Pajamas Media

131 Comments

1. Francis W. Porretto:

It’s been a little less than a year.

At first, given Obama’s antecedents, I was persuaded that he’s misguided, as are many who’ve never been honestly self-supporting. But when the roll call of his associations became public knowledge, it became far easier to believe that he’s evil.

Obama’s performance in office has been marked by the sort of cunning that reinforces a verdict of evil. But there’s more to the story. No evil-but-smart person would have appointed nearly so many “giveaway” henchmen — persons whose anti-American views are on public record — or have instigated a “war” against a major media outlet. An evil-but-smart person would have drawn the required lesson from the maneuverings he had to perform during the 2008 campaign to preserve his chances.

Sometimes it’s not “stupid or evil.” Sometimes it’s “stupid and evil.”

Nov 11, 2009 - 2:09 am 2. Pedrosito:

Obama, along with Geitner and Bernanke will go down in infamy.

Nov 11, 2009 - 2:24 am 3. Joseph Tomanelli:

It makes me ill to hear our government talk about “Fairness” when not one member can define “Fairness.”

If we are all equal under the law, then why: Should some people pay taxes at a rate of 39% and others receive money without paying?

God set the standard of fairness throughout the Bible. Not one of the government’s tax policies align with God’s view of fairness. In the parable of the talents, Jesus, used the most harsh words recorded in the bible for the servant who did not utilize the resources entrusted to him, “you wicked, lazy servant.” (Matthew 25:26) “Take the talent form him and give it to the one who has ten talents.”

Government cannot regulate fairness anymore than it could regulate the sunrise or the sunset.

Nov 11, 2009 - 2:27 am 4. Marc Malone:

No, they would be crying for greater stimulus, then fudging the resulting numbers, as if their lives depended on it. The Leftists are economic illiterates. It fits not the narrative, so is rejected. They are simply unequipped for the task. The last to get it was JFK, and he would be a Republican, today, with his positions.

Nov 11, 2009 - 2:28 am 5. mttopforge:

That’s the point, “whether or not”.
Time to call a cat a cat. The whole frenzy surounding the democratic sky is falling portrayal of our economy was a set up to sway votes and plant the seeds of radical agenda under a guise of salvation from the dark forces of free market enterprize.
It smelled like a rotten fish then and events have not convinced me otherwise.

Nov 11, 2009 - 3:47 am 6. Ruebacca:

The young elected this fool. Young people get a lot of Marxist thinking in school and no experience. They think money comes from Mom or the Bursars office. I have a 23 year old office mate who got his BS recently from UCI. He falls for all the left-wing propaganda but he is willing to talk. Lately I don’t argue, I just say something like “$2 trillion deficit” or “10% unemployment” that is starting to cut through the “I can see Russia from my House” brain washing.

Nov 11, 2009 - 4:09 am 7. Old Soldier:

I agree that the real economic fixes are anathema to Obama. Lower spending, lower taxes, streamlined regulations, energy availability, and general economic freedom. It’s obvious that these things stimulate growth. It is also clear that Obama and his allies in Congress despise these ideas.

Nov 11, 2009 - 4:25 am 8. RE:

3. Joseph Tomanelli:

It makes me ill to hear our government talk about “Fairness” when not one member can define “Fairness.”

Actually the Founding Fathers worked that out a couple hundred years ago. Fairness means nobody gets special treatment or preferred status from the government. But the left has perverted that in order to advance their agenda.

Nov 11, 2009 - 4:34 am 9. RE:

6. Ruebacca:

The young elected this fool.

Yep, the young who are now experiencing over 50% unemployment. At least there is some justice in the world (for those who aren’t freeloading off their parent enablers, that is.)

Nov 11, 2009 - 4:38 am 10. CatoRenasci:

9. said [i]…the young who [elected Obambi] are now experiencing over 50% unemployment. At least there is some justice in the world….[/i]

Unfortunately, the young who so enthusiastically supported Obamba are the children of privilege, students at elite colleges and universities, who have either been able to get government jobs, the few private sector jobs in finance, etc. (as competition for the jobs gets stiffer, the importance of elite credentials increases asymptotically), or are now enjoying their leisure gallivanting about the country (like some of my daughters’ friends) or in graduate school at their parents’ expense. Or, the minority youth who will either get government jobs or other assistance.

The real tragedy are the millions of ordinary young people without wealthy parents who have worked hard, tried to learn usable skills through education, and who find an economy unable to find places for them.

Nov 11, 2009 - 5:02 am 11. David Thomson:

The number one reason why “elites” reject the economic doctrines of Ludwig Von Mises and Friedrich Hayek is because they essentially disempowered them! Libertarian economists argue that the economy improves when these ego tripping whack jobs stay out of the way and mind their own business. It is the last thing they wish to hear. The writings of John Rawls, John Maynard Keynes, and John Kenneth Galbraith are much more to their liking. The latter provide them with rationalizations justifying their power grabs and unwarranted financial rewards. Thus, it is totally illogical for Barack Obama and his allies to want to see the economy improve via free market measures. What in hell do they get out of it?

One should run away from those proposing policies based on some ill defined notion of fairness. In back of their minds, they are only seeking one excuse or another to put the screws to you. You are what William Graham Sumner described as the Forgotten Man who is expected to pay for all of their utopian schemes.

Nov 11, 2009 - 5:02 am 12. David P:

Perfectly detached from sincerity the commander and chief is neither at the helm, nor in command.

Nov 11, 2009 - 5:17 am 13. Thomas_L.....:

I can’t see why anyone is surprised that the president operates as close to his leftist ideals as he can within the constraints that the US Constitution puts on him. The young, that you mention, and the hard core left all believe that “true” communism has not been tried. This is their best shot. It will always come as a great shock to them that the great majority of people want nothing to do with it, at least, once they figure it out. This is where it can get ugly. Four legs good, two legs bad. Thank God, it’ll never happen here, eh?

Nov 11, 2009 - 5:21 am 14. Walt:

With the eleven months of Democratic (read Marxist)rule behind us, can we all agree that the Obama administration is the most inept gathering of fools that have ever moved to Washington?

While it is a great shame to me that our country now has a pseudo-communist administration, it is almost impossible to believe that ANY gathering of professionals could produce such sophomoric economic, social and military policies in so short a period of time.

One good thing that has come out of this rush to socialized health care tho, is the ‘in your face’ total disregard for the wishes of the voting public. It is reported that 60% of the public wants our current health care to be left alone, and that the only beneficiaries of Obamacare will be 15% of the public that has no health insurance(and illegal aliens).

What sane person could possibly think that spending ourselves into poverty to serve 15% of the public shows any semblance of common sense?

Couple the above with all the outright lies and broken promises from this bunch and you have the most dysfunctional group of under-educated, ivy league indoctrinated, misfits our country has ever had the misfortune to elect.

Do you think it possible that even our idealistic youth might have seen through the BS and be prepared to cast an intelligent vote in the future?

Nov 11, 2009 - 5:47 am 15. TennesseeVolunteer:

The administration’s idea of starting a business is to get a government grant, set up offices and employees and then petition to get more government grants to sustain their salaries. All the while doing almost nothing that has to do with the core reason the gran was given.
I have worked with non profits whose mission is to build affordable housing: they have yet to build one house!

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:15 am 16. johnt:

You see, it works this way; you take a dollar from a citizen and give it to the government. Presto. it becomes a productive dollar, whereas before it was only gathering dust in some miser’s wallet.
This, in a nut shell is the liberal/leftist/loon theory, the bedrock in fact, of economics.
At least they act like they believe it. Really they don’t give a damn if it helps or not as long as they have the money and the power.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:25 am 17. Pragmatist:

“He’s a real Nowhere man living in a nowhere land making all his nowhere plans for nobody” Lennon and McCartney
But in reality the Obamanation.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:31 am 18. venividivici:

11

Thus, it is totally illogical for Barack Obama and his allies to want to see the economy improve via free market measures. What in hell do they get out of it?

“Cui bono“?, indeed.

This is also why the only possible (and perhaps only temporary, until the cycle of decline starts again) is secession. I’m happy (well, not happy, but willing) to take my share of the idiotic debt burden placed on me (the liabilities side of the balance sheet) with me to my new country, but I am well past the point of wanting to see any additional liabilities added by Obama and Co., simply so they can afford their daily bread.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:38 am 19. BC:

The problem with dealing with something like a messed-up economy is that everyone has an opinion. That may be fine and dandy for a intense debate over beers, but in real life you’re dealing with something insanely complex, more so these days than ever before, and the opinions you want are from people whose jobs are to understand and deal with such things. There was a general overall consensus about what would work best fix things, and both Bush’s people and Obama’s basically followed a recipe of sorts that represented the middle path of that consensus. There was still a big question mark hanging over everything because no economy has ever had these sorts of derivative-driven problems before, so there was this very odd issue of all this mostly imaginary wealth sitting in the room like some ghostly 800 lb gorilla. Dealing with that thoroughly will likely be a long term project well after the more immediate problems go away.

Right now, the economy appears to be genuinely improving, but many companies are now getting by quite well, and with much higher productivity, thanks to a harder working, less bloated staffing levels. So the improvements in the employment rate are going to lag for quite some time behind improvements in the stock market. At least you’ll be running into much more capable, more attentive people in low level jobs like cashiers and fast food workers for at while….

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:59 am 20. ETAB:

Obama is not interested in the economic well-being of Americans; he is interested only in Himself. And that means winning elections. He and the socialist Democrats are interested only in Power. For themselves.

His ’stimulus’ is a massive taxpayer funded agenda of buying votes. Most of this tax money is geared to being spent next year, in order to induce grateful recipients to Vote Democratics In, and in the 2012 elections.

That’s the agenda. It’s about buying votes in various electoral districts. That’s why we find so many ’strange’ or economically useless projects. They aren’t meant to be economic projects; they are meant to Buy Votes in various electoral districts.

Notice how Obama’s promises are all empty. Notice how Obama’s statistics are all fake; how his words are slippery and ambiguous. Obama is a Car Salesman and he’s indifferent to Truth. But he’s very interested in Power.

And how does he deal with Power? He denigates Congress, insisting that they pass bills because HE wants them; he rejects their duty to read and debate the bills.

He views the American people with contempt, insulting the people of the Tea Parties, insulting the Town Halls, insulting the people who watch FOX News. Can you imagine..a president who rejects and insults anyone who disagrees with him?

Obama has no interest in America – we know that from his constant denigration of it in his foreign travels, his insistence that all Before Obama was ‘an error’ and now, with His Arrival, all will be well.

Power for Himself. That’s it.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:00 am 21. Bob Miller:

At the rate we’re going, “Party of No” could be a winning slogan for the GOP. The Party of Yes We Can is getting in deeper and deeper. Unfortunately, it’s getting us in deeper, too.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:01 am 22. Chester White:

Well of course small business is pulling in its horns. Geeeeez.

I’ve had businesses for almost 30 years. I saw this coming the moment the guy opened his mouth for the first time on a national stage. It’s astonishing that these sequelae were not completely and utterly obvious to anyone with a particle of business training.

Let us not forget the increase in the minimum wage recently effective. Don’t hear much about that, do you?

If “health care reform” and “cap-and-trade” pass, a whole crapload of businesspeople will pack it in, or batten down until we get some of this nonsense reversed. I and a lot of other people could live the rest of our lives with what we have saved; how long can Obama survive if we stop contributing economically? I’ll tell you how long: until Nov 2010 when conservatives take this sorry Congress back over.

My fervent hope is that when they lay off more people, they start with Obama supporters.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:04 am 23. Henry:

Thank you so much for telling the truth. If enough of us do so, regardless of the risk of retribution, the power of the administration will be diminished.

Permit me to share the following passage of another author. He was writing about the downfall of Communisn; little did I know, upon first reading it a decade ago, that it might someday have application to the United States:

“For many years dissidents in Eastern Europe met in secret, used code words, avoided public telephones, and published pseudonymous essays in underground papers. In the mid-1970’s, however, these dissidents began to realize that their double lives had cost them dearly. By working in secret, always with a nervous glance over the shoulder, they had succumbed to fear, the goal of their Communist opponents all along. They made a conscious decision to change tactics. ‘We will act as if we are free, at all costs,’ Polish and Czech dissidents decided. They began holding public meetings, often in church buildings, despite the presence of known informers. They signed articles, sometimes adding an address and phone number, and distributed newspapers openly on the street corners.”

“In effect, the dissidents started acting in the way they thought society should act. If you want freedom of speech, speak freely. If you love the truth, tell the truth. The authorities did not know how to respond. Sometimes they cracked down — nearly all the dissidents spent time in prison — and sometimes they watched with a frustration bordering on rage. Meanwhile the dissidents’ brazen tactics made it far easier for them to connect with one another and the West, and a kind of ‘freedom archipelago’ took shape, a bright counterpart to the darkling ‘Gulag archipelago.’”

“Remarkably, we have lived to see these dissidents triumph.”

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:05 am 24. colganc:

“Obama persuaded many small business people to pull in their horns and make plans to keep a low profile (including laying people off) in order to avoid the wealth confiscation of the populist, socialist, economic storm they saw coming with his election.”

Are we to assume this to be true? Anecdotal evidence isn’t even given.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:05 am 25. Maurice:

#10 CatoRenasci:
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The first and lasting victims of the Left are those who do things, as they used to call it, “the right way.” Now kids are encouraged to, in no particular order:
Call Foul
Claim victim status
Blame the rich guy
Blame your parents
Go to grad school
Get a government job
Become a community organizer

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:08 am 26. kdell:

Wake up! It is perfectly clear! He has no interest in growing the economy. His interest is in re-balancing the economy through redistribution. He wants to make up for the wrongs committed on the backs of the non-successful by stealing from the productive. It is VERY clear. His belief is in punititive Marxism. Growth be damned as long as his vision of justice is served.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:11 am 27. RE:

24. colganc:

Are we to assume this to be true? Anecdotal evidence isn’t even given.

He’s not responsible for taking off your blinders. Open your eyes. It’s happening all around you.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:14 am 28. Old Soldier:

BC: I would share your optimism if Cap & Tax and Obamacare weren’t approaching like class 5 hurricanes.

colganc: Anecdotal evidence = the unemployment rate and testimony from actual small business owners like Chester White.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:24 am 29. Mike_K:

One answer to the question of why the Obama people cannot see the damage they are doing is in this essay.

a lot of a lot of people have entertained the idea, that Mikhail Gorbachev was to the late great Soviet Union, what Barack Obama is to the surviving United States — the leader who reforms so many things so quickly that his country suddenly disappears. One recalls the speed with which the first Soviet head of state to be born after the October Revolution became its last head of state. It took him about three years: just less than the time of one U.S. presidential term. (Though he had already taken three years to warm up, as General Secretary of the Communist Party.)

The principle is one of ideological blinders.

Yet they do have one major thing in common, and that is the belief that, regardless of what the ruler does, the polity he rules must necessarily continue. This is perhaps the most essential, if seldom acknowledged, insight of the post-modern “liberal” mind: that if you take the pillars away, the roof will continue to hover in the air.

Gorbachev seemed to assume, right up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and then beyond it, that his Communist Party would recover from any temporary setbacks, and that the long-term effects of his glasnost and perestroika could only be to make it bigger and stronger.

There is a corollary of this largely unspoken assumption: that no matter what you do to one part of a machine, the rest of the machine will continue to function normally.

A variant of this is the frequently expressed denial of the law of unintended consequences: the belief that, if the effect you intend is good, the actual effect must be similarly happy.

I think this explains some, at least, of the fixation of the left on “fixing” health care and climate. Nothing bad can happen because they mean well. Unfortunately, I’m not even sure they mean well.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:25 am 30. venividivici:

16. johnt:

You see, it works this way; you take a dollar from a citizen and give it to the government. Presto. it becomes a productive dollar, whereas before it was only gathering dust in some miser’s wallet.

Yes, the “Scrooge McDuck” theory of economics.

The reason the Left never minds paying higher taxes is that what we call “taxes” is their “paycheck”.

The funny thing is that capitalist/free-market economics predicts exactly these reactions to incentives on the part of utility-maximizing individuals. Yet, these Leftists live under the delusion that they are somehow “better” than the average money-grubber. That’s some weapons-grade delusion right there.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:27 am 31. JED:

Starting an essay with “Robert Reich jumping the Obama ship on health care:” is as forboding as watching rats leaving the ship. Reich often insisted that for every dollar of government spending, a dolar fifty was returned to the economy. Big lie or madness, you decide!

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:31 am 32. megapotamus:

A lot of people, including Rand, got the whole Galt thing wrong. It is not the captains of industry retreating to their Cayman villas. These are the guys like the Pharma execs who are big enough to play on the gub astroturf. It is not some hardened philosophical decision like a survivalist marching off into the woods. Actually it is not even a voluntary, concious decision that makes anyone produce less both for the marketplace and the taxman. No, like all economic macro phenomena, it is the glacial (in mass, not speed) accumulation of decisions made by all economic players in all economic transactions. The six year-olds will feel it this Christmas. Actually they probably feel it at lunchtime already. The stock pickers feel it and spread THAT wealth around in rational, non-ideological advice and actions. Mom feels it at the supermarket and Kroger feels it from the boardroom to the stockroom. Feel what? The slow strangulation of their liberties, largely economic but not exclusively so. Maybe the average Oprah-ite is unaware of the scale involved in healthcare for example, but she knows it ain’t gonna be “deficit neutral” no matter what Pelosi says. Capntrade seems to be invisible but I assure you America at large is aware of it and foresees their commute and home energy budget items are set to skyrocket. Even the busboy at the taqueria wants his house heated and needs to get to work.

It might seem unlikely that the statistical facts that bedevil our pols and we who observe them makes any impact to the vast, apolitical minority in the abstract but there is much evidence they do. At MIT there is a team of mathematicans who have crafted the most accurate predictor of Presidential elections in the biz, and there are many. This model uses only two numbers, the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. The only other variable put into it is the state of incumbency and this contraption always gets within 2 percent of the two party vote. That is a pretty tight model. And what does it suggest? Well, that the campaigns, the debates, the foreign policy circumstances, the push-polls, the late night jokes, the attacks and defenses and moaning and crying… ALL of it together amounts to only a two percent movement in actual votes counted. The unemployment rate and the inflation rate. As these improve, so do the chances for the incumbent. Does anyone think that anything the Obies plan or would be ideologically willing to do are going to improve these metrics? No, they can’t be faked either. Doom is inevitable at this point but it will be a mathematical doom. Whether our material lives will take a genuine decline is unclear. The pricing power of the consumer has kept inflation down even as the dollar drops on commodities and currencies. The short term effect, I think, will be an economic cauterization. Import prices jump but domestic products price more aggressively. Frankly, it seems certain to adversely effect foreigners more than us at the material level. Can’t you do without Perrier and Chilean grapes for a year or two? Fuels will stay at a level that allows volume consumption even as fewer folks are driving an hour to work every day. But, contra some no-name Reps and Obama-skeptics, their is no sin in Barry “ignoring” or otherwise giving short shrift to the economy. Shrift is most of the problem. Likewise there is no virtue, no benefit to us in the trenches, of the Obies focusing “like a laserbeam” on the economy. Really, that would be the most terrifying development except that even the Geithners of the world are now blinking with incredulous eyes at the debt tsunami they have crafted which, even other stupidities aside, was predicated on GREATER growth rates going forward than we enjoyed during the Bush years. Can anyone believe that now? How could anyone believe that then?

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:36 am 33. Now and Then:

Fox . . . News? Fair and . . . . balanced?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/11/jon-stewart-catches-sean_n_353447.html

Any . . . questions?

Really, you folks need to set yourselves some higher standards. These people are an absolute embarrassment.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:49 am 34. W. D. Stokes:

Right around June 2008, just as Obama wrapped up the nomination, I began to hear business owners across the board speak of pulling out discretionary capital from their business, put their personal capital on ice, and “let the business support itself.” These guys watch news and campaign speeches also–and several are democrats and only one is hard-core right wing. together they employed roughly 15,000. Subsequently, all businesses are doing OK but many employees have been laid-off, remaining employees are asked (and gladly agree) to take across-the-board cuts and to shoulder a higher percentage of health care costs. The day after the election I recall so many of these employees exulting that they really screwed the boss by electing Obama. This “Employee Riot” aspect of his election has never really been covered by media (and the sentiment still thrives out there for 2010 folks), nor has the Summer ‘08 “Put Money in the Mattress” move by thousands of business owners–up until recently. These guys don’t need to be in their businesses in order to survive very nicely for decades and decades. What a gross miscalculation by Obama the campaigner!

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:50 am 35. Josh Reiter:

@25: You forgot Obama’s favorite one: Blame George W. Bush!

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:56 am 36. tanstaafl:

— his philosophy isn’t capable of (or interested in?) stimulating growth anyway…believe that their policies comport the most with their political goals. But it’s not at all clear that growing the economy — or at least the productive, non-governmental part of it — is one of those goals.

Lack of growth & failure to recover economically = rationale for more government control.

Though he & his crowd of socialists are forced to pretend they’re interested in an America re-energized through economic recovery, the only real reasons Obama & friends see for any of their moves is the growth of national power.

Thus, continuing economic hardship and growing massive debt serve their agenda.

He made economically insane and historically ignorant arguments blaming the meltdown of the financial system on “capitalists” and “deregulation.”

Barack Obama said, about a week before inauguration, that the national government (it used to be sort of federal) was the “only entity” capable of rectifying the economic morass we have been experiencing. He almost always mentions “regulation” as the only way out of the mess.

Obama’s concrete (non-rhetorical, non-political) accomplishments on his own merits are nil. As a typical thin-skinned authoritarian personality, he doesn’t understand and appreciate or care to understand and appreciate what unfettered individual initiative can accomplish. He simply has no clue as to how this country grew to be “great”.

America, she must be brought down to his level, and he’s The One™ to accomplish that.

Sad to say, the bureaucratization and politicization of America over many decades, even prior to Barack Obama’s birth, has paved the way for this interloper.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:58 am 37. Lefty:

There are very little facts to back up any of the opinions in this piece.

For example, if Obama is so anti-business, why are Rubin and Summers, the anti-regulatory cheerleaders from the Clinton Administration working with Goldman alumni to hand over bags of money to Investment Banks for their complete and utter failure to mitigate the risk they took on to create profits?

Why are Chase, Citigroup and other banks posting profits based in part on taxpayers subsidies, then patting themselves on the backs with bonuses? If this is anti-business I stagger to think what damage a pro-business McCain administration would have done.

I suppose if one truly believes in the market, the windfall to the banking industry will be recapitalized and trickle down. Somehow looking at my newly raised credit card rate, I find this less than likely.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:02 am 38. venividivici:

32

A lot of people, including Rand, got the whole Galt thing wrong. It is not the captains of industry retreating to their Cayman villas. These are the guys like the Pharma execs who are big enough to play on the gub astroturf. It is not some hardened philosophical decision like a survivalist marching off into the woods. Actually it is not even a voluntary, concious decision that makes anyone produce less both for the marketplace and the taxman. No, like all economic macro phenomena, it is the glacial (in mass, not speed) accumulation of decisions made by all economic players in all economic transactions.

When you realize that economic growth, as reported by government stats and media, happens at the margin, i.e. it’s a small percentage of a pre-existing number, you realize that the difference between growth and no growth in the economy really is just a few decisions made by each and every person in a position to choose. All things being equal (inflation, population size, productivity), if a contractor with 100 clients takes on 3 more in a given year, that’s 3% economic growth. If he takes on 0, the economy is stagnant. The whole “Going Galt” thing is clearly just an overdramatization of these basically mundane economic variables.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:07 am 39. megapotamus:

Lefty, what you describe, ain’t business. And there was no “anti” regulatory faction in any Dem and dern few Rep administrations, they are just for somewhat different regulations the way the “deregulated” California power market somehow never did allow open transactions between suppliers, customers and producers. Maybe another way to put it would be that Barack is anti-free enterprise. Sure, he LOVES the tame players like Goldman to rake it in from whatever source, these are the jerks that fund the Dem machine after all. What he will not have is, say, a Ford when through some thuggery and double-dealing he can have a GM which is truly Gub Motors. But whatever. If you object to the bank bailouts you are half-way turned to the dark side anyhow. Enjoy it pal. See you at the Tea Party Jan 20th!

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:12 am 40. venividivici:

37

At the risk of betraying my business school colleagues who work at those banks and on Wall Street, supporting those people is not synonymous with being “pro-business”. I have a whole other set of business school friends in the private equity world who would have loved to pick over the bones of a Citi following its bankruptcy, but were denied that opportunity by the government stepping in and keeping it on life support.

So, while throwing a lifeline to Wall Street seems nominally “pro-business”, at its core it’s “anti-competition” and competition is the only thing that really matters in the economy because competition is what separates the wheat from the chaff.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:12 am 41. goy:

- Obama persuaded many small business people to pull in their horns and make plans to keep a low profile…

This process began in 2007, actually. Prior to that, record-level federal revenue trends due to a healthy, growing economy had the government on track toward a balanced budget, even with the genuinely stupid level of overspending Congress was pursuing at that point. After Pelosi’s coronation, GDP started to decline, oil prices began to climb and unemployment began to slowly rise.

The response to all this from the so-called “leadership” of the GOP – including and especially GWB – was to duck, run for cover and compromise their way more deeply into Socialism Lite®.

Now we are governed by far-left (socialist) and far-far-left (totalitarian) political parties – at least using the measure that Anarchy is far-far-right and the Republican form of Government guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution is the genuine center (and the only viable ideology for any long-lived, flourishing society over).

Here’s the problem though: BHO and the Democrats now have what they want – control. Preaching endlessly to the choir about BHO’s marxist soul – which was obvious to anyone with at least half a brain two years ago – isn’t going to preserve the Republic. Reactive civic activity is precisely what has caused the political pendulum to swing, and it has swung further left with each cycle, now having brought us perilously close to the end of the Republic as we know it. That cycle is a function of socialists’ push, followed by so-called conservatives’ compromise.

That compromise has to stop.

If socialized medicine is rammed through, you can kiss the Republic good-bye and any further discussion of the economy will be moot. America will survive another economic depression. It’s what we do – it’s what our Republican form of Government and capitalist free enterprise are designed to withstand. But the Republic won’t survive the creation of a permanent welfare class.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:15 am 42. baal:

What if it was simply the policy of the republican party to immediately expel any legislator who voted for any sort of deficit spending, ditto for any elected republican executive? What you would have is a party that was serious about the economic well being of its constituents.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:16 am 43. megapotamus:

Worship baal. He offers the one thing we lack: discipline.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:19 am 44. Ed Brenegar:

Two of the lessons of the past year.

Ideas and their expression have consequences. When powerful people tell you they are coming to get you, you hide. From my vantage point, the business world that doesn’t reside on Wall Street has been in hiding, and will continue to do so until after the 2012 election. Someone told me yesterday of a company moving to London because of the tax advantages there. Imagine.

Activists live off their rhetoric. Executives live off results. The presidency is not the best place to learn to be an executive. Every decision is consequential, with very little room for mistakes. The next three years are not going to be pretty I suspect.

The real question for me as a former Democrat is what will the two parties look like come 2012. Now that is going to be interesting.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:34 am 45. David W. Lincoln:

As long as the Chief Deformed Soul in the Oval Office, and the other deformed souls, zombies, and other ilk who have their hands on the levers of power inside the Beltway, refuse to accept this: tariffs & subsidies distort economies, they will continue to dig, even though they are in a hole.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:35 am 46. ahem:

“Right now, the economy appears to be genuinely improving…”

“Appears”. A rented party magician can make a gold coin appear in his empty hand, but that isn’t true, either.

I believed at one time that the current regime was historically and economically illiterate–missing all the lessons of western Europe as it has–but then I realized that it is repeating these mistakes on purpose. Why? Because they work. The European policy disasters of the last 30 years are a template of what to do for any ruthless political party that wants to seize permanent control. We are fighting for our lived.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:42 am 47. ahem:

Er, “lives.” Also small business is not retrenching; it is dying right now. And it’s only going to get worse.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:43 am 48. tanstaafl:

The modus operandi of this current Executive is to push the envelope of the Constitutuional limits on its power to see what it can get away with.

To do that shamelessly and blatantly.

Thus far, the still functioning aspects of “checks & balances” seem to be standing around in a dumbfounded stupor, watching the thing unfold. Occasionally, someone like Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) writes a letter to Barry’s people telling them to back the hell off (as in, when the government started asking for “fishy” emails)

The only identifiable saving grace, as mentioned above, is that stupid & evil seem to have combined in this administration and they aren’t smart enough to effectively conceal what’s going on.

Free speech absolutely must go if the agendists in DC are to have their way with the country, so expect the FCC to be getting busy soon, even busier than now.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:48 am 49. baal:

43. megapotamus:

Its called the PLEDGE. It states that any republican elected official that engages in deficit spending is expelled immediately, no second chance.
It would make sure the deficit spending that took place during the Bush years that gave the dems the rhetorical ammunition they needed to elect the Tent Revival Con Man never ever happens again.
We need to FORCE the change necessary in the Republican party. Force them to make the pledge a binding policy for ALL elected republicans.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:51 am 50. megapotamus:

I’m on board, hoss. I just slaughtered My Pet Goat.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:57 am 51. megapotamus:

BTW, in my original post, I meant Ayn Rand, not Rand Simberg. Are you actually named for Rand? That would ’splain much.

Holy Jebus! OT that I just heard on the radio. John McCain declares we must be certain that political correctness does not prevail over national security. Whu? Where was this guy last year? And a quadraplegic just got a carry license for a command fired gun! Hey, I have lots of time for the news these days. Progress.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:02 am 52. Prologue:

#44. Ed Brenegar is spot on. Yes, Ideas and their expression have consequences and, yes, executives live off results. In fact, so do members of Congress.

I just keep wondering, what do Democrats in Congress think will happen when Americans find out ideas have consequences, and that those consequences are disastrous. What happens when things really get bad for most of us? Do Democrats wake up in a cold sweat at 3 am in fear of that moment, or are they really just to dense to get it? Or is it what some Greek once said: Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:06 am 53. Piobair:

These are all very good comments, however, after only 10 months of this administration I am so emotionally exhausted from reading them that from now on I will reply to any blogs, comments, arguments etc. with the phrase “Obama Sucks”. It’s all I can muster these days, especially when “conversing” with the few remaining followers of The Chosen One.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:18 am 54. tanstaafl:

I love it.

Doctors retiring early because they don’t want to become ‘wage slaves’ to federal bureaucrats, bureaucrats who would dictate any single individual’s allowable level of treatment as a function of some score, “quality adjusted remaining years”.

Businesses not expanding and/or re-locating to more user friendly environments.

When did these central planning creeps get their mitts so deeply into all of this ? Oh yes, I remember, we the people have allowed it to come to this while we self-indulgently went about our daily lives.

Who ya gonna tax, Nancy & Barry, when no one’s left to tax in your Banana Republic ? You’ll have to pass more legislation requiring businesses stay in your diminished lands.

(over and out)

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:27 am 55. Lummox JR:

Marc Malone is right. Every politician knows that a bad economy is the quickest way to 86 an incumbent, but the left truly believes that big government solves more problems than it creates, in spite of ample historical evidence to the contrary. As astute people noted before the stimulus passed, if the economy got better the stimulus would be credited whether or not it actually had done anything; if it got worse, those who wanted the stimulus would say it must not have been big enough. When your solutions are defined as “spend more”, then failure to achieve any results means you didn’t spend enough. It’s not unlike misplaced religious zeal in that way.

The problem isn’t that our Congress is stuffed with cynics who know cutting taxes and implementing pro-growth policies will help the economy, but choose not to do so because it conflicts with their social agenda. It’s that they are completely blind to the realities of economics and stick to models that were discredited in the ’70s. If they were given the foresight to know their approach would fail, they would double down. The heavy-handed socialist mindset is by nature incapable of seeing the big picture.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:36 am 56. Anonymous:

“Why are Chase, Citigroup and other banks posting profits based in part on taxpayers subsidies, then patting themselves on the backs with bonuses?” Because they are getting interest free loans from Uncle Sam – then buying T-Bills and Bonds with them – instant profit.

It has nothing to do with the real economy.

In my earlier list I forgot free trade. The WSJ had a good article today about Obama and Congress ignoring trade deals – and how we are losing business because of it.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:46 am 57. Tex Expatriate:

We are being too gracious when we attribute to Obama and his radical socialist ideology (shared by nearly all Democrats) the belief that big government and taxation solve all problems. It likely is more accurate to say that Obama wants things to get worse. The greater the crisis, the more the government can grow. It’s a part of the Alinsky model.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:52 am 58. wilmo:

The fact is our “Emperor” has no clothes. And when you take him away from his teleprompters, it’s clear he’s not smart, much less brilliant– as the MSM repeatedly suggests. He is abusing the power of his office over and over again. He is destroying the greatest country on earth, and it sure seems to me it’s intentional.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:57 am 59. Sherab Zangpo:

Excellent column, thank you.
What astonishes me is the mass of congressmen following Obama without a peep: are they frigging stupid ? Can’t they see that this communist wants to destroy America and that they will pay the price of this adventure ? Do they think that the American People are completely blind and deaf and don’t see what is happening ?
This commie-jihadist calls the police stupid and tells us that we must not jump to conclusions about muslim terrorists, hugs Chavez and raises taxes, tells the private business what they can and what they can’t do, appoints commie thugs as “czars” to suck public money and to govern without control of the Congress, nationalizes health-care…

Democrats, are you stupid ?
Didn’t your Mom tell you anything about playing with matches ?

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Nov 11, 2009 - 10:09 am 60. ETAB:

I agree that Obama is intellectually barren. He has no knowledge of or interest in economics, history, foreign affairs. His only interest is in controlling Others.

He’s embedded with the socialists, not because he is intellectually filiated with their agenda, for he is intellectually vacant..but because their mode of absolute government puts him in a position of total control.

I also think that Obama gets an emotional, psychological kick out of manipulating and making people do what He orders them to do, gets a kick out of making a population obey agendas (health care, stimulus, cap and trade) that they clearly don’t want. He clearly enjoys power…and it will become a serial addiction for him, where he will get his kicks out of forcing unwanted laws on to the American people.

Nov 11, 2009 - 10:12 am 61. ricpic:

With Obama it’s all about expropriating the expropriators; translation: stealing from the productive. What chance does an economy have when its engines are being kneecapped?

Nov 11, 2009 - 10:37 am 62. megapotamus:

“I also think that Obama gets an emotional, psychological kick out of manipulating and making people do what He orders them to do”

Kruschev said this was the one thing in life of which one never grows tired. The Russian is much more poetic.

Nov 11, 2009 - 10:43 am 63. Poor Citizen:

I do not see the panic. The economy took about eight years to get cancer. The cure is economic chemo with prayer and patience. You cannot cure 8 years of insane tax and spend in 8 months. It takes time to destroy fantastic growth and prosperity, but Bush accomplished that. Now its up to a democrat to fix it. We must give this president another year or two to let his plan work. Only then can he be judged, by results or lack thereof. Will his economic plans work? only time will tell.

Nov 11, 2009 - 10:49 am 64. Ed Butt:

If Obama can’t get his head round the economy he is going to explode when he tries to understand climate change next month.

Nov 11, 2009 - 10:55 am 65. myth buster:

Most of the Democrats and many of the Republicans are delusional. Just yesterday, President Clinton told Congress that the reason the Democrats lost so many seats in 1994 was because they failed to pass a health care bill. I can’t tell if Clinton actually believes what he’s saying, just wants a health care bill passed at any cost, or is intentionally trying to sabotage the Democrats as payback for not nominating his wife for President.

Nov 11, 2009 - 10:56 am 66. myth buster:

63. Except Obama isn’t administering chemo to the economy; he’s administering pain killers. Chemotherapy works by flooding the patient with poison that will cause vomiting and anemia, but shrink the tumors at the same time. The idea is to try to kill the cancer before the chemo kills the patient. Economic chemo would involve massive cuts to government spending and taxes across the board. Laying off a million government workers and eliminating a lot of welfare spending would be quite painful to many, and indeed would cause unemployment to spike briefly, but then the healing process will begin. By contrast, pork barrel spending and unemployment extension forestalls some of the pain, but the cancer continues to grow.

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:02 am 67. venividivici:

63

You cannot cure 8 years of insane tax and spend in 8 months.

Care to quantify how much Bush “insanely” taxed and spent and then compare that to Obama? Bush was a piker in the “tax and spend” department compared to Obama. In fact, one can make the case that “tax and spend” is the only real accomplishment Obama’s had in office.

Where are you a citizen of? Mars?

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:10 am 68. goy:

@63. Poor Citizen: – It takes time to destroy fantastic growth and prosperity, but Bush accomplished that. Now its up to a democrat to fix it.

This is nothing less than a fantastical inversion of history.

First off, the ‘fantastic’ prosperity Clinton takes credit for was due to the actions of the last of the truly Republican Congress.

And… let’s see… consistently growing GDP, inflation-adjusted growth of personal, disposable income of about 9%, an average unemployment rate of 5.2%, and record federal tax revenue due to a strong business climate. All of that lasted right up until the point where the Democrats took control of Congress. In the face of all that, the idea that Bush ‘destroyed’ anything is either willful ignorance or abject stupidity.

– We must give this president another year or two to let his plan work.

No. We ‘must’ do no such thing. The plan this administration is pursuing has already been discredited. The Depression of 1920 is virtually unknown because the feds avoided meddling in the economy and it corrected itself quickly. The so-called “New Deal” – which is BHO’s approach – extended the Great Depression by almost a decade. Then there’s the failure of the Great Society policies and Japan’s Lost Decade. Keynesian policies don’t work. Ever. Unconstitutional, corporatist policies – like the one’s BHO and his cronies are pursuing – are worse.

Wake up. Read a book.

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:11 am 69. M. Report:

From Heinlein’s “Future History”:

The forced exchange of privately held
wealth for State issued securities.

A period of “Civic Disorder”

The establishment of the 1st
mature human society.

Sure hope so; The scenario of
Mad Max Escapes from New York,
takes refuge in Jericho with
Jerimiah, has zero appeal.

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:13 am 70. Lummox JR:

Poor Citizen, I agree the problem didn’t appear overnight and will not be fixed overnight. But while insane taxing and spending were the disease, radically accelerating both is not the cure. We can judge Obama right now based on the fact that he favors doing a great deal more of the same crap that got us into this. The only open question is how much more damage those policies will do. Giving him time to swing more wrecking balls at the free market will prove nothing.

Besides, WHAT plan?

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:18 am 71. baal:

50. megapotamus:

Goats are good, but we must bathe in the blood of holy cows if we are to invert this particular Messiah.

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:21 am 72. goy:

@69. M. Report: – The scenario of Mad Max Escapes from New York, takes refuge in Jericho with Jerimiah, has zero appeal.

Heh. Good one.

Although if this is what we get, perhaps some of us kind find a way to get LOST on a Pacific island… somewhere.

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:23 am 73. johnt:

Now and then #33, If I read you correctly you are lecturing us. You are telling us we need higher standards, right?
Would you suggest we emulate the standards of your hero Barack Obama,or Bill Clinton. Perhaps Nancy Pelosi, the hag who never knew about interrogation methods. I hope you get the general idea, there is more available. But in the meantime, cleanup your own house and possibly you can moralize to others after.

I will trouble to point out to you that it is quite common for news organizations to use what is called file photos or material, Stewart might even do it himself. It may have been an error but in any case my friend I would think the story remains the health care power grab, not whether the leaves were green or brown.

But the desperate have to take their satisfaction and weak gotchas where they find them. Petty, very petty.

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:36 am 74. Koblog:

A great joke from the old Soviet Union was, “The government pretends to pay us…we pretend to work.”

Millions are pretending to work.

This won’t end well.

Nov 11, 2009 - 12:07 pm 75. Now and Then:

73. johnt:

“I will trouble to point out to you that it is quite common for news organizations to use what is called file photos or material, Stewart might even do it himself.”

Yeah, but they don’t do it to misrepresent one event for another, and they label it as “file footage.” Fox News is a habitual offender of journalistic standards at ALL levels:

http://mediamatters.org/research/200911110019

They deserve the scorn, disrespect and dismissal they get.

Nov 11, 2009 - 12:18 pm 76. Army of Davids:

The Democrats blame everybody else. And the economic fall could be blamed on many parties. But Democrats are far from innocent.

The housing boom and bust can mostly be blamed on Fannie/Freddie steroiding the housing market while implicitly subsidizing loans originated by the 3 biggest housing lenders; Countrywide, WAMU and (Countrywide spinoff) IndyMac.

When Pelosi and Reid took control of congress we had a 4.3% unemployment. We now have a 10.2% unemployment (though it’s really much worse).

Office of Thrift Supervision did nothing to regulate the 3 big housing lenders writing of silly loans. They also did nothing to regulate AIG who they also had authority over. I don’t know if congressional Democrats played a role here as they clearly did w/ Fannie/Freddie.

Chuck Schumer’s leak was the instigator of a bank run on IndyMac. This precipitated a domino bank run on WAMU.

When the credit markets freezed and TARP was about to be voted on Reid said that a major insurance company was about to go under at a press conference. This was after AIG was seized.

Pelosi knew she didn’t have the votes when she gave her partisan speech before the TARP bill failed. She also knew the bill’s failure would throw another uncertainty shock at the markets.

If you watched the Intrades during Obama’s jump in the polls as the MSM portrayed him as strong on the economy and McCain as weak by quoting him repeatedly OUT OF CONTEXT on the state of the economy you would have been shocked to see an almost direct opposite move of the stock market. As Obama’s Intrades went up the markets went down. The market has come back as Obama’s numbers have gone down. Exact correlation? No. Likely not coincident variables though.

Nov 11, 2009 - 12:19 pm 77. cubanbob:

Why do these fools believe more of the same failed ideas will work now?
Has it occurred to these arrogant idiots that the world has judged this clown to be an idiot? The ever dropping dollar is the world vote on the sanity of the democrats. Unstated for now by the press and most certainly by the government is the amount of capital leaving this country, not just foreigners cashing out but Americans desperate to preserve their capital and forestall possible freezing of accounts and assents and capital controls.

If the republicans truly want to take back control they need to be clear in their message and that message has to be the repeal of the Obama monstrosities and the roll back of all the democratic excess of the last 80 years. That is the way to get this country on a real growth path and revive the manufacturing component of the economy.

Nov 11, 2009 - 12:44 pm 78. venividivici:

68

First off, the ‘fantastic’ prosperity Clinton takes credit for was due to the actions of the last of the truly Republican Congress.

Clinton’s greatest “accomplishment” was being President during the roll-out of the Internet. In other words, nothing he did had anything to do with the prosperity of the times.

If Bush had been President during that time, he would have left office with 60%+ approval, too.

Nov 11, 2009 - 1:07 pm 79. venividivici:

Why do these fools believe more of the same failed ideas will work now?

You answer your own question: because they are “fools”.

Socialism always comes late to the game (and then, in its more historicist versions, tries to convince us that’s just because it’s so advanced, it couldn’t emerge until that moment) and depends on some level of prior prosperity, which it then proceeds to squander.

Nov 11, 2009 - 1:10 pm 80. Marc Malone:

I believe that a big part why the productivity rate is way up has to do with the fact that many small business owners have closed their doors and gone to work for someone else. These are the 20%-ers (20% of the people do 80% of the work). They are prime catches for your business.

Nov 11, 2009 - 1:28 pm 81. Jeffrey:

The Demoncrats, faux liberals, communists, statists, greenies whatever you want to call them are busy climbing the highest tree possible in order to attach a rope with a hangman’s noose on it in order to kill off their adversary; the conservative middle class, those independent gun toten, bible thumping rumps out there who have gotten wind of their own demise from the watchmen on the wall, those truthers from the 7th wheel that have been exposing all of the deeds of the left as commanded from on high.
The aim of the demoncrats is to have only two classes: the subservient dependant (slaves) class and the godlike elitist class. The latter of which would like to be worshipped and admired as they admire each other when things go their way.
What the demoncrats don’t know and can’t know because of their blind ambition is that they are creating their own gallows. It is not us who will hang but them.
Not only will they be held accountable for every lie but also for every penny they stole and every corrupt dollar they earned, every one of them including their husbands, wives, family members and friends who along the way have managed to lay hold of their ill-gotten gains not to mention their other abominations, too many to mention here. It will go back for generations.
The reason they don’t know what they are in for is they are not historians except revisionist when it suits them and they have never read the bible except when they were looking for something disgusting to prove that God hates minorities, women, and gays, that He does not exist or that He died a long time ago. Their hearts have been hardened and their eyes blinded that they may destroy themselves before our eyes.
If they had been good honest students of the literature they would know the consequences of their actions. Most of these penalties are automatically assessed but these precious libtards happen to be living in a time when the Most High God will execute them in person and none shall escape.
Read about Haman in the book of Ester.
Be careful not to gloat for we are saved by grace and not of any merit of our own.
Oh by the way you can always identify Satan’s minions by their hatred for Israel and Christians as well as their arrogant lies. Our libtards used to try and hide their hatred but it is getting increasingly difficult for them to, so thanks to the watchmen.

Nov 11, 2009 - 1:29 pm 82. Sallie:

obama was elected by the uninformed, uneducated, young, welfare dependent voters.
they are the ones that do not understand what it is to work and then have to give away to higher and higher taxes, hidden agendas, gov regulations/rules.
Our economy is being destroyed, job by job, $ by $. when these people finally start to feel it, they might change their votes.
I don’t know that “republicans” will get control..we’re looking for the “independent/conservatives” to make a huge impact.

Nov 11, 2009 - 1:47 pm 83. megapotamus:

Let’s take it easy on PoorCitizen. Sure, the comment is pretty self-contradictory but the important thing is he states a willingness to have Obism judged on its results. A year or two? Sure, why not? It’s not like anything can change electorally befor then anyhow. Reality is striking hard on all levels and it is only going to get worse before it gets MUCH worse. Even our Left-leaning citizens will be unable to deny it.

Now and then is obviously a pro for MediaMatters or some such Soros op; the off topic nature of the bleat and singleminded attack on specific target is the giveaway. No point clicking those links anymore than the banner ads for Cialis.

Nov 11, 2009 - 1:54 pm 84. johnt:

Now and Then,#75 you contrive to omit my other points, speaking of dishonesty.
I therefore conclude that although you demand faultless integrity from Fox, the color of leaves being very important to you, you don’t mind be routinely lied to by Democratic politicians. Moreover you can live with the various fabrications of other news organizations, ones that have their own agenda but an agenda you agree with.

You might consider why people like yourself spend so much time on one news group, only one. Does the existence of one dissident voice torment you so much?

Your complaint comes down to their lack of identifying file material, meanwhile tax increases, the ignorance of the bill on the part of MC’s, the lies about procedures and policies, the inclusion of fines and jail sentences for Americans, none of this bothers you at all.
Meanwhile Obama continues to lie
It’s a strange honesty you have Now and Then.

Nov 11, 2009 - 1:55 pm 85. always right:

Re: #14 Walt @Nov 11, 2009 – 5:47 am

That is because this whole bunch come straight from academics. Not a single one of them actually worked an honest day’s job.

They all have the academic polish and lofty thoeries, not a one actually have to do real world problem solving.

Nov 11, 2009 - 1:55 pm 86. JED:

“He inherited this mess” is victimology to the first degree, especially when coupled with “new age of responsibility.” The blame-Bush crowd seems to like to isolate their favorite lie from the blame-Clinton crowd and on back through history.
This is a repeat: The U.S. federal debt was equal to 61.4% of GDP in 1999; it grew to 70.2% of GDP in 2008( under the Bush administration); it will climb to an estimated 90.4% this year and touch the 100% mark in 2011, after which the projected federal debt will continue to equal or exceed our nation’s entire economic output through 2019.
Bush climbed that ratio 8.8% in 8 years. Obama has raised it 20.2% in 11 months. The project path of Obama debt in 2019, after he is out of office, by his administration’s own numbers will be $23.3 trillion.
Can those political characters say “deficit neutral” and not be lieing? What is the opposite of a fiscal conservative?

Nov 11, 2009 - 2:02 pm 87. megapotamus:

Ooops! A special report for Nowandthen. This is a good one for Veterans Day. Did you know the US suffered 3k casualties that last day of the war? The system for dispensing news was not so quick and some soldiers didn’t get the memo so don’t feel bad, being left out to dry. Looks like the War on Fox is over, Barack is going to do an interview and Fox is still standing so I guess we can infer that there was an Obamian capitulation behind closed doors. It leaves some allies in the lurch but hey! that’s show biz! You should keep up with Drudge to minimize this sort of thing in the future. If there is one.

Nov 11, 2009 - 2:03 pm 88. goy:

@86. JED: – Bush climbed that ratio 8.8% in 8 years.

And, simultaneously (with Congress’ assistance) grew the economy by about 20% by early 2008. That’s the important factor most folks overlook. To do anywhere near as well, BHO and the Dem-dominated, Congressional clown posse will need to grow the economy by about 50% – in un-inflated dollars – in the next 6 years. At the rate small businesspeople are bailing, I’ll make the risky prediction that – unless the GOP does a one-eighty, rights itself AND takes back control of Congress to undo some of the damage – we won’t be seeing that kind of growth by 2015. We’ll be lucky if we don’t see 50% decline.

Nov 11, 2009 - 2:39 pm 89. JED:

88 Goy et al. . .
Follow the dollar down, gold up, treasuries and money supply to watch for inflation to rear it’s ugly head. One reason that inflation is not here now is that it already bumped with $147 oil and food followed. Food is still at the inflated levels so it can not show inflation, yet. Without employment fed tax revenue drops and so does discretionary spending. Goodbye that tax revenue.
At best we could get Carter stagflation, at worse we get Roosevelt long term depression if inflation with devalued dollars engages.

Nov 11, 2009 - 2:57 pm 90. baal:

Well, all of this in mind, lets talk about a point that libertarians, fiscal conservative and social conservatives can agree on.
The PLEDGE>It states that any republican elected official that engages in deficit spending is expelled immediately, no second chance.
Libertarians will be happy…just because the size of government is reduced,
Fiscal Conservatives will be happy …pretty much for the same reason
Social conservatives will be happy because it will simply limit money being spent by democrats on things that are abhorrent to them.
Imagine, if you will, dollars that go to anti american academia simply…vanishing.
IF the dollars that can be spent can be limited to the amount of dollars collected, believe me, things will change drastically.

Nov 11, 2009 - 3:40 pm 91. Now and Then:

84. johnt:

“I therefore conclude that although you demand faultless integrity from Fox, the color of leaves being very important to you, you don’t mind be routinely lied to by Democratic politicians . . . It’s a strange honesty you have Now and Then.”

Wrong on all counts. I don’t demand faultless integrity from Fox. Like all media they are incapable of it, but I do believe their misrepresentations are more willful, arrogant, and ideological than all others. All I demand is that conservatives admit to that.

Whether Democrats lie or not is not relevant. I don’t spend time discussing Democrats. As I’ve said many times before here, my purpose is to highlight the self-righteous and misguided moralizing of conservative right wing extremists – in this case the blind fealty made manifest by that gutless charlatan Hannity. It goes on and on – the heroes and voices of liberty and defenders of freedom – those paragons of conservative virtue – who continually prove themselves to be liars (Hannity), racists (Limbaugh), craven opportunists (Coulter), serial quitters (Palin), delusional carnival bakers masquerading as populists (Beck), arbitrary originalists (Levin), chronic sexual harrassers (O’Reilly), faux Christians (Ingraham), and junkies (Limbaugh again).

You see, I take the same approach all these people do . . . spend all available time attacking the opponent. The only difference is, I do it honestly. So, by all means, continue to distract yourself from reality (the “real” reality, not the “footage” of Michelle Bachmann’s Super Bowl of Conservative Desperation. Honestly, how strong is the movement if you have to continually lie about the size and impact of its events?) Me? I’ll continue to grab you by the back of the neck and rub your faces in it . . . you know, just to do my part for truth, justice and the American way.

Hail Rush! Go Sarah!

Nov 11, 2009 - 3:46 pm 92. Poor Citizen:

No 88 Goy

Dude….. U related to G.W. Bush?

By any left…or Right Wing standard.. Bush, and the Republican Party spent this country into OBlivion…

Specially from 2003-2007…thats four years..standard time

Dude..You denying that? hey I dare u to look it up.

just wanted to throw that in….goy

Nov 11, 2009 - 4:17 pm 93. venividivici:

91

All I demand is that conservatives admit to that.

Or what? You’ll stamp your feet? F8cking grow up, moron.

Nov 11, 2009 - 4:23 pm 94. Ruebacca:

“53. Piobair:

These are all very good comments, however, after only 10 months of this administration I am so emotionally exhausted from reading them that from now on I will reply to any blogs, comments, arguments etc. with the phrase “Obama Sucks”. It’s all I can muster these days, especially when “conversing” with the few remaining followers of The Chosen One.”

I feel the same way. My phrase is “John Brown” the crazy guy hung before the civil war trying to lead a slave revolt.

Nov 11, 2009 - 5:13 pm 95. johnt:

Now and Then, #91. Time to get down on your hands and knees and pick the pieces of your brain off the floor.
Cut the Crap. You have told me more than enough of what you are.
Those proposed jail sentences don’t matter to you at all, eh. Well I guess the totalitarian type transcends both time and place. Thanks at least for the self ID.
One thing though, be careful with the physical threat stuff, it was metaphor wasn’t it?
But it will be a laugh of a sardonic sort when your party does just that to you, and it will be more than a metaphor.
Enjoy it while it lasts, some people are into pain and suffering.

Nov 11, 2009 - 5:41 pm 96. Shining City:

Obama’s only skill is reading for books on tape…now he is the most powerful man on the planet …without a clue.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:03 pm 97. ETAB:

Now and Then – a problem with your outline of yourself is your claim that you are acting ‘honestly’. I disagree; you are expressing your opinions, and they are obviously, ‘true to yourself’. But that doesn’t make them True.

Other people, for instance, might have a positive view of FOX News, and your demand that these people agree with what YOU believe about Fox News (wilful, arrogant, ideological) is an unreasonable request for you to make.

Equally, your view that conservatives here are ‘misguided’ etc, remains your view. Equally, some of us might feel that it is you who is misguided. Your derogatory descriptions of various people remain – your opinions and not necessarily viewed as ‘honest’. Just your opinion.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:24 pm 98. Harvard Yard Conservative:

One slim hope for the economy would be that our doctrinaire Marxist President follow the lead of Lenin when Communist policies threatened to destroy the Russian economy in the 1920s. Lenin imposed the N.E.P.—the New Economic Policy—which allowed for small concessions to capitalism in order for the Revolution to survive. One step ‘backward’ now so that two steps ‘forward’ towards a ‘glorious’ Communist Utopia could be taken later.

The more sensible hope for our economy is for the People to oust the Democratic majority from Congress in the 2010 mid-term elections, followed by ousting Obama, himself, in 2012.

That would be a glorious revolution!

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:26 pm 99. Now and Then:

95. johnt:

“One thing though, be careful with the physical threat stuff, it was metaphor wasn’t it?”

Don’t be such a pu@@y. Believe me, if I threaten you, you’ll know it.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:34 pm 100. Now and Then:

97. ETAB:

“Now and Then – a problem with your outline of yourself is your claim that you are acting ‘honestly’. I disagree; you are expressing your opinions, and they are obviously, ‘true to yourself’. But that doesn’t make them True.”

Allow me to illustrate . . . watch this and tell me Hannity is honest. I say he isn’t. I say he willfully misrepresents – and that’s not an opinion. It’s a fact.

http://mediamatters.org/research/200911110019

How do you dispute my truth? How am I not being honest?

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:48 pm 101. venividivici:

Believe me, if I threaten you, you’ll know it.

Bring it on.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:57 pm 102. Larry G.:

99. Now and Then:

“Don’t be such a pu@@y. Believe me, if I threaten you, you’ll know it.”

And believe me, johnt, threats are all that keyboard commando has.

Yawn.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:16 pm 103. goy:

@92. Poor Citizen: – I dare u to look it up.

Here’s a thought: do your own homework. The facts are completely opposite of what you’ve claimed. When you actually look it up, here’s what you’ll find…

The recession in 2000-01 was short and shallow precisely because the feds didn’t go hogwild with socialist “stimulus” B.S. like FDR – when his idiotic economic policies prolonged the Depression by years – and as BHO has now done, which will have exactly the same result if it’s not corrected.

In the ensuing years, 2003-06 saw over 3% real GDP growth per year, which was pretty much a miracle after the preceding recession, coupled with the economic devastation that followed 9/11. The deficit SHRANK every year from 2004 to 2007.

By Jan. of 2007, the federal revenue-vs.-spending trends had the federal government on track for a balanced budget by late 2008, even with the ridiculous levels of socialist, entitlement spending the feds were doing. In short, GDP growth and federal revenue were strong, and were supporting a shrinking deficit. But then Congressional Democrat spending policies went into effect, and the deficit almost tripled as a result in a single year (2008).

Pelosi and Reid took over Congress and signaled their intentions by pushing through a minimum wage hike (which, BTW, isn’t helping the unemployment rate among unskilled and young workers much right now). Even though, by then, the real economy had grown about 20% since Bush took office, the Democrats’ well-known anti-business policies, coupled with their refusal to allow the use of our own natural resources (allowing oil prices to rise until Bush popped that bubble on July 14, ‘08) slowed and reversed GDP growth and it’s been downhill ever since.

In only 9 months, BHO and his Congressional clown posse have created a deficit that is approaching two trillion dollars! In only 9 months, BHO and his Congressional clown posse have ballooned the deficit by twice the amount that it increased in all the years from 2000 to 2008! In only 9 months, BHO and his Congressional clown posse have racked up a deficit that is now over four times the size of the one the O-bots were whining about last year, which was a joint effort between Bush and the Democrat Congress.

Given all that, the notion that ANYONE other than BHO and the Democrats have ever spent this country into oblivion is absolutely moronic.

Wake up. Read a book. Get a grip. You’re delusional.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:10 pm 104. Not one person of the boomer generation voted for the Obama, eh?:

“Unfortunately, the young who so enthusiastically supported Obamba are the children of privilege, students at elite colleges and universities, who have either been able to get government jobs, the few private sector jobs in finance, etc. (as competition for the jobs gets stiffer, the importance of elite credentials increases asymptotically), or are now enjoying their leisure gallivanting about the country (like some of my daughters’ friends) or in graduate school at their parents’ expense. Or, the minority youth who will either get government jobs or other assistance.

The real tragedy are the millions of ordinary young people without wealthy parents who have worked hard, tried to learn usable skills through education, and who find an economy unable to find places for them.”

Exactly. Not all of us voted for the Obama, and not all of us got worthless degrees in _______ studies. It seems like there is a lot of denial among the middle-aged baby boomers as to who really got this jackass elected, I didn’t see too many 25 year old billionaires shoveling money into the campaign coffers.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:13 pm 105. rp:

By insisting on going into conference with the House PelosiCare bill and putting a thousand tons of sick-socialist medcrap in a five pound bag,
Senate Democrats have decided to go down with the ship. Passage of socialized medicine, as difficult as it will be for future Republicans to undo,
will, in the end, prove to be Obama’s and cohorts’s undoing.

My sources do tell me the revised bill will get the 50 votes needed for passage. Which means the 500 billion medicare cut, the public option,
the eight hundred billion in front-loaded taxes on medical treatments and devices as well as the end of private, company provided insurance will become law. The fact that Obama promised that people could keep their company offered present medical insurance, if they wanted to, is itself a load of Neo-Com crap. Which provoked that Wilson guy during the Telebama speech to shout, “you lie.” Let’s face it, Obama and his merry men, and I count Pelosi in that number, have raised the lie to an art form.

On the foreign side of the political table, Obama continues to make Afghanistan the Wake Island of the 21st century. The 40 thousand in reinforcements that Gen. McChrystle has asked for are already nearly three months late arriving. President Obama, who has no executive or military experience, is incapable of making a military decision. When he went to Ft. Hood yesterday, somebody should have taken him aside and pinned his ears back with a heavy dose of reality.

Of course, Obama’s inaction simply reinforces my certainty that Obama is the first American Neo-Com (and, I hope only) to be elected President of
these United States.

Incidentally, Neo-Com is a new term that means “new kind of Communist.” Essentially, their most obnoxious trait is a demonstrated ability to talk nice to your face, then pull the Brutus move, and stab you in the back. In Barack’s case, our entire country now has a six inch combat knife stuck between our shoulder blades.
We’re reeling, but if it doesn’t kill us, it’ll make us hate Communism (both kinds) even more.

It’s also interesting to note how Obama has told us not to rush to judgment about Major Hasan, calling him crazy, (a rush to judgment in itself) while avoiding like the plague the truth that the massacre was actually a case of a radical Islamic freedom-o-phobe terrorist act, carried out by a guy called Hasan.

Obama, in trying to destroy what was the United States, in effect, is subtly in league with Islamic extremists. This symbiotic relationship, a free standing irony, that might turn out to be a fertile field of subtext to plow I’ll leave to some future historian to uncover. For now, I’ll leave it fallow. With Obama temporarily in charge, I’d wage it’s just the first terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 of many. “Where’s Homeland Security? The whole world wants to know.” (Nimitz, 1943, Peepers, 2009)

99 Now and Then
Although you revel in dialogue on PJM, I hope you realize that the commenter in here that takes your bait has no idea what makes you tick.

Obviously, you don’t concentrate on your business or work because this is the only place that blows wind up your shirt. To me, you’re like an
obscene phone call. Just hang up. Don’t talk to them. It takes two to make an obscene phone call. In here, though, too many can’t resist the sparring. I know you have time on your hands, but you don’t have the power of persuasion. Your thoughts are one dimensional. You find it almost impossible to argue or see the issue from the other guy’s point of view. Which means you’re short on empathy and makes you domineering and hard to live with. At the same time, you have a lousy sense of humor. It’s the bad side of dry. It’s arid.

At the same time, I can’t think of a liberal/progressive site or whatever you want to call it that’ll give you the kind of feedback like you get here that lets you get your rocks off. Which brings me to your relationship with women. If not absent, I suspect it’s extremely limited. And angry. You’re too quick to come out with a dirty harry, Rambo-esque comment, “One thing, though, be careful
with the physical threat stuff.”

Why? What’ll you do? Or is there more to it than that?

Let’s see. A loner. Male flying solo. Work is either humdrum, boring or non-existent. Race: definitely white. Surprisingly intelligent. My guess is you have a masters. Phd? Who pray tell does that remind one of? Anybody? A threatening loner male? Let’s see.

Of course, the brave Major Hasan. Had more ativan in his system than an in patient at Queens own Creedmoor. But, somehow, I don’t think of you as a heavy drug user. Now a word about your writing.

What jumps out at me is your interesting use of the word, “though”.

It’s a conjunction that’s foreign to most folks out there in cyberland. Mostly editors, writers and reporters use it. Not the unwashed. So it’s my guess that, while you’re way past your prime, (Maybe shuffled off in a company downsizing. I’m not sure) your golden years coming up will permit you to refine your nasty, sort of subtle, hateful little missives. You’re unwanted here, but that’s how you like it. Like a nuisance. A little staff infection that’s resistant to tetracycline and other common antibiotics. Like Obama, you need somebody to pin your ears back to really get your attention.
Don’t feel bad. The club is big.

One last thought. I know it’s not good for your self esteem that a group of people would rather you model your wears somewhere else, but at least consider giving us a week or two off. This, however, isn’t meant to push your over the edge. But the, “if I threaten you, you’ll know it” sounds idiotic. Sans magic powers, you sound like a jerk.

There’s nothing more vapid than an internet freak who thinks he’s capable of carrying a big stick when about all he can lift is a toothpick.

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:13 pm 106. HawkWatcher:

Hey now and then…the thread isn’t about Fox news. But then, you didn’t come here to discuss the article about Obamanomics, did you? Your methods of distraction are old and hackneyed garbage. You bring nothing of value to the blog. I can smell your fear of debate from here, you side-stepping coward.

Obama is my enemy. The Congress is my enemy. The federal Judiciary is my enemy. The Constitution is my friend, and my friend is ordering me to defeat these enemies. Which side are the lily-livered liberal trolls on? Not mine.

Conservatism IS Constitutionality you mindless dweebs. Why don’t you help us take control of our country instead of dumping your feces at PJ? Are you too scared?

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:49 am 107. goy:

@105. rp: – But the, “if I threaten you, you’ll know it” sounds idiotic. Sans magic powers, you sound like a jerk.

rp, idle threats are N&T’s last resort.

It’s what fake vets do when they’re backed into a corner by someone who recognizes them for what they are.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:36 am 108. johnt:

Now and Then, re your childish bravado, your infantile aggression, keep it to yourself or take it to the gutter.
Your posts have gotten worse as you went on, at this point you barely rate as a human.

I am going to sign off with this, you doubtless will respond with more of your vomit, but who will care.

But I do want to point out and emphasize this:
Your grotesque #91. You say,or sputter,”whether democrats lie or not is not relevant”. This requires thought on your part, not the usual babble. You are saying quite clearly what I touched upon earlier, that democrat lies don’t matter to your hapless self.
But, you poor degraded sap, if that’s the case truth doesn’t matter to you nor do lies. What matters is only who you see as lying not the lies themselves. That’s in your own words, the party that controls both houses of Congress and the presidency and their lies don’t matter.
Sick !!!
In other words you have no morals.

Well keep your eyes on Fox, you never know when those crooks are going to mix film again, that’s a biggie.
Time for a little self reflection Now and Then.
Bye, bye.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:38 am 109. Now and Then:

102. Larry G.:

“And believe me, johnt, threats are all that keyboard commando has . . . Yawn.”
I refer you to VD at #101

106. HawkWatcher:
“Hey now and then…the thread isn’t about Fox news.”
But it is about the ideological blindness that conservatives bring to every discussion about Obama. The only “issue” ever discussed here is how Obama is evil. The articles are merely ruses for that vitriol.

“Why don’t you help us take control of our country ”

I already did that . . . and we pushed the repressed and arbitrary moralizers off to the side where they belong.

But I’m all for second chances . . . Carrie Prejean – hero or pathological liar and fame whore? (You might want to “research” today’s developments first.) Here’s another tip: The question isn’t really about Prejean, she’s already answered that for us, the question is really about your ability to offer an honest answer. Or are you a sidestepping coward?

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:56 am 110. bondwooley:

No jobs? No problem. It just takes a little ingenuity to maintain our American lifestyle:

http://bit.ly/ozqT6

(satire)

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:20 am 111. tanstaafl:

Yes, ETAB #60.

Start with the psychology of the man, and everything else falls into place.

Add on a litany of life influences, not the least of which was Frank Marshall Davis in the teenage years, a capitalist hating Communist, might make Billy Ayers blush, tho’ little would make Billy blush.

Daddy, “nightmares from my dad” a communist as well.

Obama has no understanding of and no use for freedom and capitalism.

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:05 am 112. Michael Smith:

Here are some of the things Obama promised to do if elected President:

1) Raise the top income tax rate, i.e. that rate paid by “the rich”, those that commit the sin — usually by running a small business and creating jobs — of earning more than some arbitrarily defined (and steadily falling) amount.

2) Raise the corporate tax rate.

3) Raise the dividend tax rate.

4) Raise the capital gains tax rate.

5) Create a new tax on businesses that outsource jobs overseas.

6) Punish the oil companies by seizing a portion of their profits.

7) Punish the pharmaceutical companies by seizing a portion of their profits.

“Spread the wealth around” with a scheme whereby those who DON’T currently pay taxes will receive a rebate funded by those who DO pay taxes — a scheme which Obama calls a “tax cut”.

9) Eliminate the secret ballot in union elections and allow union thugs to bring intimidation and threats to bear directly on any employee who dares to oppose a union.

10) Eliminate a company’s right to hire replacement workers during a strike.

11) Permit government “arbitrators” to impose wage settlements on companies that refuse to cave to union wage demands.

12) Raise the minimum wage by 50%.

13) Impose “cap and trade” limits on CO2 emissions that will, in Obama’s words, “cause electricity rates to soar” and “bankrupt anyone who builds a coal-fired power plant”.

15) Force all businesses to pay 100% of their employee’s healthcare costs.

16) Complete the nationalization of the healthcare industry and REQUIRE by force of law that we all purchase health insurance .

17) Impose protectionist trade restrictions by “renegotiating” existing free trade agreements.

18) Commit America to funding U.N. anti-poverty programs, so that American taxpayers are not only bled to fund our own home-grown bums and deadbeats, but the whole world’s as well.

No one who proposes an economic agenda like this can credibly claim to have any interest whatsoever in growing the economy or creating additional employment. This is a program designed crush the private sector, not grow it.

Obama has no interest in creating jobs, lip-service-to-the-contrary notwithstanding. He’s simply a power-lusting blood-sucker seeking to vastly increase the looting of the most productive people in America, all for purposes of buying votes and expanding his power still further. And he doesn’t give a damn if doing so wrecks the economy, destroys the lives and careers of millions of America and leaves our children with crushing debt and taxation.

It’s just looting for the sake of looting and power for the sake of power.

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:30 am 113. JP:

The President isn’t ignorant; but, he is an idealogue. He knows perfectly well what will happen to our economy with the huge spending and attendent defecits. And he realizes as much as anyone that niether the Stimulus nor Cap and Trade will improve the jobs market. He is also aware that ObamaCare will break the bank and make healthcare even worse. But he also knows that once entitlements are in place, the only trajectory they can go is up (ie Dept of Education and Amtrack. Reagean promised thier demise 30 years ago and they’re still here). President Obama wishes to be the man who “transformed” our nation into a Euro-State.

The President is betting on only short term political fall-out from implementing his radical agenda. He also believes that his charisma can perhaps save a few House and Senate seats. And he is betting on the fact that our nation is now so divided that even poor job performance will not steer many Dems into the GOP fold. Lots of bets.

Nov 12, 2009 - 11:55 am 114. Now and Then:

108. johnt:

john, john, john . . . Allow me to highlight your Fox -like analysis;

I said: “Whether Democrats lie or not is not relevant. I don’t spend time discussing Democrats. As I’ve said many times before here, my purpose is to highlight the self-righteous and misguided moralizing of conservative right wing extremists . . . ”

And you illustrated it for me, saying:

“You are saying quite clearly what I touched upon earlier, that democrat lies don’t matter to your hapless self.
But, you poor degraded sap, if that’s the case truth doesn’t matter to you nor do lies . . . sick . . . you have no morals.”

Nothing I said suggests I approve of Democrats lying. I clearly stated that Democrats are not my concern here. But because you can’t refute my examples, you devolve into this mindless drivel about, what’s the word . . . morals. Where have I heard that word before? Oh, wait, I know . . . “self-righteous and misguided moralizing of conservative right wing extremists” Thanks for helping out.

This is what conservatives do when they’ve been exposed as empty vessels of phony principles. Bark and run.

Nov 12, 2009 - 3:45 pm 115. Anonymous:

#100 Now and Then – You want some irony? At roughly the time of your posting, Hannity was acknowledging on air the mistake made. They simply got the wrong file footage. (side note: I see this a lot on Hannity. His guys often get the wrong footage or can’t find the video they need. This happens a lot with Frank Luntz’s videos.)

So, he apologized on air. Is that good enough for you, who claimed they NEVER ‘fess up?

Nov 12, 2009 - 5:01 pm 116. Larry G.:

109. Now and Then:

“I refer you to VD at #101″

Like I sez before…Yawn.But, please keep it up. You’re doing the “progressive” cause proud, and gaining a new OFA signup with each lurker that comes across this thread!

Nov 12, 2009 - 5:43 pm 117. jma:

It’s called Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Nov 12, 2009 - 6:32 pm 118. Now and Then:

115. Anonymous:
“They simply got the wrong file footage.(side note: I see this a lot on Hannity. His guys often get the wrong footage or can’t find the video they need. This happens a lot with Frank Luntz’s videos.)”

Meaningless – him and you.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:54 pm 119. Now and Then:

116. Larry G.:

You sweet little side-stepping coward.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:56 pm 120. Larry G.:

“Whether Democrats lie or not is not relevant. I don’t spend time discussing Democrats. As I’ve said many times before here, my purpose is to highlight the self-righteous and misguided moralizing of conservative right wing extremists . . .”

And you call others a coward. You’re a joke.

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:39 pm 121. Jim Baker:

Now and Then: You have no purpose beyond name calling and you seldom highlight anything. You are persistent with your bellicose behavior because your only real purpose is to trash people who don’t share your limited world view. Somehow that makes you feel better. You are a product of a sorry education system and, for that, you cannot be blamed. But your blather is not needed on any forum including this one. You are educating no one you pompous little ass.

Nov 12, 2009 - 9:24 pm 122. HawkWatcher:

I tried to explain that the conservative morals now and then hates are enshrined in our founding, but the dumbass just can’t comprehend. It’s because he/she hates America just like the president and Congress do, but is too cowardly to admit it. Why do you hate American ideals, enemy of mine? Has the Constitution or any conservative hurt you in some way? What is wrong inside your head? I despise your way of thinking and you should too.

Nov 12, 2009 - 9:44 pm 123. RagnarD:

cubanbob @ 77 said:

…. Has it occurred to these arrogant idiots that the world has judged this clown to be an idiot? The ever dropping dollar is the world vote on the sanity of the democrats. Unstated for now by the press and most certainly by the government is the amount of capital leaving this country, not just foreigners cashing out but Americans desperate to preserve their capital and forestall possible freezing of accounts and assents and capital controls.

The Electronic Herd is voting and it is one of “No Confidence”. A crash of the dollar is not far off.

megapotamus @ 83 said:

Let’s take it easy on PoorCitizen.

Why? He is an idiot.

Even our Left-leaning citizens will be unable to deny it.

True but deny it they will. Until death.

Now and then is obviously a pro for MediaMatters or some such Soros op; the off topic nature of the bleat and singleminded attack on specific target is the giveaway.

His assigned target for this week/month seems to be Fox News. Talk about a one trick pony. All he can do is bleat about them. Pretty soon it fades into background noise. But ignoring it does not make the troll go away. Ho-Hum!

rp @ 105 & johnt @ 108 – You guys get a standing ovation. Nice take down. Both were a pleasure to read!

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:39 pm 124. Now and Then:

123. ragNARD:

i call you out for the hypocritical moralizing that defines the right. You don’t like it. I don’t blame you. But I’m here to defend the truth you choose to ignore. I don’t care about Democrats. I don’t care about liberals. This whole site is dedicated to tearing them down. You judge liberals constantly. You make false accusations. You call people terrible names. And yet you whine as Jim Baker does about “bellicose behavior because your only real purpose is to trash people who don’t share your limited world view.” The fact that you can’t take a little of your own medicine shows just how weak of character and shallow of mind you are. So toughen up or step aside. You’re no match for conviction.

Here’s a simple example: Carrie Prejean – hero/victim or liar/fame whore? Here’s another one: Showing up at a Palin book signing with a .45 strapped to your leg, or an AK 47 slung over your shoulder – that OK? Think Palin will allow that?

Who has the balls to call it like it is?

Nov 13, 2009 - 8:02 am 125. Real Deal:

If you’ve ever read the Honor Harrington series by David Weber you probably see some scary parallels between the history of the People’s Republic of Haven and the course America is taking.

Nov 13, 2009 - 12:31 pm 126. RagnarD:

Now & When? – Take it elsewhere. We ain’t buying your sophomoric BS.

Nov 13, 2009 - 12:37 pm 127. Now and Then:

126 ragnard:

re 124 – Calling all eunichs.

Nov 13, 2009 - 3:37 pm 128. goy:

@124. Now and Then: – Here’s a simple example: Carrie Prejean…

Hey, fake vet, I’m curious: what’s with YOUR obsession with Prejean? Sure she’s hot. But there’s no reason to spew so much jealousy, really.

Feel free not to answer if it’s too embarrassing. We’ll understand.

Nov 13, 2009 - 4:34 pm 129. tehag:

It doesn’t matter how poorly Obama governs, whether he wrecks the economy, or implements EU communism here. Even if Republicans were elected, they’d “conserve” Obama’s “gains.”

I’ll believe we have two parties when the Republicans abolish most of the government. (Reagan promised to abolish the Dept. of Education–it’s still here!)

Nov 14, 2009 - 3:45 am 130. Now and The:

128. goy:

Thank you for responding to my call for eunichs, and for proving not only your existence but also offering the root cause of your testicular deficit.

Still smarting from your Purple Heart envy. I understand. And you have aversion issues. I get that too. Propping up phony heroes who betray your cause (Prejean and her pornographic habits). Unable and unwilling to stand for the 2nd Amendment when to do so would contradict the actions of your 2nd Amendment poster children (Palin and her retinue of gun-toting tea baggers). I’ve put you and the other pretentious right wing moralists a tight spot, gus. You’re a hypocrite when you speak and a hypocrite when you don’t.

The snare slams shut again.

And I thank you.

PS: It’s not too late to enlist and serve and fight perhaps be awarded a Purple Heart. All you have to do is summon the courage. Or is it too late for you to serve? Are you too old? Are you left with only resentful anti-American slurs against those who did what you did not?

And yet, being a fair and balanced person, i offer this door to redemption:

Carrie Prejean – hero/victim or liar/fame whore? Here’s another one: Showing up at a Palin book signing with a .45 strapped to your leg, or an AK 47 slung over your shoulder – that OK? Think Palin will allow that?

Nov 14, 2009 - 7:24 am 131. goy:

@129. tehag: – It doesn’t matter how poorly Obama governs…

This is precisely the problem that threatens America right now. We’re being governed by political parties that are far-far-left and far-left. These people ALL need to go.

.

@130. Now and The[n]: – Carrie Prejean …

So you were too embarrassed to answer the question. All you had to do was say so, fake vet. Oh wait – you just did! Well… take heart – you can always “threaten” me again. LOL!!

Meanwhile, the only person making a big deal out of Prejean is, uhm… you (oh, and the rest of your fellow brainless lemmings of the left). I guess that makes her YOUR ’standard-bearer’, doesn’t it. Heh.

Oh BTW, someone should have taught you how to spell your middle name correctly: there is no ‘i’ in eunuch.

Nov 14, 2009 - 9:50 am

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