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March 9, 2012 at 10:00 AM
Week In The News: Syria, Super Tuesday, Solar Flares

Romney rolls on. Obama hits “loose talk” of war. McCain calls for Syria intervention. Peyton moves on. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

An image released by NASA on March 5, 2012 is a view of a X1 solar flare in a new active region on the sun, region 1429. It has let loose two M-class flares and one X-class so far. (AP)

An image released by NASA on March 5, 2012 is a view of a X1 solar flare in a new active region on the sun, region 1429. It has let loose two M-class flares and one X-class so far. (AP)

A lot of votes but no “done deal” in the GOP primary race this week.  Romney out front.  Santorum still in.  Gingrich.  Paul.  Republican frustration aplenty.  Primarypalooza goes on.  Netanyahu in D.C.  War talk on Iran, and a warning against “loose talk” on war.

We’ve got another “no” vote on the Keystone XL pipeline.  Decent jobs numbers and more recovery hopes.  Desperate scenes out of Syria and calls for intervention.  Limbaugh under fire.  Viral fury over Uganda.  A new iPad, out.  Peyton Manning, out.

Up next, On Point:  our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Margaret Carlson, political columnist for Bloomberg.

Jessica Yellin, chief White House correspondent for CNN.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

From Tom’s Reading List

Politico “To win either of those deepest of Deep South locales would be to reverse what has become, for Romney supporters, one of the most dismaying and embarrassing trends of the 2012 primaries: that Romney could become the GOP nominee, but only after being roundly and repeatedly rejected in the party’s geographic core.”

Wall Street Journal “More than 75% of private-sector creditors have pledged to take part in Greece’s planned €200 billion ($262.98 billion) debt swap, a Greek government official said late Thursday, as Athens prepared to announce early Friday the participation level in the largest-ever such debt restructuring. ”

The Washington Post ” The United States and five other world powers pressed Iran on Thursday to grant U.N. inspectors access to alleged nuclear research sites inside the country, amid reports that Iranian officials are moving to clean up a key military installation outside Tehran.”

 
  • Anonymous

    KONY 2012!

  • Newton Whale

    At Pres. Obama’s press conference earlier this week, Jessica Yellin asked a question that, as Jon Stewart aptly noted, was not designed to investigate but instead to instigate:
    “Top Democrats have said that Republicans, on a similar issue, are engaged on a war on women. Some top Republicans say its more like Democrats are engaged in a war for the women’s vote. As you talk about loose talk of war in another arena, and women, this could raise concern among women. Do you agree with the Chair of your Democratic National Committee that there is a war on women?”http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/03/06/ongoing-text-transcript-of-president-obamas-first-full-news-conference-of-2012/ Pres. Obama tactfully refused to go there.Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, hoever, had no such qualms:“I heard a lot [from my constituents] because it was in the news this weekend,” Murkowski told TPM Tuesday afternoon after attending a weekly GOP policy lunch. “I will tell you, it’s not so much just the discussion about contraception that the Blunt amendment precipitated. There’s just an awful lot that’s been going on. There have been some comments made by some of our presidential candidates. There was the incendiary comments made by Rush Limbaugh.” “I think [these incidents] are just adding to this sense that women’s health rights are being attacked — that in 2012 we’re having a conversation about whether or not contraception should be allowed,” Murkowski told TPM. “I think most thought that we were done with those discussions decades ago.” http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo… 

    • TFRX

      Makes me long for the journalistic credulity and bonafides of Jeff Gannon.

      And, psst: All the rest of you real journos out there with WH press passes, those right wing hacks are making you all look bad. Or don’t you care?

  • JustSayin

    PINK SLIME??? 

  • Newton Whale

    People are strange when you’re a stranger, Faces look ugly when you’re alone‏:
    Campaigning in Pascagoula, Miss., Romney said he is turning into an “unofficial Southerner.”
    “I’m learning to say ‘y’all’ and I like grits. Strange things are happening to me”
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46674170#.T1mTIDFunMU 

    • JustSayin

       LOL

      I foresee a new Iphone app. A different Romney ring tone based on where you place him on a US map.

      New York: “I love investment banking!”
      Vermont: “I love Maple syrup!”
      San Francisco: “I love gay people!”
      Topeka: “I hate everybody you hate!”
      Georgia: “I love Chitlins!”

      • JustSayin

         Wait.. I’ve got it. A internet game of Where’s Romney.

        Where’s Romney?: “I drink Orange juice every day.”

      • Brett

        BRILLIANT!

  • Yar

    In times of change the ability to accept change drops.
    With rapid change, acceptance drops to zero.
    We are in a political fight to resist change, even though all candidates, including the President are running on change.  Take back our country is code for the good old days.  States rights is code for the right to exploit, remember the civil war wasn’t a war about slavery, it was over “states rights.”  Compare political maps today with those of 1860.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860
    We have returned to the 1860′s and politically we are re-fighting the civil war.
    Is President Obama Abraham Lincoln?
    Is this is the hidden wound opened by our first biracial president? Is it because of who he is and not what he has done?

    I want a campaign button that says Mutt for President.
    Would you vote for Mitt, or Mutt? We fought this war already, we know how it ended.(it did end,didn’t it?)  My state’s motto is united we stand, divided we fall. I think America is a nation of Mutts. We certainly aren’t a nation of Mitts, I don’t think we even want to be.
    We simply need help accepting change.

    • Brett

      Thanks, Yar!

    • margbi

      It would appear that the Republicans are for state’s rights – until they’re not. Witness the reaction to same-sex marriage laws and medical marijuana laws passed in various states. Do they respect state’s legislation or not? 

      • Hidan

         not.

      • Brett

        When it’s convenient, I guess.

  • Hidan

    Does anyone still listens to or believes  McCain?

    Mccain also said this.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24489

    McCain-Hillary in 2009: Libya is “An Important Ally in the War on Terrorism”, Gaddafi is “a Peacemaker in Africa”

    It’s really sad what’s going on in Syria and I hope Assad leaves sooner or later but the U.S. is the lastone that should be bombing or crying about humanitarian suffering since it ignores it in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UEA, for against democracy in Egypt, Yemen(Whose president is chilling in the U.S.)

    As for Saudi Arabia trying to arm the rebels in Syria it sound like a “Romney” since Saudi Arabia litterally bans protest in it’s country with the threat of death. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12656744)

    The one who should take the lead is Turkey not the U.S.

    • Hidan

      “against democracy in Egypt, Yemen(Whose president is chilling in the U.S.) ” and of course the daily human rights abuse of the Palestinians men,women and children using the same excuses Assad is using in Syria, terrorist,etc.

  • Hidan

    “The Washington Post
    ” The United States and five other world powers pressed Iran on
    Thursday to grant U.N. inspectors access to alleged nuclear research
    sites inside the country, amid reports that Iranian officials are moving
    to clean up a key military installation outside Tehran.”

    This is the stuff many criticize NPR for, this claim was started on Fox News,Spread to the WSJ and the WP than the rest of the media picked it up. The “Proof” comes from ISIS a group run by david albright. If one does not remember him he’s one of the guy that pushed that Iraq had WMD and provided images that proved Iraq’s WMD. ISIS is allow a pro-Israeli and AIPAC supported  group that claims to be objective and clearly is not seen with his AIPAC speech back in 2006.

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ISIS
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Science_and_International_Security
    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_Albright

    Interview with Alright about ISIS and his claims of Iraq WMD

    http://www.washingtonstakeout.com/
    http://www.washingtonstakeout.com/index.php/2011/11/15/david-albright/

    IAEA report

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/julian-borger-global-security-blog/2011/nov/09/iaea-nuclear-iran-israel1

  • Brett

    Wehe-hell! If that don’t beat all. I’m with Mr. Romney now; he’s one of us. He eats grits, says y’all…I guess I’ll have to learn how to say “credit default swaps” ten times real fast ;-)

  • Anonymous

    Before he could post his video that could take down the President, Andrew Breitbart passed away. It was played up so much that I was getting excited to see it. I watched the video and some conservative commentators and was shocked. Shocked that a pair of white male 30 somethings struggled, or rather even bothered to try, to make hay out of essentially nothing. Derrick Bell lived through the Civil Rights struggle and whatever his failings, these two milk toast tools who have no clue what the civil right struggle involved or was about, were playing up how radical Obama’s words were and the dark conspiracy behind it being hidden for three years… Croikie… I’m taking a new position on news: from now on I’ll be getting my news exclusively from Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. I’ll not only be getting facts, but serious entertainment as well.

    • Brett

      I know! Wasn’t that pathetic? I thought we were going to see him fist-pump the air and say, “Black Power!” He wasn’t even wearing a dashiki?!?! So, Obama, in his younger years, interacted with Black intellectuals! OOOh!!! Of course, Brietbart wasn’t alive to do his own editing, so we really shouldn’t Rush to judgement; if so, we might have seen him fraternizing with White women, maybe calling out a chant to “kill Whitey” or something. 

    • TFRX

      Isn’t that the video that was on Frontline in 2008 and has been on demand ever since?

      Great job, Lil’ Breitbarts! You’ve learned much from your master.

      • Anonymous

        Ah ha!… but there was footage showing another professor with the original footage in his archives showing it in a presentation and saying that he kept it ‘hidden’ during the election. But he was laughing when he said it so it sure sounded to me like he was making a joke by that statement because there was nothing of concern in this video… in fact it was reassuring to see Obama being calm and measured in his speech which cannot be said of these fear mongering neocon fringe talking heads ranting, raving, insulting and demonizing good people.

        • TFRX

          I’m sorta disapponted that the Crooning Obama didn’t make an appearance on that videotape ~20 years ago.

  • Hidan

    If anyone wants example of ISIS and it’s leader disinformation see below.

    Iran’s Soviet Bomb-Maker Who Wasn’t
    http://consortiumnews.com/2011/11/09/irans-soviet-bomb-maker-who-wasnt/

    In the new Iranian nuclear-bomb allegations, the most sensational charge was that a former Soviet nuclear weapons expert spent years tutoring Iranian scientists, but it turns out the Ukrainian was a specialist in commercial nanodiamonds, not A-bombs, reports Gareth Porter.

    On Israel only 4 post 1994,2004,2005 and 2010
    http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/category/israel/#2004

    Iran 30+
    http://isis-online.org/countries/category/iran

    At the end of summer 2002, Albright co-authored a Sept. 10, 2002, article – entitled “Is the Activity at Al Qaim Related to Nuclear Efforts?” – which declared:

    High-resolution commercial satellite imagery shows an apparently operational facility at the site of Iraq’s al Qaim phosphate plant and uranium extraction facility … This site was where Iraq extracted uranium for its nuclear weapons program in the 1980s. … This image raises questions about whether Iraq has rebuilt a uranium extraction facility at the site, possibly even underground. …

    The Great WMD Hunt(our guy Albright had his paws all over it)
    The media knew they were there–but where are they?
    http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1150

    Don’t let these supposed objective experts pull wool over your eyes. ISIS, Washington Institute for Near East Policy are anything but objective.

    • TFRX

      You’d think with kick-ass agents like Sterling Archer and Lana Kane that ISIS would be the agency for the job.

      (Sorry, Hidan I just had to make that joke. Carry on with your diligent observations.)

      • Hidan

         hahaha. nice one.

        That ISIS is pretty awesome.

  • Brett

    I remember just after the last presidential election I heard Rove on some show talking strategy, etc. He said that the problem was that the GoP was too moderate and that they had to move farther Right to gain any ground. I said then that I hoped folks would take his advice because the GoP would then overreach. I think I was right; the GoP, I feel, is overreaching. 

    I also don’t care whether its Romney or Santorum in the nominee position (although I think Romney will cause less divisiveness). I can do dead-on impersonations of both Romney and Santorum (I can do Obama, too, Gregg, since you’ve got your tally sheet out). 

    • Anonymous

      The only reason to want Santorum as the nominee is a strong confidence that he would be soundly defeated. Then the Republicans would be less likely to “double down” and go even more radical right.

      A case can be made against any “single-party” state and the U.S. could reach that if Republicans are not disabused of their anti-education theories soon. See Paul Krugman’s column today:

      http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/opinion/krugman-ignorance-is-strength.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

      Why would ANY thinking person vote for ANY Republican given their party’s false ideas on building a strong America for the future?

  • Ed

    The interview of Ms. Fluke in Congress was problematic since the issue isn’t contraceptives – a freedom established in Griswold in 1964, but about forcing a religious institution or person to act against his or her conscience.

    Ms. Fluke isn’t under employer-employee heathcare, she’s a student. Contraceptives don’t cost what she said they do, but $9-$15 per month. Religious institutions have been exempt from providing contraception and abortifacient coverage for the last 40 years and things have gone OK. There are many wavers given to people and institutions under the healthcare guidelines – but not one for conscience protection.

    • Ray in VT

       I think that it is interesting that there has been quite a bit of coverage about the federal issue, but I haven’t really heard anything about the institutional reaction or opposition to various state laws that basically require the same thing.  For instance, lawmakers in New Hampshire were reported to be up in arms about the federal issue, while many of them did not realize that their own state required the same thing.

      Does it make a difference to you how the health care programs are funded?  For instance, if the health care plan was either wholly or entirely funded by the workers, rather than the institution, should an institution be able to limit certain types of coverages?

    • Brett

      There are Catholic-run group homes for people with intellectual disabilities (aka mental retardation for those who enjoy anachronisms). Many adult women with mental retardation take birth control pills to control their menses (most are not sexually active, many don’t quite even know what sex is). Those women are on Medicaid. Those group homes often take state and federal money, and they are run by a religious organization (other denominations run these same types of group homes). Should there be a waiver there? Even $15 a month is enough to derail someone whose only income comes from Medicaid and they live in a group home. Where, specifically, do we have that demarcation line? …I know, you won’t respond; you never do.

    • kelty

      This is completely about contreceptives and making it difficult, if not impossible, for women to obtain them them. They don’t all cost $9-15/month, some cost a whole lot more than that plus that could be a huge hunk of change for a woman who makes minimum wage cleaning toilets for a catholic hospital. The only change HHS made was that there would be no Co-Pay – nothing is free – people will still pay for their employer-based insurance out of their own pockets that cover all sorts of prescription medicines and Churches are still exempt, but not religious institutions such a colleges, hospitals and social service agencies because they are NOT churches. This is another attack on women’s rights that have been happening all over the country for the year – what exactly are these guys afraid of? Perhaps, Ed, you shouldn’t concern yourself with other people’s reproductive organs – try minding your own instead. 

      • kelty

        Also, Ms. Fluke is forced to buy Health Insurance through the College – Health Insurance that doesn’t cover women’s basic health care needs. 

        • Willaim

          She is not forced to buy insurance through the college. She can go out on the open market and buy insurance. It is cheaper because the college used bigger buying power and she wants that discount but on her terms which is not going to happen.

          • kelty

            Wrong, many Colleges now require students to either show they are covered by Health Insurance (parent’s policy) or they are required to purchase coverage through the College. If you actually think a private person, no less a college student, buying insurance on the open market would be cheaper, I have a bridge to sell you.

          • TFRX

            But William knows someone who bought a bridge, once, and became a billionare because of it. Swear to God, it happend to one person, so everyone can do it.

          • Terry Tree Tree

            ALL historians WILL be paid $1.6 MILLION?

          • Anonymous

            Or an island in the South Pacific…

    • Hidan

       So let take what you say is true and it only cost 9-15 a month to prevent having a baby. Take 9-15 for 10 months the cost would be between 90 – 150. Compare to if the women got pregnant the cost of a abortion is atleast 350 over twice as much as using birth control. Say she keeps the baby the cost of having it is anywhere between 10k-20k to have. In other words the cost to prevent one women from having a baby could in theory could insure hundreds or thousands of women in a ten month period.  Saving the government and taxpayers money.(Which the republicans claim they want to do)

      • TFRX

        He’s lying about that price, of course. Like that apocryphal one guy who bought a Ferrari for $100 on eBay, he’s cherrypicking something and extrapolating it to everyone, and saying “everyone can do it”.

        Actually, “lying” means he knows the truth. Ed may well have found the number he wishes to repeat, and then stopped looking.

    • Anonymous

      The Republican amendment wasn’t limited to religious institutions or contraceptives.  Any employer would be free to not cover any service for unspecified moral reasons.  Churches are exempt.  Every other institution needs to follow the same law.

    • Anonymous

      If birth control pills and other devices were available over the counter and did not require prescriptions or a doctors visit, the contraceptive conversation would not exist.  Since they are not, women are being denied coverage for medical care or prescriptions that men are not.  And men get coverage for boner pills.

      As for the religious aspect of the debate, if religious based institutions forgo public money and competition against private institutions, then I have no argument with them following their conscience.

      • Ray in VT

        Any idea behind the justification for not having the pill available over the counter?

        • Anonymous

          Not really.  I know that there are side affects to be aware of, and smoking issues as well.  When my future wife went the GYN when we first got active, the doctor just passed on the script to her and that was that.

          • TFRX

            There are many OTC drugs with more side effects than The Pill, but the pill gets a rise out of the Catholic hierarchy, so…

          • Terry Tree Tree

            VIAGRA,  and Little Boys get a ‘rise’ out of the Catholics?

    • TFRX

      Then all they had to do was discriminate, legally, and not enroll her.

      Oh, wait…

      Get in a time machine and go back to before this was settled.

    • Anonymous

      When exercising a right costs more than is affordable, it is an empty right.

      But even more important, Justice Antonin Scalia, a devote Roman Catholic I understand, wrote in a majority opinion that when a law for the general benefit of the people has impact on a religion it is NOT unconstitutional. In other words, the “Freedom of Religion” clause does NOT prevail here.

      As the “Right” so often says, “Live with it,” and the Church has in some EIGHT states which had already passed laws more stringent.

    • Terry Tree Tree

      Catholic institutions ALREADY DEMAND a waiver to commit CHILD-MOLESTING, and CHILD-ABUSE?
         How much ‘religious freedom’ should there be?

  • Newton Whale

    Fear drives ratings, so the American media continues to beat the drums for war with Iran.

    Anyone who has engaged in negotiations can see that the next 8 months, before the US elections, offers the best opportunity to reach a deal. Both sides have maximum incentive.

    But, hey, don’t take my word for it, just look at the recent developments that are hiding in plain sight:

    1) Obama’s meeting with Netanyahu was the best ever, and Bibi refrained from drawing any red lines;

    2) Obama chastized those calling for war and said there was time for diplomacy;

    3) Iran’s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he welcomed President Obama’s comments that attempted to cool off tensions between the West and Iran.
    The Christian Science Monitor calls it an “unprecedented praise.”
    “This talk is good talk and shows an exit from illusion”;
    4) On Tuesday new talks with Iran were announced, and Israel welcomed them;
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/07/an-israeli-iranian-war-that-seemed-so-possible-until-recently-is-averted.html 

    Please stop the drum beat and report accurately on the options for peaceful resolution.

  • Newton Whale

    February Jobs Report Extends Positive Trend for ObamaFebruary: 227,000 new jobs.December and January: revised upwards by 61,000 more jobs.The February numbers cap the strongest six months of job growth since mid-2006.
    http://www.nationaljournal.com/economy/february-jobs-report-extends-positive-trend-for-obama-20120309

    The economy has now generated an average of 245,000 jobs in the past three months. The only stretch better was since the recession began was in early 2010, when temporary Census jobs lifted payrolls.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/money/unemployment-report-february-points-straight-month-200-000-jobs-created-article-1.1036017#ixzz1ocwoVLKx 

    • Ray in VT

      I wasn’t really paying close attention to the job numbers back in 2006 and 2007, but it is surprising when one looks at some of the weak job numbers in parts of 2006 and most of 2007.

      • Newton Whale

        Worst job growth of any administration in over 75 years.

        During that period, EVERY Democratic President was better at job growth than EVERY Republican President.

      • TFRX

        Of course “nobody” was paying attention. Basically unless one was reading Krugman, DeLong, Greider and Baker, one didn’t know anything then.

        “Our librul media” was populated by people who were doing pretty nicely, thanx, and therefore any weak spots in the economy (like a median income which went about nowhere for 5 years of an expanding economy) simply did not get on the air.

        Let’s all sit back and wait for CNN to make this into a narrative. They’re so vested in using economists to cover the economy.

  • Fredlinskip

    Can someone “‘splain” me this?:

    If it’s our nation’s goal to achieve “energy independence”, isn’ it counterintuitive that currently our largest EXPORT is oil?

    If we are on a global playing field and it’s all about greatest profits for oil corps, it would seem that no matter how much alternative sources we create or oil we produce, the price of gas/energy in America will not be much effected.

    Our goal has apparently become to create “energy independence” for entire ‘civilized’ world??

    That would seem a tall order.

    • Yar

      I would like an economic and environmental impact statement on different options for the XL pipeline. One with a refinery located in Canada on the tar sands and a pipeline that carries refined products, compared to the plan of refining oil in Texas for export.  When a pipe carries refined products it continues to benefit the region after construction.  Currently it is like an interstate with no exits.  Refining oil generates a considerable amount of waste heat, the tar sands require a lot of heat to extract the oil,  Putting the two in the same place would seem to improve efficiency.  Better yet, build a nuclear powered refinery to generate heat for both the extraction and refining of the oil.  This might just be the most environmentally friendly option.

    • Anonymous

      The “largest export” is REFINED oil PRODUCTS. This is because cheap (fracked) natural gas is being used to crack the crude oil, making the distilled gasoline, etc. CHEAPER than anywhere else in the world. What would you expect a “good” capitalist to do, sell it for less than what can be made overseas? And with demand down due to higher mileage cars and weak economy, there is also an excess of gasoline due to the increased crude production.

      It just shows that “Drill, Drill, Drill” will ONLY result in higher gas prices as the world demand grows with economic growth.

      • Fredlinskip

         So how are we achieve to “energy independence” then? We can’t bring down our gas prices until we  contribute such a glut of oil that the price goes down WORLD WIDE???

          Our gas prices won’t go down until prices go down in Bulgaria, because oil cos can make better profits there??

        • Terry Tree Tree

          Energy from Wind, Solar, Bio-Fuels, Tides, and other renewables, are cheaper to use locally, therefore ENERGY INDEPENDENCE is more assured by them!

  • ClassicalLiberal

    Differences b/w Paul-type Libertarians and Neocons. The more open-minded people understand, and can differentiate, the more respect for true “conservatism” we can develop, and the more common ground and common sense we will find and can act on electorally.

    The branch of Conservatism that Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh advocate and believe in is the branch that sprang from Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. Hamilton and to a lesser degree Adams were staunch Conservatives in their day. They didn’t have a distaste for monarchy like the Jeffersonian liberals did. The difference between us (Paleocons & Libertarians) is that we believe Liberalism in government was perfected in 18th century Constitutionalism – that individual liberty should be strictly protected, people should be self-governed, and governments should follow the rule of law. We call ourselves Conservatives because we believe in “conserving” classical liberalism. The big-business/Neocon/classical Conservative bunch don’t mind tweaking the law or Constitution every now and then if it serves their “Conservative” purposes. Classical Conservatism just like Neoconservatism can easily be turned into soft tyranny.

    • Anonymous

      New name, same Ron Paul propaganda.

      • ClassicalLiberal

        Same name, same great topical analysis. First demonstrate you understand the ideas, then rebut them. The knee-jerk “I know-who-I-am-supposed-to-be-against” is tiring, and politically lazy.

        • Anonymous

          I frequently waste time replying.  You have the same one size fits all simple solutions to everything.  And then you dismiss important things like Ron Paul’s opposition to FEMA and the Civil Rights Act as “red herrings.”  When I ask a direct question, you never respond. 

          • ClassicalLiberal

            I’ve replied to those things many times. Your paranoia about your fellow citizens doing the wrong things, even with our protections under the Rule of Law, is not a strong enough argument to adopt the “Ends Justify the Means” politics that historically myopic, well-meaning, elite-empowering do-gooders, desire and are pursuing with Obama, and have been with the Banking cabal for decades.

          • Terry Tree Tree

            You mine coal for Massey Energy?

          • ClassicalLiberal

            What Propoganda? Nice one-liner, but their is nothing propagandistic about the political philosophy and its historical, empirical observation underpinnings.

            Do you know what that means, with all due respect?

            Explain how Paul’s views on War, Debt, Banking, Wall St Fiasco and the interconnections are wrong, and why other narratives are correct.

            http://www.capitalismwithoutfailure.com/

            Just dump the DNC apologism, keep your establishment Republican skepticism, and re-examine the designs and historical reasoning of the founding of our constitutional republic.

            There is nothing to fear.

          • ClassicalLiberal

            What is my One-size-fits-all solution? Let a free people decide the course of their country and economy, by the collective actions and consequences of their choices, as opposed to that of corrupted and utopian central planners?

            Which is “One-size” and which is Diversity-based?

            Your argument is simply that you don’t like some peoples choices, even though of course the law prevents them from doing anything heinous, and that thus we can’t afford the sloppiness and offensiveness of liberty for all.

            Ends justify the Means. That is an arrogant totalitarian principle that leads to civil strife.

          • Brett

            Damn, I was hoping we were going to ignore Dave…this time

          • ClassicalLiberal

            Yep, more of the same. That’ll work.

          • Brett

            It hasn’t “worked” for you so far

    • Terry Tree Tree

      Leather Dave?

  • Michiganjf

    Romney’s back to ignoring his rivals and posing as the presumptive nominee, despite the majority of the Republican party’s wishes…

    …. what a good Republican he’ll make, if the party ever accepts him as one of their own!!

    … he’s already perfected the NUMBER ONE attribute of REPUBLICANISM… just pretend it’s true long enough, and the rest of the Republicans will fall right in line!!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

    iOnePoint:

    Israel will attack Iran between August thru December of this year. More Weather Phenomenon will occur before 12.21.12
    Republican Presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Santorum will create chaos during the final moments of the Republican party nominee in November that will cause political disruption. 99% movement will return next month for final anarchy and gas prices will reach $6.00 in most states where unemployment are high.

  • ClassicalLiberal
    • ClassicalLiberal

      “More important than the names of people affiliated with neo-conservatism are the views they adhere to. Here is a brief summary of the general understanding of what neocons believe:”- They agree with Trotsky on permanent revolution, violent as well as intellectual.
      - They are for redrawing the map of the Middle East and are willing to use force to do so.
      - They believe in preemptive war to achieve desired ends.
      - They accept the notion that the ends justify the means – that hard-ball politics is a moral necessity.
      - They express no opposition to the welfare state.
      - They are not bashful about an American empire; instead they strongly endorse it.
      - They believe lying is necessary for the state to survive.
      - They believe a powerful federal government is a benefit.
      - They believe pertinent facts about how a society should be run should be held by the elite and withheld from those who do not have the courage to deal with it.
      - They believe neutrality in foreign affairs is ill-advised.
      - They hold Leo Strauss in high esteem.
      - They believe imperialism, if progressive in nature, is appropriate.
      - Using American might to force American ideals on others is acceptable. Force should not be limited to the defense of our country.
      - 9-11 resulted from the lack of foreign entanglements, not from too many.
      - They dislike and despise libertarians (therefore, the same applies to all strict constitutionalists.)
      - They endorse attacks on civil liberties, such as those found in the Patriot Act, as being necessary.- They unconditionally support Israel and have a close alliance with the Likud Party.

      • Anonymous

        And the ideas they attribute to Leo Strauss are, in his daughter’s view, severely twisted. [As is much of what they call “ideas.”

  • Worried for the country(MA)

    What’s up with the President personally lobbying Senate democrats to vote AGAINST the Keystone XL pipeline?  Doesn’t Obama care about American jobs and energy security?

    • Masha

      We who are against it truly care about jobs and energy independence… and we hope jobs can be found in clean energy and not at the cost that this particular oil supply comes with. It’s the dirtiest possible oil and it would spell end game for the environment.

      • Worried for the country(MA)

         The Canadian oil will go to China if it doesn’t go to the US.

        I’m all for green technologies IF they don’t cripple the economy.

        The number one priority should be to reduce dependence on the middle east oil.  Like the President says, we need an ALL of the above energy strategy.

        • Anonymous

          And if the pipeline was built what’s to prevent it from going to China anyway.
          This argument is absurd as all oil is sold on the open market. Case in point, the U.S. has become a net exporter of gasoline for the first time in fifty years and yet the price keeps going up. It’s the market, and Presidents do not control them. They can influence them via policy but they do not control the market place. 

          • Worried for the country(MA)

             Refined product IS an important export for the US.  What is wrong with that?

          • Anonymous

            Nothing, but you’re argument kind of goes south, does it not.

            Anyway the ground water and eminent domain issues are what troubles me with this whole thing.

            I’m not sure I like a Canadian corporation using our courts to take US citizens land. 

    • Patrik

      That is a project, not a long-term sustainable job.

      • Worried for the country(MA)

         Same as the Hoover dam. That is how construction works.

        • Anonymous

          Why are the Republicans blocking spending on infrastructure?

        • Patrik

          Yes, that is that is the nature of construction but with lack of projects available after; its not like this is the panacea that will save the economy.  The long-term, potential, economic risk to the envrionment to those States it will run through  far outweighs the short-term economic gain of employment.

    • Newton Whale

      1) It’s an export pipeline: we won’t benefit from the oil:
      “In Congressional testimony, TransCanada refused to support a condition that the oil in Keystone XL would be used in the United States…. Claims that the pipeline would have delivered a secure supply of oil to America were also wildly overblown. The Keystone XL pipeline would have been an export pipeline. By rerouting tar sands oil out of the Midwest and into the “Foreign Trade Zone” in Port Arthur, Texas, companies could ship it anywhere in the world. Indeed, companies get incentives to export from there.”Source: Planetsave (http://s.tt/15ieB)
      2)The product that would be shipped in the pipeline is not like conventional crude oil. It is a tar-like substance dissolved in natural gas condensate that is called dilbit (diluted bitumen). If it is spilled in the environment, this toxic broth can cause significant health hazards and major clean-up problems.
      3)As for jobs, the job creation claims made for the pipeline have reached farcical proportions. Suffice to say, the most dependable, and independent, estimate of jobs comes from a university think tank, the Cornell Global Labor Institute. They estimate the XL pipeline would create 127 permanent jobs.
      The XL pipeline is a con job. It’s not going to give us more oil, cheaper gas, or any important job growth. All that it will give us, if it’s built, is a significant environmental hazard.
      President Obama is right to resist its construction in the U.S.
      http://www.ramonasentinel.com/2012/03/08/keystone-xl-pipeline%E2%80%94boon-or-boondoggle/ 

      • Willaim

        127 jobs? Spending billions of dollars is going to create 127 jobs? I think not….the con job is coming from the radical green party once again..block all development of natural resources…drive up the price of oil..drive up the price of gas..force people to take the bus or walk…

        • TFRX

          Try looking up the new economic stat du jour: Job years. That’s one job for one year. And it was invented to fluff this pipeline.

          • Willaim

            Pelosi said 400k jobs would be created with the passing of Obama-Care. Now, if that number is correct, since the MSM did not dispute it, the pipeline will easily create 100k jobs right?

      • Worried for the country(MA)

         Can the oil be refined into gasoline or diesel?  YES
        Will the oil go to china if it doesn’t go to the US?  YES
        Is there risk the oil or high value refined products will be exported?  YES – but so what.  It still helps the US by helping our trade deficit and US refining jobs.

        Every expert is saying Obama WILL approve the pipelline AFTER the election. What is the point in delaying?  Is this just a political game so he can raise campaign cash from greenies?

        • BHA in Vermont

          The problem, as the president sees it, is THE PATH OF THE PIPELINE. It has not been set, the original path sent it through ecologically sensitive areas and WAS NOT acceptable to the state of Kansas. It would be IRRESPONSIBLE to approve the pipeline at this point.

          • Worried for the country(MA)

             Nebraska had some issues but they’ve worked them out.

            Obama could put this to bed by simply saying “I will support the pipeline as soon as the route is finalized and we will get it done by June”.  It is called leadership.

            Why does it take 4 years to finalize a route?  That is why our country is going down the tubes.

          • Newton Whale

            Because TransCanada won’t have the new Nebraska route filed until the fall.

            http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/03/06/transcanada-to-refile-keystone-xl-pipeline-in-next-two-months/ 

            You know, there’s this amazing thing called Google, which allowed me to answer your comment in exactly 0.29 seconds.

            Why is it important to pick a new route? Because the old one went right over this:

            The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast yet shallow underground water table aquifer located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. 

             About 27 percent of the irrigated land in the United States overlies this aquifer system, which yields about 30 percent of the nation’s ground water used for irrigation. In addition, the aquifer system provides drinking water to 82 percent of the people who live within the aquifer boundary.

  • ClassicalLiberal

    Lots of Central Banking quotes to keep you honest, or at least thinking and questioning the status quo.

    We’ve become too naive, historically-forgetful, and trusting of the power elite. To even identify or raise the issue of a “power elite” is likely looked at by many as “conspiratorial”.  To simply look back historically at the arguments and debates and yes quotes of the past, show that little as our MacWorld would like us to believe, their are strings being pulled, and much bigger pictures.

    http://www.thenorthwestreport.com/federal-reserve-bank-quotes-the-central-bank-fraud/

  • ClassicalLiberal

    Looking forward to more DNC/RNC big-government, central control, rigged economy, horse-race talk and analysis of the cooked up distractions du jour.

  • BHA in Vermont

    Thank our lucky starts McCain didn’t get elected. He’d have us tossing stuff into Syria with no effective “boots on the ground” local resistance army. Who goes in to do the hard work? I guess that would then have to be our brave servicemen and women.

    I would think McCain’s time as a POW would make he a lot more wary of starting wars.

    • Ellen Dibble

      I took McCain’s statements about military engagement in Syria to be indicative of political posturing.  Some money bags were probably behind those remarks, I thought.  I can’t imagine a president taking that approach (or can I; I don’t want to).  And then too, I wonder how many more re-elections to the Senate McCain is looking at?  So his political posturing may be more on behalf of his party, and I suppose the friends and colleagues who want to see him as relevant, speaking out, nonetheless.
          Whose trumpet is he sounding?   Defense contractors’?  More likely just rallying the electorate around the idea of we Americans can beat anybody (which we can’t).

    • TFRX

      I dunno, and this is speculation of the highest order on my part, perhaps he’s just like the guy who peaked in the semifinals of the high school state tournament, and is sore at people who got the success he couldn’t achieve.

      Given how much leeway the mainstream press has given him as “lovable” and “maverick”, you’d think he could live with enjoying all the crap he’s gotten away with politically.

      But nooo, Old Man Yells At Cloud just needs to keep bitchin at the guy who beat him fair and square. Because the press will never touch him on this.

  • Worried for the country(MA)

    Where is the outcry for Obama’s superPAC keeping Bill Maher’s dirty money?

    • maher

      Well Bill Maher’s money is only as dirty as the Sheldon Adelsons, Foster Freiss, the koch brothers, etc etc etc.  

      • Worried for the country(MA)

         Adelson and Freiss don’t continually call women vile names.  Rush did it once and he was vilified.  The same hypocritical women that vilified Rush were silent when Maher called Palin a c*nt and worse.

        I have to give credit to Kristen Powers and Michael Kinsley, both lefties, who called out this hypocrisy on the left in not defending hate speech against women.

        • TFRX

          “Rush did it once.”

          You were officially born yesterday. Do just a shred of homework, bub.

          • TFRX

            And Kinsley’s a useless navel-gazing fool on this. If you want a real left-winger to hold up the side like every lockstepped Foxholer, you might want to read Charlie Pierce.

            Per Pierce: What (Rush) did to “a barely known law student” is the whole goddamn point. Kinsley’s imperial disdain has led him into a cul de sac of glibly arrogant misanthropy.

        • maher

          Rush dit it once ?
          Are you bloody kidding me?
          The guy for years has been referring feminists as feminazis. And do we remember the whole ‘michael j fox’ affair.
          Vile rhetoric is baseline for Rush Limbaugh and he has been the defacto leader of republican base at the same time. Maybe if republican party cuts off its ties with Rush and his talk show ilk like Hannity, O,Reilly etc. we in democratic party will join you in calling for Obama’s Super Pac to return Maher’s money.

        • kelty

          Rush did it once and he was vilified.

          Once!!!!????? buhawwwwwwwwhat??? He has made a career of it, geesh!

        • maher

          Also, while we are it, it is not Palin has been a beacon of high minded rhetoric. She has constantly used divisive, demeaning and just demogogic language from the moment she first arrived on the national stage.

    • TFRX

      Concern troll is concerned, and equates incredibly dissimilar numbers.

      • Worried for the country(MA)

         So you are a defender of Bill Maher?

        • Anonymous

          Like Rush, he has a right to say whatever he wants and to make political contributions.  The Democratic party doesn’t grovel to please him.  The last RNC chair had to kowtow to Rush.

          • Worried for the country(MA)

             And Obama should be held to account for accepting the cash from such a vile character.  I haven’t heard one personal trying to silence Maher but many are trying to silence Rush.  If you can’t see the double standard, you are blind.

            And let’s be honest.  They only want to silence Rush because they think he is a powerful voice.  Personally, I think he is overrated in politics.  He is a successful entertainer and that’s it.

          • Anonymous

            Where was the Republican defense of Maher when ABC fired him?  Conservative Clear Channel fired Howard Stern.

          • TFRX

            “Trying to silence”?

            Really? Bound and gagged? Death threats?

            Natalie Manes on line one for you.

        • TFRX

          Try harder. Actually, don’t: I’ve seen your best.

          I don’t pretend that sitting down at the blackjack table with $100 puts you in the same league with the $10,000 professional.

          And when “Democrat X crosses Maher, Maher demands apology, Democrat comes crawling back to apologize” becomes a thing, let me know.

  • ClassicalLiberal

    What great economic news! Does anyone buy it?

    “But if in the pursuit of the means we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or any similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy. Paper money will invariably operate in the body of politics as spirit liquors on the human body. They prey on the vitals and ultimately destroy them. Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.”- George Washington (1732-1799), President, in a letter to Jabez Bowen, Rhode Island, Jan. 9, 1787.

  • nj_v2

    Advertisers bail on the vile, lying, drug-addled gasbag.

    All the Ads Pulled from Rush Limbaugh’s Show – Politics – The Atlantic Wire

    Here’s our tally of the companies — both national and local — who’ve stopped supporting Limbaugh, despite his apology Monday for calling Sandra Fluke a prostitute for her testimony before Congress.

  • goldbug

    keep stacking

  • Patrik

    News of the week:  The President’s intelligent and measured response to the Iran situation.  This is the point in a situation like this where we need a cool head that isn’t swayed by people who would rather make knee-jerk decisions, who probably have other agendas in mind.

  • Ellen Dibble

    “Great economic news.”  As I recall Warren Buffett was telling us — or was it some other guru I pay attention to — that we won’t get the wind in our sails until people’s credit card debt is paid down — houses less underwater, student loan reduced by whatever means, etc., etc.  And that was projected to take a matter of several years, nothing that 200,000 new jobs would cure.  So I’d look for a weekly reading on the national credit card readings; business debt would be a good indicator (isn’t that what Obama is trying to kick start for every Small Business?), probably if it reflects optimistic investment in growth; but other debt, not so much.

    • ClassicalLiberal

      Money as Debt

      It makes the world charade go round, for the benefit of the banking/political elite while the rest of us are forced to pretend we live in a an organic, work to produce, work for real money economy.

      They giveth and taketh away. With a great smile.

  • BHA in Vermont

    President Obama and the Republican presidential candidates NEED to LISTEN to Steve Inskeep’s excellent interview with Paul Pillar this morning.

    Whether or not the Iranian government or its people as a whole think Israel shouldn’t exist is of no consequence. The Iranians ARE NOT STUPID and they WOULD NOT toss their entire country into a nuclear waste heap by sending a nuke to Israel.

    The more the sabers rattle, the more likely Iran will feel it necessary to build nukes to defend itself from a preemptive strike by Israel. At this point, they would likely be a MORE stable country if the have nukes because Israel wouldn’t attack them.  The worst of arms escalation, cause by threats of attack by Israel or the USA.

    • Patrik

      Exactly.  I was watching Morning Joe this morning and Richard Engle and another Expert from the Carnegie Endowment were making a similar argument.  Iran is more rational than most have been made to believe.

    • Anonymous

      I heard it as well, and seemed to be right on.  All the attack rhetoric is like poking a tiger with a sharp stick.

  • Daniel

    The Republicans have put all of their effort into obstructing the political process in an attempt to destroy the Democratic party and prevent a second term for President Obama. This tactic has been an utter failure, once Obama is elected again, will the Republicans participate in our democracy, or continue to sabotage the process in an attempt to win in 2016? If comes to define the party, have they outlived their usefullness as a counterpoint to progressive action.

    • Willaim

      The Democrats blocked the pipeline project. The Democrats have not passed a budget through the Senate and blocked Congressman Ryan’s very progressive budget.

      • Anonymous

        How is the Ryan budget progressive?

      • Anonymous

        Don’t forget the ranchers in Nebraska who are organized and against the Keystone pipeline.
        Funny how you folks on the right scream about your rights and yet when a Canadian corporation threatens to take land via eminent domain from American ranchers you all are as quite as a mouse.

      • Anonymous

        The pipeline project is not in the interest of ALL Americans, not to mention all humans. The Climate Change that will occur without it will be bad enough, why throw good (even private) money away on something that will have to be undone at 4 times the cost?

        As for Ryan’s budget, returning to the 1870s is progress?

  • BHA in Vermont

    There are still 4 Republican presidential candidates after Super Tuesday because none of the choices is seen as a really good choice by a majority of the voters.

    • ClassicalLiberal

      Throw Obama in there and we are really in a bind.

      • Anonymous

        Only to Republicans, and a number of them say they will have no problem voting for Obama in the fall.

  • Ellen Dibble

    Rush Limbaugh.  I’m a person who can think of herself as persona non grata in any conversation, however that happened.  And yet — and yet — if I search R in my Facebook page, it keeps bringing me Radio Talk Show Host Position Available, first off, or right under On Point Radio.  And I think, who could take Limbaugh’s millions and hold them?  Somebody with a black-and-white mentality, someone with the idea that the professionals can put forth for the masses a golden “antibiotic,” a miracle pill, in the form of certain stereotypes and ideology.  Am I that person?  Maybe not.

  • Jason Hoffman

    I hate to make this point in favor of a position I oppose, but I’ve heard several people posit that if an insurance company covers Viagra that it should also cover birth control.  Even though I want to see birth control covered, I can recognize the position that Viagra’s purpose is to overcome a dysfunction of a natural human process while birth control is meant to counter a natural function.

    • TFRX

      Some would say that aging is a natural function. ED drugs are meant to counter that natural function.

      And it’s funny how so many 50-something men, the kind who dominate our network and cable political media, haven’t equated the ED drug and BC in every story filed on this issue.

      Actually, strike that: It’s not funny; it’s perfectly predictable.

    • BHA in Vermont

       Then they should also argue that insurance should not cover fertility treatments. Couples dealing with an inability to conceive children are trying to overcome a natural human process.

      Seems to me it goes back to the “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” religious tenet.
      Make babies – GOOD. Not make babies – BAD.
      As a catholic friend once told me “It is easier to create a one than convert one.

      I think, with 7 BILLION people on the planet, we have taken care of the requirement to fill the earth.  Time to make use of the methods your god gave you to STOP OVERPOPULATING the world. When you fill your glass with water, do you continue to pour while it spills over to the table, then down on the floor until you flood your house?
      I didn’t think so.

    • Anonymous

      …and outcome of repairing that dysfunction is what, sex.
      Your point is what exactly.

  • Anonymous

    I’m sure the Southern Republicans will get over their anti-Mormonism to vote against the Black candidate. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

    Religion is not really an issue – otherwise all these Evangelical voters would be voting for the only Protestant running, Obama

    • Guest

      Why would any Christian or Jew vote for President Barack Obama, America’s most “Biblically-hostile U.S. president?” 

      This is the label that conservative historian David Barton has given Obama, as the nation continues its debate over the president’s controversial contraceptive mandate.

      Read the list of anti Christian and Anti Jewish actions of our great presadent with footnotes included at http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=106938

      • Ray in VT

        “Biblically-hostile U.S. presient”?  Please, and calling David Barton a historian is an insult to historians.  The man is some sort of Christian nationalist who promotes the idea that this nation was founded to be some sort of explicitly and officially Christian nation.  I’d also like to mention that David Barton has “accidentally” spoken at white supremacist meetings twice, I believe.

        • TFRX

          So, like “conservative scentist”, is “historian” due to become another noun turned into its own oxymoron by putting the adjective “conservative” in front of it?

      • TFRX

        I’m sure President Obama only worries about going after the votes of Christians who use birth control. All, what, 98% of them?

  • Rockport Ems

    re the women’s vote/position.  Can someone explain why I have never heard condoms (used by men if you didn’t know) mentioned as a method of birth control and therefore suspect?

  • BHA in Vermont

    Rush Limbaugh – no children

    At least we have that to be thankful for, his bigoted hateful genes won’t be passed on. 

  • Kay

    I’m not surprised that Limbaugh has no children, since he’s been using his personality as birth control for years. Too bad they can’t outlaw that …

  • ClassicalLiberal

    Why is Jack citing Media Matters?

    • TFRX

      Yes, why doesn’t he cite one of those many mainstream media crit experts out there, like Politifact. Or right-wing sites full of expertise and data like Newsbusters?

      Oh, wait…

    • Anonymous

      Because they do good work following the lies and half-truths promulgated by the “right.” They show how truth is obfuscated by references to the sources which show what the truth is.

    • Anonymous

      Maybe because it’s his right to cite whoever and whomever he wishes.

  • John in Amherst

    The GOP is coming apart because the “1%” who have ruled the GOP for decades (folks like the Koch brothers, etc.) have relied on co-opting various disparate groups – the righteous right and the socially conservative blue color vote and the libertarian middle class – into voting against their own economic self interests by trying to convince them their agendas all lined up with the Big Money interests of the GOP.  This year, these different groups are insisting on payback, and are pulling the party apart as they try to tug it toward the extremes of the social/political landscape.  Ah, what a pity.

    • ClassicalLiberal

      The Koch Brother’s favorite political position, libertarianism, has been nowhere near in play, ever.

      Not that I wouldn’t be open to considering them to be posers like most establishment “conservatives”/republicans.

      But until you demonstrate their support for libertarianism is not sincere, that’s a red herring.

      Again (I posted this earlier for a reason, knew it would come up):

      “More important than the names of people affiliated with neo-conservatism are the views they adhere to. Here is a brief summary of the general understanding of what neocons believe:”- They agree with Trotsky on permanent revolution, violent as well as intellectual.
      - They are for redrawing the map of the Middle East and are willing to use force to do so.
      - They believe in preemptive war to achieve desired ends.
      - They accept the notion that the ends justify the means – that hard-ball politics is a moral necessity.
      - They express no opposition to the welfare state.
      - They are not bashful about an American empire; instead they strongly endorse it.
      - They believe lying is necessary for the state to survive.
      - They believe a powerful federal government is a benefit.
      - They believe pertinent facts about how a society should be run should be held by the elite and withheld from those who do not have the courage to deal with it.
      - They believe neutrality in foreign affairs is ill-advised.
      - They hold Leo Strauss in high esteem.
      - They believe imperialism, if progressive in nature, is appropriate.
      - Using American might to force American ideals on others is acceptable. Force should not be limited to the defense of our country.
      - 9-11 resulted from the lack of foreign entanglements, not from too many.
      - They dislike and despise libertarians (therefore, the same applies to all strict constitutionalists.)
      - They endorse attacks on civil liberties, such as those found in the Patriot Act, as being necessary.- They unconditionally support Israel and have a close alliance with the Likud Party.

      http://www.thenorthwestreport.com/ron-paul-neocons-are-not-conservatives-video/

      • John in Amherst

        The Koch boys are out for themselves, and indeed are in favor of eliminating anything – government, environmental regs, workplace rules about safety, employee protection, unions -  that interferes with their ability to make money, which translates into a lust for power.  (As Bill Gates said, after you make your first 5 or 10 million, it’s no longer a question of what you want to buy, but what you want to do with your money.)  They may be quintessential libertarians, but only because it serves their greed for money & power, not because they believe in total personal freedom and responsibility.  It is this obsession with accruing money and power that fuels the top echelon of the GOP.  Political, social and religious policies are means to that end.

        • ClassicalLiberal

          Your conflation of Libertarianism and Rule of Law with Greed for money and power shows your lack of understanding of the ideas.  It does show good obedience to the establishment line however.

      • Anonymous

        The Kochs are likely very libertarian; they just don’t think they have to work only within strict Libertarian groups. They feel infiltrating their opponents is fair in “war.” If using other Republicans to elect “closet” libertarians works in their interest, they do it. That is probably the ONLY way a libertarian gets to the big levers of power.

        • ClassicalLiberal

          Lets hope they succeed so we can try something different for a change. The old D/R big government crony, debt/war  schtick is getting old, and dangerously close to collapse.

          • TFRX

            The Kochs are going to “change” something?

            You really need to get outside the bubble.

  • TFRX

    To Jessica: Rush didn’t just “go too far” for this one time. The amazing thing is not what he said, so much as who he said it about.

    He finally picked on the wrong person: An educated white woman at a grad school which is also attended by the children of our powerful political/media/lobbying/professional sorts.

    He didn’t pick on some “other”, a poor woman in middle America or a disabled gay man with no connections. People in media all over the (virtual) Beltway listened to him and thought “That could be my daughter at Columbia/Penn/Northwestern”.

    • John in Amherst

      Rush has made a career out of going too far.  People who are insecure love to feel superior by ridiculing others, and to a lot of blue collar whites and a lot of upper middle class conservatives, Rush’s snarky slime is not just entertainment, it is deserved retribution taken on the more liberal, the more educated.  Limbaugh, eternally searching for a new nadir, set a high (or low, depending on your view) bar for himself with his comments likening the then teen age Chelsea Clinton to a dog.  That was fifteen years ago, and his audience has only grown.  The GOP may yet give him a speaking role at the convention this year, if Righteous Rick or the Georgia dingbat gets nominated….  

      • Anonymous

        I like your post up to the possibility of Rush speaking at their convention; I think even they have learned from Buchanan’s speech at the 1992 convention. But maybe not …

  • Quadraticus

    As usual, Jack Beatty has no idea what he’s talking about. I don’t even like Rush Limbaugh (or right wing talk radio in general), but even I know “dittohead” refers to people saying “Dittos, Rush” when they call in to avoid 15 seconds of each call saying “Love the show, Rush, first time caller/long time listener, I’ve learned so much from you, etc. etc.”

    As I often say when I hear birthers spout off about Obama, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to think Obama sucks: stick to the ones that are actually true. The same goes for Rush.

    • nj_v2

      Yeppers.

  • Llomas

    To me the elephants in the room are the LISTENERS of RL. I’ve heard he has the largest group of listeners on the radio. Who are these people and why do they love RL so much to listen every day. Why are they supporting this dispicable, vile behavior? It’s very disturbing to me.

    Tom Ashbrook should have the largest group of listeners!! :)

    • Ellen Dibble

      It sounds to me (not from RL, but from hearsay) that his listeners get a dose of certainty and conviction, a dose of simplicity, which is so extremely scarce in this complicated world, where so much floating around is incomplete, and then warped by political interest groups/commercial interests, etc., etc.  Just to hear someone sounding totally sure of himself, and apparently taking it as a personal right to do so, that must be reassuring in the extreme — until you realize the world is actually three-dimensional.

      • Brett

        Hi, Ellen! This sums it up best, I think

        • Ellen Dibble

          Thanks.  Hi, Brett!

    • Worried for the country(MA)

       Who said Rush’s listeners support his comments?  Maybe they don’t.  Maybe they accepted his apology.

      This Rush thing is way overblown.  His Fluke comments are atypical.

      • TFRX

        You need to leanr more history about Rush than any rational person has time to teach you. Have you been swimming in that blowhard’s shite for so long that you can’t smell it, or has he simply not picked on anyone who’s just like you, so you can pretend he’s not a bully?

        • Worried for the country(MA)

           LOL.

          So TFRX is a devoted Rush listener and expert on all things Rush?

          • nj_v2

            The Worried One fails to address any of the previously listed Rushbo racist utterances and chooses instead to mumble a lame ad hom.

            Back a winger into a corner, and they whimper and cower.

      • nj_v2

        Still, the Worried One who purports to despise double standards and hypocrisy defends the Limpballed One.

        Atypical my butt.

        These are just some of the racist highlights. Could do similar ones for misogyny, etc.

        “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”“Right. So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela — who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing.”

        “Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”

        “The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”

         [To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”

        ”I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.  They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well.  I think there’s a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve.”

        “We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”

        “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations.”

  • Jmcohn523

    Limbaugh lambasted a witness at a CONGRESSIONAL hearing, it makes his comments even more despicable. 

    • Worried for the country(MA)

       Bill Maher called the VP candidate for President a c*nt.  What does that make him?

      He is a $1M donor to Barack Obama.  Why is Obama keeping the money?

      • nj_v2

        The ol’ b-, b-, b-, b-, but… tactic from the right when one of their boys spews vile. Can’t just say, “Yeah Limpballs is a jackass,” they have to find some equivalent from “the left” (in this case fauxgressive Maher) to invoke the “everyone-does- it” excuse.

        • Worried for the country(MA)

           They are both wind bags.  I despised the double standard and hypocrisy.

          • TFRX

            And yet only one of them is a full member of a propaganda press machine.

            Please stop concern trolling. Your willful ignorance isn’t hidden by your pretend politeness.

      • Anonymous

        While I have a fair amount of contempt for Bill Maher, Palin was and is in the public arena.
        She knew what she was getting into by running for VP. Politics is a dirty game.
        A citizen testifying at a Congressional hearing should not be demeaned in this way by the like of Rush Limbaugh or Bill Maher. It’s that simple.

  • Kathy

    What, are you all on drugs? Rush will go past this and he will once again triumphantly blow hot air from the podium at the Republican convention and his advertisers will return.

    But he will once again have moved the bar further to the right on the acceptability of ways in which the extreme right is allowed to attack anyone they disagree with.

  • Willaim

    Please talk about AG Holder’s justification for targeted killing of Americans living abroad.

  • Quadraticus

    FWIW, I’m convinced Rush Limbaugh is nothing more than a straw man anointed by the establishment media as someone who supposedly represents the right, when in fact actual conservatives think he’s as much of a blowhard as die-hard leftists do.

    Finally, as a libertarian I find this back and forth between Team Red and Team Blue nothing but tiresome nonsense: in what sense is Rush Limbaugh saying something stupid “news”?

    • ClassicalLiberal

      Don’t fight the bread and butter, of the show, of the posters…..

    • Anonymous

      Rush Limbaugh IS considered a blowhard by a lot of Republican “elite” but they built him up and now don’t DARE to “offend” him by saying so. Until they do, Rush WILL be newsworthy.

      • TFRX

        Every Dr. Frankenstein thinks he’s that special one who can control The Monster.

  • Worried for the country(MA)

    It is clear the MSM is desperate to get the GOP candidates to focus on social issues instead of the economy and Obama’s failures.

    Now Margaret Carlson has the hootspa to criticize Romney when all he did was NOT take the bait.  Romney was correct to not take the bait.  Santorum doesn’t have the discipline to not take the bait and it hurt him.

    • TFRX

      The GOP thought “Wow, we can just get the USCCB to huff and puff and it’s a political winner”.

      This time they picked on everybody who has sex and likes agency over their own bodies. The GOP candidates are courting the crazee who say “How high” when Rush says “jump”.

      R-Money, Man On Dog, et al can’t have it both ways, to chase those voters and then pretend they don’t have any opinion about it, without being called hypocritical.

    • kelty

      what the heck is hootspa??

      do you mean chuptzah? that isn’t neccessarily a good think you know?

  • Hunter

    Buzz Feed reported this morning that Rush Limbaugh defended Joseph Kony and the LRA in 2011. 

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/theangryluddite/in-october-2011-rush-limbaugh-defended-joseph-kon-5dn9

  • Gregor Clark, Middlebury, VT

    The Republican candidates’ failure to condemn Rush’s comments about Sandra Fluke is appalling.

    Hopefully in the presidential debates this fall, one of them will get called out on this.

    Seriously, how would ANY parent, Republican or Democrat, feel about having their daughter addressed with this degree of disrespect, for the simple ‘crime’ of exercising her First Amendment rights and participating in public discourse? How could any truly religious person not be appalled by Rush’s behavior?

    Thank God for Obama’s eloquent statement on this subject in his recent press conference.

    Shame on Romney, Santorum et al for not speaking out clearly and forcefully against this affront to basic civility — hopefully it’ll come back to bite them in the fall.

    –Gregor Clark
    Middlebury, VT

    • nj_v2

      Really? You’re expecting Rick Man-on-dog Santorum to speak up for “civility”?

      • TFRX

        How about Man on Dog’s speaking out against “other people’s incivility”?

        Our Vermont correspondent was making a rhetorical point, methinks: Republicans in a position of power are all about MahAuthoritah (h/t Cartman) because their own family members will always get a carve-out.

        Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter never had to suffer the indignities that any other ordinary adolescent in her (one-time) position may be subjected to.

        Therefore, if Cheney’s family doesn’t need The Government to protect their rights and dignities, that proverbial H.S. lesbian in Pleasantville, USA, doesn’t either, goes the thinking.

  • Witterquick

    Hate groups in the US are growing.  I wonder if they are being fueled by the intolerance delivered by talk radio hosts (like Rush).  Even the religious groups are being bombarded from the pulpit and given political directions and calls to action (similar to the Muslim Mullahs).  All seems very divisive and dangerous.

    • TFRX

      There’s a lot of hiding room in the shadows covered between a right-winger agreeing with Rush, and how pallidly ReasonableRepublicans(TM) are able to protest his “poor choice of words”.

      Our media is abetting it by not pointing it out, continually.

    • DL

      You live in a universe of delusion. The only “hate group” in America that’s growing is the antisemitic “Occupy Movement.”

      • TFRX

        Okay, that’s a flagging.

        Got any more class acts to show us?

      • Anonymous

        When did the Occupy.. movement become anti-semitic? I suspect it has a lot of Jewish members; it can’t be that you are taking the position that Wall Street and the VSPs are mostly Jews?

  • Disgusted Listener

    If any of you were real journalists you’d be closing ranks behind Rush Limbaugh to protect his right to speak his mind. But you’re not journalists, you’re hand-puppets for the Democratic Party, attacking one of the few independent voices in modern America. You should be ashamed of yourselves, but I doubt you can actually experience that emotion.

    • Ray in VT

      So if when the biggest voice on American radio makes some disgusting comments, then everyone, including members of the media, should just fall in line?  There is no shame, and there shouldn’t be a political aspect, to disparaging the sort of comments the Limbaugh made.

      • Disgusted Listener

        Where were these “journalists” in 2008 when Maher, Letterman, Maddow et al were saying equally horrible things about Palin? Oh, that’s right, they were sniggering along and tweeting them to friends.

        It’s only offensive when conservatives do it.

        • Anonymous

          Please give a reference to any Maddow comment that was ad hominem rather than pointing out how unprepared Palin was for the Vice Presidency not to mention the Presidency.

    • Anonymous

      Nobody is saying he doesn’t have the “right” to say what he did, but as he apparently would agree, they are NOT required to PAY FOR IT. Therefore they can tell advertisers that “sponsoring” his show will result in their not buying their products. This has been a well-used tactic of the “right” but the “left” can’t use it?

  • Worried for the country(MA)

    David Axelrod is scheduled to go onto Bill Maher’s show.

    Bill Maher called the2008 VP candidate a c*nt.  How is this acceptable?

    Obama should give back the $1M Maher donated to his superPAC.

    • Anonymous

      Obama, by law, CANNOT do ANYTHING with “his” superPAC!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

    Please People yelling to built the pipeline in the middle of the heart of America. Who do you think will get affected?

    The people that are Dead Smack in the line of the pipeline.

    Why are we debating about oil when other countries are building ALTERNATIVE energy SOURCE Built the Pipeline it IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE THE PRICES OF GOOD AND SERVICES.

    Did you ever notice in your life time when gas prices goes up EVERYTHING GOES UP AND THE PRICES WILL NEVER GO DOWN even if we built a pipeline.

    Please Stop mentioning Ron Paul or other Republican candidates that are not going to win. they’re gonners!!!!

    The problems are Santorum and Romney that will cause another Al Gore and Bush situation all over again.

    Miss Fluke about pills. Did you ever notice her speech it was all about SEX. Did she ever mentioned that good side of birth control pills? No because she’s into sex like any other college students out there. Get Drunk and have sex.

    $9.00 a pack of pills is affordable but doesn’t necessarily that the tax payers will pay for it. Hell no!!!

    • ClassicalLiberal

      “Please Stop mentioning Ron Paul or other Republican candidates that are not going to win. they’re gonners!!!!”

      Yeah, who needs honest ideas and discussion, when we can just live in the rot of the establishment echo chamber!

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

        I don’t but other die hard do. 

  • Jeff

    I wish Tom could reign in his guests in a way that other hosts normally don’t, and I know Tom is capable of.  The original contraception debate has been lost amidst all the noise.  The original debate was whether a religious institution (not a corporation as the guest’s Burger King analogy implied) could opt out of paying for and services they find immoral, and which they should not pay for under Church law.  The Church has never pushed the issue of banning contraception in the secular realm, and they are not doing that now.  It is a simple request to opt out and live their lives as they see.  This is the original debate, and normally Tom is very good at making sure guests return to the original questions, but recently that has fallen through.  Rush speaks for no one but Rush and is fundamentally an entertainer, but he has managed to hijack the entire debate, and we need smarter journalists (like Tom and his frequent guests) to keep the nation on task on important debates.

    • TFRX

      Until the mildest criticism of Rush by a GOP officeholder doesn’t result in a neck-snapping sniveling apology to Rush in 12 hours, don’t try to say “Rush speaks only for himself”.

      And would you care to not conflate “the church” and “church-run taxpayer-money-getting schools and hospitals”?

    • Anonymous

      Not true.  Pope Paul VI’ 1968 Human Vitae states his opposition to making birth control legal.  It doesn’t say Catholics can’t use it.  It says “excluded as lawful means.” 

      Therefore We base Our words on the first principles of a human and Christian doctrine of marriage when We are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children.

    • Anonymous

      Please see my earlier post in response to “Ed” on the Supreme Court ruling that the First Amendment does NOT rule here.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

    Why listen to those people on TV media that certainly CONTRIBUTES TO THE DEMISE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

    I already warned you people 2 years ago that the media will contribute to Humanities demise.

    • Anonymous

      Fox News has the U.S. well on the way.

  • BHA in Vermont

    “America should lead”

    What a POMPOUS statement.
    We, the USA, are the only intelligent people in the entire Universe, right?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

      We can’t afford to lead any more.

      • Anonymous

        It depends on the WAY we try to lead. We should not be running around like the bull in the China shop because the damages are expensive, in reputation as well as money.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

      Your arrogance is not going to work with the Chinese.

    • JonS

      Thanks for reminding us that Vermont is the lone exception….

  • ClassicalLiberal

    The Panetta comments on NOT needing to go to Congress for War authorization, but needing International PERMISSION were shocking and disturbing.  We are in the midst of a soft revolution away from Constitutional Government to One World Elite control.

    • Ellen Dibble

      Post World War II, we have a toothless international set of institutions.  It’s catch-as-catch-can.  People with the IMF, the World Bank, the United Nations, on and on, seem to be on the same page about this, that in a globally integrated economy and a globally socially cyber-connected polity, you can’t rely on toothless institutions.  It’s time to start thinking about this, on all levels.
           As is, corporations “play” this weak world order for their own purposes, eventually leaving us with a de facto plutocracy of egregious dimensions.  Not Big Brother of 1984 with an eye on everyone; but maybe Super Oogle.  There is not a 6 billion person vote (or poll) taken on this, or even tried, but I’d suspect humanity would rather have a more responsive set of institutions than now exist, some that are actually answerable to something other than the bottom line of investors (“or else the shareholders will sue”).  Go figure.

      • ClassicalLiberal

        One World Government, as Finance-Corrupted as ours, is a nightmare prospect.  Individual Liberty arguments didn’t arise in a vacuum. It was the only blueprint against tyranny, and trying to empower people.

        Why we are afraid to recognize and try to re-establish that, in the face of how badly we have been taken for a ride by the “system” is depressing and astounding.

        The status quo and its media sycophants have most people finding the Liberty concept revolting and scary.

        • nj_v2

          LeatherDave, the Energizer Bunny of Libertarian cultism.

          • ClassicalLiberal

            Good answer, stunning substance to our current concerns and trajectory.

        • Anonymous

          As long as finance is an international business there will be a need to regulate it on a world-wide basis, other wise there will be places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands where attracting money will override the need for tracking money.

    • Guest

      When did the Progressive Democrats finally convince everyone that the US Constatution is no longer in existance?!?!

      How can we go back to being a country of laws based on the constatution?!?!?

      • kelty

        If you are going to make comments concerning the Constitution, you could at least take the time to learn how to spell it correctly

    • Anonymous

      Unfortunately Democrats are following the trail blazed by Republicans (e.g., Bush/Cheney).

      • ClassicalLiberal

        Tweedle-Dum, Tweedle-Dee.  

        Apologies for the radical, utopian, ideological language.

  • TFRX

    Secretary Chu said “We need higher gas prices”?

    Tom, please source this, and not with “everybody knows”. Politico has shat the bed about it, then Fox News fluffed it for a few days, after which Politico corrected themselves.

    • ClassicalLiberal

      Every good coercion-for-the-greater-good liberal knows that.

      • Ray in VT

        My take on that was that if we want to impact gas prices, then it would take significantly higher prices to affect consumer behavior.  I don’t think that Secretary Chu was advocating it.  Was that the intent of your comment?

        • TFRX

          Lemme guess: The point was Libertarian, which was held right up until it disagrees with something only right-wingers are saying.

          (That’s my standard answer. It covers a lot of Libertarian points very well.)

        • ClassicalLiberal

          I’m all for real market prices influencing our decisions. That may in fact be what is happening with Gas, although OPEC and US Oil companies tough to argue free-market with.

          But using taxes or subsidies to achieve centrally planned ends is what I am against, as it just retards the organic feedback of our free choices/consequences/social learning that we need for a free society.

          Both parties are playing irrational, frame it how you want, politics with gas right now.

          Repubs are suddenly price fixers, and Dems suddenly just having to respect the market. Market is just doing what Dems want right now, but they will rig away when it doesn’t suit another agenda. Well-intentioned cronies.

          Today’s Esatblishment Repubs are just unprincipled cronies.

          • Anonymous

            How do high gas prices help the Democrats? 

          • ClassicalLiberal

            It makes alternative energy more competitive. I don’t have a problem with that. I just don’t believe they are principled when it comes to free market.

          • Anonymous

            It hurts them in the upcoming election.  No party thinks long term enough to put anything before that. 

          • TFRX

            He’s sending in a report from Libertopia, the imaginary place where every Democratic president’s press conference isn’t hijacked by some right-wing propagandists, and the mainstream media work really hard at informing voters rather than whipping up the same crap every other Beltway Inbred does.

          • Anonymous

            Do you believe that product prices should include the costs of “externalities,” like the cost of health care for people that breathe in the products of combustion? How do you propose that those costs be attributed to their sources other than taxes?

      • TFRX

        That’s weak sauce, even for you.

        • nj_v2

          Stale dreck can only be repackaged so many ways.

  • ebw343

    At what point does the party of “Personal Responsibility” stop whining about gas prices and say that if you’re still driving a full-size SUV, that’s YOUR problem?

    • bellavida

      Does anyone dispute that oil, coal, natural gas, is finite? There are not unlimited amounts in the world. Wait…maybe if we pray for oil?  But Detroit kept cranking out gas-guzzlers…even though Japan realized in the oil embargo days of the 70′s before I was born that a key to success in the auto market is provide a reliable fuel-efficient auto.  But Americans keep buying and driving the gas guzzlers….my Honda Civic is a minority in my child’s school’s parking lot, filled with Cadillac Escalades, Chevy Tahoe’s, Hummers, Ford F150′s for people that I see haul no more than a couple bags of groceries.   But like Tom Friedman from NYT has written multiple times, the more oil we use the more we support regimes in countries that do not like America very much.  THAT is why I bought my Honda Civic 15  years ago, when gas was $1.23/gallon and why my next purchase will be a fuel-efficient car.  

  • Anonymous

    why is the XL-Keystone pipeline always mentioned in the same breath as “domestic energy”?  when did Alberta become a state???

    • TFRX

      It’s an exchange program with the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos: We send them a select few defensive backs (up to 3 “imports” can be on the field for any team at once, right?) and they send us their crappy crude and promise not to despoil the Ogallala water supply with it.

      • Anonymous

        And the pipeline company has one of the WORST spill records in the industry. An inspector documented construction violations, was fired and the pipeline subsequently had several major leaks.

  • Willaim

    Jack,,Jack,,,,the State Dept. did all the studies and approved it…don’t try to blame the Republicans….be honest for a change…

    • Anonymous

      The State Department did an INCOMPETENT evaluation; even under those rules it has to evaluate the impact of the new pipeline route, which IS YET TO BE DETERMINED!

      But Republicans don’t mind land takings and despoilments if they are for the benefit of their sponsors.

      • Willaim

        The State Department gave the go ahead. You can study anything to death, as witnessed by the delay in the Cape Wind project. This is pure pandering by Obama to the radical green lobby.

        • Anonymous

          The State Department NEVER gave its final approval.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzEnKdBAb_o&feature=share

    An endless tirade of how Presidents can’t change gas prices and the only solution is conservation – broadcasted by Fox News during the election year – 2008.

    • Worried for the country(MA)

       The truth is oil hit a record high of $145/barrel in 2008.  Bush signed an order authorizing drilling in the outer continental shelf and within 45 days oil dropped $16/barrel.

      • Ray in VT

        The global economy was also beginning it’s freefall at that time.  What did it bottom out at?  Something like $45/barrell?  At that time I also heard people commenting on the market and saying that there wasn’t really any reason for that historic runup in prices at the time.  At least not a reason based upon current supply and demand.

        • Worried for the country(MA)

           Yes, oil collapsed after the economic demand collapsed.  However, the drop in prices directly after opening new drilling was well before the downturn.

          This isn’t proof.  For instance, did new supply come to market from the Saudi’s?  We have seen in the past that the Saudi’s fear new competition and try to keep prices down.  They fear a serious coal to liquids program in the US.

          • Ray in VT

             It looks like crude oil prices began drop in the summer of 2008, when it was pretty apparent that the global economy in trouble, and at least the U.S. one had been for several months previously.

            The numbers that I found for global annual oil supply indicate that 2008 had only higher supply than either 2007 or 2006.

            Obviously, though, only announcing the opening of drilling doesn’t bring production online for years potentially, so if one wants to argue that it wasn’t a declining economy that was responsible for collapsing oil prices, and that new production had not come online, then one could make the argument that it was only the expected glut to the market that was driving what one might call speculation down.

      • Anonymous

        Right! And the housing bubble popped and Lehman went bankrupt, bringing economic growth, which was fueling the basis for oil speculators to drive the oil price up into the tank.

        Your cherry-picking will only convince the ignorant, but that is the goal of the Republican Party: make more Americans ignorant.

        See today’s Krugman column:

        http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/opinion/krugman-ignorance-is-strength.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

        Ignorance is the current foundation of the Republican path to power.

        • ClassicalLiberal

          The Debt Musical Chairs game was up.  It’s still up. Central Bankers trying to paper it over as usual, pumping up economic numbers falsely as ever. Currencies will fail, Inflation will hurt the most vulnerable, the traders and save-the-day politicians will make out like bandits, and the inevitable march to One-world-Government by financiers will continue, as we accept it lemming-like, as in our best interest, and the only way forward.

          • Anonymous

            Central bankers? One world government? Oy vey.

          • ClassicalLiberal

            What’s so far fetched about that? When was the last time you had a vote in the IMF or the Fed? Why don’t we vote on issues of leverage and Fractional reserve banking? Who are all these Central Bankers meeting to “save” Europe accountable to? They are  the same crowd that pumped up our bubble.

            Its all an academic game to them, and Wall St cashes in on the fees and trading slosh when they implement their experiments.

            Sovereign, organic economies of and by the people is not a radical idea. Putting the discretionary control in the hands of unaccountable elites  is.

          • Terry Tree Tree

            Just look at the history, as if you were trying to see how it could happen?
               There is a lot of evidence to make it a possibility?

          • Anonymous

            And it is REPUBLICANS who are fighting to make sure the bankers suffer NO regulation that might prevent that. The REPUBLICANS are not going to prevent the next banker-created financial fiasco.

    • TFRX

      Also, in 2008, when the average U.S. gasoline price hit a record high of $4.11, Fox said that “no President has the power to increase or to lower gas prices.”

      In 2008, Fox’s coverage occasionally even mirrored the facts: expanding domestic oil drilling will not significantly lower prices, and the only way to reduce our vulnerability to gas price spikes is to use less oil. Perhaps there was more room for reality-based coverage at Fox when there wasn’t an incumbent president to defeat?

      Looks like everybody at Fox got the memo once that black Democrat took up residence in the White House.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

        And you still listen to them.

      • Guest

        The mainstream media had hundreds of high gas price stories durring the Bush administration and now they seem to be ignoring the exact same story but worse!

        • TFRX

          Thanks for making my point that Fox made up their minds about “news” and wouldn’t let mere facts get in the way of their narrative.

        • kelty

          Didn’t Bush boast he could fix high gas prices when he was running – I guess he was wrong about that (too)

          • Guest

            The Democrats wouldn’t let him open up federal land to drilling if I remember correctly!

        • Terry Tree Tree

          ‘W’ promised that Iraqi oil money would pay for the Iraqi invasion, and occupation of over 8 years, and ALL those expenses!

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

      Do YOU actually LISTEN TO BILL O’REILLY? THE FORMER HOST OF INSIDE EDITION a member of the 1 percent. This man is so naive that he thinks he’s always right. He does not speak the truth he destroys the truth.

      The worst news channel in Human History is Fox News.
      This channel is disgrace to Journalism.

      • Guest

        how is that possible when every study shows they have the least bias and they actually perform journalistic duties

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

          Study shows people who listen to Fox News are Clueless what is going on in the world. NPR listeners are number 4 when it comes to facts and Fox news is on the bottom of the list.

          • TFRX

            If that’s the study I’m thinking of, Fox News viewers know less than people who don’t consume any self-labeled “news” at all.

            Actually watching Fox News has the effect of replacing empty space or real facts in viewers’ minds with “unfacts” which they lash themselves to as a crew member to the ship’s mast during a hurricane.

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

            Well, if you don’t know what they are talking about and agreed to it. I listened to them and I know what they are talking about but usually disagree with them most of the time.

        • TFRX

          You’re kidding, right?

          BTW if you pick a handle we won’t confuse you with other folks who sign in as Guest.

  • Guest

    Fed-Subsidized ‘Green’ Light Bulb Hits Market — Cost: $50…

    CONSUMER REPORTS tries to test $100K plug-in hybrid that US Taxpayers subsidized; breaks down during check-in process…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

    Why is gas prices are high?

    Because Wall Street is controlling the oil commodity in America.  There is no one else to blame but those people in NYC. They will never stop because they never went to Jail for destroying the middle class Americans 2 million foreclosure and 15 million or more unemployed Americans!!!!

    • Anonymous

      See my previous post on why gasoline is being EXPORTED because prices are higher elsewhere.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

        Exported to where? Other States with high gas prices.

        • Anonymous

          Exactly! And that will continue as long as the world depends on fossil fuels for energy and the world economy grows. I said nothing that is not supported by raw capitalism, just something that belies the ability of increased U.S. oil production to lower U.S. gasoline prices. But that is what the Republican Party wants to sell the voter so it can win with misinformation. That is what Gregg and “Guest” cannot allow to stand, so they do their cherry-picking to foul the water and keep confusing the issue.

      • Gregg

        It’s all about supply and demand.

      • Guest

        Gasoline is being EXPORTED because US demand is so low that our refineries produce more gas than US consumers use!

        Please read the news before you spout!

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

          I did my friend work for the refining company and they usually sell their Gas via Bidding. He said it is Wall Street who doing the harm again not the oil companies nor the Saudis.

          • Guest

            My comment was pointed at Don_B1′s comment, and not necessarily at your origonal post.

    • Guest

      It isn’t Wall Street at fault, it is the FED.

      Oil priced in gold has been generally flat for a decade.

      Money printing to prop up the economy under Bush and doubled down on by Obama is the root cause!
       

      • Zero

        Rising debt also decreases the value of the dollar, making gas more expensive.

  • Guest

    Gov’t says unemployment still at 8.3%…’Low-paying work’ rises; multiple job-holders up by 286K…Jobs Recession Now Longest Since WWII…

    Is this the same economy that NPR, CBS and NBC says is much improved?

    • Ray in VT

      Better than it was 3-4 years ago.

      • Gregg

        The unemployment rate hovered around 5% under Bush. In March 2009 (3 years ago as you suggest)  it was 8.7%, 4 years ago it was 5.1%. It was 6.1 in Sept. 2008 (3 1/2 years ago).

        But that doesn’t tell the whole story. The U6 number is 14.9%. Here is a very good article. 

        http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-gains-227000-jobs-in-february-2012-03-09?pagenumber=1

        The whole thing is worth the read but skip to the last 3 paragraphs of page 2.

        • Ray in VT

          True.  I think that it was pretty stable for most of his term, but spiked towards the end.

          Yeah, I knew that my 3-4 was a bit squishy when I typed it.  I guess that my use of the 4 year was because that was nearer to the beginning of the financial crisis, although most of the people who I know who were the most affected by the economy’s downturn didn’t really feel it until closer to the 3 year mark.

          It’s not great out there, but it’s better than it was.  The price that my brother got for milk crashed to $10 per 100 lbs three years ago, I think, and it costs about $16-18 to produce it.  Prices now are back up, but they’re volatile, and beef prices are high too.

          Anyways, there does seem to be plenty out there to derail things still, but overall I’ll take where we are now over where we’ve been recently.  I know that you don’t like the administration’s handling of things.

          • Gregg

            I think the next President will be handed an economy in worse shape than what Obama inherited. That includes both the numbers at the time and the trends to the future. I also firmly believe it didn’t have to be this way. Obama owns it I can name 5 trillion reasons why. I can’t connect the dots back to Bush in any rational way that holds up actuarially. 2 wars and tax cuts don’t explain it that’s for sure. 

          • Ray in VT

            Given the current direction, and assuming that that continues, then I don’t agree with you on that point.  I don’t like the defeciet or the debt numbers either, but I think that there are so many sacred cows, and that goes for both parties, in the budget, and as long as the GOP’s general line is that taxes can only ever go down, then I don’t think that we’re going to solve this issue in the near future.

            Have a good weekend, and, again, thanks for putting in your two cents on my behalf when you have felt that it was justified.

          • Zero

            Obama began office with 2 wars, unemployment at 8.6% the day his policy started (above 9% if you count the lag period it takes for policy to take effect), $1.2T deficit, and a contracting GDP of 8%…really Gregg?

        • Fredlinskip

           Give me an economy inflated by the biggest bubble since roaring 20′s and I’lll show you some good # s too.
          Many were spending,- even though they hadn’t the $. “Woo-hoo!!” Thus the term “credit bubble” many believed housing prices were going to go up ad infinitum, and this was pretty much the theory preached by most analysts (who were paid well to do so) at the time.
          Party like it’s 2005! “Yee-haw!!”
          Spending is responsible for more than 70% of economy. More people spend , the more goods are required, thus the more people are required to produce those goods- especially HOUSES. “Yee-haw!” Bush praised the good Ol’ “ownership society” and put down those mean ol’ regulation- happy Dems who wanted more oversight of Fannie and Freddie.
          Meanwhile W borrowed from China (and elsewhere) funneling more $ to defense contractors,no-bid contracts, record pork-barrel projects-  everything and anything but paying down National debt and social programs.
          “I mean these were, yeah man, that’s-what I’m-talkin-about rip-roarin good times. WOO- HOO!!”

          And then it Crashed.

          Unemployment rose to “8.7%”. Wonder Why? Hmmm. Umm. Gee, let me think.
          Oh yeah! There was no more credit. People weren’t buying . Values of houses plummeted. W dropped interest rates so low that Fed couldn’t do much. Trillions in hole for unnecessary War. “Oh Waah.”
          Obama’s economy wasn’t moving because no one was spending, and many thought W might have brought us right to edge of precipice.What are we gonna do?

          I KNOW- lets get some Silly-a’d GOP in there again so we can repeat all the same dumb-A’d mistakes. Let’s make sure the wealthy become more so and Corps sitting on trillions (much of it siphoned up to them  in the “trickle-up” philosophies of W years) get more yet – that’ll straighten things out.
          Let’s let auto industry fail and adopt austerity philosophy like in England, et.al and see how that works. Sorta like we did just before Great Depression (See G-R-E-A-T D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-O-N)

          What part of BUBBLE ECONOMY don’t you understand????

          • Gregg

            “Give me an economy inflated by the biggest bubble since roaring 20′s and I’lll show you some good # s too.”

            Clinton’s tech bubble? Newt deserves credit too.

            If Obama had said on day one after being elected when the unemployment rate was 6.8% that he would extend the tax cuts for everyone the rate would have stopped it’s free fall. But he waited 2 years to do what never was not going to be done and jobs hemorrhaged. Businesses didn’t know what their tax liability would be 3 weeks before the fiscal year began. You don’t hire people on that basis and then comes the job killing regulations. Then Obamacare and the “stimulus”. No dude, Obama owns this economy… big time. He is a complete disaster. I miss Bush. Hell, I miss Clinton.

          • Fredlinskip

             See above

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

        If you Ray saw the difference, me too.

    • Anonymous

      “Much improved” is certainly debatable, but there ARE signs of improvement, though a lot of it is the “trickle-down” variety. The 0.1% are nearly back to pre-2007 so why do they care how it goes, particularly if a slow economy by tradition increases the prospects of a Romney presidency?

      And the media, even NPR sometimes, really do not understand what will be necessary for recovery by the 99%. Or they are tired of comments by the ilk of Modavations against anything that hints of the required government actions.

    • ClassicalLiberal

      What did you think the Road to Serfdom was leading to?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

    In order for the US economy to rise up again is to hire 400,000 permanent employees every month for 2 years or more but hiring 200.000 temp jobs is not going to work. We are still doom and We will be doom when gas prices reach $6.00 a gallon.

    • Gregg

      It’s a very good thing it’s been a warm winter and demand is down or it may be $6 now.

      • Ray in VT

        I think that the warm winter has hurt our ski season this year, but I have been happy to save the money from the heating bills that I haven’t had to pay.

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

          I hear you Ray my landlord has to buy his oil from bogus seller. he bought a barrel of oil in Chelsea of course under the table.

    • Guest

      Reports show that 160K of the 200K jobs created was part time, temp, or low wage jobs.

      Wow doesn’t that sound pitiful!
       

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

        Absolutely correct. you did your research well

    • Anonymous

      The one possibility that will keep gasoline prices down is a European recession, which is beginning now due to the “austerity solution” to the trade imbalance between the Eurozone states imposed by the VSPs (mostly German).

      Now there is a circular firing squad.

  • RLS – AK

    Ms. Fluke is right about one thing – Mr. Limbaugh’s asinine idiocy does not go away just because he apologizes.  However, this imbroglio has snapped another issue into focus for me.
    And that is:  Ms. Fluke wants someone else to pay for her birth control.

    Ms. Fluke is a college student, or, more exactly, a college graduate student in law school.  It’s recreational sex she’s talking about.  And she wants someone else to pay so that she can do it worry-free.

    That’s incredible.

    Ms. Fluke has to take responsibility for what she wants, and not be excused from it.

    But President Obama endorses her vision.  

    In my opinion, that is not a good direction for America to go.  It’s wrong. It makes me wonder if President Obama should be re-elected. 

    Thank you Ms Fluke and Mr Limbaugh for bringing this larger conceptual issue into focus.

    • Anonymous

      No, that’s not what she was asking nor was it what she had to say when she testified.

    • Ray in VT

      I think that she did raise the issue of employees who may take contraceptives for other health reasons, but as for her, is she required to have health insurance as a student, and to purchase the school’s insurance if she does not have her own.  I know that that is what it was like when I was an undergrad.

      At any rate, if that is the case, which it may or may not be, and if that plan covers prescriptions, then it seems to be that her argument is that one type of prescription is being singled out to not be covered.  And that’s not even getting into the whole conscience issue.  Just a last thought before the weekend.

    • kelty

      That isn’t even remotely what she said and you apparently have gotten (been fed) your information from unreliable sources. She, and other women, are paying for an college-mandated insurance policy that doesn’t cover women’s basic health needs.   

      • Anonymous

        It is a shame that this misinformation keeps rising, zombie-like, from the killing grounds. But that is the heart of the Republican hate-spreading machine.

        • Anonymous

          No doubt.

  • Fredlinskip

    My apologies in advance to any that may take offense to a comment posted earlier:

    Can someone explain to one such as I, who is a novice in the workings of the World’s oil markets:

       If it’s our nation’s goal to achieve “energy independence”,
    isn’t it counter-intuitive that currently our largest EXPORT is oil?
        If we are on a global playing field and it’s all about greatest profits for oil corps, it would seem that no matter how much alternative sources we incorporate or oil we produce, the price of gas/energy in America will not be much effected.

    Our goal than has apparently been transmuted into “energy independence” for ENTIRE civilized world????

    That would seem a tall order.

    Or to put slightly differently:

    We can’t bring down our own gas prices until we contribute such a glut of oil that the price goes down WORLD WIDE???

      Our gas prices won’t go down until prices go down in Bulgaria, because oil cos can make better profits there??

    • Guest

      In order for your plot to occur, you would have to assume that US produced oil could be sold for a higher price to a foreign company for transport overseas than it domestic companies can buy foreign oil and transport it to the US. 

      While I am sure some of this might happen, economics 101, has taught most educated Americans that this is the exception to the rule.

      • Fredlinskip

        Thanks for straightening me out.
        My understanding that gas in Europe is selling for about $7.50-8. Thankfully I guess this is not great enough profit margin to ship over there, but I have not admittedly studied the issue at length.

        One can always come up with conspiracy if you haven’t enough of the facts, aye?

        • Guest

          Gas prices in Europe are higher than in the US mostly do to taxes so comparing the price of gas in the US to the price of gas in Europe and relating that directly to crude oil is a pointless adventure in comparing apples to oranges.

          • Fredlinskip

             sounds reasonable- but you’re blowing my conspiracy theory all to heck.

      • Anonymous

        What part of Econ 101 leads you to think the cost of gasoline in Europe (or anywhere else) could not be more expensive than in the U.S. Right now, the low cost of natural (fracked) gas is so low that raw crude can be “cracked” (heated until the different parts separate) and distilled cheaply, doing JUST THAT. The exported gasoline price is below the pre-tax price of gasoline in Europe from
        all other sources.

        That it why the EXPORTS were of REFINED PETROLEUM products. I have explained this all earlier today, but it is worth repeating because it needs to be understood by EVERYONE! Then maybe, just maybe, the Republican chant of “Drill, Baby, Drill” will be accepted as the total BS it is!

    • Fredlinskip

      I see now there has been some further discussion of oil prices below (although none really seem to go to the heart of the question).

  • Guest

    Attention U.S. taxpayers:  You now own a piece of a French car company that is drowning in red ink.
    That’s right.  In a move little noticed outside of the business pages, General Motors last week bought more than $400 million in shares of PSA Peugeot Citroen – a 7 percent stake in the company.
    Because U.S. taxpayers still own roughly one-quarter of GM, they now own a piece of Peugeot.
    Peugeot can undoubtedly use the cash.  Last year, Peugeot’s auto making division lost $123 million.  And on March 1 – just a day after the deal with GM was announced – Moody’s downgraded Peugeot’s credit rating to junk status with a negative outlook, citing “severe deterioration” of its finances.

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/an-american-auto-bailout-for-france/

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

      That’s old news

      • Hulkster

        Still making your racist comments I see.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

      Peugeot is the Mitsubishi of the Italians they don’t only built cars but planes and other machineries.

  • ABob

    Confused by the continual rhetoric of the nitwit partisans? Wondering how someone like Moda/Gregg can stand the taste of his own mouth? Here is a gem that you may have missed that will clear up everything.

    • ABob
      • Hidan

         The Southern Poverty Law Center this week has put the level of hate groups at over 1080 and projects it to grow as some feel there no longer be in the majority.

        • Hulkster

          Which one are you going to join?

          • Hidan

            Neither. But I do support the SPLC work to fight against these hate groups.

            etu? 

          • Hulkster

            I’m a white, straight male.

            So by definition, I’m a redneck racist according to your beloved S.P.LC..

          • Fredlinskip

             Actually no.
             Your are a redneck racist by definition if you happen to be a redneck racist.

      • Conner33

        I am watching this right now and it is quite literally the best commentary I have seen for the last decade. I never would have seen it because I don’t have a TV. Thanks Bob

      • JustSayin

         I wonder what Dave would think of this? Hey Dave watch this and get back to us…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

    I am proud to be an NPR listener because NPR seeks the truth from other people not coming from NPR’s mouth.

    • Hidan

      Not really compared to world News outlets like BBC, Guardian and newspapers like the L.A. times.

      But NPR does do a far greater job(esp Onpoint) than majority of the MSM in the U.S. do. 

      • Hulkster

        NPR does a great job?

        NPR is nothing more than propaganda for the failed and war mongering criminal Obama regime.

        • Hidan

          Far greater job than say CNN,FOX,MSNBC,WSJ,WP,HP,TWS,often the exceptions being National Security,Foreign Policy,War,Taxes,Fake balances than in which NPR  relies on the above. But to Onpoint credit it have hosted people to give a liberal views of course not as often as it giving the conservative and far-right Conservative view.

          In the case of war mongering your right and agree and as Chomsky puts it All U.S. president in the last 60+ would be in the Hague.That’s why it best to turn to the bbc,Guardian or other world news.

          • Hulkster

            The BBC? (LOL)

            The BBC is even worse than NPR.

            The BBC along with FOX News was leading the charge the for Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

            The same invasion of Iraq that got nearly 5,000 Americans killed and cost the U.S. taxpayers two trillion dollars.

          • Fredlinskip

             Actually many news agencies were most guilty of repeating verbatum “facts” supplied to them by sources directly tied with current admin at the time, without bothering to do the proper “fact-checking”.
            Hence we got mobile chemical factories, aluminum tubes, yellowcake from Niger, WMD’s et al.
            Fox went out of it’s way to add further “embellishments” of the “facts”.

            But also remember at the time, that if you weren’t a supporter of the buildup to War you were (as fearless leader W once put it), “with the terrorists”.

          • Zero

            But Onpoint does actively try to find the smartest conservatives, however.  There was a discussion about corporate taxes on this program, and Onpoint had a supply side economist from Harvard and a conservative lawyer that really stole the show. 

            NPR, PBS, and the BBC are the only news outlets that find the smartest people who understand the discussion at hand.  They are not forced to dumb-down the material so the marketers can have their pickings.
             

        • Fredlinskip

          Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona earlier this week that he and his investigators have evidence that President Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery.
          “We believe probable cause exists indicating that forgery and fraud may have been committed, not only in Obama’s long-form birth certificate, but more disturbing evidence suggests thatanother fraud may have been committed regarding his selected service registration card.”

          I wouldn’t be surprised if he has an Al Qaeda Membership card somewhere.

          • Hidan

             Stay Tune to Fox News. Sure hannity  will come up with something from breitbart.

            That same Arpaio was cheered at the last Republican debate.

            Sad a crowd would cheer such a man.

          • Hulkster

            It sounds like you’re jealous because you don’t have an Al-Qaeda membership card yet.

          • Fredlinskip

             You remind me a whole lot of a guy I once knew named Moda.

          • Hulkster

            Thanks for that wothless bit of info.

          • Piksnilderf

             We “aims to please”.

          • Terry Tree Tree

            Naww, Moda couldn’t spell, had bad grammar and punctuation, that he got with a B.C. education, ingesting ‘chemicals’, listening to his guppy, and getting ‘limp-wristed about any guy in the news?

  • Hulkster

    Obama should take his Nobel Peace Prize and flush it down the toilet.

    Obama is a globalist war monger.  His support for the Al-Qaeda rebels in Libya cost 30,000 Libyans civilians their lives.

    • fredlinskip

       It’s great that you have humanitarian interests of the Libyans at heart.
      I believe the most commonly held view is that the way Libya was handled was far superior to our actions in say-  Iraq, where arguably many 100′s of thousands lost their lives.
      I’m of the belief that our actions in Afghanistan and especially Iraq fostered the hate necessary to increase  recruitment in groups such as Al Qaeda.

      And what of Syria? If Obama acts he’s a warmonger, if he doesn’t, is accused of sitting back and allowing indiscriminate killing of civilians.

      What happened in Rwanda is Clinton’s greatest regret.

  • Guest

    PAY YOUR TAXES, WARREN!
    The private-plane company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), owes over $366 million in taxes and penalties.Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), owes over $366 million in taxes and penalties.

    • Zero

      Warren Buffett owes individual taxes, or a company controlled/owned by Berkshire Hathaway of which Buffett is the CEO and Chairman of owes corporate taxes…? 

      • Guest

        A company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owes taxes that they refuse to pay.

        Warren doesn’t owe any taxes because he doesn’t take a paid income from his company.

        • Zero

           The company is public. 

        • Zero

          Plus, you just sound ridiculous.  Buffett is decrying the current INDIVIDUAL TAX CODE, not corporate taxes.  I know you republicans like to falsely consider all taxes as business taxes but you really need to be more disciplined about the intricacies of the matter.   

  • Zero

    What’s the deal with republicans and Fox News personalities deriding the Chevy Volt lately? 

    Seriously, what’s the point? 

    • Guest

      I think it’s because the turnaround in Detroit is a problem for the GOP in this election; it’s one of Obama’s strengths, and conventional Republican wisdom since Rove has been to attack the strengths. 

      And I think they’re going after the Volt in particular because it it was very hyped, it hasn’t been hugely successful, and because it plays to the culture warriors in the party’s base who are contemptuous of environmentalism. 

      Their emotional rhetorical attacks might not bear any serious scrutiny, but it plays well in the press and with the party base. I blame the Rovian approach on this extreme amplification of demagogery. These guys are just playing the emotions of the crowd. It’s turned the Republican Party aggressively anti-intellectual.

      • Zero

        Yeah, that’s what I was getting at…party before country. 

    • Fredlinskip

       Blind arrogant stupidity perhaps?

    • TFRX

      Maybe they’re just jealous about not getting the Hummer Tax Writeoff for themselves.

    • Guest

      I think it is because the car is a waste of taxpayer money and if you had not noticed, we are BROKE!

      • Anonymous

        The U.S. is far from broke as eager lenders show every day with their willingness to lend money at near zero (and sometimes negative) interest rates.

        But by raising false claims about the Volt, they are hurting the company, just as by beating the drums of war with Iran they raise the cost of gasoline.

        • Gregg

          What are the false claims? That they catch on fire? That they are subsidized by the taxpayer? That only the rich are buying them (average $170,000).

          No Don, the false claim is the the Volt is saving the planet.

          • Brett

            There’s a couple of false claims right there (from what I’ve read): 1) They actually cost between $35K and $40K, which…I don’t know, sounds a lot cheaper than $170,000 to me. 2) One caught fire after a professional crash test, which has a different ‘connotative interpretation’ (ha!) than ‘…they catch fire’ …Interesting. 

            I don’t think anyone said, quote, the Volt is saving the planet, unquote. That seems like another false claim. So, I guess you are RIGHT, Gregg! I see three ostensible false claims right here in your comment! 

            What about that birth control device (aspirin) that conservatives falsely claim prevents unwanted pregnancy? I heard someone tried that and the device disintegrated because it had gotten wet and the woman inadvertently got pregnant!!! The Right-wing, neocon media is giving aspirin manufacturers a pass by not reporting that! (If we lived in 16th Century England I could say this is a tit for tap example.) 

            I, personally, wouldn’t buy a Volt until they have been on the market through a few redesign generations, as it were. 

            How much money do the taxpayers pay for each barrel of oil subsidized? Hmmm? (More examples of that archaic, aforementioned expression.)

            Of course, I haven’t heard what Rush said, so I defer to you, sir. ;-)

          • Gregg

            It was clear to me when I wrote it but in rereading my comment, not so much. My bad. The average income of Volt buyers is $170K/year. It is a novelty car for the rich. It was talk (in my circles) when Obama vowed to buy one recently. The car cost $40K, $7500 of which is paid by the taxpayer. Obama wants to make it $10K. But if you want something along those lines to blame Rush for then I’ll amend: The Volt cost $250K

            The reason EVERY SINGLE VOLT was recalled is because they catch fire. Connote what you please.

            Chevrolet had a whole ad campaign saving the planet. Which one do you live on? There are quotes all over the place.
            “Help save the planet this holiday season by buying your wife a Chevrolet Volt.” -Auto Trader

          • Brett

            A child sometimes “helps” bring in the groceries, but they don’t actually bring in the groceries…just sayin’…I know I’m picking a nit…Played any interesting gigs lately? (No, that wasn’t a trick question or a metaphor.)

          • Gregg

            Not really. I played a little gig last night and it was fun. I had never played the bass player before. He was interesting.

          • Gregg

            …played with the bass player before.

          • Terry Tree Tree

            You’re starting to sound too much like Moda?

          • Anonymous

            The “fire inquiry” by NHTSA resulted in some recommendations for design changes, not directly related to preventing fires. GM apparently decided to implement them, possibly for customer confidence building.

          • Anonymous

            If it is just “a novelty car” what was the Prius? The Volt will have bigger savings to those who can use batteries only. The sticker-shock is an impediment for those who cannot see the payback as fossil fuels continue upward in price.

          • Anonymous

            Every car has a small probability of catching fire; NHTSA rated the Volt as no more (or less) likely to catch fire than ANY car.

      • Zero

        Isn’t most of the auto bailout paid back and/or on track to be paid back?

        • Gregg

          The taxpayers pat $7500 for each volt sold Obama wants to raise it to $10,000. That is not paid back. Paying people to buy cars is not even working, no one wants them.

          • Zero

             See comment above.

          • TFRX

            But we didn’t get the drumbeat of this being a bad idea on all your favorite “news” outlets for the Hummer Tax Writeoff. All those suits bought Hummers with my tax-subsidization, and for nothing more rugged and manly than going from subdivision to office park.

          • Gregg

            A tax deduction is not a subsidy.

          • Anonymous

            Ahh yes the chicken and egg argument.

          • Zero

            Tax credits and subsidies both cost the government money.

          • Anonymous

            It’s called a “tax expenditure,” to encourage purchase of a product, making it cheaper. How is reducing the price of something not subsidizing it?

      • D. Title

        I’m sorry folks. Without talking about religion or morals there is a universal law that guarantees success for human beings. Let’s just face it. The world doesnt know this law. This lack of knowledge makes us automatically superstitious in our actions. Superstitious because we come up with practices that we think are driving previous success. The truth is that our country became wealthy after world war 2. The great depression was only 10 years earlier. THINK

    • Gregg

      It’s a complete failure. They shut down the plant and laid off 1300 people. Money down a rat hole. The car sucks which has zip, zero, nada to do with Republicans or Fox.

      • Zero

        Gregg, get real.  America is currently around $14 billion in the hole for saving the auto industry.  America owns a 1/4 of GM stock and if it weren’t for republicans marketing against GM to fail, the American tax payer would be better off. 

        Politically speaking, GM failing is the best thing that can happen for the republicans.  There is no reason for the republicans to deride the hybrids and electric cars, other than it helps the people they represent: the oil companies. 

        How do you not see this?  Why are you rooting against a car–point A to point B–that (1) helps the American economy, (2) weakens the demand for oil, and (3) is better for the environment? 

        What is your problem?

        • Gregg

          It wasn’t Republicans that built the lemon.

          • Zero

             It is okay to admit when you are wrong.  You don’t have to say stupid , pointless things at the end of a discussion.

          • Anonymous

            It is not a lemon in the standard definition; it’s main problem is the sticker shock but as gas prices go up it gives a bigger return for those who drive less than 40 to 50 miles per day. That way no gasoline is purchased and the electricity costs about the equivalent of $1/gallon gasoline.

            But layoffs were for about a month because of slow sales due to the hyping of the battery fires, for no identified defect, even when the NHTS gives the Volt a clean bill of health after reviewing them.

  • Guest

    And for today’s piece of non-fiction uber-humor we have….
    U.S. COUNTER-SUES BUFFET’S NETJETS OVER UNPAID TAX LIABILITIES
    Perhaps the GOP can offer to match Buffett $2 for every $1 in tax that NetJets is found to have not paid. One wonders: did NetJets pay less tax than Buffett’s secretary?

  • Guest

    Greece – Round III, In Which We Learn That Greek Debt Actually INCREASED Post-Default!

    • Anonymous

      Absolutely! What other result should anyone expect from harsh AUSTERITY? Ever heard the maxim that “austerity is almost uniformly contractionary, and more so when in a recession?”

      That is why the “German solution” is NOT a solution. Just like the Law of Gravity, economics is not a morality play. It does not enforce moral views, it enforces and feeds on human behavior, which is independent of  “moral rectitude.”

  • Zero

    Here is a host of graphs from the Congressional Budget Office–perhaps we can read this before claiming Obama is leaving the country worse than when he started. 

     http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/OutlookGraphics.pdf

    • Gregg

      Anyone who thinks Obama is leaving a better country is willfully ignorant.

      • Zero

         Data trumps perception, Gregg. 

        • Gregg

          Yup, data like debt, gas prices, unemployment rate, credit rating, etc…

          • Anonymous

            Funny how your man Gingrich would make the debt and deficit worse.
            We would be about 7 billion in the whole in the first two years of his administration if he became President. Which he wont, ever.

            By the way as long as we are on the subject, seems as if center right women are not very happy with the GOP candidates. The GOP is going to lose big time in the fall if they keep up with the social issues. They have lost the Latino vote, who are poling at about 14% in favor of the GOP.
            Bush won 40% in 2000.  If the GOP loses a large percentage of independent and right leaning women and Latino’s I don’t see how they can win the general election.    

          • Zero

            It’s almost time to see if republicans have crazied themselves into a corner. 

          • Anonymous

            I think you meant TRILLION, not billion, and that was in ADDITION to the current projections for current law.

          • Zero

             I understand that you like to declare numbers instead of compare them to a broader swap of time–but do you think more tax cuts for the rich and another war with Muslim country is going to solve our problems.  Did you read the chart?  Did you see how much the Bush Tax Cuts exacerbate the deficit?  I wonder if our credit rating would have dropped then.  Plus, the credit rater cited political discord as the main reason.  So I point the finger at the tea party (extremists) republicans. 

            Republicans firing over half-a-million state employees didn’t exactly help anyone.  I wonder what unemployment would look like if we added those public employee jobs back…I wonder what the multiplier effect would be on the private sector with the added demand.  

      • Anonymous

        Let’s hope he doesn’t leave until it is better and strongly improving.

  • Matt H.

    I’m a Jack Beatty dittohead

  • D. Title

    We should try not to become a country who imposes our own form of sharia law like some Muslim countries. Religion should be kept seperate especially in a nation with a diverted religious population.

  • D. Title

    We should try not to become a country who imposes our own form of sharia law like some Muslim countries. Religion should be kept seperate especially in a nation with a diversed religious population.

  • Cedric

    Mit Romney’s problem is his unbridled ambition. He wants to be President, but can’t articulate why he should be President beyond the fact that he just wants to be President. If the most conservative members of his party won’t support him en mass because of his mere ambition to be President, then independent voters won’t either. There’s a good reason for that. Mit Romney cites his corporate experience, his service as Massachusetts governor, and Olympics savior like so many points on a executive resume. But to be the governor of Massachusetts he apparently was willing to articulate moderate views. To be the GOP nominee he just as willingly spouts conservative views. The Presidency of the United States of America is no mere career path, however. It’s an awesome responsibility and an act of service to the nation. Unless Mit Romney can articulate a vision for the nation more powerful than his ambition, he will continue to appear as just another rich oppurtunist who will be denied his greatest ambition: the Presidency of the United States. And rightly so.

    • Roy Mac

      I agree completely with your assessment of Romney.

      To it, I would add something (I wish I had saved the citation) I heard/read during the past 2 weeks:  Mitt is petrified about losing the nomination because of a fatal misstep like his father made after returning from a visit to Viet Nam, then complaining about having been “brainwashed” by the US military.

      That was, no doubt, what sank George’s candidacy; but Mitt has SO many more flaws; e.g., his inability to connect with working people, his inability to explain his constant position shifting, his refusal to discuss why it was more important for him to toil away in the Parisian trenches while his contemporaries served the country in military service.  Mitt will likely carry the GOP banner all the way to their slaughterhouse in November; for numbers, think Goldwater or McGovern–it’ll be that bloody.

  • Fosterzachary

    I grew up in North Dakota where there is massive new oil exploration in the Bakken formation. As far as I know, none of that material has to be transported all the way to the deep south to be refined, as there are plenty of refineries in the plains states. This makes me wonder what is so great about the southern refineries that the Canadian oil sands can’t be refined north of the area in Nebraska that is apparently so fragile. Theres aready hundreds of coal cars crossing the railways every day, so to add oil or gasoline cars presumably wouldn’t cause alot of problems. I’m with Matt H as well.

    • Anonymous

      Port Aurthur Texas is a tax free trade zone. This is all about exporting the crude and refined petrol products overseas and nothing more. By passing the refineries in the Midwest they can sell it elsewhere besides the US.
      Follow the money…

  • Fredlinskip

    Not ‘nuf room to reply below Gregg:
    If unemployment trends continued unabated as they were going at end of W
    administration we would now have 30, 40% employment? Look at the charts
    sometime Gregg.
    Now to you that might be a better America, seeing as you seem to be a
    big fan of income disparity.
    The trend changed exactly when Obama entered office.

    Dotcom bubble, although significant, is in no way comparative with W bubble.

    Even so, Clinton admin during “good times” paid down debt and left
    country in a strong financial position: W did opposite and left country a
    mess.

    “Newt deserve credit too”

    All right. Thanks Newt. You managed to shut down government for weeks
    and offered no compromise- That’s how democratic gov is supposed to
    work. Finally he compromised just enough to get SOMETHING done.

    Cutting regulations largely brought on the financial crisis. Business
    Practices that were once illegal became legal. Therefore Corps “legally” pretty much devastated American economy.

    Bring on GOP’ers- maybe they can put country out of misery permanently this time.

    • Gregg

      I have no idea who is feeding you this crap but I suggest more fox and Rush. I don’t live in the same America as you.

      • Fredlinskip

         Facts are a bitch Gregg.
        Man-made global warming exists and W screwed us-
        as much as your “fair and balanced” sources would mislead you otherwise.

        • Gregg

          I understand you think so, fine. This President is a disaster and has fundamentally transformed America as promised. He is a radical man stewed in the hate of Rev. Wright and the racism of Derek Bell. His Alinski tactics are divisive and cruel but that’s who he is. It’s awful. It’s worse than that, it’s disgusting and it’s all in your face. You refuse to see it. I see no reason to try and convince you of anything because your ideology trumps your truth. All I am concerned about is Obama be defeated in 2012 and you are a lost cause in that regard.

          BTW, don’t forget they moved voting day to Wednesday for this cycle.

          • Fredlinskip

             You forgot to mention he was born in Kenya, is card-carrying Al Qaeda, and cooks marshmallows over burning American flags.

          • Gregg

            He was born in Hawaii, he kills Al Qaeda for recreation but You got me on the last one.

          • URanIdiotGregg

            You obviously have no possibility in this life or the next of realizing how incredible stupid you are.

          • GodAlmighty

            No UR the above exchange is just an perfect example of the nitwit partisanism that ABob refers to below. It doesn’t matter what the facts are. If these nitwits don’t like it — they don’t believe it. Gregg/Moda is just more proof that Humans suck and will continue to destroy any real possibilities they have to actually evolve.

          • Fredlinskip

             Am I speaking to God?
            Don’t give up on us up there willa?
            & can you turn the thermostat down a wee bit?

          • Fredlinskip

             Actually I never did watch Abob’s video- thanks for the tip.

          • TFRX

            I usually don’t give a toss for Gregg’s musings.

            But really, choosing that handle doesn’t reflect well on anyone here. And the comment itself, yech.

            You may wish to dial it back a touch.

          • Terry Tree Tree

            You’re back?  You  do a dis-service to those of us that honestly, and logically oppose Gregg Moda, Nota, etc…
               ulTRAX left because of the likes of you, and that was a loss.

          • Anonymous

            Now this is what one would call a troll, and a tube.

          • Anonymous

            What would you call the content of what you posted here? It seems steeped in ideology and right wing rhetoric. If you want to vote for the regressive GOP party that’s your right. The GOP is going to lose if it keeps up this torrent on contraception. They have already alienated the Latino vote to the point that any GOP presidential candidate will be lucky to get 12 to 14% of this demographic. Conservative and centrist women are now questioning what’s going on with the GOP and it’s view of woman’s health care issues.
            When you have a 57 year old retired school teacher, who is a evangelical conservative from Iowa City saying that she might vote for President Obama I dare say your party is in trouble.

        • Modavations

          The liars from Penn State and E.Anglia did you in

      • Anonymous

        That’s hilarious. More Rush and Fox…

    • Fredlinskip

       Actually that 30-40% #, ahem, might be a SLIGHT exaggeration- My apologies.

      • Fredlinskip

         if it fell unabated at the rate that it was falling from Feb ’09 (4.9%)to Jan ’09 (7.8%), when Obama took office, then it would currently stand  at about 18%, if my math is correct.
        18%? 30-40%? I was close.

        • Gregg

          Whenever a sentence is started with “if” the data that follows is suspect. I see you have a theory, that’s cool. I appreciate your correction but it’s my nature to point out how the time stamps reveal you said, “Facts are a bitch Gregg”, before this comment. Others do the same thing, that is state some fact that starts with the word “if” then admonish me for ignoring it. It’s always good to add a little emphasis by interjecting the Fox/Rush monster. It doesn’t matter how and you don’t need to support it. If you can get a dig a W, all the better.

          That puts me in a pickle. You can’t have an honest and focused debate built on a whacked and unfocused premise.

          I have to admit I’ve been a little testy here lately. You may be getting some extra grief as a representation of the collective mindset. Sorry… but you probably still deserve it. The thing is Fred, I believe what I wrote regarding Obama and can give chapter and verse to support it. I am sincerely worried for our Country. So, what’s a fella’ to do?

          • Fredlinskip

            I was wrong about the 30-40%.
            My apologies. Even the “if unemployment continued to increase at same rate at end of W, it would be now 18%, I believe while technically true, is probably not the best argument I ever made.
            The rest of my tirade (in above and below conversation), IMO, is pretty well-founded.
            You’ve a right to be testy. You’re goofy candidates are not looking all that great, lately.
            If it makes you feel better the House and Senate are a different story and it seems you’ll have enough goofball congressmen in there to slow down progress to screw up the country for a pretty good long while.

            That should make you sleep better.

          • Modavations

            For a genius you send half your time apologizing.

          • Fredlinskip

            Well appreciate that you believe so, but it may surprise you that I’m far from. I do like to follow the facts where they lead. You know my understanding is that great scientific advances don’t always come from the smartest folks; just people who are persistent in search for answers.
            As far as apologizing, yeah, I’m a flip-flopper: If I learn something new that proves something I once thought true wrong, I change.

            It’s called LEARNING:
            (Google that some time- it seems a concept that may be foreign to you). 

          • Modavations

            My favorite is “Moda you should read more”.I speak four languages

          • Terry Tree Tree

            Obviously English grammar wasn’t taught in your third-grade B.C.?

          • Brett

            At least the man has some idea about the function of a question mark! ;-)  

  • Zero

    Dear republicans, what happened to this kind of republicanism?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk0-bR3fwZo&list=PL1AC1D44F5431005A&index=2&feature=plpp_video

    • Gregg

      I take it you voted for McCain? If not, thanks but no thanks for the implicit advice. The squishy middle, class warfare candidate is a proven loser. BTW, where did the completely bogus 60% number come from?

      • Zero

        I think this country would have been radically better if McCain would have been president instead of Bush.  I bet 60% of the revenue lost from the Bush Tax Cuts were from the top bracket, which sounds about right.

        Also, Bush created a lot of poverty and he had more people enter into the welfare and food stamp program than any other president since the Depression.  It is likely that if McCain or Gore had been elected, poverty would have stayed the same or decreased while upper class income would have dropped minimally. 

        The video is really a testament to how feverish republicans want to lower taxes on people who don’t need lower taxes.

        • Zero

           P.S., I never really disliked McCain.  During the 2008 election, he went on Stewart and revealed that he is politicking to the crazies in the republican electorate.  I suppose Romney is doing the same thing as well. 

          You see, unlike the republicans, democrats just try to find the smartest candidate; whereas, you guys try to find the hardest ideologue.  

          • Gregg

            Among Huckabee, Fred Thomson, Romney, Ron Paul, Rudy and Duncan Hunter how was McCain the “hardest ideologue” in 2008?

          • Zero

            Just watch the Stewart interview and you can see that it is just bs politicking to a dumbass electorate.

        • Gregg

          I think this country would have been radically better if McCain would had been President instead of Obama.

          You haven’t convinced me on the 60%. Remember, 6 million at the bottom quit paying altogether and ALL the other brackets were lowered. 

          Don’t confuse “not raising taxes” with “cutting taxes”.

          • Zero

            60% of the revenue decreases throughout the Bush administration likely came from recites from the top bracket.   That is sounds about right.  And I don’t expect to convince you–if the CBO charts don’t convince you, reality can slap you in the face over and over, you will always put political vision ahead of data and sound economic policy.

          • Zero

            And I think you are the one confused about taxes–McCain would have never lowered taxes on the rich.  He would have kept them at the same level Obama wants them at now. 

            Here’s your logic: Oh, it’s too late…now that they are lowered…they can’t come back up. 

            McCain accurately said Bush is cutting taxes that would whip away the surplus, which they did.

            How can you defend that?  Do you care about the budget or do you care about political vision?  

  • Modavations

    Last Thurs.,I was going a few rounds with Fredliskip,Trfx,Jeffe,Roy Mac,Don 81..I asked this,why did FDR say “No public Unions”Here was the answer and I’ll quote Simon and Garfunkle…..”Sounds of Silence”

    • Fredlinskip

       I don’t don’t know, maybe he’d been sleeping with Marilyn Monroe night before and was a bit out of sorts that day.

        Seriously, I’s a bit busy today, but will be happy to engage you another day (been spending a BIT too much time on comments page lately).
      I’ll just say this though. You were talking other day how Kennedy “waxed eloquent” on why lowering taxes will raise revenue (Reagan quoted Kennedy).
      But let’s take into consideration that at the time the rate was 91%. 91%, I admit MAY have been a LITTLE high. The 70% rate level on highest earners that was the rate at end of his term (if memory serves), may have been as Goldilocks would say -Just right.

      Later

      • Anonymous

        Reagen lowered taxes but raised the capital gains tax to about 28%. The rate was still higher than it is now. Reagen raised taxes about 11 times.

        • Modavations

          3% debt to GDP was where he left it.That is picture perfect.He created 17-20million jobs and doubled revenue to the Treasury..This has been explained to you so many times,you’ve bored us to tears
               When Ronaldos Magnus’ hearse rolled down the street ,you’d think the king of the Cosmos had passed.When Herr Marx died, the world shouted Hallelujah

          • Fredlinskip

            16 mil Jobs Moda. 16 mil.
            King of Cosmos wasn’t so good that 4 million imaginary jobs were created.

          • Modavations

            What does that mean.Don’t bother,it will just lead to endless obfuscations and the perpetrual dodge.How many times did I ask you why FDR said no way to Public Unions?.How many times did I ask you to explain JFK’s rational behind cutting taxes?When you answer,I’ll continue.Without reply,you’ll get nary a peep

          • Fredlinskip

             It means 16 million jobs were created during Reagan administration.
            I don’t think human language allows me to state this any clearer.

          • Modavations

            Needless quibble ,endless excuses and the ever present dodge.

          • Modavations

            We have a GDP of 15 trillion.The yearly deficit is 1.5 trillion.That’s 10%.It should be 3%.When Reagan left office after straightening out the Carter maliase it was 3%(it was up to 6% and ended at the picture perfect 3%)..Carter’s was 2.8%.Reagan created 17-20million jobs.Reagan doubled receipts to the Fed.Me and Reagan learned Laissez Faire from JFK

          • Fredlinskip

             Moda, could you enlighten me a little about that 3% debt to GDP thing?

            I see on Wiki:
            “Debt relative to GDP rose rapidly during the 1980s under Prez Ronnie”

            I also found:
            “George W. Bush increased US debt as a % of GDP by 27.8%, the largest of any administration in history.
            Second was Ronald Reagan at 20.6%”.

            You sure that 3% # isn’t related to deficit, somehow?

            A somewhat civil response would be appreciated, to the degree you feel that possible.

          • Modavations

            Remember Volcker and the 10% unemployement rate,with 18% interest rate,from the one tern Pres.Carter.Reagan is a realist,you adjust when need be.What you want is 3% debt to GDP ratio and when he lleft ,that’s exactly what he had.Right now it’s 10%.Normally 18% of the budget goes to Govt.Spending,it’s now 25%.Listen dude,my gruffness is because I’ve gone over this ten times.

          • Fredlinskip

             I don’t believe you’ve had that conversation with me.
            I know it’s probably hard for you not to sound condescending when dealing with  neophytes as myself.

                I believe you are referring to  the federal DEFICIT as percentage of GDP.
            Debt as percentage of GDP is something entirely different.
            Ronnie admin had 2nd WORST debt to GDP (2nd only to W, Papa Bush was third) ratio IN U.S. HISTORY.

            For you to say Reagan had “3% debt to GDP” is a completely bogus claim.
            But don’t worry- I see from you’re response below that I shouldn’t expect you ever admit a mistake –

            But I at least can now look into the merits of your claim NOW THAT I KNOW WHAT THE HEY YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.
            Unfortunately I need now enter real world

            Have a good night Mr Moda.

             

          • Modavations

            Petty semantics.Had you said something days ago,this would have been corrected.Had you a grasp,you would have known what I was talking about and not bothered quibbling..The 3% could and does pertain to only one thing

      • Zero

         Moda doesn’t understand that there are conditions that call for different economic policy.  He believes that lowering taxes is the solution to all economic problems…if people would just listen to him we would have world peace. 

        • Modavations

          I wiil not talk to posers.The man is shameless  excuse maker and LIAR.

      • Modavations

        Any number of his treatises will tell you this.Lower taxes,remove the boot of big govt from the necks of the peeps and the economy wiill take off.JFK taught me laissez Faire

    • Anonymous

      A small mind is such a… small mind.

      FDR was not against Public unions, he was against them striking.

      This is an excerpt from a letter FDR wrote to the Federation of Federal Employees:

      “The desire of Government employees for fair and adequate pay, reasonable hours of work, safe and suitable working conditions, development of opportunities for advancement, facilities for fair and impartial consideration and review of grievances, and other objectives of a proper employee relations policy, is basically no different from that of employees in private industry. Organization on their part to present their views on such matters is both natural and logical, but meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.”

      http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15445#axzz1oxvFeRrq

  • Modavations

    I asked the usual suspects again.Why did FDR warn against PUBLIC UNIONS.Simon and Garfunkle could  heard singing “Sounds of Silence”

  • Modavations

    I asked again,why did FDR admonish against Public Unions.Terry Tree Tree chirped in and said Bush did it,The Greedy Greedies did it,The Pervert Priests did it.With  further erudition he said Guppies,Lead,cigs,B.C.mercury,meds……
       If you’ve worried where Terry’s been,I’ll clue you in.He’s been in Hollywood.He’s starring in a new movie with Robert Vaugh and Iliya Kuliankan(?),called the MAN FROM N.A.M.B.L.A…..Of course,Terry will play the perverted,pedophile Priest

    • Terry Tree Tree

      Your self-administered ‘Chemicals’ interacting with your self-professed lead and mercury ingestion, creating WILD hallucinations again?

      • Modavations

        Very stale material my Man From N.A.M.B.L.A….I forgot one.It’s bleat # 4..You know,the one from The Religious.Reformation forum,last week.The one where Terry said for the 20th time that day.Look at me,look at me I’m a Volunteer Fire Man and the junkies stole my hoses.To paraphrase the offended lady….”Real mem don’t call attention to their charities”.

        Chemical Users
        1.Pres.Obama(read the book)
        2.Pres.Bush Coke,Alcohol
        3.Pres.Clinton(Nose like a Hoover)
        4.Robert Kennedy the Environmentalist(Junkie who was busted and did time)
        5.Kennedy from R.I-Addicted to absolutely everything
        6.Al Gore-Spent entire military stint in the clouds
        7.ONE HALF OF cONGRESS, who, IF given A SURPRISE DRUG TEST,would come up dirty.

        And what do we have with Mr?Mrs. TerryTT, WHO CLAIM’S HE/she NEVER GOT HIGH,NOR DRINKS?.A Pervert Pedophile,that’s what

  • Modavations

    Okay kids it’s time to quit hiding under your “blankies”and pull your finger out of your ears.I’m going to paraphrase FDR.His admonishing against Public Enmployee Unions is this,”we’ll be creating a friggin Frankenstein”.

  • Zero

    Here is an article on new oil drilling.  In short, job creation yes; lower gas prices no. 

    Type your comhttp://money.cnn.com/2011/04/25/news/economy/oil_drilling_gas_prices/index.htmment here.

  • Modavations

    I thoroughly understand the collective orgasm the Left went through with the Solar Storm .Another day another crisis.As is usually the case,it didn’t amount to squat.Remember the year 2000,when the jets were going to fall from the skies.This is the same crew that gave us Global Warming

  • Brett

    Gregg,
    I like the small gigs the best. Duets and trios in an acoustic setting are mostly what I do anymore. Was the bass player playing electric, acoustic or stand-up? I’d say piano and bass are just about perfect together, just the two together… 

  • Modavations

    When I say debt to GDP, as taught in Economics 101 ,should be 3%,does anyone not understand..Some neophytes say I should say deficit,not debt.To you I say the 3% figure is evident to anyone who took a business course.Today debt/deficit to GDP(Fredslip)would be 100%.A sentient being WOULD FIGURE THE DIFFERENCE.Mr.F said he was so busy on Sunday he couldn’t answer my simple question.I’ll try anew.Why did FDR warn against Public Unions

    • Fredlinskip

      National debt and Federal deficit are 2 entirely different things, yes?
      Debt to GDP currently 100%
      Deficit to GDP currently 10%
       10%, 100%.
      There is a bit of a difference there so if we would like to discuss issue it would probably be good if we were talking about the same thing.
      Unfortunately my personal debt to deficit ratio is going to be effected if I don’t concentrate on work, so I may have to postpone this so far fascinating subject for now.

      I’ll be happy to discuss the union issue as well, although it’s not on my top 10 list of subjects that’s been on my radar screen as of late.
      But I do have to pretend I work for a living  for now.
      Later.

      • Fredlinskip

        Debt to GDP when Gipper left office was around 22%,
        which is site more than 3.

        • Modavations

          You are absolutely and totally incorrect,but when has that stopped ypu.You’ve had a few days now,why did FDR say no Public Unions

      • Fredlinskip

         Okay, I see from a comment below that we both may be  somewhat on same page.
        You are pointing out deficit to GDP Reagan’s last year was 3%,which you think is “perfect”.

        And you want to know why FDR warned against unions.
        Right?

        Oh, man, look at the time!
        Kidding (but unfortunately kind of true).

        Now that we know Clinton’s version of the meaning of word “the” I’m going to have to pick this conversation up some time in future.

        IMO Volcker’s lowering of Prime Interest rate from 21.5% during Carter, to 7.5% during Bedtime for Bonzo admin:

        1) screwed Carter

        2) Is principle reason Reagan admin ended with any positive economic data to show for itself.
        (Sky-rocketing national debt by borrowing $ at  unprecedented rate also offered temporary “stimulus”).

        Dave Stockman, (Reagan Budget Director):
         “The economy did recover after 1982, but mainly because the Federal Reserve defeated inflation.”

  • Still Here

    Domestic oil & gas exploration is an engine that could power the economy out of the recession.  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sell crude and refined products to other countries?  Reducing our trade deficit and bringing foreign capital into the US to support American jobs!

  • Kenny Grant

    I have just one question for everybody. When are you people going to get sick of all the bullshit these assholes are telling you just to get your vote. Have you not noticed a pattern that they are all full of crap. “When I become president, I’m going to do this and this and this”. Have you noticed it never gets done. One man cannot change anything in this world, no matter how good his intentions are. Check out the movie Ides of March. You will see what I’m talking about. My wife always tells me she finds it strange that I don’t vote, even though I was a local govt employee. This is what I tell her. “If you are looking for a nanny to watch you child, One is a convicted armed robber and the other is a child molester, which one would you pick? I hope your answer is neither. She says you just have to pick the lessor of 2 evils. I still wouldn’t pick either person to take care of my child. That’s why I don’t vote, These candidates are crooked, liars and don’t give a shit about you or I. Ill be honest, when Obama ran for office, I almost voted. (the one and only time), I had such high hopes that we finally were going to get a good and true President. I cant believe I actually fell for his crap. He is the only one that made me consider to vote. Thank god I didn’t, I almost did. When it came time to bail out all the filthy rich people who cause hell on earth, and he approved it, it validated two things, 1) THE PRESIDENT HAS NO POWER in this country, a bail out package was decided and he was nowhere near the room in which it was decided. 2) THE PRESIDENT HAS NO POWER IN THIS COUNTRY, WE THE PEOPLE DO, and if we don’t stand up and make this country how it should be, then we just need to kill ourselves, I’m serious. Earlier I stated that I was a govt. Employee, I used to be a Sheriff;s Deputy in Augusta, GA. I lost my job back in 2007 and was forced to use credit cards and other means just to feed my family and pay bills to keep my house warm on cold nights and keep our electricity on. I didn’t not use my credit cards for anything else like, big screen TV’s, Ipads, or anything that wasn’t important. The cards I used were from Chase and Capital One. We all know that these banks got HUGE bailouts. Capital One received 13.6 Billion and Chase received 94.7 billion. I still am unemployed and was unable to pay back these debts. Amount owed to Chase is $3,892. Amount owed to Capital One is $ 4,265. Not big amounts by any means. I now have an attorney who purchased these debts from a collection agency and has now taken the one one last thing that my family has, Our home. There is now a lien against our property which will continue to grow at 8.75% annually until the debt is paid. Where is my President to protect me against shit bag lawyers and why is that even legal? Do you know what the attorney told me? Because the govt. allows it to be that way. FUCK THIS COUNTRY AND EVERYONE WHO RUNS IT. I KNOW THEY WILL ALL BURN IN HELL AND I WILL BE THERE TO WATCH THEM.

  • Tmajor7

    Stating The Obvious:
    Obama stated he would have no problem intervening in Syria but the U.S. gov’t has already invested too much money financing the massacres!

    Stating The Facts:
    Because the U.S. gov’t is a monopoly of our currency and they regulate our free markets, they control our U.S. economy 100% Our U.S. gov’t is obligated to work for We The People, they believe they only work for wall street, selected corporations and big banks. If you are a member of the failed OWS you need to get off of wall street and get over to the only place you should have ever been, capitol hill. Tell your congress to shape up or replace them! Find an honest citizen in your district to place in congress, stipulate if he votes on one single bill without your entire district’s consent he will be immediately terminated. If you can’t find such a citizen and you are honest, run for congress yourself!

    The U.S. gov’t does not fund this country or gov’t with borrowed money or tax revenues. The reason bonds are auctioned off are due to a law originated when the U.S was still pretending to borrow to fund this nation when they used an asset backed currency. When France attempted to collect gold in 1971 instead of dollars for bonds they purchased the U.S. gov’t said no, and Nixon formally ended the (r)use of an asset backed dollar. If investors decided to stop purchasing treasury bonds all together, the gov’t would abolish meritless law and continue as it has, printing as much money as they deem necessary!

    When China purchases bonds from U.S. Treasury with the dollars they receive from all of the garbage we purchase from them, their savings account is credited. When they want the money it is returned to them with interest. China understands exactly what is going on. They purchase the bonds because it is the best interest bearing savings account on the planet! The U.S. does it in order to keep the dollar, which is used in approximately 80% of every financial transaction on this planet, circulating! In fact the reason the U.S. started “outsourcing” in the 1960′s was because for the price of the ink and paper to print the dollar they could purchase the rest of the world’s output and labor, not because of “cheap products from cheap labor!

    The gov’t must run a deficit (which means injecting more money into our economy than they collect)  in order to allow our economy to operate smoothly. The gov’t taxes us to control the population, spending power, and who gets the money.

    THIS IS HOW EVERY SOVEREIGN NATION ON THIS PLANET OPERATES!

    Wake up and learn how to think and form opinions on your own. Stop regurgitating the lies your being told and do the research necessary to learn how your U.S. gov’t and your monetary system actually operate! In fact, never again believe another word your told, including from me, without verifying it as true! 

ONPOINT
TODAY
May 24, 2013
500 Comments
President Obama talks about national security, Thursday, May 23, 2013, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Oklahoma’s monster tornado. The president on counterterrorism. A vote on gay Boy Scouts.

May 24, 2013
37 Comments
A metal fan crowd surfs in a mosh pit during the heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air in Germany. (Philipp Guelland, DAPD/AP)

The definitive history of heavy metal and what it’s always been about.

RECENT
SHOWS
May 23, 2013
56 Comments
In this 2011 photo, U.S. Navy sailors participate in intense 10-minute workout intervals. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael K. McNabb/U.S. Navy)

Rock-hard bodies in a fraction of the time. We’ll look at the 7-minute workout and the promises of high-intensity exercise.

 
May 23, 2013
523 Comments
In this 2010 photo, a sign announcing the acceptance of electronic Benefit Transfer cards is seen at a farmers market in Roseville, Calif. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Congress says food stamps are costing the country too much and debating big cuts. One in every seven Americans is using them to eat. What’s going on?

On Point Blog
On Point Blog
Summer’s On Its Way: Exercise Questions Answered
Friday, May 24, 2013

Three fitness experts joined us during our hour on high-intensity workouts and offered their tips on being safe and responsible during any type of exercise.

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Is America Coming Undone?
Thursday, May 23, 2013

New Yorker writer George Packer says yes. He reflected on the nation’s core institutions failing the American people.

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4 Comments
 
WIRED’s Bill Wasik On The Henry Fords Of Today
Wednesday, May 22, 2013

He talked about how Google and Tesla are paving the way of innovation and how technological development is related not only to creativity but to environmental responsibility.

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