That someone had to even waste the breath to say this scares me so much that I get anxiety attacks.
Hell, Republicans are doing everything possible to help Obama win.
The fact that no one has beaten the everloving stuffing out of Donald Trump is great support for my argument.
Why the RNC isn’t vetting candidates as hard or harder than the Democrats stymies me. Look at all the effort wasted on people like Cain. Cain looked all right, but it wasn’t until accusations piled up hip deep that it was obvious that the man was so devoid of common sense that he’d even try to run with skeletons and even still-warm bodies in his closet.
All of the wasted effort and slashing of the frontrunners by the laggers – here’s what’s happening:
In 2012, there is going to be an election which is very similar to the world heavyweight boxing title.
In preparation for it, all the Republican hopefuls are going to engage in razor fighting and everyone assumes that if they are going down their situation can be saved with a kamikaze razor.
People like Trump who duck in the melee now and then to shoot front-runners in the ass with stuff ranging from sedatives to paralytics to gasoline is the new millennium’s answer to Ross Perot.
Sniping the leader rather than weeding out the weak DOES NOT MAKE FOR WINNING AN ELECTION. Natural selection results in stronger individuals when you let the carnivores eat the weak. If you kill off the strongest so only the weakest can take each other down then when it comes to the primary a choice between weaker candidates is all that is left.
Dick Morris is no dummy. If he’s expending the breath to say Ron Paul would be a win for Obama worries me. The implication is that that Mittens or Newt, neither of which are good solid electable Presidential material, could slash each other to the point where they bleed to death, or some idiot could attack the better of the two so they can attack the weaker…
Don’t get me wrong – I think every last Republican in the field is better than Obama… every… single… one… but I also think that we’re treading into the waters of unelectability with Mittens and Gingrich, and Ron Paul… if we get Paul, hell, let’s just not even bother with the election, okay?
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Found over on Weasel Zippers. It makes me ashamed that I was born and raised in Orygun, even though I am one of perhaps six folks to come from there that are conservative.
Occupy Portland Mom Places 4-Year-Old Daughter On Train Tracks During Protest To Shut Down Port of Portland…
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It’s economics writers like this one that really really piss me off.
The real dirty little secret of the American economy is that we are doing OK.
Sure, if you’re a bigger company and can get a loan, or if you’re not locked in one place because your house is so far underwater that you’ve got fish spawning in your attic insulation, or if you felt comfortable splurging now and then (even though you’re far from it), or if you felt like there’s nothing really that says something can’t come right along and wipe out a huge number of businesses w/o working up much of a sweat.
We are NOT doing OK. We are pursuing the practice of spending beyond our means with a very shaky economy with high unemployment. That is not ok, it has never been ok, and will never BE ok by any definition written by someone who isn’t smoking crack cocaine.
In its final statement before the end of the year, the Federal Reserve described the economy as “expanding moderately.” Almost all major statistics suggest that “moderately” may be an understatement. Manufacturing surveys such as those conducted by the Institute for Supply Management have been above 50 for months, which indicates growth. The same goes for service-sector surveys.
The overall economy as defined by GDP figures has been in the range of 2 percent, not great, but also not artificially inflated by too-easy credit, as was the case between 2004 and 2007. Incomes are flat or slightly down, but savings are up, which shows that the vast majority are living within their means and making solid choice about the lives.
Unemployment remains high, and structural, but also stagnant. Job gains are minimal, but so are job losses. And consumer sentiment, a fickle barometer, but indicative of moods and expectations, has been slowly creeping up against a tide of negative views about the U.S. and the world emanating from politics, Wall Street and the media.
But here’s the question – if all the statistics say that the economy is doing great, and every person out there has this awful gut feeling that things are anything but… please tell me how the economy is doing great.
The statement “consumer sentiment, a fickle barometer” is one of the most arrogant things to say. Consumer sentiment is just fine, it is the idiots reading the tea leaves that contribute to the notion of ‘fickle barometer’.
Negative views about the US and the world emanating from politics, Wall Street, and the media ARE CORRECT. Things are really quite dire. So either the author is quibbling and saying nothing at all – OR – he is trying to say in a couched fashion that things are lookin’ good and it’ll be a sunny day tomorrow. One is a waste of everyone’s time and the other is an “expert” who needs to start infusing analyses with reality.
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It seems that some people would like excuses because they feel uncomfortable turning down a holiday drink.
How about “No, I would not care for a drink” and if that doesn’t work say “Why the f*ck do you care if I have a drink or not? I don’t want one, and leave me alone about it.” Is either one of those just too difficult to say?
They suggest that some of those below are acceptable, which if the people are so casual of acquaintances that you can use these (or if you care so little you can say you get really racist after a few drinks) why do you care what they think when you tell them “No” and fall back on “Piss off”?
“No thanks. I get really racist after a few drinks.”
“Before I accept, I should warn you I brought a guitar with me.”
“I love drinking, but it doesn’t half make me vomit.”
“Not for me, I have a flight to catch later on. No, I’m a pilot.”
“I know I don’t look it, but I’m only 15. It’s a long and deeply disturbing story.”
How about this instead?
“Only two of the violent assault convictions were ever provably due to alcohol and I’ve paid my debt to society, so… sure, why not?”
I’m sure you guys have got more…
Lemur King's Folly 
weird times LK, Ron Paul is nearly tied for first place with Newt right now.
😉
I can handle the idea of Ron Paul fine, even if some of his ideas won’t float none too good with a lot of folks.
What bugs me is all Obama has to do is claim that he will f*ck up the country less. Republicans gotta play this as if the burden of proof is on their plate, Not doing that has been a losing move too many times now.
The progressive loons want to win, so we ought to act like it pretty quick.
Q.How can you tell Dick Morris is wrong?
A.He’s predicting something.
Ron Paul has no chance at winning the GOP nomination.
Although, I think he would be better than Romney. I’m not even sure Obama would be worse than Romney. At least a GOP Congress would fight Obama. Romney is likely to just try to make what Obama is doing “work” instead of stopping it. (how funny is it that Firefox recognizes “Romney” and still doesn’t recognize “Obama”?)
As for “America is doing okay”, relative to the rest of the world, we’re doing great. We’re the least boned of anybody, Germany might not be but they have the anchor of the rest of EUnuchstan dragging them into the crapper.
As I wrote at DPUD, China is getting frisky. What happens if they get in a war in the South China Sea with say, SoKo, Japan, the Philippines or even (heh) Vietnam? (I don’t think it would be only Vietnam, the Philippines is the prime candidate for being invoved in any ruckus there).
Well, then we’re at war with China and we don’t owe them a penny. “Remember those trillions we owe you? Yeah, you can forget about that. And you know how be buy all that crappy stuff from you? Yeah, well you can keep it. Try selling it to Belgium.”
Imagine that it would be cheaper for us to get involved in a world war than to not be involved.
You have to admit, that’s horribly funny and therefore, very likely.
Least boned, for now. Our cows just haven’t come home to roost yet. When denial is no longer a luxury, austerity measures stateside will cause withdrawal pains to rival those in Greece.
Europe is awash in austerity measures precisely because they’ve already hiked down the path we’re going down. The idea that a government can be everything for everybody is asinine – communism was a fun experiment, wasn’t it, kids? Too bad it sucked ass.
As soon as Germany and France see that they are about to be dragged down by the short hairs you’ll see cracks in the facade of civility that they’ve maintained until now.
Japan has zero – absolutely zero – capability of protection for themselves. Let’s get serious, their SDF wouldn’t last more than two rounds against China, and even if China had no technological edge at all they could win in a war of attrition.
China is making big blustery motions but what would that do to the 8 or 10% growth they need annually just to keep their nose above water? At some point even a war needs to be paid for. Don’t you wonder about the socioeconomic fallout they’d have if they did go to war and we said screw what you think we owe, and besides that, see if we buy your crappy shit any more?
It would screw up our addiction to vast piles of cheap shitty plastic products and clothing made in sweatshops, as well. Buh-bye Wal-Mart.
A China-Russia alliance would be almost a certainty, as China would want raw materials and Russia would rather sell them than have them taken away.
Oh this is an interesting arrangement of socio-geo-eco-political forces. It is in some ways insurance to have a global economy and also a horrible weakness.
I have to agree on some confusion of which evil is worse in a Romney-Obama race. RomneyCare should scare everyone who doesn’t like social health care programs.
The more I think about a world war at this point, I can’t see how it could possibly be cheaper than not getting in one. Look how expensive just Iraq and Afghanistan (and the Pakistan Ally fiction) have been.
Think of how many trillions we owe China. If we get in a war with them that all goes away.
China holds something like $1.2T of US long-term treasury debt (8%) closely followed by Japan, $950B.
War is going to cost a whole lot more than that.
But the good side to that is that Americans own $9.8T of our debt. Let’s keep it that way.
What seems strange to me, and perhaps it is a massive amount of ignorance, the US Treasury owns $1.6T of US long-term treasury debt.
Isn’t that like saying “Gosh I’d have more cash for my own use if I’d just pay my damn self back”?
I am 100% absolutely NOT ok with Ron Paul. He’s a complete nutball and has bad squirrels running around in his head, complete with a 1000 mile long trail of racist and anti-Semitic baggage crossing decades. The MSM kept hands-off on this guy just for the express purpose of keeping his long-shot candidacy alive on outside chance that he gets the nomination, whereupon they will absolutely DESTROY him in a spectacularly public fashion. Ron Paul would hand a landslide victory to the Zero. There is no doubt in my mind.
For the record I’m going with Rick Perry when Nevada does its thing. We switched from regular primary voting to a caucus thing last time around. It was odd.
Ron Paul’s racist baggage ought to float well with the Tea Party rampant racism, right Mitchell? 🙂
No, I don’t believe the TP is racist, I’m pushing buttons.
RP would be a disaster. That’s why I say don’t even bother with the election at that point. At that point it’s a lost cause and you’d get more bang for your buck if you just poured money into making sure Congress could figuratively decapitate Obama so his political clout matched his headless-chicken leadership style.