— Which is all the more reason why, for the good of the country, progressives really must begin looking into re-education camps. It’s all in the limbic brain, you see, this virus of conservatism. And now that it’s move on into involuntary manslaughter as part of its foundational premises, it simply must be addressed as the threat to all that is good and just that it invariable is.
Well, maybe after they’re done fixing Wall Street, the banks, the auto industry, and health care. Busy busy busy!
Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its healthcare priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.
Mr. Specter, responding to a question from CBS’s Bob Schieffer over whether he had let down Pennsylvanians who wanted a Republican to represent them, said he felt his priorities were more in line with those of the Democrats.
“Well, I was sorry to disappoint many people. Frankly, I was disappointed that the Republican Party didn’t want me as their candidate,” Mr. Specter said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “But as a matter of principle, I’m becoming much more comfortable with the Democrats’ approach. And one of the items that I’m working on, Bob, is funding for medical research.”
So. As a matter of principle, one of the erstwhile GOP “moderates” has become perfectly comfortable with a progressive agenda that stinks of crony capitalism, corporatism, soft socialism, and fascism.
And why is that? Because the progressive agenda is all about governmental power, and politicians do dig them some governmental power.
Should we really be at all surprised by the easy transition from “pragmatist in the GOP” to a more generalized “pragmatist” who sees where the power is and follows along in order to get his fix?
Mr. Specter continued: “If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.”
Has medical research ignored cancer? Have their been no advances in cancer research in the last nearly four decades?
And how does giving the state the power to determine who gets treated and who doesn’t prolong lives?
Crass. Opportunistic.
But quite pragmatic.
Why? Because as a Democrat, Specter can operate nearly criticism free, provided he sticks with Obama’s plan.
Let’s face it folks: what Obama is doing is NOT getting beyond the slavering media and their pro-Obama filter. Meaning that the overwhelming majority of Americans have absolutely no idea what the “fixes” the Obama Administration is instituting even are — and, even if they did, they’d only understand them as they are being framed by progressives, who have learned how to game the language by adding appropriate buzz words and appealing to traditional American ideals even as they work to subvert them.
If classical liberals / conservatives don’t find a way to get around the media filter and reach more people than those who self-select to read conservative blogs and newspapers, the damage will be irreparable — as Congress, regardless of who is in charge, seldom if ever votes itself less power.
Personally, I hold out little hope at this point of being able to avoid the fate of those European nations whose tumble into soft-socialism, centralized control, and extreme nannystatism leaves them — as it will leave us — open to the next phase of power realignment, which is a transnational progressivist alliance that will challenge traditional ideas of sovereignty.
And no, I’m not some conspiracy theorist. I’m just an observer following the trajectory and watching the vapor trail.
I’m holding out hope for civil war first. Or at least some decent riots. I mean, if we’re going to go Communist or some other variant of totalitarian, I’d like to kick up some dust first.
Alas! My senator is Arlen,
No longer the GOP’s darlin’
He was always wrong
I’m glad that he’s gone
At him we’ll always be snarlin’
Specter can work with this guy now. Filibuster-proof, the liar-jester class now is in the land of free and unimpeded speech, unalienable rights, and assured liberties.
Arlen’s words for his party were terse
His career was about in the hearse
And now that this hack
Has turned his back
He’s gone from bad to much worse
It’s too late Jeff, that’s why I’m just enjoying the funniest end of civilization ever.
If I were to worry about it I couldn’t enjoy it all that much.
Sure it sucks, but in the future we’ll be able to say, “I remember America back when…” in much the same way certain tribal auxiliaries, sqatting in the rubble that was circa 500 A.D. Europe, burning books for heat, could say, “I remember when Rome was….”
What’s gonna be *ahem* interesting over the next little while is watching the Progs’ ever more desperate search: Where the Hell did the money go?
And Ella, you need to read some old science fiction, specifically Robert A. Heinlein. Does the name “Nehemiah Scudder” mean anything to you?
Regards,
Ric
Our esteemed host wrote:
Maybe not. Our good friends in the Golden State have up before them, on the ballot where actual citizens can vote on it, a $16 billion (temporary) tax increase. If the voters in our most liberal state do what is expected, and reject a tax increase to pay for their own bloated liberal government, the GOP has its defining, uniting issue.
This was what Newt Gingrich used to mobilize the GOP and the voters in 1994, and he succeeded wildly. The Republicans lost power, deservedly, because they did not stick to the spending restraint part of the equation.
All we need now is the right man to lead, to get out in front on this issue, to push it, and the voters, where we need to go.
What we need now is more bread and more circuses. At least when the Romans started going downhill they had bigger and bigger circuses. WTF
This harkens back to the days when Silky Pony told us that Christopher Reeve would either get up out of his wheelchair or come back from the dead should we elect Sen. Horseface.
Uh….JD? Not for nuttin’, but Reeve is out of his chair now.
Zombie Christopher Reeeves demands brains.
Just as a factual point: one can find a graph of the NIH’s funding outlays here (PDF; sorry)
In constant dollar terms, the NIH R&D budget increased more than 500% between 1978 and 2005. Now, one assumes that the plateau at the right side of the graph is what’s got Arlen Unevenstar so upset. But what, he wanted to preserve the slope of the late 90s/early 00s forever? Idiot.
Incidentally, you can go here to see the usual trick for claiming that the NIH funding situation is dire. Rather than graph the NIH’s outlays, they graph the percentage of proposals that are funded. Which of course buries the huge increase in outlays under the even huger increases in the number and size of proposals submitted.
Technically, wouldn’t it be “Bizarro Christopher Reeve”?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro
Ric –
Heinlein has been on the brain rather a lot lately…
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded–here and there, now and then–are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as “bad luck.â€
Here’s where people should be harping on Charles Johnson and LGF because the guy is turning his site into a Spector apologia mausoleum.
I think, just to hit on one single point, that marketing the Spector switch as a function of medical research is just the most revolting type of opportunism, Sure Arlen, without the switch, there would be NO medical research. the people I know doing it now can stop LYING and actually start looking for a cure.
Because medical research, especially into cancer, is entirely a function of domestic political perception and temporary alignments. Which is to say that the GOP is pro-cancer and the Dems are anti-cancer.
Indeed. Anyone who understands anything ablout the issue, especially stem cells, knows that medical research is going to continue to go on, uninterrupted and unabated because there is an insatiable demand for medical products that have utility. Likely, there is no other aspect of society where the demand so sharply outstrips supply, leading to a virtually perfect environment with which to least attempt research. The only barriers to entry are ultimately intellectual; if you have a notionally valid idea and have the credentials to pursue research, someone has the capital.
For a few minutes I understood the guy…a lifetime pol who was looking at a grass-roots rebellion that would cost him a job at 80, so he switched teams [he sure as hell wasn’t about to become something he has never been–a conservative, or a even a principled Republican]. I understood that after a fashion, being similar to a aging athlete quitting his team for a team with a better chance of winning.
But what a load of horsehit that stooges like Bob Schieffer and Charles Johnson fall for.
But Jeff, those eeevil Pharmaceutical CORPORATIONS will only be interested in finding a cure for cancer if there were gazillions of dollars of profit in for them.
If only they had a wise government to tell them that one of the greatest causes of death was cancer, then they would see the light and begin researching a cure.
Or better yet, if the benevolent state nationalised them, they wouldn’t be distracted by the need to make all that filthy money for their eeevil rich shareholders, and they could concentrate on curing all ills. (And filling in all the neccessary paperwork to support the massive government bureacracy that would be needed to ensure that their priorities were correct.)
I like the Nehemiah Scudder reference.
According to Heinlein, he was supposed to be elected in 2012 but I’m wondering if we didn’t elect him in 2008.
Different God, same schtick.
There’s a line that Don Imus often used before his program was syndicated that applies to Senator S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
“get cancer” you self-serving putz
if anyone is offended or has had their sensibilities upset by this statement… I’m sorry you are so easily offended
His defection is but a distraction,
Specter belongs in the other faction.
We say ‘So long!”,
happy he’s gone,
it’s addition by way of subtraction!
Here is a much more accurate account of what is happening to the conservative movement.
The media is not distorting your memes……your memes sukk in this environment.
Pretty simple.
I unnerstand why you don’t care about growing the party to win elections….or Hofsteader does, I guess.
You don’t care about being a majority again, as long as you are pure.
Arlen is pining for a future of Nationalized healthcare, where ill seniors like Jack Kemp can be “put to sleep” for the good of the state…
So do out truths, brainiac. Point much?
You don’t care about being a majority again, as long as you are pure.
It’s not a matter of purity, Nishi, it’s a matter of espousing and implementing ideas that actually work for anything other than the very short-term. Nothing is easier than pandering to peoples’ stupidity and panic, as we can see from the current regime.
What truths?
I can see why you’d think that way, given that you don’t care about being scum. Fuck off, won’t you?
I’m hoping the American public will see the results of European socialism, as they themselves appear to be, before it’s too late.
unfortunately, it may be too late for Europe already.
I’m guessing there are around three million Muslims in Briton, That’s over half a million people in that country that sympathize with the 2005 London bombers.
And so here is the reason for my hope (if you will pardon the phrase):
And…
Anyway, I’m not ready to roll over yet, and I hesitate to declare Europe done either.
The Euro-freaks have a history of deciding one morning to slaughter a few million of their neighbors. I don’t rule out such a thing happening again.
What moron would take the advice of someone who so obviously hates him? Hate is not too strong of a word when you just look at the words he uses to describe those he is talking about. “Grandiose, militant visions” “Extreme position” “express resentment” “punish traitors”. The only thing he missed was calling people racist. Nishi why didn’t you just quote Bill Maher?
Where are those?
You have not proposed cost-viable alternatives.
And pandering? That is rich, coming from the IQ-baiting, race-baiting, class-baiting party.
nuggie thread-crapping the link to that cage-liner promotes the notion of talking a slightly less fascist “meme” while doing nothing to halt the problem itself. One wonders if nuggie has ever taken that blinding intellect and lobbied a single congressworm with a single fundamental point that saw to either right or liberty.
One doesn’t wonder long. Not when there’s thread-crapping and ego to serve.
Those in the original post.
That is rich, coming from the IQ-baiting, race-baiting, class-baiting party.
What the fuck?
“race-baiting”
That would be the other side moron.
Where are those?
You have not proposed cost-viable alternatives.
And pandering? That is rich, coming from the IQ-baiting, race-baiting, class-baiting party.
Those ideas can be found in the collected works of Montesquieu, Locke, Smith, Jefferson, Hayek, Mises, Friedman, Hazlitt, etc.
These are first things, not political positions, Nishi. I have no idea what you mean by “cost-viable alternatives.”
And yes, pandering. Base, mindless, pandering of the worst sort.
And pandering? That is rich, coming from the IQ-baiting, race-baiting, class-baiting party.
That doesn’t even make sense.
By the way, how much would it cost to just go ahead and cure cancer?
Well it has to cost more than 5 trillion dollars because Obama blew that much on God knows what and hasn’t cured a damn thing.
Yea Nishi, maybe the GOP should “move to the middle” to win elections.
Just like the Dem’s did when they were out of power after the 2004 election, right?
Oh, that’s right, the Dem’s actually moved HARD LEFT, attacked the President with a coordinated venom not seen since Richard Nixon, nominated the most liberal Senator as their standard bearer and brought forth a platform of tax increases, nationalized healthcare, cap-and-trade energy regulation and charitable deduction limitations.
Those “moves to middle” really helped the Dem’s get their mojo back, eh Nishi?
Putz…..
Nishi has helped me understand that a big part of the problem the right is having is folks confusing fashion and marketing with politics and economics.
You have not proposed cost-viable alternatives. And pandering? That is rich, coming from the IQ-baiting, race-baiting, class-baiting party.
Its called capitalism you gibbering idiot.
See, there was this guy by the name of Adam Smith and he wrote a book called…oh what the hell. You wouldn’t understand in any case.
People like you want, and need masters to tell you what to do. You cannot even conceptualize freedom, and thus are never willing to grant it to anyone else. Always with the government stepping in to make people do what you want.
That is rich, coming from the IQ-baiting, race-baiting, class-baiting party.
Meme #’s 4-6 in one sentence, BMoe. Brevity.
STFU, Nishidiot.
Can’t we just blame this on BONO (and his fawning media darlings) for demanding we spend so much money on only AIDS? You know, opportunity cost and all that.
cost-viable alternatives ?!
The cost-viable alternative to Barcky’s Euro-socialism is capitalism.
Well, just look at all that money we threw at the War on Poverty and see how our inner cities now gleam and shine with wealthy, productive folk as a result. Now THAT was cost-effective.
nuggie cannot grasp that the lying pandering in question is Democrat initiation rites. That somebody is proving their leftist stripes by the most transparent and most offensive of falsehoods, that being blaming a man’s death on a mendacious typecasting of an ideology that til now had been most fundamental to the American way.
This is done not to debate it, but to ruin that framework from this point forward, thereby purchasing political security. This nuggie somehow cannot grasp.
And it only cost us the better part of one hundred trillion dollars of debt and obligation, Jeffersonian. Bargain!
Fuck it is there anything the GOP is not responsible for? I mean without them Christopher Reeve would have lived and be competing against Lance Armstrong in the Tour De France, Kemp would be playing a pickup game of hoops with Obama right now, gays would be walking around married everywhere, racism would be a thing of the past, and noone would be poor. At least so my TV and Nishi has told me.
This winning elections problem started when erstwhile “conservatives” started mouthing off about how the Republican Party shouldn’t be about “ideology”. So now it isn’t and now it doesn’t.
We need a return to Thatcherism.
OT but hilarious. Dems refuse to fund Obama’s plan to relocate the Gitmo terrorist probably to wait until it can be done in a way that will not damage them politically. Que up the Mr. Rogers theme song.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97VJKI80&show_article=1
“By the way, how much would it cost to just go ahead and cure cancer?”
I understand the rhetorical point you’re trying to make, B Moe, but I’ll go ahead and answer anyway, cuz I’m tendentious like that.
And the answer is: it depends, both on what you mean by “cure” and on what you mean by “cancer”, but in any case one Hell of a lot. Check out this post on funding levels for research into various common cancer types. We’re doing reasonably well against breast and prostate cancers, but continue to pour huge amounts of research money into them. Meanwhile, much deadlier cancers (of the lung and pancreas, for instance) get less funding. There are political games being played with the distribution of funds, of course. Just try coming out publicly for reducing outlays on breast cancer research, and see where that gets you.
Now, so far as I can tell, exactly what flavor of cancer got Jack Kemp is not public knowledge. If it was cancer of the lung or pancreas, there might be a case to be made that the research that could have helped him has been shortchanged. If it was cancer of the prostate, that would be very difficult.
And of course all this elides the fact that some cancers are natively tougher diseases than others. It’s tempting to think that if we were willing to replicate the $13,452 per breast cancer death that we spend on breast cancer research, we could have equivalent success in treating lung cancers. This is almost certainly not true.
Funny. Specter tries to leverage the death of a by-God, small-government conservative to explain why healthcare should be run by the gubmint.
It’s funny because Specter is lying like a bad Persian rug and everybody knows it.
Marco doesn’t, dicentra.
He’s still quite popular with the majority after doing pretty much what he said he would do during his campaign.
HE’S still popular. When you ask people specifically about what he’s doing — should the gubmint bail out the auto industry? etc. — people are very much agin it.
You gotta read past the headlines, Skippy.
Nishi is a sociopath. Life is way too short to argue with someone whose idea of principle is to base positions solely on how things affect her.
She’s also stupid and/or lazy. How much thought do you think it takes to repeat the racist, classist complaints against the GOP?
Obammy promised to cartelize industry, nationalize banks and mau-mau anyone who failed to fall to his knees fast enough?
Tell us more, Marco.
“He’s still quite popular with the majority after doing pretty much what he said he would do during his campaign.”
Really? We are still in Iraq, he has raised taxes even though he promised not to for 95% of people, he campaigned against deficit spending but then quadrupled it, also his promises to be all “uniting” were complete and total bullshit since he can not give a speech without slamming anyone that doesn’t want the same things he does. If he has been or is “popular” is in total a result of the cult of celebrity which has been fostered with the total endorsement of our entire pop culture, so called “news” magazines and papers, and non stop billion dollar political campaign.
Yes, let’s keep our powder dry to fight the real fight instead of charging at the red cape Nishi waves in front of us.
She doesn’t improve threads, as you all know, and neither do the other resident trolls.
As for Specter, if we had a media interested in simple unvarnished truths then the story being told would be the true one, that Arlen is an opportunist who wasn’t ready to let go of the power he has held for so long.
I wonder if Marco, for example, knows the principle of Constitutional enumeration. If O!prompta’s plans go forward, people will die for want of progress, want of access, and expense. I may be one of them, actually.
“Comment by Nishi_Jenkins on 5/4 @ 12:38 pm #
What truths?”
Tax cuts increase revenue.
“And pandering? That is rich, coming from the IQ-baiting, race-baiting, class-baiting party.”
That’s rich coming from a moronic Nazi-wannabe.
I.q. baiting= why y’all calling me a retarded crapweasel?
Whose diaper gets changed first by the Democrat pages; Franken’s or Kennedy’s?
But we can pound Marco into submission first. He’s new ground.
Hey Marco:
Did Oprompta say he would give the UAW a 55% share in GM and the gubmint retain shares, too?
Did he say that the banks could not return the TARP funds?
Did he say that he wouldn’t prosecute his predecessors for their political decisions?
Did he say he would sic the White House press corps on anyone who refused to be strong-armed into giving up a legal contract?
Did he say he would absolutely NOT screw with the language, such as saying he’s “created or saved” 150,000 jobs, even though such a thing cannot possibly be verified?
Did he promise not to make up fake Churchill quotations that he read on some blog?
Did he say he would gladly apologize to the world for our multitude of sins, even if it got us exactly bupkis out of it?
Did he say that his policy statements had an expiration date on them? (We’ll close Gitmo! We’ll keep it open! Wait, maybe…)
Yup, he’s following through with his promise of making RADICAL CHANGES to the country. He just didn’t specify that he wasn’t going to operate within the bounds of the constitution or even common sense.
Didn’t he promise to invade Pockeestan somewheres in there, too?
So was Mussolini. They got Il Duce. We get Il Douche.
What’s the banned Lobbyist waiver up to now?
Remember, folks, “IQ baiting” means “not respecting people for simply mouthing the latest platitudes from the pseudo-intellectual class”. Conservatives respect scholars and thinkers — but we demand more from them than a college degree and the latest talking point from the “sophisticated”.
Arlen can’t come to grips with the fact that he’s going to die.
We favor free markets and oppose the crony fascism Obama’s instituting. As far as I’m concerned, a Honda made in Kentucky is more American than anything that will come out of GM for the foreseeable future.
Hell, in terms of liberty, a VW made in Mexico is more “American” than a Government Motors car. And, yes, I do know the history of VW.
Isn’t that the gist of this whole line of “argumentation” from the lefties? “The Republicans are content to let you die! Vote for us and you’ll live FOREVER!!!” When they pull shit like this and the Reed comment, that’s really what they’re saying.
It’s a testament to the teachers’ unions that America has been dumbed down to the point that making that argument doesn’t get you run out of town on a rail.
Rob, you’re not following the slack-jawed simpleton stereotype that Marco, with all of his sophistication and nuance, just knows is true. You need to stop that, because it just confuses and angers the poor dear.
Let’s stick to chewing tobacco, wife-beating, and NASCAR, so that Marco’s smug condescension isn’t challenged.
Wow what a strawman that guy just threw up now about not wanting to buy American. Go beat that strawman up buddy it won’t fight back.
I’ll walk before I’ll buy another VW. Eight years, 80 thothousand miles, 3 exhaust systems, 3 of those wire things that activate the clutch, two water pumps, an alternator and a headliner that rotted out. Plus one other early tow from some malady that I can’t remember. The first of the PA Rabbits. Right after I bought it, it was on the cover of Consumer Reports as “Unacceptable.”
I gave it away.
Is a Ford vehicle made in Brazil an ‘American’ car?
Is a Honda vehicle made in the US a Japanese car?
Congressional Motors would be making socialist cars (the 2012 Pelosi perhaps?) with all the love and attention the UAW is famous for.
Please tell us more about these “conservatives” and this “GOP,” Signor Marco. You appear to be somewhat of an expert, no?
Marco is a mendoucheous moonbat.
Buy American? Honda from Indy sounds good. Toyota from Princeton, IN, perhaps?
MarkD I had a Passat and honestly I would buy a bus ticket over buying one again. Freakin engine problems totalled the car and I ended up donating it to the Purple Heart Foundation. I do not know how but they ended up selling it for 2400 when a year and a half before I bought it for 9 grand.
Sorry about the VW MarkD.
I have a Dodge Ram 4X4 that’s given me about the same amount of problems.
However, I’ve had it for 15 years, 300,000 miles, and it still gets me to work in style and comfort every day.
I wonder if they will keep making Rams?
That’s not a condemnation of Americans, or even Pennsylvania. It’s a matter of learning from mistakes.
“As far the auto industry, I never thought I’d see the day when conservatives would actually advocate not buying American cars.”
Considering my tax dollars were used to prop up a company that ended up having to declare bankruptcy anyway, it appears the question of whether or not people are buying their cars is hardly relevant anymore.
Jeff writes:
The second paragraph is dead on. However, it is important to realize that Spector is about a millimeter thick when it comes to principles. Ultimately, it is all about him and his ginormous need to be noticed and taken seriously as a power broker.
Dana will back me up as to the many, many examples of Spector trying to find a way to stick his nose into arcane issues. He said he wanted to get involved in the Terrell Owens to do with the Eagles, only to back off when thousands (including me) wrote irate E-Mails asking him why this was so important. Ditto with the so called NFL “film gate” regarding the Pats, anti trust considerations aside.
Bottom line: It’s always been about Spector. Principles have never had anything to do with it. This was an easy switch because it was all about self-preservation and short term attention. The voters, whatever party they espoused, were just a means to Arlen’s ends. If they don’t already know, the Congressional Democrats will be learning this very shortly and it won’t be a pleasant lesson. Right now, the idiot MSM will give Spector exactly what he craves” uncritical face time.
I hope that he is grateful that, despite the Republican inspired funding gap that killed Kemp, enough money was squeezed out of the conservative Scrooges to successfully treat his cancer twice.
I’ve done OK with Fords (except Taurus), and better still with Honda and Toyota. Some were US made, some made in Japan, and some in Canada.
I am a Saab addict, but I will not be buying the new SUV that we had planned on, as long as it is still involved in Barcky’s little political patronage takeover of GM. Couple that with my desire to put off capital expenditures while the dirty little socialist is in office, and I will just have to drive the tires off of my current Saab.
Fuck you, Marco. And, Arlen.
WTF? Actus sighting…two o’clock. Fucking simp.
Liberals haven’t been buying American cars for decades.
Volvo, Subaru, BMW, Mercedes Benz automobiles all with Obama/Biden’08 stickers on them.
Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.
I’m with you on Saabs, JD. 2002 Saab 95 with 104,000 and still going strong. I did, however, catch a bad creak when the heating system died. Anything to be fixed in those little buggers is expensive and my original $300 bill has ballooned to over a grand.
Marko is all over the place and someone should check and see if a certain balloon fence building simian is trying to work his way back into the commentariat.
So do you have an actual argument to make Marco, or are you just interested in throwing around accusations of hypocrisy and scapegoating? Because from what I can see your shtick boils down to a request to just have everyone shut up, since they aren’t worthy enough to have an opinion on this matter.
Which kind of makes you a cock.
I’m sorry, but I still can’t get over this eructation:
WTF?? In the annals of stupid, this is monument-worthy. I mean, really, WTF?
My hypocrisy meter broke when the last anniversary of the Iraq war passed and all the supposed “anti” war morons stayed home. Obama is continueing the exact same policies as Bush and proposing over ten thousand more troops for Afghanistan, yet no marches against him. Freakin bunch of lying hypocrites all, it was never about being “anti” war but only a get out the vote drive for Democrats except with paper machette dolls and burnt flags.
“Let’s stick to chewing tobacco, wife-beating, and NASCAR,…”
I’ve done none of them in my entire life.
And I’m an agnostic.
Oooooo was that sound Marco’s head exploding?
Barcky says he does not want to be in the auto business. He just wants to dictate to them what cars they should produce and market.
I have nothing against American cars, but I also see no reason why one should not buy the best quality option at the best price that suits their needs. If that happens to be an American model, great. If not, just more evidence as to why GM has become Barcky and the UAW’s little patronage system. I feel no compulsion to buy American just because it is American. Nice to see Marco being a jingoistic asshat.
What I want to know is, if NHC is the best hope for Specters immortality, how come the UK or Canada haven’t found the cure for cancer yet? They’ve had socialized medicine for ages.
*He’s still quite popular with the majority after doing pretty much what he said he would do during his campaign*
Sheesh, from my perspective, he never talked about nationalizing the banking industry, submitting a trillion dollar budget, bailing out automakers, firing CEOs, doing another bailout, nominating t ax cheats to the most ethical cabinet ever, asking for billions to combat “swine flu”, taking gitmo detainees and letting them come to america, staying in Iraq with very little change, making fun of special olympians, bowing to saudi princes, insulting the PM of our closest ally and being incapable of making a speech without the teleprompter, despite his vaunted IQ. I saw none of this coming, based on his campaign rhetoric. The only thing I will agree he said he would do that’s he’s doing is apologizing in every country for america, though he did claim the result would better our standing in the world and I’m not seeing that part working out.
If he had mentioned some of that stuff, I sincerely doubt his support would have been what it was. But wait, we can’t criticize him because he’s the first black president and its history. We can’t ruin history – someone this historic cant be allowed to fall flat on his face….
Truths —
1. We live in an industrial society. People will tell you it’s “post industrial”, and in some ways they’re right, but the process of getting to the “post” part is by no means complete.
2. An industrial society produces a lot of wealth, which we use to improve people’s lives. At the turn of the twentieth century there were about a billion people on the planet; at the turn of the twenty-first there were closer to seven billion, on the average eating better and having more fun than their fellows a hundred years before.
3. An industrial society has a qualitative difference, an identifiable change, from the societies that preceded it: The sources of wealth, the industries, are themselves produced. The difference between a Blackberry and a factory to make Blackberries is one of degree, not of kind. Both require materials and labor taken from the greater society to produce them.
4. Factories are expensive. Somebody has to pay for them, and we have a special category for that kind of money: capital. No capital, no factories. No factories — and modern agriculture is a special case of “factory” — and seven billion people get nothing to eat.
5. There are many ways to collect the necessary capital to build a factory. All of them involve taking resources (denominated as money) out of the society as a whole and using it to make capital goods — the “means of production”. The basis of that is the wealth of the people. If there are people who can spare a buck or two, over and above what they need to eat, those people can kick in their surplus, and if you get enough of them to toss a bit on the pile you can collect enough to build the factory. If you don’t have people with surplus — “the rich” — your only choice is “the greatest good for the greatest number”, which is MarxSpeak for killing people off until what they needed to live adds up to enough to build a factory.
6. The United States developed — it would be better to say “stumbled upon”; nobody planned or designed it — a system that allowed the process of rich –> contribute surplus –> build factories –> produce more rich to work better than any society before (or, apparently, after). One of the central bits of “American cultural imperialism” is the more the merrier — the more people you have participating, the more wealth it generates. We have spent the last century trying to drag as many people into the virtuous cycle as possible.
7. One of the byproducts of the American system is that it tends strongly to distribute power; in fact, that’s one of the bases that were inadvertently introduced that made it work. Another byproduct is expanding the distribution — in a society of a thousand people there isn’t anybody out there at five sigma or better; in a society of a billion there may be room under the bell-curve for folks out at seven or more. This is good for the virtuous cycle of wealth generation, but it isn’t fair — there are people who have more than others, sometimes a lot more.
8. Ric’s Rule #3, a.k.a. the Field of Dreams Principle: If you build it, they will come. Specifically, if you provide a power center, you will attract people who want to exert and exercise power. Because the private capital system is unfair, it excites envy and jealousy, and power-seekers are quick to exploit that, assuring the people that they will eliminate the unfairness if they will only grant the power. If there is a correlation between the desire for power and the ability to use power wisely, the coefficient is small (and, in my opinion, negative). The result is that people who have no such intention end up handing their support to naked power-seekers who have neither the ability nor the intention to wield power responsibly.
Regards,
Ric
*“As far the auto industry, I never thought I’d see the day when conservatives would actually advocate not buying American cars.â€*
Sorry if I think union bosses don’t deserve to have companies they ruined due to outrageous contracts and unearned benefits continue on with business as usual.
Eh. My last car was a Pontiac. There were a few oddball problems with it — like the horn honking on its own when I drove through a particular section of highway — and a number of nagging problems with it.
Last summer I decided it was time to replace that car. I looked at what Pontiac was offering, since I’d like the previous one and had no MAJOR problems with it.
Nothing they had caught my eye. The replacement for the car I had didn’t have nearly the same set of features, and wasn’t even a US designed car — it was a Holden from Australia!
So I looked around a bit more, and the new VW diesels caught my gadget-freak eye. It’s still pretty low mileage (it needs its first oil change), but it’s been a joy. During the winter, diesel was more expensive than gasoline, but it looks like the summer months will see diesel going for less than premium, and sometimes less than mid-grade — and getting 40+mpg is damned sweet. I can’t wait for my next vacation drive — I got 45+mpg back before the engine was worn in; I should be able to beat that!
I must admit that I think of American cars as inherently inferior from what’s probably been ingrained since I was a wee one. Like yea, the new Cadillacs are sweet, the dodge charger is nice, they’re certainly out there. Given that foreign cars have to be extra-good to break into the US market and they seem to be ahead in terms on engineering aesthetics, i.e. GM and Ford just seem to be waking up to the fact that the box on wheels model isn’t particularly effective. Look at the newest crop of hondas versus the newest chevies. The same ingrained union assholeness is responsible I think.
I have to admit an affinity for NASCAR, but I despise that little cock-gobbler Kyle Busch. #88 is the man.
Very nice, Ric.
Very nice indeed.
Marco’s head won’t explode, it is a empty vessel. He comes here spouts a DNC/Journalist talking point gets that poked full of holes in seconds and never defends his position.
Just another empty headed zerobot.
“BTW, what’s your opinion on the National Council for a New America?”
Never heard of ’em.
What is it, the newest reactionary leftist talking point?
Oh, yes, with an approval rating quite similar to Bush’s at the same point. Nothing can possibly go wrong, eh Marco?
A quick Google search shows that “National Council for a New America” is the latest GOP outreach effort.
I don’t see why any of us should have an opinion on it.
I love how whenever an Obamabot strolls in to the comments here at PW they expect to find a bunch of fundamentalist bible-thumping rednecks so they toss out the usual strawman anti-GOP talking points. Nothing amuses me more than to watch them backstep like a country line dancer as their veil is lifted and they find that PW is populated by mainly logical conservatives/classic liberals who believe in freedom, equality and equal representation, and aren’t beholden to any political party.
Smells like victory, it does.
Ah but Rob, I am sure there are “extremists” who have some say in that national counsel- extremist who are anti-abortion, anti illegal immigration, anti gay marriage, anti socialism, pro creationist, GASP anti Obama. Those people extremist views ARE the views of every conservative in America- we are well known for walking lockstep, like jackbooted thugs, teabagging each other as we go, on a mission of Hate to destroy anyone not heterosexual whites (carrying giant paper mache heads).
“Comment by Tman on 5/4 @ 2:26 pm #
I love how whenever an Obamabot strolls in to the comments here at PW they expect to find a bunch of fundamentalist bible-thumping rednecks so they toss out the usual strawman anti-GOP talking points.”
That’s be because they’re ignorant hicks with a boatload of stupid preconceptions and stereotypes.
Not an original thought among a gross of ’em.
I’m a conservative christian sorta redneck living in florida. the problem is, the sterotype of a conservative, as spewed by people like garofolo and maher and picked up the masses of those people living in their own little pachule bubble, giggling to jon stewart and listening to ward churchhill, is flat out wrong.
Or in other words, I don’t think conservative means what they think it means.
You thought Specter was bad about Kemp, well Dodd goes One Step Beyond!
Becuase waterboarding KSM is the same as killing millions in Nazi death camps. Yep, Chris Dodd goes thermo-nuclear Godwin on Bush/Cheney.
As far the auto industry, I never thought I’d see the day when conservatives would actually advocate not buying American cars.
For now, Ford isn’t part of American Leyland, so I’ll consider them. Since the other two prefer to access my money through coercive means, they can forget getting it via voluntary means.
I’m just an observer following the trajectory and watching the vapor trail.
You know what’s in those “vapor” trails, don’t you?
I’m just sayin’
But leaves reconfirmed in his convictions. Progressive, that.
That too.
It took GM 3 damn years to go from concept to production with their fifth generation Camaro. When I saw it in 2006 I was really interested.
Now that 3 years have passed, I have pretty much lost interest. GM is just too far behind the curve to survive. Although we will all probably be subsidizing them as Government Motors very soon. We’ve already made the first installment payment of $17 billion.
[…] here: “Specter: GOP priorities contributed to Kemp death†Tags: begin-looking, country, disability-insurance, gop, insurance-benefits, more-reason, […]
National Council for a New America
Isn’t that the one in which McCain figures prominently? He’s got a lot of gall using the word “new.”
Marco appears to be one of those that bathes in Barcky’s love spunk, and swallowing a good bit of same.
“Comment by Marco on 5/4 @ 2:39 pm #
N. O’Brain: As has been noted above, this little old thing.
Eric Cantor seems to be quite enthusiastic. How about you?”
Stereotypes.
Unoriginal stereotypes.
What’d I tell you?
Ignorant hicks.
Excuse me, sophisticated ignorant hicks.
Governor Haley Barbour
Governor Jeb Bush
Governor Bobby Jindal
Senator John McCain
Governor Mitt Romney
John Boehner
Eric Cantor
Mike Pence
Cathy McMorris Rodgers
John Carter
Pete Sessions
David Dreier
Kevin McCarthy
Roy Blunt
Mitch McConnell
Jon Kyl
Lamar Alexander
John Cornyn
John Thune
Yup. There’s a fair few of them I’d kick out, though. Are these morons the future of the GOP?
I’m moving to South America.
Isn’t that the one in which McCain figures prominently? He’s got a lot of gall using the word “new.â€
They all got new suits for the kickoff presser, apparently.
Gonna have to be a lotta turnover in the GOP ranks before I trust them as far as I can toss one of Barky’s hybrids.
“Are these morons the future of the GOP?”
Naw.
Why don’t we institute a Republican wing of the Republican Party?
Yup. There’s a fair few of them I’d kick out, though. Are these morons the future of the GOP?
I see a few that are worth the powder needed to blow them to hell, but the rest I’d just as soon see make way for someone whose ass isn’t the shape of their chair.
Pence is not so bad. Marco is a cum-guzzling gutterslut.
Arlen needs him a little help in recognizing the people who actually, you know, vote in Primaries. You keep thinking it was the party, Arlen.
Jim DeMint, in an E-Mail, had some telling points, I think:
Marco,
I had to Google what that was. Having read this, I am left with the impression that these people are trying very hard to appear that they are trying very hard. I am less than impressed, and more than a little pissed off that the sort of vague generalities put forth in that letter are taken to actually mean something, and that the people who put that together continue to get elected apparently by an electorate who has ceased to actually give a shit.
your own damn party
Whose party would that be, Marco?
Most of us aren’t Republicans, idiot.
Sorry if that doesn’t mesh with your pre-written screeching points.
If you are wondering Marco, I am done with parties because somewhere along the line I realized that the parties I had to choose from were done with me.
Arlen was so displeased with the electorate, he nominated a new set of voters.
Sounds like an oxymoron to me.
But then being a conservative rather than a Republican, who cares?
I may be registered as a Republican, but that’s only because the Democrats are a larger danger to liberty than even the most office-bound party Republican.
Well, I did say “most”, Rob.
I’d bet money that you weren’t happy with the Republican nominee this time around, though.
That’s what Kiddie Koolaid Kult victims like Marco just can’t understand. To them, TEH PARTY IS OMNIPOTENT. TEH PARTY IS OMNISCIENT, TEH PARTY IS OMNIBENEVOLENT! ALL HAIL TEH PARTY!
If you’re a Republican, you’re REQUIRED to agree with every official PARTY statement, you see.
Marco, I’m sure it’s a major shock to you, but the world is NOT divided up into two teams of fascists, your team and the “other one”.
Some of us don’t like fascism at all.
Weird, huh?
Which means what exactly? You voted for the official White Christian Minuteman candidate instead of McCain?
It means that if you were on fire we’d toss gasoline on you, but if McCain was on fire we’d put it out but refuse to have a beer with him afterwards.
Hahhahahahahah. That didn’t take him long to imply we are all racist did it? I bet this fucker is lily white and looks like Screech from Saved by the Bell.
Marco,
How many different ways can you mischaracterize the commenters here? I’m at like twenty and this is just one thread.
What part of “the Republican party does not define the conservative/classical liberals who comment here” do you not understand?
Boy, you stuck on stupid.
I voted for Hillary. How about you, Marco?
Which means what exactly?
That you’re a jabbering idiot.
Hint: you have no idea what color I am, you stupid fucking fascist.
It means if Palin wasn’t on the ticket, I wouldn’t have voted.
I bet this fucker is lily white and looks like Screech from Saved by the Bell.
I agree.
I agree.
Also possible that it’s Pudge-O Whacker under yet another new name.
I have a feeling this Marco person is really Gordo.
You know, the one that bought himself a nice docile Philipina girl…
Tell you what, Marco, how about you state the leftist platform in the US? Not a single other leftroll I’ve challenged with that simple query has bothered to reply. I figured they didn’t have the time, this conservative thing like not working out and all here in the mid-phases of collectivizing the former constitutional republic.
So: You?
You know, the one that bought himself a nice docile Philipina “girl”…
Fixed it for you. Did you see the pics of that alleged woman? I didn’t notice an Adam’s apple, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Brrrrrrrrrrr.
Someone needs to call up Pudge-o’s dad and tell him to make sure that junior takes his meds every day, not just when he feels “bad”.
Marco’s inner thoughts “For the love of Gaia, please change the subject!”
Yes, I voted (R) for prez despite the candidate.
Further evidence that it’s Pudge-o: he runs away after being outed.
Is it just me or are the left wing douchebags that come on here having wayyyyy too much fun calling everyone racist if they do not agree with anything they say? It is almost as if they are using cries of racism instead of arguments or thoughts. I think this guy is racist as hell against white people.
Shouldn’t you be out looking for a job, Pudge-O? It’s a weekday, innit?
You have a “wife” to support now, after all.
And Marco, start with the wars on poverty and racism and those other moral charges written into the founding documents, especially now they’re paying all those handsome dividends. Then branch off into Marxist econ, and from there, nationalization. Have a throw at the national debt, that being all conservative and such, now that we simply have to grow it literally exponentially just to stay afloat in a sea of third world competitors.
Take a peek at government schools. At government medicine. At a passel of tens if not hundreds of special interest laws, policies, and manipulations of the natural order.
Whatever you want to specialize in, Marco, do compose a list of feature-benefits leftism is known for. Redeem what the rest of us are too blind to see. Be a hero.
Seriously, Marco. Just how hard could that be? How hard would it be to actually debunk classical liberalism by way of a working theory of what NancyBarneyHarryBarky are doing — what was it? This isn’t a principled battle? — even as you speak? Surely your paragons of virtue have a basis, a philosophy, a foundation. No?
Oh, I doubt it’s just white people, Mr. Pink.
er, meant hundreds of thousands…
Aww, you might be being a little hard on “her”.
Just ‘cuz she has an overbite like Mr. Burns on the Simpsons doesn’t necessarily mean “she’s” a man.
I know what you mean though…
Marco will never understand. To him, the only thinking involves choosing which party to support. After that, the only things left to do is to feel superior, mock those you have identified as the opposition and rest in the sweet assurance that your side will find the right people to do the right things.
The sad part is that he probably “thinks” about this stuff a lot.
Just WIN, Baby.
The Al Davis party, it seems.
I wonder which is the biggest slur in Marco’s mind. White, Christian or Minuteman?
Yeah, and you see how well that’s worked out.
What happened to “Marco”?
Dozens of posts, but the minute someone suggests that he might be Pudge-O, he scarpers.
Wow, Nishi’s ~~~back? Did they return internet access to Mrs. Phillips 11th grade homeroom?
<blockquote.And how does giving the state the power to determine who gets treated and who doesn’t prolong lives?
Crass. Opportunistic.
Um, didn’t Specter vote for the stimulus that has that provision for a health Computer Czar who decides who gets treatment or not and didn’t Bozo Specter say after hearing this he would change his vote if true, because the asshole Senator did NOT read the bill, but didn’t change his vote like he promised after all?
Arlen Specter is a liar and unprincipled and is exactly where he belongs. With the Democrats.
Well, to go back to neeshit’s comment-the BEST alternative would be to stick to what’s in the Constitution. Any party that promises and implements that policy has my vote.
The problem is that there are a number of “Republicans” who are stuck in “politician” mode. That is, they are far more concerned with being in “power” (even as a distinctly minority party), than in standing for a core set of principles. You can see how this is endemic to Democrats-they never speak of “principles,” only of the importance of “doing something,” even if that “something” will lead to catastrophic consequences. No problem, as long as it brings them votes.
My preference is for a party of principled people. If it’s true that the country has drifted leftwards, and this abomination of a president and congress is really what they want, then so be it. Nothing we can do will stop the inevitable conflagration. We failed when we let the leftards take over the schools and the media. That long march is bearing fruit, though we can all agree that it will be a bitter harvest. All we can do now, is sound the alarm and be ready when the shit hits the fan. And lay in plenty of rope.
my blockquote didn’t work. It ended after Jeff’s “opportunistic”.
Watched the Friday episode of Glen Beck, where he was talking about the media and the tea parties. I thought he explained very well where we are today.
He drew a horizontal line graph, with one end (the left) being totalitarianism (100% government control), and the other anarchy, and asked a guest were he thought the founding fathers were on the graph. Set them close to the right, saying they wanted minimum government.
Next he asked where the two parties were today, and set them 4/5’s to the left one above the other.
His point was, they are aligned vertically on the graph, keeping the electorate distracted with vertical arguments, all the while both were sliding further to the left.
I found it an illuminating illustration.
Which is why, lee, I called McCain out for being the statist he was, nevermind what his “rating” was.
Beck and Jillette on third parties and how the other two shut them down.
My mind is still reeling that the GOP selected as the party leader one who is affectionately called “Maverick” by the MSM for his famous penchant of voting against the GOP.
It’s kinda like a NFL coach reading the quote “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”, and deciding to let the opposing team have a say in your pay selection.
What could go wrong?
Play selection that is…
#83,
Correct and this whole Kemp episode is also about him. He’s a defector, by definition they cannot be trusted. The best that can be done to insure his loyalty is to make him publicly burn every bridge back. That’s the public side.
Privately you take and show him the opposition research you have collected over the years. Especially the skeletons that are surely there. The ones that ruin a name in the history books forever.
I hope and pray that Arlen now betrays the Dems too. That mob plays for keeps and never forgets any slight, ever.
Sorry SBP – Places to go, things to do.
Sure thing, Pudge-O.
Not quite sure what Pudge-O means.
Sure thing, Pudge-O.
Penn Gillette at JHoward’s link:
“They are afraid of the bumperstickers, not of the guns.”
Exactly the reason hate speech is going to get pushed much harder than gun control the next few years.
Dunno about that. I’m expecting — in light of all the court decisions in re the 2nd lately — some curious legislation attempting to control ammunition. Hell, I’d almost expect a name like “Civilian Ammunition Regularization Act”, with lots of buzz about it having the goal of “easing” the ammunition shortage.
One cause of a shortage is an excess of demand. Either lower demand or raise production. I favor more production myself.Democrat MMV.
Alphonzo on Specter.
You’re overly optimistic geoffb. I suspect they’ll deal with the shortage by making it even harder to buy.
Sorry my sarc/ tag didn’t come through. They will do as you say, which will reduce demand, which “cures” the shortage in the way they want it “cured”.
Like government approved and sanctioned assisted suicide will be a “cure” for all those shortages of expensive life saving drugs and procedures to extend the life of our seniors and the disabled, once we have government health care. The kind Arlen thinks will “cure” cancer. And it will, as I said above, “cure” it, permanently.
I’m more interested in restoring the original America, thank you.
Eric Cantor is the one what likes to mug nice insurance company executives for their bonus monies what they earned for their families so their kids can go to college and stuff. Someone should kick this little bitch in the shin hard and run away really fast.
The cost-viable alternative to Barcky’s Euro-socialism is capitalism.
Capitalism, exactly. Better known these days as “economics,” Nish.
Dude, JeffieG, it is the Free Market in action.
Your memes are simply not competitive in the current environment.
And conservative blogs sukk too.
Just look.
Yeah, that is really over the top, there, Nishfong. Never seen a popular lefty blog do anything like that.
Sorry to have to break this to you nish old girl , but free markets are a natural result of human interaction. Economics; the only hard social science. I have no idea what baraky thinks he’s up to and I don’t think he does either. According to an article I just read-see instapundit- there is a very real possibility that the governments take over of Chrysler is a violation of the takings clause of the constitutiion. The lefts long march against personal property rights is coming to a head.
It can’t be worse than your spelling.
Nishi-thong-head-gran-mal-narcissist-ab-cerebrum.
Just sayin’.
Twitter is a blog? Who knew?
Aim higher, ‘feets.
There’s the problem. Nishidiot has never experienced human interaction.
Fuck your meme-paradigm with a frozen swordfish, Nishi. Memes are for people who have decided that thinking is way too much effort. Sure, most people do blindly follow the meme-stream, but I don’t think many of Jeff’s readers are like that.
In other words, your memes are simply not effective in this environment. Best peddle your horseshit elsewhere.
A Specter Is Haunting Pennsylvania
Damn I wish I had said that.
“And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.â€
Wait a…is Specter saying that the research — that Republicans didn’t fund — saved his life? So how was there any research that saved his life if it wasn’t funded?
But then, if we had elected John Kerry in ’04, Christopher Reeve would be walking amongst us instead of maintaining room temperature.