Understanding the Right

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Understanding the Right #1


Junkie logic.

The last lie a junkie tells himself isn't "I’m not an addict."

The last lie a junkie tells himself is "My being a addict doesn't matter."

And in the Conservative Crack House of Many Doors, Ronald Reagan was that first cocktail. The first line of coke. The first needle. The first "Holy Mother of God!” WOWGASM that shotguns right through the blood/brain barrier, reformats your entire ethical hard drive, and scrimshaws a brand new Prime Directive on the inside of your skull.

Listen to any aging wingnut sighing and jerking sadly off to a tattered photo of Saint Ronnie -- despite the fact that the catastrophes we are now reaping were sown by his ruinous ideology -- and you can hear every addict who ever lived pining for that first Perfect High. The one they spend the rest of their days chasing, regardless of the size of the debts they run up or the ruined lives they leave in their wake.

Clinton? Objectively, Clinton qualifies as the greatest Center/Right President in history, and with balanced budgets, GATT, welfare reform, NAFTA, DOMA, record surpluses, foreign and domestic terrorists brought to book, and an actual military victory, he arguably delivered to the wingnuts more of everything they ever said they wanted than anyone else.

And they hated him for it.

Why?

Because Clinton was mere addiction maintenance delivered in measured doses under adult supervision: all policy-wonk that wasn’t cut with that industrial-waste-grade bigoted, psychotic bloodlust that gives Conservatism its wild, freebasing edge. Clinton was methadone, and for the hardcore lifestyle junkie, that **** is for babies.

And Dubya? Dubya was meth with a ketamine chaser delivered hammer-and-anvil directly to the lizard brain.

Dubya was 40 million Pig People tired of the hard, fussy job of being a tolerant, powerful democracy finally once-and-for-all blowing America’s family inheritance on an eight-year, blood-drunk bender.

Dubya was the United States crawling through dumpsters at our national soul’s midnight, killing anything that moves, licking out the contents of random baggies, hoping the little white flakes clinging to the plastic is crank and not rat poison, and waking up the next day -- that horrible, horrible sun-also-rises morning after -- broke and twitchy, arguing over what more they can sell off to keep the party going and who they can blame for their gone-to-**** lives.

So what is the last lie a Conservative tells himself? The last lie that the junkies and their suppliers both fight like hell to keep alive and twitching?

That, whether or not their ideology is depraved or deluded, it doesn’t matter because:“Both side are always equally wrong about everything all the time.” Doesn’t matter the who or what. The when or how. Doesn’t matter who was driving the bus towards the cliff and who was waving the red flags, throwing their bodies in front of it, trying to make it stop. Doesn’t matter who was trying to douse the conflagration with hoses shredded by 20 year of Reaganism, and who was lobbing milk cartons full of jellied gasoline onto the bonfire.

It is the lie the hagged-out Cokie Roberts pushes week after week after week on “This Week…” (http://lnmc.crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/week-krugman-pushes-back-against-fals)

It is the lie that David ****ing Brooks pushes in the pages of the New York Times.

It is the lie that made David Broder the “Dean” of the Villagers; the lie on which the quarterly profits of the entire Murdoch media empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch) now rests.

Because these people and thousands more like them are not journalists or “pundits” or expert who offer facts or interpretation or a philosophical framework for illuminating and contextualizing the events of the world.

They are pushers, selling that last, nihilistic lie to the junkies on the Right who will pay any price and cut any throat to escape the fact that they are personally and specifically responsible for the destruction of the country they claimed to love in the name of a God they claim to believe in.

Which is why November 4th is so much more than an election.

November 4th is an Intervention, because the junkie-pusher spiral of the Republican rank-and-file and their leaders has finally hit bottom: we need to heal this country or lose it, and arguing -- "reasoning" -- with wingnuts and their enabling shills and hacks is as pointless as trying to reason with addicts and dealers.

The only way this country is going to be saved is by taking it away from them, school board by school board, city council by city council, congressional district by congressional district, state by state, election by election until they are driven back into the political sewers from whence they came.

[snowspot66]

While I wouldn't go so far I would say that I hope Obama wins in a landslide. A morale demolishing, utterly supreme, and destructive landslide. I want the Republican party to feel the pain of a thousand nut shots. I want them hurting so bad that they won't even want to vote in the next election.

The reason I want such an embarrassing defeat is that I feel it is the only way they will be able to shake off the tentacles of the Religious Right. If they would wake up and move left it would be better for the party and better for the country. On top of that they would realize that it doesn't matter what their policies are. The religious people will always be conservative and always vote Republican because of that. They don't need to pander to those people. They merely need to be on the correct side of issues to win. It's really not that hard. But as it is they cling to their policies like Catholics to dogma.

[Needa Pass Rush]

In 1932, Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president as the nation was heading into a severe recession. The stock market had crashed in 1929, the world's economy was slowing down, and all economic indicators in the U.S. showed signs of trouble.

The new president's response was to restructure the economy with the New Deal -- an expansion of the role of government once unimaginable in America. We now know that FDR's policies likely prolonged the Great Depression because the economy never fully recovered in the 1930s, and actually got worse in the latter half of the decade. And we know that FDR got away with it (winning election four times) by blaming his predecessor, Herbert Hoover, for crashing the economy in the first place.

Today, the U.S. is in better shape than in 1932. But it faces similar circumstances. The stock market has been in a tail spin, credit markets have locked up, and a surging Democratic presidential candidate is running on expanding the role of government, laying the blame for the economic turmoil on the current occupant of the White House and his party's economic policies.

Barack Obama is one of the most liberal members of the Senate. His reaction to the financial crisis is to blame deregulation. He even leverages fear of deregulation onto other issues. For example, Sen. John McCain wants to allow consumers to buy health insurance across state lines. Mr. Obama likens this to the financial deregulation that he alleges got us into the current mess.

But a President Obama would also enjoy large Democratic majorities in Congress. His party might even win a 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, giving him more power than any president has had in decades to push a liberal agenda. And given the opportunity, Mr. Obama will likely radically increase government interference in the economy.

Until now, this election has been fought on the margins, over marginal issues. But it is important to understand how much a presidential candidate wants to move the needle on taxes, trade and other issues. Usually there isn't a chance for wholesale change. Now, however, it appears that this election will make more than a marginal difference. It might fundamentally change America.

Unlike FDR, Mr. Obama will not have to create the mechanisms government uses to interfere with the economy before imposing his policies. FDR had to get the Supreme Court to overturn a century's worth of precedents limiting the power of government before he could use the Constitution's commerce clause, among other things, to increase government control of the economy. Mr. Obama will have no such problem.

FDR also had to create agencies to implement regulations. Today, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Labor Relations Board (both created in the 1930s) as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and others created later are in place. Increasing their power will be easier than creating them from scratch.

Even before the current crisis, there was a great demand for increased government regulation to limit global warming. That gives the next president a ready-made box in which to place more regulation, and a legion of supports eager for it.

But if the coming wave of new regulation from an Obama administration is harmful to the economy, Mr. Obama will take a page from FDR's playbook. He'll blame Republicans for having caused the market crash in the first place, and so escape blame for the consequences of his policies. It worked for FDR and, so far in this campaign, blaming Republicans and George W. Bush has worked for Mr. Obama.

Democrats draw their political power from trial lawyers, unions, government bureaucrats, environmentalists, and, perhaps, my liberal colleagues in academia. All of these voting blocs seem to favor a larger, more intrusive government. If things proceed as they now appear likely to, we can expect major changes in policies that benefit these groups.

If those of us who favor free markets for the freedom and prosperity they bring are right, the political system may soon put our economy on track for a catastrophe.

[watermock]

The US is in nowhere near as good a shape as it was in the 30's We had untouched resources, a decentralized economy, many other advantages.

Public spending will not work this time.

[W*GS]

I nominate LABF and gaffney as Co-Drama-Queens of the OM.

[TexanBob]

No country has ever taxed their way to prosperity and Obama will not either.

[chickennob2]

The republicans have a great deal going. Economic policies that pander to the super wealthy, but wave enough good-ole-boy christian bull **** in front of the very people the rest of their policies screw over that they can stay in power. Huge tax cuts for yourselves and your enablers, and enough homophobia and anti-abortion talk to get the poor dupes to keep you in power. What a damn good strategy.

[Paladin]

I want the Repugnicans to move more to the enter, Center-right would be fine, but I also want the Democrats to be Center left.

But, frankly, the last 8 years have been so devastating to this country in both domestic and foreign policies and practices that I am afraid that a real reconciliation of the people after this election will not be achieved. Until the "politics by negativity" is changed, the wedge is going to be there.

I hope the Repugnicans get hit in the nuts so many times and so bad that they go down and stay down for years to come. I have faith that Obama can and will hear and listen to the better ideas that may come from the more rational Repubilcans. The Repugnicans can just go to h3ll for all I care. They cost this nation a great deal of money, many lives and it's integrity.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

No country has ever borrowed and spent its way to prosperity and GeeDubya didn't either.

Fixed. :welcome:

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

In 1932, Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt....

Sorry, but your right-wing revisionism and disinformation no longer work.

For the last eight years, Americans have had the opportunity to see what republicans would do if the GOP had complete control over our government.

The verdict is in, and it's not good for you. :welcome:

[SJ Bronco]

No country has ever taxed their way to prosperity and Obama will not either.

it's not the taxes you collect, it's what you do with the money that counts. Just cutting the bloated military spending alone will make up for any tax cuts given.

[W*GS]

it's not the taxes you collect, it's what you do with the money that counts. Just cutting the bloated military spending alone will make up for any tax cuts given.

Is military spending "bloated"? Yes, by my standards, but by historical ones, not so much.

The problem is the 8000-lb gorilla of entitlements. Neither Obama nor McCain has said much of any substance about them, which tells me they're too scared and will, as usual, pass the buck.

[SJ Bronco]

Is military spending "bloated"? Yes, by my standards, but by historical ones, not so much.

The problem is the 8000-lb gorilla of entitlements. Neither Obama nor McCain has said much of any substance about them, which tells me they're too scared and will, as usual, pass the buck.

Well, historically, democrats spend less on the Military and so that's my hope is Obama will cut defense spending. Your right, however, neither candidate will speak about it. It's rather taboo with a war going on and most Americans not feeling safe. I think we can (not right away) cut military spending, without hurting our defense. I think we will find mass corruption in defense spending and a lot of fat to trim.

[W*GS]

Well, historically, democrats spend less on the Military and so that's my hope is Obama will cut defense spending. Your right, however, neither candidate will speak about it.

Do Democrats spend less on the military?

All spending across the board needs to be cut. Massively.

[SJ Bronco]

Do Democrats spend less on the military?

All spending across the board needs to be cut. Massively.

See, I think it depends on whats it's being spent on. Spending on education needs to rise, as well as spending on medical research (for specific projects) Diverting money is more my philosophy. I think cutting the fat out of certain projects is a must however, but most are needed in some capacity.

[W*GS]

I disagree. I would cut the size of government in half. To start.

[SJ Bronco]

I disagree. I would cut the size of government in half. To start.

And that, my friend, is why their will always be a division in the parties. I don't really see that as a bad thing. As much as I despise the right. We do need them for economic balance. Socially I could do without them.:peace:

[TailgateNut]

I think we will find mass corruption in defense spending and a lot of fat to trim.


Ya think?:wiggle:

The GAO should be investigated for stupidity.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

The slight of hand conservatives like W*GS always use works as follows:

1) Loot, pillage, neglect, abuse, and/or undermine a so-called "entitlement" program every which way you can.

2) Then, when that program breaks down, point to the breakdown as evidence that the program was flawed in its conception.

When Red Ink Ron took office, SS and all of the other public trust funds were fully funded.

When Red Ink Ron dropped the tax rate on the top 5% he was forced to loot SS to fund other spending priorities, e.g., a clandestine war in Central America.

We could ensure that SS and Medicaid were solvent for the foreseeable future simply by making Bill Gates pay the same percentage of his income in taxes as the rest of us.

[W*GS]

The slight of hand conservatives like W*GS always use works as follows:

1) Loot, pillage, neglect, abuse, and/or undermine a so-called "entitlement" program every which way you can.

Seeing as how entitlement programs are considered "mandatory" spending (i.e., untouchable), you're already wrong.

When Red Ink Ron took office, SS and all of the other public trust funds were fully funded.

SS has never been a "trust fund" - that's obfuscation and you know it.

When Red Ink Ron dropped the tax rate on the top 5% he was forced to loot SS to fund other spending priorities, e.g., a clandestine war in Central America.

SS has been used to cover general fund deficits since LBJ. Reagan did nothing new or sinister.

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We could ensure that SS and Medicaid were solvent for the foreseeable future simply by making Bill Gates pay the same percentage of his income in taxes as the rest of us.

Prove it.

[snowspot66]

I would hope we do cut defense spending and funnel it to research. The future will be sustainability. We have the land and we have the resources. We just need to pull our heads out of our asses. The needs of this nation will not be to reach out and touch somebody but to beat them back from the doors. Having two oceans and Canada as our neighbor makes attack and military invasion by any nation essentially impossible (unless the Canadians get real drunk and get a bit pushy I suppose).

We call it defense spending but it's really Offense spending. We should re-evaluate our needs and stop thinking like it's the Cold War and 10,000 Soviet Tanks are going to be steam rolling across Germany.

We don't need to run around the world taking resources. If we focus on developing nanotechnology for construction, solar, wind, etc for energy, and new ways of growing crops (crop skyscrapers) we'll have everything we could ever possibly need.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

David Sirota: Memo to Fox News & the GOP: America Has the Second-Lowest Business Taxes In the World 10/22 (http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008104321/memo-fox-news-gop-america-has-second-lowest-business-taxes-world)

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Why the economy fares much better under Democrats: On job and income growth, the record couldn't be clearer. 10/22 (http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1021/p09s01-coop.html)

[Rohirrim]

Understanding the Right #1


Junkie logic.

The last lie a junkie tells himself isn't "I’m not an addict."

The last lie a junkie tells himself is "My being a addict doesn't matter."

And in the Conservative Crack House of Many Doors, Ronald Reagan was that first cocktail. The first line of coke. The first needle. The first "Holy Mother of God!” WOWGASM that shotguns right through the blood/brain barrier, reformats your entire ethical hard drive, and scrimshaws a brand new Prime Directive on the inside of your skull.

Listen to any aging wingnut sighing and jerking sadly off to a tattered photo of Saint Ronnie -- despite the fact that the catastrophes we are now reaping were sown by his ruinous ideology -- and you can hear every addict who ever lived pining for that first Perfect High. The one they spend the rest of their days chasing, regardless of the size of the debts they run up or the ruined lives they leave in their wake.

Clinton? Objectively, Clinton qualifies as the greatest Center/Right President in history, and with balanced budgets, GATT, welfare reform, NAFTA, DOMA, record surpluses, foreign and domestic terrorists brought to book, and an actual military victory, he arguably delivered to the wingnuts more of everything they ever said they wanted than anyone else.

And they hated him for it.

Why?

Because Clinton was mere addiction maintenance delivered in measured doses under adult supervision: all policy-wonk that wasn’t cut with that industrial-waste-grade bigoted, psychotic bloodlust that gives Conservatism its wild, freebasing edge. Clinton was methadone, and for the hardcore lifestyle junkie, that **** is for babies.

And Dubya? Dubya was meth with a ketamine chaser delivered hammer-and-anvil directly to the lizard brain.

Dubya was 40 million Pig People tired of the hard, fussy job of being a tolerant, powerful democracy finally once-and-for-all blowing America’s family inheritance on an eight-year, blood-drunk bender.

Dubya was the United States crawling through dumpsters at our national soul’s midnight, killing anything that moves, licking out the contents of random baggies, hoping the little white flakes clinging to the plastic is crank and not rat poison, and waking up the next day -- that horrible, horrible sun-also-rises morning after -- broke and twitchy, arguing over what more they can sell off to keep the party going and who they can blame for their gone-to-**** lives.

So what is the last lie a Conservative tells himself? The last lie that the junkies and their suppliers both fight like hell to keep alive and twitching?

That, whether or not their ideology is depraved or deluded, it doesn’t matter because:“Both side are always equally wrong about everything all the time.” Doesn’t matter the who or what. The when or how. Doesn’t matter who was driving the bus towards the cliff and who was waving the red flags, throwing their bodies in front of it, trying to make it stop. Doesn’t matter who was trying to douse the conflagration with hoses shredded by 20 year of Reaganism, and who was lobbing milk cartons full of jellied gasoline onto the bonfire.

It is the lie the hagged-out Cokie Roberts pushes week after week after week on “This Week…” (http://lnmc.crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/week-krugman-pushes-back-against-fals)

It is the lie that David ****ing Brooks pushes in the pages of the New York Times.

It is the lie that made David Broder the “Dean” of the Villagers; the lie on which the quarterly profits of the entire Murdoch media empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch) now rests.

Because these people and thousands more like them are not journalists or “pundits” or expert who offer facts or interpretation or a philosophical framework for illuminating and contextualizing the events of the world.

They are pushers, selling that last, nihilistic lie to the junkies on the Right who will pay any price and cut any throat to escape the fact that they are personally and specifically responsible for the destruction of the country they claimed to love in the name of a God they claim to believe in.

Which is why November 4th is so much more than an election.

November 4th is an Intervention, because the junkie-pusher spiral of the Republican rank-and-file and their leaders has finally hit bottom: we need to heal this country or lose it, and arguing -- "reasoning" -- with wingnuts and their enabling shills and hacks is as pointless as trying to reason with addicts and dealers.

The only way this country is going to be saved is by taking it away from them, school board by school board, city council by city council, congressional district by congressional district, state by state, election by election until they are driven back into the political sewers from whence they came.

Ha! That's a cross between Ginsberg and Thompson.