Watching the Republicans - Runaway Train

[richlevy]

Definitely need a sarcasm smiley.

But the Berlin wall is a good example. It only had to cover 96 miles. Take the following and multiply by 20.

The top of the wall was lined with a smooth pipe, intended to make it more difficult to scale. It was reinforced by mesh fencing, signal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire, dogs on long lines, "beds of nails" under balconies hanging over the "death strip", over 116 watchtowers,[54] and 20 bunkers. This version of the Wall is the one most commonly seen in photographs, and surviving fragments of the Wall in Berlin and elsewhere around the world are generally pieces of the fourth-generation Wall. The layout came to resemble the inner German border in most technical aspects, except the Berlin Wall had no landmines and no spring-guns.[48]

FYI, I own a piece of the Berlin wall.

[Adak]

@Bruce, you're right!: Congress will be replacing their health care plan, with Obamacare. I love it!

If you make up a list of those who have exemptions from it however, you'll be quite surprised how many there are.

I got tired of listening to the griping about Obamacare, long ago. I have just been changing the channel on the radio when it's the subject, lately.

Originally Posted by BigV

Are you saying that the fair share in this case is zero?

NO! I'm saying people (everyone), will ALWAYS want to pay the least legal amount that they can - just human nature.

Our politicians have been corrupted by special interests who offer to help pay for their reelection next time, if they'll support some special exemption (for something), which will favor their business.

Over the decades, we've accumulated 100's (if not thousands), of these special tax exemptions, which are basically never rescinded. They just go on and on, year after year.

So GE can legally use a bunch of these exemptions, to pay $0 taxes. And that is hellishly WRONG! But it's also legal. And as long as it's legal, it will be done.

To get a fair tax system, we need to remove 90% of those exemptions - but that would upset the politicians who want their reelection contributions - so we never get it.

I didn't bother giving the bulk of your post any real attention because until you correct this misunderstanding/misdirection that "fair share"=="what the law requires", your arguments are built on sand. Implying that those two concepts are the same is bullshit, putting words in the President's mouth is bullshit.

You should read what I wrote, and that IS A QUOTE, from the President, report on the BBC, CNN, Reuters, and all the major news services I've seen. You need to open your eyes, and read, my friend.

There are galactic differences in class, politics, and racial prejudice and ignorance, some of which are well documented here. Pointing them out and encouraging discussion is not exploitation, and if those differences are enhanced for you, repent and close those differences.

Here's some points for you to ponder:

1) I was raised in the Deep South, This was in the days of segregation (separate schools, separate drinking fountains, Jim Crow laws, Democrats running everything down South, etc. Although I'm white, I have forgotten more about racial issues, then you'll ever learn.

2) Every country has large differences in class, politics, etc. Obama has not just discussed them, he has stirred them up - as Saul Alinsky, (the famous community organizer and author of "Rules for Radicals", strongly advises doing).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky

Alinsky wasn't just A community organizer, he was THE community organizer, in the black communities of Chicago. You know that Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago before he was elected Senator, right?

Saul's tactics included a lot of violence and chaos, against the city, state, or federal government. Acts that put the target on their back foot, so you could take advantage of any crisis that developed, as a result. You wouldn't be wrong to say that Saul's teachings and influence, were a big part of the reason for the race riots in the black community, during the 60's and 70's.

Some of this was just common sense, if you use a US vs. THEM kind of framework for thinking about it. But Saul took it a good deal further than others, and so does Obama.

As the President, and the one in charge of the head of the Dept. of Justice, (which is looking into prosecuting Zimmerman), Obama the lawyer, knows damn well that he should stay silent about the Zimmerman case.

He even said as much when he earlier said the jury had spoken, etc.

But now we have this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23387496

Anyone with any sense knows Obama's just increasing the odds that Zimmerman will be killed by someone who has been motivated by the Presidents new conference comments.

As someone who knows the black community intimately, AND is a former Constitutional instructor at the University level. Obama KNOWS what he's doing, and he knows what the effect of will be, and he knows it's WRONG.

For him, it's another little subject, to take the news media away from his IRS scandal, so he's anxious to take advantage of it. Which is more the pity, because Obama sounds sincere, and can give a really good speech, sometimes.

[Happy Monkey]

Why Steve King can't support immigration reform:

Originally Posted by Steve King

"For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” he continued. “Those people would be legalized with the same act."

He can't get the image of skinny people with muscular calves out of his head, apparently.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Why Steve King can't support immigration reform...
He can't get the image of skinny people with muscular calves out of his head, apparently.

He's doubling down.

King insisted the claim is "not something that I'm making up" in an interview with Radio Iowa on Tuesday.
"This is real," King said. "We have people that are mules, that are drug mules, that are hauling drugs across the border and you can tell by their physical characteristics what they’ve been doing for months, going through the desert with 75 pounds of drugs on their back

He can tell you're a drug mule by looking at your calves.

[ZenGum]

So, the US gets it's own pool of super-legged desert-traveling cargo haulers. Certainly can't say they're lazy.

[Lamplighter]

UPS now routes their trucks to avoid left turns.

The Conservatives took note of this.
Now, their routes all turn right to Alinsky.

[Lamplighter]

They are still looking for a different result....

NY TIMES
JONATHAN WEISMAN
July 23, 2013
House G.O.P. Sets New Offensive on Obama Goals
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans are moving to gut many of
President Obama’s top priorities with the sharpest spending cuts in a generation
and a new push to hold government financing hostage unless the
president’s signature health care law is stripped of money this fall.
<snip>
In the Senate, Republicans are circulating a letter to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada,
the majority leader, warning they will not approve any spending measure
to keep the government operating after Sept. 30 if it devotes a penny
to put in place Mr. Obama’s health care law.

Signers so far include the No. 2 and No. 3 Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas
and John Thune of South Dakota, as well as one of the party’s rising stars, Marco Rubio of Florida.

Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities



They only agree on funding level for Homeland Security.

[Clodfobble]

Well sure, that's easy... brown calves are drug mules, white calves are honest upright citizens.

[Lamplighter]

NY Times
ROBERT PEAR
August 2, 2013

House Votes to Bar I.R.S. Action on Health Law

WASHINGTON — In its last action before a five-week summer recess,
the House took another jab at President Obama’s health care law on Friday,
[color="DarkRed"]voting to prohibit the Internal Revenue Service
from enforcing or carrying out any provision of the law.[/COLOR
<snip>
Under the law, the I.R.S. will play a key role. It will provide tax credits
to low- and moderate-income people to help them buy private insurance.
It can impose penalties on people who go without insurance and on larger employers
that fail to offer coverage to full-time employees.<snip>

But Representative Sander M. Levin of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, said,

Mr. Levin said that Republicans, in their zeal to undo the health care overhaul, were neglecting other important issues.

[Lamplighter]

Will someone please go get my G-son...
"I'm not going to argue with you "

NY Times
August 6, 2013

“It’s a serious misstep,” said Liz Brimmer, a Republican strategist
in Wyoming and former chief of staff to former Senator Craig Thomas, a Republican.
“Allegedly poaching in a state where being a resident sportsman is,
by law, an earned privilege. Wyoming people will take this very seriously.”

According to state records, Ms. Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney,
bought the $24 game and hunting license in August of 2012 at Westbank Anglers in Teton Village.
She had moved to the state the previous May.
She is also listed on the application of having lived in Wyoming for 10 years.

Ms. Cheney and her spokeswoman declined requests for an interview.
But she told the Star Tribune in Casper, which first reported the story with The Associated Press,
“The clerk must have made a mistake. I never claimed to be a 10-year resident.”

She also said she was unaware of the one-year residency requirement.

[Lamplighter]

This is a retraction of my above postings with this image

I am hereby retracting my previous posts which accused the Republicans
of mental illness in their voting 40 times to repeal Obamacare.

A friend and I were talking, and he pointed out that the Republicans were following
a perfectly logical pathway to benefit their most special interest group.

The logical basis for these 40 votes has been posted previously in a different thread, here.

[chrisinhouston]

I love the results of this poll:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.co...a-response-was

Almost a third of Louisiana Republicans blame President Obama for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina even though it was 3 years until he was President.

[Happy Monkey]

The American Conservative Union opposes science in general.

[Lamplighter]

GOP sponsor resource supplementation Bill for food industry.

NY Time
Ron Nixon
9/19/13

House Republicans Pass Deep Cuts in Food Stamps

WASHINGTON — House Republicans narrowly pushed through a bill on Thursday
that slashes billions of dollars from the food stamp program, over the objections of Democrats
and a veto threat from President Obama. <snip>

The bill, written under the direction of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia,
would cut $40 billion from the food stamp program over the next 10 years.
It would also require adults between 18 and 50 without minor children
to find a job or to enroll in a work-training program in order to receive benefits.
It would also limit the time those recipients could get benefits to three months.


According to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly 4 million people would be removed
from the food stamp program under the House bill starting next year.
The budget office said after that, about 3 million a year would be cut off from the program. <snip>

A Census Bureau report released on Tuesday found that the program had kept
about 4 million people above the poverty level and had prevented millions more
from sinking further into poverty.

The census data also showed nearly 47 million people living in poverty
— close to the highest level in two decades.

Those 60 and over are encouraged to enlist now.

Det. Thorn: It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people.
They're making our food out of people.
Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food.
You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!

Hatcher(aka Eric): I promise, Tiger. I promise. I'll tell the exchange.

Det. Thorn: You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher.
You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people!
We've gotta stop them somehow!

[chrisinhouston]

Well everyone knows that all of those on food stamps are just lazy freeloader who buys lobster and king crab and sushi!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP_izYhdehY


Amazing how the Republicans get the same talking points for every hot button issue. Whether it's limiting access for the poor to health care, especially women's reproductive health, cutting food stamps or WIC and SNAP, drug testing anyone getting financial or food assistance, voter ID and promoting Christian beliefs in public schools and government, they all feel the same.