Two Libertarians discuss the need to leave a sinking financial ship and one, with the singularly apropos last name, Lira, will, for a fee, tell you "where to go most profitably" on leaving.
Off the wall, man. :)
U.S. presidential race 2
Sun, 2012-01-22 23:10
#52
Mon, 2012-01-23 00:46
#53
Sven
I think Gingrich v. Obama would be entertaining because of how comically erratic Gingrich can be whenever he opens his mouth. We'd get to hear the best presidential campaign gaffes since GWB. MittRobot v. Obama would be a snoozefest.
Mon, 2012-01-23 02:06
#54
Carville's a bit of a dick, but this column by him made me laugh out loud in a couple of places. I can just hear his gleeful, smug laughter while reading it.
Your new front-runner is one of your old front runners, Newt Gingrich. I would like to take a moment to revel: I cannot personally tell you how pleased I am to see old Newt rise to the top after listening to all of your nauseating, sickening lectures on the evils of government and the importance of family values.
Now, you guys have to deal with a $1.6 million Freddie Mac consultant (who says he wasn't a lobbyist) who has been married three times. Hope you, at least, enjoy the Super Bowl. It could be your last hurrah for a while.
PS -- As my former boss once said, I feel your pain. That's why I didn't mention Rick Perry.
Mon, 2012-01-23 12:52
#55
Boom Boom
Mon, 2012-01-23 13:41
#56
Mon, 2012-01-23 16:52
#57
Newt's Musings: A View From the Canadian Left and the Right - by Jane Taber
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/newts-musin...
"Newt Gingrich's shout-out to Stephen Harper, characterizing him as a fellow, pro-American conservative, is not exactly the kind of fame craved by a Prime Minister...It shows how much Canada is caught up in the US presidential race..."
Mon, 2012-01-23 17:21
#58
The amusing thing about that is that actually, Stephen Harper is probably somewhere around where Obama is on the political spectrum, not the Repugnicans. The center is so far right in the US, that the Democrats are where our Conservatives are. Their Repugnicans are right off our political map.
Mon, 2012-01-23 23:16
#59
knownothing
Ron Paul on Castro and Cuba at Tampa Florida debate 1/23/12
Tue, 2012-01-24 00:41
#60
Thank-You For Standing Up - By Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/thank_you_for_standing_up_20120123/
"...We can vote for Romney or Obama, but Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil and Bank of America and the defence contractors always win...Turn off your televisions. Ignore the Newt-Mitt-Rick-Barack reality show. It is as relevant to your life as the gossip on 'Jersey Shore'. Voting will not alter the corporate systems of power. Voting is an act of political theater. Voting in the US is as futile and sterile as the elections I covered in dicatorships..."
Tue, 2012-01-24 08:09
#61
It's the choice between asphyxiation by strangulation, and the guillotine....or.... between being bled like a stuck pig and double axled beneath a bus. Step right up folks, and don't forget your party badges.
Tue, 2012-01-24 08:26
#62
With all due respect to Hedges, that's BS. While he may be right in the broad sense, if he thinks it doesn't matter which candidate or which party wins when it comes to having a social safety net--for those in poverty, seniors, the unemployed, etc.--he's either blind or willfully obtuse. And it shows he doesn't take seriously the Randian Republican party which wants no such social safety net.
Tue, 2012-01-24 09:45
#63
I think Gingrich v. Obama would be entertaining because of how comically erratic Gingrich can be whenever he opens his mouth. We'd get to hear the best presidential campaign gaffes since GWB. MittRobot v. Obama would be a snoozefest.
only entertaining because in the end of either, Obama wins
otherwise, tragicomic ...
Tue, 2012-01-24 10:51
#64
I think the left in the U.S. needs to be cautious about appearing overly presumptious. The Republicans and the cons they serve may be against notions of socialism and get all weepy at the image of rugged individualism, but they will transform into a Borg collective on vote day if they feel we are forecasting their defeat too gleefully. Especially if Gingrich wins the nomination.
Tue, 2012-01-24 10:51
#65
With all due respect to Hedges, that's BS. While he may be right in the broad sense, if he thinks it doesn't matter which candidate or which party wins when it comes to having a social safety net--for those in poverty, seniors, the unemployed, etc.--he's either blind or willfully obtuse. And it shows he doesn't take seriously the Randian Republican party which wants no such social safety net.
Indeed. It's incredible how the situation facing those people can so easily fall off the screen for Hedges and the Principled-to-a-fault, who tend to have it made in the shade, themselves.It's as though they were offering up sacrifices to the great nihilist god,Fate.
But, back to the promising entertainment to be afforded by Georgia's favourite son, Newt, in battle with his black presidential adversary, the Muslim, supposedly from Hawaii. Break out the popcorn.
Tue, 2012-01-24 11:12
#66
M. Spector
I see the quadrennial assembly of Social-Democrats for the Preservation and Encouragement of Predatory Neoliberal Rule in America is well underway.
Tue, 2012-01-24 11:35
#67
SDPEPNRA...doesn't exactly roll off the tounge.
Tue, 2012-01-24 11:54
#68
I see the quadrennial assembly of Social-Democrats for the Preservation and Encouragement of Predatory Neoliberal Rule in America is well underway.
Yes, and the fatalist brigade for the promotion of fossilization and entropy is quick off the mark with determination, and a fresh new perspective on things.
Tue, 2012-01-24 12:02
#69
I see the quadrennial assembly of Social-Democrats for the Preservation and Encouragement of Predatory Neoliberal Rule in America is well underway.
Yes, social fascists all.
Tue, 2012-01-24 12:19
#70
knownothing
With all due respect to Hedges, that's BS. While he may be right in the broad sense, if he thinks it doesn't matter which candidate or which party wins when it comes to having a social safety net--for those in poverty, seniors, the unemployed, etc.--he's either blind or willfully obtuse. And it shows he doesn't take seriously the Randian Republican party which wants no such social safety net.
Not BS, BO as in Bang ON, it shows you don't take seriously the damage Obama has done
Tue, 2012-01-24 18:55
#71
But all will be revealed and made right in the State of the Union address tonight. :)
Tue, 2012-01-24 19:19
#72
knownothing
But all will be revealed and made right in the State of the Union address tonight. :)
No, not until Herman Cain gives the Tea Party rebuttal will all be revealed and made right
Wed, 2012-01-25 06:48
#73
Anyone watching the State of the Union last night will have noticed the Pres. is still able to deliver a barn-burner of an address - this one mostly a campaign speech. They will also have noticed that applause was muted, much more reserved, when he spoke about the need to further control/limit Wall Street's power.One would almost think that they are frightened by the finance capitalist set...although Obama did say that that element was the cause of the Great Recession and needed to be carefully contained so that it would "never happen again."
His call for "fairness" of opportunity to participate in the economy and to expect equality in taxation and returns on one's labour brought the strongest, most sustained applause. We'll see what Newt's and Mitt's world looks like in their painful addresses to their well-read, keenly perceptive and understanding following. I did not recognize most of the jowly old boys panned by the camera at the front of the audience. They were certainly not a hopeful sight for this septuagenarian,and I can only imagine their effect on a younger viewer.
Wed, 2012-01-25 07:23
#74
I like Mr. O, too, but his opponents are coming after him full-speed:
We won because people are sick of and tired of the national establishment telling them what they are allowed to think and believe, and you saw that Saturday night.
I believe that we will defeat Barack Obama in the general election, and put America back on track toward strength and prosperity.
[...]
As I write this, Barack Obama and the Democrats are raising thousands of dollars per hour, waiting for a Republican nominee to emerge. He's a radical, secular socialist who wants to reinvent America in the image of the faded, decrepit Republics of Western Europe.
If I become the nominee, I will hold President Obama accountable. I will defeat him in the debates and show the American people that there is a better, more conservative direction.
Wed, 2012-01-25 07:28
#75
Once upon a time Nero played a lovely fiddle, to coin one of your references Gaian. But a barn burner to do with reigning in Wall Street and promoting a trickle of fairness comes across as a rather odd note from this charlatan.
Wed, 2012-01-25 08:26
#76
the willing suspension of disbelief...?
The State of Obama's 2008 Promises - by David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/content/state-obamas-2008-promises
"...None of this is to suggest that the Republicans can't nominate someone even worse than the actual Obama. Of course they can and will. The point is to recognize that focusing activist energy on elections should not come at the expense of the real work of building a movement to change this country.
Making the rational lesser-evil choice every four years and failing to focus on real work for non violent radical change consistently presents us four years later with two choices who are both worse than last time. And those choices are, each time, candidates for a more powerful, more tyrannical office.
By September 2008, it was clear enough, even pre-Peace Prize, where President Obama was heading. I then wrote an article called 'Bush's Third Term.' It still accurately describes the state of the promise of Obama and Obama's forgotten promises..."
Wed, 2012-01-25 11:10
#77
Utter nonsense, as anyone willng to recount the reasons for market failure in 2008 would have heard last night.The pres. said specifically, there will be no bank bailouts in future. Of course Democrats are also dependent on the blessing of finance capital's leaders, as the rather quiet applause the met Obama's enumeration of various regulations he's put in place attested. But then people here, dependent on the market for growth of their savings are the hypocrites, eh?
By the way, the Royal Bank of Canada has just announced that it is creating opportunities for the ethical funders to find a home for their savings and business startup ideas. When you are fully invested there, bring forward your ideas for abolishment of the market. :)
Wed, 2012-01-25 11:38
#78
M. Spector
Utter nonsense, as anyone willng to recount the reasons for market failure in 2008 would have heard last night.The pres. said specifically, there will be no bank bailouts in future.
And of course we believe Obomba's self-serving nonsense. US banks are no longer too big to fail? Only if you live in dreamland and believe the capitalist economic crisis is over.
But then people here, dependent on the market for growth of their savings are the hypocrites, eh?
Your pony should learn a new trick. Not everyone who has a pension plan is a hypocrite, and pension plans don't need Obama's bank bailouts and predatory capitalism in order to provide decent pensions to all. News flash: Banks do not create wealth; they merely accumulate it.
Wed, 2012-01-25 12:14
#79
knownothing
Utter nonsense, as anyone willng to recount the reasons for market failure in 2008 would have heard last night.The pres. said specifically, there will be no bank bailouts in future. Of course Democrats are also dependent on the blessing of finance capital's leaders, as the rather quiet applause the met Obama's enumeration of various regulations he's put in place attested. But then people here, dependent on the market for growth of their savings are the hypocrites, eh? By the way, the Royal Bank of Canada has just announced that it is creating opportunities for the ethical funders to find a home for their savings and business startup ideas. When you are fully invested there, bring forward your ideas for abolishment of the market. :)
As I have said to you earlier, anyone who is more worried about their savings in the market than creating actual change are the real hindrance to the left. That is why the Democrats and the Liberals continue to have success. They are the least evil possibility. The Republicans are the wolves and the Democrats are the foxes, but they still both eat rabbits. Or as Tommy Douglas so wonderfully put it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Kx0QlksZQ&feature=related
Maybe all the lefties should listen to Mouseland again before they pledge their support for Obama.
Wed, 2012-01-25 15:35
#80
"...None of this is to suggest that the Republicans can't nominate someone even worse than the actual Obama. Of course they can and will. The point is to recognize that focusing activist energy on elections should not come at the expense of the real work of building a movement to change this country.
Making the rational lesser-evil choice every four years and failing to focus on real work for non violent radical change consistently presents us four years later with two choices who are both worse than last time. And those choices are, each time, candidates for a more powerful, more tyrannical office.
From what I can tell, "third party" electoral activism in the USA has focussed on the presidential race prematurely. Ralph Nader made a really good run in 2000, but his campaigns in 2004 and 2008 as well as the Greens' McKinney campaign in 2008 did not have much effect. I don't think you can go from nowhere to president very well, and no third party candidate will get much in terms of exposure from the owned media.
I think electoral activists looking for an alternative to the two main parties should be trying to elect people to congress in 2012 to build a base. Forget about president. Look to 2016 for that.
Occupy will certainly have a voice throughout the election campaign but I think an occupy presidential candidate would not be effort-efficient.
Wed, 2012-01-25 16:41
#81
Utter nonsense, as anyone willng to recount the reasons for market failure in 2008 would have heard last night.The pres. said specifically, there will be no bank bailouts in future. Of course Democrats are also dependent on the blessing of finance capital's leaders, as the rather quiet applause the met Obama's enumeration of various regulations he's put in place attested. But then people here, dependent on the market for growth of their savings are the hypocrites, eh? By the way, the Royal Bank of Canada has just announced that it is creating opportunities for the ethical funders to find a home for their savings and business startup ideas. When you are fully invested there, bring forward your ideas for abolishment of the market. :)As I have said to you earlier, anyone who is more worried about their savings in the market than creating actual change are the real hindrance to the left. That is why the Democrats and the Liberals continue to have success. They are the least evil possibility. The Republicans are the wolves and the Democrats are the foxes, but they still both eat rabbits. Or as Tommy Douglas so wonderfully put it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Kx0QlksZQ&feature=related
Maybe all the lefties should listen to Mouseland again before they pledge their support for Obama.
Ah, if only the electorate of America could appreciate the parable of Mouseland. We are so very, very lucky to be divorced from the hatred of a society that cannot incorporate such stories in its political culture. All one can do up here at the end of that old underground railway is to hope that they don't choose the sociopathic and racist to lead, for then there would be no hope of redemption for us all, in the nuclear age.
Wed, 2012-01-25 17:52
#82
Newt Gingrich: King Cracker - by Glen Ford
http://blackagendareport.com/content/newt-gingrich-king-cracker
"It is no longer unthinkable that Barack Obama could face Newt Gingrich in November. If that happens, the political lines will be unequivocally drawn around race - and only race. Gingrich, by drawing a racial line in the sand, only helps Obama draw attention away from his own service to Wall Street.
So the King Cracker from Cobb County actually has done a great service to corporate America, whose candidates will reap the votes of most folks who don't think of themselves as crackers.
Except for those of us who know that building a movement is much more important than voting for evil."
Wed, 2012-01-25 20:48
#83
Utter nonsense, as anyone willng to recount the reasons for market failure in 2008 would have heard last night.The pres. said specifically, there will be no bank bailouts in future.
So he says, but as that does nothing to change either the bigness or the possible failure of the too big to fail, it's empty words.
Wed, 2012-01-25 22:39
#84
State of Obama: Immunity for Wall Street - by Glen Ford
http://blackagendareport.com/content/state-obama-immunity-wall-street
"Wall Street is likely to remain the real State of the Union.."
Obama's State of the Union Address: War and Wage Cuts
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jan2012/sotu-j25.shtml
"The State of the Union Speech delivered by Barack Obama Tuesday night was memorable only as a further milestone in the decay of American democracy.."
Thu, 2012-01-26 10:05
#85
knownothing
Iran and the petrodollar
Thu, 2012-01-26 10:59
#86
Ralph Nader made a really good run in 2000, ...
... Electing George W. Bush.
....................
Appeal from "Concerned Scholars, Writers And Activists," November 2, 2000
We, the undersigned, are appalled at the continuing national campaign by Ralph Nader and the Green Party.... Despite Mr. Nader's past great achievements, and despite the good faith of his rank-and-file supporters, his has become a wrecking-ball campaign -- one that betrays the very liberal and progressive values it claims to uphold.... Instead of a liberal or progressive force, his campaign now seriously threatens to elect the deceptive George W. Bush to the presidency.... Mr. Nader, who is also supporting divisive Green congressional candidates in some tight races, plainly does not care about this -- or worse, seeks it... We implore all liberal and progressive voters to reject the Nader campaign on Nov. 7 and to vote for the Democratic ticket.
[Signers include: Todd Gitlin (NYU), Mary Gordon (novelist), Hendrik Hertzberg (The New Yorker), Wendy Lesser (Threepenny Review), Toni Morrison (Nobel laureate, novelist and critic), Gloria Steinem, Jim Weinstein, (In These Times), Sean Wilentz (Princeton)] http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/deep-ecology/2000/msg00557.html
Thu, 2012-01-26 11:12
#87
knownothing
So you are in favour of the two party system?
Thu, 2012-01-26 11:23
#88
I'm sure that the "Concerned Scholars, Writers And Activists," have wrestled that one to the ground, kn. :)
Thu, 2012-01-26 11:34
#89
.S. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has promised to establish a permanent base on the moon by 2020 if he's elected in November.
Gingrich, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who is campaigning to be his party's nominee, told an overflow crowd in Cocoa, Fla., Wednesday that he wants to develop a robust commercial space industry in line with the U.S. airline boom of the 1930s.
Gingrich also said he wants to expand exploration of Mars.
"By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American," Gingrich said to applause, Politico.com reported Wednesday.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/01/25/gingrich-moon.html
Thu, 2012-01-26 12:22
#90
M. Spector
Ralph Nader made a really good run in 2000, ...
... Electing George W. Bush.
....................
Appeal from "Concerned Scholars, Writers And Activists," November 2, 2000
We, the undersigned, are appalled at the continuing national campaign by Ralph Nader and the Green Party.... Despite Mr. Nader's past great achievements, and despite the good faith of his rank-and-file supporters, his has become a wrecking-ball campaign -- one that betrays the very liberal and progressive values it claims to uphold.... Instead of a liberal or progressive force, his campaign now seriously threatens to elect the deceptive George W. Bush to the presidency.... Mr. Nader, who is also supporting divisive Green congressional candidates in some tight races, plainly does not care about this -- or worse, seeks it... We implore all liberal and progressive voters to reject the Nader campaign on Nov. 7 and to vote for the Democratic ticket.[Signers include: Todd Gitlin (NYU), Mary Gordon (novelist), Hendrik Hertzberg (The New Yorker), Wendy Lesser (Threepenny Review), Toni Morrison (Nobel laureate, novelist and critic), Gloria Steinem, Jim Weinstein, (In These Times), Sean Wilentz (Princeton)] http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/deep-ecology/2000/msg00557.html
Trust Dave to bring up this stupid fucking canard again - one that's been refuted time and time again in babble and elsewhere.
[url=http://archive.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=0024... Smearing Ralph Nader for 2000[/url]
[url=http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/02/26/ralph-nader-vs-the-fundamentalist... Nader v. the Fundamentalist Liberals[/url]
[url=http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/blame-monica]Blame Monica![/url]
------
Seven million Democrats voted for Bush in 2000, more than 200,000 in Florida alone. We are still looking for one Green who voted for Bush. The Democratic Party campaign blaming Nader for Bush is a transparent attempt to teach our citizens who question the two-party system that they must not dare challenge these two corporate parties. "It's either the Democrats or you get a Republican," they are told. "Learn to submit to the rule of money. If you challenge them it only gets worse. Remain silent and accept whatever the Democrats give you!"
----
Over 200,000 registered Democrats did not vote for Al Gore in Florida alone. What's more, another 600,000 registered Democrats in Florida did not vote at all.
[url=http://letters.mobile.salon.com/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/06/11/m...
----
In reality, Kerry is stealing all of Nader's votes. There are people who are voting for Kerry but who agree with Nader and should be voting for Nader. If the Democrats really believed in free elections, they would long ago have proposed that we have a system that avoids such a situation or have a system that allows proportional representation, so that if a political party gets 20% of the vote, they get 20% of the seats. But the Democrats are opposed to democracy, they oppose free elections, they want to give the impression of an election without actually allowing one.[url=http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/31202]Source[/url]
----
Nader didn't cost Al Gore the election in 2000. Al Gore won the election.
Thu, 2012-01-26 12:33
#91
knownothing
Exactly.
Thu, 2012-01-26 15:43
#92
U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has promised to establish a permanent base on the moon by 2020 if he's elected in November.
Not simply a base.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called for the creation of a permanent lunar colony that could become the nation's 51st state and a re-dedication to sending a man to Mars during a sprawling campaign speech Wednesday in Florida.
. . . .
"By the end of my second term, we will have a permanent colony on the moon and it will be American," Gingrich said.
I suggest he not wait, and take off immediately.
Thu, 2012-01-26 15:47
#93
:)
Fri, 2012-01-27 09:57
#94
knownothing
Ron Paul on his religious beliefs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NV68z29OZu4
Fri, 2012-01-27 10:27
#95
Nothing about his reducing the federal budget by $1 Trillion there, slow death by starvation for his fellow Americans. :)
Of course, maybe there was another reason for featuring the bastard?
Fri, 2012-01-27 10:41
#96
knownothing
Please, in case you haven't noticed there is slow death by starvation there already while the federal government is simply a pawn for corps to cripple the people even more. I suppose you like how the fed (under Bush and Obama) gave 16 trillion to banks for no interest while no actual stimulus was put into the economy.
It's not as black and white as you make it out to be comrade
And whats wrong with cutting a trillion dollars the first year, that is what conservatives are supposed to do? Not balloon government and build lunar colonies, people on rabble praise Romanow for cutting so much and fixing Sask's terrible debt problem and now you think America should just keep spending?
And for the record, I don't feature RP because of this domestic policy, I am a socialist who thinks we need to nationalize industry, but because of his foreign policy and civil liberty stances, which is worth undertaking a free market wet dream for in my judgement
Fri, 2012-01-27 10:48
#97
kn: "It's not as black and white as you make it out to be comrade"
Apparently. I'm still in the dark on the reasoning behind presentation of that video.
Fri, 2012-01-27 10:50
#98
knownothing
The reasoning is that many on the left are painting RP as a Christian Nationalist
Fri, 2012-01-27 11:13
#99
knownothing
Ex-CEO of GE Jack Welch says RP should drop out of race and 4 of his kids support him
How can you not think this is awesome to see the GOP squirming uncomfortably?
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/former-ge-ceo-jack-welch-says-ron-paul-should...
Fri, 2012-01-27 11:30
#100
on second thought, under the electoral system in place in 2000 in the US,
yes, Nader votes likely did elect Bush:
http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_11_00.html
Sat, 2012-01-28 12:49
#101
Racist Campaign Shows US Still Craves Baloney on White Bread
Newt Gingrich need not be virtuous or consistent. He's got the hate thing.
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/01/23/Newt-Gingrich-Campaign/