This afternoon, as I was flipping through the headlines for today's Washington Post, I noticed that our old friend Eric Cantor had written an op-ed piece. Since I'm always hopeful that the Republican party will put out something sensible, or at the least truthful, I clicked on it and started reading.
I didn't get very far.
My brain quickly glazed over with boredom at the usual role call of taxes hurt business, taxes keep businesses from hiring people, regulation of business hurts businesses, regulation of businesses keeps businesses from hiring people.
Blah, blah, blah.
Funny how Mr. Cantor decided to trot out his favorite side show when the polls show that the majority of Americans, Democrat and Republican alike, support raising taxes on the highest tax brackets and businesses. This is Eric Cantor's way of waving the gold watch in front of everyone's eyes and chanting, "Taxes are bad, taxes are bad..." All in the hopes he'll actually convince you that's true.
Well, we tried the whole tax breaks for the millionaires and billionaires, and tax breaks for corporations, many of whom are pulling in BILLIONS in profits. All it got us was a higher national deficit. No increases in hiring.
And, one statement in particular I'll call bad form on is Mr. Cantor's statement that "[Republicans] had to drag [President Obama] to the table to make even the modest spending cuts that Standard & Poor’s says don’t go far enough."
In fact, President Obama was happily negotiating a plan with Speaker Boehner that included a series of spending cuts, along with tax reforms, until Eric Cantor told Boehner that no such deal would ever get his vote, and the negotiations plug was pulled. If you click on the link to the article where the S & P makes a statement about the debt-ceiling deal, you see that what the S & P actually said was, "the bipartisan agreement reached this week to find at least $2.1 trillion in budget savings 'fell short' of what was necessary to tame the nation’s debt over time".
The statement does not say that the cuts themselves fell short of what was necessary to tame the debt, just the agreement. The agreement that included ZERO TAX REFORM, thanks in no small part to the Republican part, and Eric Cantor in particular.
--Statler, moderator
8.22.2011
8.10.2011
NOT A HORRIFYINGLY BAD SPEECH
Monday afternoon, some time after President Obama's speech, I was flipping through some articles on The Washington Post's site. I came across a post by Jennifer Rubin titled Obama's horrifyingly bad speech. It turned out to be one of the shortest and most badly written pieces of commentary on the president's speech that I saw all day.
The critique was full of cheap shots - "He was a half hour late" started off the post - and typos - "[h]e did trot our proposals". It consisted of six paragraphs, the longest of which is (barely) six sentences long, and the rest are mush shorter than that. It does not consist of any real commentary about the contents of the speech, other than the fact that Rubin felt it was boring and didn't contain any new information.
Of course the speech didn't contain any new information. There wasn't any new information to give anyone, because nothing had happened since the downgrade by Standard & Poor's. The purpose of the speech was to inform the five people that maybe didn't know about the downgrade yet, and broadcast his condolences about the 30 soldiers who died in the helicopter crash over the weekend.
And, since we does the President Obama need to answer to Jennifer Rubin as to why he was running late? Maybe he had a meeting he needed to finish up, comments to put the final touches on, or take an important phone call. You know, because he's, um, the president?
--Statler, moderator
The critique was full of cheap shots - "He was a half hour late" started off the post - and typos - "[h]e did trot our proposals". It consisted of six paragraphs, the longest of which is (barely) six sentences long, and the rest are mush shorter than that. It does not consist of any real commentary about the contents of the speech, other than the fact that Rubin felt it was boring and didn't contain any new information.
Of course the speech didn't contain any new information. There wasn't any new information to give anyone, because nothing had happened since the downgrade by Standard & Poor's. The purpose of the speech was to inform the five people that maybe didn't know about the downgrade yet, and broadcast his condolences about the 30 soldiers who died in the helicopter crash over the weekend.
And, since we does the President Obama need to answer to Jennifer Rubin as to why he was running late? Maybe he had a meeting he needed to finish up, comments to put the final touches on, or take an important phone call. You know, because he's, um, the president?
--Statler, moderator
8.06.2011
DEAR REPUBLICANS: ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?
Yesterday, The New York Times broke the news along with other news sources: the United States lost its AAA credit rating with Standard & Poor's for the first time in history.
Can anyone who watched the idiocy of last week over raising the debt-ceiling say that they're surprised?
Can anyone who watched the ultra-conservative, Tea Party-fanaticism-driven, Republican members of the House put not only their Speaker but the rest of the country over a barrel say that they didn't expect this?
Can anyone at all say they're surprised that the rest of the world watched the game of chicken over the debt-ceiling last week and got a little nervous about our willingness to pay our debts, let alone our ability?
If anyone can say that, I'm sorry, but they're nuts. I'm not surprised at all. And, all I can say to the fruitcake politicians who took part in furthering the debacle, including but not limited to the members of the House of Representatives who staged a symbolic vote blocking Senator Reid's plan before it was even finished, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?
To ramp up the stupidity of the situation, the Administration and the Treasury department have argued with S & P that there was a $2 trillion mathematical error in S & P's calculations. Except, the math isn't the point. The downgrade of the U.S.'s credit rating is a vote of no confidence, on the heels of the political three-ring circus of last week. You know, just like the vote of no confidence that the Republicans have proposed to hold the next time the debt-ceiling needs raised.
I will say that I disagree with China standing up, waggling their fingers at us, and telling us we're addicted to debt. This, when most of the world knows that if Chinese workers were paid anything close to a living wage, the country's corporate world wouldn't be booming half as well as it is right now.
That aside, I think this downgrade and the response from the U.S. on all fronts is telling of just how much politicians have put the blinders on when it comes to how cleanly they're sinking the country and just how their actions look to the rest of the world.
--Statler, moderator
Can anyone who watched the idiocy of last week over raising the debt-ceiling say that they're surprised?
Can anyone who watched the ultra-conservative, Tea Party-fanaticism-driven, Republican members of the House put not only their Speaker but the rest of the country over a barrel say that they didn't expect this?
Can anyone at all say they're surprised that the rest of the world watched the game of chicken over the debt-ceiling last week and got a little nervous about our willingness to pay our debts, let alone our ability?
If anyone can say that, I'm sorry, but they're nuts. I'm not surprised at all. And, all I can say to the fruitcake politicians who took part in furthering the debacle, including but not limited to the members of the House of Representatives who staged a symbolic vote blocking Senator Reid's plan before it was even finished, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?
To ramp up the stupidity of the situation, the Administration and the Treasury department have argued with S & P that there was a $2 trillion mathematical error in S & P's calculations. Except, the math isn't the point. The downgrade of the U.S.'s credit rating is a vote of no confidence, on the heels of the political three-ring circus of last week. You know, just like the vote of no confidence that the Republicans have proposed to hold the next time the debt-ceiling needs raised.
I will say that I disagree with China standing up, waggling their fingers at us, and telling us we're addicted to debt. This, when most of the world knows that if Chinese workers were paid anything close to a living wage, the country's corporate world wouldn't be booming half as well as it is right now.
That aside, I think this downgrade and the response from the U.S. on all fronts is telling of just how much politicians have put the blinders on when it comes to how cleanly they're sinking the country and just how their actions look to the rest of the world.
--Statler, moderator
8.05.2011
BEWARE, THE STUPIDS ARE OUT AGAIN
As if the usual level of stupidity that seems to run deep through our society wasn't bad enough already, yesterday, it was ramped up to an even higher level.
Now, I know I can be accused of being inordinately grumpy on an otherwise good day. Yesterday wasn't one of those good days.
It started when I went to the gym in the afternoon for my three-times weekly cardio session. It was crowded on the indoor track, which always irritates me, because people seem to forget their manners when passing. This was no exception. I witnessed not one or two people going down the middle of the two lanes, but three and four people at a time. They weren't passing anyone either, they were just walking that way normally, as if they had rented the whole track for themselves for the afternoon.
Then, after I left the gym, I exited the parking lot and was confronted with the sight of a tractor trailer parked in one of the street lanes. PARKED! People had to cross fully into the opposite lane to get around the truck and trailer.
Later in the evening, I headed to the gas station to fill up my tank. Everyone seemed to have had the exact same idea, without any idea of the best way to do that. Rather than rounding the pumps in a clockwise or counter-clockwise fashion, drivers went in whichever direction they wanted, just weaving in and out of pump stations however they pleased.
After about 10 minutes or so, I finally was able to back up to a vacant pump. While the pump filled up my tank, I was washing my windows. As I came around the outer corner of my vehicle, I just barely saw another car zip into the parking lot and aim for the vacant pump behind my vehicle. Good thing I saw him, because I know the driver never saw me. He never even glanced in my direction as he squealed to a stop, three feet past the edge of the pump station. Did he care how close he came to flattening me? Apparently not.
Fast-forward 20 minutes later. My wife and I pull into the grocery store parking lot. It's about 8:45pm, so the sun has gone down and it's dark out. I pulled the SUV into a spot at the far end of the parking lot (we actually like to walk), right next to a light post. I shut off the vehicle, and my wife starts to open her door and step out. Fortunately, I was looking over at her at the time, because as she opened the door, I caught a flash of headlights in the passenger side mirror. I shouted at my wife, "LOOK OUT," and yanked her back. She still had her hand on the door handle and was able to yank the door back in as I yanked her back. This was good, because the fool driver in another SUV flew through the row of spaces, into the space next to us, missing our passenger side by six inches.
If I hadn't seen the headlights and pulled my wife back, the other SUV would have killed her. The driver knew it, too. I saw her glance over, wide-eyed, as she paused in the space next to us and then kept drifting forward until she was two rows away from us.
If it hadn't been for the fact that I was concerned about my shaken wife and wanted to make sure she was alright, I would have walked up to the other SUV and torn the driver a new one. She would have deserved it. Honestly, people should have to pass a common sense test before they're issued a driver's license. I have a feeling that most people would fail, and vehicle accident fatalities would drop like a stone.
And then, to top off the night, when we were checking ourselves out at the grocery store, my wife stepped away from the self-scanner to get her purse from the cart next to me, and this woman walks up behind her. She plunks down her pint of ice cream and two candy bars, and proceeds to try to scan them. When my wife turned back, she told the woman we weren't finished yet. The woman actually didn't want to back up and remove her items from the scanning area.
Please, someone tell me, what is wrong with some people?!
By the time we got home last night, my wife and I were just thankful to be home again, finally, and in one piece.
--Statler, moderator
Now, I know I can be accused of being inordinately grumpy on an otherwise good day. Yesterday wasn't one of those good days.
It started when I went to the gym in the afternoon for my three-times weekly cardio session. It was crowded on the indoor track, which always irritates me, because people seem to forget their manners when passing. This was no exception. I witnessed not one or two people going down the middle of the two lanes, but three and four people at a time. They weren't passing anyone either, they were just walking that way normally, as if they had rented the whole track for themselves for the afternoon.
Then, after I left the gym, I exited the parking lot and was confronted with the sight of a tractor trailer parked in one of the street lanes. PARKED! People had to cross fully into the opposite lane to get around the truck and trailer.
Later in the evening, I headed to the gas station to fill up my tank. Everyone seemed to have had the exact same idea, without any idea of the best way to do that. Rather than rounding the pumps in a clockwise or counter-clockwise fashion, drivers went in whichever direction they wanted, just weaving in and out of pump stations however they pleased.
After about 10 minutes or so, I finally was able to back up to a vacant pump. While the pump filled up my tank, I was washing my windows. As I came around the outer corner of my vehicle, I just barely saw another car zip into the parking lot and aim for the vacant pump behind my vehicle. Good thing I saw him, because I know the driver never saw me. He never even glanced in my direction as he squealed to a stop, three feet past the edge of the pump station. Did he care how close he came to flattening me? Apparently not.
Fast-forward 20 minutes later. My wife and I pull into the grocery store parking lot. It's about 8:45pm, so the sun has gone down and it's dark out. I pulled the SUV into a spot at the far end of the parking lot (we actually like to walk), right next to a light post. I shut off the vehicle, and my wife starts to open her door and step out. Fortunately, I was looking over at her at the time, because as she opened the door, I caught a flash of headlights in the passenger side mirror. I shouted at my wife, "LOOK OUT," and yanked her back. She still had her hand on the door handle and was able to yank the door back in as I yanked her back. This was good, because the fool driver in another SUV flew through the row of spaces, into the space next to us, missing our passenger side by six inches.
If I hadn't seen the headlights and pulled my wife back, the other SUV would have killed her. The driver knew it, too. I saw her glance over, wide-eyed, as she paused in the space next to us and then kept drifting forward until she was two rows away from us.
If it hadn't been for the fact that I was concerned about my shaken wife and wanted to make sure she was alright, I would have walked up to the other SUV and torn the driver a new one. She would have deserved it. Honestly, people should have to pass a common sense test before they're issued a driver's license. I have a feeling that most people would fail, and vehicle accident fatalities would drop like a stone.
And then, to top off the night, when we were checking ourselves out at the grocery store, my wife stepped away from the self-scanner to get her purse from the cart next to me, and this woman walks up behind her. She plunks down her pint of ice cream and two candy bars, and proceeds to try to scan them. When my wife turned back, she told the woman we weren't finished yet. The woman actually didn't want to back up and remove her items from the scanning area.
Please, someone tell me, what is wrong with some people?!
By the time we got home last night, my wife and I were just thankful to be home again, finally, and in one piece.
--Statler, moderator
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