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Too Much, Too Little, Too Late [Dan Collins]

Next, consider how the $604 billion of outlays would be spent.

It’s easy to go through a huge proposal and find what seem like fairly ridiculous line items, so I’ll focus on as comprehensive a view as I can of the spending. The CBO reviews each Title (basically, spending area) of the bill, and calls out major items within each Title. Here are all the items that I saw them identify as individual programs with more than $10 billion of projected outlays, in the order that they call them out:

$20.0 billion to increase the maximum benefit under the Supplemental Nutrition Assurance Program (i.e., Food Stamps)

$18.5 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs

$20.4 billion for programs administered by the Department of health and Human Services

$20.0 billion to renovate elementary and secondary schools

$17.6 billion for Pell grants and other student financial assistance at post-secondary institutions

$29.1 billion for other elementary and secondary educational programs

$30.0 billion for highway construction

$13.1 billion for other transportation programs

$11.2 billion for housing assistance programs administered by HUD

$19.5 billion (minimum, could be higher, as per Title XIII) for education grants to states

$27.1 billion for increase unemployment benefits

$13.3 billion to increase health insurance for unemployed workers

$11.1 billion for “Other Unemployment Compensation”

$20.2 billion for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments to encourage providers to improve healthcare IT

What does this sound like to you? It sounds to me like a wish list for the left wing of the Democratic Party.

That’s infrastructure, for you. Hey, Pig Spender!

311 Replies to “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late [Dan Collins]”

  1. happyfeet says:

    I’m really proud of those House Republicans.

  2. happyfeet says:

    I can’t believe I just typed that. That’s for real change, Dan.

  3. Joe says:

    Obama celebrates the stimulus with wagyu steaks!

    You have to admit, it is a fine looking cut of meat, look at the marbling!

    Unfortunately it leaves a bad aftertaste.

    I can’t believe someone actually dispatched John Murtha.

  4. happyfeet says:

    Where’s the NPR pay-off? Has anyone found it yet?

  5. Joe says:

    Good Job House Republicans! Now we have to work on the GOP Senate. Lindsay Graham and Orin Hatch will need emergency spinal transplants. And someone needs to work on Olympia Snowe.

  6. Carin says:

    Heh, Happy. As I wrote on my blog, “I’m finally proud to be a Republican.”

  7. alppuccino says:

    I’m really proud of those 11 House Dems happy. What a wonderful display of bipartisanship by the opposition, while those in favor of spending our way into a golf-course manicured National Mall strewn with condom wrappers were totally partisan.

  8. Carin says:

    Alp, it warms the cockles to see how Obama has created bipartisan non-support.

  9. Sdferr says:

    And Julia Child was in the OSS. My how times change.

  10. happyfeet says:

    Good point, al. Yes. We can. Not be Sweden. Maybe.

  11. Semanticleo says:

    Andrew W. Mellon
    (1921 – 1932)

    One of the major figures in the industrial and financial development of the Trans-Allegheny region, Andrew W. Mellon (1855-1937) was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Warren G. Harding in 1921, and he continued to serve under Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

    As the Nation embarked on the most materialistic period in its history, Mellon’s philosophy was one of debt reduction, tax reduction, and a balanced budget. His tax reform scheme, known as the Mellon Plan, reduced taxes for business.

    His theory was that big business would prosper in proportion to the lightening of its tax load and its profit would be transferred to the rest of the Nation. During much of his tenure, general prosperity and times of peace enabled Mellon to implement his measures. The Great Depression, however, beginning in 1929, undercut Mellon’s prestige and brought him under increasing criticism. Despite the downturn in the economy, Mellon continued his policy of balancing the budget by cutting spending and increasing taxes, which worsened the effect of the Depression on the ordinary citizen. When Mellon began spending a great deal of time overseas renegotiating World War I debt payments, Hoover relied more and more on Ogden L. Mills, Mellon’s Under Secretary, for advice. In 1932 Mellon left Treasury to become Ambassador to Great Britain, and he was replaced by Mills.

    I hear a lot of complaining from the Right on the economic strategy, but no ALTERNATIVES!!!.

    What would you do, nothing? Would you sit and watch the train wreck as Mellon did? Or what? C’mon. What’s yer strategy?

  12. Dan Collins says:

    Most of us think that a larger proportion of tax cuts would be way more stimulating way more quickly. Unfortunately, it would probably affect bureaucracies in a negative way, and we just can’t have that.

    Own it. Eat it.

  13. Sdferr says:

    Materialistic? WTF? As opposed to what, supernatural? Ideational? What nonsensical trash.

  14. B Moe says:

    Did you miss this part ‘Cleo?

    Despite the downturn in the economy, Mellon continued his policy of balancing the budget by cutting spending and increasing taxes, which worsened the effect of the Depression on the ordinary citizen.

    Because it kind of makes you look like even more of an idiot than usual.

  15. happyfeet says:

    Let’s cut some taxes. There’s your alternative. Also, you Harry Nancy Baracky people need to stop harassing the little carbon dioxide molecules. They’re our friends and they want to live in a prosperous, free society just as much as anyone else. Bigots.

  16. Sdferr says:

    Don’t just do something (government), stand there.

  17. Carin says:

    Mellon should have found a way to get WW2 started a bit earlier …

  18. Carin says:

    Tax cuts. tax cuts. And tax cuts.

  19. Techie says:

    Wait, I thought those EVIL REAGAN 80s were the most materialistic years. Or the Tech Bubble 90s, or the Swinging 60s.

    I’m so confused.

  20. BJTexs says:

    I think Semantics-Clueless just waterboarded herself. Cutting spending and increasing taxes is about as uninspiring an economic stimulus as it gets.

    Oh and how about more money for infrastructure and real job growth and less (as in non, none, nada) money for ACORN and contraceptives.

  21. AKA Pablo says:

    I hear a lot of complaining from the Right on the economic strategy, but no ALTERNATIVES!!!.

    That’s because you, like the House Dems and Prezidunce Obama, aren’t listening. If you’d pay attention, you wouldn’t have that problem.

  22. Sdferr says:

    Greg Mankiw:

    Via NYU prof Mario Rizzo, here is John Maynard Keynes of 1942, six years after The General Theory:

    Organized public works, at home and abroad, may be the right cure for a chronic tendency to a deficiency of effective demand. But they are not capable of sufficiently rapid organisation (and above all cannot be reversed or undone at a later date), to be the most serviceable instrument for the prevention of the trade cycle.

  23. Silver Whistle says:

    Oh and how about more money for infrastructure and real job growth and less (as in non, none, nada) money for ACORN and contraceptives.

     Buying my contraceptives wouldn’t set you back much, BJTexs.

  24. Carin says:

    Gotta share a comment from my blog about this dealo (does that word bug you too, thor? lemme know):

    I’m going to sit back and enjoy the show, because y’all are going to look really stupid if/when Obama’s plan works. It’s political suicide to be so anti-Obama when he’s being so gracious to all sides. The Reps are likely to be wandering in the wilderness for 20+ years.
    OceanCat | 01.29.09 – 11:26 am | #

    Heh. It’s precious.

  25. AKA Pablo says:

    This would be an alternative too, but you can’t listen to that and get things done. Not in this Congress or with Resident Obama, anyway.

    O! noes!

  26. AKA Pablo says:

    Here’s another alternative: instead of free contraceptives, free sterilization. Discuss.

  27. Semanticleo says:

    I don’t hear alternatives, only bleating about how many times you have declared them. Where’s the beef?

  28. happyfeet says:

    Baracky’s plan is designed to fail so Baracky can have a more better more spendy plan after that one and have no choice but to cut cut cut defense. Dickhead. Never let a crisis go to waste. He’s so bad for America it’s really sort of chilling.

  29. Semanticleo says:

    1st brave venture toward alternatives….

    “$414 billion — will be directed toward tax cuts, as determined by ME,ME, ME.” (emphasis mine)

    The Limbaugh alternative. Takes yer breath away, don’t it?

  30. Carin says:

    Heh. Honestly, you’re a hoot Cleo. You do know what links are, right?

  31. Mr. Pink says:

    Cleo can’t even give us a reason to support this.

  32. Log Cabin says:

    So the House resolution approving the use of military force in Iraq had far more bi-partisan support than the Great Pork Act of 2009?

  33. Semanticleo says:

    2nd Prize goes to…..

    “Organized public works, at home and abroad, may be the right cure for a chronic tendency to a deficiency of effective demand. But they are not capable of sufficiently rapid organisation (and above all cannot be reversed or undone at a later date), to be the most serviceable instrument for the prevention of the trade cycle.”

    Really, people. Specificity, specificity…….

  34. TheGeezer says:

    I just knew there were perks for the traditional allies of lib spenders. Two of six universities/colleges in my metro area announced tuition increases for next term!!!! It never fails!

  35. Techie says:

    Yes, ‘Cleo, this may come as a shock to you, but most of the posters on this site favor keeping control over their own funds.

    You’re welcome to write a check to the US Treasury any time you please.

  36. Semanticleo says:

    This unspecific alternative gets an unhonorable mention…..

    “Most of us think that a larger proportion of tax cuts would be way more stimulating way more quickly.”

  37. N. O'Brain says:

    Comment by Semanticleo on 1/29 @ 10:07 am #

    Do you speak English?

  38. DarthRove says:

    I have a feeling ‘cleo wouldn’t know a specific if it sank it’s left upper and lower canines into her right rear gluteus maximus.

  39. Techie says:

    Maybe The One could save the taxpayers a few kilowatt hours and turn down the White House thermostat.

    [WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat. “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.]

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29whitehouse.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

    Weren’t we supposed to turn down our thermostats and stop driving our SUVs?

  40. Carin says:

    Heh, found over at Ace’s. Apparently Obama doesn’t like the cold, and turned up the white house thermostat. Didn’t he tell us we can’t keep our houses set at 72?

  41. Semanticleo says:

    It’s gonna take a huge cut out of Blackwater’s budget to do this.

  42. Carin says:

    I’m too slow. But, my thermo’s set at 67, so my fingers are cold/slow.

  43. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    “I hear a lot of complaining from the Right on the economic strategy, but no ALTERNATIVES!!!.”

    Bwuahhahahaha! After 8 years of fucking embeciles like semen bitching, moaning, kvetching about everything BUUUUUUUUUUUSSSHHHH did, and he has the “audacity” to type that? You dorks never did offer up alternatives. You just bitched about Bush like the petulant children that you are.

  44. B Moe says:

    Enact the FairTax and reduce the size and scope of the Federal Government to Constitutionally mandated limits.

    How’s that, cleo?

  45. parsnip says:

    Funny the stimulus bill turned out to be a suicide pact for what’s left of the Republican party.

    Guess the Congresscritters can always blog for a living after they get the boot.

    Right…there’s money in wingnut blogging, isn’t there?

  46. Semanticleo says:

    So y’all want to just complain from the sidelines? Is there anyone with the balls and integrity to outline a plan, I mean other than >chuckle> Limbaugh?

  47. Carin says:

    I’m voting with B Moe.

  48. N. O'Brain says:

    Comment by Semanticleo on 1/29 @ 10:58 am #

    I got it!

    He speaks Strawman!

    That explains a lot.

  49. AKA Pablo says:

    I don’t hear alternatives, only bleating about how many times you have declared them.

    Shorter ‘cleo: *fingers in ears* LALALALALALALA! I can’t hear you!

  50. Techie says:

    It’s failing a Turing Test.

  51. Mossberg500 says:

    Where’s the infrastructure spending? I guess Chrissie’s leg isn’t tingling anymore!

  52. Semanticleo says:

    “Enact the FairTax and reduce the size and scope of the Federal Government to Constitutionally mandated limits.”

    That’s strategic and long-term. I’m talking what do you do NOW to stop the bleeding out of jobs?

  53. AKA Pablo says:

    The House voted down several Republican proposals, including a substitute package made up entirely of tax cuts for individuals and businesses.

    By another near-party-line vote, 270 to 159, the House rejected a Republican plan to delete a number of spending programs, including several representing top campaign promises of Mr. Obama, and to add instead $36 billion for highway construction, more than doubling the $30 billion in the bill, and $24 billion for Army Corps of Engineers projects.

    What alternatives?! There are no alternatives! Thus spake ‘cleo.

  54. AKA Pablo says:

    I’m talking what do you do NOW to stop the bleeding out of jobs?

    Condoms and food stamps!

  55. Semanticleo says:

    I guess y’all are sticking with Mellon’s ‘do-nothing’ approach. Is that it?

  56. Carin says:

    Cut taxes.

    Please, cleo, Obama’s plan isn’t going to stop any bleeding of jobs. Do you mind pointing to one of those above items (or any from the stimulus sham) that is going to prevent job loss in the private sector?

  57. N. O'Brain says:

    “That’s strategic and long-term. I’m talking what do you do NOW to stop the bleeding out of jobs?”

    Reduce taxes, then reduce taxes.

    Then reduce taxes.

    Then start chopping away at the bloated, unconstitutional accretions obn the Federal government.

  58. Techie says:

    Well, obviously you buy condoms by the tons, and tell all those investment bankers and assembly workers to start digging post holes.

    Oh wait, that’s just a fraction of this bill. I’m sure ACORN can hire thousands of workers with the money they’re going to get. What about HUD?

    And then in two years, what then? Do they all lose their jobs again, or do we have to pass “emergency stimulus” bills every two years from henceforth?

  59. VAHighlander says:

    To the victors go the spoils. The Dems have a lot of nerve passing off this spending bill as economic stimulus. Interestingly enough I think most people see this for exactly what it is, rank patronage. Now that they’ve gotten this out of the way maybe someone will actually think of something productive to do in Congress. But I doubt it. I’ll be interested to see how the Senate Republicans vote on this.

  60. N. O'Brain says:

    The recession.

    Own it, seman.

    It’s all yours.

  61. parsnip says:

    Andrew Sullivan had this Gallup map today showing Republican’s are down to only 4 solid states, Mormomland plus Alaska:

    http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/28/redblue.png

    Keep up the good work, extremists!

  62. N. O'Brain says:

    The Obama-Pelosi-Reid Bugger the Taxpayer Bill of 2009.

  63. Carin says:

    You know, I’m thinking that Cleo isn’t actually talking to us. These are all pre-written responses. That’s why they make so little sense.

  64. N. O'Brain says:

    Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 11:09 am #

    alfie reads Andrew Sullivan..

    Do you get a thrill running up your leg when you do that, you retarded marmoset?

  65. Carin says:

    I see snippy’s bringing the bunnies to this debate.

  66. Semanticleo says:

    “Reduce taxes, then reduce taxes.

    Then reduce taxes.”

    More Mellonoma.

    It’s really odd that so many who are at the lowest marginal rate are afraid they are paying too much in taxes. You know, like Joe the Plumber who was concerned Obama would raise taxes on his non-existent business.

  67. DarthRove says:

    Or reduce corporate tax rates to 0%. That might incent businesses to use the capital to hire people to do productive work.

    As opposed to “creating” government “jobs” that produce no tangible good or desired service.

  68. Techie says:

    Have you read anything on this thread yet?

  69. N. O'Brain says:

    Comment by Semanticleo on 1/29 @ 11:11 am #

    “Reduce taxes, then reduce taxes.

    Then reduce taxes.”

    More Mellonoma.”

    “Despite the downturn in the economy, Mellon continued his policy of balancing the budget by cutting spending and increasing taxes, which worsened the effect of the Depression on the ordinary citizen.

    You don’t have much in the way of coherence, do you, seman?

  70. parsnip says:

    Even the Republicans admit they are powerless eunuchs now, Carin.

    Obama politely gave them a chance to have a say and look what they did…turned into spoiled brats.

    Do they really think any American is dumb enough to think the Republicans are fiscally responsible after they just wracked up $5,000,000,000,000 in debt?

    So they’re ending their political careers to win the approval of a draft dodging drug addict.

    There’s something that’s just perfect about that, isn’t there?

  71. N. O'Brain says:

    Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 11:16 am #

    You’re a fucking retard, alfie.

  72. Carin says:

    ’s really odd that so many who are at the lowest marginal rate are afraid they are paying too much in taxes. You know, like Joe the Plumber who was concerned Obama would raise taxes on his non-existent business.

    It’s odd that you think you know what rate anyone here pays.

    But, we are ALL taxed too much. We are taxed for just about everything we do. It’s obscene. I noticed yesterday there is some bullshit tax on the garbage pickup for my husband’s business. 25%

    For example, we are taxed to buy a car, register a car, and drive the car. And, if we sell the car … the state gets it’s tax money AGAIN.

  73. B Moe says:

    That’s strategic and long-term. I’m talking what do you do NOW to stop the bleeding out of jobs?

    Avoid short term band aids that only prolong or worsen the problem, think long term and strategic instead. And actually, I disagree the FairTax is a long term solution, I believe the economy would explode if that were enacted.

  74. Mr. Pink says:

    Cleo if I am supposedly at the lowest rate why the hell am I personally paying 40 percent of my earnings to the government? That is 5 months out of the year I work to pay off politicians who then use the money to buy votes from stupid sons of bitches like you.

  75. Sdferr says:

    Closing bankrupt business is a good thing. Jobs do go away under such circumstances. New business will arise and with it, new jobs. Government isn’t meant to be in the business of making jobs. It isn’t good at it even when it tries. What it is good at is wasting bucketloads of capital and generating higher opportunity costs than would otherwise be the case. So time is lost and can’t be regained.

  76. B Moe says:

    Obama politely gave them a chance to have a say…

    Funny, I thought it was the Constitution that granted them a say.

  77. Carin says:

    Heh, you can call Rush all the names you want and that’s what you’ll do because:
    1) You can’t actually debate his ideas and,
    2) It is absolutely essential that left attempts to disrupt Republican thought or unity.

    And, if voting like actual REPUBLICANS is behaving like spoiled brats … honestly, you’re an idiot.

  78. Mr. Pink says:

    Also like Darleen said that is not counting all the other little bullshit taxes I get thruout the year. I added it up yesterday I pay more per month for taxes than I do for my freakin mortgage.

  79. Mr. Pink says:

    Sorry I mean Carin.

  80. N. O'Brain says:

    “Being a disinterested government official does not mean that you know what you are doing. That fact gets left out of the equation in a lot of proposals for new government programs.”

    -Thomas Sowell

  81. Mr. Pink says:

    Do not worry about what is in the bill though our media will tell us.

    http://gmy.news.yahoo.com/v/11760029

  82. AKA Pablo says:

    Bitching about a radio host – A New Way Forward.

    Judgment to Lead, people. Judgment to Lead.

  83. N. O'Brain says:

    “When government does, occasionally, work, it works in an elitist fashion. That is, government is most easily manipulated by people who have money and power already. This is why government benefits usually go to people who don’t need benefits from government. Government may make some environmental improvements, but these will be improvements for rich bird-watchers. And no one in government will remember that when poor people go bird-watching they do it at Kentucky Fried Chicken.”

    — P. J. O’Rourke

  84. B Moe says:

    Government creates work, not jobs. If the government pays a grading company $100,000 to level a patch of ground, they have created work for the company, until the money runs out. If they give the grading company a $100,000 tax break to buy another bulldozer and they hire a new man to run it, a job has been created. All of these highway bills will create work, when the money runs out, so does the work.

  85. N. O'Brain says:

    The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.

    – P. J. O’Rourke

  86. N. O'Brain says:

    “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys”

    -P.J. O’Rourke

  87. AKA Pablo says:

    Do not worry about what is in the bill though our media will tell us.

    Did you hear what Rush Limbaugh said? No, not that policy prescription (we’re not talking about that, ever), the outrageously outrageous thing! ELEVENTY!!!

    I yield the balance of my time.

  88. Semanticleo says:

    “Do they really think any American is dumb enough to think the Republicans are fiscally responsible after they just wracked up $5,000,000,000,000 in debt?”

    Parsnip;

    Don’t you know that most here disagreed with their republican leadership on this matter and regularly chastised them with numerous posts, letters, emails phone calls and comments decrying the fiscal irresponsibility of lowering taxes during a two-front war.

    Oh yeah. They did complain about s-chip healthcare for children.

  89. N. O'Brain says:

    “The era of the state church has been replaced by an age in which the state itself is the church. European progressives [and reactionary leftist Democrats – NOB] still don’t get this: they think the idea of a religion telling you how to live your life is primitive, but the government regulating every aspect of it is somehow advanced
    and enlightened.”

    -Mark Steyn

  90. N. O'Brain says:

    “What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.”

    -Tom Clancy

  91. B Moe says:

    Don’t you know that most here disagreed with their republican leadership on this matter and regularly chastised them with numerous posts, letters, emails phone calls and comments decrying the fiscal irresponsibility of grossly increasing the size of government and spending domestically like drunken sailors.

    FTFY

  92. Mr. Pink says:

    Click on that link Pablo if you want to gag.

  93. N. O'Brain says:

    “Conservatives acknowledge the Law of Unintended Consequences, which is: The unintended consequences of bold government undertakings are apt to be larger than, and contrary to, the intended ones.”

    -George Will

  94. N. O'Brain says:

    “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

    – Ronald Reagan

  95. Techie says:

    A little history lesson/quiz: Prior to 1994, how long did the Democrats hold a majority in the House?

  96. N. O'Brain says:

    “An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.”

    -Robert A. Heinlein

  97. AKA Pablo says:

    Don’t you know that most here disagreed with their republican leadership on this matter and regularly chastised them with numerous posts, letters, emails phone calls and comments decrying the fiscal irresponsibility of lowering taxes during a two-front war.

    Revenue has increased to record levels, nitwit. Lower taxes are not the problem. Spending is the problem.

  98. Carin says:

    Cleo only pretends to read here.

  99. N. O'Brain says:

    “A government supported artist is an incompetent whore.”

    -Robert A. Heinlein

  100. N. O'Brain says:

    “A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.”

    -G.B. Shaw

  101. Ric Locke says:

    ONE: There is nothing, nothing whatever, that can be done to stop the bleeding off of jobs in the short term. That process began two years ago, and anything done now is erecting snow fences at the bottom of the hill when the avalanche has already started.

    TWO: One of the reasons I’m hurting is that I’m a leading indicator of the economy. My expertise is in installing and repairing systems that are used for providing the information needed for construction to proceed — that is, in order to build anything significant, first they need me, then they need the gear I service, then they need the data that gear produces, and only then can construction go ahead. I just got a call from a potential client — his client is still delaying because the contracts aren’t in place. From experience, I can say that if Jay called back this afternoon saying the deposit check was on the way it would be a minimum of one year before any significant uptick, and more like two.

    THREE: If you want a reasonably-immediate stimulus to the economy, get rid of 99% of the regulations. Taxes are a big deal, yes, but business in general and industry in particular is paying huge amounts that receive absolutely no return on “investment”. Taxes can be lived with. They are simply a cost of doing business. Nitpicking regulations requiring hours of filling in forms for “regulatory compliance” and endless delays in getting things done because you can’t get any three Government agencies to even agree on what data they need, much less on what needs to be done, are submerging the whole system in treacle.

    Regards,
    Ric

  102. BJTexs says:

    “Trolls write much, read little and comprehend nothing.”

    BJTex

  103. Techie says:

    Why are you such a racist hater of your new LightworkerKing, Ric?

    Alphie might report you to the authorites.

  104. Joe says:

    N.O’Brain, when in doubt quote Heinlein!

  105. Techie says:

    “authorities”

  106. Bob Reed says:

    I thought that stimulus plan was about infrastructure spending, to put people back to work…

    Looks like the only infrastructure being worked on here is the one belonging to the Democratic party!

    But, you know, as Rahm-bo says, “You never want a serious crisi to go to waste”…

    Lovely…

    So the same bunch that prayed for us to lose in Iraq so they could score cheap political points, now iwants to take advantage of what has been sold to the public as a need for economic stimulus to ram elements of their political agenda down all our throats…

    Integrity!, Honesty!, Ethics!, Responsibility!, Change!

    O!

    I’m glad the house Republicans voted this down, and hope that O!&Co. do follow through and publish monthly unemployment figures by state and district as they’ve threatened…

    ‘Cuz when this boondoggle doesn’t immediately abate that, within a few months, well let’s just say the prooooooooof! will be in the puddin’…

    ‘Cuz they O!wnz it all now!

  107. Techie says:

    “Trolling is a manifestation of mental illness”.

    Stuff Al Cilrado Said: Vol. 1

  108. AKA Pablo says:

    Nitpicking regulations requiring hours of filling in forms for “regulatory compliance” and endless delays in getting things done because you can’t get any three Government agencies to even agree on what data they need, much less on what needs to be done, are submerging the whole system in treacle.

    OTOH, it does keep people employed. Not productively employed, mind you, but employed nonetheless. Good union jobs too.

  109. Carin says:

    Ric, the is a direct relationship between taxes and regulations. The more we are taxed, the more people on the government dole, who then need to justify their existence by creating more regulations.

    More taxes simply means more government which results in more interference, in business and otherwise.

  110. B Moe says:

    Revenue has increased to record levels, nitwit. Lower taxes are not the problem. Spending is the problem.

    You know what else is amazing, Pablo? Even eight years of war profiteering war mongers fighting a two front war can’t push Defense spending above Health and Human Services!
    http://www.federalbudget.com/

  111. Bob Reed says:

    Ric,

    As usual, you make some excellent points…

    Hears hoping that some of those deposits come your way, bro!

  112. Bob Reed says:

    DRAT!
    Hears = Here’s

  113. Semanticleo says:

    “Spending is the problem.”

    An unfunded mandate for war in Iraq is not an expenditure?

    You are too funny!

  114. Techie says:

    This is the part where either ‘Cleo responds for the 8th time waving a name he found on Wikipedia that is either tangential to the topic or actually undermines his own position, and alphie to demonstrate its 14 year old intellect.

  115. N. O'Brain says:

    Holy bathtub gin, Batman, the Democrats want to cause a Depression:

    ‘Buy American’ Rider Sparks Trade Debate

    “The stimulus bill passed by the House last night contains a controversial provision that would mostly bar foreign steel and iron from the infrastructure projects laid out by the $819 billion economic package.

    A Senate version, yet to be acted upon, goes further, requiring, with few exceptions, that all stimulus-funded projects use only American-made equipment and goods.”

    Smoot-Hawley here we come.

    Can 30% unemployment be far behind?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/28/AR2009012804002.html?hpid=topnews

    Via HotAir.

  116. Roland THTG says:

    GIMME GIMME GIMME

  117. Semanticleo says:

    “fighting a two front war can’t push Defense spending above Health and Human Services!”

    ‘Cause we can’t spend more on our citizens welfare than we do on Defense.

  118. Joe says:

    Cant the POTUS just eat his Kobe steak and arugula salad?

    If he is from Hawaii, then why am I teh one eating fried Spam and dirty rice?

    Comment by ML — 1/29/2009 @ 9:32 am

    Paul Theroux noted that he though most Pacific Islanders loved Spam because it is the closest approximation of human flesh. And talk about good old American know how, packed in convienent tins with a key!

    Just do it President Obama! And while your at it, enjoy a smoke too. Be a rebel and have a ciggarette in the Oval Office. Monica and Bill smoked there.

  119. Techie says:

    Oh, I’d say the Iraq War was pretty well funded, even by your Democrat controlled Congress.

  120. Log Cabin says:

    Snippy has been reduced to insults after it was administered a rhetorical asswhuppin’ last night on another thread. It still can’t decide if it is for or against deficits and whether or not there is a natural business cycle of boom and recession or if the economy is controlled by executive or legislative action/inaction.

    So it is reduced to quoting Sully here (that, and cries of racism) it has no logical arguments of it’s own to submit.

    It’s really an over-emotional, friendless little twit. Awww.

  121. Techie says:

    Or that defense spending is expressly mandated in the Constitution, while midnight basketball isn’t.

    That could have something to do with it too.

    Why do you hate defensive contractors so much, ‘cleo? Do you want Raytheon, LockheedMartin, NorthropGrummen, General Dynamics, etc. to have massive layoffs? Do you want their families to starve and shiver this winter?

    You heartless bastard.

  122. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by Semanticleo on 1/29 @ 11:42 am #

    “fighting a two front war can’t push Defense spending above Health and Human Services!”

    ‘Cause we can’t spend more on our citizens welfare than we do on Defense.”

    How many patients did HHS see last year?

  123. B Moe says:

    ‘Cause we can’t spend more on our citizens welfare than we do on Defense.

    That is stupid on so many levels I don’t even know where to start.

  124. BJTexs says:

    Aaaaaaand DING! Invoke the Iraq war. Wash, rinse, repeat.

    Revenues? We don’t need no steenkin’ revenues!

    One wonders if cleo and parsnip ever get tired of being so predictable.

  125. Rob Crawford says:

    Or reduce corporate tax rates to 0%. That might incent businesses to use the capital to hire people to do productive work.

    Curiously, that would also reduce the flight of businesses to tax havens. Hell, reducing the corporate rates to 1% would do the same.

    It’s weird how the left sees people and companies taking their money somewhere else and DEMAND A LAW TO STOP IT!!! yet never ask themselves “how can we make these people want to keep their money in the US?”

  126. Techie says:

    What about soldier’s paychecks? You could cut them, ‘cleo. That’d reduce defense spending.

  127. Semanticleo says:

    “Invoke the Iraq war.”

    ALL roads lead to Iraq.

    Live it.

    Eat it.

    It’s your signature clusterfuck.

  128. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by Techie on 1/29 @ 11:48 am #

    What about soldier’s paychecks? You could cut them, ‘cleo. That’d reduce defense spending.”

    Now seman wants to snatch milk from grandaughter’s hands.

    YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD!!!!!

  129. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by Semanticleo on 1/29 @ 11:51 am #

    “Invoke the Iraq war.”

    ALL roads lead to Iraq.

    Live it.

    Eat it.

    It’s your signature clusterfuck.”

    Clusterfuck?

    We’ve won.

    Some clusterfuck.

  130. Rob Crawford says:

    Wait — I’ve seen lefties arguing that all the pork the Donks are pushing is stimulus because any spending acts to stimulate the economy.

    Yet we also have them bitching and moaning about defense spending. Yet if any spending — even NEA grants, rubbers, and memorials to John Murtha and Robert Byrd — is stimulus, then isn’t defense spending also stimulus?

  131. Rob Crawford says:

    Clusterfuck?

    We’ve won.

    Some clusterfuck.

    Lefties see American victories as clusterfucks. It invalidates their worldview.

  132. AKA Pablo says:

    An unfunded mandate for war in Iraq is not an expenditure?

    Add “unfunded mandates” to the list of things ‘cleo doesn’t understand.

  133. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    “‘Cause we can’t spend more on our citizens welfare than we do on Defense.”

    There’s that “fatally flawed” constitutionthingamajinger again.

  134. Matt says:

    I’m sorry snippy but if repubs are doing such a bad job and running themselves out of power, shouldn’t you be more encouraging ?

    People have been saying do away with corporate and capital gains taxes (temporarily) for two years now- Limbaugh’s plan is not new but it would work. Lower taxes = more spending for companies = more employees = more jobs = more folks receiving a paycheck.

    Its change we can believe in but snippy would rather focus on the 4 solid states republicans own. Sigh. You and your party own this snippy- OWN IT.

  135. Matt says:

    *ALL roads lead to Iraq.Live it.Eat it.”

    Fine by me. As now President Obama once pointed out, the surge exceeded all expectations. And if Obama said it, we know you believe it.

  136. Rob Crawford says:

    Add “unfunded mandates” to the list of things ‘cleo doesn’t understand.

    So that pretty much comes to ‘cleo not understanding anything except his hard-on for reinstituting slavery, right?

  137. B Moe says:

    As now President Obama once pointed out, the surge exceeded all expectations.

    He obviously forgot to check with ‘cleo and the tuber. Unforgivable oversight there.

  138. Techie says:

    Actually, I had totally skipped that one over. Now I’m curious:

    Define “unfunded mandate” please.

  139. parsnip says:

    I will forgive all you unpatriotic doomsayers when the American economy starts booming in a few months.

    I don’t know if the rest of America will, though.

    And if the real plan is to turn the Republican party in a small, regional party, I’d have to say “Mission Accomplished!”

  140. Techie says:

    Don’t worry, Obama will go about stimulating the hell of out the economy, as soon as he figures out his way around the White House.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/01/28/2009-01-28_hey_bam_thats_not_the_door.html

  141. mojo says:

    You can either
    1) do something useful with your money or
    2) give it to a government.

    They are mutually exclusive choices.

  142. Techie says:

    BTW, any comments on the Smoot-Hawley Redux plan?

    I’m sure potentially killing the Export sector of the economy will be quite stimulating.

  143. parsnip says:

    Does that mean the trillion dollars a year America blows on its military isn’t “useful” mojo?

  144. Sdferr says:

    The economy here may very well revive on the heels of Fed Reserve interest rate cuts executed last fall and winter. These sorts of monetary actions have long been know to far precede their effects by as much as six months to a year. Passage of time is required for the ripples to propagate across the lake.

  145. Techie says:

    Alphie’s gonna love him some trade wars. I’m sure the WTO falling apart at the seams due to the largest economy in the world pulling out (which is what the “Buy American” provisions would probably require) would do wonders for the global economy.

  146. kelly says:

    Shouldn’t there be a minimum age requirement for commenting at PW? Say, age 21? I only offer it out as a simple remedy to comments posted by pre-pubescents like snippy. To wit:

    I will forgive all you unpatriotic doomsayers when the American economy starts booming in a few months.

    I hope for your sake you are, in fact, age 12. It’s the only way to explain/overlook such idiocy.

  147. Roland THTG says:

    Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 12:13 pm #

    Does that mean the trillion dollars a year America blows on its military isn’t “useful” mojo?

    Damn the facts. Full speed ahead!

  148. happyfeet says:

    Baracky is hell on this little economy already. Just the prospect of that buy American gayness throws a lot of uncertainty into the market… This isn’t an accident. Never let a crisis go to waste. Exacerbate it.

  149. kelly says:

    Good point, Sdferr. Except that the Fed was already cutting rates this time last year. Where did that stimulus go? The Fed is pushing on a string now.

  150. Bob Reed says:

    Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

    Captain Bullshit and the Dems want to go all the way and turn the recession into a full fledged depression…

    Even the effin’ WaPo can see the writing on the wall…

    http://tinyurl.com/cfva8o

    You shouldn’t have to write this kind of proviso into law; the managers of such projects should do it because it’s common sense and arguably morally right; especially when our economy here at home is in such bad shape…

    That’s why my wife and I buy American manufacturers cars and goods as much as possible…

    Whatever happened to the union’s buy American propaganda anyway? Oh, that’s right, it ended when they all started bying Toyotas, Hondas, and the Kias that were dumped over here!

    Codifying this is a veeeeery bad move and will start a trade war that will hurt our economy badly, and as noted roll back generations of free trade efforts…

    This is just a bone to throw to America’s labor unions…

    B-B-BUT OBAMA’S BRILLIANT!

  151. parsnip says:

    The economy here may very well revive on the heels of Fed Reserve interest rate cuts executed last fall and winter.

    That’s true, SD, but Obama and the Democrats in Congress will still get credit for any economic recovery.

  152. JD says:

    turnip/sniffles/alphie told us a couple days ago it would get rid of the US military altogether, and was the brains behind the mile high dirt berm and balloon fence.

  153. TheGeezer says:

    Can 30% unemployment be far behind?

    Can 30% inflation be far behind?

    I’m going to go out and spend my bucks now since in three years they will be worth far less.

    History is being ignored. Heh.

  154. Ric Locke says:

    Sorry, folks. Uptick in six months ain’t gonna happen.

    If it was in prospect, I would have contracts. My clients don’t have contracts because their clients don’t have contracts. If the ultimate receivers were to get money today it would be six to nine months before the regulatory hoops were all passed.

    One year. Minimum. More likely two.

    Regards,
    Ric

  155. TheGeezer says:

    That’s true, SD, but Obama and the Democrats in Congress will still get credit for any economic recovery.

    Expectations of a full recovery are beyond three years. With the inflation and job losses protectionist, faux-tax cut budgets will bring in that time, the recovery will be postponed beyond that. Obama will not be remembered for saving the country, but for setting it up.

    History is being ignored.

  156. TheGeezer says:

    Never let a crisis go to waste. Exacerbate it.

    Classic Leninism.

  157. Sdferr says:

    I didn’t state my position well at all, so I’m happy to cede ground to the knowers around here. I might have better said in ordinary economic circumstances rate easing will generally take effect in six to twelve months. It is beyond dispute, I think, that these economic conditions we have before us are anything but ordinary. My apologies.

    That said, separating what was done, what is about to be done, what might have been done, what might be done but won’t be done, etc from events as they unfold is simply beyond human ken, I think. So claims redounding to partisan virtue of whatever party are specious, at best.

  158. ushie says:

    The other idiot wrote: ‘“Invoke the Iraq war.” ALL roads lead to Iraq. Live it. Eat it.’

    So…increasing or decreasing funds to the NEA or the Kennedy Center leads to Iraq. Ok…

    Well, I’ve exceeded my load tolerance for Dumbassedry today. See ya later.

  159. parsnip says:

    The Democrats don’t need a “full” recovery, Geezer, they just need the economy to be on the upswing before, say, September or October of 2010.

  160. kelly says:

    So claims redounding to partisan virtue of whatever party are specious, at best.

    You’re way too polite, man.

    Here, allow me to translate to snippy’s meager level of comprehension: Your party’s going own this shit, dude. Fucking own it. Partisan hack.

  161. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by Ric Locke on 1/29 @ 12:26 pm #

    Sorry, folks. Uptick in six months ain’t gonna happen.

    If it was in prospect, I would have contracts. My clients don’t have contracts because their clients don’t have contracts. If the ultimate receivers were to get money today it would be six to nine months before the regulatory hoops were all passed.

    One year. Minimum. More likely two.”

    Aw, geesh, Rick, being Cassandra is NOT a good thing.

  162. Cave Bear says:

    Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 12:43 pm #

    The Democrats don’t need a “full” recovery, Geezer, they just need the economy to be on the upswing before, say, September or October of 2010.

    ***************

    First thing I’ve ever seen posted by him that actually got anywhere near reality.

    It’s interesting to note that no Repubs in the House voted for this crap sandwich of a bill, and that the Senate isn’t going to vote on it until mid-February. Guess they need more time to twist some RINOs arms. Last thing they want is for no Senate Repubs to sign on to this thing, which would leave them holding the bag.

    One may hope…

  163. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 12:43 pm #

    The Democrats don’t need a “full” recovery, Geezer, they just need the economy to be on the upswing before, say, September or October of 2010.”

    Fuck the American people, we got OFFICES to win!

  164. parsnip says:

    Yes, kelly, the Democrats “own” America’s next economic recovery.

    That leaves the Republicans owning what, exactly?

  165. N. O'Brain says:

    Notice how the retarded marmoset is ignoring his party’s swing at reviving Smoot-Hawley.

    But I guess we can’t blame it.

    Recession, snippy. Own it. Live it. BATHE in it.

  166. parsnip says:

    Oh, did you forget, No Brain?

    The current recession belongs to Bush and the Republicans.

    Win-win.

  167. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 12:58 pm #

    Oh, did you forget, No Brain?

    The current recession belongs to Bush and the Republicans.”

    Oh, did President Bush get re-elected?

    I missed that in the 6 o’clock news.

    Recession, snippy. Own it. Live it. BATHE in it.

  168. AKA Pablo says:

    The Democrats don’t need a “full” recovery, Geezer, they just need the economy to be on the upswing before, say, September or October of 2010.”

    Fuck the American people, we got OFFICES to win!

    The Dems have had Congress since 2006. They own this recession. Things had damned well better be wine and roses by ’10. Andwhat is better? What is a good economy? The bar is set awfully high these days. Long stretches of economic and job growth are signs of a miserable economy.

    There had better be electric Cadillacs in every garage and unicorns in every backyard.

  169. parsnip says:

    The current recession was marked as starting in December of 2007, No Brain.

    Like a starting pitcher who leaves the game 3 runs down, there is no chance for the Republicans to score a win here.

    For the plucky Democratic reliever however, there is no downside.

  170. Techie says:

    In other news: Military judge rejects Obama’s planned 120-day delay of the trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Either he has to move forward with the case, or release him.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012902021.html?wprss=rss_nation

    I’m sure the rand and file of the military would be thrilled to see one of the masterminds of the USS Cole bombing walk. It’d send a really strong message about that “soft power” to our enemies.

  171. Techie says:

    “rank and file”

  172. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 1:03 pm #

    The current recession was marked as starting in December of 2007, No Brain.”

    Nope, it started January 20, 2009.

    The Obama-Pelosi-Reid recession.

    Own it. Live it. BATHE in it.

  173. N. O'Brain says:

    “But Judge James Pohl, an Army colonel, said he found the government’s reasoning “unpersuasive.”

    “The Commission is unaware of how conducting an arraignment would preclude any option by the administration,” said Pohl in a written opinion, portions of which were read to The Post. “Congress passed the military commissions act, which remains in effect. The Commission is bound by the law as it currently exists, not as it may change in the future.”

    Nashiri is facing arraignment on Feb. 9, and Pohl said the proceedings would go ahead. ”

    O!bama just got kicked in the ‘nads.

  174. alppuccino says:

    In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama said: “What we need to do is examine: What are the projects where we’re going to get the most bang for the buck? How are we going to make sure taxpayers are protected?

    “You know, the days of just pork coming out of Congress as a strategy, those days are over.”

    Horseshit

  175. Mr. Pink says:

    I seriously doubt Parsnips ever bathes.

  176. B Moe says:

    The Dems have had Congress since 2006. They own this recession.

    You, me and tuberhead all know that Pablo, but tuber is betting on the average Democrat voter being too ignorant to figure that out. And sadly, he is probably correct.

  177. parsnip says:

    I will, No Brain.

    And I will enjoy your unpatriotic carping as the Dems go about fixing what the Republicans done broke.

    Like music to my ears.

  178. Sdferr says:

    Or instead of kicked in the ‘nads, advised or reminded that we still live under non arbitrary framework of law, as opposed to a system of exclusively executive fiat.

  179. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 1:12 pm #

    I will, No Brain.

    And I will enjoy your unpatriotic carping as the Dems go about fixing what the Republicans done broke.”

    And your MOS was…..what?

  180. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by Sdferr on 1/29 @ 1:13 pm #

    Or instead of kicked in the ‘nads, advised or reminded that we still live under non arbitrary framework of law, as opposed to a system of exclusively executive fiat.”

    Exactly what I meant.

    The Messiah can’t pass miracles.

  181. AKA Pablo says:

    The recession started in 12/07, a full year into Dem control of Congress.

    Things were pretty damned good with Republicans in charge. It’s morning in America but it turns out that it’s a pretty shitty day. Like the one where you got fired and lost your house. On the bright side, we’re looking at 1.4 trillion in new liabilities over the last 3 months, and shopping for another trillion or two.

  182. Techie says:

    Alphie, how is The One going to finance his over-mountain invasion of Pakistan? That figure into your equations?

    All that “new focus” on Afghanistan?

  183. AKA Pablo says:

    Like a starting pitcher who leaves the game 3 runs down, there is no chance for the Republicans to score a win here.

    The Republicans weren’t pitching, snippy. Majority Leaders Reid and Pelosi were pitching. Deal with it.

  184. Bob Reed says:

    The root of the current financial crisis can be easily summed up in 10 primary factors

    1)CRA
    2)Fannie Mae
    3)Freddie Mac
    4)Derivatives of the bundled securities of those GSEs-created by Rubin During Clinton II
    5)The Democrats criminal culpability in not allowing greater restraining/regulating of those GSEs
    6)The stupidity of the Republicans that went along with them on that score due to ideological abhorrance of increased regulation
    7)The Basel II accords that allowed capitalization ratio of banks to be based on the rating of the securities they held
    8)The corrupt/inept malpractice of the rating agencies relied on for #7
    9)The stupidity of the whiz-kid MBAs on Wall street for committing waaaaay too high a percentage of their portfolios to this trash
    10)The Congressional Banking comittees and the SEC chairman for not seeing this coming

    And although the Buck stops at the 1600 Penn, Bush tried twice to put the brakes on this, and the Senate RethugliKKKans tried once. But, owing to factor 6, the Democrats, by strictly party line obstruction, were able to effectively the great American-housing-giveaway-bonanza-to-people-who-couldn’t-make-the-payments…

    So while everyone played a role in this, a tragedy so good that Aeschylus couldn’t have imagined it, it is chiefly due to Democrat ideology, connivance, and policy…

    SO YOU GUYS OWN THIS TOO PARSNIP!

    Good luck with that…

  185. Sdferr says:

    How far do you think the mark-to-market vs mark-to-model accounting rule played a role, Bob? On a sort of sliding any-some-lots scale? Is this dealio hidden inside your number 7? Jus’ wondering.

  186. Techie says:

    And the hits just keep on coming:

    New Bank Bailout Plan Could Top $2 Trillion:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123319689681827391.html

    Wow, what can you say but “Sho’nuff”. or “Hot Damn”.

  187. Turboguy says:

    Parsnip, it was broke *LONG* before the Republicans took control.

    Hopefully the Democrats are stupid enough to pass that new Assault Weapon Ban bill and kick themselves right back out of power just like they did back in 1994. Even Clinton himself specifically cited that legislation as the reason we got eight years of Bush&Co and ten of Republican Senate/House control.

    History didn’t begin the first day W. took office, no matter how much you might wish it were so.

    I’m glad that you’re so adamant that P.BO’s plan is going to work. For what it’s worth, I’m in the same boat with you inasmuch that I’d love to see it work too. Then reality sets in and I remember that we’re making exactly the same mistakes we made just before the Great Depression. Nothing like cranking out currency at a faster rate than ever in American history, raising taxes on employers, and going isolationist to bring out that “Depression” flavor we’ve all been longing for, right?

    I actually think it’s funny that someone as Ad Hominem filled as you, who exhorts your high level of intelligence as you do, believes that the Democrats are capable of fixing *ANYTHING!* The Democrats can’t even figure out whether or not they want to take a piss, much less pick a pot to piss in.

  188. AKA Pablo says:

    The proles are restless, snippy. Flags are flying upside down.

    This change looks like the same, except for the shiny new job cuts that keep piling up.

  189. B Moe says:

    I would say it broke in 1913.

  190. Rob Crawford says:

    Alphie, how is The One going to finance his over-mountain invasion of Pakistan?

    With a natural gas pipeline. Duh.

  191. N. O'Brain says:

    Wait, I thought that was an OIL pipeline!

    [slaps self on side of head]

  192. Bob Reed says:

    Sdferr,

    It’s baked into 7 and 8.

    Mark-to market is an excellent strategy for in-house evaluation of holdings, one that Golman-Sachs used for years; so that they wouldn’t fool themselves about the instantaneous value of their portfolio on any given day.

    What seemed to me to be a real problem was when the base assumptions used all along by the rating agencies and the banks, pertaining to the market values of the assets, changed almost overnight. Suddenly the paper they held became worthless…

    A mistake I think…

    Corporate bonds and the values of commodity holding are one thing, they should use mark-to-market valuation.

    But for long term residential mortgages, I believe that mark-to-model is a very appropriate measure of the worth; as long as the model doesn’t rely on real values that continually increasing at a rate that defies long term historical trends…

    And, while I’m at it, thise whiz-kid, big-time, economists at the investment houses should have recognized, and been able to assess in a clear eyed fashion, that the growth in housing prices was faaaaaar outstripping both the inflation rate as well as the traditional price-as-a-multiple-of-buyer-gross-yearly-income…

    They should have seen this coming instead of being good-time-Charlies and simply rollin’ with the bonuses…

    Kinda like you ar I designing an airplane with skin panels soooooo thin that we know they will fail due to metal fatigue after an unreasonable short number of operating hours; but since they’re cheaper to make, and will sell like hotcakes, we pocket the fat bonuses and roll on wit da program…

    And when called to task later on, we mumble about using models based on hypothetical stress/strain curves under ideal conditions, blah-de-blah-blah….

    As professional engineers, we would be in deeeeeeeeep trouble for such malpractice, and so too should some of these financial guys!

    I wonder where our resident financial genius is?

    We could probably use his honest take on this; and by which I mean something less general than just blaming it on GREED!

    We all know a good amount of that was involved!

  193. josh says:

    Don’t worry about Pablo, ‘snip, he’s just mad the Ledbetter law will get signed today. Fair pay for equal work makes AKA Pablo mad.

  194. Rob Crawford says:

    FOAD, “josh”.

  195. Techie says:

    Yes, I too await paying more for goods and services because of the umpteenth lawsuit Big____ has to pay out to NOW Inc. because Gladys in accounting says she didn’t get paid the same as Milifred in payroll 20 years ago.

    At least the Archival Industry will get stimulated. Companies will have to hold onto every scrap of paper they’ve ever put ink on.

    Silly statue of limitations.

  196. Techie says:

    I feel that BigTrial benefits too. Gotta take that cut.

  197. AKA Pablo says:

    Oh, no. josh. I’m seeing a trial lawyer. Ka-ching!

    Can you feel the stimulus?

  198. DarthRove says:

    AKA Pablo, it’s not the stimulus we’re gonna get as much as the lack of lube. That’s what’ll hurt.

  199. JD says:

    Shorter Josh – Fuck statutes of limitations!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

  200. BJTexs says:

    Alphie, how is The One going to finance his over-mountain invasion of Pakistan?

    With a natural gas pipeline. Duh.

    Installed by … by … by … by … HALLIBURTON!!11ELEVENTY11!!11

    This stuff: It writes itself!

  201. geoffb says:

    Big Hollywood has found a way to pay for all of this pork.

  202. josh says:

    displaying the aggressive lack of knowledge and manners which helped turn Congressional majorities into minuscule minorities, lose the Presidency to a junior Senator from Illinois, ruin Iraq, turn surpluses into deficits, and enable crooks on Wall Street to destroy a generation of 401K’s. But, fear not, lads, in addition to telling people to FOAD, you still have this little place where you rage incoherently at the fact that civil rights can actually be enforced!

    Pablo: “Damn, Voting Rights Act, just a boon to trial lawyers!”
    Chorus of halfwits: yeah

    Motto: Protein Wisdom, if you don’t like the classical liberalism, then stick around for the reactionary conservatism…

    Pablo, you’d make Justice Taney blush

  203. josh says:

    Comment by JD on 1/29 @ 2:28 pm #

    Shorter Josh – Fuck statutes of limitations!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

    Actually, jd, it’s shorter Congress, including 5 Republican Senators – Fuck statutes of limitations!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

    There, corrected it for ya

  204. Techie says:

    As opposed to your tireless displays of dispassionate logic……

    Why Pablo, did he humiliate you on another thread?

  205. N. O'Brain says:

    I’m buying myself some salt caves.

    Oh, and fuck off, josh.

  206. Rob Crawford says:

    Suing people because you were willing to work for less than someone else seems like one of those civil rights that comes at the expense of others.

  207. Cave Bear says:

    Shorter “josh”:

    “Look…PUPPIES!!!!”

  208. SGT Ted says:

    displaying the aggressive lack of knowledge and manners which helped turn Congressional majorities into minuscule minorities, lose the Presidency to a junior Senator from Illinois, ruin Iraq, turn surpluses into deficits, and enable crooks on Wall Street to destroy a generation of 401K’s.

    And what is being completely ignored is that Republicans got that way because they SPENT LIKE DEMOCRATS. You lefty clowns objected to their spending, only because NPR etc weren’t in the food chain. Be prepared to get the same shellacking a few years down the road for doing the same shit the Repubs lost their asses on. Last I looked, The Democrat controlled Congress STILL has a lower approval rating than Bush. Just like repubs took a beating when they were in charge and spent like Pelosi at the plastic surgury clinic, so too will come your turn.

    But, go ahead and enjoy your orgy of spending on useless shit, trying to justify it. It only makes you look like the partisan hypocrits that you are.

    PS: We won in Iraq. Get used to it. Morons.

  209. N. O'Brain says:

    Democrats spend money like Nancy Pelosi in a botox clinic.

  210. SGT Ted says:

    And any supporter of Democrats talking about MANNERS!!!?!?! needs to just shut the fuck up.

  211. N. O'Brain says:

    “Note to Obey: Hoover massively expanded government spending and signed into law a horrible protectionist piece of legislation known as Smoot-Hawley. At the same time, he used the bully pulpit to hector businesses into keeping wages and prices high which only made it harder for a puffed-up economy to go through a painful but transitory adjustment. Given what you just passed and all the anti-China rhetoric coming from the White House, what exactly are you guys planning on doing differently?”

    http://reason.com/blog/show/131334.html

  212. N. O'Brain says:

    Hoover was a “Progressive”.

  213. Dan Collins says:

    What do you think Proggy and Bess was about? DUH!

  214. B Moe says:

    The new FDR, is he?

    “FDR’s initial steps did actually work,” Obama said at the meeting, according to King. Obama went on to say, “Then he [FDR] pulled back towards a balanced budget, and then what you had was a recession within a depression. Then World War II came along and was the biggest stimulus plan ever.”
    http://cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=42697

    I wonder what O! is planning for WWIII?

  215. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    “:ruin Iraq”

    I stopped reading after that. Josh giving alphie a run for the money, I see.

    SGT. Ted, you see josh is dumb. No other way to say it. So, he doesn’t have the capacity to see that this group of republicans were anything but fiscally conservative. I bet josh flinches a lot, too.

  216. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    LOL…B Moe. No doubt about it. We’re coming after you…ICELAND!

  217. Rob Crawford says:

    Why Iceland? Is it because they’re a bunch of dirty Scandis?

  218. parsnip says:

    Bob,

    What’s with the crazy man bold that’s been creeping into your posts?

    Anything you want to share with us?

  219. happyfeet says:

    Jeez, BMoe. Baracky just opens up his dumb mouth and babbles about shit he has no clue about whatsoever. This is really sort of a disturbing pattern. Embarrassing.

  220. MarkD says:

    I wonder what O! is planning for WWIII?

    The invasion of Pakistan.

  221. B Moe says:

    What’s with the crazy man bold that’s been creeping into your posts?

    Look! Bunnies!

  222. BJTexs says:

    I wonder what O! is planning for WWIII?

    The invasion of Pakistan.

    The routes of invasion will be on roads constructed by … by … by … HALLIBURTON !!11ELEVENTY11!!

    Local security will handled by … by … by … BLACKWATER!111!!1

    But not Kyoto…

  223. Bob Reed says:

    I wonder what O! is planning for WWIII?”

    I dunno BMoe, but after his smooth moves with Iran, the pronouncements about the Israeli/Palestinian issue, and his interview with al-Arabiya, I’m kinda thinkin’ it somehow involves the middle east…

  224. happyfeet says:

    He’s going to wage war against the little carbon dioxide molecules. Genocidal jug-eared dirty socialist George Soros bootlicker is what he is.

  225. N. O'Brain says:

    “I wonder what O! is planning for WWIII?”

    WW IV, dammit!

    WW IV.

    Reagan won WW III against the commies.

  226. Sdferr says:

    Initially I tend to think of stories like the “Obama overdoes heat in his office. Hey he’s from Hawaii, what do you expect?” and “Obama eats $100.00 wagyu steak all the while yammering on about shared sacrifice” as insignificant trivialities to be dismissed. But then I don’t know much about fashioning public relation appearances for the consumption of the masses, so I would tend to dismiss them.

    Standing back and taking another look at these two stories, wondering how they came about and how little the Obama image shop seems concerned about them and putting those thoughts together with what I believe to be Obama’s consistent overweening self-regard, all swimming in a context of a general national anxiety over faltering economic conditions and daily doses of “Panic! Do Something!“, I’m starting to believe I ought to keep a sharper eye on his standing in public opinion polls.

    He may be ruining, slowly, even glacially, his own best appeal, his beloved man of the people schtick. The mood out there shouldn’t — by rights — be a good one for too many rounds of “deluxe for me” and “de-dumps for thee”. Will he notice?

  227. Bob Reed says:

    Yeah parsnip,

    I am craaaa-zee! But not in a certifiable way, more so in a nuanced or audacious way…

    And I do have something to share with you…

    I’m terrified! that Obama and the other protectionist Democrats are going to push us over the edge into a real depression, as opposed to what they’ve been calling the current financial downturn.

    That, along with defecit spending trillions over the next few years is such a sweet gift for him to give our grandchildren…

    I just hope! that we can all work together! and defeat his use of this crisis! to change! America into a carbon copy of the declining European union…

  228. Bob Reed says:

    Initially I tend to think of stories like the “Obama overdoes heat in his office. Hey he’s from Hawaii, what do you expect?” and “Obama eats $100.00 wagyu steak all the while yammering on about shared sacrifice” as insignificant trivialities to be dismissed.”

    So do I Sdferr,
    But can you imagine what the campaign trail Obama would have been palavering about in September or October if these same stories had come out about Boooooooooosh!

    HE’S CONSUMING MORE THAN HIS SHARE OF THE ENERGY! HE’S KILLING gAIA! PEOPLE ARE LOSING THEIR JOBS AND STARVING AND HE”S EATING $100 STEAKS! ZOMG!1!1!!eleventy!1!!1!

    And the MSM would have been right there, breathlessly discussing, for WEEKS, like it was the most important topic of the modern day…

    But today…Meh…

    Because of the hypocrisy…

    P.S. I answered your earlier query upthread…

  229. parsnip says:

    Well, I will admit you crackers craving for economic doom fits in nicely with your religion.

    Teh One really is the fiascal Anti-Crist!!!!111!11

  230. Bob Reed says:

    Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 3:47 pm #

    Well, I will admit you crackers craving forforseeing economic doom fits in nicely with your religion.”

    FTFY

  231. parsnip says:

    Come on, admit it, Bob.

    You unpatriotic louts are rooting for the economy to tube so the Democrats look bad.

    Thing is, the fat arsed, drug addled draft dodger who controls your party now makes millions of dollars a year.

    He’ll be fine.

    Will you?

  232. Ric Locke says:

    A Clew® for you, monkyboy.

    Predicting that something will happen is not the same thing as wanting it to happen, unless you’re a Democrat or other variety of cargo cultist.

    “Whistle a happy tune” works well as self-support, but there ain’t no magic. Things work or they don’t. This won’t work.

    Regards,
    Ric

  233. Sdferr says:

    Yes, and thanks for the m-t-ma v m-t-mo fill in Bob.

    “Teh Meat and Teh Heat” fiascoes we may be calling them, one day. They fit with past signs like the expense of “the Colonnade at the Convention”, the puffery of “the Great Seal of Obama: Vero Possumus” and the “Office of the President-Elect”.

    Tin ear may prove to fall well short as an adequate descriptor of his clumsiness. Or, maybe he can learn. We’ll be watching.

  234. Bob Reed says:

    Thing is, the fat arsed, drug addled draft dodger who controls your party now makes millions of dollars a year.”

    When, I ask you, When! did Bill Clinton become head of the RNC? ‘Cuz I hadn’t heard…

  235. Bob Reed says:

    Oh, and parsnip…

    What Ric said…

  236. Techie says:

    That’s especially rich coming from someone who got aroused every time they went to the Iraqi Body Count website.

  237. Bob Reed says:

    Perhaps so, Sdferr,
    I feel sorry for him though, in a way…

    All these distraction clouding the very hopey-changiness of it all…

    He’ll have to have Rahm start crackin’ the whip on Stephanopolous, Begala, and Carville…

    They’ve got reputations to shore up and mind-numbing talkin’ points to parrot endlessly…

    I don’t see how this all helps Michelle’s children one bit…

  238. Bob Reed says:

    You know, even though Rahm’s crew are a bunch of poitical gangsters, they should be known as the 3 un-wise men…

    or better yet, Rahm’s 3 stooges!

    Ooooooh, I like that snark…

  239. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    “Why Iceland?”

    The Swedes were too obvious. Plus, I hate Bjork.

  240. Rob Crawford says:

    Plus, I hate Bjork.

    Fair enough.

  241. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    “He may be ruining, slowly, even glacially, his own best appeal, his beloved man of the people schtick”

    I agree, Sdferr. But it got him elected. And that was the only goal.

    “You unpatriotic louts are rooting for the economy to tube so the Democrats look bad.”

    Projection on a galactic scale.

  242. […] A SAMPLE OF PORKULON, biggest porkbarrel bill ever: our copy of the numbers. Hey, Pig Spender: “What does this sound like to you? It sounds to me like a wish list for the left wing of the […]

  243. parsnip says:

    I predict the cracker states will still take their share of the stimulus bill monies even though their delegations voted against it.

  244. Mikey NTH says:

    Nabisco has a state?

    Who knew?

  245. Bob Reed says:

    Which states are those parsnip?

    Didn’t you accept the protection of Booooosh!, Homeland security, and the US military provided you..?

    Even though you refer to them as baby killers, root for their enemies and, you know, wished death and defeat upon them?

    Hmmmmmmmmm…

    You know why hypocrites, like you and Obama, are the way they are?

    ‘Cuz if you say one thing, and do another, well then you’ve just doubled your chances of getting it right!

  246. Bob Reed says:

    Oh, I forgot…

    pwn3d

  247. parsnip says:

    Which states are those parsnip?

    You know, Bob…they used to be called the Confederate States of America.

    I feel the actions of the U.S. military over ther past 8 years have actually made me less safe.

  248. N. O'Brain says:

    I predict the alfie will post more stupid, inane, asinine, daft, empty, fatuous, boring, stale, uninteresting, clueless and vapid reactionary leftist boilerplate propaganda.

  249. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 5:33 pm #

    Which states are those parsnip?

    You know, Bob…they used to be called the Confederate States of America.”

    Oh.

    Democrat states.

  250. N. O'Brain says:

    “I feel the actions of the U.S. military over ther past 8 years have actually made me less safe.”

    I’m a fucking CASANDRA I tell ya!

  251. N. O'Brain says:

    From our “You can’t make this shit up” dept……

    Obama Calls Wall Street Bonuses ‘Shameful’

    * Sign In to E-Mail
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    Article Tools Sponsored By
    By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
    Published: January 29, 2009

    WASHINGTON — President Obama fired a warning shot at Wall Street on Thursday, branding bankers “shameful” for giving themselves $18.4 billion in bonuses as the economy was spinning out of control and the government was spending billions to bail out many of the nation’s most prominent financial firms.

    Speaking from the Oval Office with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner by his side, Mr. Obama lashed out at the industry over a report…..”

    Holy crap , Batman!

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/business/30obama.html?_r=1&hp

  252. Bob Reed says:

    I feel the actions of the U.S. military over ther past 8 years have actually made me less safe.”

    Why, has there been a terrorist attack here in the US that I missed?

    Did one of the groups Saddam was assisting hurt you…

    Oh, wait…That’s right, we took out Saddam for, among other things, sponsoring and harboring terrorist groups…

    Has Muqtada al-Sadr’s guys threaten you…

    Oh, wait, we effectively KO’d Mookie and his Mahdi, ahem, army too…

    Who’s threatening you parsnip, some girl scouts selling cookies threating you..?

    Forcing cookies on you that will not only ruin you’re girlish figure, but that will make you an obese diabetic…

    *GASP!* *OHNOES!*

    Just how have you felt less safe parsnip..? When have you felt personally in peril..?

    Really, when..?

  253. happyfeet says:

    Baracky lurvs him some class warfare. All those people he’s screeching at like a woman voted for him though. This is already the longest presidency ever. Cause he’s so painfully stupid is why.

  254. parsnip says:

    Bob, Saddam and al Sadr were never a threat to America.

    Osama bin Laden was and is still a threat to America, though.

    Oh well, close enough for government work.

  255. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 5:53 pm #

    Bob, Saddam and al Sadr were never a threat to America.”

    A.

    Fucking.

    Oracle.

  256. happyfeet says:

    painfully

  257. Carin says:

    Didn’t Baracky just say the other day that, low and behold, OBL wasn’t a threat anymore? I could have sworn he made a statement to that effect.

  258. Matt says:

    *And I will enjoy your unpatriotic carping as the Dems go about fixing what the Republicans done broke.*

    I’m just confused. The Republicans have been in power since 2006?

    Who writes the budget? Who allocates the resources ?

    WHo has been in the majority for 2 1/2 years now ?

    Seriously, if the dems fix this problem and get credit for it, that’s fine by me. But I have seen no evidence that anything they are proposing is going to work, because it doesn’t start with tax cuts. One senator (and I”m paraphrasing but I bet somebody knows what I’m talking about) was confronted with the reality that tax cuts always stimulate an economy – he says something along the lines of “Its not about what works, its about what’s fair”.

    Redistribution of wealth will not stimulate the economy. Poor people will spend their check on big TVs, crap they dont need and cars/houses they can’t afford when the money runs out. Sorry, poor people are not poor b/c they’re oppressed, most of them are poor because they make incredibly poor choices. I worked my butt off to go to law school – if i was black, with the same grades, same LSAT, I’d be a harvard grad making “Phat bank”. Kinda like our president (see Obama, chef, Chicago).

  259. Carin says:

    Matt, Matt, Matt …you know, there are a ton of suburban-living liberals who would beg to differ. They don’t actually know poor people, but they took some courses in college, and they know stuff. And, one of the things they REALLY know is that the poor are simply poor because life has been unfair to them. Wrong side of the tracks. Stuff like that.

  260. Mikey NTH says:

    Mr. Obama, Mrs. Pelosi, Mr. Reid.

    You have what you want. You are in charge now.

    Enjoy.

  261. meya says:

    “Hoover was a “Progressive”.”

    Says Jonah Goldberg!

    http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2009/01/hoover-revisionism.html

  262. happyfeet says:

    Said Obama about Wall Street leaders: “There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now is not that time.”

    Pompous little fuck, isn’t he?

  263. N. O'Brain says:

    “Comment by meya on 1/29 @ 6:31 pm #

    “Hoover was a “Progressive”.”

    Says Jonah Goldberg!”

    Ah, you’ve read a good book.

    Good for you, meya.

  264. Carin says:

    Now is not the time for Obama to turn the thermostat up or eat REALLY expensive steaks. But whatever.

  265. Bob Reed says:

    parsip,
    Saddam was helping Al-Queda, with both funds and letting them train and stage in Iraq…

    Al-Sadr had a defacto alliance with Al-Queda, since together with them they were trying to kill US soldiers-your countrymen. But, as it turns out, a whole lot more of them died; coudn’t happen to nicer guys…

    You need to actually use facts instead of the Democratic cartoon anti-war reality, parsnip…

    And even though, as Carin noted, the Dali Bama has declared that Bin Laden is no threat to the US; rest assured that if he is still alive, he will most certainly stay in whatever rat-hole he’s been hiding in…

    As more US troops are deployed to Afghanistan, and the NATO troops become less of a percentage of the overall force, you’ll see Petraus ( that’s Betray-us to you and your MOVEON.ORG buddies) employ the same strategies there as in Iraq. And I suspect that Al-Queda will do the same thing they did in Iraq. Come to Afghanistan for the final showdown with the eeeeeevil American devil!; and die like the dogs they are-just like in Iraq…

    It won’t be a cakewalk, but If Obama lets the molitary do their job, and doesn’t meddle, the good General will defeat Al-Queda in Afghanistan too…

    And as long as Holder, Panetta, and the liberal bureaucrats don’t declaw homeland security too much, you won’t have to worry about Bin Laden any more…

    But parsnip, you never actually answered my question…

    Just how have you felt less safe parsnip..? When have you felt personally in peril..?

    Don’t worry, even though you hate them, the military and homeland security will still protect you…

  266. oh now, don’t be trying to discount anyone’s feelings with actual facts.

  267. Mikey NTH says:

    Mr. Herbert Hoover? The Great Humanitarian? The one who lead relief efforts after the Great War?

  268. SGT Ted says:

    And how can ANY of us be unpatriotic in our dissent?

    HHHHMmmmmmm?

    Stupid fucking leftist tools.

  269. SGT Ted says:

    parsnip is truly trolling now I think. I can’t fathom anyone being that ignorant of current affairs in Iraq right now. I could understand it in 2006-07 when it was really bad as most leftards are pussies who want to run when it gets tough. But not today. Now it’s just trolling. I mean, balloon fence? C’mon that’s totally trolling.

    He’s good at it tho. I’ll give him that.

  270. parsnip says:

    parsip,
    Saddam was helping Al-Queda

    Neocon lies now Bob?

    Are you trying for full crackerdom?

    That would explain theboldness of your recent posts.

  271. Semanticleo says:

    “I could understand it in 2006-07 when it was really bad as most leftards are pussies who want to run when it gets tough.”

    Thank you for your service to your country, and now please,…………..fuck off.

  272. B Moe says:

    Getting a little touchy, eh ‘cleo?

  273. geoffb says:

    The left operate from a different frame of reference than we do. The statements made by those like josh are “true” in their reference frame. Words take on very different meanings because they have a very different value system.

    Take “ruin Iraq”. If Iraq was still in the midst of chaos and destruction, it would probably not be ruined. If Saddam still ran the place and was funding suicide bombers and pursuing WMDs, Iraq would probably not be ruined.

    I say probably because the actual conditions in Iraq have nothing to do with the conclusion that Iraq is ruined. Only the effect of the conditions in Iraq upon the political power of the Left, as represented by the Democrats, determines whether Iraq is ruined or not.

    All judgments of good and bad, virtue and evil, are made on the day to day basis of how the power of the elite of the Left is affected. More power equals good, less power equals bad.

    This leads to statements that appear to be ridiculous. But to the ones in the know on the Left are perfectly reasonable and true, for that day. Truth being relative can change overnight. Only the lust for power is unchanging and never slaked.

  274. Nan says:

    Cleo’s comment at 273…. Isn’t that what your side always says to our servicemen? I dunno, maybe I’m wrong. But that’s what my father, brother and uncles all thought of the Dems.

  275. B Moe says:

    Iraq is ruined because it has America’s dirty fingerprints all over it, Geoff.

  276. Sdferr says:

    Well, there is that ruinous provincial election thinger going on this weekend. So, ruined for tyranny for the time being, I guess.

  277. Bob Reed says:

    parsnip, you need to get your facts straight…

    Although there was no operational link between Al-Queda and Saddam, he did provide them with training, facilities, and a safe haven…

    http://tinyurl.com/3tch9q

    Read ’em and weep…

    But you still haven’t answered me…

    Just how have you felt less safe parsnip..? When have you felt personally in peril..?

    Don’t worry, even though you hate them, the military and homeland security will still protect you…

    What’s the matter…Cat’s got your tongue..?

  278. Rusty says:

    #272
    Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 7:38 pm #

    parsip,
    Saddam was helping Al-Queda

    Neocon lies now Bob?

    Are you trying for full crackerdom?

    That would explain theboldness of your recent posts.

    You’re simply going to have have a seminar here sometime. About what it’s like to be totally forsaken of reason.

  279. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    “Osama bin Laden was and is still a threat to America, though.”

    Your demigod, the O!bama disagrees with you. Osama, probably much like yourself, is in a cave castrated and jerking off to goat porn.

  280. guinsPen says:

    baathnip.

    Riding Saddam’s shotgun since whenever.

  281. geoffb says:

    “Iraq is ruined because it has America’s dirty fingerprints all over it”

    Only because it wasn’t a progressive socialist Democrat who was in charge of leaving the fingerprints. Clinton had his fingers (and other things) all over, and everywhere they went was just peachy.

    Obama’s will likewise be of wonderousness where ever he deigns to plant them. Just so long as the power of the Left is increased. Hurt that and the wheels of the bus will have a feast.

  282. parsnip says:

    How do I feel less safe, Bob?

    Osama bin laden and his buddies have been hanging around in nuclear-armed pakistan for the last 7 years.

    Heckuva job, U.S. military!

    Medals all around.

    High-fives!

  283. N. O'Brain says:

    Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 8:55 pm #

    So, does Al Queda have nukes now, alfie, you fucking retard?

    Yes or no.

  284. Big D says:

    #

    Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 8:55 pm #

    How do I feel less safe, Bob?

    Osama bin laden and his buddies have been hanging around in nuclear-armed pakistan for the last 7 years.

    Heckuva job, U.S. military!

    Medals all around.

    High-fives!

    Meanwhile, snippy does his part for national security by grooming a cat. Is there a medal for that?

  285. Kitteh Walking Gingerly says:

    snippy does his part… by grooming a cat

    Is that what he calls it?

  286. Bob Reed says:

    If that’s where OBL and his buddies are hanging around, they’ve been doing it for less than 7 years…

    I suspect that he initially spent time in Iran; but they threw him out. He made his way around through the ‘stans surrounding Afghanistan, til he ended up in the wild border regions of Pakistan…

    Now he’s living in the part of Pakistan that even their own Army won’t go into. And it’s kind of hard for us to go in there in force, without igniting an international incident. But the more things heat up in Afghanistan, and the larger our troop presence, than the easier it will be for Special Forces A-teams and CIA spooks to infiltrate those regions. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the more that Al-Queda flows into the region to make their last, last stand, fighting the US Devils, and they and their Taliban allies get their asses handed to them; the more likely it becomes that someone who knows da trooooooof! gives Bin Laden up…

    And when that time comes, if I were in charge? Wet-works, all the way baby…

    But lets return to your assertion, that somehow the US military failed us as a nation and you particularly…

    Should they have invaded Pakistan? I think you and your buddies would have tearing your garments and screaming BusHitler!, through clenched teeth, even more if that were possible.

    What should they have done general parsnip? And why don;t they deserve medals for their courageous actions..?

    After all, we have shown more restraint, and inflicted less civilian collateral damage and casualties, than any force in history. Do you think the Russians would have done, or even been able to do, that..? Or perhaps the Chinese..? Don;t you remember where after surrounding the city, we warned them for weeks! that we were coming and for all innocents to leave. And in the end we just contained the enemy until we could go in…

    Any other force in world history would have simply razed that city, and lost not a minute of sleep over the civilians caught in the crossfire…

    I believe that they’ve done a heckuva job, and deserve medals and high five’s all around. Especially from folks like yourself who disparaged them continuously for the last few years, repeated the lie that the war was lost, and wished for their defeat at the hands of our enemies…

    So answer these questions please, and I thank you for finally answering at least one of my earlier ones…

  287. nikkolai says:

    Please please please, people–ignore the talking telephone pole. actus/sniffles/parsnip/retard is malignant. It is like some kind of fungus. Do not engage!

  288. nikkolai says:

    parsnip threatens to destroy this site. It is that malignant. Do not engage!

  289. Dash Rendar says:

    Who the fuck is John Galt?

  290. parsnip says:

    At least I accomplish the tasks I’m assigned, Big D.

  291. Big D says:

    #

    Comment by parsnip on 1/29 @ 10:33 pm #

    At least I accomplish the tasks I’m assigned, Big D.

    Yes, and those are such difficult tasks….Cat grooming? Are you really going to compare that to war?
    That’s a stretch, even for you.

  292. happyfeet says:

    Pakistan went nuclear under Clinton, Bill. They blewed up a bomb is how we know. In response, Clinton, Bill took a hard look at Islamic terrorism and … oh wait. Richard Clarke is very very sorry about the whole thing is all I know.

  293. Techie says:

    It is. It takes all his might not to be intimated by the cats.

  294. It takes all his might not to be intimated by the cats.

    hee hee

  295. happyfeet says:

    I missed the whole cat grooming thing. In LA that’s a do it yourself thinger. You live a stylish and progressive urban lifestyle — and your pet should too!

  296. oh, we have those here too, but it’s called a “dog wash” not a bathhouse. probably we don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea…

  297. happyfeet says:

    oh but no. that’s … wrong.

  298. happyfeet says:

    I’m not sure where this one is but it has a sort of West Hollywood feel to it.

  299. happyfeet says:

    oh. Downtown actually. Who goes there?

  300. SGT Ted says:

    Thank you for your service to your country, and now please,…………..fuck off.

    Yea, nevermind my personal experience in Iraq or other matters military. If it conflicts with the leftwing BusHitler fantasies, then I must fuck off. Thats the kind of support usual from these assholes. “We like using you as victims of the illegal warmongers for our ends but we have no interest in what you have to say. Because we’re the diversity champions and your betters. Now sit down and shut up. We have a nation to destroy with our failed Marxoid ideas.”

    Fuck you too ‘cleo. I hope your ignrance doesn’t get more Americans killed.

  301. Herb Hoover says:

    How, Ted, Iraqis a garden paradise now. How would more Americans die now that you and George Bush “pacified” Iraq? Hell, just because there’s no clean water or electricity, it still has the beautiful ethnically cleansed pine scent to it! Ahh, breathe in the freedom of the US arming both sides of a fight and watching as neither side disarms. Oh, the Iranians, who basically control most of Southern Iraq would like to thank you for service to their country. Truly, your war has helped them become the dominant regional power the Saudis now fear more than ever.

    All in all, it’s a fantastic success: broken infrastructure, contending for least peaceful nation on Earth for a sixth year running (2003-2008) (thanks Global Peace Index (GPI)), government controlled by our main regional rival! Just glorious. You should get a vacation home there.

    Oh, and happyfeet, you might want to change your nomme de plume, since you’re not exactly happy anymore. Maybe “hateyfeet”?

    Seriously, even here is there anyone who expresses dissent from the current administration so prosaically as “Pompous little fuck, isn’t he?” Way to express your patriotic hatred, hateyfeet. Perhaps Obama can win you over by bitching endlessly about how unfair NPR is?

  302. thor says:


    Comment by SGT Ted on 1/30 @ 9:04 am #

    Fuck you too ‘cleo. I hope your ignrance doesn’t get more Americans killed.

    I hope you don’t get a M16 butt to the back of your head from one of your fellow men in uniform. I mean if you start insulting the CiC and run your idiot mouth instead of doing your fuckin’ job then some of those brothers in arms of yours who voted for Barack Obama might just decide to make you think twice of your unpatriotic tongue-wagging.

  303. AKA Pablo says:

    Herb, it’s 2009, not 2006. Try again. Or don’t.

  304. Bob Reed says:

    Herb Hoover,
    Very good job reciting the Democratic talking points!

    But, there a few inconvenient truths that you ignore, SOP for you guys.

    There was little clean water, and spotty-at-best electrical service while Saddam was in power…
    The Iranians can barely control their country let alone souther Iraq…
    You funding both sides of the war propaganda is dislocated; that talking point doesn’t apply to this conflict…
    And what ethnic cleansing are you talking about?
    As long as their ar US submarines within 3000 miles of Iran, they will not dominate that region…

    And what is that GPI thing, some creation of Dennus Kucinich? Or some other nutroot moonbat? It is not a credible metric at the very least…

    And lay off happyfeet Herb, because your messiah Obama really is a pompous little fuck…

  305. Sdferr says:

    Funny, I went back and read Sgt. Ted’s posts and I don’t see where he’s insulting the CinC at all. He calls out ‘cleo, parsnip, “left-wing” fantasists, the Republican congresses, the Democrat congress, but no mention of the CinC anywhere.

  306. thor says:

    Give him some time.

  307. Sdferr says:

    oh,pre-emptive projecting, I get it.

  308. AKA Pablo says:

    I think Herb just misses Saddam.

  309. geoffb says:

    Herb and josh both work for SOTs LLC. Soros Outsourced Trolls.

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