oooh… … Speaking of voter fraud, turns out the same guy who was active in getting David Iglesias fired is the one pushing the FBI to investigate ACORN. No one could have imagined that this would happen. TPM is one the case at the link.
Brian J
I think that’s the plan. I’m not sure of the specifics on this plan or how well something like it works historically, but my guess is, the Obama campaign could reach the upper limits of normal campaign’s ability to turn out voters, and then jump a few feet over it.
Calouste
@Soylent Green:
Uh, no they don’t. The last two elections tighten maybe a little bit, but they were fairly tight to begin with in the last two months or so. All five elections before that were relative landslides.
gwangung
Who cares?
Act like it’s a tight election all the way down the line and aim to bury the bastards.
jcricket
Great. Glad to know that in the NW the initiative process is being used for such wonderful politics.
Seriously – it’s not working anymore. California is the perfect example. I don’t think we should completely eliminate citizen initiatives or ballot measures, but we’re out of control these days.
BTW – California fucked itself as far back as 78 (Prop 1, right? or was it 13?) by buying the "lets artificially cap taxes at a low rate" BS. We’re just seeing it move up the coast now.
Again, I don’t blame crooks like Sizemore and Eyman – they’re lying fuckholes who only care about their own ego and wallets. I blame voters for buying the Bullshit, and elected Democrats for running scared of these idiots.
Thomas Edward Theadore
Indeed!
edit: interesting, bolding a link loses the underline
jcricket
Yes. I don’t care if it’s not a Reagan-esque blowout. You run a black guy with the foreign sounding name and he wins at all, that’s a triumph. You win a lot of popular votes, moreso than Bush or even Clinton (remember – three way races back then) and it’s a huge triumph.
And more importantly, the massive turnout leads to big pickups in the House, Senate, state legislatures and possibly the defeat of Prop 8 and other reactionary shit – and it’s a huge win for America.
To quote one of my favorite cheesy movie lines: "This isn’t you hit me, I hit you, you hit me. This is I hit you, I hit you, I FUCKING HIT YOU."
We stop hitting the Republicans when they can’t field candidates.
Thomas Edward Theadore
To quote one of my favorite movie lines, from TMNT 2007, "I don’t get it, is it performance art?"
Delia
It was Prop 13 and it’s screwed up California forever after. Howard Jarvis was the author — the Sizemore of California, I guess. I was there at the beginning. And I’m watching Sizemore now. He apparently earns his living doing this crap. And I DO blame these guys, BTW. Not necessarily just the Sizemore types, but the (often) out of state foundations that go into a state with an agenda and a lot of money for slick advertising that hide what they’re really trying to accomplish. The public initiative process is a curse. It seems to be the easiest thing in the world to manipulate.
Thomas Edward Theadore
You know, the whole "California is doomed, Prop 13" thing always amuses me. And then there is the "outta state slick advertizers" bit.
Seriously Delia, were do you live in CA? My CA property values haven’t dropped that much.
What you want everything paid for with property taxes?
Thomas Edward Theadore
Sigh. I’m gonna make a guess here. You are in your early 20s?
First time voter and excited about it? Just recently read about CA Prop 13? Never saw William F Buckley on the tv, but know he sucks dick?
Think Nixon invaded Vietnam? WT Building 7 didn’t just collapse on its own, right?
liberal
@libarbarian:
Those numbers aren’t very meaningful without more information:
(1) What are the tax brackets, in real dollars;
(2) How is the tax base defined (what is taxable, after all deductions, etc)
liberal
@libarbarian:
That’s fine and all, but a large proportion (I’d wager the majority) of people who bitch about the federal income tax don’t want cuts in military spending, which accounts for more than half of spending supported with that tax (well, at least until this recent financial disaster).
liberal
@Thomas Edward Theadore:
It’s not a matter of dropping them. It’s a matter of freezing them. And in a discriminatory manner: rates reset when property is sold, IIRC.
No, but it would be a very good thing if land taxes were as close to 100% as possible ([1], [2]).
Thomas Edward Theadore
Yeah freezing. You say "discriminatory" i say "My grandparents who put their life into that home and neighborhood can afford to stay there". I suppose I’m too liberal for you. And yeah, when they resell the place the property tax resets.
"Geolibertarianism is the belief that each individual has an exclusive right to the fruits of his or her labor, and thus an exclusive right to the value of those fruits; and that all individuals have an equal right to land, and thus an equal right to the value of land."
Wow. Good thing I’m a heavily armed liberal, eh?
Ron Paul rules.
Thomas Edward Theadore
Hey, what’s the weather tomorrow? You say no rain? I’ll bring my umbrella.
Hey, what’s the weather tomorrow?
dslak
Am I the only one who has no idea what this Thomas Edward Theodore guy is on about?
Conservatively Liberal
My guess is that TET is a bored low-paid graveyard shift security guard at a small mall who comes here because he is bored at work and too poor for a computer or internet connection from home, verbally meandering from no point to no point to see how many people will engage him.
I noticed that he has this desire to try and guess the age of someone who engages him in disagreement, though he seems to assume that they are young and inexperienced. One night he posted a ten point list guessing about me and I was bored and answered him. I then posed my guesses about him and he never responded.
Prolly too close to home for comfort. ;)
Comrade Jake
Nicole Wallace (the McCain schill) just used the "economy driven into a ditch" metaphor on Good Morning America.
I’m not sure what it means that Team McCain is now using Obama’s metaphors.
dslak
It means that in their desperation to gain traction with voters, they’re trying to be all things to all people.
kommrade jakevich
@dslak: If McPOW starts singing "I’m every woman," please shoot me.
jeff
Saw a line on a blog yesterday that was priceless. It said, "George Bush entered the white house as a social conservative and is leaving as a conservative socialist."
JL
@Comrade Jake: I missed that one. Do you think that Nicolle secretly wishes she worked for Obama?
gbear
@plus C:
And if they do say it, you know they’ll say it as "My friends, this nation’s fucked" and throw in something about grave danger.
So is TET going to wake up with a keyboard imprint on his face because he fell asleep before he could make everyone see his genius?
boonagain
Has anyone else found TET offensive?
(groan-I know it was weak, but I couldn’t resist)
gbear
@boonagain:
groan ;)
Gus
Kind of reminds me of Rudy!’s strategy of putting all his eggs in the Florida basket. I hope it works just as well.
liberal
@Thomas Edward Theadore:
I see—you think your blood relatives should get special dispensations from the state.
Nope. True liberals are products of the Enlightenment, and look at justice as a set of principles.
Since you don’t have any, you can’t be a liberal.
LOL! Spoken like a true libertarian of the "let’s all move to Somalia!" variety.
Gus
Bob Owens, aka Gun Counter Gomer, aka TIDOS Yankee, AKA the Clausewitz of Chigger Creek has a post defending the killing of the cub. Apparently it’s not illegal to kill a small cub like that.
Gus
Really? I thought he was trying too hard.
Brian J
See, what we Democrats don’t understand is that this is all part of Rudy’s plan to get elected.
charlotte
"Leave socialism alllooooonnneeee. Leave it aloooone. What has socialism ever done to you bastards? You’re lucky it even performs for you …"
Sigh — We should all be so freaking lucky as to get a true dose of old school, stand-up socialism mainlined into the body politic just about now. Cue the Lou Reed. I for one would love it.
Straight out of Iraq and right into our local public school and transportation systems would be fine by me. Hit me with that smack, my friend.
tim
Why do you think Sarah Palin flew from Texas to Anchorage after her water broke to make sure the child would be born in Alaska? Answer, permanent fund benefits!
john doe
Being an Alaskan I get a bit tired of hearing people mischaracterize what the Permanent Fund is.
In most states, if an oil company wants to drill on your land, you get the royalty payments because, as the land owner, it’s quite likely you also own the mineral rights.
Jed Clampett ring a bell?
In Alaska, at statehood, we had some people decide that resident landowners would not receive mineral rights.
Instead, those mineral rights would be held in common and the royalties from those mineral rights held in common would be both distributed equally and used to build an investment portfolio to bank those mineral royalty payments for the future.
Yes, I get a percentage payout from the fund, a dividend from the investment.
What I don’t get is the chance to strike it rich.
The Permanent Fund was created as good public policy, a progressive public policy. Quit bashing progressive policy ideas.
These decisions were agreed upon by progressive visionary leaders in Alaska long before Palin had any chance to effect anything.
The additional 1200 bucks this year? That one time pay out called an ‘energy relief’ economic stimulus.
That was old fashioned vote buying. It stinks.
It’s a one time program and it was the work of the legislature, and Palin isn’t even smart enough to dream up vote buying. Think about it, you’ve seen her at work, to attribute policy to Palin is like thinking George Bush might comprehend a budget report.
Bash Palin all you want. I’ll help.
Just quit mischaracterizing what the Permanent Fund is.
Thanks.