The Atheist Communist Caliphate Made Flesh, Spread the Clusterfuck Around Thread

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKKKgua7wQk#t=37s

Eloquent endorsement, Pen.

[freakmaster]

So somehow getting to keep the money you bust your ass for is now considered "free money"?  Really? Talk about warped thinking.

Republicans might give up on the lowering taxes thing if Democrats would stop adding more shit to the budget and actually cut things out to pay off our debt.

Republicans will never give up on the "lowering taxes thing" because it's all they have ("Vote for us!  Free money!").  And, when they are in control, they add more to the budget than the Dems have.

I suppose the Clinton-Gingrich model was the best we've ever had.  Maybe getting the House back to GOP hands would be a good thing.  Then again, Cantor is just a more effeminate version of Pelosi.  He's not Newt.

I will pay higher taxes for the next 20 years if it puts our nation back in the black, but no way in hell will i support higher and higher taxes to pay for more and more expensive crap this nation does not and can not afford. Most importantly get some real Republicans with backbones who will not do stupid crap like Medicare Part D which further compounds the problem.

Congrats.  You're a grown up.

[Chuck to Chuck]

So somehow getting to keep the money you bust your ass for is now considered "free money"?  Really? Talk about warped thinking.

Cutting taxes without cutting spending is free money, yes.  "You can keep more of your money and we'll just keep spending your money and it won't cost a thing!"

[R-V]

This is bad, right?

Months after the controversial presidential election that many Afghans consider stolen, there is no cabinet, and parliament is threatening to go on recess before confirming a new one because the president is unconstitutionally late in presenting the names. There are grave suspicions that some past and present cabinet members have engaged in the embezzlement of substantial sums of money. There is little parliamentary oversight. Almost no one bothers to attend the parliamentary sessions. The cabinet ministries are unable to spend the money allocated to them on things like education and rural development, and actually spent less in absolute terms last year than they did in the previous two years. Only half of the development projects for which money was allotted were even begun last year, and none was completed.

Nader Khan Katawazai, an MP from Paktika, complained that only 30 of the 238 MPs attended Monday's session. This is the government we are being asked to prop up with blood and treasure? Only 30 legislators bothered to come in to work?

[Internet Apex]

This is bad, right?

Months after the controversial presidential election that many Afghans consider stolen, there is no cabinet, and parliament is threatening to go on recess before confirming a new one because the president is unconstitutionally late in presenting the names. There are grave suspicions that some past and present cabinet members have engaged in the embezzlement of substantial sums of money. There is little parliamentary oversight. Almost no one bothers to attend the parliamentary sessions. The cabinet ministries are unable to spend the money allocated to them on things like education and rural development, and actually spent less in absolute terms last year than they did in the previous two years. Only half of the development projects for which money was allotted were even begun last year, and none was completed.

Nader Khan Katawazai, an MP from Paktika, complained that only 30 of the 238 MPs attended Monday's session. This is the government we are being asked to prop up with blood and treasure? Only 30 legislators bothered to come in to work?

Fire Lovie.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Blue Dog "deficit hawk" Ben Nelson comes out in favor of deficit spending:

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/12/does-ben-nelson-know-what-war-bonds-are.php

In lieu of a "war tax" to pay for a troop increase in Afghanistan, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (NE) is proposing war bonds.

"We didn't have a war tax in the second World War," Nelson said, and instead the government sold Americans bonds. "People invested in their country, in that fashion [and] made a lot of sense back then. I don't know why it might not make sense today, certainly in lieu of jumping to tax."

One thing NBC's Ken Strickland might have wanted to note while "reporting" this story is that what Nelson is saying here is false. During World War II taxes went up substantially....

The larger issue here, though, is that we have to wonder does Ben Nelson understand that war bonds are just bonds? Calling a bond a "war bond" is a marketing gimmick, not an actual method of financing a war. Is Nelson saying that if Obama relabels a few hundred dollars worth of deficit spending as "war bonds" that he'll stop complaining about?

Ass.

[World B Free]

Blue Dog "deficit hawk" Ben Nelson comes out in favor of deficit spending:

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/12/does-ben-nelson-know-what-war-bonds-are.php

In lieu of a "war tax" to pay for a troop increase in Afghanistan, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (NE) is proposing war bonds.

"We didn't have a war tax in the second World War," Nelson said, and instead the government sold Americans bonds. "People invested in their country, in that fashion [and] made a lot of sense back then. I don't know why it might not make sense today, certainly in lieu of jumping to tax."

One thing NBC's Ken Strickland might have wanted to note while "reporting" this story is that what Nelson is saying here is false. During World War II taxes went up substantially....

The larger issue here, though, is that we have to wonder does Ben Nelson understand that war bonds are just bonds? Calling a bond a "war bond" is a marketing gimmick, not an actual method of financing a war. Is Nelson saying that if Obama relabels a few hundred dollars worth of deficit spending as "war bonds" that he'll stop complaining about?

Ass.

So what's the current return on these bonds?  I think you can get 0.5% to 1.5% in a savings account.  I find it enjoyable that the people making policy are pretty deficient on even the most basic economic concepts.  Having a war?  Let's cut taxes. 

[Gil Gunderson]

Blue Dog "deficit hawk" Ben Nelson comes out in favor of deficit spending:

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/12/does-ben-nelson-know-what-war-bonds-are.php

In lieu of a "war tax" to pay for a troop increase in Afghanistan, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (NE) is proposing war bonds.

"We didn't have a war tax in the second World War," Nelson said, and instead the government sold Americans bonds. "People invested in their country, in that fashion [and] made a lot of sense back then. I don't know why it might not make sense today, certainly in lieu of jumping to tax."

One thing NBC's Ken Strickland might have wanted to note while "reporting" this story is that what Nelson is saying here is false. During World War II taxes went up substantially....

The larger issue here, though, is that we have to wonder does Ben Nelson understand that war bonds are just bonds? Calling a bond a "war bond" is a marketing gimmick, not an actual method of financing a war. Is Nelson saying that if Obama relabels a few hundred dollars worth of deficit spending as "war bonds" that he'll stop complaining about?

Ass.

So what's the current return on these bonds?  I think you can get 0.5% to 1.5% in a savings account.  I find it enjoyable that the people making policy are pretty deficient on even the most basic economic concepts.  Having a war?  Let's cut taxes. 

I just love how we're having a national debate about how to pay for our wars 8 years after said wars started.

Thank you, GOP.

[R-V]

All of these.

http://content.ksg.harvard.edu/blog/jeff_frankels_weblog/2009/12/01/ten-ways-to-move-the-budget-back-toward-a-sustainable-path/

[Quality Start Machine]

All of these.

[R-V]

An in-depth profile of Slick G and Broadway Bank:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/can-alexi-giannoulias-family-bank-obamas-senate-seat/Content?oid=1245291

[R-V]

DPD. Finally some good news:

In the strongest employment report since the recession began nearly two years ago, the government said Friday that the nation's employers had all but stopped shedding jobs in November, taking some of the pressure off of President Obama to come up with a wide-ranging jobs creation program.

The Labor Department reported that the United States economy lost 11,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 10 percent, down from 10.2 percent in October.

[Chuck to Chuck]

An in-depth profile of Slick G and Broadway Bank:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/can-alexi-giannoulias-family-bank-obamas-senate-seat/Content?oid=1245291

Within two years he'd been named senior loan officer and a bank vice president.

It's not clear what responsibilities came with these titles. He's said that as VP he oversaw all of Broadway's lending—but he's also said he was really just the guy who serviced the bank's loans—overseeing things like billing and payment collection— while more senior officers, including his older brother Demetris, negotiated the deals and made the final decisions. When I pressed him to specify his job descriptions at each stage of his employment at the bank, he laughed.

"You have to understand that it was the family business—I did everything there," he said. "Sometimes I was a teller and sometimes I serviced loans—whatever we needed."

There are more problems with this than there were with Korey Patterson's approach to an at bat.

[Gil Gunderson]

Sarah Palin, author, quitter, social gadfly, birther?

"I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue," Palin said. "I don't have a problem with that. I don't know if I would have to bother to make it an issue, because I think that members of the electorate still want answers."

"I think it's a fair question just like I think past associations and past voting records. All of that is fair game," Palin responded, adding that "the McCain-Palin campaign didn't do a good enough job in that area. We didn't call out Obama and some of his associates on their records and what their beliefs were, and perhaps what their future plans were, and I don't think that was fair to voters to not have done our job as candidates and a campaign to bring to light a lot of things that now we're seeing manifest in the administration."

Palin later referenced "that weird conspiracy theory freaky thing that people talk about that Trig isn't my real son, and a lot of people that went 'Well, you need to produce his birth certificate, you need to prove that he's your kid,' which we have done, but yeah, so maybe we can reverse that, and use the same [inaudible] thinking on the other one."

But later, via Facebook, sayeth Sarah:

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I've pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask... which they have repeatedly. But at no point - not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews - have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

[Philberto]

Sarah Palin, author, quitter, social gadfly,  birther?

"I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue," Palin said. "I don't have a problem with that. I don't know if I would have to bother to make it an issue, because I think that members of the electorate still want answers."

"I think it's a fair question just like I think past associations and past voting records. All of that is fair game," Palin responded, adding that "the McCain-Palin campaign didn't do a good enough job in that area. We didn't call out Obama and some of his associates on their records and what their beliefs were, and perhaps what their future plans were, and I don't think that was fair to voters to not have done our job as candidates and a campaign to bring to light a lot of things that now we're seeing manifest in the administration."

Palin later referenced "that weird conspiracy theory freaky thing that people talk about that Trig isn't my real son, and a lot of people that went 'Well, you need to produce his birth certificate, you need to prove that he's your kid,' which we have done, but yeah, so maybe we can reverse that, and use the same [inaudible] thinking on the other one."

But later, via Facebook, sayeth Sarah:

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I've pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask... which they have repeatedly. But at no point - not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews - have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

[/s]

All she is, is my next sexual conquest: