Pajamas Media

163 Comments

1. tom:

and in the main stream media – no news here, move along

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:19 am 2. Fred Beloit:

If redistribution comes, can reparations be far behind? It will get a bit expensive around here if the Democratics are given all the power.

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:24 am 3. R a Z o R:

While eating lunch at Joe’s diner I saw a

homeless man thru the window carrying an Obama

sign that read …VOTE OBAMA … I need money .

Then I noticed the waiter was wearing an ……

Obama tie .

So I decided to give the waiter’s tip to the

homeless man . Why in the world did the waiter

get so upset ?

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:34 am 4. JimCap:

This morning at work, I send this link to seven different people I know, four of whom are in my office. No one cares! They laughed at me!

This may mean something to we conservatives. But I’m afraid we’re not in the majority on this. Most people have made up their minds and they’re not listening anymore.

One guy said to me, “Oh, you right-wingers are always crying wolf about something. What are you gonna call Obama next, a Nazi?”

Look at the polls, even in places like Virginia and North Carolina. Not to mention Ohio and Florida. I have to be a realist here. I knew this would happen as soon as we nominated McCain instead of a real conservative.

I think McCain’s goose is cooked. No matter what we do.

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:34 am 5. Jeff Tyler:

And the worst part is that with Obama’s focus on children indocrination and people like Ayers on his side, he’s going to feed this into children bypassing the parents:

http://drslogan.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/dad-what-was-that-thing-you-said-about-president-obama/

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:35 am 6. Novathecat:

“But you have enjoyed the benefits of what your ancestors did.”
Right, my ancestors were poor dirt farmers. My father’s generation rose up through hard work, serving in WWII and the GI Bill. The money in my 401K is from my hard work and self discipline, not from inheritance, unless you count inherited values. No thrust fund here. If you want to see a revolution, just try to steal the savings of working people and give it to those who will not work. The second amendment is there for just that reason.

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:36 am 7. Maggie:

I thought Team Obama was pushing early voting so his supporters would have ample time to vote multiple times using fraudulent registrations.

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:37 am 8. BizzyBlog » Latest Pajamas Media Column (’Obama’s Redistributionist Obsession’) Is Up:

[...] It’s here. [...]

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:40 am 9. Obama the Marxist-Socialist: We don’t need no Stinking Constitution! « Mark Epstein:

[...] noted at Pajamas Media, within hours of its posting, YouTube was besieged with over 2,500 comments on the Leninesque [...]

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:50 am 10. Jeff Weimer:

Guy spinning for Obama on Fox News just now said it was talking about education and school reform in Chicago.

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:53 am 11. Sarge:

Republicans……dont give up. Get out and Vote, get your Conservativr friends out to VOTE ! We will get what we deserve unless we band together and VOTE VOTE VOTE !!!!!

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:54 am 12. JimCap:

This morning at work, I send the link about Obama’s radio interview to seven different people I know, four of whom are in my office. Sorry to say that no one cares! They actually laughed at me! And half of these are people who voted for Bush four years ago!

This Obama interview means something to we conservatives. But I’m afraid we’re not in the majority on this. Most people have made up their minds and they’re not listening anymore.

One guy said to me, “Oh, you right-wingers are always crying wolf about something. What are you gonna call Obama next, a Nazi?”

It’s depressing. Look at the polls, even in places like Virginia and North Carolina. Not to mention Ohio and Florida. I have to be a realist here. I knew this would happen as soon as we nominated McCain instead of a real conservative.

I think McCain’s goose is cooked. No matter what we do.

How can anyone think that McCain has a ghost of a chance anymore? Sad to say, it’s over.

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:56 am 13. Saltherring:

I recall telling politically conservative friends and business associates, in July of 2007, that the prospect of an Obama presidency scared me much more than Hillary. I wonder if they’re still laughing now.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:08 am 14. Douglas Bogle:

Never fear Obama is here.

The constitution is flawed. Only the “O” can fix it with judges that see spread the wealth as a unspoken meaning within the constitution.

Argentina is the example we in the US need to look to as our future.

Never fear Obama is here.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:10 am 15. Amphipolis:

It would be different if Obama came out and stated that his views were more radical in the past, that he has mellowed with age, that he toyed with socialist ideas but now simply wants to make sure the middle class gets a fair chance.

But in true Obama fashion, he does not admit any evolution in his views. On this, on black liberation theology, on negotiating with terrorists, on protecting those born alive, on public financing, etc.

I would entertain voting for a reformed radical. I would not entertain voting for someone who has admitted no change in his thinking to parallel his change in rhetoric or behavior. Such a person either is grossly dishonest, has no principles whatsoever, or actually believes he is always right.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:17 am 16. Boris:

“non-poor people who never paid in a dime of tax”

You mean income tax.

But this is another non-story. Obama wants to make us into a socialist country–just like we were 8 years ago? The argument makes no sense. Americans want a progressive tax structure.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:27 am 17. Amphipolis:

I agree with Obama’s assesment of constitutional rights. The constitution’s rights limit government interference in our lives. Private property, free speech, freedom of assembly.

Obama and the liberals want rights that would transfer responsibility for our well being from us to the government. A right to education, health care, a decent wage – things that should be left up to us, things that the government is not good at providing.

That is not freedom. That is slavery.

Freedom means being free to take risks or work extra hours to get ahead. Freedom to succeed, or fail. Slavery means being dependent on another for our subsistence. Not being able to keep the fruit of our labor.

Government was not created to and is not able to make us equal. Government can only ensure that we are treated equally before the law.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:33 am 18. JFP:

Here are my three predictions about any redistribution of wealth:

1. Not all poor people will get the money that is redistributed. Once the race and gender crowd gets a hold of that money, they will insure that poor white males will get nothing.

2. Some of that money will go to the rich and not the poor. It will be siphoned off for dubious alternative energy projects, for example. And since the people getting that money will have to be “vetted,” and since poor people rarely have the advanced degrees or the right connections to get vetted, it will be rich people getting the money.

3. The Democrats will impose many costs on poor people so that the redistribution will be partly or completely nullified. Environmentalists, for example, seldom think about the costs to the poor of their policies. They want gas to go to $9/gallon, but they don’t care about the poor.

If there is a big win for the Democrats this year, in two years the Republicans will control Congress again because so many people will be unhappy with the Democrats.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:44 am 19. stu.b.con:

What is most frustrating is the otherwise seemingly intelligent people who don’t or won’t get it, I ran into the same thing JimCap did. An ambivalence apparently borne of either an intellectual laziness or semi-concsious acceptance of the nanny state and all that it brings with it.
Yikes

I AM JOE

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:45 am 20. Kurt:

Even before I learned of this interview, I was thinking this morning that one of the worst things about Obama is that he has never been anything other than a member of the hard left. In his books, he talks about seeking out a Marxist as a mentor in his youth, and he talks about how he chose to hang out with the Marxists and the radicals in college. When he first decided to run for the Illinois state senate, he was a member of the socialist New Party, a fact that he tries to obscure, but that has been documented. And now there’s this interview. There is nothing in his history to suggest that he even understands anything about the way people on the other side of the political spectrum think.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:46 am 21. squiddy:

In Obama’s worldview, income redistribution is/are “reparations”. But income redistribution ultimately transcends racial lines — inherent in the Socialistic belief system is that those who’ve succeeded in a capitalistic system has somehow victimized those who didn’t (succeed), and thus owes “reparations.” A more aggressive restatement of “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

If elected, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid will spend Billions / Trillions on programs for the “Middle Class”, aka “Hard-Working, Proud Americans”, paid for by the “Rich”, aka “Blood-Sucking Capitalist Parasites”, aka “you.”

This is necessary to uphold everyone’s “Rights” – these rights include a house, a car, health care, clothes, food, a microwave, a plasma screen hi-def tv, internet access, 2 cell phones with texting service and custom ring-tones, an Ipod, an XBox, and hair-care products.

And since these are “Fundamental Human Rights”, you don’t even have to be a citizen to collect them. What a country!

Unfortunately, due the vast numbers of oppressed people requiring the government to secure these “rights”, the definition of “Rich” will be revised downward to include anyone who’s actually got a job.

To cut through the clutter, here’s a simple way to figure out what they have in mind for you:

1. If you currently are a “donor”, that is, you pay more in taxes than you get receive in benefits, (aka “Greedy Rich Oppressor Class”) then you will allowed to “donate more.”

2. If you are a “donee”, that is, you are receiving government benefits in the form of Medicaid, SCHIP, Section-8, EITC, disability, SSI, TANF, food stamps, child care grants, WIC, General Relief, etc, then you will “get more.”

Isn’t equality grand?

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:48 am 22. Ben Dover:

All I want to know is when are my wealth redistribution checks gonna start hitting my mailbox so I can quit my job.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:53 am 23. Jaysephus:

Hey JimCap: if you are going to troll at least remember how many times you have posted the exact same troll message.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:55 am 24. Rotwang:

Truly, this must be the millionth time in US history that a politician is suggesting another batch of incidental tweaks around the margins of the Federal Tax Code.

Oh, but THIS time, it’s Socialism.

Let me know when the 16th Amendment magically STOPS redistributing wealth. Now, THAT would be news.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:58 am 25. Amphipolis:

Boris -

Americans do not want the tax system to become a welfare program. The earned income “rebate” Obama would expand is just that.

Oct 27, 2008 - 8:59 am 26. Mr. Integrity:

For more on this story, as well as insightful and rational commentary on politics, culture, and economics, please visit Mr. Integrity at: http://mister-integrity.blogspot.com/

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:00 am 27. Obama: The anti-American Marxist Constitution Hater « ULTIMATE TRUTH:

[...] noted at Pajamas Media, within hours of its posting, YouTube was besieged with over 2,500 comments on the Leninesque [...]

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:04 am 28. GeoFizz:

JimCap: You are either an eeyore, or an Obama moonbat. There are plenty of pissed-off PUMAs and Democrats who aren’t going to vote for a socialist. Enough possibly to overwhelm whatever fraud Team Obama can pull off. Most polls are hooey because nobody is taking into account the big divides within both parties; the party ID’s they’re using to process polling data are off. Eeyores who wail that the game is lost are only helping Team Obama demoralize those who would vote for McCain. If you hear about what is going on on the ground, there are lots of folks who are going to vote for McCain, but they won’t tell you this because of the Obama intimidation factor.

There is a lot to be hopeful about. GET OUT AND VOTE because the fight is going strong. McCain/Palin can WIN.

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:11 am 29. Big Ben:

His mother was a old school Socialist, his putative biological father an anti-colonialist revolutionary Socialist; his “philantrophic” colleques, Dohrn and Ayers were openly declared Stalinist-Communists cum radical nihilist-revolutionaries; his “spiritual” mentors, Wright and Phleger, a combination of “liberation Theology”advocates and social revolutionaries;his mentor and father figure while growing up was a n old school card carrying Communist (CPUSA); his worldview in the formative years was based on Saul Alinsky, a radical Socialist.

Is any one suprised that Obama believes that the Constitution has a “penumbra” of rights imposed on the government to guaranty equality of results?
The election is not over. The tape is a smoking gun.Americans are sometimes dense, but by and large they reject Socialism, even in difficult economic times. McCain has 7 days left to hammer away at this; If he does, the MSM will have to report it and Obama will be finally exposed for who he really is.

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:14 am 30. susan:

I favour redistribution of brain. Take away brain from who has too much and give to people who do not have any.

Boris, vivo and the rest of leftist lot would be the first recipients.

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:17 am 31. Robert Hurley:

Do I hear some desperation here

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:18 am 32. AnonymousPatriot:

In the spirit of The Declaration of Independence, “…the pursuit of Happiness” implies that one actually needs to take action and do something.

Per Dictionary.com:
pur-suit [per-soot] -noun
1. the act of pursuing: in pursuit of the fox.
2. an effort to secure or attain; quest: the pursuit of happiness.
3. any occupation, pastime, or the like, in which a person is engaged regularly or customarily: literary pursuits.

Apparently, in the land of “O”, it would be “the pursuit and attainment of productive individuals money by the government, in the name of fairness, in order to give Happiness to others, to whom, by government authority, we deem to be qualified to receive other peoples money.” Or something like that.

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:27 am 33. Whitey:

I want the corporations and the wealthy to keep their tax cuts that bush gave because then I know america’s money is safe. So what if CEO’s use that money just to give themselves huge severance packages, at least my hard earned money won’t be wasted on worthless causes like healthcare and education. Eff the poor and middle class.

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:44 am 34. JMS2008:

Obama pushes early voting so that no one has the chance to change their minds between now and 11/4. One would think that with the revelation of this audio, people (independents and undecideds) might actually pause before voting for Obama. Unfortunately, I think it might be too late for this discussion. I don’t think it will reach enough people and get out fast enough. Too bad.

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:44 am 35. JFP:

Rotwang, yes, you’re right. Though notice that in my post, I never called it socialism. I just called it a redistribution.

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:52 am 36. The Audacity of Redistribution « Retractable Horns & Tail:

[...] Cubed by Bill Whittle, National Review Obama’s Redistributionist Obsession by Tom Blumer, Pajamas Media Daily Kos Desperately Spinning Obama ‘Redistribution of [...]

Oct 27, 2008 - 10:13 am 37. always right:

Time now for another one of those ‘MAJOR’ speeches from Obama himself.

/Like the one about race in Philadelphia (being compared to the Gettysburg speech). Nobody can remember exactly what he said, but he sure looked good.

Then everybody can hail how presidential he looked and sounded.

Oct 27, 2008 - 10:14 am 38. Judy, NYC:

it is unlikely that mccain will win. his ideas are not impactful, he has not addressed health care issues wisely, and americans don’t seem to care about terrorists, refusing to believe that muslims want to see us dead. the media, having no supplies from reality, and no real journalists, have none to give. apparently, most people just follow the guy in front of them, until a following forms. the democrats will win, because the republicans are mortally wounded by bush and his imperial presidency. obama, strangely, is very much a bush clone. being narcissistic, he covers up anything that might not be properly admired. lies and secrecy are about control. and not in a good way. paranoid, thin skinned and outraged by the slightest criticisms, both obama and bush, have a remarkable disregard for our democracy, which at its essence makes us a nation of critics, especially as regards political leaders. where they veer off is in obama’s incipient rage all narcissists have, finding an outlet in the racist belief that separation of americans by color coding is a good thing. roiling underneath is the belief, quite transparent, that our ideology, our values are those of privilege and white skin, despite the fact that there are plenty of poor, marginalized whites. ironically, and by virtue of our civil rights legislation and affirmative action, we have a huge black american middle class. in his bizarro world, all things are upside down . if what is actually true, doesn’t agree with his personal notion, he dismisses it. the white middle class is suffering, while blacks, just by lucky accident of timing, have long term employment, benefits and health coverage. the government acting as an employer of last resort, filled most non-professional and semi-professional government federal, state and city jobs with black americans. black americans were first priority in low interest loans for small businesses and support of every kind. obama’s whole argument is fallacious. the mob, however, is not interested in his thinking, or strange and unsettling alliances and secretive backgound. the mob wants a supernatural, religious saviour, a messiah whom they have dubbed the one. history shows us that eventually all great societies implode, whether by natural causes, man made disasters or diminished leadership. the founding fathers knew this, of course, calling this american democracy a noble experiment, with the separation of church and state and the constitution as its lynchpin and warning in the strongest possible terms, eternal vigilance. sadly, america slept too late.

Oct 27, 2008 - 10:59 am 39. J.E.Rendini:

Barry O
(to the tune of “Leroy Brown” with apologies to the late, great Jim Croce)

By now you’ve heard the stories
From the south of Chicago
They all say down there
You better just beware
Of a man named Barry O
Now Barry’s a smooth talker
And he likes his fancy words
And he likes to wave his Harvard ring
It impresses all the nerds
He’s got a custom Continental
He’s got a big new mansion too
He’s got kids in private school
’Cause he ain’t no fool
But all that’s too good for you

And he’s Red, Red
Barry O
Socialist from the
First get-go
He will bring you
Peace and health
All he’s got to do
Is share your wealth.

Now he’s just a politician
Though some believe he’s God
Like the folks at ACORN
Who come in blowin’ his horn
While committing voter fraud
Now Barry he’s real friendly
And he is all smiles and hugs
Till you ask him a real hard question
Then you meet his leftist thugs.
They’ll search all through your garbage
And your driver’s record’s fine
He’s got friends in the Press
Can make your life a mess
If you dare step outta line.

And he’s Red, Red
Barry O
Got no use for
Plumbers named Joe
He will bring
The heav’ns in reach
Just kiss goodbye to
Your free speech.

Barry loves our Constitution
Loves to change it all around
Make a snip here and there
The Founders were too square
He’s too smart for those old clowns
Now all the world loves Barry
He brings them hope and change
They’re just lickin’ their chops till the music stops
’Cause they all hope we’ll change
Cheer the Chinese and the Russians
And the mullahs of Iran
“Lay down America’s arms
Submit to Barry’s charms
You can do it – Yes you can!”

Follow Red, Red
Barry O
He’s best friends
With the PLO
Ready to
Twist and shout
Readier to
Sell us out

Oct 27, 2008 - 11:20 am 40. bobbymike:

Just a quick correction,

Obama is not Robin Hood – see picture with this post. He is the high taxing Sheriff of Nottingham (the Government in this case). Remember everyone was poor because the Sheriff took taxes from everyone and kept it for themselves. The government and their chosen constituents were “the rich” and the people were all poor as a result of the government’s appetite for taxation.

Robin Hood will be a brave conservative who can take on the big government Democrats to get our money back.

Oct 27, 2008 - 11:35 am 41. ice:

fullaudio downloadable here

http://drop.io/awoxfhv

54min

Oct 27, 2008 - 11:54 am 42. susan:

judy you wrote some correct things including

“the government acting as an employer of last resort, filled most non-professional and semi-professional government federal, state and city jobs with black americans. black americans were first priority in low interest loans for small businesses and support of every kind.”

Obamba is the product of this mentality, therefore he cannot bite the hand that feeds.

This is reverse racism at its finest.

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:11 pm 43. Ed Wallis:

The most entertaining EXCERPT from the 2001 radio interview of Barack Obama on Chicago public radio station WBEZ :

Obama: “If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court. I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I’d be o.k. But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. IT DIDN’T BREAK FREE FROM THE ESSENTIAL CONSTRAINTS THAT WERE PLACED BY THE FOUNDING FATHERS IN THE CONSTITUTION…”. (emphasis mine)

So, even though a person being sworn into the Presidency of the United States of America is committed to (paraphrasing here…) upholding, defending and protecting the Constitution of the United States, Obama has already committed himself to trashing the Constitution to suit his personal, Socialist interests.

*** McCAIN / PALIN ‘08!!! ***

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:18 pm 44. s sommer:

“In this interview back in 2001, Obama was talking about the civil rights movement – and the kind of work that has to be done on the ground to make sure that everyone can live out the promise of equality,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton says. “Make no mistake, this has nothing to do with Obama’s economic plan or his plan to give the middle class a tax cut. It’s just another distraction from an increasingly desperate McCain campaign.”

Burton continues: “In the interview, Obama went into extensive detail to explain why the courts should not get into that business of ‘redistributing’ wealth. Obama’s point – and what he called a tragedy – was that legal victories in the Civil Rights led too many people to rely on the courts to change society for the better. That view is shared by conservative judges and legal scholars across the country.

“As Obama has said before and written about, he believes that change comes from the bottom up – not from the corridors of Washington,” Burton says. “He worked in struggling communities to improve the economic situation of people on the South Side of Chicago, who lost their jobs when the steel plants closed. And he’s worked as a legislator to provide tax relief and health care to middle-class families. And so Obama’s point was simply that if we want to improve economic conditions for people in this country, we should do so by bringing people together at the community level and getting everyone involved in our democratic process.”

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:23 pm 45. Robert Hurley:

Judy NYC

It is neat how you disparage Amercan voters as “the mob.” That sounds dangerously elitist.

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:33 pm 46. Jeff Weimer:

The context of the whole conversation is the civil rights struggle. He’s not talking about blanket socialist redistribution, he’s talking about SLAVERY/JIM CROW REPARATIONS. I’m sure the pragmatic (ends justify the means) side of him doesn’t mind money going to poor non-blacks, every vote counts after all. Yet this is more proof he’s not the post-racial, post-partisan candidate he wants us to believe. He looks through life through the prism of race (as he has admitted in his books), and it is just as blinding to reality as any member of the KKK.

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:35 pm 47. Robert Hurley:

Susan:

You might know Europe, but your analysis of the American political scene is tinged with the bias of your situation and not ours

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:35 pm 48. dfelton:

Please vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president.

Why vote for McCain? He voted for the bailout, just like Obama. And both McCain and Obama voted for US government investment in big commercial banks, which is socialist, Socialism, maybe even Communism. Why not send a message to both parties that it is time to vote on principles? Why not? YES, we should!

Only Bob Barr is moral enough and conservative enough to deal with the issue of housing, Wall Street, and the rest of the current mess. He has not taken a cent from Fannie or Freddie or from any of the Wall Street firms that profit from the bailout. And Bob Barr has the support of Rep. Ron Paul, who did so well in the Republican primary debates.

Here’s Bob’s Web site: http://www.bobbarr2008.com/

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:53 pm 49. lgkick:

It is only fair to redistribute the wealth in a society where there is no economic justice. Such a redistribution will only make us stronger. The middle class will benefit under Obama’s economic plans. It is the big businesses and corporations who have to worry about their pockets. McCain knows this well and he is worried about his buddies in big business. And his defense for not raising their tax: “what if they go to Ireland to invest where they are taxed 11%?” If a business is so unpatriotic to move to Ireland because Obama will tax them slightly higher, then they have no right to be in this country. Let them go to Ireland, we won’t buy their stuff. And these are the same people who are shipping our jobs to overseas because it is cheaper for them there. What’s next? Are we going to lower our labor standards to stop the big businesses from moving overseas?

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:03 pm 50. Kurt:

Why vote for McCain, dfelton? I’ve got plenty of reservations about McCain’s goals and policies, but those are miniscule compared to my serious worries about what Obama will do when he’s in office with a solid Democrat majority in both the House and the Senate. The question is not why vote for McCain, but why waste a vote for Bob Barr, when voting for him only helps to enable an Obama victory.

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:11 pm 51. Robert Hurley:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has been convicted of lying about free home renovations and other gifts he received from a wealthy oil contractor.

The Senate’s longest-serving Republican, Stevens was found guilty on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate financial documents.

The verdict throws the upcoming election into disarray. Stevens is fighting off a challenge from Democrat Mark Begich and must now either drop out or continue campaigning as a convicted felon.

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:11 pm 52. Amphipolis:

But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society.

He is saying that the civil rights movement failed to bring about court-mandated socialism because the Warren Court lacked the imagination to get around constitutional restraints.

Obama went into extensive detail to explain why the courts should not get into that business of ‘redistributing’ wealth.
Where is the quote to back this up?

Obama’s point – and what he called a tragedy – was that legal victories in the Civil Rights led too many people to rely on the courts to change society for the better.
The aim was still redistribution of wealth, he was merely suggesting that this may have been achieved better through community organizing, or a more imaginative court that had a more loose interpretation of the constitution.

I’ll take him at his word, not at your paraphrase of what you think today he should have said then.

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:15 pm 53. Paul_Unalaska:

s sommer, anytime an individual needs to “break down” “explain” or “simplify” one’s words, whether audio or text, something’s fishy.

It’s interesting also Burton touches on “improve the economic situation of people on the South side of Chicago”. Through September 2008 there’s been more murders in Chicago this past year than Iraq! Most recently, not including Jennifer Hudson’s 3 family members. BHO can’t even control his own city he represents!

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:18 pm 54. RE:

Seizing one person’s property to give to another seems extremely un-American and unconstitutional to me. Expect Obama to wage war against America’s founding principles and undermine that which has made America great. Nothing in his past would suggest otherwise.

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:24 pm 55. kevin c:

whoever said ARGENTINA IS THE EXAMPLE WE NEED TO LOOK AT GETS IT CLOSE. A BETTER,MORE RECENT EXAMPLE MIGHT BE VENEZUELA. EVEN WITH HOLLYWEIRD ADORATION AND HUGE OIL WEALTH,HUGO THE COMMIE PIG CHAVEZ IS RUNNING THE WORLDS 4TH LARGEST OIL PRODUCER INTO THE GROUND. HEY HUGO-NOTICE HOW NONE OF YOUR NATIVE SON BASEBALL PLAYERS ARE RETURNING HOME? THEY KNOW YOUR A COMMIE.

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:30 pm 56. kevin c:

the FOUNDING FATHERS SET UP THE CONSTITUTION TO PROTECT US FROM GOVT EXCESS-AND NOW AFTER 50 YEARS OF DUMBING DOWN AND COMMIE MEDIA INDOCTRINATION THE COMMIE PIG MOSLEM OBAMA WANTS TO USE THE CONSTITUTION TO GIVE THE GOVT “RIGHTS”? HEY DUMMIES WHO VOTE FOR THIS PIG-IN TWO YEARS THIS GUY WILL MAKE YOU WISH BUSH WAS BACK IN CHARGE. THATS HOW SCREWED UP THIS COMMIE IS. AND THE IDIOT BIDEN IS SUCH A BLOWHARD YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT NATIONAL SECURITY SECRETS HE WILL BLURT OUT.

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:34 pm 57. Fred:

What the redistributionists do not seem to understand is that even if a company remains in the U.S., it will pass on the higher taxes to the consumer by pricing the product or service higher. Wealthy people will find ways to shelter their wealth and income, and will also pass their higher taxes on to the consumers of their services. One of the things that many wealthy individuals do, including wealthy Democrats like George Soros, is to put their money on the island of Curacao, or structure their compensation to go through shell corporations offshore and right into those same banks that Soros uses. George Soros, who is the major financier and puppet master of Obama’s campaign, as a U.S. citizen pays no income taxes.

Unless I’ve read the nation’s Constitution and the papers of the founders incorrectly, I never came across any opinion of theirs, stated or implied, that suggests that a requirement and quality of American patriotism is to consent to the government taking more of what you earn.

The post of the one above mine demonstrates the extreme ignorance of the real ways in which the economy operates and the principles upon which the nation was founded.

Confiscating wealth is socialism. Take it from someone who used to be an academic Marxist a few decades ago.

We should now begin a searing inquiry as to how more than the half the nation has moved solidly left of center and now believes in socialism. One of the things I keep begging the proponents of socialsm to do, before they buy it hook, line, and sinker: take a hard look at an economic model like France’s. Do you want to be like France? For decades, high, structural unemployment. Steep regulation of business. Very high taxation. Very little entrepreneurism and very few small companies that grow ideas and jobs. High welfare costs. You either work for the government or you work for very large corporations. Those large corporations tend to be monopolies and have high government subsidization, which means the government is a part owner in those companies, if not a majority shareholder.

In France… imploding birth rates for the native French people. Exploding birth rates for the unintegrated Muslim populations, which are on the verge of having virtual control, perhaps within a generation, of the nation.

A welfare state that cannot afford an effective military of any significant size, which makes France worse than a second rate military power.

If this is the direction you want the United States to go in, then by all means please do vote for Barack Obama and his coterie of redistributionists.

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:36 pm 58. Therese:

I’m glad that all of this is coming out now before Obama gets elected. Trust me. There are lots of people taking notice of this. This is scaring the heck out of people! McCain is going to win.

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:38 pm 59. Robert Hurley:

Therese:

I guess you don’t give as much credence to the polls that McCain does

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:46 pm 60. Robert Hurley:

We have a long history of graduated income tax which takes more from the rich than the poor. Obama’s tax plan fits right in with the mainstream.

“In 1862, in order to support the Civil War effort, Congress enacted the nation’s first income tax law. It was a forerunner of our modern income tax in that it was based on the principles of graduated, or progressive, taxation”

Oct 27, 2008 - 1:51 pm 61. Austin:

If I decide to stop working, where will the wealth come from and who will make the food, clothes, and all the other things people want?

It used to be that when you worked for the man and then he took anything you made, it was called slavery.

Oct 27, 2008 - 2:03 pm 62. JED:

Perhaps we are all underestimating the scope of “the change.” Obama has frequently used these two simple phrases which the MSM does not pick up:
1. “The United States uses too much energy.”
2. “People in third world countries are ashamed at how wealthy we are in this country.”

How have can you go to share the wealth to have people like you?

Oct 27, 2008 - 2:08 pm 63. J.E.Rendini:

To lgkick:

Did you ever hear of the Soviet Union? It spent seventy years or so redistributing income. It could not educate its people, it could not house its people, it could not clothe its people, it could not provide adequate health care to its people, in the end it could not even defend itself. It collapsed. Along the way, its redistributist policies papered over the murders of 100 million people in the Soviet Union and around the world. Please don’t talk as if the 20th Century never happened. We’re not idiots.

The middle class will not benefit from Obama’s economic plans. Instead, it will suffer. The middle class does not exist in isolation. The middle class depends for its well-being on jobs and investments which flow from the rich individuals and large corporations which you want to tax. Taxes on the rich, either rich individuals or large corporations, are mostly pass throughs. That means that, depending on the elasticity of demand for the goods and services they produce, taxes on wealth are paid for in the form of 1) lower wages 2) higher prices or 3) lower returns on capital – the capital in your 401(k)s and retirement funds. Oh yes, they are also paid for in the form of unemployment. Obama’s tax breaks will not do you any good if you are out of a job, and that’s exactly what is going to happen to the less well-paid and less well-skilled.

But, you say, yes it will, because Obama’s tax cuts are really huge transfer payments, a redistribution of wealth, an enormous increase in welfare payments to the poor and the lower-middle class. But you don’t understand what you’re talking about. You do not understand the difference between money and currency. When you make transfer payments, either by direct transfer or by subsidies, what you are doing is transferring currency from more productive people to less productive people. You are penalizing success and rewarding failure. Aside from the perverse incentives that this transfer creates, you are giving more currency to people who contribute less goods and services to the economic market. Those people then go into the economic marketplace and, with their excess currency, bid for the available goods and services. But because they have not contributed goods and services of a value equal to their currency, more currency is chasing less goods and services, causing the price of those goods and services to rise without any benefit to anyone (except debtors, for reasons I won’t explain here). This is what we call inflation. Inflation debases currency, erodes savings, destabilizes governments and creates havoc in an economy. Obama’s redistributivist policies are going to cause inflation and then you’ll be sorry.

And to think you can get people not to buy lower priced goods because they come from Ireland? We can’t get people not to buy low-priced Chinese goods, despite the fact that sales of Chinese goods fund the most repressive government on earth and build a military designed to fight us. Get real.

You are probably substantially younger than I am and have suffered from the effects of a dumbed-down education. I don’t fault you for this. But please remember, the effects of Obamanomics will fall most heavily on the young, who need a high-employment economy, and the old, who are living on fixed incomes. Neither of these groups can endure the unleashing of inflation. It is neither compassionate nor just to expose them to it. But that’s what unbridled government spending does.

Oct 27, 2008 - 2:08 pm 64. JoeSixGunSixPackTheProAmericanPlumber:

Sarah Palin is a Marxist
Alaska: America’s Socialist State

Sarah Palin’s home state of Alaska is the MOST Socialist state in these United States, and she’s proud of it!

Alaska has no income or sales tax!
That’s because it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields.
First the state government takes it’s hefty cut, then it redistributes the wealth, cutting a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state.
Sarah Palin was happy to increase this year’s check by $1200, bringing the per-person total to $3,269, helping her maintain her popularity as Governor.

I wonder how that’s not “buying” votes?

Sarah Palin is proud of her states’ collective wealth-redistribution scheme.
Sarah Palin said,
“We’re set up, unlike other states in the union,
where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources.
So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.”

Right out of the Karl Marx play book!

Oct 27, 2008 - 2:20 pm 65. Robert Hurley:

J E Rendini:

Where have you been – We have been reidstributing wealth for years

Oct 27, 2008 - 2:25 pm 66. Ed Wallis:

It IS somewhat amusing to read the apologists for Obama’s Socialism say,

“Oh, it’s only a matter of degrees.”

YEAH. Uh huh.

Sorta like drinking a glass of water and drowning.
__________________________

I also question the timing of the sudden appearance of the “vote Bob Barr” trolls. Libertarians in my opinion ought to be THE LOUDEST to decry ZerObama’s Socialist a.k.a. Redistributionist committments.

Oct 27, 2008 - 2:49 pm 67. billb:

NOW MORE THAN EVER IS THE TIME FOR DIVIDED GOVERNMENT!

Oct 27, 2008 - 2:59 pm 68. Believer:

And just think what fun Obama will have with “eminent domain” —

He’ll take your property away from you and hand it over to his pal, Rezko – well, once he gets out of jail. Then he can try one more time to get public housing right. Let’s at least hope there’ll be fewer than the 1800 code violations the last time around.

And then maybe with all the money Rezko makes on that deal, he’ll help BO and Michelle get themselves a really great vacation home somewhere — maybe Aspen? Homes there make that mansion in tony Hyde Park, Chicago look like maid’s quarters.

Or maybe warmer climes would be more to their liking. Martha’s Vineyard? Nantucket? I’m sure they’d find like-minded libs there. Well, not as radical, perhaps, but awfully close.

Oct 27, 2008 - 3:00 pm 69. Marina:

OBAMA FAKE CROWDS:
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/6765

Please, read it if you want, but please, please send it to Rush, one of our last mouthes:
ElRushbo@eibnet.com

MY PROVIDER BLOCKS IT ALL THE TIME, PLEASE HELP ME,
OBAMA REALLY FAKES HIS CROWDS!!!!!!!!!

Send it to Rush or wherever you like, spread it, please,
DON’T LET THEM KILL OUR SPIRIT WITH THEIR FAKED POLLS!

Oct 27, 2008 - 3:16 pm 70. Believer:

An interesting read, Marina.

I’ll tell you what I’ve been thinking — that all these ‘thousands’ of people who show up at his rallies are paid by him. They probably are leaving early to run to the next one so his numbers of supporters will look greater than is really true.

They stay just long enough for the photos of the large crowd to be taken.

*********

Also, I hope everyone knows how BO has banned access of TWO stations now who have given Biden ‘tough’ interviews.

gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

has video and story on the second station (CBS3) that got in trouble with Team BO. They won’t even rerun – as usual – the interview at the later hour.

Too many questions about socialism and redistribution of wealth. Also some uncomfortable questions for Biden himself on his own family members getting some pretty big money – almost $2million…

The site has lots of good info on these hot issues.

Oct 27, 2008 - 3:38 pm 71. MaskedMan:

joe whatever…

Alaska is a VERY difficult place to live by nature of its climate, so as to incentivize its inhabitants it pays them energy money to help with the costs (physical, emotional, etc) imposed by living in that extreme circumstance. That has less to do with Socialism (since they can’t live on $3,269 per year “four figure” check…lol) but can benifit their inhabitants by giving them a yearly heating allowance as it were based.

NICE TRY THOUGH…NOT

Oct 27, 2008 - 3:54 pm 72. Chaz:

Can I ask you to change the graphic? Putting Obama in a Robin Hood hat is an insult to Robin Hood. he didn’t actually steal from the rich….

….just the government.

Oct 27, 2008 - 4:32 pm 73. John Moore:

Fred,
I don’t think over half the population is in favor of socialism. I doubt that many have any idea how far left Obama is. The MSM has painted him as a Clintonian moderate, in spite of all the evidence. Obama, a student of how to achieve radical results through gradualism, is happy to go along.

I think the Democrat strategy of wearing everyone down with bad news is the main reason most people are interested in voting for “change.”

Oct 27, 2008 - 4:50 pm 74. kralcmot:

to 38 Judy NYC…interesting posting…but hard to read. I have inserted some paragraphs for us…maybe some would like to comment on these interesting ideas:

it is unlikely that mccain will win. his ideas are not impactful, he has not addressed health care issues wisely, and americans don’t seem to care about terrorists, refusing to believe that muslims want to see us dead.

the media, having no supplies from reality, and no real journalists, have none to give. apparently, most people just follow the guy in front of them, until a following forms.

the democrats will win, because the republicans are mortally wounded by bush and his imperial presidency.

obama, strangely, is very much a bush clone. being narcissistic, he covers up anything that might not be properly admired. lies and secrecy are about control. and not in a good way. paranoid, thin skinned and outraged by the slightest criticisms, both obama and bush, have a remarkable disregard for our democracy, which at its essence makes us a nation of critics, especially as regards political leaders.

where they veer off is in obama’s incipient rage all narcissists have, finding an outlet in the racist belief that separation of americans by color coding is a good thing. roiling underneath is the belief, quite transparent, that our ideology, our values are those of privilege and white skin, despite the fact that there are plenty of poor, marginalized whites. ironically, and by virtue of our civil rights legislation and affirmative action, we have a huge black american middle class.

in his bizarro world, all things are upside down . if what is actually true, doesn’t agree with his personal notion, he dismisses it. the white middle class is suffering, while blacks, just by lucky accident of timing, have long term employment, benefits and health coverage. the government acting as an employer of last resort, filled most non-professional and semi-professional government federal, state and city jobs with black americans. black americans were first priority in low interest loans for small businesses and support of every kind. obama’s whole argument is fallacious.

the mob, however, is not interested in his thinking, or strange and unsettling alliances and secretive backgound. the mob wants a supernatural, religious saviour, a messiah whom they have dubbed the one. history shows us that eventually all great societies implode, whether by natural causes, man made disasters or diminished leadership.

the founding fathers knew this, of course, calling this american democracy a noble experiment, with the separation of church and state and the constitution as its lynchpin and warning in the strongest possible terms, eternal vigilance. sadly, america slept too late.

Oct 27, 2008 - 5:01 pm 75. Dave Surls:

“Alaska has no income or sales tax! That’s because it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. First the state government takes it’s hefty cut, then it redistributes the wealth, cutting a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. Sarah Palin was happy to increase this year’s check by $1200, bringing the per-person total to $3,269, helping her maintain her popularity as Governor.”

Sounds like a pretty good system. No one is forced to pay, and everyone benefits.

Compare and contrast with the crap Obama and his friends do…

“Obama’s Record: As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Barack Obama has fought to focus America’s attention on the challenges facing Africa – stopping the genocide in Darfur, passing legislation to promote stability in the Congo and to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia, mobilizing international pressure for a just government in Zimbabwe, fighting corruption in Kenya, demanding honesty on HIV/AIDS in South Africa, developing a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia, and travelling across the continent raising awareness for these critical issues. He has also increased America’s focus on the long term challenges of education, poverty reduction, disease, strengthening democratic institutions and spurring sustainable economic development in Africa.”–the new messiah’s website

Unlike the oil companies in Alaska, who pay into Alaska’s treasury voluntarily, I have to pay for this crap whether I like it or not, and the only people who benefit are the libby wibbies in government who get paid for stealing my money and sending it over to Africa, and (maybe) the guys in Africa.

I’ll take Alaska’s system any old day.

Oct 27, 2008 - 5:01 pm 76. Ed Wallis:

This video makes the case well towards younger people:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uERU8oYRIZ4

Oct 27, 2008 - 5:06 pm 77. Doddlin:

For all who are against this Socialist agenda… If Obama wins, we must make socialism available to all, out of “fairness”. People only learn from their decisions when their decisions come home to them. So, the first idea… Everytime you go out to eat and have decided upon a tip, ask that the Manager or supervisor come to your table. Ask how many servers are employed at the establishment. Once you get the answer, divide the tip amount by that number. Then, leave the portion for your server on the table. Leave the remaining amount with the cashier, explaining how much of your money shall be distributed to each server. Explain that this is only fair because some may have called in sick today and others may have not served as many tables that night for whatever reason.

If enough people do this, the message will be clear.

Oct 27, 2008 - 5:18 pm 78. Marina:

Please, all of our people who read this article, help to keep our spirit up, “spread the word”, as I’ve already said:

OBAMA FAKE CROWDS:
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/6765

Please, read it if you want, but please, please send it to Rush, one of our last mouthes:
ElRushbo@eibnet.com

MY PROVIDER BLOCKS IT ALL THE TIME, PLEASE HELP ME,
OBAMA REALLY FAKES HIS CROWDS!!!!!!!!!

Send it to Rush or wherever you like, spread it, please,
DON’T LET THEM KILL OUR SPIRIT WITH THEIR FAKED POLLS!

Oct 27, 2008 - 5:18 pm 79. venividivici:

31. Robert Hurley:

Do I hear some desperation here

Oct 27, 2008 – 9:18 am

You hear whatever you want to hear. You do realize by now that McCain supporters aren’t going to be swayed by your false insinuation that the issue here is the McCain campaign’s desire to raise the issue of Obama’s desire for wholesale redistribution, which would be a significant departure from the current tax code, which at least maintains somewhat the fiction that the highest earners are entitled to the majority of their earnings because they’ve “earned” them. Nor will independents, most of whom will reject out of hand Obama’s suggestion that the Constitution is somehow “flawed”, partially because they don’t understand the metaphysics of the argument he’s using (”positive” vs. “negative” rights is a bit abstract, even though Obama happens to be wrong about the need for “positive” rights, at least based on empirical experience of what happens in countries that try to enforce those “positive” rights, the most extreme example being the Soviety Union, of course. If I had been born in a society where I had “positive” rights, it is unlikely that I would have achieved the success I have so far, nor would I have as fully enjoyed the fruits of my labor, so I have no incentive to support “positive” rights and I don’t, not even for a nanosecond) and partially because most Americans revere the Constitution, and rightfully so. All McCain has to say is that Obama believes the Constitution is “flawed” and independents will understand that means Obama isn’t the person they want to vote for.

Oct 27, 2008 - 5:29 pm 80. Fred:

John Moore,

Fair point. I know you are right about the fact that most do not know much about Obama’s true ideological leanings, but they still have the wrong instincts about the concept of redistribution of wealth. They’re cool with that. They’re down with it. Gimme some more! You owe me!

We have an infantilized population of young people and single, white females who have to be made to learn a lesson rather late in life: that you have to face the consequences, however, painful, of your bad decisions. This election is going to be a bad decision. And just as my generation had to learn from Jimmy Carter a hard, hard lesson, so too do a lot of people who were not alive then have to learn a hard lesson by selecting that long-legged mack daddy, Chicago Golden Mouth Shape Shifter.

It’s the foreign policy preferences, vision, and advisers that really scare the hell out of me. It will be a miracle if we can escape unscathed. We are going to have a stagnant economy. There will be bold moves made by America’s enemies. Maybe a mushroom cloud over Israel. Hundreds of mushroom clouds over Iran, the dying gasp of the Jewish State. And tens of millions of human beings, Jewish and Muslim, dead, rotting carcasses amidst a nuclear landscape.

Yes, this man is The One we’ve been waiting for. One of Satan’s own.

Oct 27, 2008 - 5:33 pm 81. venividivici:

60. Robert Hurley:

We have a long history of graduated income tax which takes more from the rich than the poor. Obama’s tax plan fits right in with the mainstream.

“In 1862, in order to support the Civil War effort, Congress enacted the nation’s first income tax law. It was a forerunner of our modern income tax in that it was based on the principles of graduated, or progressive, taxation”

And it was precisely the beginning of the rollback of that tradition under Reagan which began the 80’s and 90’s booms. Seems to me that Obama is a step backward, which is unsurprising since almost all “progressive” thought is actually a movement back to a more collectivist, primitive state of consciousness (and, eventually, economic states as well). When traditions no longer work (as the tradition of ever-increasing progressivity in the tax code showed itself not to work at the end of the 1970’s) it’s better to throw them away, not perpetuate them.

Oct 27, 2008 - 5:38 pm 82. venividivici:

65. Robert Hurley:

J E Rendini:

Where have you been – We have been reidstributing wealth for years

Oct 27, 2008 – 2:25 pm

You ever hear of a concept called “the tipping point”?

If you tried to stop a guy from beating his wife and he said, “Hey, I’ve been doing this for years”, would you just let him continue?

Maybe you should spend less time posting on the internet and more time thinking about the logic of what you are posting. You haven’t said one thing that stands up to even the most rudimentary analysis of its underlying premises.

Oct 27, 2008 - 5:45 pm 83. thegr8_1:

I’m only redistributing my trash to the garbageman and old clothes to Goodwill. I already pay enough in taxes and refuse to support those who won’t make the effort to support themselves. Anyone in America can become successful no matter what their situation is. If Obama wins with his SOCIALIST agenda the American dream will be a nightmare.

Oct 27, 2008 - 6:20 pm 84. thegr8_1:

39 love your song. Send it to hannity@fox.com or rush@eib.net or marklevin.show@citcomm.com

Oct 27, 2008 - 6:25 pm 85. Andrea:

Ok

Obama wants to spread the wealth around. Fine. How about this idea? 1st complete taxable year under under the Obama regime, place a check box to pay the increased rate as an option on the tax return. If all of the people in favor of the redistribution (tax increase) mark yes and pay. There should be a slice of the tax paying community who mark yes and a slice who mark no. Given that we must assume no political bias in the plus 250K bracket then the government can review the result and calculate who gave and who did not. In the 2011 Tax year, simply adjust the marginal rate to account for the revenue short fall, but leave the option open to choose your tax rate. Those in favor of spreading the wealth can pay an even higher rate to fund the poorer amongst us and make up the short fall.

Charity always starts at home. Not through a governmental directive.

Oct 27, 2008 - 6:25 pm 86. thegr8_1:

make that rush@eibnet.com or hannity@foxnews.com. My bad.

Oct 27, 2008 - 6:31 pm 87. RE:

It looks like the non-producing wealth consumers are now close to being able to outvote the producers of wealth. This outcome of this equation is very predictable. Producers will simply go minimalist or stop producing altogether. There is no incentive to do otherwise.

Our Golden Age is over. The nation is losing the character and integrity that made it possible, and we may well be entering into an age of retrogression.

Oct 27, 2008 - 6:40 pm 88. lgkick:

To Rendini,

Your analysis is flawed. Obama is only adjusting the tax to what it was before Bush and neocons took over in 2000. If the past eight years have proved anything, it is the fact that lower taxes for the rich will not improve the economy and it will be destructive for the middle class. It is not the rich who are generating the economy; it is the middle class. It is insane to suggest that Obama’s policies will lead to a second Soviet Union. How about Northern Europe as a model for economic justice, comfortable living, caring government, and whatnot. America has become the land of opportunities only for the most brilliant or the richest but for the middle class it has become the land of unemployment, second rate education, shipped jobs, lost confidence in the government, and finally extreme religious freaks who are threatening our freedoms and way of life and are endangering our security with waging wars not only abroad but right here at home by dividing the Americans and using scare tactics.

Oct 27, 2008 - 6:43 pm 89. Ed Wallis:

Here’s a delightful take on the Obama 2001 audio fiasco:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmFhYzIzMGQ1Y2FlMTA4N2M1N2VmZWUzM2Y4ZmNmYmI=

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:04 pm 90. Bozoer Rebbe:

Alaska has no income or sales tax!
That’s because it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields.

The money given to Alaska residents isn’t socialism and isn’t welfare. The oil belongs to those residents in the first place, not the oil companies, and they are being compensated for it. As I understand it, the lease fees are for the right to drill, regardless of how productive those leases are. The money paid to Alaska residents is generated by severance fees on the oil the lessees actually pump, as is done in many states, btw. That’s no different, really, from when oil companies drill on private, as opposed to public, land. They pay the owner of the mineral rights some kind of royalty or percentage fee based on the barrels pumped.

The system of paying Alaska residents out of oil severance taxes has existed for decades. Gov. Palin didn’t start it, she just negotiated a better deal for Alaska residents.

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:31 pm 91. fred:

lgkick,

Are you aware that you compose a lot of run on sentences? Where did you go to school?

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:43 pm 92. venividivici:

If the past eight years have proved anything, it is the fact that lower taxes for the rich will not improve the economy and it will be destructive for the middle class.

How soon they forget. Only last October the S&P 500 hit a record high, 7 years into the Bush administration.

Seriously, if it isn’t the rich who invest their capital to create jobs, who is it? Can you give me their names, rather than spout generic “class” this and “class” that? Now that all the rich people aren’t lending the economy is slowing. That’s what you call a “correlation”. What you want is something for nothing, which you will condemn if a Wall Street guy gets it, but it’s OK if the “middle class” gets it. That’s hypocrisy, plain and simple.

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:43 pm 93. Chip:

Counter manumission is not a new concept.

Many slaves who were freed by their masters found themselves destitute. To qualify for the health care provided under their prior plantation owner’s contract with local physicians, they had to return to bondage.

Whether we realize it or not, we are currently running a very socialized prison system where everything is provided for by our government to the inmate population.

The term commonly used by government officials to describe inmates who have become totally dependent upon the system is, “INSTITUTIONALIZED.”

Within an Obama presidency, we will become witnesses to a psychologically equivalent status for many living outside of the walls.

Oct 27, 2008 - 7:45 pm 94. Fred:

During the seventies, under the pre-Reagan regime of Carter, Ford, and Nixon, jobs were hard to find. After I got out of the Army in 1976 I started college in 1977 on the G.I. Bill. Before I started college, I had to spend a year in my state to establish residency in order to qualify for the in-state tuition at the University of New Hampshire. Jobs were VERY hard to find for young people, but I managed somehow. While in college, even part-time work was not easy to obtain. By the end of the Carter years, inflation and unemployment were very high. In those days, tax rates were very high and there was not a lot of business investment.

I went in the seminary after I graduated in ‘82, but left the Jesuits in ‘86 and then, in order to get marketable skills, I went into an M.B.A. program at Boston College. Even though I graduated from B.C. in 1991 during a very hard regional recession, I eventually found work as a securities’ analyst. The investment and job creation climate after Reagan and under Republican guidance (even during the Clinton years he benefited from Bush I and Greenspan’s steady hand). A LOT of people were doing much better. The difference between the Seventies and the later period on up to this day is astounding. And yet we have people complaining the Bush II’s years were somehow a catastrophe for the economy. We inherited the down cycle of the market and the downside of the business cycle in 1999-2001, then 9/11. Yet, eventually the economy came back because of the investments spurred by the tax cuts. Millions of new jobs and thousands of new companies were created. There was opportunity. Now, we are entering another recession, caused by another bubble that burst. Last I checked in all the economic and finance literature I’ve read over many years, no one has found a way to cancel the business cycle. In fact, recessions generally sow the seeds of the recovery. And if we do nothing stupid, this one will be no different.

As a professional investor I am able to see inside a lot of the numbers of the companies of the industries I follow. I love this work because of the meta view of things it avails me of, and it is intellectually stimulating. It definitely is rewarding, but very labor intensive. I put in a lot of hours. You have to in this business in order to succeed. I am sure that there are hundreds of other kinds of careers where it takes a lot of intellectual preparation and a lot of hard slogging to succeed. My wife is in the medical field, so I know a bit about that too.

I see the process by which this economy grows and creates jobs. Individuals have ideas and take risks. Some work out, while others bust. But out of that maelstrom of activity some ideas, business models, and products take off. A company grows, and it hires people along the way. Eventually, some even become very large companies and usually when that happens the company is at a very mature stage and is most likely now looking for ways to either not hire more people or trim the fat. My point is that in a healthy economic environment, those policies which give small companies a fighting chance are the policies we should pursue.

This idea of whacking individuals and companies who already pay over 70% of the taxes is utterly delusional and not at all in touch with reality. The only people who cling to it are those who we should not take counsel from: they don’t know what they are talking about. And yet we are about to go down that road. The nation in its anger and paroxysm of rage is about to demand that we do exactly the opposite things that enhance prosperity.

In my funk over this the only comfort I can take is that those who did not, for whatever reason, get the lesson from the Seventies will learn it during the next four years. If not, then maybe there is no hope for this country after all and that we are surely in decline.

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:50 pm 95. SeanLA:

This is not the Obama I thought I knew

Oct 27, 2008 - 9:54 pm 96. Believer:

If anyone’s interested, you might want to run over to:

littlegreenfootballs.com/article/31718

to hear how Obama at one time compared the USA to Nazi Germany.

I got there from “ace.mu.nu” who has a nice picture of the woman in Ohio who allowed her Department to open and search the child support records of Joe the Plumber.

“Oh, we do it all the time” was her response, I think, when asked why she’d do such a thing.

And yes, she supports Barack Obama. I’m sure he’ll keep her – and a good number of others (IRS?) – really busy should he be elected — especially if some other Joes have the temerity to disagree with His Perfection.

Oct 27, 2008 - 10:48 pm 97. Truth First:

Very soon Barack Obama will be your new President. This is a reality you cannot alter or escape from. It is fact. It is history. It is justice for the world.

Many of you have seen the light and have accepted the truth. And we thank you for your support and aid in electing Barack Obama.

To those who have rejected the truth you have no reason to fear Barack Obama. He is wise and just and he will follow the principals followed by his African forefathers. Barack Obama is the son of Kings and Queens who started human civilization thousands of years ago. Barack Obama remembers his heritage and his obligations to the Truth, Justice and the Future.

Barack Obama understands what is wrong and what needs to be done. Barack Obama has intelligence and vision that has lasted for over a millennium. Barack Obama was born with the appropriate ways of thinking, speaking, and acting and this will inspire you to be liberated for now there is no shackle which can keep you enslaved.

An African Proverb tell us: “Then command the servant, thusly: Make an Elder’s staff causing my son to stand in my place I will instruct him through the speech of the listeners and the counsels of the first of the ancients who listened to the divinities. In so doing troubles will be removed from the people.”

Barck Obama is here now to listen, to instruct and will lead you to your new life.

America will have a new start. A change to right itself. A change to correct its wrongs and address its sins. If you support change that will bring forth social and economic justice, you will stand with Barack Obama. Those who have been denied justice in America will get justice. Those will have been denied opportunity will be given opportunity. Those will falsely imprisoned will be freed. Those who are guilty will be punished. America’s salvation is at hand.

Those who have profited in America will play a role helping others. Justice requires equality and fairness and those who have the means will now be fair and will contribute to equality.

Stand with Barack Obama and you will be honored you for your work, sacrifice, dedication and devotion on behalf of all oppressed peoples.

Stand with Barack Obama and you will be honored and celebrated and remembered in song and praise and by your children.

http://truthfirstnow.blogspot.com

Oct 27, 2008 - 11:31 pm 98. Rachel Peepers:

Today, Biden says Obama never used the words, “redistribution of wealth”. Obama, three times in the last two weeks, admitted Obama had.

Today, Biden said they didn’t give that guy in West Hollywood the idea for hanging Palin in effegy for Holloween. Their media director today admitted he had done just that.

Today, Biden said Obama had never given Acorn any money. Today, the Obama campaign admitted it had. Over $300,000.

In the Obama campaign, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.

Or worse. They simply don’t care because they know the easy street media will cover their tracks.

Pitiful.

Do you want these clowns running our country? Well, do you?

Oct 28, 2008 - 12:57 am 99. Beefy:

You all are so desparate. It’s really pathetic. What you are squalking about is Obama saying what the strict constructionalists are saying in terms that a liberal audience might understand: don’t look to the courts for distributive change, that’s a politcal issue. Rs want to roll it one way, the Ds want to roll it the other. We can fight about which way distribution should go, Obama’s been plenty clear about what he wants to do. It seems like all that was going on is that he was telling the black reparations folks to figure out how to get it through Congress instead of looking to the courts.

Don’t delude yourselves into thinking you’re scoring points by stirring up all this confusion. What you are really pointing out in this audio snippet is why conservative jurists like Kmiec have come out for Obama.

Oct 28, 2008 - 1:09 am 100. Ken Byrd:

Obama’s friends: In his own book, in his own words. “I chose my friends carefully” who were they? He says activists, marxists etc. I feel this has been a plan in the making for a long time. Not only did he choose them, they chose him.

Oct 28, 2008 - 3:37 am 101. SAF:

The NYT will never report the interview with PBS for a simple reason: Its not news. Those who support Obama love the fact he will redistribute wealth. The people on the fence have been so saturated by Obama ads. Obama with the help of the MSM have totally neutered John McCain’s message.

I am afraid that Bush has so mangled the republican image that there is no way McCain can win.

However I have learned by reading a top secret memorandum that Obama is actually a Rove-Bush plot to ensure that GWB will not be remembered as the worst president ever but the title will go to Obama.

Oct 28, 2008 - 4:10 am 102. Ed Wallis:

#98 Rachel,

CORRECTION/ADDITION: “Citizen Services Inc.” (CSI) is a subsidiary of ACORN; it is CSI which received the over $800,000 from the Obama camp for voter – ahem – assistance.

The acorn of an ACORN smells as foul by any other name.

Oct 28, 2008 - 4:25 am 103. Jabba The Tutt:

What’s funny about this interview is that it didn’t come out earlier. Why didn’t it? Well, maybe there are no Republicans in the broadcast footprint of WBEZ in Chicago. Or no one to the right of Lenin listens to NPR in Chicago. Anyone to the right of Lenin would have been bothered by the Constitution as an obstacle to justice. Obama said on the program that any of the three on the panel could come up with theoretic legal reasons for the Supreme Court to overcome the ‘essential constraints’ of the Constitution. The caller only questioned what tactics would be best to implement the program.No body listened to NPR. Who found it?

Oct 28, 2008 - 6:00 am 104. DomainDiva:

I guess everyone forgot that the Supreme Court DOES address ‘distribution of wealth’ see Kelo vs. City of New London.

Oct 28, 2008 - 6:11 am 105. Tom Wilson:

this is the exacgt thing i’ve been talking about

Oct 28, 2008 - 7:25 am 106. Saltherring:

Rachel Peepers @ 98 says, “In the Obama campaign, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”

Yes they do, Rachel, it’s called LYING. And shame on Americans who are indifferent to it. It is the so-called “moderates” and “independents” who will be our undoing.

Oct 28, 2008 - 8:23 am 107. Whitey:

Is John McCain a socialist?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2JPbQOHEkY

John McCain (2000):
“Wealthy Americans pay more because they can afford to. But they don’t pay nearly as much as you think they do… They hire tax attorneys …When you reach a certain level, there is no problem with paying so much more… The first people who need tax cuts are the working families.. “

Oct 28, 2008 - 9:18 am 108. Ed Wallis:

#107 “Whitey” –

Boring static effort…I give you a 2.9.

But please feel free to talk more about Socialism, for example

Frank Marshall Davis
Saul Alinsky
Bill Ayers
Bernadette Dohrn
legislative versus judicial redistribution of wealth
and most famously “…when you spread the wealth, it’s good for everybody.”

I think it’s important for Americans to know more about their candidates!

*** McCAIN / PALIN ‘08!!! ***

Oct 28, 2008 - 9:34 am 109. Whitey:

Ed Wallis:
Yes, ignore that McCain basically agrees with Obama’s tax plan in the video and go back to Ayers. Typical. Right now this IS the McCain platform: “Obama wants to redistribute the wealth with his tax plan” – yet just 8 years ago McCain suggested the same thing…BEFORE Bush gave tax cuts to the wealthy. Hypocracy at its finest.

Oct 28, 2008 - 9:47 am 110. Ed Wallis:

Try spreading the *F*R*E*E*D*O*M*
it’s BEST for everybody!

Oct 28, 2008 - 10:15 am 111. The Historian:

UNI-PARTY GOVERNMENT: A VERY BAD IDEA

One party rule is ruinous, as explained at this link:

http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/10/uni-party-government-very-bad-idea.html

Oct 28, 2008 - 10:16 am 112. Noonan for Obama’s Press Sec’y? | The Anchoress:

[...] Obama’s Redistributionist Obsession CBS Spikes Newly Found Obama Redistributive Audio Obama’s ‘Redistribution’ [...]

Oct 28, 2008 - 11:09 am 113. DJ:

Who knew there where so many constitutional scholars, economists and even policy experts in Pajamas Media’s audience!!!!!

Ahhhhh, so much idiotic, non-sensical, contradictory drivel, so little time…

No wonder the right is reduced to meaningless slogans and name calling.

HA HA HA HA HA.

Oct 28, 2008 - 11:10 am 114. myth buster:

McCain never wants to raise taxes. Letting tax cuts expire is a tax hike. Thus, McCain is opposed to letting the tax cuts expire, regardless of whether or not he supported cutting them in the first place. Nothing hypocritical about that.

Oct 28, 2008 - 11:53 am 115. Doddlin:

That $250,000 definition of what is the “rich” Obama wants to go after for redistridution…

has just changed that to $200,000,
And Binen has just changed that to $150,000

I guess that’s why he encourage so many to get out to vote early.

Oct 28, 2008 - 12:12 pm 116. Christine:

Vote Obama for President and stimulus checks will be distributed every month for the next 4 years – WOOHOOOOOOO! PajamasMedia is on to something. Thanks PajamasMedia.

Oct 28, 2008 - 12:59 pm 117. riley harpswell:

It’s not hard to see how we got into such a wonderful state of the union, given the “deep” thinking displayed here. Instant salivation at key words has substituted far too long in this country for intelligent conversation and dissemination of information. Slapp Happy, Daffy Duck, and Lush Bimbo make a lot of noise too, it’s the greatest replacement therapy for thought. The article that inspired all these comments made vast jumps from “facts” to woop – woop! He’s a commoonist! Woop Woop! If the readers and the writer were really all that upset by the concept of redistribution of wealth, where have the all been for the last eight years, as wealth WAS redistributed, with each and every revision of the tax code. Just not from the “poor, poor” wealthy to the rest of us, but from the rest of us to the wealthy. The biggest lie still living is the trickle down theory. Wealth DOES NOT originate at the top, it’s pumped up from the bottom, and skimmed off at the top. We earn that wealth, the top two percent collect it and store it. The greatest economic incentive to create business for all of us is to put more of the income WE create in the hands of those who actually earn it, and will spend it for daily items, for giving their families a little of the good life, and god forbid they retain enough of the wealth they create, to even save some in banks and bonds. Wealth is created by those who build the roads, your houses, the cars, grow your food, repair your whatevers. I’m oddly enough just an old conservative, I own my own business, but the idiocy and brainless hysteria displayed here has nothing to do with conservatism, and everything to do with being so very trained to parrot instead of think. I know that addressing a crop of true believers is a futile waste of time, but somehow, someway, we’ve all got to start doing a better job of processing information, our own biases and fervently held beliefs. If what you are so wrought about is true, if what you so fervently believe is true, if what you are so blithely accepting from the talking points is so true. why are things doing so very badly when those who so exemplify those beliefs have been having their way for so long?

Oct 28, 2008 - 1:09 pm 118. Believer:

New McCain ad about Redistributing Income at

ace.mu.nu

about 4PM today.

Oct 28, 2008 - 1:23 pm 119. Baxter:

I don’t get the big deal. He’s arguing that it’s the place of individuals to create change through community organizing to gain power, and not the place of the courts to create change. Isn’t that what the right wants?

Oct 28, 2008 - 2:04 pm 120. Ed Wallis:

“riley”,

Either you’re another of the latest trolls or, as an “old conservative,” you’ve lost your way over time.

And, speaking of “losing your way,” THAT is a large part of “why,” as you ask, “things are doing so very badly.” That is to say, while 1) DOWNS are a natural part of “UPs and DOWNs” in a market, another reason is that 2) individuals entrusted with upholding “conservative” tenets in governance – being human – can get their guidance messed up and fall into corrupt patterns…as demonstrated best these days by Democrats.

———————————
+++++ McCAIN / PALIN ‘08!!! +++++
———————————

Oct 28, 2008 - 2:10 pm 121. Ed Wallis:

Here is the link to the video referenced by Believer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiB4EobS_ZM

Oct 28, 2008 - 2:11 pm 122. Whitey:

Ed Wallis: Is it the intention of this site to only have comments from people who agree whole heartily with conservative right? No dissenting voices are allowed? Quite calling people trolls to dismiss their arguments.

riley harpswell: Great post.

Oct 28, 2008 - 2:34 pm 123. Ed Wallis:

#122 – You’re mixing up this site with those of the Far Left (e.g. DKos)…the sites where someone voicing a “right of Ayers” perspective is censored and booted from the site post haste. Since you’re used to that, maybe that’s why you ask if this place is similar. No, it’s not. You have the right here to speak your mind. And I have the right to observe that your mind is empty if I so choose.

“Riley’s” post was so full of the Socialist tripe I used to have forced upon me at college, it’s hard for one NOT to have a visceral reaction upon reading such jaded cliches once again after so many years.

Re-read post #120, in which I respond to actual content in post #117. Try to THINK ybout it before posting garbage again. Having said that, however, please feel free to spout your trash here. But try to stick to ideas.

Oct 28, 2008 - 3:20 pm 124. Believer:

Voters remember two things before going to the polls:

1. Obama believes in “spreading the wealth.”

2. Obama has worked already in “spreading homeownership.”

The second was the failed program initiated by those who believe as he does. It began with the Community Reinvestment Act in Carter’s administration. Just as socialism(#1) sounds nice, so did this plan to have everyone own a home. It only seems ‘fair’ doesn’t it?

BUT BOTH ARE FAILURES.

Democrat friends/advisors to Obama headed up the financial institutions that handed out loans to people who couldn’t prove they had steady income or even who they were in some cases. Obama, as a lawyer, sued Citibank – who’d resisted – to force them to violate their sound lending policies.

These CEOs allowed these risky loans especially to meet target numbers so they could reward themselves with hefty bonuses. Franklin Raines walked away from Fannie Mae with about $90million I believe.

Jamie Gorelick – the lawyer from Clinton’s Justice Dept. who’s responsible for the FBI and CIA NOT sharing intelligence, thereby leaving us clueless about the 9/11 terrorists – managed as a Board Member to walk away with $26million.

BARNEY FRANK, CHRIS DODD and MAXINE WATERS — all DEMOCRATS — are some of those who on numerous occasions reassured – and even intimidated – Republicans each time they brought up their valid concerns. Bush and McCain both tried to get more oversight. They warned of the very thing that has happened:

The meltdown of our financial institutions and the inevitable ‘crash’ in the stock market.

Obama will destroy our nation as we know it.

Oct 28, 2008 - 3:21 pm 125. David:

WOW Ed Wallis way to make yourself sound like a rich boy who is sad because he might have to pay a few more taxes and he won’t get the money back in cash, when in he does get it back in roads buildings, bridges, government defense, and tax cuts for businesses so that they can grow and lower prices on the goods you spend your money on. You say that the economy has “ups and downs,” which is absolutely true, but the downs can be exacerbated to an amazing degree when you tax the wrong social class like Bush and McCain support. Now we are getting to the main conservative argument that taxing the wealthy prevents business growth because wealthy small business owners now cannot hire employees making the economy suffer. You miss Obama’s whole plan. He plans to invest in small business companies especially the ones that have owners who make over the 250,000 dollar line because the government is using more of their money. The best way to explain it is the US government is in effect taking a loan out from the wealthy that will be payed back when the middle class is better able to purchase more of the upper class companies goods. When the middle class purchases more of the upper class’s goods people will begin to also invest in these companies so that these companies will do even better. The wealthy will not even notice the increase in taxes except perhaps maybe the first time they are put in place. This will be because the majority of them will be making higher profits even then they were under Clinton and the early Bush years. They will then have more money in their pockets along with a well operating country because you are not taking money away from the government to the degree that McCain wants to take it away. This would not be entirely bad if McCain gave tax breaks to the people who are struggling the most at the present economic times, but he is giving more money back to the rich and employing the Reagan trickle down theory which only makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. This is because most things people spend there money on come from corporations so the corporate executives keep earning more money while not raising the salaries of their lower class employees so in poor economic time these people’s money is not going as far as it used to. The effect is then making the rich richer and the poor poorer as I stated above. If you wish to look at Obama’s plan go to the website BarackObama.com and read the exact plan for yourself and not the right wing slander you find on websites like this.

Oct 28, 2008 - 5:00 pm 126. Believer:

The most important comment here is #43 — Ed Wallis highlights this incredible statement by Obama as he says the Warren Court was not very ‘radical’:

“It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution…”

As Ed says, this man wants to break the very oath he would be taking should he be sworn in as our President — the oath to protect and defend our Constitution!

But you know what? Even if that would ever dawn on him, I don’t think he’d give a rip. Because he’s never believed we’re a great nation. And he thinks he knows what’s better for us than the genius behind our founding.

Now there’s some audacity for ya.

Oct 28, 2008 - 5:10 pm 127. Ed Wallis:

This is B.O.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiB4EobS_ZM

This is B.O. “xxl” :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck

This is B.O.’s “higher purpose” :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3IAjphhw6E
________________________________________

#125 – WOW! Your CLASS WARFARE cliches are right out of the Socialist playbook!
I mean, to write, “…when you tax the wrong social class,” (emphasis mine…for the sake of humor!!!) you put yourself right up there with…well…gee…I guess that would be, who: Karl Marx…making yourself a legend in your own mind?!

You’ve learned well from your master: arrogance and ignorance webbed and wefted with sloth and resentment!

HATE – yes you can! Google: J A C O B I N – T E R R O R

Oct 28, 2008 - 5:50 pm 128. Believer:

Don’t miss another great video posted at

conservativegrapevine.com

on 10/28 — by Newsbusters — Obama saying more things that will give you pause: race-baiting in 1995.

Oct 28, 2008 - 6:22 pm 129. Believer:

Oh, and that magic $250K/yr. number that’ll keep you safe from higher taxes?

Today, Obama and Biden have both lowered it to $200K ad $150K respectively.

Guaranteed it’ll be the $42K McCain’s been telling us about.

Don’t believe a word this man says. Remember: Reverend Wright told you he’s a politician and he’ll say what he needs to say to get elected.

He wants YOUR money and he wants to give it to those HE thinks should have it instead. Rubbish with that!

You keep your own money and give charitably to those you know will use it wisely.

BO has a record of making his rich buddies richer — on our tax dollars — while the poor suffer even more. Check out his record in Chicago if you don’t believe me. That’s a mess you don’t want replicated throughout our nation.

BTW, Chicago is the murder capitol of America – again. Way to go, BO.

Oct 28, 2008 - 6:46 pm 130. Tuesday Links : Stop The ACLU:

[...] We’ll be holding our breath. The Anchoress is loving Halloween Iowahawk: Balls and Urns PJM: Obama’s Redistributive Obsession Perfunction: TNR: Getting Skittish Over Polls Commentary Magazine: Something Happened Rightwing [...]

Oct 28, 2008 - 7:58 pm 131. Believer:

Remember the Global Poverty Act? It’s how Obama plans to spend a good portion of our money. He could easily sign this bill in his first months in office.

This bill will send 0.7% of our GNP to be disbursed to other countries. Besides the billions of dollars we’d essentially be “taxed” — it has the potential to jeopardize our Second Amendment, energy usage and other rights. They might then be dictated by the U.N. or some other foreign body.

‘yahoo’ this Act to find out more about it. Obama has said it’s a priority for him. Much of the funding for our military and defense will probably be reallocated to this program.

Remember that brother he said he’d help — the one he still hasn’t given a dime to? It looks like it was your dime he planned to give him. As well as the school in Kenya that was named after him when he promised to help them too.

What he sadly doesn’t acknowledge is that Christian organizations have already taken up collecting money to aid his brother and the school he’s neglected. That’s the better way to give charitably. Freely, from the heart. Not mandated by the state.

Oct 28, 2008 - 10:49 pm 132. J. Maccarone:

Is it just me or does anyone else realize that when Obama talks about his alleged tax cut to people making
under a certain amount, (Biden says it’s $150 thousand. Obama says it’s $200 thousand) Obama never specifies a time frame. Is it in the first year? Two years? More?

Worse, nobody ever asks him what time frame he’s talking about.

Obama is as verbally slippery as a greased pig.

It was the same when they talked about meeting unconditionally with the leader of Iran.

The verbal dodge would always be a reference to people in the government meeting with enemies.

The statement to Obama should always include the phrase, “As President, meeting face to face” with the leader of Iran.

It’s like Clinton saying he, “never had sexual relations with that woman”

To Clinton, that was very different from “having sex”. But newspeople never realized the distinction he was making until he explained it to them.

Are news people that stupid or am I missing something?

Oct 28, 2008 - 11:04 pm 133. Marc Malone:

What I find amusing about Obama’s redistribution, or progressive tax is that it’s all meaningless. No matter what, Congress goes into its next session starting out with an unbalanceable budget. They begin a few hundred billion in the hole. NO matter how Obama raises taxes, any money redistributed to the lower classes will all be BORROWED MONEY. It’s just more national debt. Every. Single. Penny. D’oh!

Oct 29, 2008 - 12:43 am 134. BizzyBlog » Obama’s Redistributionist Obsession Revealed (PJM Column from Monday):

[...] This column originally appeared at Pajamas Media on Monday. I understand, and am grateful, that it has gained a fair amount of e-mail circulation. A [...]

Oct 29, 2008 - 4:44 am 135. Mack:

Obama is not Robin Hood? more like a robber from the hood (ò¿ó)

Oct 29, 2008 - 6:45 am 136. Pat J:

Ronald Reagan started the “earned income tax credit.” Therefore, Reagan was a socialist.

Oct 29, 2008 - 12:00 pm 137. Marc Malone:

Pat J – You’re right. The EITC is socialistic… exactly as much as public schools. We all pay for them, whether we have kids going to school or not. Reagan was trying to make it more feasible for people to afford to raise kids. It’s in our long-term best interest to replace ourselves.

The biggest problem in white Europe is their failure to breed. They’re not replacing themselves. Side-effect of socialism, btw. Takes away your ambition. They will soon be displaced by the ever-breeding hordes of Arabs. The big problem of lack of children is the failure to have your values replicated. Your culture gets pushed aside.

Further, when you have less family, the world is a scarier place. Too many women, for example, are only children. They have no one to turn to after the parents pass. So, they start looking to the government for security. (Guys? Not as much.) This is the biggest appeal Obama has to women. They’re divorced, single moms. No family to really rely on, except for their divorced moms, or remarried dads. (Married folks back McCain by a large margin.) The less family support a person has, especially for women, the more Obama’s promises to take care of them sound. He replaces the lack of a man to take care of them.

To the knee-jerk, feminist response to what I just said: You can’t tell me that healthcare isn’t the biggest issue to women in this campaign, can you? Do you think men care as much about it as women? I care as much about women’s rights as most women, but I’m not going to deny biology. Women feel more vulnerable than men. That’s a big part of why they seek love. It binds a man to them, who then provides for them and protects them. He offers them security.

Oct 29, 2008 - 3:03 pm 138. David:

Ed Wallis it is taxing the wrong social class quote me if you want. When the top 1% of people pay 35% of taxes, but make 60% of income you are forcing more burden on the middle class. The middle class is struggling now. Open your eyes and you will see it. The key to having a sound economy is the middle class. If the middle class is struggling it’s a good bet the economy will be struggling and the other way around. Our economy is not generated by upper class business owners, but middle class consumers. If they are struggling giving more and more money to the upper class only exacerbates the problem. WEALTH DOES NOT TRICKLE DOWN. Like I said the easiest way to explain what Obama wants to do is fund the middle class so they can spend money on the upper class businesses so that the upper class generates the money and once the economy is sound a flat rate income tax plan which Biden has supported before should be put forth. Now the loopholes of the tax system that let precious government money slip through can be cut out. THIS IS NOT MARXIST. Marx called for everyone to make the same median income and any extra they earned would go straight to the government. The doctor needs to make the money of the baker and if the baker has no money then the doctor has no money so how does the doctor make money by having the baker and others like him pay for his services. By investing in small business which Obama supports despite what conservatives believe the economy can be built from the ground up allowing for more investment and a turn around in the stock market.

Oct 29, 2008 - 3:38 pm 139. Wednesday:

Sorry, David. Not buying it. Even your addictive use of the word “struggle” – y’know, like in the title of that obscure book, “mein Kampf” – oozes of the totalitarian nature of your motives. In a similar manner, “Riley” (unless you are also posting under that pseudonym) uses the “the rich just skim off the wealth from the top” nonsense which is spouted to every unsuspecting college freshman. Neither do anything to the grey matter other than send up red flags to your reflex socialism. Stop breeding sloth and resentment through the promotion of your victim cult.

Oct 29, 2008 - 4:16 pm 140. David:

You know why I use struggling so much, because that is what is happening and it is not simply due to the ups and downs of economy, but to the idea that wealth trickles down and if the wealthy are wealthier than everyone else will be doing well to. If you look at the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that is shown along with Reagan to who conservatives thing was amazing when it comes to the economy when it came to their upper class wallets getting fatter and fatter off of the money of the STRUGGLING middle class.

Oct 29, 2008 - 4:44 pm 141. Ed Wallis:

Thank you, “David,” for confirming to all here your mental enslavement to Socialism.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/the_repugnance_of_socialism.html

Oct 29, 2008 - 10:06 pm 142. Ed Wallis:

A note to all on who pays US taxes and just how much:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/doityourself_factchecking.html

Oct 29, 2008 - 10:24 pm 143. Marc Malone:

Ed Wallis – Really great links! The writers speak with complete authority. No better argument can be made.

David – The wealthy do NOT get richer and richer off the middle-class. The middle-class get richer off the wealthy. It takes money to make things happen. If the rich do not continue to reinvest their riches, pursuing further riches, business does not continue to expand, and the middle class get no more new jobs. That’s exactly what happened under Carter.

The middle-class do not create the jobs, unless they go into business for themselves, which often requires investors. That’s how one moves from middle-class to upper class, generally, unless one has excess money to invest. Investing means, generally speaking, in business! If you put it in a bank, the bank invests it. A bank is… a business!

Here are two good rules to begin your re-education:

1) Broke people can’t help broke people. There’s no money at the bottom. It can’t then flow up. It flows, like everything else, down. Obama wants to take it directly from the top and put it into your pocket. He swears it’ll go right back to the rich. It will, but it’s a zero-sum game. This brings us to…

2) In socialism, the pie is finite. In capitalism, it is not. Wealth begets more wealth. Middle-class incomes grew slowly, technically, but more people moved into the upper class. Once you have enough to pay your bills, you start looking for a place to put your excess cash. This investment process then increases your income stream, and it’s all extra. You’re on your way to riches.

If you’re middle-class seeking greater wealth, cut back your lifestyle, so you then have excess cash. Study up on money and business, while accumulating your stake. Proceed to become rich. But only in a capitalistic society.

Oct 30, 2008 - 1:45 am 144. Ed Wallis:

Thanks, Marc #143.

You know, when even the ASSOCIATED PRESS (!) takes a jaundiced view…

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081030/D944H6R80.html

…I think Obama has real *P*R*O*B*L*E*M*S*…

Oct 30, 2008 - 6:19 am 145. tanstaafl:

Obama’s statements reveal a man who…Looks at the Constitution as a real impediment to “justice.” Oh if we could just “break free” from those gosh-darned “essential constraints.”

Absolutely. The Constitution is an impediment to Obama’s version of redistributive “fairness”. The notion that a President would use his position in such a way would be anathema to each and every individual who conceived the Constitution. And everybody with common sense who has followed in their footsteps.

“The utopian schemes of leveling [redistribution of wealth], and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown. [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional.”

-Samuel Adams

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they COULD and SHOULD do for themselves.”

-Abraham Lincoln

I wonder who gets to define “justice,” or who gets to decide what “necessary compromises” to basic rights have to be made to achieve that “justice”?

Barack Obama is the sole arbiter of what constitutes “justice” and “fairness”.

Didn’t you know that ?

Oct 30, 2008 - 9:06 am 146. tanstaafl:

Yesterday, Barry was joking with the proles…

McCain has “called me a socialist for wanting to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class,” Obama said. “I don’t know what’s next. By the end of the week he’ll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten.”

A Joke And What It Reveals

Oct 30, 2008 - 10:42 am 147. Ed Wallis:

#146 “tanstaafl”!

TOO GOOD to only LINK:

Excerpt (from the link above):

“Ha ha.

Only, in this passage Obama revealed precisely why he is vulnerable to such charges: he can’t seem to tell the difference between a gift and a theft. There is nothing remotely socialistic or communistic about sharing. If you have a toy that someone else wants, you have three choices in a free society. You can offer to trade it for something you value that is owned by the other. You can give the toy freely, as a sign of friendship or compassion. Or you can choose to do neither.

Collectivism in all its forms is about taking away your choice. Whether you wish to or not, the government compels you to surrender the toy, which it then redistributes to someone that government officials deem to be a more worthy owner. It won’t even be someone you could ever know, in most cases. That’s what makes the political philosophy unjust (by stripping you of control over yourself and the fruits of your labor) as well as counterproductive (by failing to give the recipient sufficient incentive to learn and work hard so he can earn his own toys in the future).

Government is not charity. It is not persuasion, or cooperation, or sharing. Government is a fist, a shove, a gun. Obama either doesn’t understand this, or doesn’t want voters to understand it.”

Oct 30, 2008 - 3:46 pm 148. ATC333:

Strange, all of this anger and hostility, yet look at the past 8 years. All of us have lost more under Bush, and his Right Wing Lemming parties driving the US economy into the ground, than anything Obama has proposed to make changes to the system. So many are worried about an Obama tax increase which will not even affect 90% of them, and the remaining 10% who do come under its terms will pay less in taxes than were imposed under under the Neocon’s Icon, former President Ronald Regan. Get a grip! Anyone’s statements can be taken out of context, and distorted. McCain’s campaign tactics are living proof of that fact. 20% true, 80% false. As it is, you have much more to fear from another 4 years of Bush Trickle Up economics as sought to be implemented by McCain/Palin than anything Obama has offered. Government is to serve the general good, and the People. This is why US Citizens celebrate July 4th 1776. Government is not “not a Fist, a shove, a gun.” Apparently, some people have the United States of America confused with the Third Reich.

Oct 30, 2008 - 4:17 pm 149. David:

Marc, all of this sounds lovely and the part about lower/middle class businesses needing money from a rich investor is true. So, why doesn’t the American government who is the most powerful potential investor invest directly in lower and middle class business. If the government counts on the tax cut it gives to the wealthy to be invested. Nobody is going to invest when times are struggling and they are not likely to get a return on their investment. So when times are hard, like now, the rich are simply going to pocket that tax cut and give a negligible amount to lower/middle class business. Now that lower/middle class citizens are not given the chance to progress and make the same if not less earnings while prices of almost all goods are going up they are going to be struggling. While this is all going on the rich are getting richer. So now we are back to the original statement the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer.

Oct 30, 2008 - 4:51 pm 150. David:

And Ed Wallis, now we can address your claims of socialism. Conservatives frequently point out that the top 1% pay 35% of taxes +/- a few percentage points. Then they jump straight to the point that we can not increase the tax burden upon the upper class because they are already paying so much. Conservatives forget to look at one basic fact though. The top 1% earns 60% of the income while only paying 35% of taxes which forces more burden upon the middle class to pay the tax bill. You would never be able to understand that because of the way that you approach the statistics. They show that the middle class pays a small amount of taxes. Conservatives see this as being lazy and thrifty, when in fact they pay such a small percentage in taxes because they earn such a small amount in the grand scheme of things. So with the wealthy paying only 35% of taxes when they earn 60% of income it sounds like “redistribution of wealth” from the poor to the rich despite what conservatives with fat wallets believe.

Oct 30, 2008 - 5:10 pm 151. ken:

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, IGNORANCE IS BLISS, BUT IT IS NO EXCUSE! The economic crisis started under Jimmy Carter, was made worse by Bill Clinton and covered up by those who gained the most, Chris Dodd, Barach Obama and Barney Frank, if your American enough to face real truth go to this link, it is all a matter of record. Show some courage watch the video and then having the facts, you still have the right to choose, a blood bought right. http://boortz.com/more/video/burning_down_the_house.html

Oct 30, 2008 - 5:27 pm 152. Thursday:

“David” #150,

I spit on your supposed “facts”…err…statistics…as I can only speak to the weak, indefensible reality of socialist/social democratic countries in which I have lived.

It is exactly your beloved so-called “middle class” which gets systematically SCR!WED by the state. This so-called “middle class” of yours is yoked with the bills of both the “evil” upper class and the slovenly and resentful “lower class” (a.k.a. “victims”… HAH! PAY MY WAY and you can call me “Shirley” too!!!)

Your thinking is defective at best.
Start drinking immediately.
There may be hope for you yet.

Oct 30, 2008 - 5:30 pm 153. tanstaafl:

So with the wealthy paying only 35% of taxes when they earn 60% of income it sounds like “redistribution of wealth” from the poor to the rich despite what conservatives with fat wallets believe.

Let’s get this straight David. Ok ?

The top 1% of earners currently pays roughly 40% of total federal taxes. These are the people that create the jobs at which people “work”, in case you didn’t know.

The bottom 50% of earners pays a grand total of 3.1% of total federal taxes. In excess of 35% of earners pays no federal taxes AT ALL

Barack Obama’s “tax plan” arrogates to the federal government a Power that would make the Founders of this Republic run and hide in horror at the perversion of the designated powers of the office of President. His plan to “spread the wealth around” through redistribution of monies (cheques to people who already pay no federal income tax) is antithetical to the founding principles of our Constitution. Not to mention that it is not within the powers or purview of the Executive and “the Congress”.

Further FYI, the Congress of the United States is authorized, under Article I, to levy taxes only for specific and well defined purposes.

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents…” —James Madison

A few tax facts for your learning pleasure

Oct 30, 2008 - 5:58 pm 154. ken:

Bravo tanstaafl!! If Obama raises taxes, any taxes, during this economic crisis, we face a very real possibility of a depression. Read up on it people, I for one do not want even the most liberal of Americans to have to go through something like that because of ignorance, mostly because my family and I will have to go through it with them. If it were only me, I would say you deserve what you vote for.

Oct 30, 2008 - 6:49 pm 155. David:

tanstaafl, now we get to the main difference between you and me. You feel that the economy is built from the top down and I believe, along with many highly regarded economists, it is opposite. It is the opposite because by the majority of Americans purchasing goods upper class businesses are successful. The upper class only creates jobs when a large portion of Americans are purchasing there goods. What makes up the largest portion of America? The middle class.

“The bottom 50% of earners pays a grand total of 3.1% of total federal taxes. In excess of 35% of earners pays no federal taxes AT ALL”- tanstaafl

As I pointed out you cannot base your argument on total percentage because within that top 1% there are the the corporate executives that make 100 million dollars. Think about how much more taxes someone like that is going to pay than someone making the median income of 44,000 dollars. So the reason for the bottom 50% paying only a marginal amount of taxes is because their income is marginal compared to the earnings of the top 1%. Out of total income the top 1% pays less than they should and the middle class pays more than they can afford if they can still be expected to purchase upper class goods. And you know why it seems like such a large amount of people don’t pay taxes, because those are teenagers who are working part time while being in high school or trying to earn a marginal amount of money to pay for college. I hope you don’t support taxing them because if you want to continue to harm the level of education in America and send increasing amounts of jobs overseas. This is where those statistics come from and they show that the upper class is paying less than they should based on their income.

Oct 30, 2008 - 7:31 pm 156. Alley:

#148 We didn’t lose more under Bush, thats such nonsense. My life was not bad the last eight years and I bet yours wasn’t either. Obama is just using that with the democrats to win. He’s told nothing but lies. Go to theobamafile.com and find out loads of truths about Obama. Find out how in 2006 he went to Kenya on taxpayers money and campaigned for his radical cousin Raila Odinga. Even the kenya government was irritated with Obama. What happened when his cousin Odinga lost. Odinga sent his followers into the streets to kill and burn and maim mostly christians. What Obama professes to be. Isn’t it funny how Obamas campaign got on Sarah Palin because she took her children on plane flights at the taxpayers expense. But Obama goes to Kenya on the taxpayers expense and campaigned for his cousin who is a radical muslim and when his cousin lost he caused this attrocity to the people of Kenya. Google it and then tell me how great Obama is. Hes nothing but a liar and not to be trusted. theobamafile.com will show you pictures and videos of him his family his wife and his life. check it out. The problem is you guys don’t want to know the truth.

Oct 31, 2008 - 1:25 am 157. Marc Malone:

David – The government has three reasons not to invest directly in the economy:

1) They lack the expertise. If you really know how to run a business, you rarely are in government… and vice-versa. Government investment is very inefficient. A dollar of government investment generally yields to the economy a dollar of revenue. The same dollar invested by private industry yields 3 dollars of revenue. It’s a matter of hunger and efficiency. It’s why the socialist pie is finite.

2) It’s unfair competition. The government prints money, and can borrow it more cheaply. If you think the big box companies hurt small businesses, wait until you see what government-backed companies will do. The initial shock will wipe the small guy out, because the government does not need to turn a profit.

3) The government prefers not to invest. They prefer to spend. Government investing leads to corruption, anyway. The Fannie/Freddie problem was essentially government investing in the housing industry. F/F was understood, despite government protestations, to be backed by the government. So, they used the gov’t’s credit rating and unlimited borrowing. This was the basic cause of the housing bubble. See how well that turned out?

As to bottom up, no respected economist backs that. Independent economic studies comparing the two candidates’ plans show McCain’s plan far superior. Indeed, Obama’s plan will lead to another Great Depression, as it directly mirrors what Hoover and FDR did.

This is what the Marxists desire. Communism only takes over when the economy is a real disaster. Crisis always increases the State’s power. FDR was a Socialist, and he nearly finished off our economy. People began to believe that it was going to be a permanent condition; that this was all there would ever be. WWII saved us. Read your history on the Great Depression. Remember that the rest of the world had a short depression. Only in America was it Great.

Oct 31, 2008 - 1:59 am 158. Marc Malone:

Dave – Regarding your last post, the rich are paying more than their share. You have your stats wrong. The top 1% make 28% of the income but now pay 47% of the federal income taxes. The middle-middle class and below pay almost nothing: .6%! The UMC and above pay 99.4%!

The current economy has absorbed massive gas price hikes, the housing bubble, and a Stock-market crash, but is still a fairly decent economy overall. That was a strong economy to start with! Gramm was right, we’re whiners.

Oct 31, 2008 - 2:11 am 159. ken:

Obama chose his friends carefully, and they chose him. If America turns to socialism we will fail, and what better way to destroy us, after all that seems to be the agenda. We deserve it, we deserved 9/11. We brought it all on ourselves for being the freedom loving nation we are. They sit at home and bomb when they can, stomp on and burn the flag, believe in free speech as long as you agree with them, and suppress if we don’t.
You want change, so did Hitler, Castro, Lenin, Chavez, Khomeini and Saddam. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Oct 31, 2008 - 12:47 pm 160. tanstaafl:

David

I have two thoughts for you.

This Chick on Video

And re-read Samuel Adams and Abraham Lincoln (see above post #145) And this from Jefferson.

“To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers have acquired too much, in order to spare to others who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equaled industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, ‘to guarantee to everyone of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.’”

-Thomas Jefferson

Nov 1, 2008 - 6:13 am 161. tanstaafl:

You want change, so did Hitler, Castro, Lenin, Chavez, Khomeini and Saddam. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Improvement, yes. Change, no.

For the operative meaning of Obama’s change & hope (aka “chope”) see CHICK in above linked video.

Nov 1, 2008 - 6:24 am 162. BizzyBlog » The Ad Age President Who ‘Killed Election Day’:

[...] “spread the wealth” statement to Joe the Plumber, combined with subsequently disclosed similar sentiments going back at least 12 [...]

Nov 13, 2008 - 10:04 am 163. BizzyBlog:

[...] transcript of that video and further discussion is at my Pajamas Media column that I wrote at the time. Comments [moderated] [...]

Nov 1, 2009 - 7:11 am

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