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“ACORN’s Senator”

Nothing we haven’t heard before, really, but at least people are starting to gather it all into one place and attach it to a thesis of sorts. From Investor’s Business Daily:

Barack Obama wasn’t just the second-largest recipient of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac political contributions. He was also the senator from ACORN, the activist leader for risky “affirmative action” loans.

Despite efforts to blame the rescue bill’s failure on the GOP, it should be remembered that 95 Democrats — some 40% of the Democratic Caucus — withheld support. Obama himself also deserves blame — not only for the bill’s failure, but also for the crisis it was designed to solve.

As the New York Times reports, “Aides to Mr. Obama said he had not directly reached out to try to sway any House Democrats who opposed the measure.” Is the reason the fact that the slush fund for ACORN in the original bill, siphoning off 20% of any future profits for such activist groups, was trimmed from the tree?

Obama, who once represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois, was hired by the group to train its community organizers and staff in the methods and tactics of the late Saul Alinsky. ACORN would stage in-your-face protests in bank lobbies, drive-through lanes and even at bank managers’ homes to get them to issue risky loans in the inner city or face charges of racism.

In the early 1990s, reports Stanley Kurtz, senior fellow at the Ethics and Policy Center, Obama was personally recruited by Chicago’s ACORN to run training sessions in “direct action.” That’s the euphemism for the techniques used under the cover of the federal Community Reinvestment Act to intimidate financial institutions into giving what have been called “Ninja” loans — no income, no job, no assets — to people who couldn’t afford them.

CRA was designed to increase minority homeownership. Whenever a bank wanted to grow or expand, ACORN would file complaints that it was not sufficiently sensitive to the needs of minorities in providing home loans. Agitators would then be unleashed.

Chicago’s ACORN used Alinsky’s tactics against institutions such as Bell Federal Savings and Loan and Avondale Federal Savings. In September 1992, the Chicago Tribune described the group’s agenda as “affirmative action lending.”

Obama also helped ACORN get funding. When he served on the board of the Woods Fund for Chicago with Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, the Woods Fund frequently gave ACORN grants to fund its activist agenda.

[…]

The CRA empowered regulators to punish banks that failed to “meet the credit needs” of “low-income, minority and distressed neighborhoods.” It gave groups such as ACORN a license and a means to intimidate banks, claiming they were “redlining” poor and minority neighborhoods. ACORN employed its tactics in 1991 by taking over the House Banking Committee room for two days to protest efforts to scale back the CRA.

As a former White House staff economist writes in the American Thinker, Obama represented ACORN in a 1994 suit against redlining. ACORN was also a driving force behind a 1995 regulatory revision pushed through by the Clinton administration that greatly expanded the CRA and helped spawn the current financial crisis.

Obama was the attorney representing ACORN in this effort. Last November, he told the group, “I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career.” Indeed he has. Obama was and is fully aware of what ACORN was doing with the money and expertise he provided. The voters should be aware on Nov. 4 of the roles of both in creating the current crisis.

As Michelle Obama reminds us, Barack Obama is a community organizer first and a politician second. And you don’t just shed decades worth of lessons in political radicalism — be it from communist party poets, the gospel of Black Liberation Theology, Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, or Ayers’ finessing of Democratic machine politics in the service of radicalism and graft — simply because your advisers tell you to pretend you’ll govern “from the center.”

Which is why the recent Obama charge to campaign volunteers and supporters to get out there and “get in people’s faces” was delivered without a trace of irony or fear: Obama has been mau-mauing the flak catchers for years, and he never feels more comfortable than when he’s allowed to return to form. Only now, he’s taken his pimp operation national, and anyone who isn’t down with the “progressive agenda” — the audacity of Hope! — is fair game for intimidation and other forms of bullying.

Can you smell the change yet, people?

Why yes. YES YOU CAN!

228 Replies to ““ACORN’s Senator””

  1. Patrick says:

    What do you have against acorns? Chip and Dale used them to get through the winter. And Piglet used to collect them – well, actually those were haycorns.

    CHIPMONKOPHOBIC!!!

  2. nawoods says:

    Related. I was not really familiar with the Greenlighting Institute.

  3. nawoods says:

    Or rather Greenlining Institute…

  4. SteveG says:

    It seems people misunderstand what is meant by regulation.

    When the left chastises the Republicans for opposing regulation, we need to look into exactly what regulations they mean. In many cases Republicans opposed regulations that imposed Acorn and CRA’s on the banking system. In these cases we are not talking about regulations about banks core business and their viabilty and safety, we are talking about “regulations” that actually made banks less safe.
    When the average American sees the word “regulation he/she tends to assume oversight against abuses like bad loan practices, but the Democrats see regulation as a chance to impose and institutionalize abuse and put bad loan practices into law.

    I’m sure someone can articulate this better than I, but the American people need to be shown how the Democrats are turning the word “regulation” on its head

  5. happyfeet says:

    I think the regulation they usually mean is how leveraged banks can be. But that get all confuzzled with the mark to market nonsense cause that changes your leverageyness I think. Fast. None of this was my fault is all I know. I am a good person.

  6. Dan Collins says:

    The little acorn that grew into a mighty fucking catastrophe.

  7. Puck says:

    I’m doing my best to fight despair about this election, but it’s not going well. Most I can bring myself to hope for is that 2010 will be another 1994, which will keep President Obama’s ridiculousness to a minimum, and that Obama himself will be hounded out by 2012, with Jindal triumphant.

    Till then…at least I’ve got the Phillies.

  8. happyfeet says:

    oh. *that gets* I mean. ACORN sounds obnoxious. Haven’t heard much about Habitat for Humanity during all this housing slump thinger. I wonder what they’re up to?

  9. Rob Crawford says:

    It’s maddening that this is being blamed entirely on private institutions not being “regulated” by the government, when one of the lynchpins of the problem was government sponsored entities. And when you see that the folks whining about “deregulation” fought against applying the same level of regulation to those GSEs as are applied to private institutions, it just adds a bit of whipped cream and a cherry to the madness.

    There was undoubtedly greed, corruption, and dodgy practices involved. Sadly, the people who are claiming they’ll solve the problem are the ones who were greedy, corrupt, and dodgy. But they’ll walk away scot-free, because they’re in government.

  10. urthshu says:

    Every once in awhile I toy with the idea of applying to some moonbat place like ACORN with a ‘tarded up resume, listing jobs like stripminer, seal harvester, pro-life activist, Wall St. honcho, etc. with a cover letter saying I had a change of heart or something. Just for the interview, you know?

  11. B Moe says:

    I’m doing my best to fight despair about this election, but it’s not going well.

    I am starting to think we should be evaluating candidates based on who is the most incompetent, especially watching this fiasco going on now. I think electing bumbling idiots like Pelosi may be a good thing in the long run, think of the harm she could be doing right now if she had a clue.

  12. I think this crisis might have triggered earlier than they had in mind. I think they saw Obama slipping away and pulled the trigger to get things back under control.

  13. urthshu says:

    >>I’m doing my best to fight despair about this election, but it’s not going well.

    Just remember, Dems/Libs think europe is the example we should follow. And don’t follow polls too closely.

  14. Puck says:

    Well, crap. And now Lidge is melting down.

  15. I spoke with two friends today that I haven’t spoke with in some time. Both of them have never voted. Both of them have finally registered. Their goal is to defeat Obama.

  16. Puck says:

    Friend of mine, major lefty who works with messed up kids, admitted to me last night that the Obama cult terrifies her. “People are so weird about him, and as far as I’m concerned, he’s a psychopath,” she said. “They can say whatever they need to say, and be as charming as they have to be, but you never know what you are getting.”

    But, because Sarah Palin is Satan Incarnate, she’s going to vote socialist, or something.

    *shakes head*

  17. Pablo says:

    Well, welcome to October. Johnny Mac can’t not pull the curtain back on our little socialist. The only question is whether he, the RNC and the 527’s can get the message through to enough of the battleground electorate.

    I’m beginning to suspect that Karl Rove burst the housing bubble.

  18. TmjUtah says:

    There’s no money to be made in Habitat. Not easy, at least.

    You have to show houses at the end of the pipeline. Crappy, ill constructed houses here in Utah, but they’ve got four walls and a roof. And ripply vinyl siding.

    I am unclear on whether or not the occupants get paid for standing in their lawns shrieking at each other, but can’t think of another reason they spend so much time out there. My buddy’s neighborhood, thank goodness.

  19. N. O'Brain says:

    Till then…at least I’ve got the Phillies.

    3-1, baby,

    Hamels pitched a gem.

  20. You know alot of people have lost a lot of money these last few weeks. FAMILIES have been uprooted from their HOMES! I think some REPARATION and RESTITUTION is called for…..AND CALLED FOR NOW!

  21. Puck says:

    I know, N. O’Brain. But damn, Lidge got my knickers in a twist those last coupla outs.

  22. Jesus fucking Christ, can anyone be as dumb as this;
    “”We don’t have a lot of leeway on time,” Reid told reporters in the Capitol. “One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company — a major insurance company — one with a name that everyone knows that’s on the verge of going bankrupt. That’s what this is all about.”

    He did not identify the insurance company, and later in the day Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the senator was speaking broadly and not referring to anything specific.

    “Senator Reid is not personally aware of any particular company being on the verge of bankruptcy,” Manley wrote in an e-mail to ABCNews.com. “Rather, his comments were meant to refer to the conditions in the financial sector generally. He regrets any confusion his comments may have caused.” ”

    When is someone going to have this idiot arrested?

  23. ST says:

    Hells yeah, McCain needs to run with this. There are literally hundreds of swing voters for whom the very mention of ACORN has frightening connotations.

  24. MC says:

    ACORNIST!

  25. dre says:

    Reid is taking lessons from Chuck U Shumer on killing business?

  26. Watcherdownsouth says:

    Bang!

    (two clicks right, one click down)

    Bang!

    (one more click down)

    Bang! Bang! Bang!

    Yep…sub-MOA to 500 meters. Now, which way did those Socialists go? And do you know any good recipes?

  27. Bob Reed says:

    O!
    A combination of Elmer Gantry and the Manchurian candidate…With all the well dressed and practiced theatrics to grab the American Odol sound byte society.

    But let’s not forget, the last fella I remember that combined mau-mau with politics was…Adolph Hitler !

    Kinda puts that whole Sarah Silverman thing, where the Juden Jugen convince the old Joooooooos to vote for O!, into a whole new perspective…

    I’ve been saying that Axelrod is the new Goebbels for over a year now!

    And to those who call me a RAAAAAACIST for my observation, well, stick it! And, remember, Hitler appealed to racial as well as national identity; and just who has been playin’ the race cards so hot and heavy during this election that he looks like a yu-gi-oh Mas-tah!

  28. happyfeet says:

    It’s all part of his plan. Ramesh Ponnuru, he foretold the wisdom of this Harry Reid. All is well in the land. Be at peace.

  29. TmjUtah says:

    *sigh*

    MOA spec is not a variable. It’s a constant for an individual weapon. If you are going to attempt to get a rise, at least be competent.

    But I do have this killer elk chile recipe I think you’ll like…

  30. BiPartisanship..Why? says:

    “Can you smell the change yet, people?”

    I can tell you from 8 years of teeth-gnashing and torn garments, that it will be some time before the scales of Karmic Bush residue are balanced. Keep trying to make your case. Unfortunately, for you, the election will be over before this reaches sea-level.

    Obfuscation, unlawful Executive actions, and stone-walling will gradually wane until the truth emerges, but by then, we will have another Republican in the WH, and the same old shit will fly like an eagle. Next time around, perhaps you should avoid shamelessly
    enabling your choice as WH Occupant, then you MIGHT have a more sympathetic ear from your antagonists.

  31. MC says:

    You mean you’re Bi?

  32. George says:

    Chicago War Zone Information

    Body count. In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago , 221 killed in Iraq .

    Sens. Barack Obama & Dick Durbin, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Gov. Rod Blogojevich, House leader Mike Madigan, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, Mayor Richard Daley…our leadership in Illinois…all Democrats. Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago . Of course they’re all blaming each other. Can’t blame Republicans, there aren’t any!

    State pension fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country. Cook County ( Chicago ) sales tax 10.25% highest in country. (Look ’em up if you want). Chicago school system one of the worst in country. This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois . He’s gonna ‘fix’ Washington politics?

  33. Pablo says:

    How’s life in the gulag treating you, BiPart?

  34. urthshu says:

    Shorter BiPart: “I sleep fitfully, grinding my teeth and ripping up clothes b/c I’m schizoid, BUT next time don’t support your own President and I’ll probly sleep better. kthxbai”

  35. dre says:

    I hope O! places his reeducation camps in the southwest. I haven’t been there in years.

  36. ST says:

    Kinda puts that whole Sarah Silverman thing, where the Juden Jugen convince the old Joooooooos to vote for O!, into a whole new perspective…

    Strength through O!

    But seriously, Sarah Silverman is a hottie. The woman licked a dog’s butt on camera, FFS.

  37. Warren Bonesteel says:

    Ok. Rhetorically speaking, what’s the anti-thesis, here?

    Should we be writing more comments on conservative websites and blogs… or…you know… Actually get off of our asses and do something about it?

    ‘Cause, otherwise, all we’re gonna accomplish by waiting is to learn to admire and appreciate the razor-wire fencing of our new homes in the re-education camps, and telling one another, “I told ya so! I told ya so!”

  38. Rob Crawford says:

    From urthshu’s links:

    Tara Garnett, the report’s author, warned that campaigns encouraging people to change their habits voluntarily were doomed to fail…

    How long until someone with political power talks that way here?

  39. urthshu says:

    Well, I dunno Warren. What are you suggesting? Writing comments on Lefty blogs?

  40. B Moe says:

    …Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the senator was speaking broadly…

    No Jim, he was speaking dishonestly. He stated he knew of a specific company when he did not. That is a lie.

  41. urthshu says:

    Nah, I think Reid blabbed about something he shouldn’t have.

  42. urthshu says:

    Hey, maybe its Progressive insurance? They’re a big Dem donater.

  43. happyfeet says:

    New media is a lot important. Especially this one. It’s not really under the umbrella of conservative websites and blogs I don’t think. It’s special. But no one here is voting for McCain I don’t think hardly. It’s more of a not-Baracky sort of thing going on I think. He’s a creepy socialist and also he hates freedom.

  44. TmjUtah says:

    Whoops. Sub MOA at range X could well be a valid call if you were referencing the limits of performance for a specific weapon. I believe I was mistaken.

    And snarky.

    I apologize, watcherdownsouth, and will now pull my depressed horns in .

  45. steveaz says:

    Pablo,
    “I’m beginning to suspect that Karl Rove burst the housing bubble.”

    Me too, dude.

    Since “Bush’s Mess in Iraq” is off the table, and their “Culture of Corruption” backfired, The Dem’s wanted to run on “Bush’s Failed Economy.” You know, his “Squandered Surplus” and all that bull-pucky.

    So, Bush got out in front of their blameyness and, with trumpets blaring and Paulsen down on his knees, turned their knife back on them.

    He sure muddied the waters for ’em a bit, didn’t he. And, in the process, he played our watchdog media for the snappy poodles they are, too.

    PS: You’ll get no more 12-paragraph comments outta me, Jeff. Tough times call for austerity.
    Cheers!

  46. dre says:

    I’ll proudly will vote for grandpa and his Moose Hunter™. Baracky is everything I dislike about “Affirmative Action”.

  47. >>>>>>I apologize, watcherdownsouth<<<<<<<<

    Good call, you don’t want a guy that can shoot that good pissed off at you.

  48. ThomasD says:

    Way off topic, but

    MOA spec is not a variable. It’s a constant for an individual weapon.

    In theory it is a constant for a given weapon and specified load. In practice there are often observed practical limits to MOA. Heck I have a .30-06 that groups better at 200 and 300 right at MOA) than it does at 100 (about 1.25 MOA) and yes, I’ve repeated the results with multiple 5 shots groups on multiple occasions.

    There is a very valid reason for these observed results. The technical term is precession. This term refers to a physical process where with rare exceptions (e.g. the bullet is overstabilized before leaving the barrel), a bullet flies in a helical flight path, with the size of the helix diminishing as the bullet reaches it’s most stable flight path (often described in lay terms as ‘when the bullet goes to sleep.’) Beyond that range the bullet’s path will then open up when the rate of spin slows to the point where the bullet begins to lose stability.

    Then there’s the issue of when a bullet slows to the point of going subsonic…

    I have a ton of on-dead-tree stuff that could really explain this, but here’s one link that I managed to find.

    http://yarchive.net/gun/ammo/bullet_helical_path.html

  49. alppuccino says:

    He’s a creepy socialist and also he hates freedom.

    And Ferris wheels. Don’t forget, he hates Ferris wheels.

  50. TmjUtah says:

    What ThomasD said. I agree.

    I have been a “minute of Nazi” shooter for so long that I forget that to employ expertise one must practice what one preaches. I learned and did that “aiming point: teeth” thing so long ago that the rifles used then are now either Korean subcompact cars or in museums. I catch enough refresher in my the course of reading my Rifleman and the odd periodical that comes across my desk that I imagine myself current… but I’m not.

    I just like to hit what I aim at. And if that means tuning a ninety buck Soviet Army vet so I can ding milk jugs at six hundred, I’m happy with that. I have to be, because there’s no money in the budget to fix the Garand and go back to hitting them at a grand.

    I’ll shut up now.

  51. Astounding Hubris says:

    “Since “Bush’s Mess in Iraq” is off the table,”

    You’d like to think so, but Petraeus says ‘No Victory’ only stalemate. So much for the ‘Surge”. You PonyTails, along with the Presidunce, have done more harm to the economy than 2-3 Financial Meltdowns. Go fish…………….

  52. urthshu says:

    Insty has a post up about how to get back at the media for backing Baracky, and one guy wrote that they should cancel Newsweek subs. I don’t know anybody who subs Newsweek, though.

    So, maybe, take those subscription cards with the PAID postage on them and stick ’em on a big box with a tractor tire in it. Make ’em pay, I say.

  53. dre says:

    “You PonyTails, along with the Presidunce, have done more harm to the economy than 2-3 Financial Meltdowns. ”

    Barney Frank D-Gaydom, Christopher Dodd D-Dumbdom, Bill Clinton D-Dickland, Maxine Waters D-Blackdom, Franklin Raines D-Blackdom, Jimmy Carter D-Dumbdom all these frauds were involved with ACORN to swindle the American people you fool.

  54. lee says:

    Should we be writing more comments on conservative websites and blogs… or…you know… Actually get off of our asses and do something about it?

    Shhhhh, we’re getting our stories straight.

    Do that, and when you are not here, do what your conscience tells you.

  55. TmjUtah says:

    Hey there, Astounding –

    You may not have noticed, but the congressional Democrats have been in a solid reactive mode for about the last … eight? days.

    They are the majority. That must be why the critical elements of the first run up to the House bail out bill was based on a schedule of requirements published by the Administration; subsequently Nasty Nan decided to scuttle the bill because she deemed the possible short term political points scored against Bush were worth more than the routinely added layers of pork and Leftist support earmarks…

    If she was smart, she would have kept the bailout bare bones and something that would stand on its own. But she’s not. And she’s so energized by a sense of emergency that she’s allowed a full news cycle for the cynical tales of ass covering and apathy on the side of the Democrats to percolate dangerously close to headline levels.

    Reactive is a terrible attitude on a battlefield. She was probably wracking her brain (cell) looking for a political weapon when Paulson sent over the bail out working paper. A HA! she cackled…be that way, and eventually the battlefield will find its way forward without you.

    I’m not happy about the current state of events. I have two certainties: I can’t see more than half the battlefield, and Nancy Pelosi is dumber than a bag of hammers.

    And now the Senate porkfest bail out is headed back to the house.

    There have been worse starts to a war. Much worse odds.

  56. Jeff G. says:

    Choose a name and stick with it, Semanticleo. That’s about 6-8 new names in the last week or so.

    If people don’t want to read your shit, and they use whatever applet it is they’re using to ignore you, that’s their call. But I don’t want all these new identities posting here.

  57. RTO Trainer says:

    but Petraeus says ‘No Victory’ only stalemate.

    You’d like to think so, but that’s not what he says.

  58. Sean M. says:

    You’d like to think so, but Petraeus says ‘No Victory’ only stalemate.

    Got a link to back that up, Sparky?

  59. thor says:

    What was that name Spies was using last week? Oh yes, Whore! I think he should be made to stick with that one.

  60. B Moe says:

    Did you miss comment 32, cementhead?

    Chicago War Zone Information

    Body count. In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago , 221 killed in Iraq .

    Give all those socks back to Greenwald and fuck off. Your shit ain’t even laughable anymore.

  61. B Moe says:

    I think he should be made to stick with that one.

    I think you should go start your own fucking blog.

  62. Jeffersonian says:

    I don’t know anybody who subs Newsweek, though.

    I hadn’t read Newsweek in years when I picked one up at my son’s orthodontist a few months back. I hadn’t missed a thing…it’s like People without pics of hot chicks in it.

  63. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by B Moe on 10/1 @ 8:03 pm #

    I think he should be made to stick with that one.

    I think you should go start your own fucking blog.”

    He’s not smart enough.

    He just shows up here and shits on Jeff’s rug.

  64. thor says:

    I think you should think twice before buying bunk beds!

  65. ST says:

    Google – Petraeus victory Iraq.

    Top hit – “BBC NEWS | Middle East | No victory in Iraq, says Petraeus”

  66. Semanticleo says:

    “That’s about 6-8 new names in the last week or so.”

    More like 20, because I enjoy making up new names that sync
    with the post. I really do enjoy TrollHammer, ’cause it keeps the unsavory types in check. If it’s a problem for you, I guess I can accommodate.

  67. N. O'Brain says:

    “In a BBC interview, Gen Petraeus said that recent security gains were “not irreversible” and that the US still faced a “long struggle”. ”

    And?

  68. Great Mencken's Ghost! says:

    “As the New York Times reports, “Aides to Mr. Obama said he had not directly reached out to try to sway any House Democrats who opposed the measure.”

    So now we know. When the phone rings at 3 a.m… Barack Obama will wait for someone else to answer it.

  69. ST says:

    And?

    Res ipsa loquitur

  70. lee says:

    Yeah ST, AQ is still conducting operations in Iraq(unlike, say, here in the USA), plus it’s a good reason to keep a military presence close to Iran, and we shouldn’t leave yet.

    What’s your point?

  71. ST says:

    You guys are the ones with the “victory” fetish.

    You tell me.

  72. Semanticleo says:

    absolutum dominium

  73. RTO Trainer says:

    You should actually read the article rather than accept a deliberately crafted headline.

    He said he did not know that he would ever use the word “victory”: “This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade… it’s not war with a simple slogan.”

  74. Jeffersonian says:

    Can we trade this troll in on a smart one?

  75. Semanticleo says:

    Git yer TrollHammers here!

    I absolutely love the freedom it affords from the members of Trollop Nation. Having a forum wherein there is no counterpoint is exactly the sort of coffee klatch I buy donuts for.

  76. McGehee says:

    Can we trade this troll in on a smart one?

    I think the only way we’re ever gonna get a smart one is by making one up. Hey JD — I mean, PBUH — where you at? Entertain us!

  77. Semanticleo says:

    “he did not know that he would ever use the word “victory””

    That from an advocate…..telling isn’t it????

    (there’s yer sign):

  78. ST says:

    Golly RTO. I must have been hearing things when I heard the McCain campaign make noises about Obama needing to say “I agree” about “our victory” in Iraq.

    YMMV.

  79. Semanticleo says:

    He said that “trends in Afghanistan have not gone in the right direction… and that has to be addressed”.

    Afghanistan remained a “hugely important endeavour”,

    Apparently, you folks are unaware that Bush’s 70% disapprovals are largely due to the wrongheaded diversion of troops and treasure to Iraq, rather than the true focus of the WOT, Afghanistan.

    Petraeus knows it, now Bush knows it; why don’t you?

  80. B Moe says:

    Who is winning in Iraq and by what metric, ST?

  81. urthshu says:

    >>Apparently, you folks are unaware that Bush’s 70% disapprovals are largely due to the wrongheaded diversion of troops and treasure to Iraq, rather than the true focus of the WOT, Afghanistan.

    Bwahahahaha
    Sure it is.

  82. Semanticleo says:

    “Who is winning in Iraq and by what metric, ST?”

    Tic Tac Toe; stalemate. Even Chess has stalemates.

    No standing army has ever defeated an insurgency…..

    http://www.militarypress.co.uk/insurgency_and_counter_insurgeny_warfare/index.htm

  83. RTO Trainer says:

    “Apparently, you folks are unaware that Bush’s 70% disapprovals are largely due to the wrongheaded diversion of troops and treasure to Iraq, rather than the true focus of the WOT, Afghanistan.”

    And that’s okay because those of us that actually know something about it understand the decisions that have been made and why and in context and without the political garbage you’d like to load it up with.

    If that makes it “unpopular,” so be it. It’s strategically correct and right for both the US and Iraq.

    I’ll admit that the administration has done a poor job of communicating it, but in many ways it doesn’t matter. Folks like you will still misunderstand (deliberately and otherwise), be obtuse about the reasons, take it out of context and load it up with politics. No more proof of that required than the number of photons killed here explaining it to actus, dave, cleo and the lefty parade.

  84. B Moe says:

    No standing army has ever defeated an insurgency…..

    God you are an idiot.

  85. lee says:

    Golly RTO. I must have been hearing things when I heard the McCain campaign make noises about Obama needing to say “I agree” about “our victory” in Iraq.

    ST, I think you are changing “success of the surge” to “victory in Iraq”

    Someone alreadt asked, but, got a link?

  86. B Moe says:

    When is the last time an Indian uprising threatened your hometown, you fucking moron?

  87. dre says:

    “No standing army has ever defeated an insurgency…..”

    So Islam is THE problem?

  88. ST says:

    Who is winning in Iraq and by what metric, ST?

    Nobody is winning. It’s not a football game.

    It’s stable for now and the paid-off Sunnis in Anbar are being released from their contracts. They’re a little paranoid right now.

    Only a fraction of them will get real jobs with the official security forces. The rest of them will probably go freelance.

    They get almost no mention, but they are the ones that made the “surge” actually work.

  89. RTO Trainer says:

    No standing army has ever defeated an insurgency…..

    Not even remotely true.

    Just in the 20th Century (and not exhaustive):

    Second Anglo-Boer War (United Kingdom [U.K.] vs. Boer separatists, 1899-1902).
    Philippine Insurrection (United States [U.S.] vs. Filipino nationalists, 1899-1902 [1916]).
    Greek Civil War (U.K., then U.S. and Government of Greece [GoG], vs. National Liberation Army [ELAS], 1944-1949).
    Hukbalahap Rebellion (Philippine Islands [P.I.] vs. Hukbalahap, 1946-1954).
    Malayan Emergency (U.K. vs. Malayan Communist Party [MPC]/Malayan Races Liberation Army [MRLA], 1948-1960).
    Kenyan Emergency (U.K. vs. Mau Mau, 1952-1956).
    France (France vs. Secret Army Organization [OAS], 1958-1962).
    Venezuela (Venezuela vs. urban-based Armed Forces for National Liberation [FALN], 1958-1963).
    Uruguay (Uruguay vs. Tupamaros, 1963-1972).
    Weather Underground (WU) (U.S. vs. Students for a Democratic Society [SDS]/WU, Black Panthers, Symbionese Liberation Army [SLA] et al., 1968-1980).
    Oman (U.K. and Oman vs. Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arab Gulf [PFLOAG],
    Germany (Germany vs. Baader-Meinhof/Red Army Faction [RAF], 1970-1992).
    Western Sahara (Morocco vs. Western Sahara Freedom Movement [POLISARIO], 1975-1991).
    Senderista Insurgency (Peru vs. Sendero Luminoso, 1980-1995; vs. Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement [MRTA], 1996-1997).

  90. Semanticleo says:

    “It’s strategically correct and right for both the US and Iraq.”

    Ah there’s the rub……………….

    If by ‘strategic’ you mean we needed a permanent base so permission to fly over reticent ‘allies’ in the context of the GWOT, then just come out and say it and can the bullshit about Iraq being the hornet’s nest needing a cleansing, getting rid of a cruel dictator,
    creating a nascent democracy, et al.

    But getting Bush to tell the truth, well………………..maybe you should read ‘The War Within’, Woodward’s latest in the saga of
    The idiot Bastard Son.

  91. thor says:

    Comment by Semanticleo on 10/1 @ 8:25 pm #

    Git yer TrollHammers here!

    I absolutely love the freedom it affords from the members of Trollop Nation. Having a forum wherein there is no counterpoint is exactly the sort of coffee klatch I buy donuts for.

    I’ve installed Duuuuuuh Blocker 2.0 and Trollwhopper 2.5. and Claw Hammer CS3 and a Virtual Maggot registry cleaner. Semanticleo and cynn is all I ever see anymore on PW, well, besides Jeff and Dan.

  92. RTO Trainer says:

    They get almost no mention, but they are the ones that made the “surge” actually work.

    If you mean no mention as the “dead enders” you view them as, sure. Otherwise you’re simply not paying attention to the right sources.

  93. psycho... says:

    [CRA] gave groups such as ACORN a license and a means to intimidate banks

    O RLY? That happened? Hm. Because…

    Well, here’s one random PR quote out of thousands such:

    ACORN Housing Corporation launches non-profit mortgage brokerage with CitiMortgage, Bank of America, First American Title Insurance Company, and Fannie Mae to help low- and moderate-income families …

    I guess you can believe that the extensive and longstanding symbiosis of mortgage bankers — the ones on the ACORN Housing board, for example — and their supposed intimidators is the result of a shakedown, if you like.

    And you’re not into all that crazy cui bono shit.

    Or, like, knowing stuff.

    I mean, it’s not like funding and lobbying for ACORN and buying off Senators got the banks anything.

    Or $700,000,000,000 anythings.

    Today.

    From some Senators.

    The ones they bought.

  94. lee says:

    Nobody is winning. It’s not a football game.

    It’s stable for now

    Yup, and the longer it’s stable the greater the success. You think AQ wants Iraq stable?

    That, and no AQ success in the US, yeah , I’d say we’re winning…

  95. RTO Trainer says:

    If by ’strategic’ you mean we needed a permanent base so permission to fly over reticent ‘allies’….blah blah

    Nope. But you keep injecting political garbage into it. That makes it easy to spot you as an unserious commenter.

    You’ve been told teh truth over and over again. No need to try anymore.

  96. meya says:

    before it was all “haha community organizers.” ain’t no laughing now that the joke’s on you.

  97. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by Semanticleo on 10/1 @ 8:26 pm #

    “he did not know that he would ever use the word “victory””

    That from an advocate…..telling isn’t it????

    (there’s yer sign):”

    Do you speak English?

  98. RTO Trainer says:

    No. Community Organizers are still pretty funny when they try to act like they’re serious.

  99. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by Semanticleo on 10/1 @ 8:31 pm #

    He said that “trends in Afghanistan have not gone in the right direction… and that has to be addressed”.

    Afghanistan remained a “hugely important endeavour”,

    Apparently, you folks are unaware that Bush’s 70% disapprovals are largely due to the wrongheaded diversion of troops and treasure to Iraq, rather than the true focus of the WOT, Afghanistan.”

    We’ve defeated AQI.

    Next up: A-Stan.

    It’s called “grand strategy”, you fucking idiot.

  100. N. O'Brain says:

    “No standing army has ever defeated an insurgency…..”

    Case proved.

  101. dre says:

    “But getting Bush to tell the truth, well………………..maybe you should read ‘The War Within’, Woodward’s latest in the saga of
    The idiot Bastard Son.”

    Yea like SanFranNan, Harry Reid and O! are like INTELLECTUALS !

  102. ST says:

    If you mean no mention as the “dead enders” you view them as, sure. Otherwise you’re simply not paying attention to the right sources.

    If by that you mean I get my news outside of the FOX/Rush/Hannity winning formula, I plead guilty.

    Good luck trying to translate your insular notions at the ballot box.

  103. N. O'Brain says:

    Comment by RTO Trainer on 10/1 @ 8:45 pm #

    Case proven, again.

    Thanks RTO.

  104. RTO Trainer says:

    Make your case for leaving Tora Bora for Baghdad.

    A prime example: You have no grasp of history–not even within the decade, let alone the depth of it (illustrated amply by you ignoring the list of successful counter insurgencies).

    Levaing Tora Bora for Baghdad only happend in the leftist fantasy-based-yet-well-organized-community. As such there’s no case to be made.

  105. thor -Trollhammer hammerer says:

    Comment by RTO Trainer on 10/1 @ 8:45 pm #

    No standing army has ever defeated an insurgency…..

    Not even remotely true.

    Just in the 20th Century (and not exhaustive):

    Weather Underground (WU) (U.S. vs. Students for a Democratic Society [SDS]/WU, Black Panthers, Symbionese Liberation Army [SLA] et al., 1968-1980).

    That line somehow wormed through my Duuuuh Blocker 2.0 firewall.

    Hopefully a Flaming Winger Shadow Boxer plug-in will soon be available that’ll reply with combative automated posts of like kind wingered nonsense.

  106. lee says:

    If by that you mean I get my news outside of the FOX/Rush/Hannity winning formula, I plead guilty.

    Well…OK then. Just be sure first you have the proper concept of “news”.

  107. N. O'Brain says:

    “If by that you mean I get my news outside of the FOX/Rush/Hannity winning formula, I plead guilty.”

    So you believe the MSM.

    And seman believes Woodward.

    What a lunatic collection of fucktard trolls you’ve collected, Jeff.

    Tolkein would be proud.

  108. dre says:

    “Comment by thor -Trollhammer hammerer on 10/1 @ 8:58 pm #”

    Is the O! on the far left of the Demorat spectrum?

  109. N. O'Brain says:

    Cleanup in aisle 106!

    thor took another dump!

    Cleanup in aisle 106!

  110. thor says:

    Repeating a line Bob Marley famed, “is this Love that I’m feeling?”

  111. thor says:


    Comment by dre on 10/1 @ 9:01 pm #

    Is the O! on the far left of the Demorat spectrum?

    No.

    And.

    O! is the 1!

  112. thor says:

    Let ’em Eat Me as often as they like.

  113. lee says:

    how many troops are in Afghanistan TODAY!!!!!!!

    How many in Iraq?

    How many in Europe TODAY!!!!(?)

    How many in South Korea?

  114. RTO Trainer says:

    No case to be made to you, Cleo. You won’t get it, or won’t admit it if you do.

    Case illustrated by you now changing your argument from “left one for the other” to “one’s bigger than the other.”

    One committment has always been larger than the other. The smaller one, however has never declined, only grown. The same cannot be said for the other.

  115. susan says:

    psycho,
    The CRA forced the banks to associate with folks like ACORN. To fulfill their requirements under the law they had to have an outreach into certain communities. You have it exactly backwards. They protested and made PR nightmares for all of the large mortgage companies, calling them racist for doing horrible things like using credit scores.
    And can you show me where BofA or Citi paid off any Senators?

  116. thor says:

    Back on topic, I support some of the efforts of ACORN.

  117. RTO Trainer says:

    “You won’t get it, or won’t admit it if you do.” == “I’m sure you’re sincere………about what, I have no idea….”

    Game. Set. Match.

  118. lee says:

    Comment by RTO Trainer on 10/1 @ 9:11 pm #

    No case to be made to you, Cleo. You won’t get it, or won’t admit it if you do.

    Comment by Semanticleo on 10/1 @ 9:14 pm #

    “One committment has always been larger than the other”

    I’m sure you’re sincere………about what, I have no idea….

    Ooooo, you’re good RTO.

    Is telepathy part of signals? ;)

  119. RTO Trainer says:

    Is telepathy part of signals? ;)

    I’m not at liberty to comment.

  120. Blog Chatter says:

    […] Just because I’m sick of the MSM ignoring these stories and because I’m sick of ‘tards signaling out O as a man of change. […]

  121. RTO Trainer says:

    If anyone needs the numbers:

    Year… OEF…… OIF
    2001… 1,300….
    2002… 10,000…
    2003… 11,000… 169,000
    2004… 17,900… 163,917
    2005… 25,000… 175,292
    2006… 25,000… 171,833
    2007… 25,500… 186,000
    2008… 34,000… 175,286

  122. steveaz says:

    George wrote RE Chicago’s war zone:
    “Body count. In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago[…]”

    Makes Hotel Rwanda look like a Club Med, huh?

    Crikey!

  123. RTO Trainer says:

    And of course our position in Iraq is SO bad that the only thing O! can find to complain about is a proposal to build a Ferris Wheel.

  124. Big D says:

    “Levaing Tora Bora for Baghdad only happend in the leftist fantasy-based-yet-well-organized-community. As such there’s no case to be made.”

    Yes, of course cleo, we are incapable of fighting two fronts at the same time. Do you have any concept of history? WW2 – Europe at the same time as the war in the Pacific? Took our eye off of Hitler to focus on Tojo? Or was that the other way around? Seems as though we worked that one out. Guess n your world we can do only one thing at once

  125. Ric Locke says:

    RTO, lee, et. al.

    The problem you’re having is that

    (1) It has to be simple enough for Semanticleo to understand. What that means is that the total complexity has to be roughly that of a kindergarten field trip, or less. If it is more complicated than that, she will (as here) seize upon some portion of it that is trivial enough to be accommodated within her sensorium; and, since she also has the attention span of a mayfly, which trivial aspect is to be concentrated upon varies from instant to instant.

    (2) There has to be a single, clear, unitary objective. She is aware that it is possible to do more than one thing at a time, but from her point of view putting on the uniform is necessary and sufficient proof that you’re too stupid to manage it.

    (3) The objective must fit within her caricature of “the military.” Dancing upon piles of bleeding bodies fits. An Iraqi family strolling in the park, buying ice cream, and going home for dinner does not.

    (4) It must be described in short, simple phrases suitable for “sound biting” without requiring context. See (2).

    Anybody who actually knew anything about the military and situation, and in any way sympathized with the process, understood what Petraeus was getting at, found it admirable, and agreed with it. Semanticleo, ST, and thor have seized the only two words in the whole statement that they actually understood — or, rather, thought they understood, based on the “military” caricature they carry around in their heads — and seized upon it as both confirmation of their own worst fears and a hammer to wield against their political opponents. It’s a matter of limited intellect on their part. They just don’t get the nuance.

    Regards,
    Ric

  126. B Moe says:

    All right, ‘Cleo. How many troops do we need in A-stan? Where would you deploy them and what would there missions be? More importantly, how would you supply them? What is the maximum number we could maintain logistically there?

  127. lee says:

    And of course our position in Iraq is SO bad that the only thing O! can find to complain about is a proposal to build a Ferris Wheel.

    When O! is president, he’ll make sure them Iraqi’s spend like he says…

  128. Gray says:

    Apparently, you folks are unaware that Bush’s 70% disapprovals are largely due to the wrongheaded diversion of troops and treasure to Iraq, rather than the true focus of the WOT, Afghanistan.

    That’s funny, that’s not what Al Qaeda thinks….

    Every one we lured in and killed in Iraq is one we don’t have to chase through mountains and caves in Afghanistan.

    So far, so good, numbnuts….

  129. Mark A. Flacy says:

    Mr. Locke,

    Your discussion assumes that Semanticleo actually wants to understand. I do not believe that to be the case.

  130. meya says:

    “Body count. In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago , 221 killed in Iraq .”

    More than 221 people have been killed in iraq in the last 6 months.

  131. lee says:

    More than 221 people have been killed in iraq in the last 6 months.

    Obviously. Keep thinking on it meya buddy, I’m sure you can figure out what was really said.

  132. Bob Reed says:

    Here in NYC I just saw a new bumpersticker:

    Obama
    One Nation
    One People

    Kinda creeped me out; I wondered why it seemed so familiar…

    Poster from 1930’s-from you know where…

    Deutschland
    Ein Volk
    Ein Reich
    Ein Fuhrer

    I told you all that Axelrod was taking pages from Goebbles playbook…

  133. Pablo says:

    Afghanistan is the good war, which means that we’re not running it. If it’s such a disaster, why aren’t our precious little contrarians calling for General Ramms’ head? Probably because they don’t know who he is.

  134. Spies, Brigands, and Pirates says:

    Your discussion assumes that Semanticleo actually wants to understand. I do not believe that to be the case.

    You are correct, sir.

  135. geoffb (JARAIP) says:

    “Apparently, you folks are unaware that Bush’s 70% disapprovals are largely due to the wrongheaded diversion of troops and treasure to Iraq, rather than the true focus of the WOT, Afghanistan.”

    This makes the unwarranted, but always used, assumption that no one has any other reason to disapprove of President Bush. It especially assumes that all disapproval comes from one direction, the left.

    That assumption does make an ass of you, not me, I know it is not true.

    TrollHammer all the “unsavory types” you wish. I don’t care, I’m just a RAIP anyways.

  136. J. Peden says:

    Only now, he’s taken his pimp operation national, and anyone who isn’t down with the “progressive agenda” — the audacity of Hope! — is fair game for intimidation and other forms of bullying.

    Hey, if it’s ok with Karl Marx, it’s ok with B.O.. Utopian fantasies beckon, after all, and mandate “certain measures”, a.k.a., homocidal-suicidalism in response to different thought or words, not to mention “suspicious” behavior, or to the mere accusations thereof. It is written.

  137. MAJ (P) John says:

    Interesting – yet another thread where a pretty damning case is made against Sen Obama and it ends up….derailed.

    Trollhammer – the future is now.

  138. Patrick Chester says:

    Maj: True, it’s chaff designed to divert attention, but it’s all SHINY chaff.

  139. MC says:

    I’m thinking that these ACORN shells might just stick to O! People are angry enough to listen and if O! throws ACORN under the bus, he’s under it too – it will be much, much harder to repudiate.

    “When I trained ACORN activists, I wasn’t listening.”

    “When I defended ACORN in court, I wasn’t paying attention.”

    “When I spoke at ACORN conferences, I was just celebrating my community organizing roots.”

    The wheels of the bus go round and round.

  140. alppuccino says:

    Psycho,

    Was your #93 from the ACORN website? I would like to look into this for professional reasons.

    Thanks, Al

  141. alppuccino says:

    and before you ask, I’m a nude model for college art classes.

  142. B Moe says:

    I told you all that Axelrod was taking pages from Goebbles playbook…

    I wonder if the neo Nazis at StormFront and Aryan Nations appreciate the irony.

  143. Ric Locke says:

    Your discussion assumes that Semanticleo actually wants to understand. I do not believe that to be the case.

    No. Remember that we have scientific evidence that conservatives are easily able to understand liberals (modern version, i.e., progressives) whereas liberals cannot understand conservatives at all.

    Semanticleo is nicely exemplary. She is a bigot in the grip of an idée fixe. The combination forces her thinking processes into limited orbits, making entire huge swathes of the intellectual landscape as unreachable as the backside of the Moon. Her febrile obsession with the notion that the 2006 Congressional elections were a referendum on Iraq, despite abundant evidence to the contrary from the behavior of her own party, is one of the most obvious ways that comes out, but by no means the only one.

    Regards,
    Ric

  144. thorr as thorsky on thoor says:

    Which is why the recent Obama charge to campaign volunteers and supporters to get out there and “get in people’s faces” was delivered without a trace of irony or fear: Obama has been mau-mauing the flak catchers for years, and he never feels more comfortable than when he’s allowed to return to form. Only now, he’s taken his pimp operation national, and anyone who isn’t down with the “progressive agenda” — the audacity of Hope! — is fair game for intimidation and other forms of bullying.

    When did it become illegal to be poor in America? When did one become a “pimp” when they stood for/with the poor? When did it become solely a “progessive agenda” when the poor stand up and ask that they be on the government’s agenda? When did tax-cuts for real estate developers and when did the agendas of community re-development associations become nothing but a goddamned crooked scheme of ghetto gentrification and commercial glorification of bloodless institutionalized racism?

    Be intimidated, bitches, because your Republican party, thick with Jack Abramoff-pimps for casino interests, has done nothing but force the poor man to play the bottom role in one sick S&M scene after another! Rotten leveraged-buyout bastards!

    The Audacity of Hope starts when the people have a lead sled dog who has the Audacity to Stand Up and say “motherfucking shit ain’t right!” Envious greed sold as success, bitterness replacing empathy, isolation from each other as the ultimate desire and the upper social classes betraying this nation to protect their elevations, no, Good Sir, this isn’t the correct interpretation of the American narrative.

    The working poor were never meant to satisfy your persecution fantasies. If the election of Barack Obama, the imperfect mortal that he is, becomes the first paradigm-shifting event of the brave new century then I interpret that someone has strapped it on and kicked some ass, and there’s nothing more American than that. If what’s going down is more than your collective conservative/classic/liberal psyche was prepared for than whose fault is that?

    The revolution is here. Put your earmuffs on. The goddamned forgotten and shunned working man has found his voice!

    Top of the Morning!

  145. […] lawyer, and activist, and Alinsky-style community organizer) 2. October 2008, 7:01 UhrSerr8d Jeff Goldstein points us to this article in the Investor’s Business […]

  146. B Moe says:

    The Audacity of Hope starts when the people have a lead sled dog who has the Audacity to Stand Up and say “motherfucking shit ain’t right!”

    Yeah, that would be something new.

  147. MAJ (P) John says:

    “I’m as mad as Hell, and I’m not going to take it any longer!”

    Sounds like a good line – maybe someone should include it in a movie…

  148. TheGeezer says:

    Q. When did it become illegal to be poor in America?

    A. It is not now, nor has it been.

    Q. When did one become a “pimp” when they stood for/with the poor?

    A. As soon as an underclass became 100% dependable constituency and proponents of the poor earned more from governemnt programs than the taxpayers supporting them.

    Q. When did it become solely a “progessive agenda” when the poor stand up and ask that they be on the government’s agenda?

    A. When consitutional provisions and guarantees became lost in the penumbra of persons who knew they could not gain change at the ballot box, and who therefore adopted twisted rationales as new law.

    Q. When did tax-cuts for real estate developers and when did the agendas of community re-development associations become nothing but a goddamned crooked scheme of ghetto gentrification and commercial glorification of bloodless institutionalized racism?

    A. When liberals found they could make more money as non-profit heroes milking government subsidies (O! is a champion recipient of housing subsidies) than as members of society who actually produce something.

  149. Salt Lick says:

    Gimme back my bullets, too. Turn it up, people!

  150. Patrick Chester says:

    Was that thor, or is someone making a parody like what was done with PiaToR way back when?

  151. cranky-d says:

    Thor doesn’t like the fact that some people here are blocking him, so he keeps making up new names for himself. That was him, though.

  152. Rob Crawford says:

    Q. When did one become a “pimp” when they stood for/with the poor?

    Ah, sweet idiocy. Someone “standing for/with the poor” is not automatically a “pimp”. A “poverty pimp” is someone who uses the poor as a vehicle for personal aggrandizement and the acquisition of power.

  153. Mr. Pink says:

    International Politics was my major in college and there would always be assholes that would throw domestic politics into the discussion. Why people can not seperate them, unless it effects how a nation will act, shows their own bias and lack of intellectual capacity.

  154. B Moe says:

    Was that thor, or is someone making a parody like what was done with PiaToR way back when?

    With thor there is no difference, he is a parody of himself.

  155. thor says:

    Strange how I seemed to have called election outcomes correctly every step of the way and did so while ignoring the screams of many jaundiced ideologues here.

    Who is plugged in and who isn’t, remind me again.

    I dance on the good foot, skee.

  156. steveaz says:

    If O’s supporters in the this thread were to direct just a fraction of their sassy-ness at Chicago’s political class, I’d actually take their arguments seriously.

    Think about it: can a teenager who won’t make his own bed run a country? If an ST, or a Thor could fix Chicago so that its poor “had a voice,” and its politicians “stood up for the city’s disenfranchised,” then they’d be more credible in their demand that Americans in Kentucky and Alabama lend them a hand.

    All politics are local. But somehow the city’s political system has capped its citizens’ avenues for changing their own lot. And, now, their only hope is that, somehow – through electoral fraud perhaps, or, possibly machete politics a la Kenya – thay can coerce the nation to improve their lot for them.

    No wonder Iran is donating so heavily to O’s campaign lately. If I was a Mullah in Tehran hell-bent on going nuclear, I’d be salivating right now.

  157. JD says:

    It seems that SemenLeo, thor, and now meya are in a contest to see who can be the most irrational asshat of the day. Not a contest I would want to win …

  158. happyfeet says:

    chicago obama voter: new porky bailout package makes me angry

    chicago obama voter: so i am distracting myself with complex research tools…

    happyfeet: new package is gay

    chicago obama voter: totally gay

    happyfeet: gayest bailout package ever

  159. JD says:

    Homophobe

  160. urthshu says:

    Censorship!

  161. Ric Locke says:

    Very pretty, thor. Nicely summarized.

    The answer to your question is: When we figured out that it doesn’t work. That is, the measures you demand do not achieve their stated goals, and what they actually do achieve is directly contradictory to what you say you want. It didn’t work in Naboth’s vineyard; it didn’t work for Plymouth Colony; it didn’t work for the Soviet Union or Pol Pot; it has never worked at any time in history despite multiple variations upon the theme. What it has always accomplished, here in the real world where we live, is aristocracy, oppression, mass murder, and the perpetuation of poverty, and when you start telling us that you have at last found the key, that what’s needed is a few tweaks and it will work this time, we are not only doubtful, we are suspicious that what you actually want is the known results of the system rather than the supposed benefits your platitudes describe.

    One of the best and most accurate analogies ever created is Kurt Vonnegut’s “Money River” (from God Bless You Mr. Rosewater). Yes, Virginia, there is a Money River. In its natural state it is actually a complex network of small streams and rills, mostly passing through rocky terrain in deep canyons that provide limited access for slurping. The function of “capitalism” is to erect dams along the Money River; the reservoirs thus created have long coastlines and gentle beaches, allowing many more slurpers to crowd along the margins. One place the metaphor fails is that the dams along the Money River aren’t static structures — they are force fields a la Star Trek, maintained by power from the generators at their bases. In order to set one up, you have to start by getting power from somewhere else to establish it. Thereafter it is perpetuated by the flow, or not, if the flow isn’t sufficient.

    Your “obvious solution” to poverty amounts to setting up pumping-stations to divert the flow to “the poor” who cannot reach the shoreline to slurp. That works, provided it’s kept to a small enough scale. Trouble comes when, encouraged by that success, you insist on MORE! BIGGER! FASTER! The diversion becomes significant; the shoreline contracts, setting up a shoving-match amongst the slurpers; the power to run the pumps comes from the same generators that maintain the force field, so the dam gets smaller and lower, reducing both the extent of the slurping-beaches and the “head” that produces the power; eventually the force field cannot be sustained and the dam goes away, leaving the pumps without either power to operate or anything to pump; and the Money River reverts to its unspoiled state, only with a different set of furtive slurpers who know the hidden paths to where it’s accessible.

    And the pumping-stations are single points of failure. They have to be operated, and the operators have a golden opportunity to drill holes in the pipelines and slurp at their leisure. The solution is bigger pumps and more power diverted; the reservoir shrinks faster.

    You fool yourself that shrinking the reservoir is a good thing. It’s not fair! you cry. “THE RICH” HAVE BOATS! We have to keep them from using them! And the pump-station operators smile inwardly, get bigger drills, and install diversion-valves so that they may drink directly from the hose. The reservoir shrinks faster, and the pump operators follow the receding shoreline, learning the topography so that when the dam fails they’ll know where the secret slurping-places are. The people you claimed to want to help end up high and dry.

    It always happens; it always has happened; it always will happen. We know that, as you apparently do not, and as a result we are deeply suspicious; we don’t think you can tweak the system sufficiently to avoid the inevitable result, and we look particularly askance at the volunteer pump operators.

    The rising tide lifts all the boats and that’s the only way to do it.

    Regards,
    Ric

  162. happyfeet says:

    Baracky Chavez will have big plans for the military I bet but he hasn’t really said what they are.

  163. thor says:


    Comment by Ric Locke on 10/2 @ 9:04 am #

    The rising tide lifts all the boats and that’s the only way to do it.

    Not when you’re on a sinking ship of the forgotten and betrayed middle class.

    Do not saddle my analogies and thoughts with your never-ending fantasies of Stalinesque peril. Clearly that is too cheap a rebuttal for your body of talent.

  164. Mr. Pink says:

    The Military is fully capable of dealing with two fronts, but when you’ve got all your marbles in the Iraq Bagger, it reduces their capabilities, or can you be in two places at once, Tic Toc?

    So how many troops would you place in Afghan? I do not think you will answer in any coherent manner considering you are just using the Iraq war to support your anti-Bush arguments but I will ask anyway.

  165. happyfeet says:

    No. For real, card check is a wholesale assault on individualism. Another word you might want to get comfortable with is reindustrialization I think. Baracky Chavez will make a socialist paradise.

  166. RIP Ford says:

    So either ‘Lead, follow or get out of the way’

    Nothing says leadership like voting “Present”.

  167. Indexicality says:

    […] Bob Reed, in the comments to yesterday’s ACORN post: Here in NYC I just saw a new […]

  168. geoffb (JARAIP) says:

    “Interesting – yet another thread where a pretty damning case is made against Sen Obama and it ends up….derailed.”

    I think there is a good subject in this for a thesis or at least a paper.

    What thread subjects are most thoroughly derailed?

    What means are used?

    Correlations between trolls, subjects derailed, means used to derail, variations over time.

    Differences in these between different blogs.

  169. JD says:

    Note how SemenKKKleo ignored all of the substantive respoonses to the rhetorical diarrhea it puked on her last night, and chose to respond only to my mockery, in quite a feeble manner. Semen – Does your head hurt?

  170. Mr. Pink says:

    We aren’t asking for much of a miracle….just a chance to unwind Multiple Bush ClusterFucking FUBAR’s. I guess your so used to being satisfied with the basement
    expectations of the Idiot Bastard Son, and seek to ameliorate the Hope of Change.

    Funny stuff you should take that on tour. See I do not think you realize all your hatred breaks down at some point. You will be forced to put down on paper what you want O! to accomplish in his first term. You or him would not be able to give the State of the Union in 2010 and say “F@ck Bush it is all his fault”.

  171. Jeff G. says:

    Strange how I seemed to have called election outcomes correctly every step of the way and did so while ignoring the screams of many jaundiced ideologues here.

    Who is plugged in and who isn’t, remind me again.

    I dance on the good foot, skee.

    Translation: For all my warrior poetry, I run with the herd. And we have more votes than you.

    Obligatory response: So? You realize that doesn’t make you right, just useful, yes?

  172. Ric Locke says:

    You were born in the wrong place, Semanticleo. You should have been a Russian. Your “get a bigger hammer” solution would be more appropriate.

    Afghanistan is a hard problem, and has been from day one. Neither the Persians nor the Moghuls were ever able to solve it, and neither the British nor the Russians ever did much better except for temporary measures. George Bush, who actually reads and understands history, knows that. Having the entire 82nd Airborne clanking and groaning across the desert, pursuing lightly-armed individuals who pop in and out of holes jeering at the clumsy invaders, is nothing but a high-tech version of Alexander’s failure.

    Iraq, despite being bigger and superficially more complex, is actually an easier problem because its population is more nearly urban and more nearly approximates cosmopolitanism. Iraqis know the advantages of electric power and piped water, and once they realized that the shouts of “imperialism!” from the brain-dead Left were irrelevant the problem became at least somewhat soluble — but Iraq does have much more commonality with Afghanistan (and Iran) than it does with European polities, and the lessons learned on the banks of the Euphrates carry over at least somewhat to the other theater. In exactly the same way, the generals of the War Department knew in 1941 that American troops didn’t know how the job had to be done. The solution was that instead of invading Europe and facing German forces directly, we invaded Libya, of all places.

    No, you do not “get the Military”. That’s because, in common with most pacifists, quasi-pacifists, and people who get squeamish about guns, you have a ‘way-overoptimistic view of the efficacy of violence. More troops in Afghanistan would be, at best, a stopgap; what’s needed there is a way to talk to the tribes, particularly the Pushtuns, and convince them that we don’t want to steal anything they have or rule them (which we don’t), we want to make them rich (and therefore lazy, unlikely to jam rocks or explosives into the river of Progress.) Lessons learned in pacifying the Anbar tribes are directly applicable to that.

    Regards,
    Ric

  173. urthshu says:

    >>Baracky Chavez will have big plans for the military I bet but he hasn’t really said what they are.

    “Obama man, ‘Bama man,
    Show us the sign
    Your children have waited to see.
    The changes will come
    When the world is mine.
    Tomorrow belongs to me!”

  174. urthshu says:

    >>First on the list…

    Removing Pardoning Powers from the Prez, which some say is unconstitutional on it’s face.

    YES!
    Lets encourage the criminalization of opposing politics!

  175. Mr. Pink says:

    Didn’t Obama opt out of public funds after he promised he would accept them? Keep em coming though I want to hear the rest of his first term.

  176. geoffb (JARAIP) says:

    “Removing Pardoning Powers from the Prez, which some say is unconstitutional on it’s face.”

    Something specifically in the Constitution (Article II section 2) is now “unconstitutional on it’s face”?

    Another alternate reality heard from.

  177. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    Whenever Ric engages thor, I think of a polar bear toying around with a baby seal. A retarded baby seal, too. The polar bear paws him for a while before throwing him up in the air a few times. Then the game’s over and the polar bear takes a bite. I wonder if the baby seal ever claimed to be something that it wasn’t, too? As for semanticpussy? Just a fucking moron.

  178. Great Mencken's Ghost! says:

    Ric Locke — “Clanking and groaning?” Imagine the 82nd’s surprise at finding out they’re a mechanized unit…

  179. JD says:

    Second…..

    Publicly Financed Campaigns…………………………..

    If you want to get good folks in gov, you need to remove the solely self-interested
    types who have no conscience about how they get themselves elected………

    Thanks. Mountain Dew everywhere while reading that one … Teh One even thinks you are a fucking idiot.

    geoffb – Things that are actually in the Constitution are unconstitutional. Things that are not in the Constitution are Rights that shall never be challenged. It is standard Leftist claptrap.

    Enemas abound when SemenKKKleo types …

  180. Ric Locke says:

    “George Bush, who actually reads and understands history’

    There he goes again…

    Well, yeah. Literally every person who has spent any actual time with Bush has remarked upon his grasp of history. That’s what he reads, for preference. Your bigoted caricature of the brush-popping “aw shucks” cowboy is just as wrong as the watermelon-and-dancing one of black people I once held. The fact is, you’re a fanatic bigot railing at the apostate, and that’s not any prettier now than it was half a century ago.

    Regards,
    Ric

  181. urthshu says:

    >>The ‘Fear’ is palpable…………………….

    Not at all. I just think you’re quite stupid to encourage such a thing.

    You do realise that you’ll be handing a weapon to us as well, right?

    And that criminalisation of opposing politics is the best way to have the entire structure collapse? You’ll be welcoming kangaroo courts.

  182. Mr. Pink says:

    Hey Ric where did the regards sign off come from?

  183. JD says:

    urthshu – To the semenlicker, that is a feature, not a bug.

  184. Mr. Pink says:

    Oh I get it President Bush has committed treason. Oh now I see!!!!!111!!!!

  185. Salt Lick says:

    If you want to get good folks in gov, you need to remove the solely self-interested types who have no conscience about how they get themselves elected………

    Or maybe just the ones who check their conscience at the door of Trinity United Church of Christ.

  186. Mr. Pink says:

    “It’s time to clean up this cesspool of Purchased Politics.”

    That is rich coming from someone that advocates for a political party to dole out money to different groups of Americans. That is called purchasing votes last time I checked.

  187. Ric Locke says:

    Yeah, thor. Guess what: I’m one of the people anxiously waiting by a rapidly-shrinking puddle, watching the shoreline recede. Your solution is more and bigger pumps.

    Mr. Pink: It’s a tic, established in USENET days. I probably ought to abandon it. I ought to quit smoking, too…

    And once again Semanticleo changes the subject. I suppose that makes her an expert in “not facing up to errors”.

    Regards,
    Ric

  188. Rob Crawford says:

    Removing Pardoning Powers from the Prez, which some say is unconstitutional on it’s face.

    Who are these “some”? And why would you listen to them when they say something to totally boneheaded?

    Article II, Section 2:

    [The President] shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

    You’ll need a Constitutional Convention or an Amendment to remove that power.

  189. […] October 2, 2008 by CJ Ok, just cause I’m sick of every single Obama commercial I hear blaming the Bush administration and John McCain for the financial crisis.  This is required reading. […]

  190. Semanticleo says:

    “I suppose that makes her an expert in “not facing up to errors”.”

    I thought it was Tic Toc whose expertise in admitting errors lines up perfectly with
    the Genius of His President.

  191. Semanticleo says:

    “You’ll need a Constitutional Convention or an Amendment to remove that power.”

    No one said it would be easy, but you’ve got to clean out the rat’s nest before that can be accomplished. The first step and second seem reversed but the conversation must be contemporaneous.

  192. Mr. Pink says:

    “You’ll need a Constitutional Convention or an Amendment to remove that power.”

    I disagree. All “they” will need is two more Ginsburg’s on the Supreme Court.

  193. Semanticleo says:

    “That is rich coming from someone that advocates for a political party to dole out money to different groups of Americans. That is called purchasing votes last time I checked.”

    With all due respect, I don’t know what you are referring to.

  194. urthshu says:

    Who the Hell needs this stupid Constitution anyway? Throw it out of here, to begin with.

  195. thor says:

    The sea of ideas is deep and wide, Ric. Knee-jerk twice-baked ideological posturings are wee too Bushian for my taste.

    Easy answers and tired slogans aren’t all the recipe requires this time around. We need some forward thought and fewer Reagan-babblers in the sidecar.

    More books must be read!

  196. thor says:


    Comment by Semanticleo on 10/2 @ 9:55 am #

    “That is rich coming from someone that advocates for a political party to dole out money to different groups of Americans. That is called purchasing votes last time I checked.”

    With all due respect, I don’t know what you are referring to.

    Tax shelters for wealthy individuals and more tax breaks for corporations, obviously.

  197. Ric Locke says:

    I’m perfectly willing to admit errors when they happen. Failure to embrace communitarianism and central control is not an “error”, nor is engaging in an enterprise which simultaneously does good on its own and serves as a practice piece for a more difficult effort.

    And speaking of bubbles — depending on somebody who is an open opponent of the purported subject, and clearly longing to repeat past triumphs, is not a real efficient way of collecting data. At least my bubble is transparent. Yours apparently is made of chromium steel.

    Regards,
    Ric

  198. RTO Trainer says:

    Removing Pardoning Powers from the Prez, which some say is unconstitutional on it’s face.

    Oh my. Really? Who says this?

    Here’s a quote from the Constitution (emphasis added)

    Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

    I recommend that you give up your “sources” as unreliable if they can seriously entertain the notion hat someting that is expressly granted in the Consitution can also be “unconstitutional.”

    That you didn’t already know this, speaks poorly of your education.

    That you didn’t check this, speaks poorly of your intelligence.

  199. JD says:

    When SemenKKKleo said, “With all due respect, I don’t know what you are referring to.”, it would be safe to assume that is the only honest answer we have ever seen from it.

  200. Semanticleo says:

    “Tax shelters for wealthy individuals and more tax breaks for corporations, obviously.”

    That would appear to be your ‘trap’ question, Pink…..

  201. thor says:


    Comment by urthshu on 10/2 @ 9:58 am #

    Who the Hell needs this stupid Constitution anyway? Throw it out of here, to begin with.

    That’s a better description of the Bush Doctrine than the one Sister Palin puked out.

  202. Semanticleo says:

    RTO;

    See the last graf from the THREAD!!!!COMMENT 199, and I promise not to impugn your educational level…………….

    Some delegates argued that treason should be excluded from the pardon power. George Mason argued that the President’s pardon power “may be sometimes exercised to screen from punishment those whom he had secretly instigated to commit the crime and thereby prevent a discovery of his own guilt.” James Wilson answered that pardons for treason should be available and successfully argued that the power would be best used by the President. Impeachment was available if the President himself was involved in the treason. A proposal for Senate approval of presidential pardons was also defeated.”

  203. Rob Crawford says:

    Remember, folks, SemenKKKleo has argued in favor of reinstituting involuntary servitude. He’s pro-slavery — just so long as he gets to decide who gets enslaved.

  204. B Moe says:

    “That is rich coming from someone that advocates for a political party to dole out money to different groups of Americans. That is called purchasing votes last time I checked.”

    With all due respect, I don’t know what you are referring to.

    Tax shelters for wealthy individuals and more tax breaks for corporations, obviously.

    Allowing people to keep the money they have earned does not fit any definition of dole I am aware of, perhaps it means something different in French?

  205. Semanticleo says:

    .” Failure to embrace communitarianism and central control is not an “error”,’

    TicToc;

    That covers Semanticleo, but apparently leaves you holding the ‘error’ bag unless you think Civilian Command is not central control.

  206. Semanticleo says:

    ‘just so long as he gets to decide who gets enslaved.’

    no need to worry, my shoeshine boy is sentient and that seems an important quality for a slave.

  207. Patrick Chester says:

    Wow, the trolls must be VERY desperate to divert attention from this posting by Jeff. Wonder why?

  208. thor says:

    Comment by B Moe on 10/2 @ 10:15 am #

    Allowing people to keep the money they have earned does not fit any definition of dole I am aware of, perhaps it means something different in French?

    Bush wasn’t speaking French when recently demanding $700-billion of your dollars for his banking buddies. Such are the empty platitudes of the wingered Bush birds!

  209. Ric Locke says:

    “Tax shelters for wealthy individuals and more tax breaks for corporations, obviously.”

    Uh hunh. The exact Left equivalent of snake-handling Christian sects. Pick a passage and exaggerate it all out of proportion.

    We live in an industrial economy. What that means is that the “means of production” must themselves be produced. The difference between an iPod factory and an iPod is one of scale, not of kind.

    A wafer fab — an electronic-chip manufacturing plant — costs around $5 billion dollars these days. If nobody is allowed to have five billion dollars (because it isn’t faaaaaaaaaaaair), then nobody can have an iPod. Or a cell phone, or an MRI scanner, or a blood-pressure monitor, or a computer to read blogs with. It’s just that brutally simple, and trying to overcomplicate it by appealing to envy won’t change it.

    Regards,
    Ric

  210. Rob Crawford says:

    If nobody is allowed to have five billion dollars (because it isn’t faaaaaaaaaaaair)

    KKKLeo’s ideal world is one in which the government is the one responsible for building the chip fab. And assigning who works there.

    And, of course, some of them will be working there for very low wages. And subject to imprisonment if they attempt to leave.

  211. Ric Locke says:

    …unless you think Civilian Command is not central control.

    Treating “direction”, “command”, and “control” as synonyms impoverishes your vocabulary.

    Regards,
    Ric

  212. thor says:


    Comment by Ric Locke on 10/2 @ 10:23 am #

    We live in an industrial economy.

    Surely you’re not posting from China?

    You were born in the wrong place, Semanticleo Ric. You should have been a Russian China man. Your “I’ve get a bigger hammer great pumpkin” solution would be more appropriate.

  213. Semanticleo says:

    “Treating “direction”, “command”, and “control” as synonyms impoverishes your vocabulary.”

    A statement from Tic Toc which is not followed by a long-winded fulmination means he has no where to go

    Read “The War Within” then tell me about your nuanced definition of ‘control’.

  214. Ric Locke says:

    …recently demanding $700-billion of your dollars for his banking buddies.

    Patching gaping holes is often difficult, thor. That’s especially true when the people who made the hole in the first place are still swinging hammers and screaming that using up the patching-material deprives them of their prerogatives.

    Regards,
    Ric

  215. Semanticleo says:

    “Bush wasn’t speaking French when recently demanding $700-billion of your dollars for his banking buddies. Such are the empty platitudes of the wingered Bush birds!”

    Yeah, like Homeland Security, The Patriot Act and AUMF………..it was necessary to
    act hastily because so many in Washington are culpable………………

  216. Ric Locke says:

    …Homeland Security, The Patriot Act and AUMF…

    Even granting your assumption, why is the Constitution “living” and infinitely mutable for you and not for, e.g., George Bush?

    Regards,
    Ric

  217. Semanticleo says:

    “e.g., George Bush?”

    Oh, he has the right to ‘fair trial’, just like any other criminal.

  218. RTO Trainer says:

    Provisions debated in the Constituional Convention != “Uncoinstitutional”

    (That would make almost all of it “unconstitutional.”)

    I stand by my assessment of your education.

  219. RTO Trainer says:

    FWIW, “treason” is also defined by the Constitution. You are clearly unfamiliar with that provision as well.

  220. Rob Crawford says:

    Has KKKLeo said who told him pardons were unconstitutional? Or at least admit he pulled that one out of his ass?

  221. Rob Crawford says:

    FWIW, “treason” is also defined by the Constitution. You are clearly unfamiliar with that provision as well.

    One of the amendments banned slavery, but that doesn’t stop KKKLeo from advocating it.

  222. B Moe says:

    Bush wasn’t speaking French when recently demanding $700-billion of your dollars for his banking buddies.

    Spin, thor, spin! You might should try ballet instead of poetry, you seem to have more of an aptitude for it.

  223. Rusty says:

    ” All bills to raise revenue must originate in the House.” Another one of those constitution thingies. Bush can only propose. It is up to your representatives to actually do it. Got a problem. Talk to them.

  224. Rusty says:

    cleo is envious of anyone who has more than she has. She has the peasants belief that anybody who has more than she does has stolen it from her.
    So tell us Cleo. Who makes the jobs? Who creates wealth? Private individuals and corporations or Government?

    How is the Virginia constitution worded?

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