I hope that everyone realizes that I was being sarcastic in the post yesterday. Some didn't and I got some shocked emails and worried phone calls that I slipped off the deep end. The truth is that I really wanted a summation, from the conservative side, of why we have problems in this country. At one time or another, this is what I have been told by the right and when you look at the list, don't you just start laughing? I do....What is very bizarre about the whole situation is that these very conservatives have been running the show for the last seven years. So can someone explain to me how it's the liberals' fault when they don't have the power to do anything and haven't since Bill Clinton was president? And don't give me the "They have Congress now" bullcrap because clearly that hasn't worked out. If they want to bitch, they should start by looking in the mirror.
Every problem has a point of origin. If we have these problems now and the conservatives are driving these policies that cause the problems, then they are the point of origin and, thus, bear the responsibility. What is going on right now reminds of when I hear a crash in my house and run into the room where the noise occurred. I get the louder of my two children pointing at the other saying, "He did it!!!"
Actually, the picture above pretty much sums it up.
20 comments:
That is the beauty of the whole thing isn't it. The bitch list had better be mighty fucking short considering how ineffectual the Democrats have been in blocking any nominations or implementing any stop to the war in Iraq or any of the other bullshit promises that led to their current majority in the Congress. I mean Alberto Gonzalaz quit, Karl Rove quit, Donald Rumsfield quit, Tommy Thompson quit, Colin Powell quit, Paul Wolfowicz quit...they weren't fired or impeached or anything. Some of them got a stern talking to, but that is really the extent of it.
By all rights, there should be absolutely nothing wrong with the way the country is currently headed or the policies that are in place. The better world we were promised is delivered! Praise Jesus! Return to the land of milk and honey has never been this sweet.
The only real problem remaining is the non-believers. They need to be removed, perhaps to another country (one that is dominated by communists preferably or perhaps socialists). Once their gone, all will be right. Welcome to the New American Century. Oh yeah, and all those deadbeats who can't pay for health insurance. They have to go too. And the wetbacks who are stealing jobs from good honest Americans who are lining up to be fry cooks and pick grapes and other produce. Yes, and the queers have to go too. You know the ones, the ones who want to be recognized as "married." Then, the only thing we have to do is get rid of all the teachers out their poisoning our children's minds. Hell, we can even fix the education system then by editing text books to remove any ideas we find unsavory like our foreign policy for the last 60 years or distasteful things like the U.S. Army providing small pox infected blankets to the Mandan in North Dakota. In fact, all we really need is one text book...the Good Book if you get my meaning (wink, wink, nod, nod, say no more, say no more).
Yes sir, things are looking brighter every day with our good friends the Chinese and the Saudi's money, we will really have a shiny new future to look forward. God help us if Fred Thompson or Rudy don't get elected cause the terrorists will come to Anytown or Yourtown USA and that will be that.
The list better be mighty fucking short because your "side of the aisle" has had its way with this country like a bunch of Genghis Khan's mongols had with women in conquered (or more accurately, surrendered) towns. You reap what you sow.
Why did you use sarcasm? It's quite clear from the original entry that liberals can't tell the difference.
The amazing thing is, you all look to the government to solve problems.
Indeed, SW. John Kennedy once said "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country..."...oh how the times have changed...Mark & John apparently cannot get out of bed in the morning without looking for gov't okey-dokey.
ahh yes, the old "look to the government to solve problems" cliche/fallback. First of all sw, I would like to see your endorsement of all that is currently happening and all that will happen as a result of "conservative" leadership over the last 8 years.
Second, I would like you to explain to me how individuals who don't have teams of lawyers working for them and yet pay their taxes are supposed to institute change. In the current paradigm, money talks, bullshit walks. The people we vote for either A) do not do what we want, and/or B) lose so that people with lots of money (but not necessarily working in the best interest of the "people") do what they want. So, without government help, we are just to like it or lump it? Is that the plan? Talk to the 40 million people without health insurance who YOU are going to pay for when they go to the overpriced ER. Who is that hurting, you or them?
Why don't you spell out for everyone your vision of America that does not include the poor, the disenfranchised 1 out of every 4 homeless veterans, etc, etc and explain how these miscreants are to be treated with in the New American Century. Explain what should happen to those less fortunate then yourself. Those are the ones who need to be ignored, swept under the carpet? Better yet, demonstrate how this societies freemarket solutions have handled crime, fires and water management.
What a crock of shit...the free market, run by people who by definition want and need to make a profit will solve the societal needs of this country. We have done this already people, it was called the Middle Ages and our figurative ancestors came here to get away from it because it no longer worked!
This doesn't even come close to addressing the numerous problems that can and have come about in history from having a mercenary army answerable to no one but their highest bidding employer.
But this is all academic bullshit. Here is the reality, this country is full of people who are not willing or able to take care of themselves. Your free market solution has been given centuries to work and it doesn't cover all the bases nor even really make it to 2nd base. Time to evolve.
I don't need okey dokey from anyone to get out of bed in the morning just dave. But that really isn't the point is it? You enjoy firemen, policemen and clean drinking water, all things that are managed by the government. The problem that you have Just Dave is that you don't seem to remember a time when government worked. A time when it wasn't filled with crooks and/or imbeciles. But here is the catch...to say government is bad right now would be to admit that the people you helped put in power are fuck-ups at the least or outright criminals at the worst. You "conservatives" own the pile of shit we are on and any splatters that fall off it for the foreseeable future.
It is one thing to admit that things are fucked up and to not know how to fix it, it is entirely a different animal to be an asshole and try to play off this fubar mess as being the result of liberal thinking or bipartisanship. As the overly tired cliche goes...show me the money...or in this case, show me how the current state of affairs is anything but conservative vision and know-how.
Good luck.
Good golly; calm down...you’re going to blow an O-ring, man.
Geez, I guess when you pull the piglets away from the government teat, they really squeal.
What government teat am I being pulled away from? How does a logically constructed argument constitute a squeal? Calm down...me? I am perfectly calm. I am simply pointing out a very tangible and simple fact...either you think everything related to the policies of the last 8 years is fine by you or, you helped put into power imbeciles/criminals. You fall into one of those two categories and attempts to frame me as a socialist or communist will fall amazingly short.
Time to belly up to the bar and pay down for your beliefs.
By the by, your use of the Kennedy quote is off the mark. He was not asking for privatization. He was asking people to pull together as one, not to pull apart for profit at anyone's else's expense.
All I know is...someone pooped in John and Markadelphias corn flakes this morning.
I didn't use Kennedy’s words to imply privatization but to illustrate that people once took responsibility for their lives as opposed to waiting for the gov’t to help, as you say, “people who are not willing or able to take care of themselves”. Belly up? Heck, it’s time for citizens to buck up! I’m not working so those “unwilling” can live off my dime.
It’s not all or nothing, but if you want to characterize it that way, then fine, I’m very confident and satisfied in my beliefs and the policies of the past 8 years and would happily take it over your alternative. Don’t like it?...Vote us out of office.
I would never try to frame you as a socialist or communist…you do a much better job of that yourself.
ingraham with an h...the real laugh is that someone pooped in your cornflakes whether you know it or not. The question is what are you going to do about it?
Just Dave same old living in denial routine. Unwilling or unable to accept that there are people who work just as hard as you do and yet cannot make ends meet due to the world in which they were born, nothing more sinister than that. The days of conservatives getting miles out of a corrupt welfare system are long gone. There are people who are disabled, are the victims of high prices generated by your worshipped free market or have simply not made the choices that you have made. They are not going away and the policies you have subscribed to will do nothing to fix that. At best you have proven yourself to support ineffective policy, at worst you have decided to hold hands with imbeciles and criminals.
Vote your kind out of office? Sure why not, when we can get the next to worthless Democrats who couldn't pass gas in a paper bag if someone was holding it for them. I have little fear of seeing your brand of conservatism being voted out of office...it is not possible to have anything worse except maybe having marshal law declared and another indefinite period of bullshit to put up with. Oh yeah and being rounded up for re-education.
Communist and socialist...so original, do me a favor, come up with your own insults, it is far too flattering to yourself to use mine. I am neither and to assume that I represent myself as a socialist or communist is small thinking or lack thereof entirely. You and your family have enjoyed the benefits of socialist thinking for decades and are a product in almost every regard of those types of policies. So what was good for you to get where you are is not good for the future or for others? That's rich! Keep 'em coming Just Dave, eventually you will land a solid blow.
You assume that I "want" to fix these things. I don't. The world needs ditch diggers too.
...hey, batter, batter, batter, swiiiiinnnggg batter!!
"What a crock of shit...the free market, run by people who by definition want and need to make a profit will solve the societal needs of this country."
is absolutely the funniest thing I have ever read on this blog. And the truest...
"Don’t like it?...Vote us out of office."
I think that is going to happen in 2008, dave, and I'll tell you something. If you thought 2006 was bad, wait until you get a load of 2008. The frustration that John feels in this thread pales in comparison to outright anger that the majority of people feel in this country what is going on in DC, chiefly with Bush-Cheney et al. Either Hillary, Obama or Edwards is going to be President and the Dems are going to pick up even more seats in Congress. It's going to be a bloodbath and the reason why it will happen is not because liberals/media/teachers have brainwashed people. It will be because the people you voted into office are colossal incompetents and moral degenerates.
Enjoy what little time you have left.
You are right mark. GOP incumbants are retiring instead of running again. It's going to be ugly. We need somebody that isn't so dang partisan.
Well, I think the best hope for that is Obama.
Interesting discussion thus far. I don't have time to type up some long winded response or get involved in a long discussion as we are busting our humps getting things done at work this week. I do have a couple questions though.
John, I thought our ancestors came over here because of taxation without representation?
John, forgive me if I misread you but are you advicating government takeover/control of industries? If so, when has THAT ever worked? (intentions over results again) I don't think you are a communist but government takeover of private industry and attempts by the government to implement economic equality IS communism. I happen to think that profit is a motivator and it isn't as evil as you describe it to be. Just because someone makes a profit does not automatically mean they screwed someone over to get it.
As for "enjoying what little time we have left", if you observe my day-to-day life you'll notice quite quickly that my happiness has absolutely nothing to do with which political party is in power in Washington DC. If you think that putting certain people in certain elected positions will get rid of greed in this country I think you're dreaming. It's a matter of the heart and there is no top-down solution to greed.
Mark, are you suggesting that Hillary is going to win in a "bloodbath" lopsided victory?
Go ahead, elect democrats. The GOP lobbyists and crooks will leave town and the dem lobbyists and crooks will come into town. The policies of eliminating the middle class will continue on and the folks who cannot make ends meet will still not be able to make ends meet. Lucky for me I guess, I see what those policies are and am able to avoid falling victim to them as best I can.
"are you suggesting that Hillary is going to win in a "bloodbath" lopsided victory?"
If she gets the nomination, yes. Although I hope she doesn't. And the Dems will have an insane majority in Congress.
"the dem lobbyists and crooks will come into town."
Not if Obama wins. True if Hillary or Edwards wins.
Just Dave...of course the world needs ditch diggers, the difference between you and me is that you have already decided who those people are going to be.
Last in Line...absolutely not. Our ancestors came here for a lot of different reasons including religious and political persecution (isn’t that ironic) as well as economic systems that were not regulated and created classes of citizens who were nothing more than slaves.
I am advocating the reinstitution of government regulation of some facets of industry and services that have become mandatory to this society. I am not against corporations or individuals making a profit. In the past, unions (as corrupt as some are and have been) were able to keep in check management's apparently uncontrollable tendency to funnel profits to CEO's who make 400% more than the lowest paid workers at the expense of those very same workers . That is ethically reprehensible and it represents short-sighted thinking. Explain to me how a person without enough money to pay bills each month could even possibly address corporate abuse. Where are their team of high paid lawyers? Thanks to the union breaking efforts of conservatives in the 1980's, union's lost much of their negotiating power.
Once upon a time there were laws that protected the citizens of this country from monopolies with strong anti-trust laws. Once upon a time it was possible to hold the pharmaceutical companies liable for their actions or inactions.
You know, if the unfettered free market system really worked all of the people in this country would be have their basic needs met including health insurance. But for some reason, the standard measure of success for conservatives is whether something works for them personally. If they aren't making 400% profit it just isn't working out for them.
As for health care, there seems to be a very vocal group of conservatives who don't want to pay for people who can't pay their own way. Yet at the same time, there is no suggestion as to what should happen to people who don't have insurance. Here's the reality...these people are going to the ER and we are all paying for their health care at ER prices (50$ for an ACE bandage, huh?). These people are not going to go away and they can be taken care of for less money using universal health care in systems that work.
But this is all beside the point. The original post intimated that there are conservatives who still have complaints about the way the social, political and ideological currents are in this society. I said the list of complaints better be short considering the people they voted into office have been in power for the last 8 years.
If things are great for conservatives like Just Dave...more power to them. I personally think they are living under a self-woven shroud of half-truths and logic blinding patriotism whilst barring their teeth when droplets of truth fall through the rather wide weft and weave.
If you are a conservative who sees the serious problems caused by this administration whose agenda has been to privatize everything from our military to our retirement then accept responsibility for electing imbeciles/criminals and stop defending the policies and ideals simply because you think that they should work.
In other words, you have not earned the right to complain about the way things are nor to claim victim status at the hands of liberal thinking. Either you like the way things are or you bear the responsibility for electing the assholes who made the situation.
Interesting proposal John. As a conservative I still subscribe to the mantra that "If you want your shit ruined, just get the government involved". I hear your complaints about corrupt CEO's, pharmaceutical companies and monopolies but I don't think injecting politicians into the mix will inject honesty. Again, intentions over results...if you start regulating how much profit a company can make or limit top salaries, who is going to stop that company from moving their operations offshore to avoid such regulations? They already do that to avoid government regulations as it is.
Like universal healthcare, I think the cure may be worse than the disease. As tough as things are for some in this country we have a very high standard of living compared to much of the rest of the world. If you think things can be better I don't disagree but there will always be people who fall behind.
Ah hell, I don't have all the answers.
Mark, if Hillary wins it will not be in a landslide. You said Kerry would win in 2004 because he was connected to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Anyone making predictions of the 2008 election should look at the 2007 election earlier this month.
Republican Bobby Jindal wins for Governor of Louisiana.
New Jersey voters had not killed a statewide ballot measure since 1990 yet voters in socially progressive New Jersey decided they didn't want to spend $450 million on stem cell research, a favorite cause of social progressives. Democratic Gov. Corzine campaigned heavily for the plan to borrow $450 million over 10 years to finance stem cell research. That ballot initiative went down 60-40. Sounds like outright anger to me.
The citizens of Oregon rejected Gov. Ted Kulongoski's plan to raise the cigarette tax by 84.5 cents a pack to fund health insurance for about 100,000 children lacking coverage. That ballot initiative went down 60-40. Sounds like outright anger to me.
Voters in left-leaning Washington state approved an anti-tax advocate's initiative to make it harder for the state to increase taxes and fees.
Voters in conservative Utah rejected school vouchers, a favorite idea of conservatives.
Voters in typically tight-fisted Texas approved a series of bond measures to the tune of $10 billion for a cancer research center.
You also thought the vikings would win last Sunday. I just can't trust someone with that track record. ;) See you tomorrow night.
Mark: "best hope is Obama"
You are right, he has a much better chance to win than does Paul....
But who knows... Romney and Giuliani both want to bomb Iran; But both can be portrayed as draft dodgers of Vietnam.
McCain sucks on illegal immigration.
Huckabee tries to be like Clinton: Both from Hope (totally planned ahead-lol), Both served as Governor, Both tried to take furniture from the Governors Mansion when they left... It's silly... usually this kind of hypocrisy is on the Dems side. No offense to "draft dodgers" Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, and Bill Clinton.
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