tvashtarkatena

Let's just kill our way out of this.

How about an official statement condemning Islam? Of course, that might require a wee bit of Constitutional tweaking on our part. Tea Baggers, front and center!

Privatize Iran's nuclear industry?

Reduced Bahrainian tariffs?

Egyptian Flat Tax?

The Quiet American.

So, if you believe Islam is the root cause of much of the world's violence (and not extremist individuals with a political agenda who've use Islam as a legitimizing tool...just like our Kooky Christians), then what policy recommendations do have Jay for 'dealing with Islam'? I'd love to hear some concrete proposals...someday.

Jimmy Duranty? Who the fuck is this guy going on about? Anyone within that last, oh, 3 decades?

Just say NO to family planning.... 26% pregnancy rate in Memphis school Their answer: the "No Baby!" abstinence program LOL. The bible belt has the highest rates of teen pregnancy (and divorce) in the nation. It's the lack of prayer in schools I tell ya....

My question is this: Will bullet train stations still reek of piss?

Hey, Billcoe buys Jay's rhetorical stupid pet tricks, so that's one sycophant, anyway.

It's awesome to see those McMansion values fall through their own assholes, just so their guilded residents don't have to see any black people.

Found In The Attic Alert! We all want to be right on stuff, but the lengths to which JayB supports that habit is always entertaining. Jay seems like a younger version of L. Paul Bremer III in his certainty of Big Ideas founded on fringe theories, not much real world experience, and little more understanding of basic human nature.

I think the credit would have been a better idea (I prefer incentives to mandates in general), but the Rfucks probably screamed TAX HIKE on it.

That's in the ball park. Another consideration is this: providing affordable transportation for low income folks to get to work...you know, so they don't have to suck off the gubmint tit. You'll never hear a Righty mention this moral (and potentially expensive) aspect of the equation.

Interesting piece regarding mass transit in DC. Property values within walking distance of DC's excellent metro system have gone up 40 to 300%, while suburban properties around the city have actually gone down during the same period. Apparently, the Invisible Hand recognizes the value in speed, convenience, cost, and the positive effect on vibrant growth of mass transit.

The house is debating whether or not to defund Title X, the National Family Planning Program. To get abortions defunded, they're throwing the entire baby out with the bath water. This would leave family planning funding up the the States. Those in the Bible belt have a history of not exactly wanting to pony up for family planning, leaving millions of young women in a very dangerous health care situation. If you give a shit about this, this might be an excellent time, and I mean like right now, to write your congressfolk.

No, that's not correct. It's a penalty paid when you pay your taxes if you don't buy it. There is no tax and credit provision.

Yeah, mine was a simple statement of historical fact. Any 'patriarchy' read into it resides in the mind of the responder - who apparently seeks a debate where there is none to be had.

Congress could reform Obamacare from paying a penalty for non-compliance (which is minimal and has no schemes for enforcement, btw), to an incentive like a tax credit. The problem is that this would decrease overall tax revenues unless there was a corresponding tax increase to make up the difference - a politically difficult thing to do.

I do agree that the Baggers are fantastically out of touch with public opinion. Given that jobs and health care top the list of public concerns, deficit reduction, SS insolvency a couple of decades from now, getting rid of Obamacare, and fighting women and gay rights seem a bit...off the mark. This is what happens when ideologues do the old fiscal conservative > social conservative bait and switch. As I said, it's Gingrich 2.0...which was soundly rejected last time during phat times. It seems to me that it has an even smaller chance of succeeding this time.

I might agree with you if privatizing SS wasn't also on their agenda. Also, insurance companies will certainly NOT benefit if SOTU rules against the mandate - they've pretty much got the sweetest damn deal in the universe under Obamacare right now. I think the numerous legal challenges to the mandate in various states are probably more viral than centrally planned.

2 dead and more than 10,000 protesting in Bahrain. Next on the list? I was kind of hoping it would be Iran, but Bahrain's good. Meanwhile, Jordan's monarch claims that 'it can't happen here'. LOL

Nah. It's more like you've misinterpreted my limited initial opinion - you're arguing essentially with yourself, so I've given up on the discussion. Perhaps you and FW might continue it. And...what if historical analogies are always ridiculous, by definition. It didn't happen.

so far, there have been 4 rulings on the mandate: 2 against and 2 for. The primary argument against is that the Commerce Clause doesn't grant the gubmint the power to punish people for NOT purchasing a commercial product. The argument for relies on teh principle that the gubmint has long required citizens to pony up for programs like social security. Interestingly, privatizing social security, one of the Right's pet projects, would make that program substantially equivalent to the mandate: forced purchase of a commercial product. In addition, the Right's argument against the mandate could be nullified through, you guessed it, a gubmint administered single payer program. It seems, therefore, that the Right is stepping on its own dick regarding their support of privatized social security and opposition to a public option in their attempts to fight the mandate. Oh well, no one ever accused the Right of long term thinking or consideration of easily predictable consequences. Still, the jury...or SOTU in this case, is still out on the issue.