Sure is quiet...

[j_b]

I disagree with just about everything you said. Just to think you are supposed to be one of the good guys is simply frightening. Fortunately most Dems I know aren't like you.

[prole]

Got no idea what your on about there, my fetishes involve Catholic school girl uniforms, usually, but here's my view on the election:

 

The economy sucks: those in power get blamed. The other side could be a cage full of gerbils, and from an intellectual level, they practically are, but that's America for you...or any electorate, probably.

 

The rfucks won a bunch of seats in a fair fight. They outspent the Dems in independent attack ads, well, the Dems could have outspent them, too. Citizens United favored neither side. The Dems splintered, progressives going their own way, as usual. The Rfucks got together, despite big rifts between the teabaggers and the fat old fucks.

 

You can whine all you want about Citizens United and a bunch of other shit that isn't going to change, or you can analyse what you can change, what the other side did better, and work that next time.

 

The likely outcome of all of this will be gridlock. The House Rfucks will undoubtedly try a bunch of really stupid shit and fail, entertaining us with the usual fucking of rentboys on the side and the like. I fucking hate the federal government for the most part, so I'm OK with that.

 

Did you write this with your ass? It's totally incoherent. It looks like your politics has become as devoid of actual content as your "opposition's".

Edited November 3, 2010 by prole

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Got no idea what your on about there, my fetishes involve Catholic school girl uniforms, usually, but here's my view on the election:

 

The economy sucks: those in power get blamed. The other side could be a cage full of gerbils, and from an intellectual level, they practically are, but that's America for you...or any electorate, probably.

 

The rfucks won a bunch of seats in a fair fight. They outspent the Dems in independent attack ads, well, the Dems could have outspent them, too. Citizens United favored neither side. The Dems splintered, progressives going their own way, as usual. The Rfucks got together, despite big rifts between the teabaggers and the fat old fucks.

 

You can whine all you want about Citizens United and a bunch of other shit that isn't going to change, or you can analyse what you can change, what the other side did better, and work that next time.

 

The likely outcome of all of this will be gridlock. The House Rfucks will undoubtedly try a bunch of really stupid shit and fail, entertaining us with the usual fucking of rentboys on the side and the like. I fucking hate the federal government for the most part, so I'm OK with that.

 

Did you write this with your ass? It's totally incoherent.

 

It doesn't get any better than this! I've got my popcorn and am enjoying the show!

[j_b]

Good idea to hang around. You're next!

[j_b]

This may be the wrong thread, but at risk for tresspass upon the distinguished decorum of the forum, let me ask if anybody caught Obama's post-election concession speech today. What did he say? (There's no TV where I'm at, and the radio seemed to be picking up the strangest interference -- all I heard was a lot of muffled slurping sounds.)

 

I didn't hear him but what I got from reading a blurb: more civility, more bi-partisanship, and the part I thought stunk more than the rest was the bit about how people were understandably concerned by government over-reaching into their lives because of the bail outs. Not a mention of how people could have instead been miffed by the disparate treatments given to wall street and main street (i.e. not enough reaching by government in to the problems of main street)

[ScottP]

The dude in the upper left's got some evil intent on the woman in front of him.

[ivan]

It doesn't get any better than this! I've got my popcorn and am enjoying the show!

basic cable too rich for your blood?

 

all this shit is getting fixed when chuck norris announces his 2012 bid!

[Hugh Conway]

basic cable too rich for your blood?

 

He'd be able to afford cable with a tax cut!

[glassgowkiss]

It's simple, really. Deregulate everything. Slash taxes. Spend more. It's a winning formula!

 

Spend more? After B-HO's and D-controlled congress's two-year, multi-trillion dollar spending splurge, you've got a lot of nerve on that one!

so where are WMD's?

[prole]

Spend more? After B-HO's and D-controlled congress's two-year, multi-trillion dollar spending splurge, you've got a lot of nerve on that one!

 

Wiping "free market" capitalism's ass sure is expensive isn't it?

 

How Obama Saved Capitalism and Lost the Midterms

 

If I were one of the big corporate donors who bankrolled the Republican tide that carried into office more than 50 new Republicans in the House, I would be wary of what you just bought.

 

For no matter your view of President Obama, he effectively saved capitalism. And for that, he paid a terrible political price.

 

Suppose you had $100,000 to invest on the day Barack Obama was inaugurated. Why bet on a liberal Democrat? Here’s why: the presidency of George W. Bush produced the worst stock market decline of any president in history. The net worth of American households collapsed as Bush slipped away. And if you needed a loan to buy a house or stay in business, private sector borrowing was dead when he handed over power.

 

As of election day, Nov. 2, 2010, your $100,000 was worth about $177,000 if invested strictly in the NASDAQ average for the entirety of the Obama administration, and $148,000 if bet on the Standard & Poors 500 major companies. This works out to returns of 77 percent and 48 percent.

 

But markets, though forward-looking, are not considered accurate measurements of the economy, and the Great Recession skewed the Bush numbers. O.K. How about looking at the big financial institutions that keep the motors of capitalism running — banks and auto companies?

 

The banking system was resuscitated by $700 billion in bailouts started by Bush (a fact unknown by a majority of Americans), and finished by Obama, with help from the Federal Reserve. It worked. The government is expected to break even on a risky bet to stabilize the global free market system. Had Obama followed the populist instincts of many in his party, the underpinnings of big capitalism could have collapsed. He did this without nationalizing banks, as other Democrats had urged.

 

Saving the American auto industry, which has been a huge drag on Obama’s political capital, is a monumental achievement that few appreciate, unless you live in Michigan. After getting their taxpayer lifeline from Obama, both General Motors and Chrysler are now making money by making cars. New plants are even scheduled to open. More than 1 million jobs would have disappeared had the domestic auto sector been liquidated.

 

“An apology is due Barack Obama,” wrote The Economist, which had opposed the $86 billion auto bailout. As for Government Motors: after emerging from bankruptcy, it will go public with a new stock offering in just a few weeks, and the United States government, with its 60 percent share of common stock, stands to make a profit. Yes, an industry was saved, and the government will probably make money on the deal — one of Obama’s signature economic successes.

 

Interest rates are at record lows. Corporate profits are lighting up boardrooms; it is one of the best years for earnings in a decade.

 

All of the above is good for capitalism, and should end any serious-minded discussion about Obama the socialist. But more than anything, the fact that the president took on the structural flaws of a broken free enterprise system instead of focusing on things that the average voter could understand explains why his party was routed on Tuesday. Obama got on the wrong side of voter anxiety in a decade of diminished fortunes.

 

“We have done things that people don’t even know about,” Obama told Jon Stewart. Certainly. The three signature accomplishments of his first two years — a health care law that will make life easier for millions of people, financial reform that attempts to level the playing field with Wall Street, and the $814 billion stimulus package — have all been recast as big government blunders, rejected by the emerging majority.

 

But each of them, in its way, should strengthen the system. The health law will hold costs down, while giving millions the chance at getting care, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Financial reform seeks to prevent the kind of meltdown that caused the global economic collapse. And the stimulus, though it drastically raised the deficit, saved about 3 million jobs, again according to the CBO. It also gave a majority of taxpayers a one-time cut — even if 90 percent of Americans don’t know that, either.

 

Of course, nobody gets credit for preventing a plane crash. “It could have been much worse!” is not a rallying cry. And, more telling, despite a meager uptick in job growth this year, the unemployment rate rose from 7.6 percent in the month Obama took office to 9.6 today.

 

Billions of profits, windfalls in the stock market, a stable banking system — but no jobs.

 

Of course, the big money interests who benefited from Obama’s initiatives have shown no appreciation. Obama, as a senator, voted against the initial bailout of AIG, the reckless insurance giant. As president, he extended them treasury loans at a time when economists said he must — or risk further meltdown. Their response was to give themselves $165 million in executive bonuses, and funnel money to Republicans this year.

 

Money flows one way, to power, now held by the party that promises tax cuts and deregulation — which should please big business even more.

 

President Franklin Roosevelt also saved capitalism, in part by a bank “holiday” in 1933, at a time when the free enterprise system had failed. Unlike Obama, he was rewarded with midterm gains for his own party because a majority liked where he was taking the country. The bank holiday was incidental to a larger public works campaign.

 

Obama can recast himself as the consumer’s best friend, and welcome the animus of Wall Street. He should hector the companies sitting on piles of cash but not hiring new workers. For those who do hire, and create new jobs, he can offer tax incentives. He should finger the financial giants for refusing to clean up their own mess in the foreclosure crisis. He should point to the long overdue protections for credit card holders that came with reform.

 

And he should veto, veto, veto any bill that attempts to roll back some of the basic protections for people against the institutions that have so much control over their lives – insurance companies, Wall Street and big oil.

 

They will whine a fierce storm, the manipulators of great wealth. A war on business, they will claim. Not even close. Obama saved them, and the biggest cost was to him.

from here.

[Off_White]

[tvashtarkatena]

Yup. Like I said, Republicans hate blacks, and blacks hate 'em back.

[Nitrox]

Yup. Like I said, Republicans hate blacks, and blacks hate 'em back.

 

Guess you didn't notice how many minorities were elected this week. Not surprised.

 

 

 

 

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Yup. Like I said, Republicans hate blacks, and blacks hate 'em back.

 

You're such a fucking idiot

[Nitrox]

Yup. Like I said, Republicans hate blacks, and blacks hate 'em back.

 

You're such a fucking idiot

 

He gets all the pussy though.

 

 

[mattp]

I hadn't thought about it that way, Tvash, but I think you're right: in a sense it was a fair fight. The impacts of Citizens United probably favor the Republicans over the Democrats at least a little bit, but that issue aside I think the main reason the Democrats did poorly is that they are completely inept at delivering a coherent message. For example: it is the Democrats' unwillingness or inability to simply point to the last three decades' example that allows Republicans and Tea Partiers to say that the Republicans are more fiscally responsible than the Democrats at this point, and apparently even well meaning and least somewhat informed citizens like KK accept such nonsense (I say somewhat informed because, although he may well watch a lot of "fair and balanced" FOX TV, KK at least gets the strait scoop here on cc.com).

[prole]

I hadn't thought about it that way, Tvash, but I think you're right: in a sense it was a fair fight. The impacts of Citizens United...

 

Again, for whom is the playing field level?

[Nitrox]

I hadn't thought about it that way, Tvash, but I think you're right: in a sense it was a fair fight. The impacts of Citizens United probably favor the Republicans over the Democrats at least a little bit, but that issue aside I think the main reason the Democrats did poorly is that they are completely inept at delivering a coherent message. For example: it is the Democrats' unwillingness or inability to simply point to the last three decades' example that allows Republicans and Tea Partiers to say that the Republicans are more fiscally responsible than the Democrats at this point, and apparently even well meaning and least somewhat informed citizens like KK accept such nonsense (I say somewhat informed because, although he may well watch a lot of "fair and balanced" FOX TV, KK at least gets the strait scoop here on cc.com).

 

Democrats need to do a better job blaming Republicans.

 

 

[Off_White]

No.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nitrox]

No.

 

 

 

 

 

Surely you can't be saying that Democrats should do the job they were hired to do? Hmmm, I wonder if thats why they got their asses handed to them on Tuesday? Nah, can't be, its still Bush's fault.

 

 

[Off_White]

No.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

apparently even well meaning and least somewhat informed citizens like KK accept such nonsense (I say somewhat informed because, although he may well watch a lot of "fair and balanced" FOX TV, KK at least gets the strait scoop here on cc.com).

 

Listen, idiot, you don't know me or what I watch, so don't pretend you do.

 

 

[olyclimber]

yum, bile for breakfast!

[prole]

Listen, idiot, you don't know me or what I watch, so don't pretend you do.

 

All we know is what you say around here.

[ivan]

No.

sounds like off's turned INTO a republican!!!