The Dems, nominally, now have a majority in both houses. They have never had a majority since the internet started being used by a significant number of people. They will be under the scrutiny of millions who are able to respond instantly. I wonder if they’re ready?
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Recent Comments
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Yeah, it’s that old Information Age, crank. We can’t escape it.
Come on, cranky, they are the party of good! Butterflys regularly fly out of Harry Reid’s ass and a continuous beam of bright light sets off Nancy Pelosi’s powersuit. Why their collective benevolence and jocularity will be flushed through the tubes with joy and singing and candy and beer…
**<hack>** **<hack>**
Sorry, just a particularly bad sarcasm hairball. Carry on…<cough>
Clearly they’re not ready for Iraq, The Plan™ now being to just jail Republicans in payback for The Adolescent President’s impeachment. Why should they be ready for actual scrutiny?
Like fungus, collectivism grows best in dark caves, covered in shit, away from the light.
Maybe Senator Ted Stevens will be gracious enough to give them a Power Point presentation.
It’s 2006 and we can fact check their collective ass.
And, no, they’re not ready.
Hell, they STILL can’t solve Rush Limbaugh.
They haven’t been scrutinized up ‘til now…?
Actually, if it weren’t wartime and a flip to the Dems could get us all killed, I wouldn’t mind this much. It was wrong for the Dems to squat in Congress for forty years like they did up til 1994. Twelve years of occupation is enough. It’s good for the influence peddlers to have to update their speeddialers from time to time.
Scrutiny from millions? You mean the electorate?
Ho, boy! If you’re selling tickets, put me down for about 6! It’s for the comedy!
When is that useless dinosaur up for re-election, anyway?
One of the stab-in-the-back moments:
When Arlen Spector was facing a very tough Primary fight 2 years ago against a true conservative candidate, Bush and Santorum backed him hard, backing that made a difference in a very close primary race.
So where was Arlen Specter while Santorum was getting his clock cleaned by Bob Casey? No where to be found.
I still get a good laugh thinking that Joe Leiberman is the most important guy in the Senate today. Sweet!
Or will they put the Internet under scrutiny? The Democratic Party has never seen anything they didn’t want to regulate.
I don’t think the Dems are stupid enough to censor the Internet to control political spee
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WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL…
WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL…
Um, idly awed? I learned from personal experience that you cannot have anything without aline break because now the thread format is screwed up.
HELP!!
All they’ve been doing is bitching from the sidelines. Now they will be setting the agenda. Huge difference IMO.
The media is a big filter. You may or may not agree that it tilts left, even though it does. So Dem policies in the past have received more of a fair shake than Rep policies, on average.
The stuff that got reported in the past was only whatever big media decided to report.
With the internet available to force the media to look at stories it would otherwise ignore, things will probably be different.
But you already knew what I meant.
2008, unless I’m remembering wrong. I’ve despised that sumbitch since shortly after he became my senior U.S. Senator in 1994 (that’s when I moved there) and discovered that he was no improvement over Boxerstein.
Poor Umm—I’ll bet he was expecting this crowd to come to Innertubes’ defense.
Idly awed, i hope you don’t mind that i fixed your comment.
In truth, they won’t get shit from anyone but us. For example, the media has managed to spin the economy so badly that Americans think it’s lousy even though that’s contrary to the facts. Apparently, half of America can be talked into anything.
Hi McGehee
Nope–not looking for trouble.
Are you saying that the distinguished members of this commentary scroll are not well understood by the chest thumping left. My word! <fans face>
I am amused by the concept reinforced by many leftards in many comments that none of us here have any principles at all. We are conservatives, Libertarians, Classic Liberals or some combination thereof (oo, oo, don’t forget the Godless Capitalists) which condemns us to jack booted thuggery, uncaring tin pot sycophant ideologues incapable of thinking for ourselves or caring about all of the suffering that America has foisted on the world.
In the meantime, the lefties patrol their sites with the ruthlessness of the KGB, bouncing anyone who isn’t an apparatchik spouting the kos/hamsher/huff/DU/moveon party line. It continues to amaze me that they have neither the insight nor the humility to see that they’re perceived “great victory” is a somewhat hollow shell for them and their particular set of set in stone imperatives.
Again I say, the most important guy in the Senate is Joe Leiberman. The kossies managed to piss him off against most of his fellow dem senators, which will be most entertaining. Hey, McG! That’s something worth selling tickets to. How about when they need Joe’s vote to pass the Minimum Wage increase and Joe holds out for additional Iraq/GWOT funding? Hee frickin larious. That will be the time that Hamsher’s head explodes.
Nuance, lefties! Take the time to think about the issues, your leadership, the ability to be elected and how much a legislature can do in 2 years. Let’s not forget that maybe Bush will grow a set of balls and break out the big, pink Veto Stamp. Chest thumping is all well and good but now you have to govern. Some of myour deep dish apple pies are going to end up as quiches.
Social Security is safe now.
Anything else is just gravy.
I hope you’re wrong, but we’ll have to wait and see.
To dream the impossible dream……
Social Security is safe now.
Don’t put money on it. I just regret putting money in it.
Personally, I’ll be spending more time worrying about suitcase nuclear devices and having a really bad hair day, now that the Peace and Love Party is in power.
And I fear that we have invited an attack with this vote. No matter how the Democrats eventually conduct themselves, they came into power as the anti-war party, a stance that is dangerous, even in the best of times. The foreign policy positions they have conveyed cannot be perceived as anything but exploitable weaknesses by groups like Al-Qaeda and Hamas, and countries like Iran and North Korea. My bet is that Kim Jong Il will renege on his recent agreement to return to six-party talks and now insist again on a bi-lateral discussion. Why shouldn’t he? The Dems want it.
George W. Bush inspires fear among our enemies, but the current perception is that he will be hampered in his ability to serve as Commander-in-Chief and in his power to protect the country effectively. This will only embolden our foes.
Again, I’m not saying the Dems will fail to act honorably in reaction to another attack on our soil, but there is no way of arguing around the fact that the Party has created an image for itself that reeks of pacifism. That image is dangerous to our country’s sovereignty and its survival, and is an invitation to disaster.
Sorry for taking your thread on a tangent…but I’m feeling a bit pessimistic at the prospects of where this country will be in 2008 and the benefits of the Internet. The prosperity we have enjoyed the past fifty years is unprecedented, transitory, and an aberration. Who’s to say it will still be here two years from now?
/doom and gloom off
oh, c’mon Rusty! who doesn’t love getting a lower rate of return than they could if they’d put that money in the market over the same period of time?
Can you name a single enemy that fears Bush, Zoy?
I think America has never seemed weaker to the world…every third world peasant who holds a grudge against us is able to take out some of our troops with near impunity now.
That’s not the way to make people fear you…
That is sooo rich. Bend over and grab your ankles, you blighted fool. I love it when some useful Leftist idiot gloats about being paid in Social Security one-fourth of what they would earn from a private retirement account when his very own Senator himself has a PRA. Hint: Senators only give themselves the good stuff.
I’m relishing envisioning you sitting in your cramped retirement home, under a naked 12-watt bulb, eating gray stew with little flecks of pinkish meat in it.
Sucker.
Look in the mirror and take a bow, Monky. You’re being too modest.
The stock market has been flat for 6 years, ahem.
How much of a return would people have earned on their “private” accounts?
Social Security is fairly free of corporate welfare now.
The thought that Wall Street money managers who rarely even beat the market average could take our money, charge their fees and improve returns on it is laughable.
They just wanted the pork.
I know a few formerly wealthy Republicans who now rely solely on their monthly Social Security checks to get by on now, btw.
Needless to say, they speak quite highly of SS these days…
Monk:
I’m laughing out loud, but it breaks my heart at the same time.
You’re really clueless about how money works, aren’t you? I’m sorry. Truly, I’m sorry. Someone should have taken you under their wing a long time ago and showed you how things work. It’s much easier than you’d imagine. This actually makes me feel bad. I’m sorry.
I think we’re all about to get a lesson in how money “works” when the Democrats begin their audit of the $500+ billion that’s been spent on the “war,” ahem…
If you have any actual, factual comments on how money “works,” especially Social Security money, I’d be happy to read them.
Marmosetboy, have you ever even had any money?
I mean, what with living in that cave of yours and all…
Impeach Bush and stop the expansion of government and amnesty for illegal aliens.
We couldn’t pass private SS accounts with a majority. Watch out for raising the age again and higher taxes. How cynical, they want you to die before you collect. I think I would rather have my own money to leave to my children.
monky, go here and start reading… I’ll wait. just quickly, here’s a chart for ya. I can get at least twice that rate with a savings account, which isn’t risky. at. all.
You could get a better return on your money, if you actually put it away in a savings account, maggie.
The average American worker is actually spending more than they take home now, though.
Social Security will start paying you benefits right away if you become disabled before you retire…something your savings account wouldn’t do.
Social Security will also make payments to your dependents if you die.
Social Security will also keep paying you if you’re lucky enough to live to be 100, long after your savings would have run out…
Social Security is more than just a regular savings account, maggie.
Monk: Please consider accepting my apology. I didn’t mean to sound like that.
I’d look into this explanation from the Heritage Foundation. This was President Bush’s plan to offer the public the same retirement plan that all federal employees get. Your senator, for instance. It would yield twice the retirement money as social security for you and you could leave any of it that remained as a legacy to your heirs instead of giving it to the state.
The point to remember is that the program was strictly voluntary. You would not have been compelled to use it. And removing your access to traditional Social Security benefits was not part of the deal. It was strictly opt-in. It’s considered a luxury employee benefit. Technically, it’s called a Thrift Savings Plan. The teachers union in the state of Kentucky has it, for example.
Based on the way the market works, it would have a tendency to yield the best results to workers currently at the beginning or in the middle of their careers. That is, people who could let their money ride over several years. Folks like myself who are much closer to retirement would have probably been better advised to stick with social security. But it would have been our own choice. Baby, I wish I were younger. I would have gone for it in a flash.
The liberals portray investing as similar to gambling–although investing is the source of their own wealth–but even if you’re an average wage-earner and you invest a modest amount monthly over a period of years, it grows exponentially and safely through the miracle of interest. There’s a difference between prudent investing and gambling. Different funds are created for different types of investors. Some funds appeal to hotshots who can tolerate a lot of risk and others appeal to financial conservatives who are content to watch their money grow slowly but surely over a period of several years. The latter is what the private retirement account uses. Basically, the libs flipped out and refused the plan because they don’t know how money works–also, fear.
I recommend the fundamentals of investing series at Motley Fool. The Vanguard Funds offers a wealth of educational information, too. The point is that if you pay yourself a little every month and put it in a conservative mutual fund to distribute the risk, in 20 years you’ve got yourself a nice amount of money. And it’s all yours.
In any event, if you want something to do with your money, invest a regular amount monthly in a balanced fund or an index fund from some company like Vanguard which is an honorable company and has very low costs. I do.
Bloggers and all others, need to work to get the houses in congress to tear down the firewall that protects them from our emails. The House and Senate have become like the NYT and their “times select” or whatever it’s called.
Politicians need to be listening now not hiding under their desks. The day of instant accountability is upon us.
until of course Social Security can no longer be supported. where is all this money coming from? yes, i’m fine with there being a safety net, as ahem outlines, but we could also be doing much better. with little risk. though honestly, RTO and I aren’t counting on Social Security cause we don’t think it’s going to make it through the retiring boomers. it’s a ponzi scheme.
Ahem,
I’m not going to lie and say that Social Security is a good deal for someone who puts a little away each month, stays healthy throughout their entire working life and has the good fortune to die just as their savings run out.
For the other 99% of Americans, Social Security is a pretty good deal, though.
Monkyboy,
Well…(laughing)…those of you on the left seem to fear Mr. Bush, even more so than an enemy who would gladly kill you.
As for your statement:
You just illustrated my point, with special a emphasis on the ‘now.’
Monk: I have no quarrel with that. I just think it’s criminal to not offer the average citizen the same benefits the Senate gets. There’s something wrong with that, I think. This may shock you, but I like the little guy. Really.
I think America has never seemed weaker to the world…every third world peasant who holds a grudge against us is able to take out some of our troops with near impunity now.
He does have a point. We seem overextended, undercaptilized, and undertutilized. Cut off at the knees, as it were.
Monkyboy,
You are wrong in the perception that our enemies are able to “take out our troops with impunity.”
The U.S. has the best-trained and most lethal force that the world has ever seen.
Your contrary observation reveals a lot about how you perceive our nation’s military and our nation’s ability to defend itself.
How can you expect people like Bin Laden to see you differently than the image you are projecting?
Americans will be killed with impunity…. sounds like the Clinton years.
How nostalgic.
Maybe we should rephrase that to: Americans will be held hostage with impunity and relive the Carter administration maybe throw in some double digit inflation…. wooo hoo.
I think college campuses are more afraid of Bush than terrorists are.
Just for fun go visit an election map and look for the islands of blue in otherwise red states and you will find that most times that island of blue emcompasses the campus of a state university.
Christ ahem, do you really expect the average citizen to put his ass on the line and take the same risk a brave and noble US Senator does?
Are you mad?
You mean, can they handle it as well as the Republicans did? Will they put all sorts of earmarks on bills and expect people not to notice? Will our debt limits be constantly increased while taxes go down? Will they give millions to churches to promote the activities churches have promoted for centuries? Will they subsidize resource exploration for companies making record profits? Will they increase the size of government? Will they blame the predecessor for the need to outsource our military support services, even after six or seven years? And will they attempt to change or ignore all their ethics rules? If a lot of this is so, then the Democrats won’t be ready for the internet.
Hmm. Wonder how that happened?