@Hard (#46): You criticized my suggestion (#36) that the best (and most moral) form of economic stimulus would be infrastructure spending as opposed to tax cuts, citing FDR’s “New Deal” as extending the depression. I wrote that I’d never heard that FDR’s infrastructure spending had extended the Depression and asked for a reference. You provided a link to a 2004 study by 2 UCLA economists. I read your link. Here’s what it said:
“President Roosevelt believed that excessive competition was responsible for the Depression by reducing prices and wages, and by extension reducing employment and demand for goods and services,” said Cole, also a UCLA professor of economics. “So he came up with a recovery package that would be unimaginable today, allowing businesses in every industry to collude without the threat of antitrust prosecution and workers to demand salaries about 25 percent above where they ought to have been, given market forces. The economy was poised for a beautiful recovery, but that recovery was stalled by these misguided policies.”
As I noted, FDR’s infrastructure programs were only a small part of the New Deal. The harmful parts of the New Deal had nothing to do with infrastructure (according to the article you cited) and nothing to do with the recent “stimulus package.”
You go on to attack Keynesian economics as being discredited, but you fail to understand that a Keynesian stimulus constitutes borrowing money to increase the money supply in the economy. There are several ways of doing this, and all are Keynesian stimuli. (1) You can borrow money and use it to give to state and local governments, so that they don’t have to lay off workers and/or raise taxes. (2) You can borrow money to finance bridge, road, tunnel, sewer, port, etc. construction, creating jobs and creating lasting infrastructure. (3) You can borrow money and give people tax cuts. (4) You can print more money and use this to redeem previously-issued government bonds.
The point is that borrowing money to finance tax cuts is no different from borrowing money to give to state and local governments; so that they don’t have to raise taxes or borrowing money to do anything else to artificially inject more money into the economy to end a recession.
A true tax cut is accompanied by a spending cut of equal magnitude, to pay for the tax cut. If you borrow money to finance the tax cut (e.g. as was certainly the case with the Bush tax cuts), then this is a Keynesian stimulus, clear and simple.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
Missy
13 years ago
All that’s missing is a few flopping aces. 😉
Sarah Picks Up A Few Things At The Convenience Store
Larry, my point was that FDR, like you, believed in lots of government spending. He also had the same attitude towards businesses that were “sitting on a hoard of cash.” I suggest you go look up what he did to companies that were “sitting on a hoard of cash.”
You are suggesting basically the same things be done that were done under FDR-and we saw what that did. Extend the Depression.
I find it almost astonishing you don’t consider yourself a liberal when you support a very large part of their agenda.
@Hard. Let’s just say that a great many Democrats and Liberals would consider me to be a “DINO” or a “LINO.”
Good grief, I voted Republican in both California’s Senate race (Fiorina) and my District’s Congressional race (Rohrabacher). I’m anti-gay marriage, anti-McCain/Feingold, pro-Second Amendment, not at all anti-religious, and a TRUE fiscal conservative (firm believer in pay as you go government, which does include actually paying for whatever our government chooses to spend, as opposed to passing the tab down to future generations of Americans).
No, I’m nowhere near as conservative as you (your self-chosen name is “Hard Right,” for goodness sake). But I’m open to persuasion, based on well-reasoned arguments. I’m not open to taunting and name calling.
You still haven’t explained how FDR’s infrastructure spending extended the Depression. In the article you cited, it said that FDR extended the Depression by coming
up with a recovery package that would be unimaginable today, allowing businesses in every industry to collude without the threat of antitrust prosecution and workers to demand salaries about 25 percent above where they ought to have been, given market forces.
This has nothing to do with (1) infrastructure investment, (2) grants to state and local governments, (3) tax cuts, or (4) extension of unemployment benefits (lsupported by the GOP, in votes through the Spring of 2010, by the way), which were the components of the Obama “stimulus.”
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
Hard Right
13 years ago
Infrastructure spending? Larry, asked and answererd.
Larry, just because you aren’t a foaming at the mouth lib, doesn’t mean you are not a lib.
Nan G
13 years ago
Wow!
Obama’s Cousin Lays into him!
Dr. Milton R. Wolf’s essay:
Obamacare’s Unkeepable Promises
Utopian vision was a fraud from the beginning
@Hard (#59): I’m actually very glad that you brought up the claim, often cited by conservatives, that FDR “prolonged the Depression.” By this, conservatives strongly imply that it was government spending, per se, which prolonged the Depression. So they argue (as Hard Right is now doing) that the concept of government spending to shorten recessions has been discredited.
But it’s not ALL of the New Deal which was allegedly harmful. It was actually only a small component of it; to quote directly from your citation:
the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which exempted industries from antitrust prosecution if they agreed to enter into collective bargaining agreements that significantly raised wages. Because protection from antitrust prosecution all but ensured higher prices for goods and services, a wide range of industries took the bait,
This component has nothing at all to do with infrastructure spending in particular or Obama’s “stimulus” in general. It actually has nothing to do with anything, beyond the historical aspects of FDR’s Presidency, because NIRA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and nullified, long ago.
The point is that FDR, as in the case of all great Presidents, got some very important things right, while getting a few things wrong. I happen to think that Reagan was the right man for the job, in his time, and got some important things right, but Reagan’s embrace of supply side economics (borrow money to cut taxes) was just as harmful to the long term economic health of the nation as was Roosevelt’s embrace of the concept that too much competition was bad for industry.
In any event, there was certainly nothing in the New Deal which discredits the concept of borrowing money to build infrastructure, particularly during a severe recession, just as there is nothing anywhere which supports the concept of permanent tax cuts, supported by permanent borrowing, in the absence of spending cuts commensurate with the size of the tax cuts.
@nan g: It’s a self serving op-ed by a subspecialist physician who’s ox stands to be gored (the MD “winners” in Obamacare tend to be the primary care specialities; subspecialist incomes will probably fall, as the emphasis changes away from rewarding procedures to rewarding overall health care outcomes).
I’m a reader of Kaiser Health News. They are continually dissecting the implications of Obamacare, with respect to absolutely everything. If you want to have a deeper and more unbiased understanding, I’d recommend going through the archives on their website.
A ”sniffer” dog is in India for Obama’s visit.
The dog is part of our military presence to keep Obama safe.
But Muslims in Bombay are incensed….aren’t they always?
This time it is because the dog is named ”Kahn.”
Angry Muslims in the city and the state are threatening to protest this ‘insult’ to the community.
First, veteran actor Raza Murad objecting to the dog being named ‘Khan.’
Then noted lyricist Javed Akhtar tried to talk the Muslims into ignoring the insult.
Next Maharashtra Samajwadi Party leader MLA Abu Asim Azmi threatened to undertake a protest. He said that the US deliberately wants to incite the Muslims through such acts and the party would stage a protest on the issue.
Prominent Muslim religious heads have expressed anger and dismay on the information of a US dog being named ‘Khan.’ Maulana Syed Athar Ali said that it is a known fact that Muslims detest pigs and dogs.
“To name a dog a Muslim name by US security agencies is to deliberately incite the Muslim community. We would be meeting soon and devise a strategy to protest and seek apology from the US,” said Maulana Athar Ali.
So, I have to wonder how low Obama will have to bow to these nutcases so that our apology will be accepted.
Was this a deliberate affront?
Absolutely not.
If anything it was another unintentional little thing blown up into a gigantic offense by some of the leaders of a people who have made finding offense an art form because Islam forbids them instigating attacks.
On FDR…Factually speaking, Franklin Roosevelt did not do one thing to end the great depression. Employment on 12-7-41 was at the same level it was when he was elected in 1932. I won’t mention the ‘land mine’ social legislation he imposed on the nation in the interim, aside from mentioning it. What Roosevelt did accomplish – through force of personality – was give people reassurance. Reassurance (I will never again use the word hope) that something was being done. Now is the beginning of our very last chance to salvage a great nation. Very last. I for one am not reassured.
The ‘land mine’ referred to here is Social Security that is now a ticking bomb that no Administration has remedied or made solvent. It is essentially a Ponzi Scheme box of IOUs. FDR’s New Recovery Administration was ruled un-Constitutional and scrapped. The Tennessee Valley Authority should have privatized over 4 decades ago but is still around.
The Economy turned around through the War Effort mobilizing Private Industry and not through increased Public Sector employment. For Obama to take a page or two from FDR’s Game Plan has been disastrous in terms of the Deficit which is now at the highest level of the History of the Planet. ARRA was a bust. Period. Then lying about Job Creation by creating temporary jobs through the Census is inexcusable and disingenuous.
The Programs that most Americans are vested in, both MEDICARE and Social Security are not solvent at this point and every Congress and Administration over the past 20 years has failed to secure those Programs through legislation that would not permit plundering or borrowing from those funds. That is what funded LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ Programs that got the Government involved in Public Housing and Lifetime Welfare commitments.
@Trooper: I’d like to debate FDR, SS, etc. some time, with you. Plus ARRA, causes of the deficit (Obama being directly responsible for, at last count, 1.8% of the increase in debt ratio, compared to about 30% for Reagan and 10% for GWB), etc. – Defies concise summary, though. Another time, perhaps? – Larry
P.S. Just a quick aside regarding FDR and WWII. It’s a gross mischaracterization to say that Roosevelt simply offered “reassurance.” Without all of the stuff Roosevelt did, entirely in private and behind the scenes, for the first two years of the war (1939-late 1941, before Pearl Harbor), Great Britain would quite possibly have been defeated by Hitler and the War would have been lost, before we entered it, or, at a minimum, the costs of victory in Europe would have been far more severe than what turned out to be.
Skookum
13 years ago
In France pigs are used to sniff out truffles underground. They could easily be trained as sniffing pigs and we could call them Hussein or some other Western name. We should have had a back-up plan.
I had a watch pig when I was a boy, he was very effective with salesmen; they could probably be trained to sniff out terrorists at airports so that women wouldn’t be sexually assaulted to fly.
Old Trooper 2
13 years ago
@ Skookum, My Grand Dad kept geese and banty chickens for that purpose.
They were very effective but I prefer bacon, sausage or smoked ham to goose or mini hens.
Today I have a couple of Border Collies for that tasking. My hands shot four white tails yesterday on the spread. Bucks of good size and not a huge loss to the deer supply. Venison is a keen supplement to a diet of beef, pork or chicken. Roasts, steaks and deer sausage are good grub as you know. No Elk or Moose on property but deer are plentiful.
My Daughter loves deer jerky and requests it frequently.
Old Trooper 2
13 years ago
MSNBC Suspends Keith Olbermann Indefinitely for Contributing to Democratic Campaigns
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was put on indefinite suspension Friday after bosses at the cable news network learned that he had donated to three Democratic candidates, including one who had appeared on his show on the same day, in violation of the network’s rules.
“I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay,” Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC, said in a statement.
The three candidates who received the maximum legal amount of $2,400 are Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords, both of Arizona and both who won tough re-election bids. Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway was the third recipient. He lost to Republican Rand Paul.
The donations were made on Oct. 28, the same day Grijalva appeared on the MSNBC show “Countdown With Keith Olbermann.”
Politico, which was first to report the contributions, published Olbermann’s confirmation of the donations.
“I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level,” Olbermann said in a statement to the newspaper.
NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president — effectively a ban. Olbermann’s bosses did not find out about the donations until after they were made.
Olbermann was a co-anchor of MSNBC’s election coverage this week. The network’s performance drew some criticism, particularly with Chris Matthews’ contentious interviews with Republican Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn.
Olbermann was seen laughing following Matthews’ conversation with Bachmann. Matthews had criticized the congresswoman for failing to answer his questions.
Chris Hayes will fill in for Olbermann on Friday’s program, the network said.
No great loss. A Talking Head Leftist twit breaks a few rules and gets called on it. As I don’t watch liberal alphabet networks anyway or give credence to their tainted product, I find this amusing. He is a Newsie and NOT a Journalist and Josef Goebbels or Leon Trotsky would be proud of his tripe. Maybe the Obama Regime needs a new propagandist.
Nan G
13 years ago
Whoever watches MSNBC might have caught this doozy from yesterday:
Mark Penn, Democratic strategist and former chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, on last night’s Hardball, said something that must be seen to be believed.
Comparing Obama’s current situation to the aftermath of the 1994 “Republican Revolution,” Penn noted that it took the Oklahoma City tragedy in order for President Clinton to “reconnect” with the American people.
He then stepped off the cliff by saying that President Obama needed a “similar event” to achieve that reconnection following his party’s midterm losses.
Host Chris Matthews barely notices.
“President Clinton reconnected with Oklahoma.
And the President right now he seems removed.
And it wasn’t until that speech that he really clicked with the American people.
Obama needs a similar kind of, yeah” said Penn.
A few quotes that question your assumptions, Larry.
Cole and Ohanian calculate that NIRA and its aftermath account for 60 percent of the weak recovery.
60% Larry. Want to guess what the the other 40% was made up of?
“The fact that the Depression dragged on for years convinced generations of economists and policy-makers that capitalism could not be trusted to recover from depressions and that significant government intervention was required to achieve good outcomes,” Cole said. “Ironically, our work shows that the recovery would have been very rapid had the government not intervened.”
Infrastructure spending takes capital from the private sector and gives it to the public sector which is ineffecient, especially when compared to the private market.
Larry, government spending DOES NOT create long term jobs or economic prosperity. This has been proven over and over. Your support of it is one reason why I call you a liberal.
Indian politicians are known for making impromptu long speeches and perhaps that is why some parliament officials, who did not wish to be named, sounded rather surprised with the idea of a teleprompter for Obama.
“We thought Obama is a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address with his continuous eye contact,” an official, who did not wish to be identified because of security restrictions, said.
Without reading from the teleprompter he just looks and sounds like a rube and neither an orator nor a World Leader.
OLD TROOPER, IT also show a lack of confidence to speak with his core belief
for AMERICA’S INTERESTS, HE IS SUPPOSE to represent ,and he choose to represent only himself
in those COUNTRYS
Nan G
13 years ago
On the weekends on one of the C-SPAN channels you can catch the Q&A sessions between the House of Commons/Lords and the Prime Minister.
Amazing oratory!
On both sides.
Agree or disagree one MUST agree that any one of these men and women could wipe the floor with Obama, the script-reader.
There are times I have listened in rapt attention when the subject matter is totally irrelavent to my life….but the verbal ability of the speaker is stunning.
Nan G; hi, IT would be VERY interesting to learn; WHICH PRESIDENT was the best SKILLED,
IN delivering A SPEECH to the PEOPLE. just a curiosity to know. bye
DaNang67
13 years ago
In praise of our President I’d like to remind you all of the enormous qualities he possesses:
He is tall.
He seems to keep himself clean.
He has a deep voice.
Many women find him attractive.
He was able to meet the requirements for graduation from a large Ivy League school.
He has achieved strong support from many socialist and communist organizations.
A large number of Americans and a large number of citizens of other countries living in America voted for him.
No-one in the legacy media can find a single serious flaw in him.
Though not exactly legacy media, I wonder if you would have to agree with Chris Matthews that it was the Republicans that turned Obama into a lefty. Perhaps you can answer Matthew’s question, it went something like:
“How do you teach them that they better not do that again?” 😯
I was just a bit stunned after watching the 50 second clip, I may have missed something. 8) Just can’t make this stuff up:
🙄
Greg
13 years ago
@ #68:
“No great loss. A Talking Head Leftist twit breaks a few rules and gets called on it. As I don’t watch liberal alphabet networks anyway or give credence to their tainted product, I find this amusing. He is a Newsie and NOT a Journalist and Josef Goebbels or Leon Trotsky would be proud of his tripe. Maybe the Obama Regime needs a new propagandist.”
As Rachel Maddow points out, there’s a fundamental difference between MSNBC and Fox News. While MSNBC’s political commentators have obviously taken a side in the national political discussion, they haven’t reduced themselves to the level of duplicitous pitchmen for the side they’ve taken. Their presentations make their viewers think. They don’t presume to tell their viewers what to think–or blatantly tell their viewers where to send their money. Unlike FOX commentators, MSNBC commentators are neither propaganda tools, nor partisan fundraising tools. Nor does MSNBC have commentators who are making themselves vast personal fortunes by building audience bases around distortion, disinformation, and demagoguery.
Another obvious difference: You won’t find FOX commentators openly taking issue on the air with their own network’s management policies, as Rachel Maddow has done in the video linked above. That sort of freedom of expression happens within a liberal context. Not in the context of a tightly wrapped propaganda outlet such as FOX News.
I’ve arrived at that conclusion by regularly and critically viewing both FOX and its “liberal alphabet network” competitors. If you restrict your total information intake to only one side of a discussion, you will invariably develop a distorted, one-sided view of reality.
Automatically rejecting any and all opposing views or sources while simultanously avoiding all exposure to them is symptomatic of brainwashing.
GREG: I don’t see any conservatives here showing that they are, and you can notice it on the
other side quite a lot, and more after NOVEMBER 2nd.
bye
Old Trooper 2
13 years ago
@ Greg
Automatically rejecting any and all opposing views or sources while simultanously avoiding all exposure to them is symptomatic of brainwashin
As exhibited by MSNBC and the KOS Crowd on a daily basis. Rachel Maddow exhibits all of those characteristics as well. Rejecting propaganda by Newsies and Talking Heads is indicative of those in possession of judgment and the real world experience to recognize it when it is presented. Some of US are not as easily manipulated or fooled as you seem to be. My BS detector has been calibrated by that experience.
Hard Right
13 years ago
Greg the self professed moderate again defends the loony left. Greg hits the leftist hat trick. Denial, projection, and displacement all in one post. Bravo Greg. Your psychiatrist must be proud.
Mr. Irons
13 years ago
Oh, Greg is half right. There is a massive difference between MSNBC and Fox News and that difference is?
NBC Universal is being bought out by Comcast which means Comcast will be cleaning shop on the lowest rated and respected “news” agency in the market. This means Contract re-negotiation time for many anchors, opinion show hosts such as Maddow, and contributors to the network. Comcast is done playing around with NBC Universal with re-broadcasting contract squables and sees it prime to aquire NBC Universal as a business asset, and part of this 30 billion merger with Comcast being the parent company is to see to it to fix rating and confidence issues with a marketed client base which translates to some heads of staff and daily faces of MSNBC and NBC will be fired. We’ve already seen some external workings of this action in the form of Keith’s current suspension while their Human Resourcing researchings his matter of violating company ethics and to ensure it does not violate Comcast’s company policies and ethic policies.
In contrast, Fox News has just hired in Juan Williams after that man’s termination from NPR and its parent company is seeking to increase various market interests such as its Business channel access to Cox Communications users by negotiations over Cox’s standard broadcast packages to customers.
Old Trooper 2
13 years ago
Bomb-proof tunnel with air conditioning: Obama’s security go to extraordinary measures for his tour of the Gandhi museum
Now the Boot Licking US Media does not report on this business. We know why.
As to the cost of all this, the White House will not reveal details – which has allowed Mr Obama’s political foes to bandy about sums including a widely-quoted $200million (£123million) a day. Whatever the figure, it makes the costs associated with the Royal Train and the late Royal Yacht Britannia seem like small change.
The U.S. Congress seemed to disagree, hiking visa fees for Indian outsourcing companies by about $2000 per worker in August, provoking howls of discontent here.
‘It’s tens of millions of dollars,’ said Tata Consultancy Services chief executive N. Chandrasekaran.
The law pinches Indian outsourcers where it hurts, at the heart of the industry’s hopes for future growth in its most important global market.
The companies have been trying to diversify into health care and government work and move up the delivery chain to higher value areas like consulting. All require workers, with visas or U.S. passports, in the United States.
Many here fear the backlash will get worse by the 2012 elections, barring a turnaround in the U.S. labour market.
Indian outsourcers – and their clients in corporate America – are happy to move jobs to the U.S. as long as it doesn’t disrupt their low-cost business model.
That translates into very few jobs.
‘There has been a reality check,’said Stephen Cohen, a South Asia security expert at the Brookings Institution.
Backers of the civil nuclear deal in Washington, he said, ‘made believe India was a true ally and would never let us down’.
U.S. India Business Council president Ron Somers said India’s signing last week of an International Atomic Energy Agency convention on liability is a step forward and will require Indian laws to conform to international norms, which do not make private companies liable unless there is malfeasance.
Even India’s purchase of 10 Boeing C-17 transport aircraft, expected to be finalised during Obama’s visit, will probably be worth less than the anticipated $5.8 billion because of fewer add-ons, said Guy Anderson, lead analyst at Jane’s Defence Industry.
India is second only to China in ramping up military procurement, making it an attractive market for U.S. defense companies.
But the bureaucracy is so inefficient the government doesn’t manage to spend the money earmarked for military procurement each year, and Russia still dominates sales in a country where some, especially in the older generation, continue to regard U.S. intentions with skepticism.
Somers says naysayers are too impatient and points out that from 2007 to 2009, the U.S. sold India $4.3 billion worth of defense equipment – a huge jump from the $342 million sold from 2001 to 2006. ‘We’ve come a long way,’ he said
Hey WTH, it’s Other Peoples Money and Obama got conned again but a pretty grand vacation trip for a Last Term POTUS and one Hell of a Cost for it all. Thank You 53%ers Your Grand Children will remember this as they struggle to pay for this Incompetence!
Old Trooper 2
13 years ago
Meanwhile the 111th Congress and the Idiot Appointed to head the USDA decided to piss away Tax Dollars on this business. Absolutely Brilliant!
University of New Hampshire and outside researchers are creating a computer model to help organic dairy farmers cut greenhouse gas emissions such as methane, because Beano probably isn’t an option.
Worry about Cow Flatulence does not keep me up at night but employs Academic Fools to research such nonsense to no real benefit to anyone but themselves but perpetuates waste, fraud and abuse. Way to go Bernie Sanders, Great American Socialist, for securing this Earmarked bit of Pork.
File this under Waste, Fraud, Abuse and Democrat/Progressive/Socialist logic. After All it is just OPM!
Skookum
13 years ago
OT, Commentary from the same article:
There’s no federal constitutional basis for this. We all know what happens if we don’t pay our taxes: The I.R.S. sends notices, then they send threats, then they take action to collect. And if they come to levy on your property – whatever you have – and you resist, they bring armed marshals to take it from you by force. If need be, they use guns on you, handcuffs, all of that.
No one has a moral right to point a gun at me to make me pay for a study like this. But that’s what liberals are all about – their willingness to use the ultimate threat to make other people to pay for their pet projects.
I could REALLY use medical insurance. I can’t afford it. But the I.R.S. gets money from me every month. I’m sure the I.R.S. employees have medical insurance.
Liberals are wannabe totalitarians – and they hate America, and Americans.
I want my freedom back.
Oh, and to the Dover “science” guy – your condescension and pretentiousness are wastes. Your pretended assumptions that everyone who disagrees with you is ill-educated, uninformed, etc. etc., well, we both know the truth is that the most educated, the most successful, the best informed, really do not want to spend one minute of their lives answering to wannabe dictators like yourself. They are too busy making the world go by, to talk to you people staring at your navels.
– Lynn, Woodstock, Georgia
Elections have consequences. The company I work for has a satellite office in Texas. We’ve been leasing a building and trying to decide whether or not to stay. The uncertainty in the economy has kept us guessing. Looks like we’re about to purchase a building and bringing on new people. As a matter of fact, we’re looking to bring on people in several of our offices.
I’m betting we’re not the only company to be making those decisions. 🙂
As liberals shed crocodile tears over the suspension of MSNBC host Keith Olbermann for violating a network policy that prohibits on-screeen talent from contributing to political campaigns, it is understandable that his network cohorts would rise to his defense. Sadly for Rachel Maddow, who delivered her two cents yesterday, this is impossible to do without throwing stones across the yawning ratings chasm at FOX News.
Her attacks on FOX are based on the fact that “hosts on FOX raise money on the air for Republican candidates.” She airs a clip of Sean Hannity soliciting contributions from viewers. But no sooner does she deliver this damnig accusation than she shoots herself in the foot by dismissing FOX as a “political operation,” not a “news organization” like the one that employs her. If by her own lights FOX is nothing more than a shill for the Republican Party, then why would she expect them to uphold the same high standards of impartiality that she apparently ascribes to MSNBC?
But her castigation of FOX doesn’t stop there. Her comments include reference to “all the right-wing cackling and the beltway, old-media cluck cluck clucking about this” that evidently have occurred since Olbermann’s unpaid suspension made headlines. Let’s have a look at some of that right-wing cackling, and from Maddow’s favorite target no less. Here’s Bill Kristol, of the Weekly Standard and a regular on FOX:
MSNBC’s suspension of Keith Olbermann is ludicrous.
First, he donated money to candidates he liked. He didn’t take money, or favors, in a way that influenced his reporting.
Second, he’s not a reporter. It’s an opinion show. If Olbermann wants to put his money where his mouth is, more power to him.
Third, GE, the corporate parent of MSNBC, gives money to political organizations. GE executives and, I’m sure, NBC executives give money. Why can’t Olbermann?
Wow, what an SOB! Talk about hitting a guy when he’s down!
On last night’s Special Report with Bret Baier, the so-called all-star panel weighed in on the Olbermann suspension. The three panelists—Fred Barnes (also of the Weekly Standard), A.B. Stoddard (of The Hill), and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer—were all of a mind that what Olbermann did should not have been a punishable offense. By the way, that’s the same Charles Krauthammer that Olbermann named in his “Worst Person in the World” segment on May 4 of this year. (It is hard to know whether Krauthammer considers Olbermann one of the worst people in the world because no FOX program has a segment with that name.)
The bottom line is that neither of these networks is innocent of bomb-throwing. Sean Hannity certainly degrades the conversation when he refers to the president as “the anointed one.” Glenn Beck’s funny voices are equally out of place in a supposedly serious news commentary.
But is there room or justification for Rachel Maddow to take shots over the bow at FOX because one of her colleagues was axed? You decide.
Buffalobob
13 years ago
Liberals in denial, akin to the Captain of the Titanic.
Missy
13 years ago
Why I quit… Desert Storm vet explains decision to leave Air Force after 22 years
By MIKE BANZET |
I never expected to write this letter, but my Mom e-mailed me to get information about my career for a writeup on Veterans Day, and as this is the first such holiday in 22 years when I will not be on active duty, I felt compelled to let you know why I decided to quit.
Quit is a strong word, I know. Everyone I’ve talked to has repeated that I’ve had a marvelous career and that I’ve retired with honor. Maybe that’s true on paper; I guess that it’s reflected by the record. But that’s not how I feel. I feel like I’ve quit. And because I’m not a quitter, I feel I have to explain why — not that anyone is asking, but because perhaps they don’t know to ask.
Briefly, my career had been a representation of the promise of this country. Starting out on the lowest rung of the rank ladder as an F-4G Wild Weasel crew chief, continuing on F-16s and the F-117A Stealth fighter in Desert Storm, then a small part of Desert Fox as a nuclear Maintenance Officer and finally a pilot that took part in numerous deployments in Southern Watch, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. I finished up an awesome year on the ground in Iraq, and was selected to receive a coveted “Definitely Promote,” assuring me of promotion to lieutenant colonel. They don’t pass out many of those. My dreams were right in front of me. All I had to do was grab them. And then I retired. Why?
Atlas Shrugged.
I had chosen, freely, to place my life between those that would do harm to the U.S. and those whom I would protect: her citizens. I had always believed in the best of America and the people of her lands; that despite occasional missteps there was a general “rightness” to our way. I lived that belief for 22 years, leading and following warriors into combat. I’m certainly no war hero; my brothers in arms have seen far more combat, more intense and personal than I. But I have become acquainted with death in a way that I hope you never do. My last tour, on the ground in Iraq was where my heart started to be hardened towards you, the electorate, and culminated in this letter, written two days before our elections. And here’s why.
You’ve elected officials who, for partisan points, spoke openly that the “…war is lost.” I happened to be in a dining facility in Baghdad that day, filled with the (mostly) young faces of (mostly) Army men and women. CNN was on the TVs, and things got very quiet when this elected official continued on, railing that the mission that some of these very people were here to do, had “…failed.” Yet, they would be donning their body armor, strapping on med kits and weapons, mounting HMMVs or MRAPs and heading outside the wire, ensuring that the newborn democracy in Iraq, purchased with so many lives, would be safe another night. The newly re-invigorated insurgents would be waiting, teeth bared back in a hateful smile, gripping the IED detonator, the RPG launcher, or the AK-47s to ply their trade with new energy, because the Senate Majority Leader had said they were winning.
You elected officials who continually defame and berate military members, whether it is the observation that if you’re not too bright, you’ll get “…stuck in Iraq” (this from a guy who has two Purple Hearts for self-inflicted wounds, and known for throwing someone else’s medals away in protest), or the calling of combat Marines cold-blooded killers (in a war; before trial). You’ve elected officials in the role of commander-in-chief who “loathe” the military, while using ROTC deferments and special treatment to avoid military service that the less “connected” take as a responsibility. On the basis of “change,” you elected someone who had close, ongoing associations with people who were part of an organization that tried to kill us [U.S. military] on our own soil.
You elected officials that promised to take property from some Americans, and give it to you, merely because they had more than you did. Those Americans that these officials have labeled as the “rich” are your neighbors, who provide jobs and pay far more in taxes than you ever will. That means they are already subsidizing your lifestyle choices; you just want more of their property without the responsibility of risking your wealth and labor to get it. You would rather hire someone to take it from them. And you have.
Yet these same officials from this same party are the wealthiest group of people in both the House and Senate. They have offshore accounts, forbid unions in their businesses and use every tax loophole they can find with their armies of accountants. But you keep sending them back to those jobs, because they promise to steal from some Americans and give to you.
You elect officials who openly embrace illegal activity; but they don’t have to live with the consequences. Other Americans pay the price. You support “sanctuary cities” and open defiance of federal law, including supporting administrations who sue our sister states as they desperately try to control a crime epidemic by supporting federal law. You support an administration that leads a party that gives a standing ovation to the leader of a country that exploits our kindness and actively encourages law-breaking in our country while insulting our fellow citizens who dare to try to enforce the law. Check out your elected officials; did they stand and applaud the racist diatribe of the president of Mexico? Did they join the attorney general and the head of Homeland Security in applauding this gaping hole in (homeland) security and law? Do you have locks on your doors? Why?
You elect officials who are openly racist, decrying that “White folks’ greed drives a world in need…” and that their own grandmother was a “…typical white person.” Someone who sits in admiration as their pastor (small p; no capital letters for racists), in a church he attended for 20 years, slanders the United States as the “…U.S. of KKK America” and delights that the 9/11 “…chickens have come home to roost.” Someone who refused to denounce a paramilitary, racist organization that placed its members in front of polling places armed with billy clubs, and yelling racist, threatening epithets. On video. And the Attorney General did nothing.
Oh, wait. The Justice Department is now apparently, under sworn testimony, the Department of Racial Payback. And you continue to support the party that supports this blatantly racist behavior because they say that they will stick it to “the man” on your behalf. A Nation of Cowards? I don’t think so; the courage of this breathtaking racism is without equal in modern times. One would think that you would use your votes to eradicate these racist policies from the U.S. But that assumes eradicating racism is your aim. It’s not, or you would be as incensed at this blatant racism as you would if sheet-covered whites were there. But longtime Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd’s old gang has been rightfully disgraced and shamed into a virtual non-existence. Thank goodness that 52 percent of you discourage that kind of behavior.
But you don’t. You support the tactic of using the epithet of “racist” as the cudgel of choice for racists who don’t like policies that conservatives advocate. Don’t like illegal activity? Racist. Your party insists that to provide a photo ID — proving you are who you say you are — is not only too much of a burden to ask a voter to bear, but it’s racist as well. This not only terribly insulting to all races, but when the burden of proof to rent the DVD “Second Hand Lions” (amazing movie!) is higher than that required to vote for someone who has control of nuclear weapons or deploying men and women into harm’s way, there is something wrong.
It doesn’t end there. Don’t like a particular female’s policies? Sexist. Yet, you support politicians who prey on 20-year old interns, seduce underage male interns, and, as a double bonus, support a person for the Supreme Court who says she is “wiser” than white people because of her race and sex. And any opponent of hers must be sexist and racist. Yet the prevailing double standard makes “bitch” an acceptable term for a conservative grandmother with the temerity to want to stop illegal activity. And “whore” is acceptable terminology for any conservative woman.
Sarah Palin seems to be a nice person, the kind you would love to have as a neighbor, regardless of her policies; but you insist that she is stupid and vile. She is ignorant and inexperienced, clearly not ready for anything, as holding a variety of elected and appointed positions culminating in the governorship of Alaska clearly doesn’t hold up against… an organizer of race-based communities. Sexist, if a conservative said those words about a liberal, but because she is not pro-killing-little-kids, 52 percent of you decided she was worth vicious ad hominem attacks that continue to this day. Not just saying that you disagree, but saying she is evil. You support it all. All because the folks that practice this abhorrent behavior promise to give you free health care stolen from other Americans who haven’t paid their ill-defined “fair share.”
My oath was this: “I, Mike, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
I took that oath seriously. But you have responsibilities, too. You should take them seriously.
———
Mike Banzet, a retired major in the U.S. Air Force, is a 1986 graduate of Flathead High School in Kalispell, Montana.
As one of the 52% of the entire American electorate who was defamed by the retired Air Force officer (#88), I’d simply like to say that demonizing half of the country simply because they have honest differences of opinion on issues such as land wars in Asia, the environment, and the size of the safety net, and then justifying it by citing a handful of extreme examples of Democrats behaving badly is just the sort of thing which Jon Stewart’s was bemoaning, the other day, on the Mall in Washington, DC.
Agree with me — and you are a patriot.
Disagree with me — and you are a miserable, pathetic excuse of a human being.
As Pogo so famously said, “we have met the enemy, and he is us.”
MISSY: hi, I dont see MIKE statement “WHY I QUIT” here AT FA, came from you.
AND I just read it on my gmail, WHY is THAT? IT’s a must read. specialy by OT,
WHICH he ADDRESS to at the end. bye
Larry, can you point out the part that you feel defamed you?
As for John Stewart? The man that brought Cat Steven or Yusef Islam, as a muslim rep; a man that said Salman Rushdie should be killed? You are quote that John Stewart?
LARRY: you have to RETHINK your answer to that brave military, and try to put yourself
in his shoes, and I know you are smart enough to get back to him and do the right thing,
best to you SR
Old Trooper 2
13 years ago
@ Missy, Sadly one of many. We have quite a few that Served Honorably and Well and hung up their guns, went Home where things make more sense and Service is not Self Serving but involves Duty, Honor, Country and sacrifice does not include pandering for Votes or cutting backroom deals.
@ openid.aol.com/runnswim, if you feel defamed, insulted or demonized, take your feelings off your sleeve. In this Nation dissent is not a crime and WE can agree to disagree on issues without getting our ‘feelings hurt’. I have been recalled to Active Duty twice since retiring from 28 years of Honorable Service and have served under incompetents, been deployed to dangerous places every time that some dumb SOB’s Foreign Policy fell on it’s ass. We in uniform do not make Foreign Policy, we just go where we are sent and restore Order, stop Genocide, provide the opportunity for oppressed people to have some degree of being free of fear and go to every POTUS’s lost causes. It is frustrating, dangerous and involves taking risks that Career Politicians or Diplomats don’t take.
It involves Family Separation, Divorce, getting Our Hands Dirty doing what others are too good to do. We can agree to disagree on a great many issues here at FA with civility and respect. The Oath is to the Constitution, not to any temporary resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the United Nations or politics that we agree or disagree with. I owe no allegiance to agendas or dogmas. My Oath forbids that. We Serve to make a Difference and at times that is not enough for some. MAJ Mike Banzet, USAF RET. has paid his dues and is entitled to his opines which I may add were not pulled out of his hat but gleaned from his experience. I am a bit more thick skinned than most here at FA but I reckon that We can agree to disagree on this matter with no skin off my nose.
I am not Party affiliated but the MAJ is one of US. He is an American that Served the Nation Honorably. For that You can be thankful. For that I am Grateful as less than 3% of Americans are in Uniform to Defend the Nation. Thank God for that 3%!
Recently, Chris Matthews was on MSLSD running down Sarah Palin yet again. Will the left never learn? The more they run her down, the higher her popularity rises. He said she was an “empty vessel” with “nothing going on mentally.” This from the same person who said he forgot Obama was black after the SOTU speech and also during the campaign said when he was around Obama, he got a thrill running up his leg.
What is fear, and why does it affect us so? The process of creating fear starts with a scary stimulus and ends with the fight-or-flight response. It can cause us to run, to fight, to freeze or create other mystifying responses. So exactly what is this powerful emotion that can consume us for brief periods of time?
To quote Brian Maxwell, from his ezine article, “What is Fear?” he says: “The medical definition of fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight or flight response.” That stimulus could be anything; an evil looking bug, a spider, a gun pointed at you, or Sarah Palin resigning from her position as Governor of Alaska.
Of course Mr. Maxwell didn’t put that part about Sarah Palin in his article. I added it to illustrate how the left views Ms. Palin and what she represents to them. Why is it that she strikes fear into the left? What is it about the former Vice Presidential candidate that bothers the left so much? She represents something they do not like. That is evidenced in the 20 different ethics charges that were brought against her; each one beaten in the court of law at considerable tax payer expense. Let’s examine what she has accomplished and maybe that will give us the answer we are looking for.
In her role as Mayor of Wasilla, she made her political name first known. Now Wasilla, with around 10,000 residents as of 2007, is the fifth largest city in Alaska and is located in the south central part of the state. Upon winning the mayoral race in 1998, Sarah set to work. She reduced her own salary by 10%, consolidated some city departments and created the position of city administrator. An interesting note that shines a light on the type of leadership Sarah Palin provides is that she kept a jar on her desk with all the names of the residents of Wasilla in it and once a week, she would randomly choose a name, call that person and elicit their thoughts on how the town was doing. I think that we need more mayors like this in America with this kind of dedication, no matter their political party. That is real government accountability and transparency.
She cut property taxes by a whopping 75% by using a 2% sales tax increase that was enacted before she took office. She also eliminated business inventory and personal property taxes. She made improvements to city streets and sewers using municipal bonds and increased Police Department funding. When Sarah ran for re-election against the man she beat to win her first term, she got 75% of the vote. The Boston Globe ran a story that quoted a local business owner who credited Sarah with making the town “more of a community … It’s no longer a little strip town that you can blow through in a heartbeat.”
And all this was only as mayor of a small town and only her first term. One can begin to see why the left fears Sarah Palin. Her second term as Mayor of Wasilla was also successful, seeing her bring to fruition the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex. An eminent domain issue had to be dealt with; however, it was built on time and under budget and for only a half percent sales tax increase. Due to term limits, she was limited to running for only two consecutive terms as Mayor of Wasilla. So she set her sights on the state capitol.
After an unsuccessful run for Lieutenant Governor in 2002, she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission as Ethics Supervisor. She resigned in 2004 citing unethical practices by her Republican colleagues. She filed charges against them and essentially cleaned house.
In 2006 Sarah ran and won the state Gubernatorial Seat. During her tenure she doubled state revenues. Yes, you read that right; she DOUBLED state revenues to $10 billion. And that is without a state sales tax or a state income tax. She ran on a platform of clean government and delivered, even selling a state owned business jet for $2.1 million dollars.
Yes, it is easy to see why the left fears Sarah Palin. She is the quintessential conservative candidate. And now that she has left office, there are many questions as to why she did so.
• Money? The speaking circuit can be quite profitable, as everyone knows.
• Power? Well, giving up the top position in a state is not quite doing that.
• The ever-popular “run for President?” Who knows, and more importantly, who cares? It is ultimately up to Sarah to reveal that to the American public in her own good time.
But, regardless of what one thinks of her – neither she, nor anyone else could effectively build a campaign for President from the great state of Alaska. It is just too geographically removed from the mainland. Add to the fact that now that she is a civilian, the muckrakers who want to press made up ethics charges against her now have to pony up money, and one can see why she did what she did. It was a smart move for more than one reason.
She is intelligent, holds traditional conservative views, is pleasing to the eye and has a presence on the stage or behind the podium as the case may be that we have not seen in this nation since Ronald Reagan. That being said, I think the reason she came off less than stellar during the campaign is twofold.
1. The mainstream media gave her a very rough time. Waiting like vultures to pick on each and every word she misspoke. For example, she told a grade schooler, I think the child was 8 years old, a very simplified version of what the Vice President does. The media took that and ran with it, saying she didn’t even know what her job would be if McCain won. On the other hand, Obama said he had been to “all 57 states.” The media was strangely silent on that. Imagine if you will that Palin had made that faux-pas. It has been said that she was picked from relative obscurity and thrust into the limelight. A difficult proposition no matter which side of the aisle you sit on. Due to McCain waiting so long, she basically had to hit the ground running.
2. First hand accounts at the McCain rallies testified to the political star power that Palin wields. McCain’s rallies swelled in number and he was quoted as saying, “The response to her has been overwhelming, it’s been incredible. She’s ignited America.” I believe that McCain’s handlers actually became wary of that, and therefore they joined in the left’s efforts to malign her. To his detriment, McCain did not put a stop to it as he should have. It would have made him look like a leader and actually, I think, scored points with the GOP base.
The left is still maligning Sarah Palin and this only proves that she is a person that they fear. Saleem Rana said in his ezine article, “How Fear Inhibits Self-Expression and Personal Growth” that “Fear left unchecked can lead to all kinds of neurosis and inhibitions.” And that “the reaction to fear is so extreme that something is actually created to fear.”
The left is in danger of pushing their hatred of Sarah Palin too far. Because to go back to the fear article I cited at the beginning of this essay, the left needs to remember the Law of Attraction, which states that “Excessive focus on a feared event will attract to us exactly the event which we fear.” In other words: what we focus on we create. So keep it up, far left. You are helping to forge if not a great conservative Presidential candidate, then surely a great conservative voice.
anticsrocks: hi, I see your article is Timeless, because it’s still very noticed at this time,
AND will be for a long time, as long as SARAH PALIN is involve in POLITIC.
BUT they repeat so many time the same thing in all different sentences, that it does’nt click in the ear, and they become trapped in their own tongue, therefor degenerating their own media,
moving it down to a despicable levelof ineffective journalisem
bye
As Rachel Maddow points out, there’s a fundamental difference between MSNBC and Fox News. While MSNBC’s political commentators have obviously taken a side in the national political discussion, they haven’t reduced themselves to the level of duplicitous pitchmen for the side they’ve taken. Their presentations make their viewers think. They don’t presume to tell their viewers what to think–or blatantly tell their viewers where to send their money. Unlike FOX commentators, MSNBC commentators are neither propaganda tools, nor partisan fundraising tools. Nor does MSNBC have commentators who are making themselves vast personal fortunes by building audience bases around distortion, disinformation, and demagoguery.
Heh,
Rachel Maddow Blasts Fox from her Glass House at MSNBC!
AYE CHIHUAHUA: hi, I think the BLOG here is more credible than other medias not counting FOX which is closer with the people, therefor more into reality check all the time helping them to be as balance as we are here at fa with a diversify group we all have,and not restricted to say what we think and feel in our guts. bye
@Tom:
Heyyy….my buddy Tom is back finally.
I was wondering where you had scurried off to.
Now that you’re back, how about some clean up over here, eh?
And Tom is still as unintelligent and clueless as ever. 😆
Yet another link to possible voter fraud:
http://www.laborunionreport.com/portal/2010/11/exposed-americas-democracy-traded-away-for-a-slice-of-pizza/
@Hard (#46): You criticized my suggestion (#36) that the best (and most moral) form of economic stimulus would be infrastructure spending as opposed to tax cuts, citing FDR’s “New Deal” as extending the depression. I wrote that I’d never heard that FDR’s infrastructure spending had extended the Depression and asked for a reference. You provided a link to a 2004 study by 2 UCLA economists. I read your link. Here’s what it said:
As I noted, FDR’s infrastructure programs were only a small part of the New Deal. The harmful parts of the New Deal had nothing to do with infrastructure (according to the article you cited) and nothing to do with the recent “stimulus package.”
You go on to attack Keynesian economics as being discredited, but you fail to understand that a Keynesian stimulus constitutes borrowing money to increase the money supply in the economy. There are several ways of doing this, and all are Keynesian stimuli. (1) You can borrow money and use it to give to state and local governments, so that they don’t have to lay off workers and/or raise taxes. (2) You can borrow money to finance bridge, road, tunnel, sewer, port, etc. construction, creating jobs and creating lasting infrastructure. (3) You can borrow money and give people tax cuts. (4) You can print more money and use this to redeem previously-issued government bonds.
The point is that borrowing money to finance tax cuts is no different from borrowing money to give to state and local governments; so that they don’t have to raise taxes or borrowing money to do anything else to artificially inject more money into the economy to end a recession.
A true tax cut is accompanied by a spending cut of equal magnitude, to pay for the tax cut. If you borrow money to finance the tax cut (e.g. as was certainly the case with the Bush tax cuts), then this is a Keynesian stimulus, clear and simple.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
All that’s missing is a few flopping aces. 😉
http://minx.cc/?post=307915
Larry, my point was that FDR, like you, believed in lots of government spending. He also had the same attitude towards businesses that were “sitting on a hoard of cash.” I suggest you go look up what he did to companies that were “sitting on a hoard of cash.”
You are suggesting basically the same things be done that were done under FDR-and we saw what that did. Extend the Depression.
I find it almost astonishing you don’t consider yourself a liberal when you support a very large part of their agenda.
@Hard. Let’s just say that a great many Democrats and Liberals would consider me to be a “DINO” or a “LINO.”
Good grief, I voted Republican in both California’s Senate race (Fiorina) and my District’s Congressional race (Rohrabacher). I’m anti-gay marriage, anti-McCain/Feingold, pro-Second Amendment, not at all anti-religious, and a TRUE fiscal conservative (firm believer in pay as you go government, which does include actually paying for whatever our government chooses to spend, as opposed to passing the tab down to future generations of Americans).
No, I’m nowhere near as conservative as you (your self-chosen name is “Hard Right,” for goodness sake). But I’m open to persuasion, based on well-reasoned arguments. I’m not open to taunting and name calling.
You still haven’t explained how FDR’s infrastructure spending extended the Depression. In the article you cited, it said that FDR extended the Depression by coming
This has nothing to do with (1) infrastructure investment, (2) grants to state and local governments, (3) tax cuts, or (4) extension of unemployment benefits (lsupported by the GOP, in votes through the Spring of 2010, by the way), which were the components of the Obama “stimulus.”
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
Infrastructure spending? Larry, asked and answererd.
Larry, just because you aren’t a foaming at the mouth lib, doesn’t mean you are not a lib.
Wow!
Obama’s Cousin Lays into him!
Dr. Milton R. Wolf’s essay:
Obamacare’s Unkeepable Promises
Utopian vision was a fraud from the beginning
That’s a MUST-READ.
Link:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/21/we-are-witnessing-the-unmistakable-collapse-of-an-/print/
@Hard (#59): I’m actually very glad that you brought up the claim, often cited by conservatives, that FDR “prolonged the Depression.” By this, conservatives strongly imply that it was government spending, per se, which prolonged the Depression. So they argue (as Hard Right is now doing) that the concept of government spending to shorten recessions has been discredited.
But it’s not ALL of the New Deal which was allegedly harmful. It was actually only a small component of it; to quote directly from your citation:
This component has nothing at all to do with infrastructure spending in particular or Obama’s “stimulus” in general. It actually has nothing to do with anything, beyond the historical aspects of FDR’s Presidency, because NIRA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and nullified, long ago.
The point is that FDR, as in the case of all great Presidents, got some very important things right, while getting a few things wrong. I happen to think that Reagan was the right man for the job, in his time, and got some important things right, but Reagan’s embrace of supply side economics (borrow money to cut taxes) was just as harmful to the long term economic health of the nation as was Roosevelt’s embrace of the concept that too much competition was bad for industry.
In any event, there was certainly nothing in the New Deal which discredits the concept of borrowing money to build infrastructure, particularly during a severe recession, just as there is nothing anywhere which supports the concept of permanent tax cuts, supported by permanent borrowing, in the absence of spending cuts commensurate with the size of the tax cuts.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
@nan g: It’s a self serving op-ed by a subspecialist physician who’s ox stands to be gored (the MD “winners” in Obamacare tend to be the primary care specialities; subspecialist incomes will probably fall, as the emphasis changes away from rewarding procedures to rewarding overall health care outcomes).
I’m a reader of Kaiser Health News. They are continually dissecting the implications of Obamacare, with respect to absolutely everything. If you want to have a deeper and more unbiased understanding, I’d recommend going through the archives on their website.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/
Particularly thoughtful are the various columns written by Jonathan Cohn. These cover almost all of the relevant issues.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Search.aspx?search_collection=khn_collection&search_count=100&search_all=Jonathan+Cohn
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
A ”sniffer” dog is in India for Obama’s visit.
The dog is part of our military presence to keep Obama safe.
But Muslims in Bombay are incensed….aren’t they always?
This time it is because the dog is named ”Kahn.”
Angry Muslims in the city and the state are threatening to protest this ‘insult’ to the community.
First, veteran actor Raza Murad objecting to the dog being named ‘Khan.’
Then noted lyricist Javed Akhtar tried to talk the Muslims into ignoring the insult.
Next Maharashtra Samajwadi Party leader MLA Abu Asim Azmi threatened to undertake a protest. He said that the US deliberately wants to incite the Muslims through such acts and the party would stage a protest on the issue.
Prominent Muslim religious heads have expressed anger and dismay on the information of a US dog being named ‘Khan.’ Maulana Syed Athar Ali said that it is a known fact that Muslims detest pigs and dogs.
“To name a dog a Muslim name by US security agencies is to deliberately incite the Muslim community. We would be meeting soon and devise a strategy to protest and seek apology from the US,” said Maulana Athar Ali.
So, I have to wonder how low Obama will have to bow to these nutcases so that our apology will be accepted.
Was this a deliberate affront?
Absolutely not.
If anything it was another unintentional little thing blown up into a gigantic offense by some of the leaders of a people who have made finding offense an art form because Islam forbids them instigating attacks.
Story source:
http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/nov/05/obama-visit-security-dog-named-khan-muslims-irked.htm
On FDR…Factually speaking, Franklin Roosevelt did not do one thing to end the great depression. Employment on 12-7-41 was at the same level it was when he was elected in 1932. I won’t mention the ‘land mine’ social legislation he imposed on the nation in the interim, aside from mentioning it. What Roosevelt did accomplish – through force of personality – was give people reassurance. Reassurance (I will never again use the word hope) that something was being done. Now is the beginning of our very last chance to salvage a great nation. Very last. I for one am not reassured.
The ‘land mine’ referred to here is Social Security that is now a ticking bomb that no Administration has remedied or made solvent. It is essentially a Ponzi Scheme box of IOUs. FDR’s New Recovery Administration was ruled un-Constitutional and scrapped. The Tennessee Valley Authority should have privatized over 4 decades ago but is still around.
The Economy turned around through the War Effort mobilizing Private Industry and not through increased Public Sector employment. For Obama to take a page or two from FDR’s Game Plan has been disastrous in terms of the Deficit which is now at the highest level of the History of the Planet. ARRA was a bust. Period. Then lying about Job Creation by creating temporary jobs through the Census is inexcusable and disingenuous.
The Programs that most Americans are vested in, both MEDICARE and Social Security are not solvent at this point and every Congress and Administration over the past 20 years has failed to secure those Programs through legislation that would not permit plundering or borrowing from those funds. That is what funded LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ Programs that got the Government involved in Public Housing and Lifetime Welfare commitments.
No cheers here for FDR.
@Trooper: I’d like to debate FDR, SS, etc. some time, with you. Plus ARRA, causes of the deficit (Obama being directly responsible for, at last count, 1.8% of the increase in debt ratio, compared to about 30% for Reagan and 10% for GWB), etc. – Defies concise summary, though. Another time, perhaps? – Larry
P.S. Just a quick aside regarding FDR and WWII. It’s a gross mischaracterization to say that Roosevelt simply offered “reassurance.” Without all of the stuff Roosevelt did, entirely in private and behind the scenes, for the first two years of the war (1939-late 1941, before Pearl Harbor), Great Britain would quite possibly have been defeated by Hitler and the War would have been lost, before we entered it, or, at a minimum, the costs of victory in Europe would have been far more severe than what turned out to be.
In France pigs are used to sniff out truffles underground. They could easily be trained as sniffing pigs and we could call them Hussein or some other Western name. We should have had a back-up plan.
I had a watch pig when I was a boy, he was very effective with salesmen; they could probably be trained to sniff out terrorists at airports so that women wouldn’t be sexually assaulted to fly.
@ Skookum, My Grand Dad kept geese and banty chickens for that purpose.
They were very effective but I prefer bacon, sausage or smoked ham to goose or mini hens.
Today I have a couple of Border Collies for that tasking. My hands shot four white tails yesterday on the spread. Bucks of good size and not a huge loss to the deer supply. Venison is a keen supplement to a diet of beef, pork or chicken. Roasts, steaks and deer sausage are good grub as you know. No Elk or Moose on property but deer are plentiful.
My Daughter loves deer jerky and requests it frequently.
MSNBC Suspends Keith Olbermann Indefinitely for Contributing to Democratic Campaigns
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/05/msnbc-suspends-keith-olbermann-indefinitely-contributing-democratic-campaigns/
No great loss. A Talking Head Leftist twit breaks a few rules and gets called on it. As I don’t watch liberal alphabet networks anyway or give credence to their tainted product, I find this amusing. He is a Newsie and NOT a Journalist and Josef Goebbels or Leon Trotsky would be proud of his tripe. Maybe the Obama Regime needs a new propagandist.
Whoever watches MSNBC might have caught this doozy from yesterday:
Mark Penn, Democratic strategist and former chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, on last night’s Hardball, said something that must be seen to be believed.
Comparing Obama’s current situation to the aftermath of the 1994 “Republican Revolution,” Penn noted that it took the Oklahoma City tragedy in order for President Clinton to “reconnect” with the American people.
He then stepped off the cliff by saying that President Obama needed a “similar event” to achieve that reconnection following his party’s midterm losses.
Host Chris Matthews barely notices.
“President Clinton reconnected with Oklahoma.
And the President right now he seems removed.
And it wasn’t until that speech that he really clicked with the American people.
Obama needs a similar kind of, yeah” said Penn.
http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=hdSUkUkUpr
A few quotes that question your assumptions, Larry.
60% Larry. Want to guess what the the other 40% was made up of?
Infrastructure spending takes capital from the private sector and gives it to the public sector which is ineffecient, especially when compared to the private market.
Larry, government spending DOES NOT create long term jobs or economic prosperity. This has been proven over and over. Your support of it is one reason why I call you a liberal.
Obama to use teleprompter for Hindi speech
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Obama-to-use-teleprompter-for-Hindi-speech/H1-Article1-622605.aspx
Without reading from the teleprompter he just looks and sounds like a rube and neither an orator nor a World Leader.
OLD TROOPER, IT also show a lack of confidence to speak with his core belief
for AMERICA’S INTERESTS, HE IS SUPPOSE to represent ,and he choose to represent only himself
in those COUNTRYS
On the weekends on one of the C-SPAN channels you can catch the Q&A sessions between the House of Commons/Lords and the Prime Minister.
Amazing oratory!
On both sides.
Agree or disagree one MUST agree that any one of these men and women could wipe the floor with Obama, the script-reader.
There are times I have listened in rapt attention when the subject matter is totally irrelavent to my life….but the verbal ability of the speaker is stunning.
Nan G; hi, IT would be VERY interesting to learn; WHICH PRESIDENT was the best SKILLED,
IN delivering A SPEECH to the PEOPLE. just a curiosity to know. bye
In praise of our President I’d like to remind you all of the enormous qualities he possesses:
He is tall.
He seems to keep himself clean.
He has a deep voice.
Many women find him attractive.
He was able to meet the requirements for graduation from a large Ivy League school.
He has achieved strong support from many socialist and communist organizations.
A large number of Americans and a large number of citizens of other countries living in America voted for him.
No-one in the legacy media can find a single serious flaw in him.
So knock off the criticism, wouldja?
@DaNang67:
Though not exactly legacy media, I wonder if you would have to agree with Chris Matthews that it was the Republicans that turned Obama into a lefty. Perhaps you can answer Matthew’s question, it went something like:
“How do you teach them that they better not do that again?” 😯
I was just a bit stunned after watching the 50 second clip, I may have missed something. 8) Just can’t make this stuff up:
🙄
@ #68:
As Rachel Maddow points out, there’s a fundamental difference between MSNBC and Fox News. While MSNBC’s political commentators have obviously taken a side in the national political discussion, they haven’t reduced themselves to the level of duplicitous pitchmen for the side they’ve taken. Their presentations make their viewers think. They don’t presume to tell their viewers what to think–or blatantly tell their viewers where to send their money. Unlike FOX commentators, MSNBC commentators are neither propaganda tools, nor partisan fundraising tools. Nor does MSNBC have commentators who are making themselves vast personal fortunes by building audience bases around distortion, disinformation, and demagoguery.
Another obvious difference: You won’t find FOX commentators openly taking issue on the air with their own network’s management policies, as Rachel Maddow has done in the video linked above. That sort of freedom of expression happens within a liberal context. Not in the context of a tightly wrapped propaganda outlet such as FOX News.
I’ve arrived at that conclusion by regularly and critically viewing both FOX and its “liberal alphabet network” competitors. If you restrict your total information intake to only one side of a discussion, you will invariably develop a distorted, one-sided view of reality.
Automatically rejecting any and all opposing views or sources while simultanously avoiding all exposure to them is symptomatic of brainwashing.
GREG: I don’t see any conservatives here showing that they are, and you can notice it on the
other side quite a lot, and more after NOVEMBER 2nd.
bye
@ Greg
As exhibited by MSNBC and the KOS Crowd on a daily basis. Rachel Maddow exhibits all of those characteristics as well. Rejecting propaganda by Newsies and Talking Heads is indicative of those in possession of judgment and the real world experience to recognize it when it is presented. Some of US are not as easily manipulated or fooled as you seem to be. My BS detector has been calibrated by that experience.
Greg the self professed moderate again defends the loony left. Greg hits the leftist hat trick. Denial, projection, and displacement all in one post. Bravo Greg. Your psychiatrist must be proud.
Oh, Greg is half right. There is a massive difference between MSNBC and Fox News and that difference is?
NBC Universal is being bought out by Comcast which means Comcast will be cleaning shop on the lowest rated and respected “news” agency in the market. This means Contract re-negotiation time for many anchors, opinion show hosts such as Maddow, and contributors to the network. Comcast is done playing around with NBC Universal with re-broadcasting contract squables and sees it prime to aquire NBC Universal as a business asset, and part of this 30 billion merger with Comcast being the parent company is to see to it to fix rating and confidence issues with a marketed client base which translates to some heads of staff and daily faces of MSNBC and NBC will be fired. We’ve already seen some external workings of this action in the form of Keith’s current suspension while their Human Resourcing researchings his matter of violating company ethics and to ensure it does not violate Comcast’s company policies and ethic policies.
In contrast, Fox News has just hired in Juan Williams after that man’s termination from NPR and its parent company is seeking to increase various market interests such as its Business channel access to Cox Communications users by negotiations over Cox’s standard broadcast packages to customers.
Bomb-proof tunnel with air conditioning: Obama’s security go to extraordinary measures for his tour of the Gandhi museum
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326962/Obamas-India-visit-security-erect-bomb-proof-tunnel-Gandhi-museum.html#ixzz14YoIscnt
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326962/Obamas-India-visit-security-erect-bomb-proof-tunnel-Gandhi-museum.html
Now the Boot Licking US Media does not report on this business. We know why.
Hey WTH, it’s Other Peoples Money and Obama got conned again but a pretty grand vacation trip for a Last Term POTUS and one Hell of a Cost for it all. Thank You 53%ers Your Grand Children will remember this as they struggle to pay for this Incompetence!
Meanwhile the 111th Congress and the Idiot Appointed to head the USDA decided to piss away Tax Dollars on this business. Absolutely Brilliant!
UNH scientists to study cow burps . . . and more
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=UNH+scientists+to+study+cow+burps+.+.+.+and+more&articleId=c43c3680-3551-47ed-be8a-0b5b87880d6e
Worry about Cow Flatulence does not keep me up at night but employs Academic Fools to research such nonsense to no real benefit to anyone but themselves but perpetuates waste, fraud and abuse. Way to go Bernie Sanders, Great American Socialist, for securing this Earmarked bit of Pork.
File this under Waste, Fraud, Abuse and Democrat/Progressive/Socialist logic. After All it is just OPM!
OT, Commentary from the same article:
Elections have consequences. The company I work for has a satellite office in Texas. We’ve been leasing a building and trying to decide whether or not to stay. The uncertainty in the economy has kept us guessing. Looks like we’re about to purchase a building and bringing on new people. As a matter of fact, we’re looking to bring on people in several of our offices.
I’m betting we’re not the only company to be making those decisions. 🙂
Maddow Comes to Olbermann’s Rescue (Lucky Him)
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/11/06/maddow-comes-to-olbermanns-rescue-lucky-him/
Liberals in denial, akin to the Captain of the Titanic.
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/article_dbcfb820-e9f6-11df-9f3f-001cc4c002e0.html
Is this your other neighbor OT?
As one of the 52% of the entire American electorate who was defamed by the retired Air Force officer (#88), I’d simply like to say that demonizing half of the country simply because they have honest differences of opinion on issues such as land wars in Asia, the environment, and the size of the safety net, and then justifying it by citing a handful of extreme examples of Democrats behaving badly is just the sort of thing which Jon Stewart’s was bemoaning, the other day, on the Mall in Washington, DC.
Agree with me — and you are a patriot.
Disagree with me — and you are a miserable, pathetic excuse of a human being.
As Pogo so famously said, “we have met the enemy, and he is us.”
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
Larry, that handful of Democrats, who were misbehaving, happen to be the leadership.
Stewart was bemoaning the inevitable, a situation he helped prescribe.
MISSY: hi, I dont see MIKE statement “WHY I QUIT” here AT FA, came from you.
AND I just read it on my gmail, WHY is THAT? IT’s a must read. specialy by OT,
WHICH he ADDRESS to at the end. bye
MISSY, I just found it, disregard my other comment,
I was on a previous “WEEKLY OPEN thread. bye
Larry, can you point out the part that you feel defamed you?
As for John Stewart? The man that brought Cat Steven or Yusef Islam, as a muslim rep; a man that said Salman Rushdie should be killed? You are quote that John Stewart?
LARRY: you have to RETHINK your answer to that brave military, and try to put yourself
in his shoes, and I know you are smart enough to get back to him and do the right thing,
best to you SR
@ Missy, Sadly one of many. We have quite a few that Served Honorably and Well and hung up their guns, went Home where things make more sense and Service is not Self Serving but involves Duty, Honor, Country and sacrifice does not include pandering for Votes or cutting backroom deals.
@ openid.aol.com/runnswim, if you feel defamed, insulted or demonized, take your feelings off your sleeve. In this Nation dissent is not a crime and WE can agree to disagree on issues without getting our ‘feelings hurt’. I have been recalled to Active Duty twice since retiring from 28 years of Honorable Service and have served under incompetents, been deployed to dangerous places every time that some dumb SOB’s Foreign Policy fell on it’s ass. We in uniform do not make Foreign Policy, we just go where we are sent and restore Order, stop Genocide, provide the opportunity for oppressed people to have some degree of being free of fear and go to every POTUS’s lost causes. It is frustrating, dangerous and involves taking risks that Career Politicians or Diplomats don’t take.
It involves Family Separation, Divorce, getting Our Hands Dirty doing what others are too good to do. We can agree to disagree on a great many issues here at FA with civility and respect. The Oath is to the Constitution, not to any temporary resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the United Nations or politics that we agree or disagree with. I owe no allegiance to agendas or dogmas. My Oath forbids that. We Serve to make a Difference and at times that is not enough for some. MAJ Mike Banzet, USAF RET. has paid his dues and is entitled to his opines which I may add were not pulled out of his hat but gleaned from his experience. I am a bit more thick skinned than most here at FA but I reckon that We can agree to disagree on this matter with no skin off my nose.
I am not Party affiliated but the MAJ is one of US. He is an American that Served the Nation Honorably. For that You can be thankful. For that I am Grateful as less than 3% of Americans are in Uniform to Defend the Nation. Thank God for that 3%!
OLD TROOPER 2; THANK YOU and THANK YOU MAJOR MIKE BANZET .
To be filed under, “Late to the discussion…”
@Greg and Mooselips, RE Palin –
Here is an article I wrote in Feb of this year:
anticsrocks: hi, I see your article is Timeless, because it’s still very noticed at this time,
AND will be for a long time, as long as SARAH PALIN is involve in POLITIC.
BUT they repeat so many time the same thing in all different sentences, that it does’nt click in the ear, and they become trapped in their own tongue, therefor degenerating their own media,
moving it down to a despicable levelof ineffective journalisem
bye
@Greg:
Heh,
Rachel Maddow Blasts Fox from her Glass House at MSNBC!
http://www.youtube.com/user/johnnydollar01
I wonder what Keef Olberbite (Bathtub Boy) had to say about Juan Williams being fired for contract violations.
Well, courtesy of Johnny Dollar and The Daily Caller we have the answer:
Irony and hypocrisy served together.
AYE CHIHUAHUA: hi, I think the BLOG here is more credible than other medias not counting FOX which is closer with the people, therefor more into reality check all the time helping them to be as balance as we are here at fa with a diversify group we all have,and not restricted to say what we think and feel in our guts. bye