j_b

Best article last week: The Real Reason Obama Has Let Us All Down http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/10/26-14 excerpt: But if you choose to see this as another fairytale – of how one man who seemed like a Good Prince turned out to be a Traitor – you will miss the point, and the real need for change. This is not primary a question of individual failings, but of the endemic corruption at the core of American politics. The facts are not hidden. If you want to run for national office in the US, you have to raise huge sums of money from corporations and very rich people to pay for the adverts and the mailings that get you on the ballot and into office. These corporations will only give you money if you persuade them that you will serve their interests once you are in power. If you say instead that you want to prevent anything destructive they are doing to ordinary people, or tax and regulate them, you will get no money, and can’t run. As the Wisconsin politician Ed Garvey puts it: “Even candidates who get into politics with the best of intentions start thinking they can’t get re-elected without money. Senators get so reliant on the money that they reflect it; they stop thinking for themselves, stop thinking like the people who elected them. They just worry about getting the money.” Barack Obama knows this. In 2006, he said that taking money from the rich is “the original sin of anyone who’s ever run for office” in the US, and it ensures that “Washington is only open to those with the most cash.” There’s a term for this: legalized bribery. It is so naked that corporations routinely give to both sides in an election: Goldman Sachs, to name just one, gave to both Obama and McCain to ensure whoever became President was indebted to them.

The article is understating reality: millions already suffer from climate change every year and over a 100k per year die because of it according to the UN. It's not the first time in history that active denialism has led to crimes against humanity and it's good that some in the establishment are finally waking up to what some of us have been saying for years. Let's also not forget the jackbooted tactics of deniers against climate researchers. Outstanding scientists like Michael Mann and others are smeared, harassed, and their careers threatened on a daily basis by neo-McCartyists/GOP officials in position of power

All of this must mean that right wing dimwits can find pictures on the internet!!!

Nice dodge, moron! It's no surprise to me that you'll say anything convenient that appears to justify your pathetic ideology. You are trolling for the bottom of the barrel.

what a pathetic liar! here you say that mountains aren't infrastructure to differentiate with cyclists who according to you should pay fees: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/984969/Fairweather#Post984969 i.e. you pretend to not understand that land agencies charge a user fee for the infrastructure they maintain and not for the mountains. and just above, you compare mountains to infrastructure because you want cyclists to take responsibility for a dangerous environment like climbers do. i.e. you pretend to not understand that mountains aren't infrastructure.

Nuts. What next? Charging you per car traveling in front of your house? "hey man, they came to visit YOU. Their road wear is your responsibility. Nobody asked you to have a social life"

But defense spending is welfare spending! yes, mostly corporate welfare

Tax dollars at work: Jail Industrial complex behind Arizona law by Laura Sullivan Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal. Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch. "The gentleman that's the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger," Nichols said. "He's a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman." What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants. "They talk [about] how positive this was going to be for the community," Nichols said, "the amount of money that we would realize from each prisoner on a daily rate." But Nichols wasn't buying. He asked them how would they possibly keep a prison full for years - decades even - with illegal immigrants? "They talked like they didn't have any doubt they could fill it," Nichols said. That's because prison companies like this one had a plan - a new business model to lock up illegal immigrants. And the plan became Arizona's immigration law. Behind-The-Scenes Effort To Draft, Pass The Law The law is being challenged in the courts. But if it's upheld, it requires police to lock up anyone they stop who cannot show proof they entered the country legally. When it was passed in April, it ignited a fire storm. Protesters chanted about racial profiling. Businesses threatened to boycott the state. Supporters were equally passionate, calling it a bold positive step to curb illegal immigration. But while the debate raged, few people were aware of how the law came about. NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry. Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, pictured here at Tea Party rally on Oct. 22, was instrumental in drafting the state's immigration law. He also sits on a American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) task force, a group that helped shape the law. The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them. more here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741

Relative: Man convicted of threatening Sen. Murray was inspired by Beck October 28, 2010 4:02 pm ET by Sarah Pavlus According to publicly available documents filed in federal court, a cousin of Charles Wilson -- a Washington man sentenced to prison last week for repeatedly threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) after she voted in favor of health care reform legislation -- said Wilson's "fears were grown and fostered by [Glenn] Beck's persuasive personality." Wilson's cousin's comments were made in a letter -- one of 25 submitted by Wilson's public defender in which Wilson's friends and family attested to his character. In a sentencing memo, Wilson's attorney requested leniency, noting "[t]he period of time in which he committed the offense conduct is totally aberrant when one looks at how Mr. Wilson has lived the rest of his life." Wilson's cousin, who is related to him through marriage, wrote in a September 17 letter: What happened later with Charlie is something I think I can understand. He became basically housebound due to illness and his small world became even smaller. His brother got him a computer and he was able to stay connected with family. And he watched television and found Glenn Beck... I found Glenn Beck about the same time Charlie did. I understand how his fears were grown and fostered by Mr. Beck's persuasive personality. The same thing happened to me but I went in a different direction with what I was seeing. Rather than blame politicians for the current issues, I simply got prepared for what Glenn said was coming. I slowly filled our pantry as Glenn fed fear into me. I did not miss watching his show and could not understand why the rest of the world didn't get it -- Glenn became a pariah to me. But I was finally able to step away and realize the error of my ways. The media lost its grip on me. But it still held very tightly to Charlie. While his actions were undeniably wrong and his choices were terrible, in part they were the actions of others played out by a very gullible Charlie. He was under the spell that Glenn Beck cast, aided by the turbulent times in our economy. I don't believe that Charlie even had the ability to actually carry out his threats. A letter from another relative said: Charlie was never a man to be interested in politics until his health kept him home more and he got his first computer. His world was small and he seemed to spend most of his time at home watching television and on his computer. I truly believe that the recent events surrounding universal health care and its ramifications literally scared him beyond comprehension. He has had many surgeries in the past and has battled some major health issues. With his world being so small, he lost faith and sight of reality. I believe he is even mildly agoraphobic -- in the past ten years he rarely left the Yakima valley and I honestly don't think he could have driven very far. As long as I have known Charlie I have never known him to be violent or threatening. I have never witnessed any overt anger issues nor have I seen him shout or strike anyone or anything. He has always been a person to help others not harm them. more here: http://mediamatters.org/blog/201010280036

The outrageous part is just 2 pages ago in this very same thread, Fairweather was telling us that mountains aren't infrastructure to explain away his hypocrisy about user fees (fees for cyclists but not for climbers) as he was then pretending land agencies charged user fees for the mountains and not for the infrastructure. You couldn't make this shit up if you wanted..

you bursting with juice?

If Obama voters aren''t smart, what does it say of McCain-Palin voters?

He'd be the smartest guy in a room full of us dudes. Unless Jayb was there. It takes a special dunce to sing the praises of snake oil merchants.

I don't see any evidence that Obama didn't want to achieve all that his administration did. Democrats have campaigned on the left and governed on the right at least since Carter. It's not due to an error or a lack of intelligence. Just watch them telling us they got punked in the mid-terms because they were too far left in the first 2 years (even though it was the exact opposite) and that now they have to move to the "center". Watch what they do, not what they say.

Tax dollars at work:

Come on, it wasn't the book, it was the Lycra wearing sissies.

As long as employers have the freedom to demand their employees pee in a cup, we are safe from tyranny.

Anybody noticed how Bill never has anything to say about civility when the goon squad hurls abuse at people?

so you don't think it's obvious that you don't like what I say but you don't have a rebuttal?

Did he spray about "freedom" before or after he praised Pinochet's Chilean dictatorship?

It's not my fault if JayB seizes every opportunity to spew his sociopathic drivel and that you chose to ignore him. I respond the way I see fit and I don't even need coffee to do that so what about leaving the barbs out of your commentary?

your being passive-aggressive tells everyone that you are anything but joking, jackass.

here comes the goon squad

Another vile low regressive jackboot attempt to change the real subject Jim. We expected more from you. Pfft, LOL! I thought I stumbled by mistake into the eternal jackbooted thug vs liberal blowhard thread. Oh, wait.. who the fuck are you to decide what part of JayB's or Hugh's discourse I am going to answer to?