tvashtarkatena

The popular wisdom that lower taxes for the wealthy will 'create jobs in New Jersey' is at the expense of 100% local state employee jobs is, of course, absolute shit. Most of that money flies out of the state in short order for out of state investment and luxury expenditures, like really great vacations...and those would not be in New Jersey. This new Rfuck strategy of raiding middle class incomes to fatten the rich will very predictably increase unemployment. It will also further strain already gutted social services as it drives thousands on the lower end of the state employee bell curve below the poverty line.

The city issues free black Reeboks high tops to every adult upon suspension of their driver's license - presumably with a tracking device. More comfortable than an ankle bracelet, I guess.

A little context here: New Jersey has the highest per capita state budget deficit in the country. Despite this, neither Christie nor his legislature has attempted to remove collective bargaining rights for state employees. Still, I disagree with Christie's approach because he, like all of his Rfuck colleagues, hasn't chosen to tax the wealthy before turning his guns on the middle class. If he'd done this, his other budget cutting efforts might have more credibility. In not having done this, he's just another wealth concentrator in my book. In the final analysis, however, Christie seems to be 10 times the man that Walker in the fullest sense of the phrase. I think he's probably the strongest candidate the GOP's got for 2012 - except that he refuses to run (so far). I had dinner with a wealthy developer in Richland this weekend. His synopsis? "Our taxes are way too low. I pay way less than I did 20 years ago. It's become ridiculous."

As long as you don't privatize the vagina. Then you'll have Harry Reid to deal with.

I worked in Everett for a decade and all I want to say is that this description is outrageous... ...ly accurate.

One of FUX's favorite words. Perhaps someday they'll even take the time to learn what it actually means.

Caliphate!

This line of thinking would be a lot funnier if it wasn't so popular. The threat of rolling back the clock on women's rights is very, very real, unfortunately.

I gave a talk with a local director of somethin somethin from the Heritage Foundation this weekend. He claimed that, if you're a true civil libertarian, you have to believe that the fetus enjoys the full rights of personhood at conception, and that killing that fetus is murder. I asked him "what about the rights of the mother?" He looked at me like I was from Mars. That's what you're dealing with, ladies. Go get 'em!

That's cool. More voter apathy means more political power for me and my cronies.

Yet another Congressional assault on middle class jobs.... Harry Reid takes on the first jobs ever created

That sure saved me a long winded post regarding the Kurious Kase of the Koch Smokers. Bottom line: ya better tax the shit out of the wealthy before talkin about reducing a large % of the middle class to the poverty level to claim any moral ground whatsoever. Sorry, otherwise you're a sociopathic fleecing artist who shouldn't be within a hundred miles of an elected position, given your goal of ass fucking the public out of whatever you can.

How proposed budget cuts will hurt the economy

There is definitely a budget deficit problem across the states and state employee costs are at the center of it. If the Right had 'shared the pain' by rescinding at least some of the Bush era tax gimmes to the rich before taking a run at unions, that would have been reasonable...but they didn't. If the Right had steered clear of trying to destroy unions altogether, as in WI, their agenda would appear to be reasonable. But they didn't. Too bad, because public sector compensation and the lack of public money to pay for it IS a real problem, although not as big as some states claim it is (INDIANA, for example, where the problem is minor).

+1, well-said Who got us into this mess in the first place? And now those same people want to make teachers and linemen pay the check, while fighting tooth-and-nail for tax cuts for the richest of the rich. It's like reverse robin hood. Good ole wealth concentration and asset stripping. Nothing new here. Teacher's vote Dem. Bus drivers are all fat and black (who also vote Dem), so they don't really deserve anything over minimum wage (which should bottom out at $0/hour, of course). That would put these uppity negroes right back where they've belonged all along. As an interim measure, an 8% pay + benefit cut from an average of $50K/year should put them back in the ghetto. Next step: cotton fields. Cops and Firefighters are HEROES...and they tend to vote R. Yeah, this is an old, old conversation. You can dip it in white chocolate (fiscal responsibility! Share the pain!), but its still the same old turd.

MSNBC must take my cue then...I don't watch it.

non public unions also make political donations. Guess we should 'abolish' them. Love that word, 'abolish'. So telling of what's inside the man, no?

FOX News did the same exact thing last night: exclude Fire and Police - political sacred cows for the Right, doncha know. Teachers? Snow plow drivers? Linemen? Not as high on the 'necessary' scale, apparently. In other words, more likely to vote Left than Right. It's an old, old game.

Right to Work bill dropped in Indiana

The game we've been playing internationally for a long, long time is "How to appear less like the total dicks that we really are" - which may be one reason why no one takes that shit seriously anymore.

You'd think a Kenyan muslim married to a black christian woman would appreciate that kind of freedom.

It's weird and kind of nice to see a U.S. president actually do the right thing...more than once, even.

An excellent project to get behind. Good luck with it.

Yeah, whatev... Collective bargaining rights are fundamental to OUR basic values - first amendment and all that. I'm not really sure anyone hear gives a rip whether the Dutch approve or not....

Speaking of lost causes.... Here's a guy who lied repeatedly about his stated agenda (fiscal responsibility!) versus his actual one (union busting)...and it's 'not news'? OK. You've actually lowered your credibility (although we haven't polled Billcoe on this yet), something I didn't really believe was possible.