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If the government is not democratic it is ilegitimate and should be broken. We must watch, however, false popular - "astroturf" - movements like the Tea Party or Glenn Beck, shilling for big business, taking advantage of any momentaryconfusion to sieze power and deliver us into privatized dictatorship.
"The President called for end to tax breaks for the richest 2% in our nation – the GOP shunned the idea."
This is a fundamentally flawed idea and having it "shunned" is exactly appropriate.
President Obama mentioned ending tax breaks in the context of cutting back government spending, i.e. that somehow a loss in tax revenue is the same as government spending more. Not only is this insulting to the American people, it's flawed economics.
That theory implies that tax money rightfully belongs to the government and not to the people. It is completely backwards to the very nature of our system of government and has proven disasterous multiple times throughout history. The theory that the money people earn rightfully belongs to government and can only be gained back by being allowed by said government is quite possibly the biggest threat to economic freedom that there possibly could be.
From the radio program, it seems as though you have read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations at least once or twice. Perhaps browse through that a time or two again and maybe some Hayek, to boot.
I wish the Prez would have gone on a little more about Bohner. He almost had him to tears.
I was of the opinion that the right wanted to take us back to 1950. Now I believe they really want to go back to 1850.
Anyone who calls Obama a lefty is either a fool or liar.
She said "an effective movement of the unemployed would have to look something like the strikes and riots in Greece." That may be a neutral fact. It is arguable that the civil rights movement required both non-violent and other confrontation to succeed.
Beck is a shill for big business and is against the people gaining power and challenging what a friend of mine who defected from the Soviet bloc in the 80's called the "privat diktatur" (private dictatorship) of capitalist societies. He's against Piven, Cloward, Saul Alinsky and anybody who wants to give power to the people against big business.
"And nowhere could you see the difference between the two parties more drastically than in Congressman Paul Ryan’s GOP response to the State of the Union. It was a "short on specifics - long on partisan attacks" speech..."
Considering Medicare's Chief Actuary just admitted that Rep. Ryan's plan could control health care costs better than Obamacare, I'd say you need to rethink the idea that it is "short on specifics."
People on the left complain that conservatives "don't have a plan." Yet, here is Rep. Ryan, not only with a plan, but a plan that is based in reality and shows serious promise of cutting needless spending. The question is, will progressives attack his plan with sound reasons as to why it won't work, or will they just attack him?
My bet is on the latter.
ok, no problem. i would argue that it should start a little lower, maybe 7.5%, but on the whole idea i agree with you about everyone paying. of course it would depend on what gov't income versus outlays are. i think a constitutional balanced budget amendment would help control budgeted spending, because we do need to get the debt under control.
Obama made several right turns in his speech: cutting Medicare and Medicaid; forcing schools to compete for a limitied amount of funding; urging Army recruiters be allowed on campuses; and responding to unfair "free" trade laws by saying "work harder!" and making more "free" trade agreements.
However, the worst thing he did, in terms of future generations, is to call nuclear power "clean" energy. By placing it on the same footing with wind and solar, he dooms thousands of generations to cancer, birth defects and misery as we continue to generate radioactive wastes that will last millions of years. For the past 60 years, nuclear power has acted as a giant sponge, sucking up all our research and infrastructure dollars. Meanwhile, the rest of the world has embraced wind and solar and are literally leaving us in the radioactive dust. Nukes are dirty, expensive and dangerous. They are in no way clean energy. Obama has shown a terrible lack of environmental wisdom by choosing to waste further resources on this horrible technology.
Jeeze-a-lew, sure are alotta bloggers on this site
Can someone please let me know the bumper song from today's radio broadcast (Wed, Jan 26 2011)? Bumper music is the music that leads after a commercial break (before Thom starts talking). In particular, I'm referring to the Chicago-style instrumental horn song. It's great. Thanks in advance for any help.
The man on the right seated behind the President appeared flatulent, causing the Vice-president's lips to remain mostly in an upside down U position during the speech.
The scholarly President presented his case like a lawyer, and did well scanning the room side to side with equality, but never looked directly at me out in TV Land like Walt Disney and President Kennedy used to do.
There was noted only one yellow tie in the entire audience, forgivingly tempered somewhat with a brown cross-hatched print.
Senator McCain wore a very dark red tie over a Copenhagen blue shirt, and as usual, the Supreme Justices were all in black.
I think we should have had some sort of National Prayer which acknowledged that social injustice and homeland violence is worsening, created by ill-intentioned people who are too strong for us. If we don't put an end to the oppressive devices which ultimately result in throngs of uneducated, unhealthy people stealing, killing, becoming addicts, rapists or mass murderers, no amount of guns is going to make this a nice place to live.
There was not one person in attendance at the State of the Union Address whose cousin's only book had been eaten by a rat.
Our Health is our Greatest Wealth. So I am not interested in all these BS engineering advances which will detract from taking care of an ill society. What, are we supposed to do, work sick from lack of medical care and too much chemical cheese?
My intent was to allow more money to be earned each time you raise the rate. An additional 2,500 gets you to the 11% rate 3,000 gets you to 12%, 3,500 gets you to 13%, 4,000 gets you to 14% and so on. I may not have been very clear on this
Thom,
The clips played on the Blaze are of Piven speaking. Her own voice. Her own radical views
Today on the Shawn Hannity radio advertising jingle. "take america back" . How far back is back far enough Shawn ? Shawns mission is so terribly singular. Hate Obama, Obama is the root of all evil. End of story. 4th grade recess in a one room school house out in the middle of nowhere in 1954. Argggggghhhhhhh !
so what does the +2500 next to the 2nd bracket mean?
No 0 to 15,000 would be 10% 15,000.01 to 17,500 would raise to 11%. I didn't post the complete list to shorten the post . 27% would be the rate that those earning from 320,000 to 470,000$
that word does not exist in their Dictionary !
One expects partisa, fact-free rants from the Republicans.
What bothers me more is the fact-free coverage from the corporate media.
1. NBC coverage featuring Obama's "new" turn to bipartisanship, as if he has not made cooperation and compromise the main feature of his administration -- often to the exasperation of his real supporters.
2. Today, I listen to NPR, and they play Bachmann's statement that 16,500 IRS officers will be "enforcing Obamacare." Not one of the commentators on this so-called "liberal" media outlet mentioned that the statement was hogwash. Republicans know they can lie repeatedly because they know their pets in the media -- not just Faux Noise -- will not call them out on it. They can claim that the entire national debt was created by Obama over the last two years, and no one will mention the massive debt created under Bush and Reagan.
This is why our country is being destroyed.
With a little more tweeking he may have cried enough to slide right out of his chair.
Wouldn't it be funny if everyone had to pay a fair share in taxes.
I enjoyed Obama hole speech and I loved watching the cry baby start to cry. If Obama had said one more nice thing about the old cry baby the tears would have been rolling down his face.
so a person making 15,000.01 sees his tax rate actually jump to 27.5+%, i'll say that's regressive!
Interesting Mitch!
At long last Republicans, have you no decency?
I am an Independent and I am proud of it!!! I oppose abortion because such a procedure is a dastardly act. I believe in a strong defense that is prudent in the defense of our country. I have been a union member but I have some issues with unions. Yes, they did help to bring about our middle class. There are reasons why the unions are at a 7 or 9 % base. I do not give up my vote for any particular party - such as right or wrong I am still a Democrat or a Republican. An old fashion Republican would whip a Democrat's ass. Current Republicans are certifiable psychos. I am not from Missouri but I believe in the Missouri modal - SHOW ME.!!!
Any who, I also wanted to make this point about Obama's speech. I'm getting a bit tired of the education is important mantra spewed forth by our political leaders. I'm not saying that education isn't important, but if you listen closely to how Obama framed it, it comes down to this, if you don't at least have a college education, screw you. Now perhaps that's not how he wants it to sound, and yes perhaps he's trying to encourage the American youth to strive for more. But lets get back to reality here, even if every American became a Lawyer, Doctor, Engineer, IT Professional etc... with at least a Masters Degree level, that doesn't do a damn thing to ensure they have a LIVING WAGE JOB!!!
Second so what if some Americans choose to end their education after high school. Maybe, just maybe, some of them really don't have aspirations of having a corner office with a solid oak desk, maybe they'd be happy with a job that puts food on their table, and pays for the god damn table in the first place. Is that too much to ask? Sure it would be wonderful to have a nation of citizens with nothing but a higher education, I'm sure your local garbage man would be happy to have a PhD in refuse collection but still be paid a garbage man's wages. I'm certain factory workers would find a Masters in assembly line mechanics very honorable as they get an average of $.50/unit produced. Its a bunch of crapola that education will save our country. Jobs will save our country, and I don't think you'll need much more than a High School education to swing a sledge hammer, poor cement and lay rail for a high speed interstate railway, nor will such an education be pivotal while working in the factory that produces the sledge hammers, cement and rails. I don't think you'll need to have an engineering degree to assemble solar panels and wind generators, sure its helpful when designing them, but I don't foresee an army of engineers installing them either.
There's a lot more to the economic backbone of the country besides the administration office at any company.
N
Thom, you have to pay attention to the difference between "is" and "could". Ben Stein said Obama could run as a Republican. Also--and as a radio host you're not alone in this--you need to watch out for overuse of pronouns. When you switch between using "he" for both Obama and Boehner several times in one sentence you can easily confuse the listeners.